pandian - MARK2

[eric]

It finished, I did a "shutdown -r now" and booted to a GUI, but my nubs don't work and when I plug in my USB keyboard and mouse, they don't work either.

I hope I understand your current situation: the system boots and works generally except for nubs and USB devices.  Is this correct?

If so, I can help with the latter first.  By default, the USB is configured to act as a storage device (I don't know the terminology).  What you want to do is configure it so that it acts in host mode.  One of the scrips provided in the pandian distribution is /usr/sbin/pdcmd (I'm doing this from memory as my Pandora is elsewhere at the moment so I apologise for any errors).  This command allows you to toggle the behaviour of the USB ports.  I think you want '/usr/sbin/pdcmd USBHostTrigger' but look at the script to see the actual options.

For the former, I have no idea other than to suggest you calibrate the mouse (described early in the thread).

I hope some of this helps.

 

[lingenfr]

Well, that's the great thing about it being Debian--the repos march forward and we get to ride along. "apt-get update" and "apt-get upgrade", and when you need something new "apt-get install ". Ongoing dev involvement is much less important when it's a Debian system, especially now that we have a pretty decent kernel--and even that isn't hard to update when needed.

I agree once the initial Pandora functionality is working. It is too big a hassle for me to fool around at the command line for the few Debian apps that are not already available for Pandora. If stackshadow has lost interest in this, it would be great if he would do one last image and participate enough to update the wiki. Not complaining mind you, just imagining.

 

[lingenfr]

It finished, I did a "shutdown -r now" and booted to a GUI, but my nubs don't work and when I plug in my USB keyboard and mouse, they don't work either.

I hope I understand your current situation: the system boots and works generally except for nubs and USB devices. Is this correct?


If so, I can help with the latter first. By default, the USB is configured to act as a storage device (I don't know the terminology). What you want to do is configure it so that it acts in host mode. One of the scrips provided in the pandian distribution is /usr/sbin/pdcmd (I'm doing this from memory as my Pandora is elsewhere at the moment so I apologise for any errors). This command allows you to toggle the behaviour of the USB ports. I think you want '/usr/sbin/pdcmd USBHostTrigger' but look at the script to see the actual options.


For the former, I have no idea other than to suggest you calibrate the mouse (described early in the thread).


I hope some of this helps.

Thanks but I blew this image away and have started over several times since this. Using the image available from the wiki, an update/upgrade produces a pixbuf related error and fails with a dbus/suid error. I fixed the pixbuf error, but can't fix the other. I think I am chasing my tail.

 

[lingenfr]

Always the glutton for punishment, I've spent another few days on this. My hope was that I could come up with a set of instructions to get to a current a pandian. Unfortunately 'no'. I am probably going to try one more time. I'm stuck at a point where pandian-lxde is held back when I try to upgrade with unmet dependencies for pandian and pandian-fluxbox. Pandian won't install due to an unmet dependency of alsa although alsa-base and alsa-utils are the current version.

 

[eric]

Yes, there is a dependency problem.  I cannot upgrade alsa because it breaks pandian and related packages.  Pandian needs to be update to reflect changes in some of the packages it depends on that have moved on since it was created.  This is a fundamental problem with having based the pandian release on sid.

Is stackshadow still active?  He/she has not been on the boards since May unfortunately.  Pandian may need to be classified as dead?  I hope not as I am using it daily.

 

[vandyswa]

Is stackshadow still active?  He/she has not been on the boards since May unfortunately.  Pandian may need to be classified as dead?  I hope not as I am using it daily.

I'm a full-time user of Pandian; my email, RSS feed reader, and Usenet are all hosted there, along with all my audio listening and any personal video viewing (I have a shell script to down-convert videos to Pandora using mencoder).  But I *am* using the earlier Wheezy version.  I can't just dump an image out for you all to use--too much personal stuff--but we should really figure out a way to carry that forward if stackshadow is MIA.

 

[lingenfr]

Stackshadow didn't respond to a PM. I think Pandian is dead. The version on the wiki lacks the Pandora tools to be useful and it can't be upgraded. Too bad. Hopefully some knowledgeable person will pick it up.

 

[eric]

It would be nice if somebody did pick it up.  However, my system works and, so long as I don't do anything silly upgrading, it should continue working.  This obviously doesn't help anybody else.  For others, it may be worth looking at Slackware instead?

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

Maybe someone should request Linux-for-Arm community to add OpenPandora to their list of devices that they currently  support. 

 

[smilnovi]

I'm using sid on pandora, and I have been lurking on debian arm mail list. As far as I can tell, the main problem is kernel, if you don't care about 3D, wifi, sound and nubs. I have managed to make wifi and nubs work before pandian, but when I switched to pandian, it setup its configuration. Upon removal of pandian packages, the system broke, and now I'm running in command line, with no free time to fix it.

I am pretty sure debian people will tell you that they don't have people to support openpandora, especially since it is quite a small market player. On the other side, they are not very happy with raspbery pi. They were preparing do abandon armel architecture alltogether, when raspbery happened and turned everything upside down, giving them headache in supporting basically obsolete platform.

If you search through older posts here, you will find the description of how I made my openpandora run debian, but I am not sure if I will be able to work on that in any percievable future, not on the level of beeing able to support an community. I do have plans to do that, but you know how the plans go when there is no time for them...

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

...

I do have plans to do that, but you know how the plans go when there is no time for them...

Yeah, probably why stackshadow is MIA.  But thanks for the insight.

 

[KickAss]

He invested quite a lot already.


Im sure pandian aint dead for now.


Just give him some time.

 

[smilnovi]

Well, his last public message was in May. That is 5 months ago. Almost half year ago. There is no reason for someone else not to step in and continue the work, it was all public anyway. And (if) when stackshadow returns, he can continue. If stackshadow doesn't return, then it is a waste of time to just wait for an project that is already in bitrot.

--- edit - I have just noticed wrong wording - what I meant is that since it is open work, someone else can take the project untill (if) stackshadow returns.

 

[KickAss]

since it is open work, someone else can take the project untill (if) stackshadow returns.

No doubt about that.


Go ahead if you feel like it.


But i do believe that he will keep working on it if time allows.

 

[lingenfr]

I understand being too busy to continue the project. I don't understand being too busy to take 30 seconds sometime in five months to do one post, but maybe the situation is dire. At this point, rather than further development with no communication, one of two things would be helpful:

1) Image the most current fully functioning system and post it to the wiki, or

2) Provide at least some ideas here on the appropriate steps to take to update the version provided on the wiki to the most current, functioning version. I've tried this myself, but have run out of ideas and permutations to try.

For me, I am not interested in Slackware as it is almost completely different from Debian or Debian-based systems. It is not worthwhile for me to learn another Linux version (that I would not use on any other machine) for the limited advantage that linux provides over SZ. I will continue to monitor the thread in hopes that SS checks in. If not, I imagine my P will continue to see little use as it is missing too many of my routinely used apps. Yes, I have posted to the porting thread, but my apps are either not popular or non-trivial to port. Not complaining mind you although it is disappointing as I think Debian would make my P much more useful for me. Cheers.

 

[b_o_b]

For me, I am not interested in Slackware as it is almost completely different from Debian or Debian-based systems. It is not worthwhile for me to learn another Linux version

I was also more/only interested in Debian, mainly because of familiarity and ease of installing packages. Pandian has some issues though and is not as stable as Slackware and indeed less support. So I tried Slackware. Installing Slackware was pretty easy with the explanation on the wiki. Linux-Swat has created a solid distro, and on the wiki pages there is a ton of information. The out of the box experience is very good and lots of packages are pre-installed. 

If you have a SD card lying around there is no harm done in just trying it. Maybe you are lucky and you like it more than you expect. I know I did. 

 

[lingenfr]

I agree. LS has done a great job. I gave it several tries. I assume my SD(s) are not compatible and I am not willing to buy another one just to try it. If it worked with my existing SDs, I would be using it.

 

[edgex004]

I agree. LS has done a great job. I gave it several tries. I assume my SD(s) are not compatible and I am not willing to buy another one just to try it. If it worked with my existing SDs, I would be using it.

Sorry if I missed a post where you brought this up, but have you tried pandebian yet? I just got it running a few months ago and it has filled the gaps of apps that are either not ported or boken. The major advantage is running the debian apps within SZ, keeping PND compatibility within my everyday OS.

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

What's the difference between Loopback and Direct install in pandebian?  After the installation (I chose wheezy), I shared the required directory where pandebian loopback file is created, but how do you run wheezy within SZ after this? 

 

[TrashyMG]

Loopback makes an image file that the OS installs and runs within.. direct I believe installs the files to an SD card.. I chose loopback just for convenience

After it installs It should just be a matter of running the icon again.. When launched it puts a little icon on on the desktop in the upper left hand side that gives you access to Debian related programs (.It's basically the start menu for debian..)  From there you should be able to open up a terminal and apt-get anything you desire from the debian repository. 

Last time I installed I had an issue installing directly to wheezy, I had to install squeeze and then upgrade to wheezy. which is fairly painless: http://www.howtoforge.com/how-to-upgrade-debian-squeeze-to-wheezy