Need help setting up Pandora.

[hepcat]

I’m having trouble getting my Pandora up and running. (I bought it a while ago, but I’m just starting to tinker with it now because of a long plane trip coming up next month.)

My goals for the Pandora are quite modest. I just want to be able to play music/video files, and Mame using PanMame or whatever Mame build works best on Pandora.

What I’ve done so far:

--I have read the User Manual and Quick start guide in their entirety. This includes following all the steps under the “First Time Use” heading and completing the First Boot wizard.

--I formatted an SD card on my PC (32 GB SanDisk SDHC), and created the directory structure suggested under the “Applications” heading. I then downloaded PND manager, Firefox, and PanMame and I think I put them in the correct folders, but they did not show up on the app list in either the Mini Menu or Xfce when I put the SD card in the Pandora. I rebooted and the apps still did not appear.

--I was initially able to get wireless working by following the instructions in the “Wi-Fi Wireless” heading of the Quickstart menu. I reformatted the SD card and had the Pandora create the directory structure for me on the SD card. However, even though the Pandora said I had a wireless connection, I was unable to download any PNDs from OpenPandora Repo. (I think it said Error 13, permission denied or something like that…)

--Next I decided to update the Pandora firmware since it has been over a year since I got the Pandora and I figured it must have been updated. The update started and took over an hour. I was pretty sure it finished, but now I think I may have interrupted it because Wi-Fi no longer works. (Initially I was able to turn on wifi by going to system àtoggle wifi and entering my password, but now the toggle wifi option seems to have disappeared from the system menu and I can’t get it to work any other way…)

If it matters, the Pandora currently says "Kernel 3.2" and "SuperZaxxon 1.71" on the boot up screen.

Yeah…I’m lost. Can anyone help?

 

[TrashyMG]

--I formatted an SD card on my PC (32 GB SanDisk SDHC), and created the directory structure suggested under the “Applications” heading. I then downloaded PND manager, Firefox, and PanMame and I think I put them in the correct folders, but they did not show up on the app list in either the Mini Menu or Xfce when I put the SD card in the Pandora. I rebooted and the apps still did not appear.

Here is the directory structure PNDs need to be in on the SD card you need a directory called pandora on the SD card and some subdirectories shown below that determine how you want the applications to show in the menu or desktop.

pandora/menu - These PND-files will only generate shortcut icons in the system's application menu.

pandora/desktop - These PND files will only generate shortcut icons on the Desktop.

pandora/apps - This directory is used to be _both_ menu and desktop, without having to copy the pnd-file into /menu and /desktop (avoiding duplication)

--Next I decided to update the Pandora firmware since it has been over a year since I got the Pandora and I figured it must have been updated. The update started and took over an hour. I was pretty sure it finished, but now I think I may have interrupted it because Wi-Fi no longer works. (Initially I was able to turn on wifi by going to system àtoggle wifi and entering my password, but now the toggle wifi option seems to have disappeared from the system menu and I can’t get it to work any other way…)

I take it you used the over the Internet OS Upgrade, if so there was a one time breakage of Wifi when updating from a specific version of SuperZaxxon I think version 1.51? to a later version. You can either use a USB wifi or ethernet adapter and re-run the OS Upgrade tool again or just do a full re-flash, instruction are here at the bottom of this post: http://boards.openpandora.org/topic/17471-superzaxxon-v171-final-major-release-released/#entry367038/URL]

 

[hepcat]

I made significant progress last night, thanks! The full re-flash worked and I was able to get wifi working again. I also got Pan-mame working; Pandora's d-pad, while not perfect, is the best I've ever used. I have some other questions, but they're probably more appropriate for threads about particular apps. 

Again, thank you for your help!

 

[rygD]

Do you mind sharing what weaknesses you find that make it obvious that the d-pad is not perfect?  If shortcomings can be identified maybe slight improvements can be made for the Pyra d-pad.

I don't think anything is perfect, however I have no idea how the Pandora d-pad could be better.  It works well enough that I don't even think about it until it is brought up.  It works much better for me than cross style d-pads, especially with how easy it is to precisely hit diagonals.

 

[hepcat]

My test is simple: how well does the d-pad work on Pac-man, Ms. Pac-man and other Pac-clones? If the d-pad is good for those games, it's probably fine for everything else. Note that I'm talking about relatively high level play; i.e., being able to score over 200K on Pac-man and maybe 150K on Ms. Pac-man, not simply struggling through the first board without killing any monsters. On most d-pads, Pac-man is practically uncontrollable, several times per board you'll go in the opposite direction of where you want him to go. That only happened a couple times with the Pandora d-pad. I was really impressed.

Don't know if that's helpful, but that's how I've always judged d-pads. 

 

[PowerGod]

With Pac-man you just need 4 directions, while with other games diagonals behaviors are very important too (see beat'em ups or shoot'em ups)...

Don't you try with those games too ?