Release PNDstore

[Tempel]

I've just uploaded a bugfix to the repo. PXML parsing should now be just about as robust as possible. peelie, stouffa, let me know if you get any more problems.

 

[Granitehead]

pndstore not liking chrome-dev whenupdating list


see attached screenshot

Had that one too some times (but now I deleted chromium-dev because it was that annoying).


I would like to only mark applications to install/update first and then, when I'm finished, click a button "do stuff". Like in synaptic.

 

[Tempel]

I've just posted a beta of version 0.3 on my own site. There are only two new features (I've been busy):

1. Checkboxes alongside upgrades allow you to select which to skip.
   
2. Basic GUI threading.
   

Threading allows the GUI to remain responsive while it's performing a long-running task like downloading a PND. The current action will be shown in the statusbar; progress bars haven't yet been implemented. If any errors are detected, they will also be shown in the taskbar for a short time, rather than making a popup. Only one action can happen at a time; if you try to trigger a second action while the first is running, the GUI will become unresponsive until the first action completes and the second action starts.


Let me know if it fails and what you think of the new behaviour. Thanks guys!

 

[peelie]

I've just uploaded a bugfix to the repo. PXML parsing should now be just about as robust as possible. peelie, stouffa, let me know if you get any more problems.

hi


unfortunately still getting same error message with chorme-dev with your bugfix release


edit/


all okay not getting that message cheers!

 

[thatgui]

I've just posted a beta of version 0.3 on my own site. There are only two new features (I've been busy):

1. Checkboxes alongside upgrades allow you to select which to skip.
   
2. Basic GUI threading.
   

Hmm, strange. I updated to version 0.2.3 via PNDstore, but I can't recognize any of the new features :blink:


PNDstore is still busy during the update procedure and I can't find any checkboxes anywere. Any hints ?


While you still have time to do things How about an easy filter for the list, to show only the new apps from the last x (= 3) days ?


Thanks for still working on it - highly appreciated.

 

[meandu229]

I've just uploaded a bugfix to the repo. PXML parsing should now be just about as robust as possible. peelie, stouffa, let me know if you get any more problems.

hi


unfortunately still getting same error message with chorme-dev with your bugfix release

Odd I got that error too and again after update but then I ran it again and it disappeared, try deleting appdata?

I've just posted a beta of version 0.3 on my own site. There are only two new features (I've been busy):

1. Checkboxes alongside upgrades allow you to select which to skip.
   
2. Basic GUI threading.
   

Hmm, strange. I updated to version 0.2.3 via PNDstore, but I can't recognize any of the new features :blink:


PNDstore is still busy during the update procedure and I can't find any checkboxes anywere. Any hints ?


While you still have time to do things How about an easy filter for the list, to show only the new apps from the last x (= 3) days ?


Thanks for still working on it - highly appreciated.

0.2.3 doesnt have those features just 0.3 which is available from his link above.

 

[Tempel]

Hmm, strange. I updated to version 0.2.3 via PNDstore, but I can't recognize any of the new features :blink:

meandu's right. 0.2.3 was only a bugfix release; the 0.3 beta has the new features. I just want confirmation that they work before I make an official 0.3 release.

While you still have time to do things How about an easy filter for the list, to show only the new apps from the last x (= 3) days ?

That might be a challenge. The repository spec does not include upload dates, so they can't be sorted that way. I could potentially allow it to track changes between list updates, but it doesn't do that now and would require some serious work in the backend. So sorry, I can't promise that in the near future, but I'll see what milkshake and others think about adding upload dates to a future version of the spec. Also, I'll first need to implement sorting, which should happen next.

 

[sebt3]

The repository spec does not include upload dates, so they can't be sorted that way.

It might worth adding it to the spec, all you need is milkshake to publish information he already have...

 

[meandu229]

Request: I would like the option to put files in subfolders within menu, doing it from pxml would be fine e.g chrome in menu/network

 

[NoeleyC]

I've just uploaded a bugfix to the repo. PXML parsing should now be just about as robust as possible. peelie, stouffa, let me know if you get any more problems.

I don't seem to have that error message appearing anymore, I've upgraded to the most recent PNDstore on the repo (but I might try out the beta later)

 

[thatgui]

meandu's right. 0.2.3 was only a bugfix release; the 0.3 beta has the new features. I just want confirmation that they work before I make an official 0.3 release.

I've just posted a beta of version 0.3 on my own site.

Those who can read have a clear advantage - sorry :unsure:

That might be a challenge. The repository spec does not include upload dates, so they can't be sorted that way. I could potentially allow it to track changes between list updates, but it doesn't do that now and would require some serious work in the backend. So sorry, I can't promise that in the near future, but I'll see what milkshake and others think about adding upload dates to a future version of the spec. Also, I'll first need to implement sorting, which should happen next.

Hmm, well as it seems I didn't thought that to the end. So im guessing milkshake is using an additional mechanism on his repo then. Maybe a temporary solution could be that it shows the new additions to the repo since the last list update. But I agree that sorting should have a higher priority.


One thing that came to my mind just seconds ago:


How about splitting PNDstore into two modules, that aren't directly depending on each other? A cli binary that has only the purpose to connect to the repo and update the local list. So this could be used to make a cron job to update the list on a more regular basis. The second module houses all the gui stuff (which still keeps the ability to update the list).


The 0.3 beta works fine on my pandora, choosing which pnds to update works like charm, and the info pane on the bottom is a very nice addition (especially for newbies/people that are only game but not computer - addicted).


One thing I encountered during testing (no real bug, just unexpected behaviour on one side - choose which one ): When a installing/update process is already in progress and you try to start a additional install/update - the GUI is not responding, but both tasks are carried out without any problem.


I personally think that after some polishing/bugfixing/testing one should start a petition to bring this into the official firmware image.

 

[Tempel]

One thing I encountered during testing (no real bug, just unexpected behaviour on one side - choose which one ): When a installing/update process is already in progress and you try to start a additional install/update - the GUI is not responding, but both tasks are carried out without any problem.

Only one action can happen at a time; if you try to trigger a second action while the first is running, the GUI will become unresponsive until the first action completes and the second action starts.

Those who can read have a clear advantage - sorry :unsure:

But you're right, a queue would be better. This is still my first foray into threading, so I'm taking it slowly, but queuing is now on the list. My only concern is with users mashing too many commands at once, then getting upset when it takes forever and starts doing things that they might not have wanted.

One thing that came to my mind just seconds ago:


How about splitting PNDstore into two modules, that aren't directly depending on each other? A cli binary that has only the purpose to connect to the repo and update the local list. So this could be used to make a cron job to update the list on a more regular basis. The second module houses all the gui stuff (which still keeps the ability to update the list).

There actually is a command-line interface to it already, though it's not accessible from within the PND; the whole thing would need to be installed to NAND to access it. It might be possible for me to use some PND tricks to make it accessible, though it still wouldn't be easy to run. But I guess it doesn't have to be if you're putting it in a cron job.

 

[MarioPandio]

Hi Tempel,


In your opening post you put "So try it out! If it works well, let me know; if it doesn't work well, let me know and also post the contents of /tmp/pndrun_pndstore.out. Well I'd like to report in.


I missed this getting going whilst away and I have to say I think its a fantastic bit of software you have put together which I look forward to the developments of, along with the Milkshakes Repo (top notch again) and whether other sites adopt the spec needed to utilise your program.


However I have 2 potential bugs to report which may have been fixed in the latest version, as I was using 0.2.2.0 :


The first is trivial and not a bug as such, simply that PND's stored in pandora/mmenu are ignored by PNDStore and cant be upgraded. Skeezix mentions that this is a sneaky method minimenu employs, so if you want to only display PND files in minimenu you stick em in there. i know your both working on making PNDStore run via terminal cmd line parameters to fit in with minimenu and appease part of Craigs ideas.


The second problem appears to be more serious in my case and has happened for a 3rd time now when using PNDStore (making me now believe it is the culprit) and hence bringing it to your attention now.


Basically it has totally wiped out my system on 3 occasions. I'm not bothered, just surprised. i also suspect it must be something odd with my setup but each time i've used PNDstore my system has been wiped.


The first was on an SD installed HF4 setup on a 16gb ADATA class 6 card, used priorly in 2 different Pandoras with no issues. This was the first time I used PNDstore and it hung whilst updating L'Hospital Pital for 1hr40minutes, I used the Pandora button to kill it as a process and found my icon for chromium on the panel (swapped for default midori) had vanished and chromium wouldn't start, despite re-entering the properties/launcher command.


I rebooted and nothing happened. I could boot to NAND install but that also was affected (god knows how) and I now had icons for PND's long since removed from pandora/desktop folders, underlaying actually present apps. I had 2 panels overlaying each other and SD card icons with names I hadn't used on them for ages. See below examples.

Overlapped above and spaced back out below. Here the 16gb + SD/MMC cards dont exist, neither do xmbc, minitube, mypaint, mame4all on the left or audiorace, if not more. There's 2 panels with different battery readings and clock times aswell.

I then set-up an SD install on a new 32gb 7dayshop class 10 card and re-flashed the NAND install.


After much other useage, for which the card seemed fine (h2testw passed), I re-used PNDStore again and this time I upgraded Abe's Amazing Adventure with no issue, then tried to upgrade another PND, I forget which and again it hung for a long time. Eventually I killed it off and my desktop background was gone and panel icons for chromium, pidgin and clawsmail. I rebooted and nothing.


I removed the card and booted to NAND. I ran Gparted from the other card in the hope of running a check disc. There wasn't anything on the OS partition anymore. It was empty and had no name.


I set-up another SD install on a 2nd 32gb card that had just arrived (again h2testw passed) and again used it for various other things and apart from my intermittent keyboard shortcuts issue that meandu229 helped out with it again appeared fine.


I decided to update SuperGeometryDust via PNDstore which worked fine, I noticed pandora/mmenu PNDs weren't listed and planned to report that. i updated Anki (58mb) and it worked fine in not too much time via my mi-fi. I then saw PNDstore itself needed upgrading and tried that. No response at all to clicking on YES (the button didnt stay pressed down like normal until the app has finished the download) and there was no SD activity. I cancelled the download dialog with the close button and cleanly exited PNDstore with the close button.


My desktop background was gone, Thunar showed my SD card root partition had different folder names DOWNLOADS had become DOWNL-1 aswell as another folder name. With a groan I rebooted to nothing again.


I pulled the battery this time and then booted to NAND. Put the card back in and just PANDORABOOT icon appeared, no PANDORAROOT icon, I ran Gparted and again no OS partition anymore. As below pic

As I say, I really am not fussed about this and I suspect its my setup. Should HF5 with Sebt3's new pnd-run.sh be used only?


Its a tad time consuming re-copying over the BOOT partitions data to a new SD install via Dave1234's SD installer but that's the only hassle, bar not getting to play SuperGeometryDust last night, as a friend was very impressed with that and I was hoping to get some time on it finally but I've done little except re-installs lately :lol:


I obviously cant post the contents of /tmp/pndrun_pndstore.out as well, as it doesn't exist anymore


I'd appreciate your thoughts, as I'd love to confidently get back to using this awesome piece of software again B)


edit : for grammar

 

[milkshake]

@tempel, i think you should also make the app check for an internet connection every minute or so just in case it gets disconnected otherwise the download hangs.

 

[Tempel]

The first is trivial and not a bug as such, simply that PND's stored in pandora/mmenu are ignored by PNDStore and cant be upgraded. Skeezix mentions that this is a sneaky method minimenu employs, so if you want to only display PND files in minimenu you stick em in there.

Yeah, I only just recently learned about that mmenu folder. For whatever reasons, libpnd doesn't report it as a searchpath, so PNDstore doesn't look there. I'll see what I can do.

The second problem appears to be more serious in my case and has happened for a 3rd time now when using PNDStore (making me now believe it is the culprit) and hence bringing it to your attention now.


Basically it has totally wiped out my system on 3 occasions. I'm not bothered, just surprised. i also suspect it must be something odd with my setup but each time i've used PNDstore my system has been wiped.


[holy cow]

That doesn't seem right. The worst PNDstore should be able to do is remove your PNDs. It doesn't even have functionality to remove appdata directories. Even if it did, it runs with user privileges, so it would need to seriously exploit the system to be able to delete everything from your root directory. So I can only conclude that you downloaded the secret possessed version of PNDstore, that is doomed to unleash the Apocalypse upon the Earth. Or maybe you should try HF5. The beta pnd_run.sh isn't necessary, but doesn't hurt. I wish I could be more helpful here, but thanks for testing.

 

[MarioPandio]

Cheers for the input Tempel


As I said I dont blame the app and I think its amazing work. The SD cards seem solid otherwise, which is why I posted.


Otherwise I've had fun today trying to restore the OS partition alone from HF4-HF5 tars and various bootfiles but the farthest I've got is getting HF5 to reach the 'Pandora's Box has been Opened' screen and finding I've no touchscreen, nub or keyboard input, so cant get at the hope. HF4 tar flatly refuses to untar/exist to be copied to the root partition with 'cannot stat messages/file doesn't exist' etc.


I shall definitely move to HF5 on a fresh install and try again with PNDstore.


Thanks again

 

[Tempel]

I've finalized the 0.3 release and uploaded to the repo. I just hope MarioPandio's system-destroying problem doesn't repeat.

 

[MarioPandio]

Sadly its happened again :blink:


This time on HF5 without the pnd-run.sh (I am being systematic here )


I downloaded the latest version you just posted. Stuck it on the PANDORABOOT/pandora/desktop and after using the panda for various games, and tweaks without issue, then ran PNDstore.


It worked beautifully and upgraded :


Xarchiver


Sword of Fargoal.


Blocks of the Undead


Commander Genius 2 0.3.1.2 - 3.2.6.0


Seemingly as intended. It was finished doing things. I shut it down cleanly. Appeared to have nothing affected and I rebooted immediately just to make sure I was doing nothing else that may cause it. Nothing. OS partition gone again :lol: You can see its a diff install from the partition size, so I'm not winding you up and Photoshop is were you get prints made :rolleyes:

I shall repeat this without the reboot and grabbing the tmp/pndstore file first to the other card. Then I'll try again with HF5 and the pnd_run.sh updated and see what happens. This is weird but interesting :blink:


Great program regardless

 

[Tempel]

I wouldn't call it a great program when it wipes out a partition on your SD card! Still, I would suspect the SD card itself before PNDstore. But I'm also curious to see that .out file. Have you tried this on any other cards?

 

[peelie]

hi pndstore crashed (this was the version of 0.3 that was put up on personal server) will try final version from repo


---------------


=======================================================================================


[21h22m55 START ]=== Mount the PND ==================================================


[21h22m56 INFO ] Mounting : mount -t squashfs "/dev/loop3" "/mnt/pnd/pndstore"


[21h22m56 INFO ] Mounting the Union FS : mount -t aufs -o exec,noplink,dirs="/media/PANDORA1/pandora/appdata/pndstore=rw+nolwh":"/mnt/pnd/pndstore=rr" none "/mnt/utmp/pndstore"


[21h22m57 SUCCESS ]=== Mount the PND ==================================================


[21h22m57 START ]=== Starting the application (wrapper.sh --working-dir=.) ==========


[21h23m05 INFO ] ./PNDstore:26: GtkDeprecationWarning: gtk.threads_enter is deprecated, use gtk.gdk.threads_enter instead


[21h23m05 INFO ] gtk.threads_enter()


[21h23m50 ERROR ] ./PNDstore:27: GtkWarning: gtk_list_store_get_value: assertion `VALID_ITER (iter, list_store)' failed


[21h23m50 INFO ] gtk.main()


[21h23m50 INFO ] ./PNDstore:27: Warning: unable to set property `text' of type `gchararray' from value of type `(null)'


[21h23m50 INFO ] gtk.main()


[21h23m51 INFO ] ./PNDstore:27: Warning: gtype.c:4177: type id `0' is invalid


[21h23m51 INFO ] gtk.main()


[21h23m51 INFO ] ./PNDstore:27: Warning: can't peek value table for type `<invalid>' which is not currently referenced


[21h23m51 INFO ] gtk.main()


[21h23m51 INFO ] Segmentation fault


[21h23m52 FAILED ]=== Starting the application (wrapper.sh --working-dir=.) ==========


[21h23m52 START ]=== uMount the PND =================================================


[21h23m52 INFO ] cleanup done


[21h23m53 SUCCESS ]=== uMount the PND =================================================


=======================================================================================


Return code is : 3


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