Pandora-like Linux

[FuzzyLizard530]

I was looking at a few different Linux distros, when I got to thinking...


What all would it take to set up a Pandora-like interface on, say, a laptop computer?


I would be fairly curious to try it, if it's possible.


Mainly, I'd like to figure out what to use as a base, plus what I'd have to do to use .PNDs.


I know Pandora is Angstrom-based, but that's as much as I've dug into it, thus far...


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As a side note, this would be more for fun than any kind of actual, practical use, at least initially.

 

[Mr Rob]

Hmm, are you talking specifically MiniMenu, or just something like the MiniMenu?


I know some of the older versions of Ubuntu experimented with a netbook interface similar to MiniMenu; you may still be able to build those from source.

 

[sebt3]

a laptop computer?


...


..., plus what I'd have to do to use .PNDs.

While the PND system works on intel CPU, all the PNDs on the repo (and about everywhere else) depend on arm CPU (some depend exactly on the pandora's CPU) which your laptop wont provide.

 

[Mr Rob]

a laptop computer?


...


..., plus what I'd have to do to use .PNDs.

While the PND system works on intel CPU, all the PNDs on the repo (and about everywhere else) depend on arm CPU (some depend exactly on the pandora's CPU) which your laptop wont provide.

And most of the PND's in the repo are simply open-source games, so your odds are your Linux Distribution has them and you can install them easily.

 

[FuzzyLizard530]

Hmm, are you talking specifically MiniMenu, or just something like the MiniMenu?


I know some of the older versions of Ubuntu experimented with a netbook interface similar to MiniMenu; you may still be able to build those from source.

Well, Mini Menu would be a cool start! If possible I'd essentially like to recreate Pandora, but on either my current laptop -- a Duel Core Toshiba Satellite -- or on a smaller netbook. Part of the reason is storage-related. I have a TON of the games, and roms for the emulators, but I don't want to have to remember what SD has what on it, if I don't have to.


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While the PND system works on intel CPU, all the PNDs on the repo (and about everywhere else) depend on arm CPU (some depend exactly on the pandora's CPU) which your laptop wont provide.

Does it? I find places that say so, but can't find a way to set it up [i'm using Ubuntu, if that makes any difference.].


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And most of the PND's in the repo are simply open-source games, so your odds are your Linux Distribution has them and you can install them easily.

I guess I didn't consider that. Though, being able to hot-swap on-the fly would be useful for those who want to switch from office to gaming use by switching SD/USB devices.

Also worth noting: I'm still a Linux N00b in general.

 

[Mr Rob]

Does it? I find places that say so, but can't find a way to set it up [i'm using Ubuntu, if that makes any difference.].

Yep, the PND 'system' alone can work on any processor, as I'm pretty sure it's all scripting languages, like bash and python. These are never 'compiled' for a particular processor, instead the text is read directly and executed. Programs written in C and C++ have to be compiled into machine code, which tends to be architecture specific.


I have no idea how one would set it up, however. So I'm less than useful, ha.

And most of the PND's in the repo are simply open-source games, so your odds are your Linux Distribution has them and you can install them easily.

I guess I didn't consider that. Though, being able to hot-swap on-the fly would be useful for those who want to switch from office to gaming use by switching SD/USB devices.


Also worth noting: I'm still a Linux N00b in general.

Yeah, the PND system was created to solve some of the package management problems that wouldn't work well with a system like the Pandora. Most distributions have particular places where they install things from their own repositories (mainly /usr), and for the Pandora, with limited space on the nand, and changing SD cards, the developers needed to find a way to accommodate that; the PND system was born.


Ha, and don't worry about being a n00b, we're all here to help, and were all n00bs at one point.

 

[Fworg64]

If your looking for just the general look and feel of the pandora's desktop OS, you could use about any XFCE distro. For instance i use Xubuntu and it looks similar enough for me.

 

[FuzzyLizard530]

If your looking for just the general look and feel of the pandora's desktop OS, you could use about any XFCE distro. For instance i use Xubuntu and it looks similar enough for me.

Lol! Funny you should say that... I just installed XFCE in Ubuntu! So far, It about nails it on the head! A few more tweaks, and I think It'll be pretty doggone close!

 

[diligentcircle]

Part of the reason is storage-related. I have a TON of the games, and roms for the emulators, but I don't want to have to remember what SD has what on it, if I don't have to.

Do you have limited hard drive space or something? My general experience is that Linux binaries don't take up a whole lot of space (this probably has to do with how Linux tends to be laid out; things like libraries are shared over the entire system instead of being distributed with every program). You can then put the rest of your stuff (e.g. ROMs and multimedia) on some other storage device.


I don't think the PND system would really help unless you have a REALLY tiny hard drive. I'm talking less than 10 GB. My experience so far has been that 15 GB is more than enough space for everything on a Linux machine besides the home directory. Actually, that's the amount I have allocated for root on my laptop (with separate partitions for home and boot), and I have almost 5 GB of free space in that partition.

 

[Mr Rob]

Hmm, from the way I read it, it's less of an overall hard drive space issue and more of a "I want to turn any laptop into a gaming rig via a flash drive or memory card". So especially save games and configuration want to be synced across two machines; easy if it's all just on the memory card. You can easily duplicate things like PSX iso's and the like across two machines (hard drive space is cheap), but getting everything synced across the whole lot of them is the trouble.


This might be worth a tutorial as to how to sync user data via Dropbox or something.

 

[theshining]

Hi fuzzylizard I use Xubuntu on all my pc's, two towers a dual core laptop and a macbook and #! (xfce) edition on an eee701, all without much in the way of problems, and I have gengs installed on all of them so I can play megadrive/Genesis games it's also easy to set up game pads etc, although I haven't got my Pandora yet the rom's I play from will all be put on a 32Gb sdhc card to play on it, like you I have tried (really hard) to get the game menu from the pandora to run but with no success at all, if anyone knows how to do it I'd love to hear.

 

[FuzzyLizard530]

Mr Rob pretty much got it! I have some games that I've lost progress on trying to switch between computers. Plus, switching to Linux from Windows is a bit trying on my patience sometimes. That's one of the main reasons I got my Pandora in the first place, was to essentially try to force myself to get used to Linux, and as an added bonus, keep my game progress in a central location.


and I would totally appreciate a Dropbox/user data tutorial! So far I've got Dropbox syncing my Tomboy notes, and some Family photos (which I may move to a second account). If I could get more use (meaning: practical, but easy use) out of my Dropbox account, that would be awesome!


Back on topic, I would like to not have to copy roms/.isos, saves/states, (and if possible, emulators!) everytime I get the whim to play on my laptop...


That's got to be a "classic gamers" biggest headache!

 

[diligentcircle]

Hm, so what you're mostly concerned with is putting data files on an SD card or something?


For emulators, it's really easy: just have an external media where you store the ROMs and SRAM (you might have to configure the emulators to save the SRAM in a specific location).


For others, that's a bit more tricky, but any Linux game that saves data is going to save it in a hidden folder in your home directory. For example, SuperTux (stable) saves in "~/.supertux" (a tilde represents your home directory). So if you're only using Linux, what could help is a simple script that copies all the app data folders from a certain directory in your SD card/whatever to your home directory, and another script that replaces the data directories on the SD card/whatever with the ones in your home directory. For important games, you could change the launchers you use (e.g. the ones in the menus) to call the scripts automatically before and after the game is run.

 

[valhalla]

For others, that's a bit more tricky, but any Linux game that saves data is going to save it in a hidden folder in your home directory. For example, SuperTux (stable) saves in "~/.supertux" (a tilde represents your home directory). So if you're only using Linux, what could help is a simple script that copies all the app data folders from a certain directory in your SD card/whatever to your home directory, and another script that replaces the data directories on the SD card/whatever with the ones in your home directory. For important games, you could change the launchers you use (e.g. the ones in the menus) to call the scripts automatically before and after the game is run.

Or you could copy those directories on an SD, and create soft links that point there in your home directory on every computer.


So, in the above example, you would have /media/gamesaves/supertux and a link ~/.supertux pointing to it.

 

[Mr Rob]

Or you could copy those directories on an SD, and create soft links that point there in your home directory on every computer.


So, in the above example, you would have /media/gamesaves/supertux and a link ~/.supertux pointing to it.

I'd often link my configuration data to a Dropbox directory, so I'd have my Wesnoth saves between home and my work computer (not that I ever played games at work of course).


Now I pretty much have two sets of games: 'Pandora games' and 'Laptop' games, so I'm never worrying about getting my Wesnoth saves from my Pandora onto my laptop, or vice versa.

 

[diligentcircle]

For others, that's a bit more tricky, but any Linux game that saves data is going to save it in a hidden folder in your home directory. For example, SuperTux (stable) saves in "~/.supertux" (a tilde represents your home directory). So if you're only using Linux, what could help is a simple script that copies all the app data folders from a certain directory in your SD card/whatever to your home directory, and another script that replaces the data directories on the SD card/whatever with the ones in your home directory. For important games, you could change the launchers you use (e.g. the ones in the menus) to call the scripts automatically before and after the game is run.

Or you could copy those directories on an SD, and create soft links that point there in your home directory on every computer.


So, in the above example, you would have /media/gamesaves/supertux and a link ~/.supertux pointing to it.

Yup, much better. A perfect example of "thinking too much" on my part.

 

[FuzzyLizard530]

Sweet! You all have been a great help!


I did notice [i think it was when I signed up for DropBox] that someone suggested setting the DropBox directory to the home folder... That's a possibility, but I don't know if the Pandora even has a DB client, or some other method of doing so...