SuperZaxxon v1.60 released

[jabz]

Ok I had 1.52, and I used Update Pandora OS to upgrade.

Right now my Pandora has been stuck on this screen for 45mins, wifi led is orange. Is it stuck, or has it finished? Should I restart?

EDIT: ok looks like they were logged errors.  Rebooted fine.

However where is "Enable WIFI" gone from the configbutton app on the panel in Xfce?

Argh I cannot find how to enable wifi now, no option to enable Wifi in System menu, no enable wifi in configbutton app.

mini menu, using the MM Wifi on app says starting Wifi, but no light.  Network connections has my Wifi access point SSID and settings defined.

EDIT: Ok Trying some more things in terminal.

sudo iwconfig wlan0 power off

Error for wireless request "Set Power Management" (8B2C)

         SET failed on device wlan0 : No such device.

sudo rmmod wl1251_sdio

ERROR: Module wl1251_sdio does not exist in /proc/modules

ls -l /proc/modules

nothing there!

EDIT: Time for for reflash, since upgrade killed my wifi module.

EDIT: Reflash successful, Wifi back in operation

 

[SvOlli]

How can I bitbake the release packages myself?

I'm using OpenEmbedded/bitbake at work, so I know most of this stuff. The repo we use at work is still running without the meta stuff, but this is also rolled out there right now.

The documentation I found on the wiki is outdated, does not work, or both. So here's my offer: if someone helps me to get a "bitbake openpandora-xfce-image" working, I'll write up a new wiki page on how I got there.

Greetings,

SvOlli

Edit: fixed typo.

 

[danielm]

Awesome, another update ... and the nubs on my Pandora are still unusable :-(

Resetting the nubs works for 10 seconds to 1 minute, then they act up again. Usually they are extremely slow in one or two directions (mostly diagonal movement is impaired). Taken together with the Useless-Serial-Bus (sic!) port, which only allows using a mouse with a hub in between (no, I won't plug a comparably huge hub into my _portable_ Pandora!), I find myself using my smartphone for gaming more and more often. A shame that Xfce is forgotten about as well.

Sorry, this is just one of the few times that I pick up my Pandora, see its potential and get disappointed quickly :-(

 

[notaz]

How can I bitbake the release packages myself?

I'm using OpenEmbedded/bitbake at work, so I know most of this stuff. The repo we use at work is still running without the meta stuff, but this is also rolled out there right now.

The documentation I found on the wiki is outdated, does not work, or both. So here's my offer: if someone helps me to get a "bitbake openpandora-xfce-image" working, I'll write up a new wiki page on how I got there.

It used to be enough to clone http://git.openpandora.org/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?p=pandora-oe-environment.git;a=tree and go from there, but I haven't set up the environment from scratch for a long while now. If you could be more specific about problems you're having, somebody should be able to help (would be best to start a new thread for this).

Awesome, another update ... and the nubs on my Pandora are still unusable :-(

The nubs can't be controlled by software, it can only read the coordinates nubs return or reset them, so it's never going to be fixed by firmware update. Your only choice is to send your unit to ED for nub replacement.

 

[xekarfwtos]

How can I bitbake the release packages myself?


I'm using OpenEmbedded/bitbake at work, so I know most of this stuff. The repo we use at work is still running without the meta stuff, but this is also rolled out there right now.


The documentation I found on the wiki is outdated, does not work, or both. So here's my offer: if someone helps me to get a "bitbake openpandora-xfce-image" working, I'll write up a new wiki page on how I got there.


Greetings,


SvOlli


Edit: fixed typo.

You are just five commands away of doing it

# Clone the helper scripts for setting up the development environment
git clone https://github.com/openpandora/setup-scripts.git

# Enter the folder
cd setup-scripts

# Configure the scripts and download the build metadata:
MACHINE=openpandora ./oebb.sh config openpandora

# Source the environment file
. environment-angstrom-v2013.06

# Build the image
MACHINE=openpandora bitbake op-xfce-nm-image

 

[danielm]

Awesome, another update ... and the nubs on my Pandora are still unusable :-(

The nubs can't be controlled by software, it can only read the coordinates nubs return or reset them, so it's never going to be fixed by firmware update. Your only choice is to send your unit to ED for nub replacement.

Since I live in Norway, shipping would be expensive, it would take a long time and I would have to fight with customs. In addition, I don't think that it is a hardware problem. Both my nubs work perfectly well for a few seconds after a reset.

What angers me more is the jungle that is the drivers and the configuration. It is impossible to find anything and there is a lot of direcories that are just links to other directories that are links. There are some interesting files in  '/sys/bus/i2c/drivers/vsense', but I can't open any of them because I get a "failed to map file" error. I tried to edit them as root and they have r--r--r-- permissions, which should not cause any problems.

There are quite some people here on the forums with the same problem but there is no progress. Who is the manufacturer? Does he have new drivers? Can he give advice on hardware issues (voltage, timing, ...)? Is there a possibility to show _all_ properties/states of the nub, so that one could see what happens on the driver side when the nubs stop working? E.g. could the power management interfere with the nub's internal calibration?

To me as an end user, the Pandora and the nubs are a closed book. The nubs were part of the package that were supposed to set the Pandora apart from other devices. They have the potential to work very well, but in real life they are just plain useless.

Another question: Is the issue tracker actively used and are there people that can fix things? XFCE still has some problems, and I don't have the (Linux-) knowledge to fix them myself. The Icons (links to PNDs) on my desktop don't show after a reboot and I had to fix this with a script in autostart. Sticky keys are still broken (Fn is working alright, but Shift isn't). And the XFCE desktop and the launcher in general don't work as expected sometimes (right click in the launcher menu doesn't show a menu but launches PNDs like a left click; one cannot simply drag stuff onto the desktop; ...).

Also, it would be nice to have something lick cwm or TWRP for Android, so that one can tinker with dangerous stuff and restore everything within a few seconds if things go wrong ... but that's just another dream of mine ...

 

[moxie]

In all respectfullness: If you are not running some weird variation of the OS that you've made yourself, then if you're having a problem with the nubs that not everybody with the same OS version has, then it is a hardware problem. We have provable invariability in the OS, we have known variations in the hardware (and here I include the closed firmware on the actual nubs in "hardware", since that is code that is out of our scope anyway). If you and I use the same drivers, and you have a problem that I don't have, then the problem is not with the drivers. And I (and, dare I say, most users) don't have the same problems, ergo hardware.

About the "failed to map file" thing: It might be that I'm completely out of my league here, so laugh at me if you want, but aren't those the kind of hardware-masquerading-as-file-things? If so, it is not surprising if you can't edit or even open them - They are measurements to be read, not a file as such. 

Is shift supposed to be sticky? I thought not?

 

[notaz]

Since I live in Norway, shipping would be expensive, it would take a long time and I would have to fight with customs. In addition, I don't think that it is a hardware problem. Both my nubs work perfectly well for a few seconds after a reset.

If you take the slowest option possible, it shouldn't be that horrible. Are the customs picky on stuff from EU? Within EU, you can send anything without having to deal wit them.

What angers me more is the jungle that is the drivers and the configuration. It is impossible to find anything and there is a lot of direcories that are just links to other directories that are links. There are some interesting files in  '/sys/bus/i2c/drivers/vsense', but I can't open any of them because I get a "failed to map file" error. I tried to edit them as root and they have r--r--r-- permissions, which should not cause any problems.

I've already told you the hardware has no configuration registers or anything, I don't know why you don't believe me. There is a reset line and coordinates you can read through i2c, that's it. The nub configurator only sets the method to present the coords to Linux and software multipliers for mouse/scroll mode to make it faster/slower. That configuration is in /proc/pandora/nubX/ . Reset line is accessible at /sys/bus/i2c/drivers/vsense/3-0066/reset , other stuff in /sys is standard Linux driver model stuff that doesn't actually control the hardware.

About timings, if there was timing problem reading i2c, you'd get completely random nub response. If there was voltage problem, the nub microcontrollers don't work at all (we had that before).

 

[danielm]

Since I live in Norway, shipping would be expensive, it would take a long time and I would have to fight with customs. In addition, I don't think that it is a hardware problem. Both my nubs work perfectly well for a few seconds after a reset.

If you take the slowest option possible, it shouldn't be that horrible. Are the customs picky on stuff from EU? Within EU, you can send anything without having to deal wit them.

What angers me more is the jungle that is the drivers and the configuration. It is impossible to find anything and there is a lot of direcories that are just links to other directories that are links. There are some interesting files in  '/sys/bus/i2c/drivers/vsense', but I can't open any of them because I get a "failed to map file" error. I tried to edit them as root and they have r--r--r-- permissions, which should not cause any problems.

I've already told you the hardware has no configuration registers or anything, I don't know why you don't believe me. There is a reset line and coordinates you can read through i2c, that's it. The nub configurator only sets the method to present the coords to Linux and software multipliers for mouse/scroll mode to make it faster/slower. That configuration is in /proc/pandora/nubX/ . Reset line is accessible at /sys/bus/i2c/drivers/vsense/3-0066/reset , other stuff in /sys is standard Linux driver model stuff that doesn't actually control the hardware.

About timings, if there was timing problem reading i2c, you'd get completely random nub response. If there was voltage problem, the nub microcontrollers don't work at all (we had that before).

OK, I will contact EvilDragon and ask for a solution. Customs are crazy here in Norway and you generally need a lot of paperwork from both sides when you want to send an "expensive" item to another country for repair without paying import taxes and fees :-(

I did not not believe you, I simply misunderstood. What Moxie said makes sense (hardware as files) and it seems to be what you said now.

What puzzles me is that both nubs work very well for a short time and that both misbehave. They seem to work well and it would be really bad luck if both were broken. If EvilDragon can promise that there are nubs that work 100 % well 100 % of the time, I will send my Pandora to Germany for 35 EUR.

Sorry if I irritate some of you, but the nubs in particular have been very frustrating, I had to buy an (expensive) LCD cable and I replace the screen because it had a dust particle under the touchscreen (some days ago I saw that that actually was an issue with the manufacturer, but now I already did it myself ... and paid it myself).

This little fun device of mine is heading towards a price tag of 600 EUR :-(

Edit: I would expect Shift to be sticky when it was enabled in XFCE.

 

[FBnil]

The Icons (links to PNDs) on my desktop don't show after a reboot

Have the same thing, what I do is remove the SD card when booting. Then insert it once booted, this will show them. Strange enough, this happens only with the left SD card holder, and after the upgrade.

This little fun device of mine is heading towards a price tag of 600 EUR

I payed 100 euro more... and I still have a dust particle. So, yeah... (I totally blame Craig for that)

My nubs only misbehaved once... it was a breadcrumb I had to remove.

 

[danielm]

The Icons (links to PNDs) on my desktop don't show after a reboot

Have the same thing, what I do is remove the SD card when booting. Then insert it once booted, this will show them. Strange enough, this happens only with the left SD card holder, and after the upgrade.

Take a look at this: http://bugs.openpandora.org/index.php?do=details&task_id=328

Works pretty well and it is easy to implement.

And thanks for the good words

 

[danielm]

Another thing, NetworkManager still doesn't work with suspend. I assume this will also never be fixed ...

 

[TrashyMG]

Seems to work fine for me after waking the pandora up again..

 

[_jr_]

My GHz always reconnects automatically after suspend with every access point I've tried it on (not that many, about 5). Sometimes it takes a while (up to a minute), which might be considered suboptimal.

 

[TrashyMG]

^ It's the same case with my i7 Lenovo thinkpad and Fedora  and depending on the Access Point sometimes I have trouble reconnecting...  if this is an issue it's with network manager itself and not something specific to SuperZaxxon/Angstrom.

 

[FBnil]

Take a look at this: http://bugs.openpand...ils&task_id=328

Hey, forgot about that. Yes, the things I did not remember to re-patch after the upgrade. Thanks!

 

[dimag0g]

I suppose this is the wrong topic, but there is something I'd love to see in a future release, in case I' not mistaken. It seems that every time I insert an SD card, PNDs are scanned and shortcuts are written to /usr/share/applications, which is located in flash memory. Doesn't this wear out internal flash a lot? And if it does, is it possible to move it to RAM-based location?

 

[notaz]

There is wear leveling on NAND done by ubifs, even if you keep overwriting the same file data goes to different NAND block, so I wouldn't worry about that. If you still want it you can just symlink it to /tmp/ .

 

[FBnil]

nice find.  There are more places though, like /mnt/utemp and of course your history file if you do lots of shell stuff. And the dot-something files that some programs make in your home...

But then again... it is there to be used...

You can work around it though, for example by creating a symbolic link to your SD card. However, you NEED the sd card or bad stuff starts to happen if everything is symlinked and your SD card dies

 

[Letalis Sonus]

Writing to home on the NAND is a no-go, every sane PND maintainer tries to fix that and the whole PND system is designed to prevent it as best as possible.

The /mnt directories can be moved to RAM by mounting e.g. a tmpfs via fstab, but the applications folder can't - it contains .desktop files of preinstalled non-PND programs as well.

However, the freedesktop standard allows to use other directories as well - what about modifying the PND system to use an own folder for .desktop files from PNDs?