Pandora Wiki - User contributions [en]

PCSX-ReARMed

2011-07-16T00:48:28Z

Aethix:

{{warning|The information here is for version '''r8.''' Things may change in later versions as the emulator is updated.}}

{{Infobox Emulator|title=PCSX-ReARMed
|image=[[Image:Playstation-console.png|center|Playstation console]]
|download=[http://notaz.gp2x.de/releases/pcsxr/pcsx_rearmed_r8.pnd version r8]
|developer=[[Notaz]]
|porter=
|webpage=
|version=R8 (2011-03-21)
|status=Public Beta
|compatibility=[https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0ArSWWAWRjErldHZVZlFxY0tBVnRRNXM5U3ZqWFNuN0E&hl=en#gid=0 Compatibility List (Google docs)]
}}
PCSX-ReARMed is a PlayStation 1 Emulator. A better alternative to [[PSX4Pandora]].

==Emulator Information==
===Development Status ===
In development with a beta version available.

===Compatibility===
A compatibility list is maintained as Google spreadsheet doc: [https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0ArSWWAWRjErldHZVZlFxY0tBVnRRNXM5U3ZqWFNuN0E&hl=en#gid=0 PSX compatibility list]

=== Related Links ===
*[http://www.gp32x.com/board/index.php?/topic/57973-pcsx-rearmed/ Development Thread & Discussion (GP32X)]
*[http://notaz.gp2x.de/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?p=pcsx_rearmed.git Source code (GIT)]

==Installation Instructions==
===Installation===
Download the latest version of the emulator from the repo ([http://repo.openpandora.org/?page=detail&app=package.pcsx_rearmed.notaz.r8 here]) and place it in one of the folders on your SD card according to the [[Introduction_to_PNDs#Where_do_.PNDs_Go.3F |PND guide]] (This guide will assume that you put the PND in /pandora/menu). In XFCE, the icon to the emulator should appear in the menu under 'menu -> Emulators -> PCSX-ReARMed' (if you put the PND in /pandora/menu), or on the desktop (if you put the PND in /pandora/desktop or /pandora/apps).

===ROM Images===
ROM files (Disc images) come in a range of formats, most commonly .iso, .img, .bin/.cue or .mdf/.mds. This emulator cannot handle compressed ROM files.
<br><br>
While it does not matter where the ROM files are placed, it is often easiest to put them somewhere that makes sense in relation to the PND for easy browsing. A good place to put them would be either in a clearly-named folder in the root of the SD card (e.g. /PS1) or in the same folder as the emulator PND (e.g. /pandora/menu/PS1). It does not matter how many ROM files are in the folder, or what directory structure is used.

Some images come as a .ecm file. These will not work in this emuator, but can be 'un-ECMed' buy using a tool such as [http://www.neillcorlett.com/ecm/ unecm] (Windows-only. If using Linux, ecm and unecm are usually available from your repository). [http://notaz.gp2x.de/misc/pnd/unecm Notaz has also ported unecm to the Pandora]

=== BIOS ===
PCSX-ReARMed supports loading BIOSes. A minimum of one BIOS should be copied to [sd card]/pandora/appdata/pcsx_rearmed/bios/ ..and then selected in options->bios/plugins menu.
Loading a BIOS can potentially fix tons of bugs. It is highly recommended to activate it. A BIOS file is not strictly necessary, but not all games will work correctly without one.

==Usage==
[[Overclocking]] is often necessary to achieve acceptable emulation. See the [https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0ArSWWAWRjErldHZVZlFxY0tBVnRRNXM5U3ZqWFNuN0E&hl=en#gid=0 Compatibility List] for each game's tested speed.

===Nub Control===
Nub control is disabled by default (left joystick is mapped to the D-Pad). To enable it, select 'Controls->Nubs as Buttons' in the menu.

===Loading a Game===
Upon staring the emulator, you will be presented with a GUI. Select (with B) 'Load CD Image', then navigate to the folder where you keep your image files. If you cannot find them, try selecting '/..' until the directory at the top of the list (in white) shows '/', then select '/media' then '/SD_CARD' where SD_CARD is the name of your card, then navigate to the folder where you placed the files. '''NOTE: Only select files highlightes as either blue or white. Grey files will not work.'''
<br><br>
At any time during gameplay, you can press the spacebar to return to the menu, pausing the game session. You can select 'Resume Game' to continue playing.

===Default Controls===
{|class="wikitable sortable" border="1" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" style="font-size: 90%; border:1px solid gray; border-collapse: collapse; text-align: center; width: 35%;"
|- style="background: #ececec"
! PS1 Controller Button
! Pandora Button
|-
|Triangle (Green)
|Y (Gamepad)
|-
|Circle (Red)
|B (Gamepad)
|-
|Square (Pink)
|A (Gamepad)
|-
|X (Blue)
|X (Gamepad)
|-
|Start
|Start
|-
|Select
|Select
|-
|R
|Right Shoulder
|-
|L
|Left Shoulder
|-
|D-Pad (Up, Down, Left, Right)
|D-Pad (Up, Down, Left, Right)
|-
|Left Analog Stick (Up, Down, Left, Right)
|Left Nub (Up, Down, Left, Right)
|-
|Right Analog Stick (Up, Down, Left, Right)
|Right nub (Up, Down, Left, Right)
|}

== Creating images of Games ==
A short how-to for doing this on Linux is available: [[Creating images of PSX games using Linux]]. On Windows you can probably rely on the common tools for creating disc images, like for example Alcohol or the likes. There were some reports in the forums that using Nero for creating images does not work.

[[Category:Emulators]]

User manual

2010-05-29T00:33:17Z

Aethix: /* Restore The Original Firmware */ Filled content

<div style="border-top:1px solid gray; border-bottom:1px solid gray; padding-top:5px; padding-bottom:5px; margin-bottom:20px">     ''This page is an unofficial community project, and Open Pandora Ltd. is not responsible for its content.''</div>

[[Image:PandoraFront.jpg|Right|thumb|360px|Pandora FTW!]]
So your Pandora just arrived after being in the post for two months. Jolly good! But now that it's actually here, what on earth do you do with it? '''Don't panic!''' Let's take a look at what's included in the box(so you don't miss anything!) and then hop on over to setting it up for that extended Ms. Pacman marathon you've been waiting for!

Also, don't forget to hit up [http://www.gp32x.com/board/index.php?/forum/61-pandora/ GP32X] for questions/info/apps/fun/discussion!

== Safety Information ==
Warning: Choking Hazard, do not let children under the age of 3 come close to your Pandora console.
The Pandora contains small parts that can be eaten by those children.

The battery of Pandora must be charged by the charger included with the Pandora (see package contents). [[Open Pandora Ltd.]] will not be responsible for damage arising from the use of third party chargers. Please be aware that "cheap" third party chargers often carry fake CE logos. These can damage your Pandora or burst horribly into FLAMES.

Keep the Pandora in normal temperatures under 140F/60C (Recommended temperatures are in the range between -10C and 40C){{Citation needed}}. The battery is a standard Lithium Polymer battery. Do not keep near fire or water. Do not disassemble, destroy or damage the battery, or it may explode! Do not short circuit external contacts! Dispose of it properly, please.

Modifications to hardware can damage your Pandora. [[Open Pandora Ltd]] cannot be held responsible for any resulting damage.

Malicious software can do horrible things to your Pandora. Only download Pandora software from trusted locations such as the Pandora [[App Store]], or the websites of trusted developers. See the [[OP-Team Trusted]] image in the [[App Store]] to see if the software application can be trusted.{{Citation needed}}

The Pandora has a 4.3-inch touch screen. You can touch the screen to trigger an action. That's right, a touch screen - not a stab screen, punch screen, or solid mahogany workbench. Always touch the screen gently – this will be more than enough to trigger the action you want.

The casing of the Pandora has been designed for maximum strength, making it quite hard to break. Please do not consider this a challenge. Do not drop, throw, clamp, launch, tumble dry, or place anvils on the Pandora. This will void your warranty.

== Warranty Information ==
A one year warranty applies as required by law, and the device will be replaced/repaired if it is faulty. LCDs with numerous/excessive dead pixels will also be replaced.{{Citation needed}}

== Box Contents ==
When you first open Pandora's box, a slew of demons and raging emotions may forcibly leave the box. This is normal. After that, you should find the following items:
*Pandora console
*Stylus (located in stylus slot on the side of the Pandora)
*Battery
*Mains power adapter (charger)
The following items should also be present if you ordered them separately:
*TV-Out Cable (As of 05-25-10 these are not yet included in the box and will ship separately as available)
*Carrying Case
*Extra Battery
After you take those things out, you may find a sliver of Hope left over. It's best to keep it, as you never know when you could use some Hope.

== Specifications ==
==== Highlights ====
{{citation needed}}
* ARM® Cortex™-A8 600Mhz+ CPU running Linux*
* 430-MHz TMS320C64x+™ DSP Core
* PowerVR SGX OpenGL 2.0 ES compliant 3D hardware
* 800x480 4.3" 16.7 million colours touchscreen LCD
* Wifi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth & High Speed USB 2.0 Host
* Dual SDHC card slots & SVideo TV output
* Dual Analogue and Digital gaming controls
* 43 button QWERTY and numeric keypad
* Around 10+ Hours battery life**

:<small><nowiki>*</nowiki>The 600Mhz+ can be higher or lower. This can be controlled by software designed for the device.</small>
:<small><nowiki>**</nowiki>Is affected by use. (example turn bluetooth on or off during play time)</small>

==== Advanced Specifications ====
* Texas Instruments OMAP3530 processor at 600MHz (officially)
* 256MB DDR-333 SDRAM
* 512MB NAND FLASH memory
* IVA2+ audio and video processor using TI's DaVinci™ technology (430MHz C64x DSP)
* ARM® Cortex™-A8 superscalar microprocessor core
* PowerVR SGX530 (110MHz officially) OpenGL ES 2.0 compliant 3D hardware
* integrated Wifi 802.11b/g (up to 18dBm output)
* integrated Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR (3Mbps) (Class 2, + 4dBm)
* 800x480 resolution LTPS LCD with resistive touch screen, 4.3" widescreen, 16.7 million colors (300 cd/m2 brightness, 450:1 contrast ratio)
* Dual analog controllers
* Full gamepad controls plus shoulder buttons
* Dual SDHC card slots (up to 64GB of storage currently)
* headphone output up to 150mW/channel into 16 ohms, 99dB SNR (up to 24 bit/48KHz)
* TV output (composite and S-Video)
* Internal microphone plus ability to connect external microphone through headset
* Stereo line level inputs and outputs
* 43 button QWERTY and numeric keypad
* USB 2.0 OTG port (1.5/12/480Mbps) with capability to charge device
* USB 2.0 HOST port (480Mbps) capable of providing the full 500mA to attached devices (examples include USB memory, keyboard, mouse, 3G modem, GPS)
* up to two externally accessible UARTs and/or four PWM signals for hardware hacking, robot control, debugging, etc.
* un-brickable design with integrated boot loader for safe code experimentation
* Power and hold switch useful for "instant on" and key lockout to aid in media player applications on the go
* Runs on the Linux operating system (2.6.x)
* Dimensions: 140x83.4x27.5mm
* Weight: 335g (with 4200mAh battery)

==== Features ====
The Pandora is a mixture between a PC and a gaming console (similar to classic computers such as the Amiga). That's why it has gaming controls (ABXY buttons, d-pad, and analogue nubs). It is fast enough to emulate many other systems, run a full desktop, access the internet with Firefox and play games such as Quake III. However, it is not as big as a netbook. Believe it or not, it will fit in your pocket. It's a bit bigger than the Nintendo DS. (See Applications section of this manual to see what applications your Pandora will come with.)
Remember that your Pandora console will get better with every application installed!

== First Time Use ==
Now that you've opened the box, let's set this thing up! Place the battery inside the battery compartment on the back of the Pandora, making sure the contacts touch(the little silvery metal bits, it's easy). Snap on the battery cover and you're all set!
==== Charging ====
Charge your Pandora 8 hours before disconnecting it from the wall charger. This will improve the lifetime of your battery. To charge the Pandora, insert the power cable end in the Pandora and the other end into your wall socket.

The battery comes pre-charged at 40%, and that level might have decreased during shipping. To be on the safe side, we recommend that you charge the Pandora before you use it. Simply plug in your wall charger into an outlet, or optionally use a mini-USB cable connected to a computer or wall adapter. For extreme silliness, plug your Pandora into an ''already charged Pandora,'' and charge it from that! But not really.

As an added note by MWeston:
IF YOU POWERED THE SYSTEM WITHOUT A BATTERY, SHUT IT OFF BEFORE STICKING THE BATTERY BACK IN.

==== First Boot ====
Once your Pandora is ready, turn it on. The OS will take some time to boot up for the first time (about 10 minutes, this is only for the first boot, and is normal). After it has booted, a series of settings dialogs will pop up in the shape of a "Boot Wizard" allowing you to alter your Pandora's settings to your liking.

There are a total of 3 parts to the Boot Wizard guide:
===== System configuration =====
The first thing you will have to do is to calibrate the Pandora's touch screen. Only do this if the screen isn't calibrated already.
You will have the option for touchscreen calibration the first time you boot up your Pandora console.

Note: "Calibrating the touch screen" is a term used to describe the process of matching coordinates given by the touch layer with the underlying screen. A badly calibrated screen will register your push elsewhere on the screen, perhaps half a centimeter to one side. As there are sometimes slight variations in the production of the touch layer, you the user can improve the accuracy by matching the two layers manually.

===== User setup =====
After calibrating your screen, you will have to enter your full name. This is what you will see in any user selection dialogs or when the system needs to address you, so enter whatever you are most comfortable with. Then follows your username. It is recommended to choose an all-lowercase, one-word username here, since you will have to enter this name every time you log in. Once you've entered your username, a password input dialog appears. You will have to enter the password you want to use twice here. If you don't want to have a password for your device, simply leave both fields empty. If, however, you decide to enter a password, something hard to guess and between 8 and 16 characters long is preferred.

===== Network and security settings =====
You will now have to enter a name for your Pandora. This will be the Pandora's host name, so you have two options in this situation:

# If you don't have a domain you want to connect to, simply enter any name here. It should not contain any spaces.
# If you ''do'' have a domain you want to connect to, enter a name in the form of "pandoraname.domainname.tld". Note that you may never have a use for this.

Then, you'll have to choose whether you want to automatically log in on your Pandora when it boots, or if you should be given the opportunity to log in as a different user, or enter your password. It is recommended to disable auto login if you want to protect your user data, but if you're often in a hurry, then you can enable auto login here.

The final thing you will have to choose, is whether you want to use the full desktop Xfce environment or the gaming-oriented PMenu environment as your default environment in the Pandora. It is recommended to choose Xfce here if you want to gain access to the Pandora's full potential. This option can be changed later at any point.

==== Calibrating the Analog Nubs ====

The nubs automatically calibrate with use, and do so every time the unit is freshly powered up. Calibration information is stored inside the nub RAM, so when you power down (full power off, not just low power mode) the calibration information is lost. Calibrating the nubs is as simple as just using them -- do a few left right up down moves or swoosh around, and the nub will know its boundaries and be good thereafter.

So no special effort is required to calibrate or use the nubs, but the first few motions you use of them may be erratic as they self-calibrate.

==== Calibrating The Touchscreen ====
The touchscreen in your new Pandora device isn't psychic! You have to tell it what to do, and in order to do that effectively, you need to calibrate it. Simply navigate to settings→screen→calibration wizard{{Verify credibility}} and follow the onscreen instructions. You may have to recalibrate the screen from time to time as well.

During the first boot wizard, you will be offered the option to calibrate the touchscreen. By default it may well work okay, but the option is there. If calibration is far off, use the keyboard to select the calibration option.

===== Mouse (stylus/pointer) settings =====
When done with the calibration and you are back in the Pandora Xfce desktop environment you might also want to change some other touch screen settings to make navigation with the stylus work according to your preferences. Two recommended settings to experiment with for easier navigation are:

# The double-click Time setting
# The double-click Distance (valid touch-screen double-click area)

In the first setting, i.e. Time, you will be setting the interval between double-clicks where such clicks will be accepted as valid.
Ex. if you set the time to 250ms, the second click (or screen-tap in our case) must occur within 250ms of the first to be valid.

In the second setting, Distance, you will be setting the radius of screen area where the second click (tap) must fall into to be considered as a valid second tap. This means that if, for example, you set the distance to 5, your second tap must fall within a circle radius of 5 pixels from the point where the first tap occurred.

These two settings can be found under: Desktop ---> Xfce menu ---> Settings ---> Mouse ---> Behaviour tab.

== Basic Use ==

===Pmenu===

TBD.

===minimenu / mmenu===

minimenu is designed as a fast and easy to use launcher, without a lot of fancy frills. A grid of icons to launch, and use the d-pad or touchscreen to fire one off. It is fairly configurable and skinnable and is fully featured, and very fast. If you recall the interface on the gp32, gp2x, wiz, and gmenu2x you will be right at home and then some!

====The main grid====

The main grid with the default skin has most of the screen realestate showing a grid of available 'auto discovered' applications, with a detail panel on the right. A list of tabs is across the top of the screen, with some short help message on the bottom.

Pressing Start or B will invoke the pnd-application. Presseing Select will switch to a basic menu, providing shutdown or some advanced options.

Pressing "Y" (think "Why?") will bring up pnd-application documentation, if that pnd-file has defined any.

The left and right shoulder triggers will switch categories of applications; by default, minimenu includes an All category and defaults to showing it.

The applications are auto-discovered in the same means as the xfce desktop and pmenu and other pnd-supporting systems, however you may add additional minimenu-specific searchpaths into the configuration should you wish to. It is likely a basic file browser will also be added, letting you launch applications manually placed on your SD cards.

The standard overrides are supported -- .ovr files for icon title, clockspeed setting and categories, as well as a .pnd for icon override.

====Configuration and tricks====

minimenu has a fairly comprehensive configuration file for its minimalistic design; most options may be enabled or disabled or fiddled with, and the skin can reasonably be altered.

The All category can be removed if undesired.

Expert conf hackers can specify what categories they'd like and in what order, and have multiple app categories dumped into one tab, and other tricks.

pnd-application icons may be all loaded during the menu setup, or deferred until later and loaded in the background.

Preview pics may be loaded up front (not advised, as it can be slow), or deferred until later. (When deferred, they may load when you rest the selection, or load in background.)

You may choose to have auto-discovered applications registered into any of their 6 categories (Main, Sub1, Sub2, Alt, AltSub1, AltSub2).

Etc and so on.

Additional keys are supported: Q to quit the menu (not really useful for most people), and Space to invoke the application.

===Desktop style environment===

====On the Desktop====

The desktop will contain icons for numerous locations (such as each mounted SD card), as well as any auto-discovered pnd-applications located on SD cards or internal NAND.

====In the menu====
On the bottom left you have your applications menu, similar to the Windows start menu. Clicking it brings up a list of all installed applications and pnd-applications in the appropriate location on your SD cards.

====Miscellaneous====
To the right may be some icons, these serve as shortcuts to commonly used applications. Next to that you have your taskbar which, as you might have guessed, lists all running applications in your current workspace. To the right of the taskbar you have your workspaces, think of these as multiple desktops. By default you have two to switch between. Applications running in one workspace will not be visible in the other, so you can effectively hide your Ms. Pacman game from your boss at work, because there's no way you're not going to go for the gold, even at work! Finally there are a few more icons that deal with TV-Out, network connectivity, etc. and some running applications may place an icon there as well. And to the right of THOSE, you have your time. Because time flies when you're using your Pandora! Badum tsh. And to the right of that, you have a little icon which, when clicked, displays all running applications.

Finally, I'd just like to reiterate this--EVERYTHING is customizable! We'll get to that section later, but for now, let's just check out the applications on your Pandora.

===Buttons===

====Xfce menu====

The Pandora button will bring up the applications menu, letting you quickly enter a search to locate an application to run or perform operations against running applications.

===Power Modes===

Without switching the device entirely off, it may be placed into low power mode or regular power mode; simply pressing the power button will toggle modes.

Consider low power mode to be akin to turning off a PDA or cellphone -- the screen is off, the CPU is clocked down and so on, but the device is still silently on, allowing for alarms to go off or it to be turned on again instantly. Regular power mode is for normal usage.

Low power mode is probably going to be used as the normal "off" for most people, with true off (device powered down entirely, unable to respond to alarms or wake up quickly) available to conserve battery power. Turning the Pandora off completely is the best option if you don't plan on using it for few weeks or longer.

Closing the lid will turn off the display but otherwise leave the device operating - handy for audio playing; turning off the display lowers power use.

The actual behaviour of buttons and events can be customized.

Pasting from a forum post:

- closing the lid turns off the screen; it is _not_ low power mode -- rational: we figuredyou might want to play music or other tasks while the lid is closed. Turning off the LCD does save quite a bit of power, however.

- hitting the power switch briefly does to 'low power mode' or 'standby'; the cpu is clocked down, the lcd is turned off, networking is turned off; hit power again to restore to the previous state. In low power mode, the system is running, just really slow, and your system should get a few days in this mode before it runs out of batteries.

- and of course, 'off' -- xfce -> logout -> shut down, or minimenu 0-> select -> shutdown, and you're _off_.

== Basic Linux user guide ==
New to the wonderful world of Linux? No problem! You don't need mad terminal skills to open a web browser, but it can be nice to know what you're doing once in a while.
==== The structure of the file system ====
If you're used to the file system of e.g. MS Windows, you will find that a Linux file system is rather different from what you're used to. In this section, we will go through everything you have to know in order to feel comfortable with using the Pandora's file system.
===== Basic philosophy =====
In Windows, you have multiple file system roots, called "drives", that are labeled with different letters, like "C:" or "D:". In Linux, there aren't multiple root directories, but rather just one root directory, called "/". All other directories are inside of this directory, including other drives.

===== Common directories =====
Inside of the root directory ("/") are quite a lot of other directories. Here are the most important ones:
* "/home" - This is where all of the files that are owned by all users are stored. Users do not generally have write-access to anything outside of this directory.
* "/home/username" - Here are the personal files of user "username". In this directory, you will find a directory called "Documents", "Pictures", "Desktop" etc. that correspond to that users personal directories. This directory is also called "username"'s home directory, and can be abbreviated with "~/" (if you're currently logged in as username) or "~username/".
* "/boot" - This is the directory where the Linux kernel is stored, and other files that are needed at boot time can be accessed. Do not touch this directory (You can't even do it if you wanted to)!
* "/bin", "/lib" - System binaries and libraries are stored here. Most of the terminal commands mentioned below can be found inside of "/bin". You should generally never have to touch this directory, either.
* "/usr" - Here is where you'll find programs and files installed by the user. Core applications such as the web browser, media player, and other applications that are available the first time you start your Pandora are stored here. If you decide to install anything via the "ipkg" command (covered later), this is where the files needed by those installations will end up.
* "/etc" - System-wide configuration. Should only be touched by power-users.
* "/media/*" - If you connect USB drives, SD cards or other external media, you will find that the contents of that media have been placed here.

Don't worry if this doesn't make any sense; It was thought up by bearded engineers back in the seventies. They liked the idea that everything would be in a predictable place, but this is no longer completely the case.

==== The File Manager ====
==== Killing Applications ====
==== Basic Terminal Commands ====
Note: Linux is case sensitive. This applies to filenames and directories too. "/home/me/stuff" is a different folder than "/home/me/STUFF", you can actually have both. You can have "/home/me/Stuff" too if you like, and all three are separately recognised directories.

=====Navigation=====
In the terminal, you are always in some folder. Think of it like being in a file manager: you can see the contents of the directory you're in, you can do things with those files, or you may decide to go to some other folder and continue your work there.

There are a few essential commands that are used to navigate around your system via the terminal:

* "pwd" - Print the current working directory (will print e.g. "/home/user")
* "ls" - List directory contents (similar to "Dir" in Dos, and the Linux command "dir" will actually emulate the DOS command if you want to!)
* "cd <directory name>" - Change to a different directory, eg. "cd music" or "cd /home/me/music"
* "cd .." - Go up one directory level (similar to "cd.." in Dos)
* "cd" - Go back to your home directory (similar to My Documents in Windows)
* "cd -" - Go back to the previous directory you were in (handy if you forget)

=====Controlling Running Apps=====
* "top" - View running processes (like the Task Manager in Windows) press "q" to quit
* "killall [program name] - Stops running process (use with care)

=====File Manipulation=====
* "rm <filename>" - Remove a file, eg. "rm somefile.txt" or "rm /home/me/randomfiles/somefile.txt"
* "rmdir <directory>" - Will remove a directory, but **only** if it is empty!
* "rm -r <directory>" - Will remove a directory and its contents ("-r" means recursive)
* "rm -rf <directory>" - Will remove a directory, all of its contents, without asking you first. Use with extreme care. ("-f" means force)
* "mv <original filename> <new filename>" - Moves a file to a new place, also used for renaming, eg. "mv somefile.txt somefile_backup.txt" will rename it, but "mv somefile.txt /home/me/backup/somefile.txt" will move it. This will also work for directories.
* "cp <file to copy> <new filename>" - Copy a file, eg. "cp twoweeks.txt twomonths.txt" copies into current directory, while "cp twomonths.txt /home/me/ihaveadream/twoweeks.txt" copies to another directory.
* "cp -r <directory to copy> <new directory name>" - Copy a directory and all of its contents to another location.
* "touch <new file name>" - Makes a new (empty) file
* "mkdir <new directory name>" - Makes a directory

=====Misc.=====
* "cat <filename>" - Prints the contents of a file, eg. "cat hellolo.txt"
* "clear" - Clears screen, terminal input begins at the top again
* "date" - Your friend, the terminal will tell you the date
* "cal [month] [year]" - Makes a pretty calendar, eg. "cal 12 2009" or "cal * 2010" or "cal 1 2010 > fingers_crossed.txt" sends output to file
* "history" - Gives a list of the recent commands you have run. Running !number (e.g. !15) will rerun that numbered command in the history list
* "vi <filename>" - Opens the file for editing in vi [http://pandorawiki.org/Vi]

History Search: Press CTRL-R. As you type, BASH will try and find the command in your recent history that most closely matches what you are typing. To get back to the prompt, press CTRL-C.

Autocompletion: Press TAB. The terminal (also called the shell) will attempt to intelligently figure out what you're trying to type. It needs something to work with however, so try pressing TAB half way through a command or location.

eg. "cd /home/me/pandora_suc" *TAB* will complete it as "cd /home/me/pandora_success" or with a filename "cat /home/me/letters/i_want_the_pandora_to_fa" *TAB* will turn into "cat /home/me/letters/i_want_the_pandora_to_fall_into_my_hands"

Directory aliases: There are some special directory names you can use to refer to a directory that would be too long to type otherwise, or that you simply don't know the name of.
* "~" - Refers to your home directory e.g. "/home/user".
* "~seconduser" - Refers to someone else's home directory.
* "." - Refers to the current directory, or the "same directory" in a path. What this means, is that if you type "cd .", nothing will happen since you already are in ".", and if you type "cd somedir/././././././.", you will simply go to "somedir", since the "."-directories that come after it are the "same directory" as the one before them.
* ".." - Refers to the directory in which the current directory is, or the "parent directory" in a path. If you type "cd .." you will come to the parent directory of your current directory, and if you type "cd s1/s2/s3/../../..", nothing will happen, since the path you specified cancels itself out.

== Applications ==

Many applications will come preinstalled into the internal NAND; these will be regular Linux applications (not packaged into pnd files, since they do not need to be redistributed to anyone.)

Additional applications may be found as pnd-files (see below, a packaged up single file representing an entire application) or as regular Linux files (an application likely being made up of many files and possibly needing installation.)

==== What Is Included? ====
* Ångström Linux: Lightweight beautiful Linux-based operating system for the Pandora.
* Xfce: A full featured window manager for Linux.
* Midori: A full features web browser, designed to be lighter and faster than a full desktop style browser.
* Lightweight office utilities including Abiword, Gnumeric, and ClawsMail.
{{Volume needed}}

==== Where Can I Get More Apps? ====
There are many ways to get more applications onto your Pandora.

*The easiest way is to browse the [http://apps.open-pandora.org Open App Store], where you can download a selection of free or commercial applications. To download, navigate to an app, pay for it if you must, and hit the 'download' button. Select where you want to save it, and you're done!

*There is the good ol' [http://dl.openhandhelds.org/cgi-bin/pandora.cgi Pandora File Archive].

*There are nice repositories, such as the [http://www.angstrom-distribution.org/repo Angstrom ARM Repository], or...

*The Pandora includes the package manager [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipkg ipkg].

*Also, people may upload their apps to weird crevices in the net, so be on the lookout! (or use a search engine)

<div style="border-top:1px solid gray; border-bottom:1px solid gray; padding-top:5px; padding-bottom:5px; margin-bottom:20px">     ''Note: Pandora's internal memory (NAND) will be at close to capacity when you receive your Pandora. All new programs should be installed to SD card. Downloads from the Angstrom Repo, or use of the Ipkg package manager, should only be done by advanced users or when instructed by Open Pandora Ltd (for example, firmware updates).''</div>

== Introduction To .PNDs ==
==== What Are .PNDs? ====

A .pnd ("pandora") file is an application (game, word processor, emulator, whatever.) More accurately, it is a full application bundled up into a single file; think of it like a zip, with a relatively well defined internal structure.

The pnd-file system was designed so you could use an application without the hassle of installation or uninstallation, or even having to organize it yourself if you don't want to. You just download or obtain the pnd-file, and use it.

If you remember classic computers such as the Amiga - where you inserted a disk and then launched the applications read by Workbench (the Amiga's operating system) - then this is similar: when you insert an SD card into one of the two slots, the (Linux based) Pandora OS will scan it for your PND program files. Any program it finds will either turn up on the desktop or the application menu (just like in Windows).

More details can be found in the "libpnd hub" part of the wiki, but that is more oriented to techies and developers.

==== How do I run a PND-application? ====

Put your pnd-files in your SD (see below for some suggestions where.)

A pnd-file is usually invoked in one of the following ways

* browse to the file using the directory browser, and click to run it. (.pnd files are file-associated to another program, pnd_run which knows how to run them.) This lets you organize pnd-files in directories of your choice on the device NAND or SD.

* in PMenu, the applications will be shown by name; you can just select and run them from the menu

* for pnd-files placed into /pandora/menu on SD, the application will be shown in the Start menu on the device; use your stylus or buttons to invoke it

* for pnd-files placed into /pandora/desktop or /pandora/apps on SD, they will show up automatically on your desktop; invoke them with the stylus, your finger, or controls as you see fit

==== Where Do .PNDs Go? ====

Put .pnd-files into specific directories if you want them to show up in the Start menu or on your Pandora desktop, or in Pmenu.

You can put them anywhere you like in internal NAND or SD, if you wish to organize them yourself and launch them with taps.

/pandora/desktop -> pnd files show up on the desktop

/pandora/menu -> show up in the Applications menu (by the developers suggested categories.)

/pandora/apps -> show up in the desktop, and in Pmenu

/pandora/mmenu -> show up only in minimenu, ignored by the rest of the system

These locations are not written in stone. The "libpnd" config files are in /etc/pandora/conf in the NAND. Generally you will never need to alter these files, but you certainly can if you wish. In theory, obliterating the files will still leave the system working, and they are easily restored. One file, /etc/pandora/conf/desktop defines the "search paths" to look for .pnd files, and where to put ".desktop" files when they are found. The searchpaths says where to find them (such as /pandora/desktop), and where to put the application link - /usr/share/applications is where the menu items are pulled from. IF you wish to put pnd files somewhere not in the searchpath, just add the directory to the search-path and you're good to go.

==== If I want to override the .PND icon, name, or other settings, how? (Slightly advanced topic)====

The easiest way right now is via the "override" (or "overlay") system -- .ovr files.

An .ovr is just a text file you create, with the same name as the pnd-file and in the same location, but with a different file extension. Piece of cake.

If your pnd-file is Hatari.pnd, and you're putting it into /pandora/desktop, then you might create an ovr file for it as: /pandora/desktop/Hatari.ovr
If you wish to provide your own icon, create it with the same location and filename, but as a .pnd file: /pandora/desktop/Hatari.png

.ovr files are automatically supported by the system so should work across all pnd-application aware applications and desktops. .png icon overrides have to be handled by the menus, but are already handled by minimenu and anythign using the .desktop system (such as xfce full desktop or other standard desktop environments.)

An ovr-file simply looks like this:

The ovr file may (at this time) override the icon title, the CPU clock speed to set on launch, the main category, and the first subcategory for the main category. Additional fields will become overridable.

Minimenu honors up to 3 lines of 'notes', pulled from the .ovr file. (Make sure they are in the right subapp group). note-1, note-2, note-3, see example below. The notes in minimenu are shown at the bottom of the detail text panel.

<source lang="c">
[Application-0]
title HatariHack0
maincategory Audio
maincategorysub1 Emulator
[Application-1]
title HatariHack1
clockspeed 200
note-1 My text for note line 1
</source>

Notice the Application-0 and Application-1 -- any given .pnd file may include multiple applications, so you need to assign your overrides to the correct "sub application". It can be tricky to figure out which subapp you wish to override, but there are some tricks. minimenu, for example, shows the subapp-number in the detail panel. When looking at a .desktop filename, you'll notice #0.desktop .. some number after the # is the subapp-number.

==== Where does my data go? How do I make files visible to the applications? ====

An application normally will see what is contained within the pnd-file, or your personal data created with the tool; it can of course look anywhere on the SD or device internal memory. For example a Quake port might expect to see extra level files in /quake, or give you a way of selecting a path to put files in.. or it might just expect it to be in your personal data folders, or in the pnd-file itself. Its up to the application, with suggestions in the pnd-guidelines for developers.

The first time a pnd-application is run, an "app data" directory is created for it; anything that app data folder contains will be visible to the application as if it was in the pnd-file (and in fact, this lets you override files in the pnd-file without modifying the .pnd itself, which could be handy.) If your app creates a file "foo", it'll show up in /pandora/appdata/appname-id as "foo". The actual appdata folder name depends on the name used by the developer, but should generally look like application-name and some funny number afterwards. It should be easy to spot.

ex: Quake 1 will probably put score or save data in /pandora/appdata/quake1-123/ or somesuch.

It will always be helpful to read the description or readme file included.

===== Example: Hatari =====

Hatari (Atari ST emulator) by default is set to look in "./disks" for the disk images (ROMs) to use. What this means is within the pnd-file (where no disks are supplied), and in the appdata directory. With Hatari, you can browse anywhere from the UI and pick a disk anywhere on your SD cards, but by default it'll look into the ./disks directory.

So you might put Hatari into the menu (/pandora/menu/Hatari131.pnd), or into the desktop (/pandora/desktop/Hatari131.pnd), or somewhere else. Regardless, the appdata will be (with the version I'm building now), /pandora/appdata/hatari.skeezix and thus you would put your .ST or .MSA disk images into /pandora/appdata/hatari.skeezix/disks to make them visible to the emulator. However, given it features its own UI, you can put them into /roms/atarist or /disks or whatever, and use them from there.

===== Q: How do I make ROMs available to an emulator? =====

For something like ROMs, hopefully a developer consensus will lead either to a canonical location, or a convention of having a directory picker or browser present, so that ROMs can be stored in SD locations of your choice; doesn't strike me as something that should be in a pnd-file, or to be pretended to be in a pnd-file with appdata tricks.

===== Q: How do I make pak-files available to Quake? =====

For some add-ons or data needed for a game, the developer may require it to be 'in the main application path'; as mentioned above, just drop it into the appdata folder and the app will just see it.

==== How Do I Make .PNDs? ====
==== More Info About .PNDs ====
Visit [[libpnd_hub]] for more information!
== Configuration ==
==== Updating The Firmware ====

Given a working firmware, you might wish to patch it with official Open Pandora patches; you might also wish to just grab an application from the Angstrom repository, say.

In both of these cases, an ipk file will be made available. (In the future, an automated system may offer to patch up your device or auto-download patches. TBD.)

An ipk file is a compressed installable package.

It should be easily used, but from the Terminal if you wish to manually apply an ipk to patch the firmware, install or update an Angstrom application, it is simple: '''opkg install foo.ipk'''

==== Replacing the Firmware ====

Rather than patch the firmware, the firmware may be replaced wholesale with a freshly downloaded firmware.

The process for reinstalling the firmware is as follows:
* Extract the contents of the zip to root (main) directory (folder) of your SD card. Fat32 and ext2 filesystems are supported.
* Make sure the pandora is turned off (remove the battery in case it crashes or doesn't turn off by using normal means).
* Insert that SD card into pandora's first slot(it's the one closer to headphone jack).
* Press and hold the right trigger ('R'), then turn the power on (if you have battery removed, insert it while holding R).
* A menu should appear on screen. Select "boot from SD1" using the d-pad by pressing B or X.
* Wait for flash process to finish. Connect the charger to be sure the battery doesn't run out while flashing. Press enter when asked to do so.
* The device should turn off, press power (without holding R) to turn it back on.
* It should then start it's first boot process which migh take up to 15 minutes, be sure to wait for it to finish, otherwise firmware corruption might happen again.

The first firmware release can be found [http://notaz.gp2x.de/releases/pandora/pandora-firmware-2010-05-01-Zaxxon.zip here] (Version: 2010-05-01-Zaxxon)

==== Booting a Firmware from SD ====

The hardware is capable of booting entirely from SD; if the device is bricked or otherwise has a blank NAND, this could be an option. furthermore you're able to try out alternative operating systems without needing to reinstall your primary operating system.

Steps include:

* Preparing the SD card(s)
* Setting up the firmware on the SD card

=====Preparing the SD card=====

There are two main approaches:

* Setting up the firmware on on SD card (meaning you need two partitions - a boot partition, and a firmware partition), and
* Setting things up across two SD cards - meaning you boot from one SD card, and have the firmware on the other.

Operating from one SD card provides you the option of still being able to use the other; operating across two cards provides you he option to have a regular boot-SD, and flip between multiple other SDs for the actual firmware, should you wish to cycle between many operating systems (say.)

The boot partition generally must be FAT32, and then the kernel, MLO and other files need to be unpacked upon it.

The firmware partition must be either ext2fs or ext3fs; under Linux, such a partition can be easily created:

'''mkfs.ext2 -L LABELNAME /dev/mmcblk0p2'''
- assuming LABELNAME for the partition
- assuming /dev/mmcblk0p2 for your SD device; you'd better check this carefully ;)

==== Setting Up WiFi ====
==== Setting Up Bluetooth ====

==== Adjusting Brightness/Contrast ====
==== Changing Your Theme ====
== Minimenu - Comprehensive Configuration Documentation ==

=== Interesting Menu Items for General Usage ===

==== Force all preview caching now ====

With default configuration, preview pictures will be pulled in as you rest the selection on applications (and not during menu load time, since it is too slow to do that, currently.) When pulled in, a preview pic is cached to RAM (so is instant for pulling up this session again). With default configuration, the preview pic will also attempt to cache out to SD card so that even next session of the menu, it will pull up very quickly (partial second.) However, that very first time you pull up any given preview pic, it will take a few seconds to load due to mounting the pnd-application, looking for the preview inside, and unmounting the application.

The Force All Preview option is in the Select menu; this option allows you to take the preview caching hit right away, for all applications. Trigger this option, then ignore your Pandora for a couple minutes while it chugs away.

Upon completion, all pnd-applications containing Previews should have them in their SD cache (assuming you had sufficient space free.) What this means is that pulling up preview pics should be instant for this sesssion, and very fast for future sessions as well.. no more waiting a few seconds for the first time pull up of a preview picture.

==== Overriding application details ====

===== Icon =====

===== Category =====

===== Clockspeed =====

===== Notes =====

An .ovr file may be created in the same location as a pnd-application, with the same name except for .ovr at the end -- an application named "Foo.pnd" could have an override file named "Foo.ovr"; that file is mostly handled by libpnd (See above for details), but minimenu extends it to support "Notes".

See the example below; http://pandorawiki.org/User_manual#If_I_want_to_override_the_.PND_icon.2C_name.2C_or_other_settings.2C_how.3F_.28Slightly_advanced_topic.29

===== Preview picture =====

libpnd does not handle preview picture overrides, so minimenu does this on its own.

In the same location as a pnd file, a preview override may be specified.

If the pnd-file is named "Foo.pnd", minimenu will look for Foo_pvw#0.png for "subapp 0"'s preview. "Subapp 1"'s preview would be checked for as "Foo_pvw#1.png"

=== Default configuration is.. ===

* Runs without X, and with X.
* Look for applications in the Pandora normal places; your SD cards, in /pandora/desktop and /pandora/menu and /pandora/apps
* Look for additional apps in /pandora/mmenu (say, if you want to have minimenu-only applications, for some reason)
* Look for skins in /etc/pandora/mmenu/skins (on Pandora), but also in SD in /pandora/mmenu/skins/ -- so you can develope skins, or download them and drop them there on your SD.
* Will show pnd-applications in their Main Category tab, and in their Main Sub Category 1 tab. (But not in Main Sub 2, or Alt Category, Alt Sub 1, or Alt Sub 2)
* Will show an "All" tab
* Will show a tab for each non-empty directory in /media -- ie: your SD cards (or USB devices, or other mounts)
* Will not wrap tabs -- when you hit right-trigger to switch to the next right tab, and there are no more, it won't go to the first tab
* Will use DaveC's skin
* Will load application icons when the menu starts up (its pretty fast, so this is usually okay)
* Will load preview pics after the selection rests on an application in the grid for a second or two (ie: not on startup, since it is _very slow_)
* Will try to cache preview pics onto SD card (firstly on the same SD as the application, but will also search other SDs/devices until it finds one with at least 500KB free space)
* Will load preview pics in real time (make you wait while it loads, not do it in background while you do other stuff.)
* Will scroll whole page of the grid up and down
* Will wrap around left/right of grid, staying on same row
* Will wrap around top/bottom of the grid
* Will look for 'category conf' file in /pandora/mmenu on your SDs as mmcatmap.conf; most people will never create this file
* Will honour icon overrides and icon name, category overrides (this is handled by libpnd before minimenu sees it.) However, will also look in the ovr file for 'notes' to show in the Detail panel, and will also look for "preview overrides".

=== Global/User Preferences ===

Users will generally not have to touch mmenu.conf at all -- hopefully the defaults are sensible. Still, it can be tweaked.

Skinners will generally touch mmskin.conf in their skin's directory, and WILL NOT put options in their that belong in the other conf files. Thus we achieve separation -- user can change skins and still have their settings applied, and the skin can change its appearance its own way without depending on user mucking with files.

Minimenu will search for mmenu.conf in a sequence of locations, so that you may override it without clobbering the built in system defaults.
# /pandora/mmenu/mmenu.conf - so you can override it on your SD cards
# /etc/pandora/conf/mmenu.conf - the system default
# ./minimenu/mmenu.conf - so you can run from 'current directory' while doing development. Most people can ignore this.

Options in minumenu are broken up into config file sections.

Most options have internal defaults, but many do not, so the conf files are needed; if you break a conf file, it will often still work.. but you can make minimenu crash, so be careful and keep conf file backups. It is probably wise to edit conf files via the override on SD cards, and put skins on SD cards, so that worst case.. pop out your SD and you're good to go with default system again.

==== [minimenu] section ====

* skin_searchpath -- defines the directories that will be searched to find skin-directories. A skin directory is a _directory containing mmskin.conf_ so searchpath may include /media/*/pandora/mmenu/skins to mean that SD cards will be searched in /pandora/mmenu/skins - a skin named "Foo" will then be /pandora/mmenu/skins/Foo/ and contain mmskin.conf
* skin_selected -- defines where to store the name of the activated skin; if this file does not exist, or the named skin cannot be found, the skin named 'default' will be searched for in skin_searchpath
* skin_confname -- the name of the conf file to look for in skins; if you change this, everything will break :)
* load_previews_new -- if set to >0, will attempt to load preview pics _at startup of menu every time_ -- EXTREMELY SLOW for un-cached previews; if, however, you have recently done a "force cache all previews", and thus are fully cached, it might not be too bad. Highly unadvisable.
* load_previews_later -- if set to >0, will want to load preview pics later; if set to 0, will not even try to load preview pictures, ever.
* load_icons_later -- if set to >0, will attempt to load icons after menu starts; normally set to 0, meaning load icons during menu startup (advisable, since its pretty fast.)
* defer_icon_us -- when load_icons_later is activated, this is the microseconds delay between loading icons. (ie: background thread will load icon, then another icon, then another .. with this delay between)
* threaded_preview -- if set to >0, will load preview pics in background; not advisable. Normally will make you wait while preview happens. First releases of Pandora will probably take a few seconds to load each preview, and doing it in background chugs the user experience too much. (A later improvement to pnd_run.sh or creating a fast-mount script that skips the Union Filesystem Mount will make preview loading MANY times faster, at which point this might be a good option.)
* loglevel -- if you wish to turn up or down the logging
* x11_present_sh -- define the command used to figure out if X is present or not; some apps require X, or require no X, or don't care; the menu may decide to filter out apps depending on their requirements and whethor X is running or not
* desktop_apps -- if set to >0, will look in the desktop searchpath for apps (/pandora/desktop say; see /etc/pandora/conf/desktop)
* menu_apps -- if set to >0, will look in menu searchpath too -- see /etc/pandora/conf/desktop
* aux_searchpath -- if you wish to look somewhere else for applications entirely (such as for minimenu specific apps? or another pile of apps?) then look in this searchpath

==== [utility] Section ====

* terminal -- specifies the command to run when the Select menu is used and user requests to run a Terminal; ie: you could set it to Xterm, or Konsole, or Terminal, or whatever you prefer.

==== [display] Section ====

* fullscreen -- if >0, will attempt to grab the full screen and have no window decorations when in X11; if 0, will be a normal window that you can flip to other windows
* screen_width -- used for calculation of a few defaults; don't mess with it.

==== [tabs] Section ====

* wraparound -- if >0, will wrap from leftmost tab to rightmost tab and vice-versa, when trying to switch tabs using the triggers. Normally will just stop at left/rightmost tabs
* top_maincat -- if >0, will include apps in the tab for their main category
* top_maincat1 -- if >0, will include apps in the tab for their main categories first subcategory
* top_maincat2 -- if >0, will include apps in the tab for their main categories second subcategory
* top_altcat -- if >0, will include apps in the tab for their alternate category
* top_altcat1 -- if >0, will include apps in the tab for their alternate categories first subcategory
* top_altcat2 -- if >0, will include apps in the tab for their alternate categories second subcategory

==== [grid] Section ====

* scroll_increment -- when scrolling the grid up/down, how many rows to scroll by
* wrap_horiz_samerow -- when wrapping left/right on the grid, stay on same row or go to next/previous row?
* wrap_vert_stop -- if set >0, will not wrap top/bottom when user pressing up/down

==== [previewpic] Section ====

* defer_timer_ms -- the amoung of time (milliseconds) that the user most leave the selection in one place before the menu goes to pull up the preview pic (either from RAM cache, SD cache or pnd-file if not yet cached)
* do_cache -- if set to >0, will attempt to cache preview pics from pnd apps out to SD for faster loading next session (ie: in first release of the device, pulling preview from pnd may take 3-4 seconds, but pulling from SD cache may take half-second)
* cache_searchpath -- the list of locations to attempt to _cache to_ -- after pulling a preview pic, try to stick the preview here for faster retrieval; note that it will always try the same drive as the app came from first, to try to keep the preview in the same SD as the pnd is.
* cache_minfree -- the amount of space required to make the SD usable for caching too; ie: this is designed so the cache will not use up your vary last amount of space on an SD. If space is insufficient, the next location in cache_searchpath will be checked
* cache_path -- the location to write the cached preview pics out to, relative to the matching searchpath; ie: If a pnd-file is on SD2, it will first try SD2, and then check SD1 and go across the searchpath; once a candidate is found (if!), then the cache_path on that device will be used
* cache_findpath -- the searchpath that helps the menu find the previews; should work out to the same locations as covered by cache_searchpath but include the full cache_path as well, but could also include other locations should you have downloaded pre-cached previews or preview overrides

==== [categories] Section ====

* catmap_searchpath -- the searchpath to be looked through to find the mmcatmap.conf file (which need not exist at all.)
* catmap_confname -- should you wish to rename the mmcatmap.conf file for some reason
* do_all_cat -- if >0, will show an "All" tab to which all applications will be sent (in addition to their other categories as defined in [tabs] above

==== [filesystem] Section ====

* do_browser == if >0, the directory browser will be enabled
* tab_searchpaths == the list of directories that will be opened for browsers, and each will have its own tab

Note the examples:
NOTE: to keep from having a million tabs, minimenu will only show directory browser tabs that are non-empty
# if tab_searchpaths is just "/media", then one tab ("/media") will be created, and you can browse that
# if you put "/media/*", then one tab will be created for each subdir in /media (one per SD, plus USB and other mounts)
# you could make the browser point to many locations, such as "/media/*:/:/home" which would show one for each /media subdir, as well as a tab for / (root of filesystem), as well as /home (show one to contain all home directories.)

=== Setting up Category Mapping/Merging/Aliasing and Custom Tabs ===

An optional conf file may be created to specify 'category mapping' functionality.

This conf file should be called mmcatmap.conf (unless the name has been changed in mmenu.conf), and should be located in one of the following locations (unless an alternate searchpath has been specified in mmenu.conf)
# On your SD cards in /pandora/mmenu/mmcatmap.conf
# on device in /etc/pandora/mmenu/mmcatmap.conf
# ./minimenu (relative to current working directory) as mmcatmap.conf -- really only useful for developers

The goals of the mmcatmap.conf are a few..
# Allow renaming or aliasing categories (from what developers specify in pnd-applications PXML.xml)
# Allow merging categories (so you can put apps that would be across 5 catrgories, into 3 of your own design)
# Allow order of tabs to be specified (rather than be 'random' as determined from applications)

Applications are _encouraged_ (but not forced) to stick to Freedesktop Category Standards (and should stick to syntax standard.. ie: no spaces, etc.) So in general you should encounter a limited number of categories (not "Foofy123!" but things like "Games" with subcategory "Emulator". See PXML.xml specification for guidelines.) However, developers may specify whatever they like into the PXML.xml and perhaps you disagree or wish to use your own category/tab assignments.

==== Note on category overrides ====

There are two main kinds of overrides in this context:
# A per-pnd (and per-subapplication) override; see .ovr files above and below for how to override a category of a specific application
# A per-category override; that is what mmcatmap.conf is for, read on!

==== Example mmcatmap.conf ====

<pre>
[categories]
# Normally for mmenu, an encountered category is just used as is. 5 cats exist, you get 5 tabs.
# If map_on is >0, then category transforms will occur
# @NEWCAT oldcat1:oldcat2 <- means oldcat1, if found, will map to NEWCAT. "@" is discarded.
# NOTE: FreeDesktop rules do not allow categories with spaces in the name; if needed, I can add it with quoting.
# If map_default_on is set (>0), then any unmapped categories will be forced into the default category bucket (map_default_cat.)
# If map_default_on is off (=0), then unmapped categories will become their own categories as normal.
# Should probably still have an @ line to create the default category, since creating the cats comes before assigning defaults
# NOTE: Individual app overrides occur at the time of app scanning, so before this category mapping occurs and thus is effected
map_on 0 # if >0, will do category mapping at all; if 0, don't do any of this.
map_default_on 0 # if >0, any unmapped category will get forced to map_default_cat; set to 0 to leave unmapped cats alone
map_default_cat Spam # see map_default_on
# NOTE: List the categories in reverse order to how you wish them in the tab list; last one shows up as first tab
@Woogle Audio
@Jimmy Game
@Spam
</pre>

* map_on -- if >0, will turn category magic on; by default, this file and section is ignored.
* map_default_on -- if >0, means that any category not otherwise mapped will be sent to the map_default_cat category. ie: So you must now define mappings for all tabs to _keep_
* map_default_cat -- the name of the category that all not-explicitly-mapped categories will be sent to, if map_default_on is set (similar to how "All" tab works)

The main goods are the config entries starting with "@"

NOTE: The tabs in the config should be listed in reverse order to how you wish them displayed. In the example above, you will get tabs "Spam", "Jimmy", "Woogle", even though they are listed Woogle, then Jimmy, then Spam.

The format is:
@TABNAME<whitespace>category1:category2:category-etc-etc

example: Map the category "Audio" to be instead called "Woogle".
<pre>
@Woogle Audio
</pre>

example: Map the category "Game" and "Audio" to instead be called "Multimedia"
<pre>
@Multimedia Game:Audio
</pre>

NOTE: In the large example above, note that the "default" is specified to be "Spam", and if enabled, you then need to define "@Spam" tab for it to refer to (even if nothing is mapped to it in the @Spam line itself.)

NOTE: The categories will at first come from the pnd-applications (in their PXML.xml as specified by the developer), and then possibly be overriden by the .ovr file. This is at the libpnd level before minimenu ever catches wind of the application. Then during application discovery, minimenu will get a list of categories and applications, and pass them through mmcatmap.conf to determine the final list of tabs and categories to use.

Consider: If two pnd-files ezist, as in AwesomeGame in category Game, and SoundOff in Audio, you will normally get two tabs (Game and Audio), plus an All tab, plus a /media/mmcblk1p1 tab for SD1 (say.) If you then put in mmcatmap.conf a line "@Foo Audio", then you will essentially rename Audio to "Foo", and still get two tabs - Game and Foo. You could create a new tab with "@Whizzo Audio:Game" to merge those two categories into one new one called Whizzo, instead.

=== Skinning the Interface ===

==== Setting up a skin you download ====

==== Creating new skins ====

== Oops! I Borked My Pandora! ==
Fear not, young netizen! Your Pandora was designed to be unbrickable, so unless you used the ancient art of alchemy to physically turn your Pandora into a brick (or you just broke the hardware inside), you should be okay!
==== Restore The Original Firmware ====

First, download the compressed firmware file from [http://notaz.gp2x.de/releases/pandora/pandora-firmware-2010-05-01-Zaxxon.zip http://notaz.gp2x.de/releases/pandora/pandora-firmware-2010-05-01-Zaxxon.zip]

Then, follow the following instructions:

#Extract the contents of this zip to root (main) directory (folder) of your SD card. Fat32 and ext2 filesystems are supported.
#Make sure the pandora is turned off (remove the battery in case it crashes or doesn't turn off by using normal means).
#Insert that SD card into pandora's first slot (it's the one closer to headphone jack).
#Press and hold the right trigger ('R'), then turn the power on (if you have battery removed, insert it while holding R).
#A menu should appear on screen. Select "boot from SD1" using the d-pad by pressing B or X.
#Wait for flash process to finish. Connect the charger to be sure the battery doesn't run out while flashing. Press enter when asked to do so.
#The device should turn off, press power (without holding R) to turn it back on. It should then start it's first boot process which migh take up to 15 minutes, be sure to wait for it to finish, otherwise firmware corruption might happen again.

<br/>

Congratulations, you should now have successfully reflashed your firmware.

<br/>

<small>Source: [http://www.gp32x.com/board/index.php?/topic/53637-first-boot-its-asking-for-a-login-and-password/page__view__findpost__p__858053 notaz]</small>

==== Boot From SD or USB ====

== Pandora FAQ ==
Silly goose, go to the [[FAQ]] page for more detailed information.

[[Category:Categories]]

User manual

2009-12-31T20:04:27Z

Aethix: Added a disclaimer for anybody who might happen to need it.

User manual

2009-12-24T19:40:49Z

Aethix: /* Highlights */ De-wikified asterisk

[[Image:PandoraFront.jpg|Right|thumb|360px|Pandora FTW!]]
So your Pandora just arrived after being in the post for two months. Jolly good! But now that it's actually here, what on earth do you do with it? '''Don't panic!''' Let's take a look at what's included in the box(so you don't miss anything!) and then hop on over to setting it up for that extended Ms. Pacman marathon I know you've been waiting for!

Also, don't forget to hit up [http://www.gp32x.com/board/index.php?/forum/61-pandora/ GP32X] for questions/info/apps/fun/discussion!
== Thank you for choosing a Pandora ==
Welcome to the world of Pandora.
Congratulations on choosing this product, we from OpenPandora are sure you will spend a great time with it.
This manual will explain the basic use of Pandora, and introduces you to the world of Pandora.*

*Please note that all information in this manual is subject to chance by firmwares updates and third party modification we cannot be responsible for.

== Safety Information ==
Warning: Choking Hazard, do not let children under the age of 3 come close to your Pandora console.
The Pandora Contains small parts that can be eaten by those children.

The battery of Pandora must be charged by the charger included with the Pandora(see package contents)
and we at OpenPandora Ltd. cannot be responsible for people using third party chargers.

The battery is standard Lithium Polymer battery. Do not dispose in fire or water. Do not disassemble, destroy or damage the battery, or it may explode! Do not short circuit external contacts! Dispose properly, please.

All third party modifications and hardware/software can damage your Pandora, we at OpenPandora Ltd cannot be responsible for damage caused by this. Trusted software can be recongised by a OP-member in the Pandora Appstore. See the “OP-Team Trusted” image in the app store to see if the software application can be trusted.

The Pandora has an 4,3 Touchscreen. You can touch the screen to trigger an action. Although this is a touch screen, you cannot punch it. Always touch the screen gently – this will be more then enough to trigger the action you want.*

The Pandora has an protective design, making it hard to break. Of course, you may never drop your Pandora, wash it, or try anything that can harm your Pandora. This will void your warranty.

First of all, let's get this out of the way. DO NOT EAT YOUR PANDORA! It will be hard enough to break your teeth, and it may or may not work after digestion.

It is wise not to play with your Pandora on the roof, but if you must, take proper precautions such as strapping it down and ''not using it on the roof.''

The Pandora contains small parts that could be swallowed by children(and let's face it, we're all pretty much children the day we see our Pandora on our doorstep), such as the stylus or an odd button or screw.

Keep the Pandora in normal temperatures under 140F/60C (Recommended temperatures are in the range between -10C and 40C). The battery is a standard Lithium Polymer battery. Do not dispose of in fire or water. Do not disassemble, crush, or puncture the battery, or it may explode! Do not short circuit external contacts! Dispose of properly, please.

The Pandora contains a 4.3" touchscreen. Although you can touch it, do not hit it too hard or you may risk breaking it. Also, the touchscreen can display 16.7 million colors. That's 16.7 million ways to injure an epileptic person, so please! Exercise caution and common sense when handling the screen.

== Warranty Information ==
By law there is a one year warranty, and the developers have stated they will replace faulty hardware. LCDs with noticeable dead pixels will also be replaced. ''Some more detailed info would be nice, I don't want to spread inaccurate warranty info...:)''

== Box Contents ==
When you first open Pandora's box, a slew of demons and raging emotions may forcibly leave the box. This is normal. After that, you may or may not be surprised to find a:
*Pandora console
*Stylus (located in stylus slot on the side of the Pandora)
*Battery
*DC Wall Charger
*TV-Out Cable (ONLY if you ordered it separately)
*Carrying Case (ONLY if you ordered it separately)
*Extra Battery (ONLY if you ordered it separately)
After you take those things out, you may find a sliver of Hope left over. It's best to keep it, as you never know when you could use some Hope.

== Specifications ==
==== Highlights ====
* ARM® Cortex™-A8 600Mhz+ CPU running Linux
* 430-MHz TMS320C64x+™ DSP Core
* PowerVR SGX OpenGL 2.0 ES compliant 3D hardware
* 800x480 4.3" 16.7 million colours touchscreen LCD
* Wifi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth & High Speed USB 2.0 Host
* Dual SDHC card slots & SVideo TV output
* Dual Analogue and Digital gaming controls
* 43 button QWERTY and numeric keypad
* Around 10+ Hours battery life*

:<small><nowiki>*</nowiki>Is affected by use. (example turn bluetooth on or off during play time)</small>

==== Advanced Specifications ====
* Texas Instruments OMAP3530 processor at 600MHz (officially)
* 256MB DDR-333 SDRAM
* 512MB NAND FLASH memory
* IVA2+ audio and video processor using TI's DaVinci™ technology (430MHz C64x DSP)
* ARM® Cortex™-A8 superscalar microprocessor core
* PowerVR SGX530 (110MHz officially) OpenGL ES 2.0 compliant 3D hardware
* integrated Wifi 802.11b/g (up to 18dBm output)
* integrated Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR (3Mbps) (Class 2, + 4dBm)
* 800x480 resolution LTPS LCD with resistive touch screen, 4.3" widescreen, 16.7 million colors (300 cd/m2 brightness, 450:1 contrast ratio)
* Dual analog controllers
* Full gamepad controls plus shoulder buttons
* Dual SDHC card slots (up to 64GB of storage currently)
* headphone output up to 150mW/channel into 16 ohms, 99dB SNR (up to 24 bit/48KHz)
* TV output (composite and S-Video)
* Internal microphone plus ability to connect external microphone through headset
* Stereo line level inputs and outputs
* 43 button QWERTY and numeric keypad
* USB 2.0 OTG port (1.5/12/480Mbps) with capability to charge device
* USB 2.0 HOST port (480Mbps) capable of providing the full 500mA to attached devices (examples include USB memory, keyboard, mouse, 3G modem, GPS)
* up to two externally accessible UARTs and/or four PWM signals for hardware hacking, robot control, debugging, etc.
* un-brickable design with integrated boot loader for safe code experimentation
* Power and hold switch useful for "instant on" and key lockout to aid in media player applications on the go
* Runs on the Linux operating system (2.6.x)
* Dimensions: 140x83.4x27.5mm
* Weight: 335g (with 4000mAh battery)
==== Features ====
The Pandora is a mixture between a PC and a gaming console. That's why it has gaming controls (Buttons, DPad and analogue nubs). It is fast enough to emulate many other systems, run a full desktop, access the internet via FireFox and play games such as Quake3. However, it is not as big as a netbook. Believe it or not, it will fit in your pocket. It's a bit bigger than the Nintendo DS.
== First Time Use ==
Now that you've opened the box, let's set this thing up! Place the battery inside the battery well on the back of the Pandora, making sure the contacts touch(the little silvery metal bits, it's easy). Snap on the battery cover and you're all set!
==== Charging ====
Charge your Pandora 8 hours before putting it off the wall charger. This will improve the lifetime of your battery. To charge the Pandora, insert the power cable end in the Pandora and the other end into your wall socket.

Before you begin using your shiny (or in this case, matte) new Pandora, you must charge the battery first! The battery comes pre-charged at 40%, and that level might have decreased during shipping, so to be on the safe side, we recommend that you charge the Pandora before you use it. Simply plug in your wall charger into an outlet, or optionally use a mini-USB cable connected to a computer or wall adapter. For extreme silliness, plug your Pandora into an ''already charged Pandora,'' and charge it from that! But not really.

==== First Boot ====
Once your Pandora is ready, turn it on. The OS will take some time to boot up for the first time (about 10 minutes, this is only for the first boot, this is normal). After it is booted, a series of settings dialogs will pop up in the shape of a "Boot Wizard" allowing you to alter your Pandora's settings to your liking.

There are a total of 3 parts to the Boot Wizard guide:
===== System configuration =====
The first thing you will have to do is to calibrate the Pandora's touch screen. Only do this if the screen isn't calibrated already.

===== User setup =====
After that, you will have to enter your full name. This is what you will see in any user selection dialogs or when the system needs to address you, so enter whatever you are most comfortable with. Then follows your username. It is recommended to choose an all-lowercase, one-word username here, since you will have to enter this name every time you log in. Once you've entered your username, a password input dialog appears. You will have to enter the password you want to have twice here. If you don't want to have a password for your device, simply leave both fields empty. If you however decide to enter a password, something hard to guess and between 8 and 16 characters long is preferred.

===== Network and security settings =====
You will now have to enter a name for your Pandora. This will be the Pandora's host name, so you have two options in this situation:

# If you don't have a domain you want to connect to, simply enter any name here. It should not contain any spaces.
# If you ''do'' have a domain you want to connect to, enter a name in the form of "pandoramname.domainname.tld". Note that you probably never will have an use for this.

Then, you'll have to choose whether you want to automatically log in on your Pandora when it boots, or if you should be given the opportunity to log in as a different user, or enter your password. It is recommended to disable auto login if you want to protect your user data, but if you're often in a hurry, then you can enable auto login here.

The final thing you will have to choose, is whether you want to use the full desktop XFCE environment or the gaming-oriented PMenu environment as your default environment in the Pandora. It is recommended to choose XFCE here if you want to gain access to the Pandora's full potential.

==== Calibrating The Touchscreen ====
The touchscreen in your new Pandora device isn't psychic! You have to tell it what to do, and in order to do that effectively, you need to calibrate it. Simply navigate to settings>screen>calibration wizard(I made stuff up if you can't tell) and follow the onscreen instructions. You may have to recalibrate the screen from time to time as well.

== Basic Use ==
On the desktop, you will see many(or few) things. On the bottom left you have your applications menu, similar to the Windows start menu. Clicking it brings up a list of all installed applications, or at least the ones configured to show up in the menu. To the right may be some icons, these serve as shortcuts to commonly used applications. Next to that you have your taskbar, which as you might have guessed, lists all running applications in your current workspace. To the right of the taskbar you have your workspaces, think of these as multiple desktops. By default you have two to switch from. Applications running in one workspace will not be visible in the other, so you can effectively hide your Ms. Pacman game from your boss at work, because there's no way you're not going to go for the gold, even at work! Finally there are a few more icons that deal with TV-Out, network connectivity, etc. and some running applications may place an icon there as well. And to the right of THOSE, you have your time. Because time flies when you're using your Pandora! Badum tsh. Aaaaand to the right of that, you have a little icon that, when clicked, displays all running applications.
Finally, I'd just like to reiterate this--EVERYTHING is customizable! We'll get to that section later, but for now, let's just check out the applications on your Pandora.

== Basic Linux user guide ==
New to the wonderful world of Linux? No problem! You don't need mad terminal skills to open a web browser, but it can be nice to know what you're doing once in a while.
==== The structure of the file system ====
If you're used to the file system of e.g. MS Windows, you will find that a Linux file system is rather different from what you're used to. In this section, we will go through everything you have to know in order to feel comfortable with using the Pandora's file system.
===== Basic philosophy =====
In Windows, you have multiple file system roots, called "drives", that are labeled with different letters, like "C:" or "D:". In Linux ,there are't multiple root directories, but rather just one root directory, called "/". All other directories are inside of this directory.
===== Common directories =====
Inside of the root directory ("/") are quite a lot of other directories. Here are the most important ones:
* "/home" - This is where all of the files that are owned by all users are stored. Users do not generally have write-access to anything outside of this directory.
* "/home/username" - Here are the personal files of user "username". In this directory, you will find a directory called "Documents", "Pictures", "Desktop" etc. that correspond to that users personal directories. This directory is also called "username"'s home directory, and can be abbreviated with "~/" (if you're currently logged in as username) or "~username/".
* "/boot" - This is the directory where the Linux kernel is stored, and other files that are needed at boot time can be accessed. Do not touch this directory (You can't even do it if you wanted to)!
* "/bin", "/lib" - System binaries and libraries are stored here. Most of the terminal commands mentioned below can be found inside of "/bin". You should generally never have to touch this directory, either.
* "/usr" - Here is where you'll find programs and files installed by the user. Core applications such as the web browser, media player, and other applications that are available the first time you start your Pandora are stored here. If you decide to install anything via the "ipkg" command (covered later), this is where the files needed by those installations will end up.
* "/etc" - System-wide configuration. Should only be touched by power-users.
* "/mnt/sd1", "/mnt/sd2" - If you insert SD-cards into the device, this is where you will find their contents.
* "/media/*" - If you connect USB drives or other external media, you will find that the contents of that media have been placed here.
==== The File Manager ====
==== Killing Applications ====
==== Basic Terminal Commands ====

== Applications ==
==== What Is Included? ====
==== Where Can I Get More Apps? ====
There are many ways to get more applications onto your Pandora.

*The easiest way is to browse the [http://doesnotexistyet.com Pandora App Store], where you can download free or paid apps from ones of developers! To download, navigate to an app, pay for it if you must, and hit the 'download' button. Select where you want to save it, and you're done! Because I assume it will be in .pnd format.

*There is the good ol' [http://dl.openhandhelds.org/cgi-bin/pandora.cgi Pandora File Archive].

*There are nice repositories, such as the [http://www.angstrom-distribution.org/repo Angstrom ARM Repository], or...

*The Pandora includes the package manager [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipkg ipkg].

*Also, people may upload their apps to weird crevices in the net, so be on the lookout!

== Introduction To .PNDs ==
==== What Are .PNDs? ====

A .pnd ("pandora") file is an application (game, word processor, emulator, whatever.) More accurately, it is a full application bundled up into a single file; think of it like a zip, with a relatively well defined internal structure.

The pnd-file system was designed so you could use an application without the hassle of installation or uninstallation, or even having to organize it yourself if you don't want to. You just download or obtain the pnd-file, and use it.

More details can be found in the "libpnd hub" part of the wiki, but that is more oriented to techies and developers.

==== How do I run a PND-application? ====

Put your pnd-files in your SD (see below for some suggestions where.)

A pnd-file is usually invoked in one of the following ways

* browse to the file using the directory browser, and click to run it. (.pnd files are file-associated to another program, pnd_run which knows how to run them.) This lets you organize pnd-files in directories of your choice on the device NAND or SD.

* in PMenu, the applications will be shown by name; you can just select and run them from the menu

* for pnd-files placed into /pandora/menu on SD, the application will be shown in the Start menu on the device; use your stylus or buttons to invoke it

* for pnd-files placed into /pandora/desktop or /pandora/apps on SD, they will show up automatically on your desktop; invoke them with the stylus, your finger, or controls as you see fit

==== Where Do .PNDs Go? ====

Put .pnd-files into specific directories if you want them to show up in the Start menu or on your Pandora desktop, or in Pmenu.

You can put them anywhere you like in internal NAND or SD, if you wish to organize them yourself and launch them with taps.

/pandora/desktop -> pnd files show up on the desktop

/pandora/menu -> show up in the Start menu (by the developers suggested categories.)

/pandora/apps -> show up in the desktop, and in Pmenu

==== Where does my data go? How do I make files visible to the applications? ====

An application normally will see what is contained within the pnd-file, or your personal data created with the tool; it can of course look anywhere on the SD or device internal memory. For example a Quake port might expect to see extra level files in /quake, or give you a way of selecting a path to put files in.. or it might just expect it to be in your personal data folders, or in the pnd-file itself. Its up to the application, with suggestions in the pnd-guidelines for developers.

The first time a pnd-application is run, an "app data" directory is created for it; anything that app data folder contains will be visible to the application as if it was in the pnd-file (and in fact, this lets you override files in the pnd-file without modifying the .pnd itself, which could be handy.) If your app creates a file "foo", it'll show up in /pandora/appdata/appname-id as "foo". The actual appdata folder name depends on the name used by the developer, but should generally look like application-name and some funny number afterwards. It should be easy to spot.

ex: Quake 1 will probably put score or save data in /pandora/appdata/quake1-123/ or somesuch.

===== Q: How do I make ROMs available to an emulator? =====

For something like ROMs, hopefully a developer consensus will lead either to a canonical location, or a convention of having a directory pickre or browser present, so that ROMs can be stored in SD locations of your choice; doesn't strike me as something that should be in a pnd-file, or to be pretended to be in a pnd-file with appdata tricks.

===== Q: How do I make pak-files available to Quake? =====

For some add-ons or data needed for a game, the developer may require it to be 'in the main application path'; as mentioned above, just drop it into the appdata folder and the app will just see it.

==== How Do I Make .PNDs? ====
==== More Info About .PNDs ====
Visit [[libpnd_hub]] for more information!
== Configuration ==
==== Updating The Firmware ====
==== Setting Up WiFi ====
==== Setting Up Blutooth ====
==== Adjusting Brightness/Contrast ====
==== Changing Your Theme ====
== Oops! I Borked My Pandora! ==
Fear not, young netizen! Your Pandora was designed to be unbrickable, so unless you used the ancient art of alchemy to physically turn your Pandora into a brick (or you just broke the hardware inside), you should be okay!
==== Restore The Original Firmware ====
==== Boot From SD or USB ====
== Pandora FAQ ==
Silly goose, go to the [[FAQ]] page for more detailed information.

Libpnd hub

2009-11-07T00:17:39Z

Aethix: /* What are PXML.xml and .pnd files? */ Minor typo correction

=libpnd - the Pandora Library=

libpnd is a basic collection of functions and tools to make working Pandora-specific operations easier; to wit, it is hoped multiple applications will make use of this library rather than re-implement similar functionality and lead to problems down the road. (Instead we can run into problems together and thus clobberize them.)

libpnd thus is a collection of ...

- handy system code that hopefully is reusable - IO functions, CPU clock setting, etc.

- applications for supporting the Pandora unique features, such as pndnotifyd for auto-discovery of PXML and .pnd applicatons

- libraries for support of the .pnd and PXML systems; i.e.: for locating, executable, mounting and unmounting PXML-directory and .pnd applications, loading PXML and handling overrides

- hopefully reusable code for support of these things; i.e.: a rudimentary but useful config-file parser, rudimentary singly-linked-list container, etc.

libpnd will/does also include utility functions for setting the CPU clock, reading GPIO inputs without depending on SDL, and other handy bits.

'''You can, nay, are needed - contribute to libpnd!'''

==Design considerations and philosophy==

While much of libpnd is obvious, some decisions had to be made and it may help to know the guiding principle behind it; the Pandora device will be a handheld _computer_, but libpnd is designed to facilitate certain operations with goals towards..

- simplicity - just work right, configuration not generally needed

- obviousness - work as one would expect for this sort of device; i.e.: the user assumes something will work a certain way, and it does

- like other guys - as an extension of the prior point, we have tried to follow UNIX spirit and provide reusable small tools to do the work those bits can be leveraged, but further tried to follow the spirit of other consoles. So while the device is a powerful little computer, it is probably going to be used by gaming and retro enthusiasts and so we color some of our decisions that way. (i.e.: consider that a PS2/xbox/PSP/etc will have save-game or data management as a separate application, for instance. If thats the best multi-million dollar companies can come up with over decades, well, its not so bad for us to fall back on!)

- not over-defined; libpnd and PXML try to define a bunch of things, but we also do not _over define_; we try to lead by providing examples and styles, and while we have designed ahead for many things, we have also not nailed a lot of that down too early. It is better to be simple and shipped, then complex and a mess.. adaptable rather than scary.

The library is of course broken into parts:

<pre>
include - include these files to make use of the lib
lib - the code that produces the lib
test - mini tools to test various pieces of the lib in isolation
bin - test tools - tools for testing the lib as it is developed, not anticipated to be used by many
testdata/ - for testing /etc/pandora; will contain 'conf' dir, for example
apps/ - actual applications people may use, such as pndnotifyd
</pre>

For now though, here are a couple notes about the design.

- it is straight C code, to be maximumly re-usable (perhaps C++ and other language bindings will tie back to it). I have gone out of my way to limit external references so that bindings are easier to make.

- contrary to the previous comment, we've used a bit of C++ for the tinyxml parser .. hopefully this is not an issue.

- I have tried to keep the API relatively simple and am faking some OO like data hiding to try to keep dev noses out of structures that are subject to change. i.e.: functions for list management and node access are provided, don't dig into the void* cast structs, or you could get burnt.

- the API should be pretty stable; so far very few user-code changes have ever been needed.. lib internal changes should be binary compatible.

- As a result of that decision, 'handles' are used; a handle is a 'black box' type, something you cannot just use 'handle h; h -> foo = 5' type code for. Instead, internally the library will cast the handle to the actual useful type (which may involve pointer arith etc). This way the user can be returned a handle, and pass the handle to various access functions to get useful data/operations.. but the user is not encouraged to look inside the data objects himself

- As another implication, access functions are available aplenty; it is a little unwieldy perhaps, but its all about keeping the API good without the user peeking inside and risking being broken down the road. (By example, consider.. you use ftell() on a FILE object; you don't go looking in FILE for the 'position' member, since it might be platform specific, etc.)

- The lib works pretty well, but there is room for improvement internally; it won't hurt my feelings for you to suggest improvements, and I'm sure we would all be grateful for any patches you provide. We've _started_ this library, but by no means wish to carry it alone!

==Opportunities for improvement==

Certainly nothing is perfect, especially when chasing moving targets. Some aspects of the library are less efficient, or missing, or buggy, and a few things are noted here should someone have time. The API was designed to be pretty stable so the internal code could be altered without breaking the API interface.

- better ISO lang handling .. due to shift from original PXML spec to new PXML spec with better lang support I've not updated some of the internal code, API uses etc to handle it. (even .desktop files could include all iso-lang titles, and let the WM pick through as the spec suggests.)

==Obtaining the library==

libpnd is in the Official Pandora GIT repo: [http://git.openpandora.org/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi]

To obtain yourself a copy, use something like:

<pre>
git clone git://git.openpandora.org/pandora-libraries.git
</pre>

Thats all you normally need. For copy-paste from the private Wiki sake, heres what I had before:

Without going into how to set up a GIT, the summary that I (as a registered dev in the repo) used was:

<pre>
mkdir libpnd
cd libpnd
git init
git remote add libpnd ssh://foo@git.openpandora.org/srv/git/pandora-libraries.git
git pull libpnd master
</pre>

==Building the library==

Standard 'make' should be sufficient here; pull down the directory from the GIT, cd into it, and run make. Thats it.

Note that the make default target is 'everything', which will emit:
<pre>
libpnd.a - the static linked version of the lib
libpnd.so.1.0.1 - the dynlinked version
libpnd.so.1 - the stub for the shared lib; i.e.: apps should link against libpnd.so.1 and not the 1.0.1 over-specific version
bin/* - the 'test' dir and the 'apps' dir builds will end up in bin
</pre>

There are a few additional make targets, however.

<pre>
make clean - wipes out the object files, the bin files, and *~* (emacs backup files), empties some of the deploy stuff, etc. Do this before committing to GIT or we will beat you with sticks.
make deploy - populates the deploy/ directory, which is what is used inthe shipping images; i.e.: testdata/conf includes test configs, while deploy/etc/pandora/conf includes the configs we ship with. This make will copy over some of the libs and binaries and such.
make pnd - create a few sample pnd files for testing the lib on an x86 machine
</pre>

==Included Applications==

===pndnotifyd===

Manages the auto-discovery mechanism and integrating PXML.xml dir-apps and .pnd files into the FreeDesktop standard system (.desktop files). A dedicated libpnd-aware menu could leverage libpnd directly and not need pndnotifyd, though pndnotifyd does offer some handy bits such as HUPping apps to suggest to them that applications may have been added/removed (libpnd includes all the necessary functions for this as well.)

===pndvalidator===

Is mostly a skeleton right now; in the future, it is hoped it will inspect a PXML.xml and then check to ensure the referenced assets are present; the goal to validate the PXML.xml is spec compliant, and the resulting application would be useful.

===discotest===

One of the test tools; it essentially runs an auto-discovery to list off the found apps (be they PXML.xml dir apps or .pnd files), and can dump various data or invoke one or other little tasks; used to test lots of
bits of libpnd as it was developed.

===rawpxmltest===

Reads a given PXML.xml and spits out some of the fields found within.

===test tools===

See the test/ dir in the libpnd source for assorted goofy little test apps used for testing bits of libpnd over time. They also may serve as source examples for using some of the APIs. They're old and shoddy probably too.

==Distributed PXML.xml-directory and pnd applications, how does running them actually work?==

This is just a quick summary to save you guessing by reading this whole document.

In essence, libpnd includes lots of real code, but in many places it passes heavy lifting off to shellscripts. This is both handy because the scripts are easily modified without recompilation, and further extends our design goals of making the library bindable to any other language.

Remember, PXML.xml directories are just as executable/mountable as .pnd apps.

So while libpnd is mostly straight-C and so easily bound to python or perl or whatever, libpnd itself invokes many scripts. Those scripts can be directly used by other applications, including other shellscripts.. so libnd functionality can even have bindings in other scripts. This is very flexible and powerful, and handy during debugging or SSHing into the Pandora, etc.

The application lifecycle goes like this:

- device is turned on

- during init, pndnotifyd is brought up and inhales the config giles

- pndnotidyd will attempt to auto-discover what PXML.xml directory apps and .pnd-file apps are in the configured searchpaths

- pndnotifyd will set up filesystem watches on the directories in the notify searchpath; if any of those directories are touched, pndnotifyd will wake up and re-auto-discover .. possibly removing .desktop entries or creating new ones. (i.e.: you drop a new app into the app searchpath, or remove one, or mount an SD card, etc. This is how appications immediately show up or vanish from the window manager desktops.)

- a libpnd aware launcher can execute applications direct (using libpnd)

- a libpnd unaware launcher can execute applications via the .desktop standard system; pndnotidyd will emit .desktop files as needed.

- when libpnd or a .desktop file need to execute an application, they do it via pnd_run.sh (which may be leveraged by other applications, but they hould use libpnd if they can instead, for utmost compatiblity down the road.) pnd_run.sh does the mount of the ISO, runs the actual execable and so on, as directed by libpnd or the command-line args from the .desktop. pnd_run.sh will clean up after everything as well.

So it all works like magic, but it is not that complex a system once you've got the hang of what all is going on.

application -> libpnd -> shellscripts -> system

==FAQ: IF you want to make files visible to the apps, do you have to modify the pnd?==

No. When apps write back to themselves, the writes go to their /pandora/appdata on the SD that houses them. The next time the app reads a file in its directory, the OS will ensure they get the newer file, which is the one in the appdata.

Likewise, you can just drop a file into the appdata and the app will see it.

The app doesn't know about appdata and its pnd file.. the OS and libpnd take care of all the magic.. the app sees one directory, but the reality is there is magic merging going on behind the scenes.

==Assumptions about the filesystem and Configuration==

Note that for libpnd to work, it makes certain assumptions about the filesystem and config files. Since libpnd was developed with the images it should work for the Pandora .. but just dropping libpnd onto another Linux distribution and it won't likely 'work out of the box'. Certain config files will need to be set, and certain conventions followed.

===Searchpaths===

libpnd was designed so that most everything is configured in files, and that these files should be easily hackable and easily overriden, without compromising the machine. It should be feasible to add a config file to an SD card, have it take over if available when required, and then 'undo' those configs simply by removal of the SD card and rebooting.

To facilitate this design goal, all config files are 'sought' using a search-path system.

Developers should be mindful of using the libpnd APIs so this behaviour is inherited to interested applications; developers could also reuse the logic for searching for files, if they find it useful.

Searchpaths are colon-delimited list of paths, searched left to right.

ex: foo:bar:/my/baz means to look for a given file in 'foo', then in 'bar', then in '/my/baz'.

The standard config files have a default searchpath, and those config files will define further searchpaths for scripts and such the system uses. This makes the system highly flexible -- default scripts are included, but can be overridden by dropping the right named script on an SD card, or by altering a config file.

See the example config files below for example searchpaths -- i.e.: how pndnotifyd searches for pnd_run, etc.

===Notification paths===

The 'apps' config includes a searchpath that specifies the sub-paths to be 'watched'. Various watch mechanisms exist for various filesystem types, but over the course of Pandora development (various kernels, various k-modules, various DM and WM's, I found the included system most stable, though not most current. After a final device image is settled on, it might be time to alter the notification system, but it should not impact the libpnd API.)

Anyway, watches are placed upon the paths defined, and if anything in those paths changes, the auto-discovery code is kicked off to seek our PXML.xml and .pnd type applications in the search paths.

Note that searchpath and notifypaths are different (and usually very similar, but have the option to be very different.)

===Config files===

libpnd includes a generic simple config file parser and assumes the presence of a few config files. It also includes defaults
so if a config is missing or broken things should work.

In general, Pandora specific config files should be located in:
<pre>
/etc/pandora/conf
</pre>

The config files are:
<pre>
conf -- this file is generally _not_ included with the Pandora and left to default; its job is to define the basic default searchpath for config files, so should you wish to override things entirely, you may need to alter this file. i.e.: If you wish to switch to test config files on SD or in /tmp, instead of using any other conf files .. you can create this guy. This provides a mechanism to short circuit the entire conf system.

apps -- this config file defines auto-discovery and other application bundle parameters

desktop -- this config defines "dotdesktop" .desktop and FreeDesktop integration paramters -- example is where to spit out icons or .desktop files from discovered PXML.xml or pnd applications

categories -- this config maps PXML.xml spec based categories to FreeDesktop standard categories; in this way a PXML based applicatoin can show up in the appropriate categories of a WM that does not use libpnd
</pre>

====conf File====

No default is included with the distribution.

The default search path is reasonable and assumes we want the official /etc/pandora/conf near the end, with checks to the SD cards for overrides first. (Likely most people will not override, so the canonical location will be used 99.9% of the time.)

<pre>
#define PND_CONF_SEARCHPATH "/media/mmcblk0p1/pandora/conf:/media/mmcblk1p1/pandora/conf:/etc/pandora/conf:./testdata/conf"
</pre>

The key for override is:

<pre>
#define PND_CONF_KEY "conf.searchpath" /* if not found, use PND_CONF_SEARCHPATH */
</pre>

Which suggests using something like this.

<pre>
[conf]
searchpath /foo/bar:/baz/bing
</pre>

====desktop File====

<pre>
# Open Pandora
# Desktop configuration

[dotfiles]
#(~/Desktop for xfce, /usr/share/applications for WMs that actually follow spec)
dotdesktoppath ~/Desktop/ # path for pndnotifyd to spit .desktop files into (run as root)
iconpath /tmp # path for pndnotifyd to drop icons into (can be same as .desktop if WM permits)

[launcher]
# if hupscript is commented out entirely, pndnotifyd will not try to find/run the hup
# if it is uncommented, pndnotifyd will attempt to invoke the hupscript after emitting .desktop files
# (the hupscript exists to hup the WMs to redisplay .desktop apps)
#hupscript pnd_hup.sh
</pre>

====apps File====

<pre>
# Open Pandora
# Application configuration

[autodiscovery]
# searchpath is a list of paths (colon separated) in which to look for PXML.xml or .pnd-file applications
searchpath /media/*/pandora/apps:/usr/pandora/apps
# notifypath is a list of paths to monitor; if anything in those paths changes, the searchpath is rescanned
# note that for each path chunk, all current subdirs of that path are also watched)
notifypath /media:/media/*/pandora/apps:/usr/pandora/apps:./testdata/app?

# PXMLs may be overridden .. i.e.: overrides are a subset of PXML, where the values are copied over the full PXML
[overrides]
# searchpath to look for PXML overrides (which are named by the unique-id)
searchpath ~/pxml-overrides

# [pnd] defines where to locate the pnd support scripts, so the user may override pnd_run.sh without clobbering built in
[pnd]
searchpath /media/*/pandora/scripts:/usr/pandora/scripts
runscript pnd_run.sh
</pre>

====categories File====

<pre>
# Open Pandora
# dotdesktop configuration

# this config file maps 'PXML' categories to free-desktop standard categories
# i.e.: category 'Foo' could map to more standard 'Utility', thus making .desktop file
# emitting a more useful thing

# the standard listing of categories is:
# http://standards.freedesktop.org/menu-spec/latest/apa.html

# note that 'map' section in the config is _required_ for a match to be found; this
# is done to separate categories from (future) top-level directives

default Application;Utility;Network;

[map]
Development Development
Education Education
Games Game
Graphics Graphics
Internet Network
Multimedia AudioVideo
Office Office
Settings Settings
System System
Utilities Utility
</pre>

===SD card layout===

libpnd concerns itself with things in the 'pandora' root folder on SD. We agonized over this decision, but settled on this to avoid cases where someone with a 16GB SDHC card puts 50-million files with ".pnd" on them, and expects reasonable performance. Instead, applications for instance would have to be in:

<pre>
/pandora/apps
</pre>

i.e.: the searchpath for autodiscovery includes /media/*/pandora/apps

Also in the /pandora/ folder is a magic 'appdata' folder:

<pre>
/pandora/appdata
</pre>

When a .pndfile or PXML.xml dir get mounted, any writes back to the mounted area are put into appdata, with a subdir by the unique-id. i.e.: With the hypothetical MAME.pnd, it might update its config files after a user changes something, or create new files, or store hiscores or whatever. If it doesn't write them to NAND, and doesn't want ot write them to /mame/some/dir, but instead record it to itself for whatever reason, it would go to /pandora/appdata/MAMEs-ID/ instead. The pnd or PXML.xml app area is never modified during a run, only the appdata. (But when an application reads its own path, it will pick up the appdata version of the file instead of the actual file. Then magic of union-type filesystems!)

Example:

If Myapp with unique-id foo.123 is mounted, then any write-backs are directed to..

/pandora/appdata/foo.123/

On the SD that hosts the application.

===NAND layout===

In addition to seeking applications in SD cards, /usr/pandora/apps is included in the default searchpath, so that 'built in' apps can be listed, or users can drop them there.

It might be a cool addition to put a user homedir into the searchpath as well, so NAND but user-homedir (for on-device browser downloads, say.)

==Command line tools and testing==

A number of scripts and tools are included or built with libpnd, to facilitate testing of the lib as its being developed and to assist in making .pnd files and PXML.xml files.

==PXML.xml and .pnd files==

On most platforms, applications are distributed as an executable and optional datafiles and likely an installer. The installers job is to integrate the application into the filesystem, as the transport mechanism itself is not executable and is considered temporary. In Windows an application might be installed into Program Files, while in Unix an application might be dropped into /usr/local/bin .. data files in various other places.

For the Pandora platform we wanted a very easy to use workflow -- download and run -- and also have a very different operating environment. With multiple SD cards available for expansion (and that space being highly desirable due to a smaller internal store) it is desirable to install applications to SD, and yet SD cards are by definition something users will wish to carry multiple of. With two slots, it could be quite a chore to install an application to SD1, its data to SD2, and then say have only one of them plugged in at a time, or switch which slot they're in, or any number of scenarios. i.e.: Installing onto a medium which may be present or not at any time is very different to how most operating systems work. So we made something new and awesome.

The PXML.xml and .pnd-file approach we came up with attempts to address these issues.

The goals:

- for the user, an application can be a single file download

- furthermore, there is no installation whatsoever, beyond dropping that single file into the right place on the SD card

- using the application should be easy -- stick in the SD card, and tap/launch on the icon.

- for uninstallation, delete the single file. Thats it, no fuss.

- for the developer, creating that single file should be easy to do

- for the system, performance should be high

Remember, an application can be a .pnd 'bundle' (single file containing all the sub-files), or a PXML.xml 'dir application' (an unpacked .pnd esentially.) '''BOTH PXML.xml-dirs and .pnd's ARE EXECUTABLE.'''

pndnotifyd will auto-discover PXML.xml in a directory and consider that an application, emitting a .desktop file, just as well as a .pnd file. i.e.: This can be hand for development or users. Remember that a mounted PXML.xml dir still redirect write-backs to the /pandora/appdata directory, just like a full .pnd application. They are treated the same!

===What are PXML.xml and .pnd files?===

PXML.xml is a file describing an application

A directory containing a PXML.xml _is executable_

A .pnd file is the packaged up version of the directory that is executable.

i.e.: a PXML.xml in a directory is just as executable as a .pnd representation of that directory.

example:

mkdir OutcaST
cp outcast.bin OutcaST/
cp PXML.xml OutcaST/
# at this point, the OutcaST directory is now discoverable and executable

pnd_make.sh -this -that OutcaST outcast.pnd
# at this point, outcast.pnd is executable (as is the OutcaST directory), so upload outcast.pnd to the Open Handhelds Archive and let people enjoy!

===File format - PXML.xml===
See the [[PXML_specification|PXML specification]]

Alternatively the spec is included in the docs/ directory of the libpnd distribution, though the wiki version linked above should be considered cannon.

A note on history; the PXML spec was originally created by EvilDragon, and went through a number of revisions as suggestions came in; as these things are wont to do, the target was ever moving and the scope and meaning of PXML changed so at some point a more strategic approach was needed. dflemstr took it upon himself to help recode some of the parse and re-evaluate many of the PXML decisions and hence was born the PXML-version-2 spec.

===File format - .pnd files===
The pnd file format is pretty straight forward, though most will interact with it through the included (or community supplied) tools.

Basically its just an ISO file with a PXML and an optional PNG icon appended. (cat appfolder.iso app.pxml icon.png > app.pnd)

The ISO portion of the file can include anything the developer wishes, as long as it includes a PXML.xml file and an executable somewhere in there. It can also include images, audio files, data files of any kind. It can be small or large.

Yes, the PXML.xml is included in the ISO portion (in the root directory), and also appended to the end of the .pnd file (for _convenience_ .. it is very easy and fast to locate in this position; we can backseek into the ISO to find the PXML, but if its a 500MB ISO it could take awhile. Hence, we append it and can find it in one seek.)

This simple format makes it possible to easily create .pnd files with the default utility's of most operating systems. Further, it is a fairly fail-safe system -- the PXML is appended, but is also included within the ISO image part of the file so if the appended-PXML is ever lost (unpack and repack poorly, say) the system will still work (the PXML inside the ISO can be found easily, even without mounting the ISO _as_ an ISO, since it is a plaintext uncompressed image format.)

Manually creating a .pnd (or even a PXML) is a pain so there will be a few helper scripts or maybe even a gui app out when we launch.

Included with libpnd are some scripts to create PXML and pndfiles, though it is expected people will create handier utilities. See the tool section of this wiki for some details.

Question from the gp32x forum regarding confusion of PXML location -- remember that in general mot developers will keep a directory that represents the .pnd or PXML-dir application. Their makefile/build-process will drop the executable(s) into that directory, which inludes a PXML.xml description of the application, and possibly an icon (and whatever all else they wish.) To build the .pnd file, a script (say) is used which compresses all this into the pnd format (including appending the PXML.) So yes, the PXML is in two places in the .pnd file and one place in the source directory. You'll get used to it ;)

Rationale --

Several iterations of pnd files have been considered, from zipfiles to cramfs to other formats, to putting in a key/value set of information tags in the file, to table-of-contents indexes, to any number of options to help performance, and so on. In the end we went for a good overall and simple solution and dropped getting fancy -- PXML.xml can be extended to define the type of the file if it cannot be magic'd, so we could using other filesystem types in the future (and this is why people should use libpnd rather than rolling their own solution.) For now however, pnd files are ISO files with the PXML.xml appended and an optional icon. This keeps the PXML and icon easy to locate, and yet a easy file format.

====PND generation workflow====

- create a directory to represent the application on SD card; i.e.: ./mame-app

- create a PXML.xml fil and drop it into the dir (./mame-app/PXML.xml); genpxml script can be used, or do it by hand

- drop the executable and data files into this dir (say, ./mame-app/mame.bin, and ./mame-app/artwork/foo, etc.)''' <- note, with a PXML.xml and executabe, it can now be discovered and run without even bundling into .pnd!'''

- invoke pnd-make.sh to produce mame4all-pandora-1.0-arm.pnd or whatever you want to call it (foobearspanky.pnd, we don't care.)

- you're done, distribute it as you see fit

===PXML overrides===

PXML.xml files can have any number of their elements over-ridden by user preferences.

The design goal here was to make it so user-preferences could alter the impact of the PXML.xml in any way, but without requiring the actual PXML.xml in the .pnd (and within the ISO therein) to be altered (could be a 500MB ISO after all!), and further, for these changes to persist. Consider than an SD card could be removed and inserted into the other slot, or the app could be removed entirely and come back another day, or other scenarios.

As such, the PXML-overrides are kept in NAND in the user homedirectory (See the config files to find out where.)

libpnd includes functions to pull in PXML, and also functions to then look for and merge in overrides. It is not always done since you may wish to inspect the PXML or the overrides, so the developers job is to do as they see fit -- pull the XML, and likely also pull in the overrides.

At this time I'm not sure if people will ever use overrides, but the system has been built in should it be needed.

===Included shellscripts to generate files and other sundry duties===

====genpxml====

This tool can spit out a basic but correct PXML.xml, faking up a halfway-useful unique-id in the process. It might be handy in saving you writing up a PXML.xml from scratch.

====pnd_hup.sh====

pndnotifyd will attempt to locate this script and invoke it after an auto-discovery run, if the pnd_hup entry is present (and uncommented) in the config files. It is expected to be commented out in release images, as xfce watches directories for .desktop files and does not need a HUP; some desktop managers need to be HUPped to rescan for .desktop files in a timely fashion, so the pnd_hup config entry can be uncommented and this script will attempt to figure out who to HUP.

====pnd_make.sh====

This is one of the great ones :)

Given a directory with a PXML.xml (see genpxml above) and an executable and any other goo you want in there, this script will spit out a .pnd file you can execute or distribute as an application.

====pnd_run.sh====

This job does a lot of the heavy lifting for libpnd, including setting up the 'union filesystems', doing .pnd and PXML.xml-app-dir execution and mounting, and so on. Generally you will talk to it via libpnd or .desktop files, but you can invoke it dorectly from your apps if you wish to circumvent libpnd or mount .pnd files within a shellscript/perlscript/etc.

==Auto-discovery of applications==

TBD.

==Integration with FreeDesktop .desktop systems==

===dotdesktop (.desktop) files===

===Icons===

There are some rules for Icons in PXML.xml and pnd/directory bundles

- An Icon should be in the root of the directory or .pnd bundle

- An Icon must be specified in the PXML.xml if you expect it to work

- As the PXML.xml is parsed, the icon is sought; if the icon is specified, but not found, it is assumed to be a system default icon and the filename will be placed into the .desktop Icon= line verbatim (ex: Icon=foo.png), and the window manager presumably will know how to locate it. If the icon is specified, and is found, then it will be copied into the configured IconPath, and the full path to it will be used for the Icon= line in the .desktop file ex: Icon=/tmp/myicon.png). If no icon is specified in the PXML file, then no Icon= line will be entered into the .desktop and the WM will presumably apply a default icon based on category or whatever.

==APIs==

Feel free to just go read the .h files; I have tried to comment liberally :)

===Setting and Getting the CPU clock speed===

===PND files, exec and mount===

===Application discovery===

===Config file parsing===

===Boxing, the singly-linked list container===

===Directory watching===

Pandora

2009-05-28T02:59:59Z

Aethix: /* Full Specs */ Removed release date

The Pandora is a seventh-generation handheld game console. When it ships, it will be the most powerful handheld gaming console available.
[[Image:Pandora-newrender.jpg|Right|thumb|360px|The Pandora open-source game system.]]

==Overview==

The Pandora will run a Linux distribution. There will be no fees for developer tools and hence anyone will be free to develop and release games for the system.

===Core===

The Pandora uses a Texas Instruments OMAP 3530 System-on-Chip. This includes the ARM Cortex-A8 processor, the TI C64X programmable DSP, the PowerVR SGX 530 3D accelerator and supporting components.

====Storage====
The first revisions of the console included 128MB of DDR RAM, and 256MB of on-board NAND flash memory. However, the final revision that is sold to consumers has 256MB of DDR RAM and 512MB of on-board NAND memory. Storage space is available through 2 SDHC card slots and via USB host capabilities for connecting any standard USB flash drive and hard drive.

===Input and output===
The Pandora includes two analog pads, a directional pad, 4 action buttons, 2 shoulder buttons, 3 function buttons (start/select/home), and a QWERTY keyboard.

====Display====
The Pandora's display will be a 800*480 display, which additionally will have touchscreen functionality.

=====TV-out=====
The Pandora will have the ability to output S-video and composite signals to television sets. In addition, picture-in-picture and seperate signals for the TV and LCD will be supported.

====Sound====
The Pandora will have a high-quality sound DAC, and an ADC and internal microphone for recording. A pair of stereo speakers is built into the display. The volume control is a wheel.

====Keyboard====
The Pandora will have an almost-full QWERTY keyboard, with additional keys using Function. Control will likely be mapped onto one of the action or shoulder buttons.

more here.

==Full Specs==

These are constantly changing. Hopefully, this page will be updated with them. When adding information please remember to correctly reference the new information to a reliable source.

*General
** The name: Pandora [http://www.gp32x.com/board/index.php?s=&showtopic=38155&view=findpost&p=572691]
** Dimensions: 140 x 83 x 27 mm (slightly larger than a DS Lite: vs 133 mm × 73.9 mm × 21.5 mm)
** Price: '''First Batch''' (sold out): 199 GBP(incl. VAT) (approx. $330 USD, 212 € (excl. VAT) <br>'''Second Batch''': $339 USD pre-tax. Regional prices will be adjusted at the time of order to reflect current USD conversion rate.
** Pre-orders for the first batch of 4000 Pandoras sold out in six days.
** Case will be a bit smaller the GP2X, and will be a mix of metal and plastic. [http://www.gp32x.com/board/index.php?showtopic=38044]

*Core Hardware:
**Texas Instrument's OMAP3530 System-on-chip. [http://www.gp32x.com/board/index.php?s=&showtopic=38155&view=findpost&p=562133] [http://www.gp32x.com/board/index.php?showtopic=39172&st=160#] ''Specifications can be found at this link: [http://focus.ti.com/pdfs/wtbu/ti_omap3430.pdf] ''
** PowerVR SGX GPU (OpenGL ES 2.0, several million polygons per second). ''OpenGL ES demonstrated: [http://www.imgtec.com/powervr/insider/powervr-demos.asp] ''
**128MB of DDR SDRAM in the developer units and 256MB in consumer units.
** Real Time Clock (RTC) built in, to keep track of time. [http://www.gp32x.com/board/index.php?s=&showtopic=38155&view=findpost&p=568882]
**256MB of internal flash memory on developer boards and 512MB on consumer pandoras.
**Will be "unbrickable".

*Display: 800x480 widescreen (5:3), 4.3 inches, touchscreen LCD.[http://www.gp32x.com/board/index.php?showtopic=38044]
**Brightness:300 cd/m2, Contrast ratio:450:1, Response time:tr+tf=30ms[http://www.gp32x.com/board/index.php?s=&showtopic=39741&view=findpost&p=573484]
**Dimensions: 93.6 x 56.2 mm (4.3 inches, 5:3 aspect ratio).
**TV-out included in hardware, A/V-OUT Port (similar in appearance to a large USB OTG port) outputs S-Video and Composite and inputs 3,5mm Headphone/Microphone cables..
***Separate TV-out signals, picture-in-picture capabilities. [http://www.gp32x.com/board/index.php?showtopic=38044]
**Powerful 2D and 3D hardware acceleration, see above. [http://www.gp32x.com/board/index.php?showtopic=38044]

*Input:
**Buttons, keyboard, microphone, and touchscreen. [http://www.gp32x.com/board/index.php?showtopic=38044]
**Directional pad will be a D-pad. [http://www.gp32x.com/board/index.php?showtopic=38044]
**Two real analog nubs, with rubber grip, but no click function. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i26UXJOTkTk A video of the analog nub to be used in Pandora's construction.] Update: a custom designed plastic nub is now being used and will remain in the previously planned location.
**QWERTY keyboard cellphone like thumb typeable. [http://www.gp32x.com/board/index.php?showtopic=38044]
**Built-In Microphone [http://www.gp32x.com/board/index.php?act=findpost&pid=568882]

*Connectivity:
**802.11b/g (Wi-fi) included. USB host included. USB-on-the-go (one-port host and client) included. [http://www.gp32x.com/board/index.php?showtopic=38044]
**Integrated Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR (3Mbps)[http://www.gp32x.com/board/index.php?s=&showtopic=42344&view=findpost&p=613832]
**[[USB_reference|USB OTG mini-AB port and fully powered (500 mA) standard-A port.]] You'll be able to use anything that has drivers. [http://www.gp32x.com/board/index.php?s=&showtopic=38155&view=findpost&p=568882]
**RS-232 will be included, but a level converter will be needed for the UART. [http://www.gp32x.com/board/index.php?s=&showtopic=38155&view=findpost&p=568882]
**Twin SDIO-capable SDHC slots.

*Software:
**Open2X-type Linux firmware. [http://wiki.open2x.org/open2x/wiki/index.php?title=Firmware]
**Custom package system for software installation and updates.
**Potential Emulation: Nearly any game console which predates the Playstation for which an open-source emulator exists. Nearly any 8 or 16 bit computer system for which an open-source emulator exists.
*** Atari 2600, 7800, 5200, and Lynx
*** Nintendo NES, SNES, Gameboy, GBA and NDS (with combination of inbuilt touchscreen and external TV)
*** Sega Master System and Genesis
*** NEC PCEngine (TurboGrafx-16)
*** SNK NeoGeo, NeoGeo Pocket, and Pocket Color
*** Sony Playstation [http://www.gp32x.com/board/index.php?showtopic=41440]
*** Atari 400, 800, and ST
*** Amiga
*** PC (DOSBox)
*** Apple II
**Possible Software:
***Will run a version of the X11 window manager and has the option of a full desktop environment.
***There should be the ability to run normal programs you can run on Modern Linux builds as well, provided it does not exceed 256MB of RAM (excluding any virtual memory for performance reasons) and is ported. This includes a full build of Firefox! Firefox 3.0 uses much less memory and resources, and should run fine on the Pandora.
***Macromedia Flash is possible on the Pandora with web browsers with some work. Maybe not full Flash support though, but http://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/ can be ported to the Pandora and run up to FlashV7 guaranteed, play Youtube videos (mplayer and VLC can play FLV files just fine, play other movie files from Firefox, and VLC can stream FLV easily) and can work with Firefox or as a standalone program.
***Advanced multimedia support, including streaming: mplayer, VLC, xine and any other program that is open source is possible. For a general idea of file support for VLC see http://www.videolan.org/vlc/features.html, and for xine see http://xinehq.de/index.php/features.

*Power:
**Lithium-polymer battery, ~4000mAH.
**Up to 10 hours battery life under reasonable load 8.5 hours under max cpu load. Up to 100 hours playing MP3s. [http://www.gp32x.com/board/index.php?showtopic=40823&st=80&p=595336&#entry595336]
**Can charge through AC adapter or USB. [http://www.gp32x.com/board/index.php?s=&showtopic=40659&view=findpost&p=587802]
**Advanced power management capabilities: only need to set a max clockspeed, when the CPU is not doing anything it automatically HALTs and does nothing to save power.[http://www.gp32x.com/board/index.php?s=&showtopic=38155&view=findpost&p=574380]
**Will be able to suspend to RAM or suspend to disk for longer battery life and faster start up.

== Size Comparison ==
[[image:size-compare.jpg]]
[http://www.sizeasy.com/page/size_comparison/23284-Pandora-vs-Nintendo-DS-Light-vs-The-WIZ-vs-Dingoo-A320-vs-Gameboy-Micro Sizeasy Link]

[[Category:FAQ]]