Beta Pndbuilder

[freedomdown]

Description:
Here's a graphical .pnd file maker I made.
There is a Pandora version and a windows version.
Linux(x86) and MacOSX versions should be ready soon(-ish).
Your settings can be saved to .pndb files and loaded later.
In windows you can set PNDbuilder.exe as the default program for handling .pndb files.
Inside the zip file is the windows and pandora("pandora.bin") executables.

Known bugs:
windows - mkisofs.exe is converting filenames to 8.3 msdos style for some reason so you can only use squashFS
pandora - mkisofs isn't installed by default on the pandora so you can only use squashFS in the pnd version as well
pandora - when picking files the "UpOneDir" button goes too fast and can go up several directories quickly.

Downloads:
Here's the PND http://freedomdown.squarespace.com/storage/pndbOLD.pnd (and yes it was made with this pnd builder)
Here's the zip http://freedomdown.squarespace.com/storage/PNDbuilder.zip

NEW Version 1.1
Only the Pandora version is ready so far. Windows and Linux(x86) versions are coming soon.
http://www.freedomdown.ca/storage/pndb.pnd

Let me know of any bugs you find.
And if anyone is good at making icons feel free to make a new one for me.

 

[skeezix]

Does this include a PXML.xml editor and validator by chance? (just looking at your screenshot)

(If not, then the "Edit" buttons should probably be 'Choose..' instead, just to be clear.) (and if so, be mnindful of multi-application PXML's

You could include mkisofs in the pnd for the pandora version, so that that option works fine. (ie: to avoid requiring user to opkg install it if they want the option, say.)

Very good .. been waiting a loooong time for someone to publish one of these and not had time to make one myself; theres at least 3 or 4 started projects, but no one ever actually posted one Kudos!

Be sure to post to dl.openhandhelds once its stable, so it doesn't get lost!

jeff

 

[torpor]

Very nice app!

But I vote for mkisofs being included in the next firmware release ..

 

[Blue Protoman]

Can you add support for wrapping GP2X or Wiz games with Ginge?

 

[milkshake]

does it check to make sure the PXML is valid and also does it append correctly the PXML file and icon file to the and of the binary?

 

[skeezix]

BlueProtoman -- thats more the job of the guy defining the contents of the pnd, not the pnd builder tool's job.

jeff

 

[fusion_power]

does it check to make sure the PXML is valid and also does it append correctly the PXML file and icon file to the and of the binary?

Very important point I think too. ^^

 

[sebt3]

BlueProtoman -- thats more the job of the guy defining the contents of the pnd, not the pnd builder tool's job.

Sure it might not be the point for this project. But BP made a point : there is a need for a tool to convert wiz/gp2x into pnds.

 

[Tempel]

So you know, I've added a note on this in the Development Tools page of the wiki.

 

[freedomdown]

Yes it correctly appends the icon and pxml, but no it doesn't validate the pxml.
I think I will change "edit" to "choose".
I might not be able to work on it today but the Linux x86 version just needs to be tested and should be working.

Is there a pxml validation script? Cause I could call that and have it show the output. And would the script work in Windows ( without installing something extra like perl)

As a side note, anyone who wants to append the icon or pxml to a file in Windows I suggest using the "type" command instead of "copy"(like the wiki page says) since copy was causing me troubles.
The syntax for type is :
Type icon.png >> your.pnd

 

[xBecky]

does it check to make sure the PXML is valid and also does it append correctly the PXML file and icon file to the and of the binary?

 

[xBecky]

does it check to make sure the PXML is valid and also does it append correctly the PXML file and icon file to the and of the binary?

 

[skeezix]

libpnd doesn't include a good validator (yet); in general I've been relying on upcoming stores/repos to do XML validation using the DTD, etc, but in general..

99% of the 'issues' are...

- unique-id is not unique (cloned from some other app the dev was working on, and he forgot to make a new one up)
- multiple apps in the same pnd have same unique-id (should each be unique)
- categories are bad (Game and sub Emulator good; using 'Games' is bad, using Emulator with sub Game is bad, etc etc.) google "freedesktop category" to jump to the list page
- missing title in english
- appdata-path missing (is okay, libpnd will just use the unique-id as appdata dir name, but still failing the spec)

Theres a million other things, but those are the ones that annoy day to day users

jeff

 

[torpor]

Crap, thats a lot that can go wrong .. maybe we need a validator ASAP. I didn't know about half those things, lol ..

 

[milkshake]

my test uploader will validate a pnd for you op.liquidfists.com

 

[jdbye]

Yes it correctly appends the icon and pxml, but no it doesn't validate the pxml.
I think I will change "edit" to "choose".
I might not be able to work on it today but the Linux x86 version just needs to be tested and should be working.

Is there a pxml validation script? Cause I could call that and have it show the output. And would the script work in Windows ( without installing something extra like perl)

As a side note, anyone who wants to append the icon or pxml to a file in Windows I suggest using the "type" command instead of "copy"(like the wiki page says) since copy was causing me troubles.
The syntax for type is :
Type icon.png > your.pnd

Try:
Type icon.png >> your.pnd
Otherwise it overwrites the pnd contents with the png data instead of appending it.

 

[freedomdown]

Yes it correctly appends the icon and pxml, but no it doesn't validate the pxml.
I think I will change "edit" to "choose".
I might not be able to work on it today but the Linux x86 version just needs to be tested and should be working.

Is there a pxml validation script? Cause I could call that and have it show the output. And would the script work in Windows ( without installing something extra like perl)

As a side note, anyone who wants to append the icon or pxml to a file in Windows I suggest using the "type" command instead of "copy"(like the wiki page says) since copy was causing me troubles.
The syntax for type is :
Type icon.png > your.pnd

Try:
Type icon.png >> your.pnd
Otherwise it overwrites the pnd contents with the png data instead of appending it.

Yes sorry that was a typo, I edited the post so people won't accidentally overwrite their pnds.

Anyone know what package mkisofs would be in? I can't find it in the angstrom repos.

Also I've tested the linux(x86) version and it seems mksquashfs isn't installed by default on most desktop distros though mkisofs is. So maybe I should try to include mksquashfs and mkisofs for each platform with the program so 1)I know they will be accessible and 2) I won't have to worry about people having older/newer versions of them.

 

[freedomdown]

There is a new version(1.1): http://www.freedomdown.ca/storage/pndb.pnd

the old version(1.0) is now here: http://www.freedomdown.ca/storage/pndbOLD.pnd

This is the pandora pnd only, I'm having some issues with the windows and linux versions but hopefully they will be working soon.

This version allows isofs and squashfs on pandora, and has fixed the "UpOneDir" button in the file browser.

Let me know if you encounter any bugs.

 

[gruso]

Bump! Thanks for your work on this freedomdown, looking very promising.

I'm trying to run the latest Pandora version, but it doesn't seem to be outputting a PND. Should it spit out a test PND using the default settings?

 

[freedomdown]

As long as you change the output folder to somewhere else cause the default folder is the one where the program is running from (which is a temp folder). Is there someway to find out the names of the sd cards? cause I don't want it to output to the nand by default