N900 Question

[sardaukar]

Hello.

I hit search, but didn't find anything relevant.

Since the N900 is also a Cortex A8 device, is it possible to run Pandora binaries on it? I'm not sure of the differences in hardware (apart from the obvious keyboard and such)... isn't it the same SoC?

Thanks for any replies!

 

[laurencevde]

The Pandora and the N900 don't have exactly the same SoC. The N900 has an OMAP3430, the Pandora an OMAP3530. AFAIK, the differences between those two are minimal, and code should be interchangeable.

However, there are probably significant differences between Pandora's linux-distribution, and maemo, the N900's linux-distro. I doubt a lot of binaries will properly work on the other device. Some might, some won't.

Having said that, you can always install a (stripped-down) version of the userspace (pretty much everything except the kernel) of Pandora's OS on the N900 in a chroot. This should work for pretty much anything.

 

[skeezix]

yeah, most of your problems would be 1) lib differences (one firmware having libs the other doesn't) or 2) pandora-specific behaviour (ie: a pnd file, you could unpack to get the bin, or add libpnd to the n900 but if the binary is opening up the pandora nub, you're out of luck.

A lot of files should be reasonably interchangable.

jeff

 

[fade]

This is good to know, it would be cool to see some co-development between the Maemo and Pandora communities at some point!

(written from an n900 btw )

 

[dflemstr]

This is good to know, it would be cool to see some co-development between the Maemo and Pandora communities at some point!

MeeGo on the Pandora... We can dream, right?

 

[Trevsweb]

This is good to know, it would be cool to see some co-development between the Maemo and Pandora communities at some point!

MeeGo on the Pandora... We can dream, right?

and hopefully all the other good stuff we can leech off meego when developers jump on it

 

[sardaukar]

I got some binaries from the "Beta Zone" forum - SIMH, Frotz and Fuse. Frotz and SIMH run, Fuse complains about "not standard TTY". I was really amazed at how well Frotz runs, out of the tarball.

But these are all command-line programs, so I was not expecting trouble. The biggest differences will be on GUI apps, with the lack of pads and so on. Still, it is possible to convert the PNDs to Maemo DEBs with tiny effort. I'll give it a shot.

Oh, and Maemo5 already packs all SDL libs (core, net, mixer, image, etc).

This is great news!

 

[fade]

I got some binaries from the "Beta Zone" forum - SIMH, Frotz and Fuse. Frotz and SIMH run, Fuse complains about "not standard TTY". I was really amazed at how well Frotz runs, out of the tarball.

But these are all command-line programs, so I was not expecting trouble. The biggest differences will be on GUI apps, with the lack of pads and so on. Still, it is possible to convert the PNDs to Maemo DEBs with tiny effort. I'll give it a shot.

Oh, and Maemo5 already packs all SDL libs (core, net, mixer, image, etc).

This is great news!

Cool!

 

[JayFoxRox]

yeah, most of your problems would be 1) lib differences (one firmware having libs the other doesn't) or 2) pandora-specific behaviour (ie: a pnd file, you could unpack to get the bin, or add libpnd to the n900 but if the binary is opening up the pandora nub, you're out of luck.

A lot of files should be reasonably interchangable.

jeff

Nope, my pandora-input-drivers make the event interfaces available if uinput is available. This is also what I use to test my applications on PC. I just create the Pandora events which are controlled by my xbox 360 controller

 

[banjeed]

I predict exophase in 3....2....

 

[OrR]

add libpnd to the n900

I think that's exactly what we should do: Make libpnd and other standard Pandora gaming libraries run on as many sister devices as possible. N900, AI Touchbook, Palm Pre... It would be great if it could evolve into a somewhat standardized handheld Linux gaming platform.

 

[fade]

add libpnd to the n900

I think that's exactly what we should do: Make libpnd and other standard Pandora gaming libraries run on as many sister devices as possible. N900, AI Touchbook, Palm Pre... It would be great if it could evolve into a somewhat standardized handheld Linux gaming platform.

+1

 

[sardaukar]

add libpnd to the n900

I think that's exactly what we should do: Make libpnd and other standard Pandora gaming libraries run on as many sister devices as possible. N900, AI Touchbook, Palm Pre... It would be great if it could evolve into a somewhat standardized handheld Linux gaming platform.

+1

+1

 

[Tor]

Last year I took a simple SDL-based game and compiled it with the then-Pandora SDK. Then I executed it on my N800. It worked just fine, no problems at all - I just had to install a couple of SDL libraries (readily available for the N800.

That old SDK produced OMAP2-compatible executables, and the N800 is OMAP2. I should think it'll be possible also with an OMAP3 SDK and the N900. In any case I intend to try when the time comes. I've got an N900 too.