The 'pandora' Key

[drunkaus]

Hi all, long time lurker first time poster here.

I was wondering if any of you gents would be kind enough to tell me what the heck the key between the nubs with the OP logo on it does/will do?
I have searched the forums endlessly but alas nothing, it's annoying the hell outta me.

Keep up the great work guys!

 

[PokeParadox]

Hi all, long time lurker first time poster here.

I was wondering if any of you gents would be kind enough to tell me what the heck the key between the nubs with the OP logo on it does/will do?
I have searched the forums endlessly but alas nothing, it's annoying the hell outta me.

Keep up the great work guys!

I *think* that button is for the System menu...

 

[Trip]

It releases all the bad things

EDIT FOR SOMETHING MORE USEFUL: It's a dedicated system key as poke suggest but I'm not too sure if it brings up the system menu, swaps running applications (ALT+TAB style) or just swaps between the desktop and launcher?

 

[drunkaus]

It releases all the bad things

Ahahahaha nice one.

I always assumed that button was like a launcher of some kind, like if for instance the App Store was a actual application (is it?) on the Pandora, hitting that would bring it up, like the guide button on the Xbox or the PS button on the PS3.

 

[Trip]

I always assumed that button was like a launcher of some kind, like if for instance the App Store was a actual application (is it?) on the Pandora, hitting that would bring it up, like the guide button on the Xbox or the PS button on the PS3.

Yeah it would be good for that too

More than likely it will be configurable.

 

[typs lik dis]

From a fairly old keyboard layout topic:

- I don't clearly remember about Menu/Select/Start trio, just have something about directly wiring to omap on mind, so I ask if Fn+Select can act as SysRq, or even if anything else can be mapped on this 3 keys. So they are so unique, as I recall or not?

The three buttons in the middle are mapped to GPIO pins like the game buttons. There isn't anything special about them, but you can enable interrupts for any GPIO so I had plans to do that for the MENU(Pandora?) button with the intent of letting the kernel take over for task switching and stuff like that. I was also wondering if I should take the FN button out of the keypad matrix and make it a GPIO so that 3-key combos can be done. I'm not sure if that is pointless yet. For something this small and hand held, trying to get on top of three buttons simultaneously sounds difficult (if one of them isn't a shoulder button that is).

The buttons currently labeled MENU and START have alternate functions when the power switch is pressed. This is tied directly into the hardware to reboot the board into different modes. Again, during normal operation, they are just regular GPIOs.

I don't know if this answer is still true, but I found it referenced by Chip in February of 2009.

 

[drunkaus]

I always assumed that button was like a launcher of some kind, like if for instance the App Store was a actual application (is it?) on the Pandora, hitting that would bring it up, like the guide button on the Xbox or the PS button on the PS3.

Yeah it would be good for that too

More than likely it will be configurable.

Does that mean the App Store is in fact a application on the Pandora? I never saw it mentioned in the other threads whether it was or not, a lot of talk about the website though.

 

[Trip]

Does that mean the App Store is in fact a application on the Pandora? I never saw it mentioned in the other threads whether it was or not, a lot of talk about the website though.

Not at the moment it's just web based but there is talk of releasing a more local piece of software to run directly on the Pandora later.

EDIT: Thanks typs lik dis and well remembered

 

[drunkaus]

Thanks for clearing this up for me guys, cheers.

 

[Awakening]

Personally I hope it opens up the menu when I'm in XFCE so I don't have to point on it with my finger, you can already navigate it with the dpad.

 

[skeezix]

In pmenu mode, it retrns to pmenu

in xfce mode, it pops up a menu with a few options, one of which is a handy seachable app list/lamcher, among other thnys

it is configurable to launch other stuff if you want to muck with conf files

jeff

 

[dflemstr]

In pmenu mode, it retrns to pmenu

in xfce mode, it pops up a menu with a few options, one of which is a handy seachable app list/lamcher, among other thnys

it is configurable to launch other stuff if you want to muck with conf files

jeff

Awesome.

 

[Nintendo]

In pmenu mode, it retrns to pmenu

I hope that it asks you first what you want to do, e.g. Would you like to go to back to the main PMenu? YES? NO? andora2ut4:

You see, on the Nintendo DSi, it's quite rude, because when you press the HOME button (power button) it goes straight back to the main menu.
Accidents happen.

e.g. You're playing a DS game, then your 4 year old son walks up to you and presses the DS HOME button, you lose everything.

IT DOESN'T EVEN ASK YOU IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SAVE OR WHATEVER!!! Grrr!!! :angry:

 

[Trip]

Fantastic! Thanks for filling in the blanks skeezix.

 

[BackAssward]

In pmenu mode, it retrns to pmenu

I hope that it asks you first what you want to do, e.g. Would you like to go to back to the main PMenu? YES? NO? andora2ut4:

You see, on the Nintendo DSi, it's quite rude, because when you press the HOME button (power button) it goes straight back to the main menu.
Accidents happen.

e.g. You're playing a DS game, then your 4 year old son walks up to you and presses the DS HOME button, you lose everything.

IT DOESN'T EVEN ASK YOU IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SAVE OR WHATEVER!!! Grrr!!! :angry:

I disagree, I hate useless prompts to have to agree to all the time. Just be more careful, your particular issues shouldn't add an annoyance for everyone else.

 

[paulguy]

Well, what I'll be doing is seeing if I can somehow map them to keycombos, like Pandora+R for Run or Pandora+T for Terminal, etc. I think this'll be pretty nice use of that key...might be hard since it's a "gamepad" key, though...

 

[amnesiasoft]

You see, on the Nintendo DSi, it's quite rude, because when you press the HOME button (power button) it goes straight back to the main menu.
Accidents happen.

I have a hard enough time getting that button to recognize presses when I want them...