pandian - MARK2

[N3Cr0]

I don't think we need a complex graphical installer.

Also there is no need to change the keyboard layout on Pandora.

What I'd like to have, is a way to setup a root user and the time zone on first boot. The rest should be preconfigured and ready to run.

PND Support is a hard thing.

If you don't find a way to build something like wine or an emulator, better let it be. Many PNDs are just ports of software, already available for Debian.

 

[ekianjo]

If you don't find a way to build something like wine or an emulator, better let it be. Many PNDs are just ports of software, already available for Debian.

too bad though for stuff like emulators (drastic, pcsxRe ARMed) and the like.  

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

You can run Pandebian with SZ and all your PNDs are still fine.

 

[ekianjo]

You can run Pandebian with SZ and all your PNDs are still fine.

Except that Pandebian is utter crap as it creates a different filesystem that cannot access the files on SZ's so it's all pretty useless. And the installation process is horrible and failed several times for me. Never want to use that again. 

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

What are you talking about?  Using Pandebian Share, I can access all the files on SZ.  I have no problem installing and using Pandebian.  I performed both Direct and Loopback method of the 64GB sd card and it works wonderfully with SZ.  I've upgraded Squeeze to Wheezy and can access the entire armel-build Debian Repo.  Think again buddy.  This Pandebian is GOOD!

Oh, and before you call something utter crap, you should do your homework first as I have zero problem installing it

 

[ekianjo]

Oh, and before you call something utter crap, you should do your homework first as I have zero problem installing it

I had to install Pandebian 3 times before the installation actually worked (and it's clearly labeled as alpha in the thread dedicated, and issues have not been fixed since 2011). After installation, I had the thing crash on me and losing its configuration, leading me to having to reinstall everything again. It's good if you had no issue but that's not at all my experience with that thing, and I don't seem to be the only one who had issues with it. 

 

[ptitSeb]

PND Support is a hard thing.

If you don't find a way to build something like wine or an emulator, better let it be. Many PNDs are just ports of software, already available for Debian.

 Hmmm, offtopic, but that make me wonder why do I care to try (and I know I'm not the only one) make each software and games working as good as I can on the Pandora as you people seems to be satisfied with generic ports.

 

[edgex004]

PND Support is a hard thing.

If you don't find a way to build something like wine or an emulator, better let it be. Many PNDs are just ports of software, already available for Debian.

 Hmmm, offtopic, but that make me wonder why do I care to try make each software and games working as good as I can on the Pandora as you people seems to be satisfied with generic ports.

Quality and quantity both have their place on the Pandora!

It is great having the Debian repositories as a backup on my unit, but I (and I think very many others) spend nearly all my time on the wonderfully optimized ports from yourself and the rest of the community.

Debian lets me try out things that haven't yet been ported, or let me fill gaps of PNDs that have lost support. For example, Gpodder hasn't been updated and does not seem to work anymore, so I run it through PanDebian.

Harmoniously, your optimizations then save me battery when I'm listening to the podcasts caught through PanDebian. As soon as they are downloaded, I get to load them all into your terrific deadbeef port.

I think there are very few who would want to besmirch all the work done in this community. I'm so happy every time I check the repo and see new software released and new optimizations made!

 

[smilnovi]

PND Support is a hard thing.

If you don't find a way to build something like wine or an emulator, better let it be. Many PNDs are just ports of software, already available for Debian.

 Hmmm, offtopic, but that make me wonder why do I care to try (and I know I'm not the only one) make each software and games working as good as I can on the Pandora as you people seems to be satisfied with generic ports.

I can give you my own oppinon on the matter.

I do appreciate all of the porters doing their work for SZ. It is great what you people have done there, and how you are squeezing the last electron from the machine.

But, when I switch to Debian on openpandora, I want to use Debian, and all of the software, and great packaging system and features and stuff that Debian offers. Plus, I can be sure that what I'm doing on openpandora Debian, will basically work on my desktop Debian and on my server Debian. So for that type of work I don't need PNDs working on Debian, especially since it makes things more complicated.

So, if you plan to make PNDs that work on Debian, it is great, but I for one will most probably not be using them.

 

[ptitSeb]

But, when I switch to Debian on openpandora, I want to use Debian, and all of the software, and great packaging system and features and stuff that Debian offers. Plus, I can be sure that what I'm doing on openpandora Debian, will basically work on my desktop Debian and on my server Debian. So for that type of work I don't need PNDs working on Debian, especially since it makes things more complicated.

Fair enough.

 

[ekianjo]

PND Support is a hard thing.

If you don't find a way to build something like wine or an emulator, better let it be. Many PNDs are just ports of software, already available for Debian.

 Hmmm, offtopic, but that make me wonder why do I care to try (and I know I'm not the only one) make each software and games working as good as I can on the Pandora as you people seems to be satisfied with generic ports.

I think both approaches are valid. Having PNDs is preferable, because they are easy to manage and generally do what they need to do well - and it's transparent for users who are not familiar with Linux too.

Now, when it comes to doing some serious work, I have had problem, for example, with the R PND to install packages on top of the default setup. And that is a deal breaker, because R's life comes from its packages. There are other things out there (such as printing with cups, scanning with xscan) which I have only been able to use through the full distributions (like slackware). Slackware is great in that respect since you can use both PNDs and the full distro at once. 

 

[N3Cr0]

PND Support is a hard thing.

If you don't find a way to build something like wine or an emulator, better let it be. Many PNDs are just ports of software, already available for Debian.

 Hmmm, offtopic, but that make me wonder why do I care to try (and I know I'm not the only one) make each software and games working as good as I can on the Pandora as you people seems to be satisfied with generic ports.

I've got an idea. I din't know if it's good, but it may be easy.

What about porting some PNDs to an ordinary debian repository?

That means, there are still the Pandora optimizations and we shouldn't run into trouble with an incompatible PND-loader.

 

[ekianjo]

What about porting some PNDs to an ordinary debian repository?

Isn't there an issue with soft float vs hard float?  

 

[N3Cr0]

Yes, it is. I thought it would be no problem with open sources and another compiler setting.

But when I think about it more and more, I notice there could be issues with bitwise operations.

 

[eric]

Hmmm, offtopic, but that make me wonder why do I care to try (and I know I'm not the only one) make each software and games working as good as I can on the Pandora as you people seems to be satisfied with generic ports.

Actually, it's because of the great work you and others do on porting software to the Pandora that I am considering trying out pandebian. I need Debian for my day to day use of the Pandora (for work) but I want to be able to run some of the PNDs you and others have created in my off-time!

I've just ordered a 64GB SD card to try out pandebian as the best solution to my use case!

 

[TrashyMG]

Hmmm, offtopic, but that make me wonder why do I care to try (and I know I'm not the only one) make each software and games working as good as I can on the Pandora as you people seems to be satisfied with generic ports.

At least game wise, most of the generic ports run like crap or don't display on the screen properly.

I've only been using pandebian for some very odd ball things, like testing out lunixbochs's qemu/wine/glshim.

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

PND Support is a hard thing.

If you don't find a way to build something like wine or an emulator, better let it be. Many PNDs are just ports of software, already available for Debian.

 Hmmm, offtopic, but that make me wonder why do I care to try (and I know I'm not the only one) make each software and games working as good as I can on the Pandora as you people seems to be satisfied with generic ports.

Hey ptitSeb, your and others' effort in porting software to Pandora is extremely appreciated and important to us Pandorians.  The reason is eventhough Pandebian offers a big repo, the ported versions are more optimized and work as if they were made for the Pandora (i.e., controls, screen size, video acceleration, etc.).

And don't mention games in pandebian, they run like crap (There you go ekianjo, you're right on this aspect)   h34r:               

 

[smilnovi]

Yes, it is. I thought it would be no problem with open sources and another compiler setting.

But when I think about it more and more, I notice there could be issues with bitwise operations.

Someone would have to have access to source. And make sure there are no hardcoded armel dependencies, and if there are, resolve them. And someone would have to compile and package for both armel SZ and armhf Debian each PND people request. And keep doing so whenever there is a change. And make sure that PNDs work with the rest of the system in a nice way. A lot of work. Especially since for armhf Debian we don't have optimized graphics drivers. So everything that flies on SZ will crawl on Debian.

Well, at least it will be a good and interesting experience and learning.

 

[stackshadow]

Thanks for response

okay, good point about the debain repository, its nearly everything in there, but also the well optimized PND's are important.

Maybe we can create debian packages from this PND's. ( I event don't think that somebody hacked asm-code into the PND's, so everything should be an compiler option )

Hey ptitSeb, your and others' effort in porting software to Pandora is extremely appreciated and important to us Pandorians.  The reason is eventhough Pandebian offers a big repo, the ported versions are more optimized and work as if they were made for the Pandora (i.e., controls, screen size, video acceleration, etc.).

Is there an special repository for pandebian ? 

Also the source-packages are uploaded ?

 

[TrashyMG]

Is there an special repository for pandebian ? 

No