Tweaks Thread

[mali]

The life of early adopters is hard enough so if you have Pandora knowledge to share, either post it here or provide a link. I'll update the first post from time to time.
A proper structure will follow when the list gets longer.
Thanks for your help!

For the latest hotfixes, firmware images and the community codec pack, head to the official support page.

[Hardware]
Battery not charging? (UK) check adaptor [pic] / battery flat
Wonky shoulder button fix / Further improvement
Stuck keys
Scratchy stylus tip
Nub disassembly, cleaning / More info / More info and pics / Fix broken Nub PCB traces
Fix bowing LCD bezel (Advanced, might void warranty!)
Pandora resetting when bumped?
Wonky gaming button
Battery troubleshooting mini-FAQ
What to do if an application crashes and you then find that you can no longer use the software overclocking option NEW

[OS]
Run latest firmware from SD card
Reflashing firmware / (old firmware here)
Can't browse filesystem (Thunar)
[XFCE] - Change desktop icon text to white on black
[XFCE] - Putting firmware applications on the desktop
[XFCE] - Creating hotkeys to launch apps
[XFCE] - Making XFCE sexy
[XFCE] - Altering window decorations
[XFCE] - Add custom launchers to the main menu
[XFCE] - How to move windows that are larger than the screen
[XFCE] - Titlebar disappeared? Restart window decoration handler
[XFCE] - XFCE style changing with brightness button hack
[XFCE] - How to get the Pandora menu button back if it disappears
[XFCE] - How to get the taskbar back if it disappears
[XFCE] - Increase scroll bar width
[XFCE] - Making titlebars and window decorations bigger
[XFCE] - Configure shoulder buttons as mouse buttons
[XFCE] - Making group launchers on the desktop
[XFCE] - Move desktop icons
[MMenu] - Launch Minimenu from XFCE with icon
[MMenu] - Skinning Minimenu
[MMenu] - Auto-rescan apps on SD insert
[MMenu] - Fullscreen window manager
[PND] - Convert Angström apps to PND
[PND] - Canging/adding search paths
Want to experiment with Angström repo? Create overlay and install to SD
or Run firmware from SD card instead of NAND
How to enable audio recording
Making screenshots
Adding delete option without using trash (Thunar)
Experiment with different window managers
Debian in a chroot
Quick change CPU speed
Change wireless mode
Change default keyring password / Remove keyring password
Boot into console
How to remove a folder or file that's giving a "Stale NFS file handle" error
Enable 'Delete' key
File transfer to PC via USB cable NEW
Switching To TTY1 From Desktop NEW

[System]
How to change battery level at which shutdown is forced
Over-amplify to listen to low-volume recordings
How to turn off WiFi power-saving

[Software]
How to get MAME4all working NEW
How to get UAE4ALL working
How to get Quake2 working
Reduce CPU load in Mplayer
Password-less login in Dropbear
How to change default browser to Chromium(or other)
DOSBox configuration
How to get Hexen II working
How to get Ur-Quan Masters working
Can't get past a certain scene in PSX4Pandora
Quake 2 too dark?

[Tutorials]
A quick and simple guide to ripping your DVDs for your Pandora
How to rip your PSX discs (Linux)
MAME .106 ROM Guide

[Accessories]
Broadband USB stick usage
Using USB thumb drive as swap
Bluetooth GPS and TangoGPS

[Tools]
SD Card formatter
Background killer
Various (de)compressors for Pandora

[Dev]
Get complete toolchain on Pandora
Setting up Code::Blocks to cross-compile in Ubuntu

[Other]
Change hotspot channel to increase Wifi speed
Mount a PND file to see what's inside


History

Spoiler

08/21 - [OS] - Enable 'Delete' key
08/08 - [Tools] - Various (de)compressors for Pandora
07/29 - [OS] - Move desktop icons
07/27 - [Software] - Quake 2 too dark?
07/26 - [OS] - Making group launchers on the desktop
07/24 - [OS] - Configure shoulder buttons as mouse buttons
07/20 - [OS] - Making titlebars and window decorations bigger
07/19 - [Tutorials] - MAME .106 ROM Guide
07/16 - [System] - How to turn off WiFi power-saving
07/14 - [Hardware] - Added Nub info(fix PCB traces)
07/13 - [OS] - Increase scroll bar width
07/13 - [OS] - How to get the taskbar back if it disappears
07/12 - [System] - Over-amplify to listen to low volume recordings
07/12 - [Software] - Can't get past a certain scene in PSX4Pandora
07/06 - [Software] - How to get Ur-Quan Masters working
07/06 - [Dev] - Setting up Code::Blocks to cross-compile in Ubuntu
07/05 - [OS] - How to get the Pandora menu button back if it disappears
07/04 - [Software] - How to get Hexen II working
07/04 - [System Updates] - Run latest firmware from SD card
07/03 - [System Updates] - New firmware including all previous Hotfixes(1-3)
07/03 - [System Updates] - Mass storage fix for Hotfix 3
07/03 - [Other] - Change hotspot channel to increase Wifi speed
07/02 - [OS] - XFCE style changing with brightness button hack
07/02 - [OS] - How to remove a folder or file that's giving a "Stale NFS file handle" error
07/01 - [System Updates] - Hotfix 3
07/01 - [OS] - Boot into console
07/01 - [OS] - Titlebar disappeared? Restart window decoration handler
07/01 - [Software] - DOSBox configuration
06/29 - [Software] - How to change default browser to Chromium(or other)
06/29 - [OS] - Remove Keyring password
06/29 - [OS] - How to move windows that are larger than the screen
06/29 - [System Updates] - Codec Pack
06/28 - [Tutorials] - A quick and simple guide to ripping your DVDs for your Pandora
06/25 - [OS] - Change default keyring password
06/25 - [Software] - Password-less login in Dropbear
06/25 - [OS] - Change wireless mode
06/23 - [OS] - Quick change CPU speed
06/23 - [Hardware] - Battery troubleshooting mini-FAQ
06/22 - [OS] - Debian in a chroot
06/22 - [OS] - Experiment with different window managers
06/22 - [OS] - Add custom launchers to the main menu
06/21 - [OS] - Altering window decorations
06/20 - [Hardware] - Wonky gaming button
06/20 - [System] - How to change battery level at which shutdown is forced
06/19 - [Hardware] - Pandora resetting when bumped?
06/19 - [Software] - Reduce CPU load in Mplayer
06/18 - [Accessories] - Bluetooth GPS and TangoGPS
06/18 - [Hardware] - Fix bowing LCD bezel
06/17 - [Software] - Adding delete option without using trash (Thunar)
06/17 - [Tutorials] - How to rip PSX discs (Linux)
06/17 - [OS] - Fullscreen window manager
06/16 - [System Updates] - Crackling sound fix
06/15 - [OS] - Making screenshots
06/15 - [Accessories] - Using USB thumb drive as swap
06/14 - [OS] - Making XFCE sexy
06/14 - [Hardware] - Nub disassembly, cleaning
06/14 - [OS] - How to enable audio recording
06/13 - [Accessories] - Broadband USB stick usage

 

[SomeGuy99]

How to change desktop icon text to white on black:

http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?/topic/53952-guide-changing-the-desktop-icon-text-to-white/

How to put a firmware app on the desktop:

http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?/topic/53955-guide-putting-firmware-applications-on-the-desktop/

 

[NickLoTurco]

I've had mine since last saturday and am yet to play a game yet! I have been away since monday mind you.

Now, I find uae4all runs worse than it did on my gp2x, nothing works!

Tried Jimmy Whites snooker but on ST but crashes before I get to the menu.

Tried a new romeset on mame but everything runs slow and sound is awful.

Fuse does not want to run zips???

Haven't tried the new Snes version, but the old one just kicked me out when I tried to run a rom....

Any help on these as I'm getting fed up now!

 

[SomeGuy99]

Launch Minimenu from XFCE with icon:

http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?/topic/53961-guide-launch-minimenu-from-xfce-with-icon/

 

[Dunny]

Wasn't there a guy who used a blob of blu-tac to get the screen to stay open at the correct angle rather than all the way back?

D.

 

[WizardStan]

Any help on these as I'm getting fed up now!

This is a special thread for tricks people have found and not really suitable to problem solving. Start a new thread and someone will be glad to help you out, I'm sure.

 

[mali]

Wasn't there a guy who used a blob of blu-tac to get the screen to stay open at the correct angle rather than all the way back?

D.

I've searched

site:gp32x.de hinge blu-tack
site:gp32x.de hinge blu-tac

but didn't find anything.

 

[torpor]

To get a complete toolchain on your Pandora, so you can develop for Pandora with the Pandora:


ssh to your Pandora and issue the following commands:

opkg install gcc_4.3.3 gcc-symlinks gcc-doc make_3.81 make-dev binutils-dev vim_7.2 vim-syntax
opkg install cpp cpp-symlinks
opkg install g++_4.3.3 g++-symlinks
opkg install libstdc++-dev
opkg install libgles-omap3-dev libgles-omap3-demos
opkg install libsdl-1.2-dev libsdl-gfx-dev libsdl-image-1.2-dev libsdl-mixer-dev libsdl-net-1.2-dev libsdl-ttf-2.0-dev

This will give you what you need to build software (C/C++) on the Pandora itself ..

 

[jasay]

To get a complete toolchain on your Pandora, so you can develop for Pandora with the Pandora:


ssh to your Pandora and issue the following commands:

opkg install gcc_4.3.3 gcc-symlinks gcc-doc make_3.81 make-dev binutils-dev vim_7.2 vim-syntax
opkg install cpp cpp-symlinks
opkg install g++_4.3.3 g++-symlinks
opkg install libstdc++-dev
opkg install libgles-omap3-dev libgles-omap3-demos
opkg install libsdl-1.2-dev libsdl-gfx-dev libsdl-image-1.2-dev libsdl-mixer-dev libsdl-net-1.2-dev libsdl-ttf-2.0-dev

This will give you what you need to build software (C/C++) on the Pandora itself ..

I take it this installs to the NAND? How much extra space is there before/after this install?

 

[torpor]

I take it this installs to the NAND? How much extra space is there before/after this install?

Yes - this installs to NAND .. but I didn't think to do a 'before' snapshot of a "df -k", but I remember that it was "about" 76% in use, and now it is:

ubi0:rootfs             454.7M    382.1M     72.6M  84% /

.. 84% in use .. not bad, to be honest, considering that you can use it to start writing apps immediately, and don't need to setup and administer a cross-compiler/toolchains host to start getting things done.

Time-wise, its not in the same league as my quad-core AMD box with 16gigs of RAM, but .. it *does* fit in my pocket, and it builds quite complex projects in more than adequate time, in my opinion ..

 

[jasay]

Yes - this installs to NAND .. but I didn't think to do a 'before' snapshot of a "df -k", but I remember that it was "about" 76% in use, and now it is:

.. 84% in use .. not bad, to be honest, considering that you can use it to start writing apps immediately, and don't need to setup and administer a cross-compiler/toolchains host to start getting things done.

Time-wise, its not in the same league as my quad-core AMD box with 16gigs of RAM, but .. it *does* fit in my pocket, and it builds quite complex projects in more than adequate time, in my opinion ..

Cool. There is actually more space open than I expected. Not much of a coder personally, but I play around a bit and occasionally build other people's work. Thanks for the numbers.

 

[mali]

Hey friends
This thread needs a new maintainer. If you think this thread is a good idea and have some time to spare, please create a new one, copy the content, request a sticky and ask a Mod to unsticky this one.

My reason to let it rest for now: Doing support takes quite some time. As I'm no first batcher, recent discussions about the weak Euro and increased production costs led me to believe that the price for the second batch will be higher. The German price is already 299eur and 300eur is my personal limit. I'll stay in touch via pandorapress.net and watch the scene.

 

[verm71]

Somebody over here has improved his LCD ghosting problem with high contrast video. Should this be propped up to the main list?

 

[mali]

^ It seems that people don't really care, so the list might as well just be abandoned, dunno.

 

[mawler]

General Tips (posted from my pandora itself)

If your network is generally wonky try running
gksudo /etc/init.d/NetworkManager restart
in a terminal

To do a right click at the current mouse location move the right nub to the right.
Also move your mouse without the touchscreen with the left nub.

Using the right click nub trick, use wget in a terminal to download files. Note: right click an open folder and click open terminal here on an sd folder before you run wget.

More to come as i play around...

 

[ivanovic]

How to rip a Playstation1 (PSX) disc using a Linux system (Ubuntu, Gentoo, Arch, Debian, ...)?

The latest information about this is available in the wiki. The following information might be inconsistent and/or outdated.

Make sure you have installed the program "cdrdao". Afterwards use the following command line (replacing GAME_NAME with the desired name (don't use spaces unless you put a \ in front of them!):

cdrdao read-cd --read-raw --datafile GAME_NAME.bin --device /dev/sr0 --driver generic-mmc-raw GAME_NAME.cue

If your optical drive is not at /dev/sr0, please enter the correct device node here.

You can also copy the following code into a text file and make it executable. To do so, lets assume you named the text file psxrip, then run chmod +x psxrip. The game does save the .bin and .cue files into the folder $HOME/psxrip. If desired, change this name. You should create the folder before running the script. The script is based on a script that I use for some Wesnoth stuff (at least parts are). It does check if you got the required program installed, if you provided the parameters and all the likes. If you do something that you are not supposed to do, it will print an error message as well as some helpful output. By default the script will also read out subchannel data which might be required for some of the games copy protection. This can be deactivated with a simple parameter.
Here is the script:

#!/bin/bash
#
#  This is a script to create a .bin image with corresponding .cue out of your
#  PSX game discs as backup and/or for usage with emulators.
#
#  Run-time requirements: cdrdao
#
#  This script is partly based upon the "wesnoth-optipng" script from the
#  Battle for Wesnoth team.
#
#  This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
#  it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 or,
#  at your option any later version. This program is distributed in the
#  hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY.

PSXDIR=$HOME/psxrip
DRIVE=/dev/sr0

report_absent_tool()
{
	echo "$1 is not present in PATH. $(basename ${0}) requires it in order to work properly."
	if [ -n "$2" ]; then
		echo "You can obtain $1 at <${2}>."
	fi
	exit -1
}

print_help()
{
cat << EOSTREAM
Script for ripping PSX game discs into .bin files with corresponding .cue files.

Usage:
  $(basename ${0}) [{--outputdir} <value>] [{--drive} <value>] [{--no-subchan] [{--help|-h}] [filename]

The parameter [filename] is mandatory. Without it, the script will abort. Plain
spaces in the filename are prohibited!

Available switches:
  --drive       Define the device to be used. If this parameter is not
                provided, /dev/sr0 will be used.

  --help / -h   Displays this help text.

  --no-subchan  Don't extract subchannel data. Subchannel data might be
                required for some PSX copy protection though it *could* create
                problems. Retry with this parameter set if any problems occur
                when trying to use the resulting image.

  --outputdir   Define the folder in which the resulting image should be saved.
                If the folder does not exist, it will be created. If no
                --outputdir parameter is given, the folder ~/psxrip will be
                used.

This tool requires cdrdao (http://cdrdao.sourceforge.net/) to be installed and
available in PATH.
EOSTREAM
}

# go through provided parameters
while [ "${1}" != "" ]; do
	if [ "${1}" = "--drive" ]; then
		DRIVE=$2
		shift 2
	elif [ "${1}" = "--outputdir" ]; then
		PSXDIR=$2
		shift 2
	elif [ "${1}" = "--nosubchan" ]; then
		NOSUBCHAN="true"
		shift 2
	elif [ "${1}" = "--help" ] || [ "${1}" = "-h" ]; then
		print_help
		exit 0
	elif [ "${2}" != "" ] ; then
		echo "ERROR: Inval id usage. Displaying help:"
		echo ""
		print_help
		exit -1
	else
		IMAGENAME=$1
		shift
	fi
done

# check for required dependencies
which cdrdao &> /dev/null ||
	report_absent_tool cdrdao 'http://cdrdao.sourceforge.net/'

# output recognized parameters
echo "Program "$(basename ${0})" called. The following parameters will be used for"
echo "creating an image of a PSX disc:"
echo "Folder for saving images: "$PSXDIR
echo "Drive used for reading the image: "$DRIVE
echo "Resulting filenames: "$PSXDIR"/"$IMAGENAME"[.bin|.cue]"
if [ "$NOSUBCHAN" = "true" ]; then
	echo "Not extracting subchan data."
else
	echo "Extracting subchan data."
fi
echo ""

# check if imagename is defined
if [ "$IMAGENAME" = "" ]; then
	echo "ERROR: Invalid usage. Found no name for resulting image. Displaying help:"
	echo ""
	print_help
	exit -1
fi

# create dir for resulting image if it does not exist yet
if ! [ -d "$PSXDIR" ]; then
	echo "outputdir not found, creating folder: "$PSXDIR
	echo ""
	mkdir -p $PSXDIR
fi

echo "starting ripping the disc"
echo ""
# final commandline for reading the disc and creating the image
if [ "$NOSUBCHAN" = "true" ]; then
	cdrdao read-cd --read-raw --datafile $PSXDIR/$IMAGENAME.bin --device $DRIVE --driver generic-mmc-raw $PSXDIR/$IMAGENAME.cue
else
	cdrdao read-cd --read-raw --read-subchan rw_raw --datafile $PSXDIR/$IMAGENAME.bin --device $DRIVE --driver generic-mmc-raw $PSXDIR/$IMAGENAME.cue
fi

If desired you can run the program "pocketiso" via wine on the resulting images to compress them further.

 

[Pleng]

How to change the battery level at which a shutdown is forced

 

[Prometheus]

I don't know if this counts, but this is from a post of mine in hells_dark's screenshots thread. It's an Xfce-specific tip about how to change the window decorations (i.e., the look of the title bars and the buttons on them, along with the scrollbars and whatnot), as well as how to rearrange the Close/Minimise/Maximise/etcetera buttons to your liking.

This is the "Adt" theme, now with altered window-decorations - these were changed by clicking on the Pandora menu, clicking "Xfce 4 Settings Manager", clicking on "Window Manager", and then choosing "Smallscreen".

I also rearranged the buttons to my liking - it's now no longer possible to accidentally click the close button! This alteration is also made in the Window Manager options - you simply click and drag the representation of the buttons to your liking.

The screenshot that goes with this is here.

 

[mali]

Battery troubleshooting mini-FAQ

i took my battery out overnight and when i put it back into my pandora it wouldnt turn on. i plugged in the charger and nothing.
i unplugged and replugged the charger 10 or so times and finally it booted up.

The battery was so discharged that it was too low to turn the system on. Leaving it plugged in and plugging it in and out 10 times just cumulatively added up to enough charge time to exceed the 3.2V threshold the PMIC needs to leave the pre-charge state.

it's now sitting with the charger plugged in and i watched the charge go from 0 to 1%.

This confirms it here which is nice. Being at 0% means you are just out of the pre-charge area.

looks like my battery may be duff?

Let's find out. In some experiments with other projects, I have learned one way to recognize a dead/dying battery. I assume this is accurate as cells shouldn't do this normally. Please try this procedure if you don't mind:
- Charge battery to 100% if you can get it there. Record that maximum percentage you were able to get to if not 100 but get there if possible.
- Shut down and remove battery. If you have a voltmeter, measure the battery's voltage and record it to tell me. The voltage is across the two outer pads on the battery pack as labeled.
- Leave the battery sit at standard room temperature (20-25C, not too humid an environment, etc.) for a 24 hour period. Stick it in the battery box or something so that it is safe and out of the way.
- Run your unit on AC only if that works for your board (being experimental and a 'test' feature as I've mentioned before, it still doesn't work on absolutely all boards for some reason). This way you can still enjoy playing around for that day rather than being Pandora-less unless you are too busy anyway.
- At the end of the 24 hour period, measure the battery voltage with the voltmeter if you have one. Let me know the new voltage. If you don't have a voltmeter, you will have to stick it back in and boot up. Let me know the new percentage. A few percent would be tolerable as cell voltage relaxes after charging completes. Tens of percentage drop would indicate the cell is toast and you should contact OP sales for a new one. A 48 hour period would be even better because it will likely keep dropping and I forget how long I set my intervals when testing some batteries I turned into balloons but it was in the 24-48 hour range. I think one day should give us the data we need.

Are you still on your first battery? I don't think you have a replacement already right?

Thanks.

Okay, I'm not sure if I should be worried about this or not. Last night I charged my Pandora to 99%, then shut it down via the OS after unplugging it from the charger. Or at least I'm pretty sure that's how I did it.

Is there a chance that you were removing the charger during the shutdown procedure? If so, it will shut down like normal and even though the charger is removed, it might still think it needs to restart because it caught that "charger still plugged in" event before going down. Then it would have sat on all night until reaching the shutdown point.

 

[Prometheus]

I hope this fits in here. I just wrote up A Quick and Simple Guide to Ripping Your DVDs for Your Pandora, which covers ripping DVDs using HandBrake.