Beta Pandora Hotfix 3 - Beta Test!

[EvilDragon]

EDIT:
Outdated! Please go check out Beta 2 here!

Hi guys!

EDIT: This includes all previous Hotfixes as well (as usual )

For the brave Pandora users out there, I have a first Beta for the upcoming Hotfix 3! Be sure to tell me any problems you might encounter.

Here's the changelog:

Hotfix 3:
* Kernel: Fixed problem with broken sound on some units. Also improved ALSA Buffer Underrun problems
* Kernel Modules: Added USB Sound and Midi Modules
* U-Boot: Fixed LCD timings on Reset (which caused weird dots around the Logo on reboot / Reset)
* U-Boot: Added serial out via USB (ideal for debugging when trying to port new OSes to the Pandora)
* MiniMenu: Added automatic Refresh on SD Card insert and quick navigation using keyboard letters
* Services: Removed unneeded services from Startup - also services most users don't need (like dropbear, samba, etc.) They can be re-enabled with the new Startup-Settings
* Startup-Settings: Added enabling / disabling services
* New: Added Mass Storage mode via Mini-USB (can be enabled in the System-Menu)
* Automount: Now using Label names (if the card has one) instead of mmcblk*
* Automount: Now using Dirsync instead of sync with 2s Buffer flush. This increased SD Write speed A LOT. However, be sure to wait at least 2 seconds before removing your SD Card after you saved data
* Not yet fixed: PNDs will not run if they have a space in the filename or path (do not use spaces in your SD-Card labels for now!)


There are some things you need to keep in mind if you install that package:

* As the automounter now uses SD Card labels (if available), programs like Exaile or emulators that save the path to your ROM directory have to be re-setup to use the new path. This only needs to be done once. The good thing about this is: Those programs don't care in which Slot you put the card, as they now use the label (and the label will always stay the same!)

* As there is a bug in pnd_run, you cannot use any PNDs which have spaces in their filenames or path. So don't label your SD Card "My Pandora Card" or similar - otherwise you can't run PNDs from there for the moment.

* Services not neccessarily used (like Samba, Dropbear, etc.) will automatically be disabled with that package. If you need them, you can enable them in the new version of the Startup-Settings

Please test if the new stuff works or if we broke anything else.


Be sure to remove any previous HotFix-Package from your SD Card - otherwise, the new one will not show up in the menu!

 

[Exophase]

Thanks ED! I'm trying it now and will tell you how it goes.

 

[Hooka]

W00t! Thanks ED!!!

 

[gruso]

A very nice looking list of updates. I know a lot of people are saying they're glad the OS will be more polished when they get theirs, but I seriously wish I was on this little ride and experiencing the improvements!

 

[jonlad1]

when is yours coming G?

EDIT: Cheers ED! Will test when I get home!

 

[skeezix]

Ed - why not bump the unique id to be the hotfix number (same appdata dir) so it shows in the menu?

Does it include all prior hotfixes?

Im away from home a couple days (and still time challenged) but i can look into space-path issues soon. Didnt know about that one

Jeffphone

 

[gruso]

when is yours coming G?

Soon™.

 

[PokeParadox]

Seems to be doing what it's supposed to be doing.

The sound is fantastic now!

 

[atomicthumbs]

One problem I didn't notice being fixed here (and I'm not sure if it's a bug): occasionally when I try to use GMPC to connect to MPD, it fails because it could not find localhost (temporary name resolution failure), or because it couldn't reach the network. I think something's wonky with NetworkManager and the loopback interface.

 

[Exophase]

So far so good - gone are the CPU usage spikes and the underrun messages, and the audio scratching of course. Gonna try some more stuff with this.

 

[Hooka]

I'm not sure if this is me being stupid, or if you're referring to the snd_usb_caiaq as the usb audio stuff, but it tells me that the usb audio stuff is already installed when it's done installing the hotfix and I still cannot find snd-usb-audio anywhere on my system (granted I might just not know where to look, I looked in /lib/modules/2.6.27.46-omap1/kernel/sound/usb as that's where I would expect it to be. I'm gonna give a look into meritous now to see if the underrun fix stuff helps get it running properly with all the sounds

 

[socket]

No problems so far! Working great!

 

[todd]

I just got my Pandora today. Scratchy sound under hotfix 2. Hotfix 3 cleared it right up -- for a while. Then it gets scratchy again. :wacko: FYI.

--Todd
(posting from Pandora + fennec)

 

[EvilDragon]

I just got my Pandora today. Scratchy sound under hotfix 2. Hotfix 3 cleared it right up -- for a while. Then it gets scratchy again. :wacko: FYI.

--Todd
(posting from Pandora + fennec)

With what games / apps?
MAME is known to need too much CPU for the sound to keep up sometimes. Just pause for a second and continue.

----

Okay, seems I have one bug in the snd_usb_device installation routine. It seems to think the modules are already there and doesn't copy them.
Will fix that later.

 

[jaycee900]

Great stuff, looking forward to automatic refresh on sd inserting and remembering sd card names - hurray no more forgetting paths in scummvm!!

Another good update, thanks!

 

[Pleng]

* Kernel Modules: Added USB Sound and Midi Modules

woo-hoo!

* New: Added Mass Storage mode via Mini-USB (can be enabled in the System-Menu)

Double woo-hoo!!!! Has anybody tested this with Windows 7 yet?



aside: I knew cool stuff would start happening as soon as I sent mine back for repair!

 

[tsh]

Kernel update is going very slow, maybe because my SD cards seem to be a bit confused - only one is mounted currently (should maybe have re-booted first)
(by slow, I mean no movement in progress bar past first notch for over 10 min). Will give it another 35 min...

 

[EvilDragon]

Kernel update is going very slow, maybe because my SD cards seem to be a bit confused - only one is mounted currently (should maybe have re-booted first)
(by slow, I mean no movement in progress bar past first notch for over 10 min). Will give it another 35 min...

Hmm, that definately shouldn't happen. It only takes a few seconds... though it also should show an error when it fails...

Weird...

 

[torpor]

I just applied this Hotfix and noticed something: If you've booted with the new kernel from notaz to fix the sound problem (with the boot.txt file on SD card, or in my case, renamed to autoboot.txt), the Hotfix #3 script won't update the kernel - or if it does update, it does it *very* fast .. certainly not as long as I would think it should take to copy a kernel file to NAND. I rebooted without the new kernel, re-ran the script, and it took longer the second time .. so just a warning here.

 

[tsh]

Hmm, that definately shouldn't happen. It only takes a few seconds... though it also should show an error when it fails...

No, it just waited there. Cancelling worked (although I did manually remove the /boot/uImage.new after rather than test how it coped if I re-ran with it still there)

When I tried to shutdown, I got an odd message saying couldn't shutdown (and some stuff about dbus). I guess this was related to maybe removing and replacing an SD-card and it not re-mounting properly. After a hard reset, the hotfix installed OK, in maybe 10 sec.

Not having any luck with mass storage under WinXP. The device is detected (with what seems to be the correct driver), but so far as I can tell it doesn't see any partitions - just un-allocated space. Mind you, the windows machine it is connected to is not the most reliable...