Ubuntu On Pandora

[chad78]

one doesn't just pop a disc into an embedded system and click next a few times!

funny - that's pretty much exactly what I did to install OS2008 on my N800. Except there was no disc. Just downloaded an EXE from Nokia's website, attached my N800 in USB slave mode, and clicked next a few times.

Why can't all Linux installs be that easy?

 

[Orkie]

Yeah, and was that designed for the N800?

 

[chad78]

Yeah, and was that designed for the N800?

Technically - no. It was designed for the N810 - but I do get your point.

Let me ask it this way - and, understand, I've never compiled anything in my life, so I am completely ignorant on these things. Mock me if you must. If someone put together the kernal and the OS - couldn't they just make an image or something for others to download and install? Or would each person have to compile it themselves? And I'm sure it wouldn't be an exe press next to continue - but whatever it is you get when you put the kernal together with the other stuff like you were saying.

 

[Tom`]

Let me ask it this way - and, understand, I've never compiled anything in my life, so I am completely ignorant on these things. Mock me if you must. If someone put together the kernal and the OS - couldn't they just make an image or something for others to download and install? Or would each person have to compile it themselves? And I'm sure it wouldn't be an exe press next to continue - but whatever it is you get when you put the kernal together with the other stuff like you were saying.

It's not as simple as putting together the kernel and "the OS," because there is a LOT of stuff (relatively speaking) that makes up the OS (and the kernel for that matter). It would certainly be possible to create some kind of automated installer so that people don't have to compile everything themselves, but it probably wouldn't be easy. I'm not quite sure what would be involved, since I've never done anything like this (I've installed Gentoo a couple times, but that's the limit of my experience).

 

[Unfathomable Depths]

want someone, (it might have to be me), to put Ubuntu on a Pandora and document it, for the press

You could do that? That would be awesome!

Let me ask it this way - and, understand, I've never compiled anything in my life, so I am completely ignorant on these things. Mock me if you must.

Oh well :rolleyes:

 

[Tom`]

I'm not entirely convinced that there's a substantial number of people familiar with Ubuntu who somehow differentiate it from "Linux." And for those that are, it would probably work just to install Gnome and set the ubuntu wallpaper.
Then again, if Nokia is doing all the work, I don't see any problems - I just think Chad tends to overestimate the general public's reaction to Ubuntu as opposed to any other distro.

 

[cherrycyanide]

It would be great to have Beryl effects

 

[sindbad]

It would be great to have Beryl effects

Hold your horses, that's an entirely different issue.

 

[StealthBagel]

All I am saying here is, you can DO it with the right amount of effort, but:

1. Ubuntu will be big. Ubuntu will be slow to start up. And the usual software suite it uses, like Gnome, KDE etc. will hog lots of RAM. These are all very bad things for a handheld's battery life and ability to run more than one program at a time, or to run heavier apps without needing to manually shut down the X server or your window manager to do it.

2. The generic Ubuntu kernel will be loaded with useless drivers that will make it occupy lots of RAM, and startup will be slow as <i>every driver</i> is checked for relevance. The Pandora hardware is extremely monolithic and the only devices you can add are USB, so they'll be easy to load drivers for as modules anyway.

3. If you think Ubuntu is a household name and that saying "Pandora runs Ubuntu!" will make or break sales, you're kidding yourself. I don't have any statistics here, but I'm willing to bet the number of soccer moms using Ubuntu can be counted on two hands. The only people familiar with Ubuntu were already familiar with Linux, and that's not anything approaching a majority.

So really, go ahead and do it if you want, but while you're waiting 3 minutes for your system to start up and have maybe 24,000KB of RAM free I'd be using a tiny stripped down kernel and WM, with 100,000KB+ free and a snappy startup..... take your pick.

 

[Svartalf]

So really, go ahead and do it if you want, but while you're waiting 3 minutes for your system to start up and have maybe 24,000KB of RAM free I'd be using a tiny stripped down kernel and WM, with 100,000KB+ free and a snappy startup..... take your pick.

Considering that a full on Ubuntu install on an eeePC doesn't take much more than the time that the Xandros install takes, you need to re-evaluate your comments. Much of the startup time has more to do with the DISK speed and similar things than anything else. It's not desktop/embedded that comes with the snappy startup times, it's what all you're loading and what you're loading it from.

 

[Pleng]

3. If you think Ubuntu is a household name and that saying "Pandora runs Ubuntu!" will make or break sales, you're kidding yourself. I don't have any statistics here, but I'm willing to bet the number of soccer moms using Ubuntu can be counted on two hands. The only people familiar with Ubuntu were already familiar with Linux, and that's not anything approaching a majority.

Well Ubuntu IS a familer name. A woman in my office mentioned that her son installed Ubuntu on her PC before leaving home. Everybody in the office had heard of it. When I tried to strike a conversation about linux eyes glazed over and nobody had a clue what I was talking about!

(edit)
Not sure that'd help sell any Pandora's though!

 

[yodaofborg]

"Yeah, but look at this, my Pandora can run Ubuntu!" "Ok, I'll have a look" "OK, just wait 30 minuites for it to start" "Uhh, sure - 'Wonders off after 2 mins'"

I'm sure its possible, but really, it just isn't plausible. As for the Ubuntu name, why could you just not say when asked about OS, "Well, it runs something similar to Ubuntu Linux, but customised!" Its not that far from the truth as it goes, as both are based upon Debian.

 

[sgtmcboom]

Gona get flamed for this but I have checked and looked for freebsd running on a pandora but dont see anything like it.

ARM processors are supported by freebsd so this wouldent be to far of a streach right?
I know netbsd can run on a toaster so it cant be that bad Ive been out of the "unix" game for a while and dont know if ubuntu is more of a resource hog then freebsd is so just wondering.

 

[Ravnos]

FreeBSD's ARM port is nowhere near ready for prime time, and there is no information anywhere to suggest that it would have the necessary hardware support on the Pandora. In short, probably never going to happen.

 

[StealthBagel]

So really, go ahead and do it if you want, but while you're waiting 3 minutes for your system to start up and have maybe 24,000KB of RAM free I'd be using a tiny stripped down kernel and WM, with 100,000KB+ free and a snappy startup..... take your pick.

Considering that a full on Ubuntu install on an eeePC doesn't take much more than the time that the Xandros install takes, you need to re-evaluate your comments. Much of the startup time has more to do with the DISK speed and similar things than anything else. It's not desktop/embedded that comes with the snappy startup times, it's what all you're loading and what you're loading it from.


I don't suppose you've considered in the slightest that the Eee PC is not even remotely similar to the OMAP3 chipset and therefore the Pandora? Their closest similarites are that they both have a screen, keyboard and use flash memory. Why the HELL do people keep comparing Pandora to a laptop?! It's ridiculous.

At any rate, can Ubuntu be stripped down to start up quickly? Yes. Is it pointless, since you can easily build a faster, customized distribution that uses less RAM and provides all the same features? Very yes. I don't care if you just want Ubuntu because of the hype, and because of its name. None of that matters. It has no relevance if soccer moms have heard of Ubuntu because they're unlikely to be buying a Pandora anyway. My middle-aged parents have heard of various game consoles, that doesn't mean they OWN any of them.

 

[sindbad]

Just call the distro on the pandora similar to ubuntu. Cause it will be. Thus getting all the publicity and none of the fuss.

 

[plopperz]

Just call the distro on the pandora similar to ubuntu. Cause it will be. Thus getting all the publicity and none of the fuss.

You can't really do that because it's not based on Ubuntu.(well, at least I think it's not)


Edit:QUOTE
Cause it will be.

What does that mean? That it will be similar to Ubuntu, or that it will be named something similar to Ubuntu?

 

[sindbad]

It will be based on Debian, same as Ubuntu and will probably use an interface similar to Hildon (used on Ubuntu Mobile).

 

[plopperz]

It will be based on Debian, same as Ubuntu and will probably use an interface similar to Hildon (used on Ubuntu Mobile).

Source?

I've heard of the dev's hinting at Debian, but nothing ever confirmed.

 

[jbr]

If we're already based on debian, and can use any desktop environment we want, why do we need Ubuntu?

(See, my opinion can be changed by levelheaded logic and facts, but not by rudeness and name-calling.)