Running Pyra-OS on Pandora


hns

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 4, 2011
Messages
682
Location
Oberhaching
With the latest kernels which support OMAP3 and OMAP5 and after doing minor fixes to the boot.scr and makesd scripts it seems to be very easy to create an SD card that can be booted on the Pandora but runs the Pyra-OS.

The command to create a card is

DEV=/dev/sdd ./makesd openpandora -f1 -r http://packages.pyra-handheld.com/rootfs/pyra-debian-jessie-xfce-rootfs.tgz

When booting this card from left SD slot (break into U-boot menu by pressing right shoulder button while powering on and use D-Pad to choose "boot from SD" and then press "B") the kernel seems to start. LEDs start blinking and a console cursor appears. But there is no GUI. Which is to be expected since X11 needs some configuration for the screen etc.

What also is working is the RNDIS/Ethernet-Gadget driver. If connected through USB the Pandora responds to ping 192.168.0.202. But it appears as if sshd and telnetd are disabled in the Pyra OS rootfs. So I wasn't able to get a shell prompt to do further analyses.

I think this is encouraging to provide a future common PandYra-OS :)

-- hns
 
Oh boy I definitely need to try this.

Any idea if bluetooth should work on the Pandora? I haven't seen bleutooth working on hardfloat OS installs yet.
 
Network manager seems to depend on most of the bluetooth tools to at least let you do a bluetooth OBEX send and receive. I've never managed to get bluetooth working on arch using the command line tools, but on debian using nm-applet, it's easy enough on my machines.
 
Newest bluez doesn't work on Slackware so it should be the same here.
It compiles, I see hci0 but that's all. I asked for help about that.
 
Yeah I was hoping if bluez was properly configured on Pyra OS that it could be incorporated into Slackware too.
 
Any chance you can make X11 work on Pandora?
Yes, it can work.

There is also some lxde image for testing - but that is not PyraOS.

Just run DEV=/dev/sdd ./makesd openpandora

So I think what PyraOS needs is some tweaking to detect that it runs on a Pandora and just load the right xorg.conf.
 
I suppose that its kernel is Letux ?
Has it all tweaks for Pandora like overclocking ?
 
I suppose that its kernel is Letux ?
Yes, makesd installs the "universal" Letux kernel (unless instructed to fetch something else).
Has it all tweaks for Pandora like overclocking ?
No.

Or better said: not yet :) If someone has a patch we can add it...

It is also not functionally complete. E.g. nubs are not working (we are missing a Linux 4.8 compatible driver).
But you can boot, charge battery and read fuel gauge, use keyboard, touch and display, SD slots and USB.
Unclear to me is the support of WLAN and BT. AFAIK audio is not working.
 
wow, the first steps of an 'official' debian cut for pandora...
awesome thanks! :)
 
anyone tried a recent cut of this on pandora and can report if audio is still not working and what's the status of wlan drivers at the moment? is it usable/stable?
i could live without nubs-support and unaccelerated x/egl, as i mainly want to use cli and sdl depending stuff. for an occasional x session the dpad would suite me well for mouse movements, i guess...
and as notaz released a new kernel for supersaxxon os which fixes a verry important charging issue (enables stop charging if battery is full!), is it possible to include these patches into this kernel too?

cheers!
 
Will this eventually become the default OS for Pandora as well?
No, it wouldn't remotely fit on the NAND, even those with the rare 1GB NAND found in a select few 1GHz units... Honestly how it's currently packaged it isn't really geared for the Pandora, maybe sometime down the road someone can make it more Pandora friendly.
 
i could live without nubs-support
Last time I checked, there was nub support, but they were disabled by default and the configurator ui wasn't shipped with it, so you had to turn on mouse mode by writing to the device file.
 
Last time I checked, there was nub support, but they were disabled by default and the configurator ui wasn't shipped with it, so you had to turn on mouse mode by writing to the device file.

brilliant, thanks!
if we can get a 'safe charging' kernel, (which is an absolute must imo when using battery powered handheld-mode, lipo fires are *no* fun), i'm tempted getting a new battery and try it myself...
would be fun to use the same debian rootfs on my future pyra and the pandora!
switch devices, you feel instantly 'at home'. ;)
 
Back
Top