Minimenu crashed.. .now what


S

smcameron

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Joined
May 6, 2011
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So I just got my Pandora today (yay!)


Off to a bit of a rocky start.


First off, not sure how to get wifi working (ran iwconfig from terminal as root... looked ok, but not sure how to configure it.)


But more worrying, minimenu died. I ran one of the programs under the network submenu, "gigolo" I think, and I didn't do anything except close it. Then I got the background screen (the one with the black and blue picture of the keyboard that says "www.openpandora.org" in the upper left and "Please login:" in the lower right (but it appears to just be the background screen -- you see it while switching between minimenu and other apps.) There's nowhere to type anything in. The mouse (stylus) still works. On a desktop linux, I'd try to right click and pull up a menu that way to get a terminal. Actually, I tried plugging a usb mouse into the pandora and right clicking, but it didn't seem to have a driver for the usb mouse (I'm guessing ... did not respond to the mouse.)


So now my new pandy is sitting there taunting me to log in. I can't even figure out how to shut it down. When I slide the power button to the right, it seems to go into a hibernate mode or something (all the lights and screen go dark) but when I turn it back on from this, it instantly is right back at the taunting back ground screen. I tried holding down the "pandora button" (picture of a stylized cube, or, a box, right?) while also sliding the power button to the right. This does nothing.


Also, it's not plugged in, so that's not the reason it won't turn off.


I think I have "zaxxon" as my os (saw a reference to this as a firmware version, so that's why I mention it.)


So, what I think has happened is that minimenu has crashed, and there's not any (obvious) way to get any program running any more. So it sits there, happy as a clam, but with nothing running except the X server. On a desktop, I might be able to type ctrl-\ or some other key combo which I can't quite recall to kill the x server, but not sure how I'd even attempt to type that in on the pandy.


Any help is appreciated. Thanks.


-- steve
 
Hmm. Don't know what I did, but after about 30 mins of fiddling around mashing buttons, minimenu came back very suddenly. (I was in the midst of trying to force a power off by holding the pandora button plus moving the power switch to the right -- just as I had previously tried about 20 times already. Weird. and I still haven't made the forced shutdown work like the wiki says.)


Now back to trying to figure out wifi.


-- steve
 
If that ever happens again just take out the battery and put it back in.


As far as the wifi, have you ran the "Toggle WiFi" app under System?


Edit: as far as the mouse, the pandora only accepts USB 2.0 and most(if not all) mice are USB1.1. In order to use USB devices below 2.0 you have to use a USB2.0 hub.
 
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Got wifi working. Switched to the xfce window manager (or whatever it's called) Now much more at home (looks more like the linux I'm used to.)


Had to of course add the mac address into my router's filter table.
 
I'm the other way around now. I used to be more at home with using the XFCE as my default UI, but now it's MM all the way, all the time. Congrats on receiving your new Pandora, by the way. :)
 
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Can even ssh into the pandora, although it seems *incredibly* slow... got a shell prompt eventually, but can't type anything.


Edit: actually, I can type. It just doesn't show up until several *minutes* have passed.
 
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And how do you turn this thing off? I tried (as root) /sbin/init 0, and it seemed to begin to shutdown, though doesn't shut down completely (still stuff on the screen). Taking the battery out does it. But then the instant you put the battery back in, it turns itself on. Is that normal?
 
Hi smcameron, your issue with the power switch not registering (or at least not working with expected behaviour) sounds like something that has happened to a few folk (myself included) due to the build process.


MWeston that designed the PCB once posted about it. Whats probably happening is that the switch mechanism isn't quite sliding normally all the way to right, due to catching up on something. Test this visually, to ensure it really is able to move ALL the way to right and if not, try it at certain angles until it clears the obstruction.


Then you should find normal behaviour i.e a quick press to the right = Sleep mode, PandoraKey + slide to the right quickly = Reset, Slide to the right and hold for a number of seconds = Shutdown.


I had this issue on my 3rd Pandora which was otherwise flawless and the best of the bunch. Once you've cured the obstruction it stops being a problem, abit like the hard to remove stylus for some folks is easier as time goes on.


Not sure about Minimenu crashing but I hope you get sorted :)


edit : Forgot to say "Thanks for the video and the cool game :) "
 
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If you want your most excellent Word War VI to run a little more smoothly on Pandora then try overclocking to 1Ghz and overvolting to Opp5. Made quite a lot of difference for me.
 
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