SuperZaxxon v1.60 RC released (please test!)

[moxie]

In general it's all about "ain't broken - don't fix it" philosophy. What benefit will the upgrade give, except of bringing potential possibility to break any .pnd that uses python and possibly relies on older version somehow?


And what's the reason to update to 2.7.3 specifically, when latest 2.x series release is 2.7.6?

 
The benefit is clear :


Python 2.7 is compatible with 2.6 (I'm not asking for Python 3), so nothing is expected to break there, and on top of that all Python 2 programs nowadays rely on 2.7 features, missing from 2.6. 


 [...]


Note that many Python modules rely and expect 2.7 too, and do not support 2.6 anymore.[...]

I'd agree with Ekianjo here, for mainly these reasons. Going Python3 would be a lot of breakage (possibly), but going up to 2.7.x just makes sense.

 

[fusion_power]

How to get new TV out profiles (and other stuff) without having to do a full reflash? I actualy prefer the simple update method. Had already some newer firmwareupdate with DSP support, ran fine so far (except that the Pandora Clock somehow resets to summer time for whatever reason).

I also still try to get a propper TV out aspect ratio, on my TV I can switch between 16:9, 4:3 and Zoom and it works nice. But if I run a Movie in cinemascope or everything above 16:9 from the Pandora, the image is fit into 16:9 and doesn't "generate" black bars to compensate cinemascope formats (wider than the TV screen). Strange because the image is correct onto the Pandora Screen (MPlayer 2, HW acceleration by the way, player settings don't have any effect onto the TV image). Tested TV out HW/SW layer, PAL, NTSC, also old analog/digital TV, same results. 

So what exactly do I have to set in the TV out configs to get an correct aspect ratio image onto the TV?

 

[TrashyMG]

^ doing an OS update added these new TV out settings for me..  

 

[Trip]

Note that many Python modules rely and expect 2.7 too, and do not support 2.6 anymore. It's impossible to include these modules because we are stuck on 2.6 (unless you want us to pack the whole Python distribution per each Python-based PND, which would be a stupid idea).

Since you are doing a RC, why not include Python 2.7 and see if things break or not ?  It's the right time to do testing. I can volunteer to test as much Python-based PNDs from the repo as I can and provide feedback in case something does not work, but I have confidence nothing would break.

If that's causing the problems I've had then fair enough. Could be worth a shot seeing as though a version's already available.

I'm getting really tired of having to stop a tutorial half way through because it needs a library that I can't seem to get working on the Pandora. I've read through tons and I always hit a brick wall half way through

p.s My vote goes to including Tkinter and Pygame by default if possible. Most tutorials seem to need one of these and it would make it so much easier to learn for new users.

p.p.s 2.7 seems to have better compatibility with 3.x versions too.

 

[ekianjo]

On top of Python 2.7, another simple request : can you associate common archive files with the archive manager in the firmware? 

 

[notaz]

If you can specify exactly what needs to be done then maybe yes.

 

[F_Slim]

The benefit is clear :
Python 2.7 is compatible with 2.6 (I'm not asking for Python 3), so nothing is expected to break there, and on top of that all Python 2 programs nowadays rely on 2.7 features, missing from 2.6. 


 [...]


Note that many Python modules rely and expect 2.7 too, and do not support 2.6 anymore.[...]

I'd agree with Ekianjo here, for mainly these reasons. Going Python3 would be a lot of breakage (possibly), but going up to 2.7.x just makes sense.

+1

Can't remember exactly what it was, but when I wrote the GUI for Xplanet on the Pandora, there were several things I couldn't do the easy way because those features were only available in 2.7 ...

 

[fusion_power]

^ doing an OS update added these new TV out settings for me..

I found the relevant settings, I guess they were there before. I adjusted the image overscan by random guessing (position and height). 320 height seems a good number for widescreen movies, at least under ntsc.


Some more precise presets would be nice of course. ^^

 

[_jr_]

It's trivial to build your own python plus extensions with Cdevtools and bundle it in a PND. The problem with tkinter is not python but the Tk version in the firmware. The PySolFC PND contains a custom build and was built on a Pandora (it's still python 2.6.8, but from the description 2.7.x should be even easier to build).

 

[_wb_]

For some reason, I can't use the Pandora key to access the menu in OpenBox anymore. This used to happen in the past too because of overwrites of /usr/pandora/scripts/op_menu.sh, but now that script isn't even called anymore as far as I can tell.

 

[canseco]

I didn't have any problems so far. Thx for the updates.

Talking about libs that need to be upgraded, it's possible to update Jack Audio Connection Kit to latest 0.121.3?

As far as i know, i ported all apps that use this lib.

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

For some reason, I can't use the Pandora key to access the menu in OpenBox anymore. This used to happen in the past too because of overwrites of /usr/pandora/scripts/op_menu.sh, but now that script isn't even called anymore as far as I can tell.

I can open the menu but cannot close it with the 2nd press...

 

[bsp]

@EvilDragon/Notaz: I just updated c64_tools: http://boards.openpandora.org/topic/14334-announce-c64-tools-dsp-loader-and-ipc/page-25#entry297970 . It would be nice if this could be included in SZ 1.60 final (RC2?).

p.s.: Notaz, regarding the mailbox reset: you can now configure it in dsp_config.h. The current DSP test cases work fine w/o the reset but I'd still suggest to keep that option enabled for the FW update (better test coverage), and disable it starting with the first incremental update.

 

[LoopStar]

Thanks for the update! Works very well for me! Is ist just me or has the bootup time decreased a bit?

 

[JeanLouSchmidt]

Nice !

Thanks for the update.

 

[sepulep]

Question: does this SZ release still comes with Python 2.6 ? If yes, is there any reason why we don't get Python 2.7.3 by default ? 

+1 for the latest python in the 2.7 series..

its a bit tricky though, cause you would need to check/ update a lot of modules (like pygtk etc)

 

[ekianjo]

notaz is already working on the python 2.7 and i have to test it further

 

[Delightful Dude]

For some reason, I can't use the Pandora key to access the menu in OpenBox anymore. This used to happen in the past too because of overwrites of /usr/pandora/scripts/op_menu.sh, but now that script isn't even called anymore as far as I can tell.

Running the openbox installer again fixed this issue for me.

 

[_wb_]

For some reason, I can't use the Pandora key to access the menu in OpenBox anymore. This used to happen in the past too because of overwrites of /usr/pandora/scripts/op_menu.sh, but now that script isn't even called anymore as far as I can tell.

Running the openbox installer again fixed this issue for me.

Ah right, overwriting op_menu.sh with the one from the openbox installer does help indeed.

 

[Super Roach]

Just letting it be known I'd lurve Python 2.7 as well

Will have time to try this on the weekend.