Slackware 14.1 on Pandora: Everything is Awesome!

[ekianjo]

Here's an overview of my experiences with Slackware 14.1 on Pandora for the past few months, and my pretty good experience with it as the title suggests. I also included some of its shortcomings... but at least I hope this article convinces some of you to give it a go !



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[Linux-SWAT]

Thanks for the article. Pretty long and detailed !

A few remarks :
1- Sbopkg can be easily tweaked to compile Cortex-A8 optimized binaries.
http://pandorawiki.org/Software_projects/OS/Slackware#Installing_a_program_from_source

2- Oracle Java install, although not recommended, is described here
http://pandorawiki.org/Software_projects/OS/SOLEIL#SOJA

3- Don't use make install alone, better create a package
http://pandorawiki.org/Software_projects/OS/Slackware#Installing_a_program_from_source

4- I still don't get why people complains about music players, XMMS is shipped, works perfectly fine and is optimized.

5- You say in the cons that there's no repository of binaries. _There's_ a repo with Pandora-optimized programs containing more than 400 packages !
GSlapt is pre-configured to install them.
http://slackware.openpandora.org/pandora/index.php?dir=sl4p/sl4p-14.1/packages

6- You also say that 'boot time and shut down time for Slackware is much longer than SZ'. Boot time is the same with a good SD card. Only shut down is slower.

7- Can you elaborate why 'Slackware not as “plug and play” as Super Zaxxon' ?

 

[Pickle]

does opengles/GPU work?

 

[Linux-SWAT]

Full hardware support :
http://pandorawiki.org/Software_projects/OS/Slackware#Features

 

[ekianjo]

4- I still don't get why people complains about music players, XMMS is shipped, works perfectly fine and is optimized.

Linux is all about choice, so I don't understand why you don't understand that other people may prefer some other software to XMMS XMMS has no full screen interface and I don't really like the Winamp style of interface too much personally.

The thing is, somehow sound support when you compile other software from souce via sbopkg is broken, and I don't understand why. It would be nice to find out what is happening.
[doublepost=1453362438,1453362388][/doublepost]

2- Oracle Java install, although not recommended, is described here

I cannot access that link right now, but is there a particular reason why it's not recommended? Does it break anything ?
[doublepost=1453362535][/doublepost]

5- You say in the cons that there's no repository of binaries. _There's_ a repo with Pandora-optimized programs containing more than 400 packages !

Yes, but that 400 applications is dwarfed by the amount of non-binaries repo that is proposed by Sbopkg.
Many of the software I compiled and mentioned in the article is not available in Gslapt. That's not an issue, but it's worth pointing out.
[doublepost=1453362637][/doublepost]

6- You also say that 'boot time and shut down time for Slackware is much longer than SZ'. Boot time is the same with a good SD card. Only shut down is slower.

I have both SZ and Slackware using 10x SDHC cards, and slackware definitely takes a bit longer at boot. And you are right, this is even more noticeable during shut down.
Again that's not really a major issue since we can use the sleep mode to keep the Pandora on most of the time anyway.
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7- Can you elaborate why 'Slackware not as “plug and play” as Super Zaxxon' ?

It is actually plug and play if you only use PNDs. But then, using Slackware would have no real point if you limit yourself to PND usage, you would be better off using SZ if that's the only thing you do with it.
The power of slackware is unleashed by SBOpkg, and using sbopkg is definitely not for casual users - most people would be put off by having to manage dependencies by themselves.

 

[ingoreis]

Slackware is realy a great Operating OS.
I was very surprised how great it realy is.

A very nice Article and a good Interview in this Thread too

I must install the latest Version again.

@Linux-SWAT
Do you have the latest Zaxxon Kernel and Wifi drivers on it?
One of the last Zaxxon Updates improved my Wifi great.

And do you think about updating your Sl4P-Pack PND for Zaxxon?
Its a realy simple nice OS Installer and i never got Slackware more easy installed

Greeting from Germany

 

[joachim]

I know why why I use Slackware almost all the time (99,99%).
- good and fast help by LinuxSWAT thanks again
- lots of software ( pnd , GSlapt, sbopkg) - you can install the KDE Desktop with lots of programs and use most of it with XFCE ( because KDE is a bit slow on OP)
- after finding out about the dependencies I got KRadio (even plays mp3) and RadioTray running for Internetradio
- Kaffeine from KDE is working fine, maybe you try this multimedia program which is even for DVB-T

@ekianjo : if you want a nice little music player try Beep Media Player that has a nice interface.
Edit : Beep is no longer in the SZ repo but I tried QMMP from Slackware which works but is a bit resource hungry.
There is also streamtuner / streamripper for music / internetradio which uses xmms and can record internetstreams.

I loveSlackware

 

[joachim]

@ekianjo : two more players are pogo which is just playing files and exaile which has a nice interface (try pnd in SZ to see if its ok for you) and also plays internetradio.
At the momemt I am fighting with Clementine (resp. protobuf that is needed) which is a kind of Amarok player. How did you get Calibre to work ? I installed all without error but it is not starting. Where can I check the error ?

 

[ekianjo]

I tried pogo before but there is no sound coming out for me...
same with Clementine. For some reasons many of the audio players are broken for sound output.

I tried Beep Media Player and it works but its a fork of QMMP and shares the same issues: no full screen interface...

As for Calibre i compiled all the dependencies first, it took a while, but it works for me. Did you try launching it from the terminal by typing calibre ? it should show the errors if any.

 

[Holliefant]

could someone check for me if gmu works? http://wej.k.vu/files/gmu-0.9.1.pnd

It is my by far favorite mp3 player, and I need that...

 

[joachim]

Calibre is now working (had some missing dependencies).
Audacious is working fine and Clementine too. Even JuK from KDE. Musique has no sound. Maybe you have some missing dependencies.I had some problems before with Totem Player, Dolphin Player and some music plyaer too. But after installing some programs. they now are working.
I guess I installed some needed parts for them with my tests. Maybe check gstreamer.

 

[joachim]

@ekianjo: the original gstreamer is ver 1.2.0 so you have to install version 1.4.5 from sbopkg with all the dependencies. When I did this a lot of programs suddenly started and worked.
Then I tried something and removed it again and they no more worked. After reinstalling it I have a
problem with them. I tried a bit and got them starting but not playing music. I hope I can get them working again.