Release Pandora SD Installer

[peelie]

Hotfix 4 was released at the end of August last year, that might be a good date to look for. (There is one marked August 30 in the /old dir)

thanks gruso


got that required file under August 30; downgraded and now can run Java programs weee!! also the remapped shoulder buttons are not timing out


edit/


bugger spoke to soon remapped shoulder keys still timing out!


sorry for ot!

 

[Dave1234]

I tried this last night with a 8gb card got through the stages to the progress bar it jumps the 1st few parts then stops under the t in "installing" I left it over night and it didnt move.

Can you provide more details?


Does the card work otherwise?


What brand is it?


Which firmware file were you using?

 

[Dave1234]

I tried this last night with a 8gb card got through the stages to the progress bar it jumps the 1st few parts then stops under the t in "installing" I left it over night and it didnt move.

From where the progress bar stopped (thanks for telling me that by the way) it looks like it might have hung right after partitioning the card. This could be a faulty card but I can't be sure.


Can you try the following:

Eject any SD cards (both slots)


Insert your 8 GB card in the left slot


In a terminal enter "sudo fdisk -l /dev/mmcblk0"


And post the output it produces here?

If the card is unusable, can you try reformatting it and see if that works?

 

[silver]

As a quick aside - how are you identifying left vs right slot?


Not sure if it's changed in a recent hotfix, but the /dev/mmcblk0p1 that typically refers to the 1st partition of the left slot CAN refer to the right slot depending on order of card mounting in my experience.


Ive wiped my SD once by following the wiki on SD Linux booting where it states mmcblk0 is left and mmcblk1 is right...

 

[meandu229]

As a quick aside - how are you identifying left vs right slot?


Not sure if it's changed in a recent hotfix, but the /dev/mmcblk0p1 that typically refers to the 1st partition of the left slot CAN refer to the right slot depending on order of card mounting in my experience.


Ive wiped my SD once by following the wiki on SD Linux booting where it states mmcblk0 is left and mmcblk1 is right...

The program does tell you the space on the card so I guess this is sort of a fail safe for people with 2 different sized cards you can see which is which,


Couldnt get it to work at all so I just did the mkfs.ext2 then untar'd and am away,

 

[Dave1234]

As a quick aside - how are you identifying left vs right slot?


Not sure if it's changed in a recent hotfix, but the /dev/mmcblk0p1 that typically refers to the 1st partition of the left slot CAN refer to the right slot depending on order of card mounting in my experience.


Ive wiped my SD once by following the wiki on SD Linux booting where it states mmcblk0 is left and mmcblk1 is right...

I use the information under /sys/bus/mmc/devices/. If you do a ls /sys/bus/mmc/devices/mmc0*/block/ you will get the name of the device special file to use for the left slot.


This is rechecked at a couple of points in the install just in case it has changed.

 

[Dave1234]

I've done a new version (1.1). The changes are:


EDIT: Don't use this version, the latest one is here.

• Change minimum size limit to allow installation to 1 GB cards.
  
• Check for errors when reading card size.
  
• Add an additional check for the card device special file following fdisk (in case it changes).
  
• Add a timeout when waiting for the device special file to appear following fdisk.
  
• Add the ability to choose which slot to use as the installation target.
  
• Add an option to create a swap partition.
  

Instructions (revised from the original version):


1. Copy the PND to an SD card in the usual manner. Also copy a firmware image to the same card. You can get one from here, the file "pandora-rootfs.tar.bz2" should always be the latest image, older ones are under the "images" directory.


2. Get a second SD card that you want to install the OS to. This needs to be at least a 1 GB card. Everything on this card will be erased, so choose wisely.


3. Put the card to install the OS to and the card with the PND and firmware image into the Pandora.


4. Run the PND and follow the prompts*. You will be asked for the firmware image file, then asked to choose how much space to allocate to the VFAT (Windows, see below) and swap partitions.


5. Once you have gone through all the prompts, the firmware image will be installed to the SD card. This will take upwards of ten minutes, so be patient.


6. Once complete, you will be able to boot your Pandora from the SD card by powering it on with the card in the left slot. Please note that the first boot will take longer than usual, about ten minutes.


* When the PND starts you will be asked for your password. This is needed because the installer needs to run as root in order to partition and format the SD card.


About the VFAT partition thing:


Some older Pandora boot loaders cannot boot from Linux (EXT2/EXT3) partitions on an SD card (I think that this has been fixed now). To allow for maximum compatibility, the installer creates two partitions, the first one is a VFAT (Windows) partition which contains the Linux kernel and boot script, the second is a EXT3 (Linux) partition which contains the rest of the OS.


The VFAT partition can be very small as it only contains two files, but the installer allows you to make the VFAT partition bigger to allow you to install PNDs to it. The installer creates the required directories (pandora/apps, pandora/appdata, pandora/desktop and pandora/menu) for you.


Finally, this is beta software, use with caution, no warranties.

sd_install.pnd

 

[gruso]

Looks great Dave! Will give this a run tonight.

 

[JetsVille51]

Sounds awesome, I ordered a second SD card on newegg after I saw this this morning!


Does it create an autoboot or do I have to do that manually/ or R at boot?

 

[Dave1234]

Sounds awesome, I ordered a second SD card on newegg after I saw this this morning!


Does it create an autoboot or do I have to do that manually/ or R at boot?

It creates an autoboot.txt for you. If you want a manual boot instead you can just rename it after installation.

 

[Dave1234]

Free publicity!


Thanks Gruso, I really hope I haven't messed anything up with the new version. I did test it and it seems okay but you never know.


Unless there are any problems with this version I'll try to get it on Pandora Apps.

 

[EmuGuy]

Hi there. Sounds promising, trying this out today. So far the installer just quits on me, though. More details:


I have a 16GB SD card I want to install to, in the Pandora's Left slot.


I put the "sd_install.pnd" on a blank 2GB SD card in the Right slot (moved it into a "pandora/apps" folder so that it shows up.)


When I run the pnd, I can follow the prompts and browse to where I saved the firmware image. When I hit ok, it accesses the SD card (Pandora activity light flashes once, then it quits back to the xfce desktop (or MiniMenu depending where I ran it from).


Any ideas? Thanks for the work so far on this...I'm not a Linux user, but I can read and follow directions.

 

[Dave1234]

Hi there. Sounds promising, trying this out today. So far the installer just quits on me, though. More details:


I have a 16GB SD card I want to install to, in the Pandora's Left slot.


I put the "sd_install.pnd" on a blank 2GB SD card in the Right slot (moved it into a "pandora/apps" folder so that it shows up.)


When I run the pnd, I can follow the prompts and browse to where I saved the firmware image. When I hit ok, it accesses the SD card (Pandora activity light flashes once, then it quits back to the xfce desktop (or MiniMenu depending where I ran it from).


Any ideas? Thanks for the work so far on this...I'm not a Linux user, but I can read and follow directions.

Can you give me a link to the firmware image that you are using please?


Also, which version of the installer are you using?

 

[held]

Hi there. Sounds promising, trying this out today. So far the installer just quits on me, though. More details:


I have a 16GB SD card I want to install to, in the Pandora's Left slot.


I put the "sd_install.pnd" on a blank 2GB SD card in the Right slot (moved it into a "pandora/apps" folder so that it shows up.)


When I run the pnd, I can follow the prompts and browse to where I saved the firmware image. When I hit ok, it accesses the SD card (Pandora activity light flashes once, then it quits back to the xfce desktop (or MiniMenu depending where I ran it from).


Any ideas? Thanks for the work so far on this...I'm not a Linux user, but I can read and follow directions.

Same for me - it says "sh: 16.1: bad number" ./sh_install.sh: line 303: syntax error: 16.1-900


Firmware: http://openpandora.org/firmware/pandora-rootfs.tar.bz2


Version of Installer: 1.1

 

[gruso]

Sounds very odd. I'm currently midway through an install with the latest version, all smooth so far. Here are the details:


Left slot (source): 16GB card, label CANON_DC


Right slot (target): 1GB card, label 1GB


[edit] Successful. The prompts are even better this time around, a really good installer.

 

[Dave1234]

Same for me - it says "sh: 16.1: bad number" ./sh_install.sh: line 303: syntax error: 16.1-900


Firmware: http://openpandora.org/firmware/pandora-rootfs.tar.bz2


Version of Installer: 1.1

Just to clarify, it stopped at the same point: that is, after asking for the firmware image name? It didn't ask which card slot you wanted to use?


Edit: Could you also give me the output of "fdisk -l" on the card you were trying to install to please?

 

[held]

Same for me - it says "sh: 16.1: bad number" ./sh_install.sh: line 303: syntax error: 16.1-900


Firmware: http://openpandora.org/firmware/pandora-rootfs.tar.bz2


Version of Installer: 1.1

Just to clarify, it stopped at the same point: that is, after asking for the firmware image name? It didn't ask which card slot you wanted to use?


Edit: Could you also give me the output of "fdisk -l" on the card you were trying to install to please?

No sry it says: A 16GB Card detected...then when I click OK it exits.


fdisk -l:


Disk /dev/mmcblk1: 16.1 GB, 16130244608 bytes


15 heads, 37 sectors/track, 56764 cylinders


Units = cylinders of 555 * 512 = 284160 bytes


Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk identifier: 0x00000000


Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System


/dev/mmcblk1p1 15 56765 15748096 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)


Hope this helps.

 

[MarioPandio]

Firstly want to say I love the idea of this, as I did when you suggested it but It's driven me insane.


I've also tried in vain to get this to work for several days on different cards, all three versions of the PND and with HF4 and HF5 images (downloaded many times). The latest version claims the tar.bz2 files from the OPT list you linked, aren't tar.bz2 files !


Prior versions of the PND recognised them and got part way and then stated no uImage was present and yet they are in the archive and earlier downloads of the images were in .zip format, so I re-compressed (after uncompression) in tar.bz2 and they also refuse to run.


Been going silently mad for days now but its obviously something wrong at my end and I've wanted to suss out what but I am at a loss now. Pandebian has also been driving me crackers, although the first time it did succeed but was looping and I'd missed the easy fix for that. Since then it wont install and always fails after many hours etc. Grrrr


Anything I can post to help analyse whats going wrong?


edit : spelling

 

[Dave1234]

fdisk -l:


Disk /dev/mmcblk1: 16.1 GB, 16130244608 bytes


15 heads, 37 sectors/track, 56764 cylinders


Units = cylinders of 555 * 512 = 284160 bytes


Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes


Disk identifier: 0x00000000


Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System


/dev/mmcblk1p1 15 56765 15748096 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)


Hope this helps.

Yes it does! I think I know what the problem is now and it's something I had not thought of: All the cards I've tested with are 4 GB or smaller, and fdisk reports the size in MB. With yours the size is reported in GB as 16.1 which messes up the script as it is expecting a whole number in megabytes.


Now I know that, I can reproduce the problem and develop a fix.

Firstly want to say I love the idea of this, as I did when you suggested it but It's driven me insane.


I've also tried in vain to get this to work for several days on different cards, all three versions of the PND and with HF4 and HF5 images (downloaded many times). The latest version claims the tar.bz2 files from the OPT list you linked, aren't tar.bz2 files !


Prior versions of the PND recognised them and got part way and then stated no uImage was present and yet they are in the archive and earlier downloads of the images were in .zip format, so I re-compressed (after uncompression) in tar.bz2 and they also refuse to run.


Been going silently mad for days now but its obviously something wrong at my end and I've wanted to suss out what but I am at a loss now. Pandebian has also been driving me crackers, although the first time it did succeed but was looping and I'd missed the easy fix for that. Since then it wont install and always fails after many hours etc. Grrrr


Anything I can post to help analyse whats going wrong?


edit : spelling

Yes please: For the .tar.bz files that the script is claiming are not .tar.bz files, can you try the following in a terminal:

file [name of firmware image]

and post the output?


I'm going to get a bigger SD card to test with now, and when I get back I'll work fixes for these problems. Hopefully I'll have an new version available later today or tomorrow.


Thank you held, MarioPandio, and everyone else who is posting their results here. I'm determined to get this working properly.

 

[MarioPandio]

Thanks for looking Dave1234,


Heres the output of some of them


HF4


mariopandios-openpandora:/media/mmcblk1p1/SD INSTALLER PND TEST/HF4 TAR$ file Angstrom-pandora-xfce-image-glibc-ipk-2010.4-test-20100830-omap3-pandora.rootfs.tar.bz2


Angstrom-pandora-xfce-image-glibc-ipk-2010.4-test-20100830-omap3-pandora.rootfs.tar.bz2: bzip2 compressed data, block size = 900k


mariopandios-openpandora:/media/mmcblk1p1/SD INSTALLER PND TEST/RENAMED HF4$ file pandora.rootfs.tar.bz2


pandora.rootfs.tar.bz2: bzip2 compressed data, block size = 900k


HF5


mariopandios-openpandora:/media/mmcblk1p1/SD INSTALLER PND TEST/HF5 TAR$ file pandora-rootfs.tar.bz2


pandora-rootfs.tar.bz2: bzip2 compressed data, block size = 900k


mariopandios-openpandora:/media/mmcblk1p1/SD INSTALLER PND TEST/UNZIPPED HF5$ file pandora-firmware-2010-05-01-Zaxxon.tar.bz2


pandora-firmware-2010-05-01-Zaxxon.tar.bz2: bzip2 compressed data, block size = 900k


regards