What Can We Expect From Pandora Linux Distro ?

[paddy]

I havent found a thred relating to a tailored version of linux for Pandora even tho i
understand that there will be one and possibly other distros for Pandora but i want to
know what we might expect it to run like as i have not had the best experience of
using ubuntu so far on my laptop with it being easy to break the setup just by
installing the wrong software.

Will the Pandora Linux have its own repository for apps and stuff that will have then
been ported to run for Pandora,Will this repository have only pandora specific software
so i dont run into the same problems i have came across with ubuntu.
Also,will the specific pandora sodtware ports work together with other software ported
to pandora without conflict,i ask this as even with ubuntu on my laptop after installing
a set of software supposedly tailored to ubuntu it can still cause problems.

Will we need to locate codecs for media players that have been ported to Plinux and
plugins for media players and web browsers,if this is the case would these plugins and
codecs be from the localised pandora repository or from the internet,aptget meaning theres
a possible issue that you could download software not suitable for the Pandora.

I do like the idea of having linux on the Pandora but i am starting to hate linux as
i have found problem after problem and dont want to use it on pandora unless its
stable and can run the choice Software we all want,i first thought linux was a great
idea when i came to the forums for the first time as i was thinking, Linux = games
but now i know these games have to be portable to ARM and open source it kinda
took the edge of the whole thing for me,so to have Linux tailored to Pandora for the
extra apps is fine.

One last question would be,without running a linux distro on pandora would we still
be able to run most if not all of the linux stuff from the highly awaited Pandora OS
seeing as it is linux in the first place,i would imagine we could have single linux apps
that have been ported to linux for Pandora running off of the default OS within the
Pandora taking away the real need to have Linux running on the Pandora taking up
space that is not needed ?

 

[Yannick]

The pandora will come with it's own custom linux based on Angstrom linux.
This one is intended to be superstable, fiddle at your own risk(just don't do it).

You can count on it, that soon after the first shipments, xubuntu will be readily available as well, this is just plain xubuntu as you know it from your desktop, ported to arm devices. This will be installed on a SD card in 1 of the 2 SD slots. This is the distro that will blow open every possibility (some fiddling may be recuired, and is in fact recommended)

Those are the 2 distro's you should (I am) intrested in.

 

[lardman]

Personally I'm looking forward to building my own Angstrom (kept-up-to-date) images for the device.

 

[gruso]

If you want to play it extra safe, using the default Angstrom + Gmenu combo, you can just do things the way we always have on the GP2X: download a zipped package from the Pandora File Archive, extract to a folder, copy that folder to SD card. Then set up a shortcut in Gmenu (for which there will be a menu option, too easy).

Angstrom (ie., normal, non-Pandora Angstrom) has its own repository too, but I don't know if we'll be able to access that via package manager (or if we'd even want to).

I'm not a huge Linux expert, but from what I've read, ED & co are going to great trouble to avoid the kind of issues you're talking about. They're well aware that a significant chunk of Pandora owners will lack serious Linux skills. If you know your way around Windows Explorer, you should have all the skills you need to manage content on Pandora.

Re: codecs, fear not, Mplayer has you covered.

Don't let your laptop's Ubuntu problems put you off. The key word here is "tailored". Pandora's o/s will be tailored to the hardware, much like a phone or PDA o/s is, and very much unlike a full blown Linux distro (or Windows) that has to try and maintain compatibility with infinite combinations of hardware components - laptops being the most problematic.

Installing Linux on your lappy can be like being lost in the woods. By comparison, using Pandora will be like relaxing with friends in your living room.

 

[Consequence_9]

Personally I'm looking forward to building my own Angstrom (kept-up-to-date) images for the device.

+1 =D

 

[Mutilator]

maybe someone can make a pandora repository. be cool to just click what you want and it downloads just like it does on linux and the wii's homebrew downloader thingy

 

[Prometheus]

Please forgive me if I have in any way misunderstood your post, but do you actually know that the Pandora's built-in operating system is itself a Linux-based one?

Also, do you actually know what Linux is? Your posting seems to indicate that you see it as an operating system, unless I'm very much misreading the post.

Linux is a kernel - the "guts" of an operating system, that communicates with all of the other parts - it's not the whole OS in and of itself. Think of it as being like the word at the centre of an on-paper brainstorming session - those ones with the branches that reach out to other related words. In this analogy, those other words would represent processes and software that the kernel is communicating with to make things work. A distribution is the kernel and other software that goes with it, making a whole operating system.

If you don't want to use something that uses the Linux kernel and open source software, then you are backing the wrong machine - the Pandora runs it exclusively.

I would say more, but Gruso covered everything else, and there's no point in duplicating work.

(As an aside, I'm somewhat curious to hear how your Ubuntu installation got broken, especially if you stuck to installing from the official Ubuntu repositories, which is the normal way of doing things with that OS - the software in those is tailored for Ubuntu, and shouldn't under normal circumstances break it. )

 

[AireTamStorm]

maybe someone can make a pandora repository. be cool to just click what you want and it downloads just like it does on linux and the wii's homebrew downloader thingy
I'll have a repo with my most-wanted packages available. Notably SCIM, htop, amongst others. Probably will not be available until I actually have a unit for a few weeks, but you can count on it down the road.

 

[tazg]

Linux is a kernel - the "guts" of an operating system, that communicates with all of the other parts - it's not the whole OS in and of itself.

and Windows was a graphical DOS interface. Naming the whole OS after this makes even less sense than naming it after the kernel, yet Microsoft has accepted it, just as Linus and distro authors have accepted the whole system as "Linux". I don't see why people always find the need to give a history lecture every time someone says the word Linux.

 

[torpor]

I like the idea of there being an 'official repository' that can be easily used by casual gamers to get their most interesting Free/Open Source/Linux/etc. games installed on the Pandora, and just play.

I also like the idea that independent developers can have their own repo's too .. I will look into doing this with my apps at some point. Just plug in my repo, use it to get my latest apps.

 

[kloplop321]

Well I am sure it would be nice if developers could have a "slot" in the repository to where they can put their applications in the "official pandora" repository

 

[paddy]

to Prometheus ...

Did you read my post ?

yes i understand that the Pandora is already running Angstrom Linux for its default os,this is why i had already writen that at the start of the post as well as add to that by saying we could possibly see apps that have been ported to Pandora Linux running off of gemu2x OS.

sorry if i got the gemu2x bit wrong ,i dont know the exact name for the Pandora OS ,understand that when i refer to Pandora Linux that i mean the Linux distro that will be running on the Pandora in the future like ubuntu or redhat.

 

[DesktopMan]

Angstrom (ie., normal, non-Pandora Angstrom) has its own repository too, but I don't know if we'll be able to access that via package manager (or if we'd even want to).

I'd be very disappointed if the Angstrom repository wasn't available. Why ruin a perfectly good system for some custom "copy files around" deal. Give me a console tool to install software and I'm happy.

 

[Prometheus]

Linux is a kernel - the "guts" of an operating system, that communicates with all of the other parts - it's not the whole OS in and of itself.

and Windows was a graphical DOS interface. Naming the whole OS after this makes even less sense than naming it after the kernel, yet Microsoft has accepted it, just as Linus and distro authors have accepted the whole system as "Linux". I don't see why people always find the need to give a history lecture every time someone says the word Linux.

I wasn't giving a history lecture, and didn't find any need to either in all honesty*. I have evidently misunderstood paddy's post - particularly, the part that appeared to be about worrying about running Linux on the Pandora due to having encountered problems on a laptop with Ubuntu, when the Pandora itself is running Linux out-of-the-box (it seemed odd to me, although apparently I misread it) - and simply made note of stuff unnecessarily as a result.

*For what it's worth, I often tend to refer to the system as a whole as "Linux" too. The above-noted confusion on my part is what prompted my previous post.

to Prometheus ...

Did you read my post ?

yes i understand that the Pandora is already running Angstrom Linux for its default os,this is why i had already writen that at the start of the post as well as add to that by saying we could possibly see apps that have been ported to Pandora Linux running off of gemu2x OS.

sorry if i got the gemu2x bit wrong ,i dont know the exact name for the Pandora OS ,understand that when i refer to Pandora Linux that i mean the Linux distro that will be running on the Pandora in the future like ubuntu or redhat.

I did read it, yes. I also noted that I wasn't sure if I had understood it properly. :lol: It's clear now that I did misunderstand it - it was the referring to a Linux distro and Pandora OS as separate things that threw me off (that's down to my own perception - I personally see both as "distros", and this would be the root of my misunderstanding. ). Please accept my apologies.

 

[WizardStan]

Angstrom (ie., normal, non-Pandora Angstrom) has its own repository too, but I don't know if we'll be able to access that via package manager (or if we'd even want to).

I'd be very disappointed if the Angstrom repository wasn't available. Why ruin a perfectly good system for some custom "copy files around" deal. Give me a console tool to install software and I'm happy.

There's no guarantee that any of the existing programs compiled for Angstrom (even those already compiled for ARM) will run on the Pandora. They may run, they may not run well, they may not run at all. They should, but you never know what minor changes might cause things to fail.
That being said, Angstrom's software feeds are divided by architecture; there's no reason why a "Pandora" architecture can't be added to the existing repository, even if it's hosted on the openpandora hosts. Beagle Board has it's own list in the repository, so Pandora should get one too. It may start off empty, but I'm sure it will fill quickly as people submit applications.
Assuming ipkg is supported on the Pandora, and really, there's no reason it wouldn't be.

 

[sterling976]

I don't see why people always find the need to give a history lecture every time someone says the word Linux.

Because Stallman chose to start a religion rather than a corporation.

Back on topic, though. I wouldn't worry too much about breaking your OS install. PXML and a known quantity of hardware will fix 99% of the problems you would expect to encounter as a new user trying out linux.

Paddy, I PM-ed you re: your Ubuntu problems over a week ago. If you're still having issues, let me know and I may be able to help you work through them.



Edited for grammar.

 

[DesktopMan]

There's no guarantee that any of the existing programs compiled for Angstrom (even those already compiled for ARM) will run on the Pandora. They may run, they may not run well, they may not run at all. They should, but you never know what minor changes might cause things to fail.

Well if you know what you are doing you *do* know what minor changes might cause things to fail. In this case I don't, but I'd be very disappointed if Pandora developers didn't. Even if you compile your own Debian kernel you can still use pre-compiled packages. I don't see a difference with Angstrom on that particular point.

 

[der_kaim]

I don't see why people always find the need to give a history lecture every time someone says the word Linux.

Because Stallman chose to start a religion rather than a corporation.

Why do you refer to Stallman now? Prometheus "complained" about the term Linux, when the threadstarter was talking about a whole OS. He didn't say use GNU/Linux instead (what Stallman would do).

To say something related to the topic ... I really look forward to play around with Angstrom/Debian/Ubuntu on my Pandora!

edit: corrected typo

 

[WizardStan]

Well if you know what you are doing you *do* know what minor changes might cause things to fail. In this case I don't, but I'd be very disappointed if Pandora developers didn't. Even if you compile your own Debian kernel you can still use pre-compiled packages. I don't see a difference with Angstrom on that particular point.

I meant differences in the CPU: some instruction which functions slightly differently in the CortexA8 vs the ARMv7 (or perhaps removed completely), meaning older ARM binaries won't run on the Pandora if they use that particular instruction. There's precedent in the x86 architecture, I can imagine similar happening in the evolution of the ARM. I haven't read the complete instruction set, and have no intention of doing so, so I was just covering my backside by saying "maybe they will, maybe they won't". Wouldn't want people to think I actually know anything.

 

[DesktopMan]

I meant differences in the CPU: some instruction which functions slightly differently in the CortexA8 vs the ARMv7 (or perhaps removed completely), meaning older ARM binaries won't run on the Pandora if they use that particular instruction. There's precedent in the x86 architecture, I can imagine similar happening in the evolution of the ARM. I haven't read the complete instruction set, and have no intention of doing so, so I was just covering my backside by saying "maybe they will, maybe they won't". Wouldn't want people to think I actually know anything.

Actually, ARM specifically states instructions are backward compatible.