SD cards

[Abanest]

Hey there,


I just received my Pandora (yay!) and I'm going through the slow process of learning my way around this Linux OS - have been a Windows OS user since forever and have no idea what is before me. So far good, that was until I got to the part where I insert the SD cards... and nothing poped up on the screen. What now? Does Linux have a My Computer section where I can open and view the card? Am I completely embarrassing myself here? I don't know how to proceed from here.

 

[neko]

If the card is completely blank then nothing will show up. You probably just need to format the card.

 

[mhadf]

If you've downloaded some .pnd files they need to go in a specific directory. This will be best as /pandora/apps


Then when you insert the SD card they should appear

 

[Abanest]

Ah, wow, that worked straight away. Thank you very kindly, chances are I will be popping by with many more obvious Linux/Pandora questions.

 

[Anihil8ion2199]

This video is very informative of the pnd file system your sd card should be in.

 

[Abanest]

Aha! Those videos are very helpful. Many thanks!


I must say, the Wiki manual and tutorials have been well put together, I have already solved many (many) problems by browsing them. Just one thing that seems to allude me, however, is where to put my roms for emulation. To give you an example: I downloaded Picodrive and installed it to my Pandora following ED's very excellent how-to pnd video, but for the actual placement of the roms is where it gets me stuck. I placed a Sonic 2 rom (bin format) into the 'menu' section of the SD card along with Picodrive, and nothing shows up in the load rom/ISO when I power up the emulator.


I'm going to test out other emulators to see if this is a common a error of mine... am I doing something obviously wrong here?

 

[gruso]

You have some freedom with where you put ROMs. But wherever you put them, you'll need to point your emulator towards them.


To start with you'll have the standard folder structure on your SD (this bit has nothing to do with ROMs):

<SD>/pandora

<SD>/pandora/apps

<SD>/pandora/appdata/

<SD>/pandora/desktop/

<SD>/pandora/menu/

To this I add a ROMs folder structure, eg:

<SD>/pandora/roms

<SD>/pandora/roms/nes

<SD>/pandora/roms/psx

<SD>/pandora/roms/genesis

etc.

This way all my ROMs are stored under /pandora/roms, which makes it easy to manage my collection. When I fire up Picodrive for the first time, I just tell it where the ROMs are and it remembers for next time. Most emus will be the same, although you may come across the occasional one that doesn't remember the file path, and/or demands you put it in a certain place (eg. /pandora/appdata/[emulator name]/roms).


(Note: All apps create their own appdata folder. Sometimes you have to venture in there to dump data files or edit configs. I don't like keeping my ROMs in the appdata labyrinth unless I have to though, just a personal thing.)

 

[Abanest]

Okay, that all makes perfect sense. How do I tell Picodrive where to find the roms? I load up the emulator, click on Load ROM/ISO and have the following paths to choose from:

/..
/brm


/mds


/srm


Picodrive


Picodrive.png


Picodrivepxml


Picodrive.run


Picodrive_p.png


carthw.cfg


config.cfg


picorestore

I have clicked through these pathways but could not find my way into where my roms are stored.

 

[gruso]

Ok, what you're seeing there are the contents of /pandora/appdata/picodrive, the default location it looks in. The /.. at the top means 'go back a level'. Click on that, and you'll go back to /pandora/appdata. (Watch the white text at the top, it will tell you where you are). Click /.. again to go back to /pandora. Now you should see the standard folder structure listed:


/appdata


/apps


/desktop


/menu


And if you've created it already, /roms will be there too.

 

[Abanest]

The pathway my picodrive starts off in is /mnt/utmp/picodrive


I used the /.. to take me right out of everything until I reach:


/


/..


bin


/boot


/dev


etc etc and I found /pandora.


But when I click in this /pandora pathway all I find is:


/..


/appdata


no other pathways (such as apps, desktop, menu roms etc) are visible. They are most certainly there of course, I can view them by going through the desktop.


*scratches head*


[EDIT] Disregard! I located it in /media/mmcblk0p1/pandora and everything works like a charm! I get how this works now, it's just a matter of clicking and looking about to find the right pathway. Thank you for pointing me in the right direction, Gruso. *Thumbs up*

 

[gruso]

Ah. Maybe I've forgotten where Picodrive initially dumps you. You're on the NAND; let's navigate you out of there.


(Don't think of this as a hassle setting up Picodrive, think of it as a quick tour of the file system that will serve you very well in future. )


Keep hitting /.. until you can hit it no more. The white text at top will just be / which indicates you are at the root of the filesystem (kinda like C:\ in Windows). Here you will see:


/bin


/boot


/dev


/etc


and so forth.


Scroll down and enter /media. This is where mounted storage, like SD cards and hard drives, will appear. You should see your SD card listed here. Go into it, and voila, you should see your /pandora folder with /appdata, /desktop etc inside.

 

[Abanest]

You da man, Gruso. Thanks for your patience and assistance. I'm cruising along now with my Pandora roms.

(Don't think of this as a hassle setting up Picodrive, think of it as a quick tour of the file system that will serve you very well in future. )

One thing I am noticing with this little wonder device is once you get passed on the fiddly bits required to set up certain apps, everything just works as it should. Very impressed with the Pandora.

 

[gruso]

No probs.