Logistics Of Using Two Sd Cards

[Xanas]

Pretend the left slot is a hard drive that should never be removed and put applications/music/etc that you want permanently on it.

Use only the right slot for swapping cards that have things you want to change often.

 

[sammydee]

Right now I'm thinking about a totally different logistics problem with having multiple cards: I have a collection of 4 and 8 GB cards lying around that I would like to use in my Pandora. The problem is that, unlike floppies of old, it's not that practical to scribble information about the contents on the cards themselves, because of -- well, size mainly, but also because that content might change rather frequently. Also, with the larger cards (32 and 64 GB), opening a file manager to get a directory listing might take some thumb twiddling time.

For Windows there exists a little program, called "DriveZ", which basically creates a text copy of a directory content and copies that to the clipboard. Wouldn't it be nice to have a program for the Pandora that scans the directory of a card and stores it in an easily accessible file on the Pandora? You could have buttons for all of your cards, with your own labels of course, and clicking on one of them would give the last stored directory content of that card. It would save a lot of card swapping and searching for that elusive yet freakishly alluring Heavy Metal accordeon concert.

Ideally, the utility would require as little user interaction as possible: Just a click on the right card label and a "scan" or "refresh" click; the result would ideally be in the form of a list. Obviously, storing this utility on a card that gets removed frequently would not be the cleverest thing to do...

How about:

ls /media/sdcard/ > directory_listing.txt

Is that easy enough?

Sam

 

[tazg]

How about:

ls /media/sdcard/ > directory_listing.txt

Is that easy enough?

Sam

tree would make more sense

 

[Karel Jansens]

For Windows there exists a little program, called "DriveZ", which basically creates a text copy of a directory content and copies that to the clipboard.

I know this isn't GUI or anything, but it's a start: http://mama.indstate.edu/users/ice/tree/
It'll print a recursive, indented listing of any directory you choose. Writing a GUI for that (w|c)ould be a cinch, if you want one.

That looks nice.

(me off leftstage, going to learn Python)

How about:

ls /media/sdcard/ > directory_listing.txt

Is that easy enough?

Sam

tree would make more sense

Easy, yes. User friendly, hardly. Please reread my original post on what I have in mind.

And before someone blurts out the obvious: If I knew how to make that, I wouldn't even have asked the question in this forum.

 

[tazg]

I know, tree itself wouldn't be the whole solution, but it makes creating something like that very easy. The functions for outputting tree to a file and viewing the file would only be one line of code each. Exactly how to implement it would depend on what desktop gui is going to be used for pandora.

 

[javaJake]

The functions for outputting tree to a file and viewing the file would only be one line of code each.

This made me chuckle, especially when I thought of the two "lines" you'd give me if I asked for examples.

Edit: Assuming Python. If you had zenity, that might make it easier to program, though not necessarily easier to use.

 

[verm71]

yes, the build in linux will use apt-get (like ubuntu)
but no, all games and applications will have their dependencies built-in (takes op more space, but avoids the problems you are thinking about)

That's a HUGE relief. Somehow, I've never been lucky with anything that has a complex hierarchy of dependencies. If the package manager won't get the dependencies for me, or even worse, if I have to compile anything myself, it's game over for me. I've never been very lucky at that.

This gives me the impression that games and emulators will be pretty much download and go, which to me is really important.

 

[joa]

I would probably prep them both on my PC...

Not sure yet but this is a good topic, perhaps OS, Apps on one, and roms videos on the other...

 

[hessiess]

if the applications are statically linked, and there is no built in package manager, that prity much destroys my whole interest in this project. statically linking means having multiple copy's of the same thing, which wastes space for no good reason. not having a package manager would mean no automatic updates as the software repo matures. serasly, why go backwards?

also, Linux uses a single tree file system, as far as software running on the OS is awewe, 2 SD cards are essentially the same drive, along with the NAND, and any other storage device you add, i.e. USB HDD's.

 

[nubie]

if the applications are statically linked, and there is no built in package manager, that prity much destroys my whole interest in this project. statically linking means having multiple copy's of the same thing, which wastes space for no good reason. not having a package manager would mean no automatic updates as the software repo matures. serasly, why go backwards?

also, Linux uses a single tree file system, as far as software running on the OS is awewe, 2 SD cards are essentially the same drive, along with the NAND, and any other storage device you add, i.e. USB HDD's.

Most of the apps should be built using a minimal lib or standard SDL and/or kdrive, available on the standard OS distro.

IF your app needs a different version THEN you compile it in.


"statically linking means having multiple copy's of the same thing, which wastes space for no good reason"

OK, by that logic an 8GB card will be badly abused by having a couple dozen 1MB apps that are now 1.75 MB apiece due to statically linked libraries? I think that people using HD 720p video clips will be a worse abuser of the space. 16GB are reasonably priced, and 32GB are around.


For a handheld this makes perfect sense, it doesn't have unlimited storage (265MB afaik, on a piggyback BGA with the RAM included).

Nobody will stop you from using any distro you want, with whatever package manager you want, on any media you want (even the included nand until it is full).

"that prity much destroys my whole interest in this project."

What project? The Pandora? It is hardware, you choose the OS you run. Do PC's coming pre-loaded with Windows make you sick of Laptops? (is that even logical?)

 

[hessiess]

QUOTE
OK, by that logic an 8GB card will be badly abused by having a couple dozen 1MB apps that are now 1.75 MB apiece due to statically linked libraries? I think that people using HD 720p video clips will be a worse abuser of the space. 16GB are reasonably priced, and 32GB are around.


personally I would want to try to cram as much of the core programs into the NAND as possible i.e. web browser, media player, Email client emu's etc and use SD for data storage, and maby less important apps like emus(if they wont fit on NAND). in this case a couple of megs here and there could make the difference between it fitting on the NAND, and not fitting on the NAND.

QUOTE
What project? The Pandora? It is hardware, you choose the OS you run


yes, of cource i mean the Pandora, In the case of X86 this is not a problem, as there is a pletera of OS's for the architecture. Pandora is ARM, with very unique controls. using a different OS on it would at the very least require re-mapping the keyboard keys and emulating mouse with the analogues. if there are ports of mainstream Linux distros in the future is yet to be sean.

I quite like being able to update my os with a simple.
CODE
sudo pacman -Syu

not possible without a package manager.

QUOTE
Do PC's coming pre-loaded with Windows make you sick of Laptops? (is that even logical?)


yes actually, and its perfectly logical, why would i want to pay for something im not going to use?

 

[Tinnus]

yes actually, and its perfectly logical, why would i want to pay for something im not going to use?

Well you're not paying for the OS here

 

[nubie]

QUOTE
OK, by that logic an 8GB card will be badly abused by having a couple dozen 1MB apps that are now 1.75 MB apiece due to statically linked libraries? I think that people using HD 720p video clips will be a worse abuser of the space. 16GB are reasonably priced, and 32GB are around.

personally I would want to try to cram as much of the core programs into the NAND as possible i.e. web browser, media player, Email client emu's etc and use SD for data storage, and maby less important apps like emus(if they wont fit on NAND). in this case a couple of megs here and there could make the difference between it fitting on the NAND, and not fitting on the NAND.
Ok, I see, I doubt that the sort of programs you want to install on the NAND will use libraries that aren't available with the included distro.

QUOTE
What project? The Pandora? It is hardware, you choose the OS you run

yes, of cource i mean the Pandora, In the case of X86 this is not a problem, as there is a pletera of OS's for the architecture. Pandora is ARM, with very unique controls. using a different OS on it would at the very least require re-mapping the keyboard keys and emulating mouse with the analogues. if there are ports of mainstream Linux distros in the future is yet to be sean.

I quite like being able to update my os with a simple.
CODE
sudo pacman -Syu

not possible without a package manager.
Ah, I think that it should just work.

If you check the Beagle Board project you will see Ubuntu running on nearly the same hardware. here is a video, I see it is "ported" already http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuVwh_VrIxk I thought that Debian had a big push to port everything to ARM for general use on portable hardware? That should provide us with a huge base. (I agree that it will need a little work, but since the Beagle-Board is $150 and a lot of devs seem taken with it I think that inputs will be trivial to support.)

As for input, isn't it just a driver that loads and provides an input device for the OS to use? I don't see it being too hard to use the controls/keyboard in any alternate Linux OS.

I would use the touch-screen for heavy mousing

I thought it would come with a package manager?

QUOTE
Do PC's coming pre-loaded with Windows make you sick of Laptops? (is that even logical?)

yes actually, and its perfectly logical, why would i want to pay for something im not going to use?

I think you missed the point, don't be mad at the hardware was my point. Can you fault the Eeepc for coming with its own Linux OS?


The beauty of this project is the fact that it can run any OS, and the included OS uses a minimal interface as standard (with a desktop available), that should support just about any program you might want to run on it.