Ships With Linux (how?)

[joa]

Apologies if these have been asked already but...

1) Does the Pandora ship with Linux? If So..

2) Does that mean it has some storage built in, or does it come with a low capacity SD card? <_<

thanks

 

[Adventus]

1. Yes
2. It has 256mb NAND onboard. However It is discouraged that you user uses it.

PS: The Questions and answers sticky would have been more appropriate.

 

[plopperz]

1) Yes
2) The NAND has 256MB but that is not accessible, You'll need to buy your own SD card.

 

[joa]

1. Yes
2. It has 256mb NAND onboard. However It is discouraged that you user uses it.

PS: The Questions and answers sticky would have been more appropriate.

Thanks for your reply,

I see, does that mean those of us anal about this kind of thing will clear out the NAND memory and use an SD for the OS instead?

 

[juanvvc]

I see, does that mean those of us anal about this kind of thing will clear out the NAND memory and use an SD for the OS instead?

Why would you clear out the internal memory? It is only 256MB and you'll fill it rather quickly. You can buy SDs with many gigas for little money. And you can use two SDs: one of them for your alternative OS (which one?), and the other for applications. Keep the NAND for emergency boots

 

[Adventus]

QUOTE
I see, does that mean those of us anal about this kind of thing will clear out the NAND memory and use an SD for the OS instead?
True, however I understand that this should be possible. The NAND is not necessary for normal OS functionality.

 

[Kyo]

I see, does that mean those of us anal about this kind of thing will clear out the NAND memory and use an SD for the OS instead?

Why would you clear out the internal memory? It is only 256MB and you'll fill it rather quickly. You can buy SDs with many gigas for little money. And you can use two SDs: one of them for your alternative OS (which one?), and the other for applications. Keep the NAND for emergency boots

You can't use the internal memory for anything but the OS

not without hacking around, at least, which is discouraged

 

[kloplop321]

It is not like there is a CD that comes with it, there is no CD drive

 

[txd]

How come we arent allowed to use the built in storage. Whats so dangerous about it?

 

[timofonic]

You can brick it and other things, it can be unbricked easily as being said but better not make things easier. It's better to reserve that for future firmware upgrades that might need more space too.

Is that enough?

 

[parag0n]

NAND memory only gets a limited number of writes before being rendered largely useless.

So it is better to wear out an easily removable SD card than a NAND chip that is soldered directly to the unit's main processor!

 

[Chip]

Just to clarify, there will not be anything that prevents you from installing apps or storing other files on the internal memory. It is only suggested that you do not. It may be desirable to install frequently used apps there that are not bundled with the OS - a media player, for example.

The danger of "wearing out" NAND memory is greatly overstated. Yes, it does happen, but it requires tens of thousands of writes. You would have to be extremely unlucky for the NAND to fail before the Pandora itself became useless due to age.

 

[kloplop321]

Just to clarify, there will not be anything that prevents you from installing apps or storing other files on the internal memory. It is only suggested that you do not. It may be desirable to install frequently used apps there that are not bundled with the OS - a media player, for example.

The danger of "wearing out" NAND memory is greatly overstated. Yes, it does happen, but it requires tens of thousands of writes. You would have to be extremely unlucky for the NAND to fail before the Pandora itself became useless due to age.

sad thing about flash memory is it's electronic durability isn't it?

 

[joa]

Obviously it'll be clearer when the thing is out..

At the moment i think i'll just leave that 256 meg free, or do what the folks on here recommend.

Think i'll have an SD for OS+Apps and another for Emulators+Roms. That the OS card doesn't rely on the secondary card to run apps.

Have you guys thought about what you're going to do with the 256meg NAND and your other SD cards.

I bring this up as it'll be the first thing we do when we get it, arrange directory structure etc.

I usually like the most logical approach, avoiding repetition where possible,

thoughts?

 

[cb88]

also someone above mentioned writeing to the nand bricking the pandora...

that is not even possible since the bios itself can boot from the SD card so even if the NAND goes it isn't bricked

 

[MilanC]

Good flash chips last longer than hard disks now...
...especially if you smash both on the floor every second day like I do.

QUOTE
At the moment i think i'll just leave that 256 meg free, or do what the folks on here recommend.

Think i'll have an SD for OS+Apps and another for Emulators+Roms. That the OS card doesn't rely on the secondary card to run apps

Official OS will be on NAND, apps on SD card, with NAND (ro) and SD (rw) probably mounted together using UnionFS (said a dev.)

 

[Kyo]

it's possible?

why?

 

[Vorporeal]

Good flash chips last longer than hard disks now...
...especially if you smash both on the floor every second day like I do.

QUOTE
At the moment i think i'll just leave that 256 meg free, or do what the folks on here recommend.

Think i'll have an SD for OS+Apps and another for Emulators+Roms. That the OS card doesn't rely on the secondary card to run apps

Official OS will be on NAND, apps on SD card, with NAND (ro) and SD (rw) probably mounted together using UnionFS (said a dev.)

There's no good reason to mount the NAND and SD together... It might make sense to mount the 2 SDs together, but mounting them together with the NAND is silly. Pointless.

 

[sindbad]

It's just 256mb. Use SD cards.

 

[Squidge]

Think i'll have an SD for OS+Apps and another for Emulators+Roms. That the OS card doesn't rely on the secondary card to run apps.

Why don't you want the OS on the nand, where it be by default when you get it?