Ubuntu Or Other Dist Alternative ?

[paddy]

I want to mess with Ubuntu on the panodra but i am unsure how complete the repo would be for software/drivers so i am asking for some of the more advanced linux users out there if they have any ideas on what would be a better distro for getting more software running on the pandora.

I want things like sound recorder so i can test out the built in mic on the pandora but also have more choice of web browsers ,media players like totem player with youtube plugin support ,a working gimp version and so on ,as well as a better way of downloading/installing software like synaptic.

To do something like this i would understand we would need clear cut instructions for setting this up on the sd as nand is too small ,but also have the ability to install files to sd as well ,ubuntu springs to mind as it comes with lots of stuff preinstalled but it is still rather large ,mabe too big for the pandora but what about other smaller distros ,cant we have something that is small but does have all of the most needed libs installed so the user can add in software without needing to get alot of the libs as well ?

I am not an expert on linux at all but i would love to see something like this so we have choice but also i ask as there could be another distro out there with loads of ready to use/install software for our arm7a pandora ,so i am directly asking all you linux guys what you think about the distro options and your ideas.

cheers

 

[kaprikawn]

You might be better off with Neuvoo. Not sure if there's any step-by-step guides for getting up on the Pandora yet, but the Pandora is a specific target platform for this distro.

 

[Stuckie]

GIMP is in the Angstrom repository already, and I've done a very quick and dirty 20MB PND here: http://www.stuckiegamez.co.uk/apps/pandora/gimp-2.6.pnd with a guide on what I did here: http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?/topic/54052-converting-angstrom-apps-to-pnds/ .. be warned that it's a bit untested still, and you're recommended to read that guide to understand what it's doing, and why it asks for your password ( quickly: it installs some symlinks on NAND rather than installing itself to NAND, it needs permission to add a link to /etc/gimp and to /usr/share/gimp and it puts one in ~/.gimp-2.6 for your user install. Three symlinks verses however many files it wants to spread all over the place is pretty good going, I think! ) It's quite a hacky thing to do, so be careful with it usable till someone does it properly, though!

There's quite a lot of stuff in the Angstrom repository if you're willing to install it either to your NAND, do crazy AUFS hackery ( I've a guide in the Developer's Corner just now on that, and I'm working on something else ), or just create a PND out of the download files like I've done above with GIMP.

Angstrom's package repository searching thing is here: http://www.angstrom-distribution.org/repo/

As for other distros.. I'm sure they'll pop up soon enough Though I'm having fun mangling the current one at the moment

 

[paddy]

I already installed gimp to nand via the angstrom repo but it didn't work after in installed ,i also got many errors trying to install other software from the repo.

ps ,thankyou for the pnd

 

[laurencevde]

Well, you can always set up an Ubuntu chroot...
Simply put: extract an arm-ubuntu install to an sd-card(or usb-stick) formatted with a decent filesystem (filesystem-permissions...), do some configuration, and, on your pandora, mount it, mount some other folders in it (~, /var/, /tmp/, /proc/, /dev/ etc..), chroot into it, and you're basically done...

This way, you still use Pandara's kernel, boot-stuff, X-server etc., while having all of Ubuntu's apps. But libs that are used by both the running Pandora-apps and Ubuntu-apps will have a separate version loaded...

You could even make an Ubuntu-chroot-in-a-PND, but PND's are read-only. Any modification goes to the SD-card, so the SD-card will still need to have a proper filesystem...

 

[paddy]

This might be a really silly question but well ,say i wanted to replace angstrom with a mini ubuntu on the nand ,and just stick with it ,would pnd's work ? or better still ,would there be a way to keep pnd's working without too much space being used up.

 

[senorgomez]

There is a debian arm build here with pretty impressive set of software in repos. http://www.debian.org/ports/arm/

Had that on my openzipit and it was fun getting gpsp (gameboy advance emulator) from the repos.

 

[Aninhumer]

This might be a really silly question but well ,say i wanted to replace angstrom with a mini ubuntu on the nand ,and just stick with it ,would pnd's work ? or better still ,would there be a way to keep pnd's working without too much space being used up.

skeezix has designed libpnd with the intention that it can be implemented for other OSes easily.
All you should have to do is install libpnd in Ubuntu and it should handle PND files fine.
(Someone will have to port it and package a .deb, but I'd imagine that will happen eventually)