Release SuperZaxxon Final released!

[Asmo]

Finally got a chance to drop the uImage-3 kernel onto a card created with the SD Installer, so now I'm booting with the 3.2 kernel:


The USB toggle seems to work both ways now (yay!)


However, I'm getting the weird business of some ROMs not showing up in Mame4all or PanMame again (as in SZB5a). Is there a logical explanation? The ones that don't show up appear and work perfectly under previous firmwares (and this one with the old kernel).

 

[lordbobjones]

Which roms Asmo? If I have them I will see if they appear in my list.

 

[Asmo]

Which roms Asmo? If I have them I will see if they appear in my list.

Off the top of my head (I'll have to go offline and reboot etc to get a list )


In Mame4all Millipede is one, in PanMame Supersprint is another.


I don't have huge numbers of roms in place, just the ones I want to play often.


I've no idea if it has any bearing, but I didn't use clrMamepro or anything to make matching 037b5 / 106 sets - I have a few full sets of various ages and just cherry picked from those the games that worked under each emulator.

 

[diligentcircle]

if no one reports it as an issue, how should we even know there ARE issues?

But the touchscreen issue was reported twice by Neelix (first here and then here), and I think I saw others also reporting the menu not always opening, so I didn't think I needed to report it again. And the issue with the multiple instances of the new widget was mentioned many times; I even made a post about it myself, where I mentioned to someone bringing it up that you can work around it by logging off.

Beta 5a was supposed to be the RC (it even was stated in the beta thread).

Erm, I don't see that mention. I haven't looked through the entire topic, but what matters is it's not in the original post. All I see is this line:

Unless we find serious bugs (hopefully not), Beta 5 will probably be the latest beta before we release an officially stable version of SuperZaxxon

Which is not even close to being the same as "this is the release candidate for the final version".


It might look like I'm splitting hairs, but there's a HUGE psychological difference, from my perspective, between a beta (which I expect to have bugs) and a release candidate (which I don't expect to have bugs). If you made a proper release candidate (and called it that rather than calling it a beta), problems like these would be pointed out again, because then it's apparent that you didn't know about them (i.e. you missed the posts mentioning them); when it's a beta, and the problems have already been pointed out multiple times, it looks like you just didn't get to fixing them yet, even if you have no idea that they exist (after all, we can't read your mind).

 

[lordbobjones]

Asmo I do not have Millipede or supersprint. Sorry . But all my other roms seem to show up. Not noticing any missing that I normally would have.

 

[EvilDragon]

Well, the new widget appearing twice has been fixed, so it shouldn't happen.


And okay, the touchscreen issue was mentioned, but as said: Things like those SHOULD go into the bugtracker (this is what it's meant for), especially if it's not fixed from one Beta to the next one (and not mentioned as known bugs), as it most probably means no devs have seen that.


No dev likes to crawl through dozens of posts in a thread to find any bugs mentioned... so these easily are being overlooked.


As mentioned: I didn't remember seeing those being reported somewhere, so at least I missed this report for ths bug...

 

[Asmo]

Asmo I do not have Millipede or supersprint. Sorry . But all my other roms seem to show up. Not noticing any missing that I normally would have.

Thanks anyway!


I did a quick audit - the ones that don't appear in the list under the new kernel (but do & work under the old) for me are:

Spoiler

In Mame4all:


Amidar / Arkanoid / Asteroids deluxe / Berzerk/ Bombjack/ Battlezone / Centipede / Defender / Donkey Kong / Flicky / Galaga / Galaxians / Ghosts 'n Goblins / Gravitar / Loderunner 4 / Missile Command / Mr Do / PacMan / Pengo / Phoenix / Q Bert


(about 30% of the total present)


In PanMame:


Bubble Bobble / Ghosts 'n Goblins / Super Sprint


(There are far fewer roms in my PanMame directory anyway though, I haven't yet fully populated the Rom directories)

 

[diligentcircle]

Well, the new widget appearing twice has been fixed, so it shouldn't happen.

Alright, I didn't see it in the list of changes and haven't installed the final yet. That's good to know.

And okay, the touchscreen issue was mentioned, but as said: Things like those SHOULD go into the bugtracker (this is what it's meant for), especially if it's not fixed from one Beta to the next one (and not mentioned as known bugs), as it most probably means no devs have seen that.


No dev likes to crawl through dozens of posts in a thread to find any bugs mentioned... so these easily are being overlooked.

I understand perfectly, but someone seeing it being mentioned (like me) see these posts and thinks "OK, they know about it" and moves on assured that a report from them is unnecessary. Even if it isn't listed as a known problem, they might figure that it's such a small thing that you didn't bother mentioning it, or something, just like you didn't bother mentioning the double-widget issue in Beta 5. A proper RC wouldn't magically fix the bug or make you know, but if these people see that it still hasn't been fixed in what is supposed to be the final, they'll possibly bring it up again and you'll be more likely to see it.


Of course, you're right, people should report these things in the bugtracker, but the fact is many don't, and even one mention of the same problem you had and assurance that it's a bug is more than enough to deter you from bringing it up.

 

[WizardStan]

And I can't find the option to turn it off now - thought it was in the desktop settings, but I can't see it - anyone know where it is?

LCD settings under the settings menu.


Shut down and restart. This did happen to me with SZ4, I changed the setting at first boot, it didn't seem to work, and when I went to try and change it again the settings menu was surprisingly empty. A reboot fixed it and I subsequently forgot all about it, especially since it didn't happen again with the later betas. I am now regretting not being more vocal about the problem I encountered. It didn't affect me this time, either, but there is likely some weird conditions where it can occur, and it just unfortunately happened to you. Again, see if restarting fixes it: it should at least make the settings menu items reappear.

 

[peelie]

wifi connection is still flakey at times

 

[spiralofhope]

Aditionally, can other users who flashed to Final let us know whether the touchscreen works fine for them or not?

Working fine for me.


--


Also, regarding the bug tracker -- make sure it's mentioned clearly in future beta testing posts. Even if some people prefer the forum, there are people like me* who would create and update tickets when reading forum bug reports.


*(I'm probably going to regret saying that)


--


I still can't get any applications to launch using the hotkey functionality in XFCE. In the last available beta, this worked.


I saved my /home and after the flash to the release I symlinked it back from my card.. so I know the settings are unchanged between the beta and the release.


Everything else is working correctly (other applications, file permissions, etc).


Can I get a confirmation from another if this is an actual bug or just me / XFCE?

 

[Asmo]

Charged it for the first time under this firmware with 3.2 kernel, and as others have noted - the charge light isn't coming on, as with szb5a. Seems to stop charging at 90%.


On the request for touchscreen reports, I'm having no problems (though I did initially get caught out with accidental double taps like some others!)

 

[peelie]

Aditionally, can other users who flashed to Final let us know whether the touchscreen works fine for them or not?

Working fine for me.


--


Also, regarding the bug tracker -- make sure it's mentioned clearly in future beta testing posts. Even if some people prefer the forum, there are people like me* who would create and update tickets when reading forum bug reports.


*(I'm probably going to regret saying that)


--


I still can't get any applications to launch using the hotkey functionality in XFCE. In the last available beta, this worked.


I saved my /home and after the flash to the release I symlinked it back from my card.. so I know the settings are unchanged between the beta and the release.


Everything else is working correctly (other applications, file permissions, etc).


Can I get a confirmation from another if this is an actual bug or just me / XFCE?

i did not symlink my home settings, i just untarred my home backup and all my shortchuts are working fine

 

[crow_riot]

please bear with me, didn't follow the whole SuperZaxxon development.


I've got a tiny netgear wifi dongle, which needed modified drivers on the previous firmware (I'm on HF6a). The device id reported by lsusb "0846:9041" (so it's one of those realtek chips inside). Is this one supported out of the box?

 

[notaz]

I just set the CPU to 125MHz and it started to happen, so it's the case. It also happens for the configbutton, but not for anything else on the taskbar.

Why would you set it to 125MHz? It does not save any power.

But still something is wrong. Audacity works fine with older kernel, but not with the new one. Is this a problem with Audacity? The sound controls also have differences between kernel versions. Maybe this is related.

I had a quick look and it seems to be dividing by 0 for some reason, so I'd say it's a bug in audacity. The controls were changed in mainline kernel, making them like they were on 2.6 would mean maintenance headache (additional kernel patches that don't do any good).

I've got a tiny netgear wifi dongle, which needed modified drivers on the previous firmware (I'm on HF6a). The device id reported by lsusb "0846:9041" (so it's one of those realtek chips inside). Is this one supported out of the box?

It's in the list so should probably work.

 

[White Demon]

I installed this new firmware a couple of days ago, haven't noticed any problems with it, until I decided to charge the battery today.


When I plugged in the charger, I noticed the charging light did not come on, but it was charging, so I let it go. I was not using my Pandora at all while it was charging.


A few minutes after it got to 78% I noticed the time left was not 00:00 anymore, which I have always assumed meant it had stopped charging (this was always the case with previous firmwares). I thought that was ood, as with all previous firmwares I always had no problems with it going right up to 100%. So I unplugged the charger, then after about 30 seconds, plugged it back in again. Red charging light came on, it got to 79%, then went out, so I did the same thing again, and it got to 80% before stopping again.


This time the % meter also disappered, which I had also noticed in previous firmwares meant 100% charge. So i added another battery meter to the status bar, and it read 100%. I turned off my Pandora at this point.


Half an hour later (just a few minutes ago) I turned it on, and the battery meters (both the one I added and the original one that disappered before) both read 80%, not fully charged.


A (very quick) scan through the last page or two shows that others have had the same or similar problems with charging. I have never had any problems with any of the previous firmwares with regards to this, but now it suddenly won't charge fully before it turns off.

 

[peelie]

have you tried taking battery out for a few mins? this normally seems to reset the percentage charge meter properly. also worth having conky installed whereby you can monitor the voltage, so then you can see if percentage matches the voltage.

 

[Klumpen]

@SWB: I got the same experiences with Micro-USB-Charging, after my old charger broke and i have gotten other more serious problems with the power supply since then.


Some short circuit might have happended and screwed up my pandora and i'm not sure that it cannot be because of the new FW, which i installed right before all this happened.

 

[Link]

I was charging yesterday with the red light on, unit got to 76% charge, and the light went out. I decided to let it go to see if it was still charging, waited 20 minutes, it still read 76%.


Unplugging the power cord, and replugging it back in gave me the red light and it continued to charge.


Seems like something isn't right here.

 

[notaz]

It's probably the charging chip (so many problems with it..), since 3.2 does power saving the current flowing through the chip is lower and probably triggers end-of-charge condition much earlier. The current starts to fall when charge is finished though, so it could also be that 2.6 kernel was severely overcharging the battery and battery monitoring chip got severely miscalibrated.


I know WizardStan did a lot of testing with this, so maybe he has something to comment.