Pandian

Logo

Pandian is an debian-based armhf desktop and CLI distro for your Pandora.

Help / Bugs / Features

Ideas, Bugs, or features-requests? Report to: http://www.evilbrain.de/projects/pandian/issues

MARK2

Second version
Full Debian GNU/Linux based on sid branch with LXDE desktop environment (normal) or CLI (minimal-) build.
hardfloat armv7l yule release Date: 29.12.2013 forum link

Main Features

The debian way.
Access to all packages from debian software repositories.
Debian repository hosted on http://pandian.openpandora.org so keep pandian scripts up to date
armhf means float operations are relegated to special hardware for this rather than taxing the main cpu (as with softfloat)

Requirements

Of course a Pandora ;) All versions fine?
SD card minimum 2GB ( was tested with 4GB )
A Linux or Windows PC for putting the install on the aforementioned SD-card.

Which version is right for you ?

There are two different versions of the "MARK2" release:

Version	Description	Link	Checksums
normal	pandian with fully Desktop environment ( LXDE )	filedropper: pandian-mark2-hf2014-01-02 pandian.openpandora.org: pandian-mark2-hf_2014-01-02.7z	pandian-mark2-hf_2014-01-02.7z 3731d70a4d8ec59e79a046f34f69c5c809be73e38cfc91a5b580478b8f8c222f pandian-mark2-hf_2014-01-02.img 83b8d3fa5bd0588cfb8b11cfe6b827819e6311e98396a6e32c46c9692f072e96
minimal	pandian without any Desktop environment but with the basic pandian package	filedropper: pandian-mark2-minimal-hf2014-01-02 pandian.openpandora.org: pandian-mark2-minimal-hf_2014-01-02.7z	pandian-mark2-minimal-hf_2014-01-02.7z a35106473e54c55d64c7eae2088d8c267b605baf17d5338b8e2938dbfe3c01ca pandian-mark2-minimal-hf_2014-01-02.img c68a42c1aef0238c1dd6ff33b628a2c0dea812a7b5b2d906afb185f93f940f84

"normal" is intended for regular users, who want a easy desktop that just works.
If you don't like LXDE as Desktop you can change it, adding a user interface atop the minimal install is more advanced as setup of USB-Networking or interfaces for wifi is needed to do so.

Every setting of MARK2 is split into debian packages which are hosted on http://pandian.openpandora.org

pandian package ( the basis of "minimal" )

Core package which contains following features:

ACPI support for brighter/darker-buttons, for lid and for low-power-mode
first-use-wizard
automount ( for USB-Stick, external Hard-Drives etc )
alsa sound support
pdcmd

pandian-lxde package ( what is added to make it "normal" )

Meta package featuring

full desktop environment (LXDE)
Easy Wifi-Access trough network-manager
MediaPlayer ( mpd with gurlp )
nub-support
calibrator-application

After you download the files, verify the checksums to make sure the integrity of the file downloaded matches in being an exact copy of the file downloaded from the server

open a terminal
md5sum ~/downloads/pandian - - -- .7Z (input where you have the file and the one you chose to download)
make sure it matches the given md5sum, if not, try to download another copy.

Putting the downloaded image on SD-card

Linux

Verify your SD-Hardware

Check where your SD-Card is located. If you have an build in SD-Card-Reader this is normally /dev/mmcblk0p1 ( in Debian ) If you have an USB-Card-Reader this is something like /dev/sdc ( in Debian )

Open an Terminal and input "lsblk"
You get an list with the actual Block-Devices
The SD-Card should be as type disk

You can also try gparted to see which devices you have and identify the SD-card

Unzip

Unzip with 7z ( in Linux with 7zr e <image.7z> )

Copy the image to the SD-Card

Here it will be /dev/sdx

(note that its sd and then a letter, sdc for example not the following number, as that is the partition, we are using the base card here) This means considerations for partitions and filesystem are taken care of, so no need to worry about that. Do not pick the wrong drive however, since dd will happily write the image to somewhere it isnt supposed to if you tell it to)

Copy image to SD-Card with "dd if=<image.img> of=/dev/sdx"

You now have Pandian installed on your SD card and its ready to go. :) However after copying the image to the SD-Card resizing the partitionspartitions is needed to fully utilize the space, since by default the install is limited to 2GB. (If your card is bigger Pandian is still limited to those 2GB)

Resize SD-Card

This can be done with gparted on linux|gnu
start gparted

The actual partitions of the SD-CARD. Please select the correct device at the top right corner.

Rightclick to the second partition and select Resize/Move

You see the actual Size of this partition

Move the slider to the right, or set "Free space following" to 0

After you press the "Resize/Move" button, you get the preview of the new partition structure

When you press "Apply all operations", youve got a warning that you can loss your Data.
THIS IS THE LAST CHANGE TO CHECK IF YOU SELECTED THE CORRECT DEVICE.
Press Apply if everything is correct.

After everything is fine, you have your new fresh Pandian on you SD-Card

First-start

Upon first boot of Pandian, there is a first-start-wizard which guides you through some basic settings.

Navigation

Inside a dialog you can navigate with the cross
With space you select a checkbox
Moving between <Ok> and <Cancel> can be down with the use of TAB ( Tap Fn then tap Space )
Acknowledge with Enter

Update ( Optional )

After you setup your Pandora, it is useful to update your system. It is a rolling release, which means since the image was made, the system is forever updated with new packages.
open a terminal
get root ( command is: "su" )
enter "apt-get update" to download package information from the repositories
enter "apt-get upgrade" to update all packages that are out of date

(pandian packages are also updated this way :)

Preinstalled packages

These are the packages which come with the different versions of MARK2:

minimal

LXDE

of course LXDE
Text-Editor: medit
Audio: mpd als backend, glurp as frontend

Additional Users/Groups

There are additional Users/Groups added to the standard debian-users

Groups

admin

This superuser privilege is used by sudo for admin task like shutdown etc.

mpd

This user/group has access to mpd-related files ( socket, pid-files )

User-Guide Section

Power-Modes

LID-Close

If the lid is closed only the screen will be disabled

Low-Power-Mode / Shutdown

Switch

Switch to left: Pandora will go to low power mode ( reduce CPU, Disable LID, Pause processes )
Switch to right: Shutdown the pandora

pdcmd

This script handles all system-related stuff, like lid, low-power, usb or wifi.
This should run as root

Usage:

Command	What's done
/usr/sbin/pdcmd LCDBright +	Increase the light of the lid
/usr/sbin/pdcmd LCDBright -	Decrease the light of the lid
/usr/sbin/pdcmd LCDBright 10	Set the Brightness of the lid to 10
/usr/sbin/pdcmd LCDTrigger	Trigger the lid ( WARNING: THIS DISABLES THE LID ! )
/usr/sbin/pdcmd USBNetTrigger	Enable the USB-Networking (module g_ether). If usbnetworking is on, it will disable it
/usr/sbin/pdcmd USBHostTrigger	Enable the USB-Host (module ehci-hcd). If USB-Host is on, it will disable it
/usr/sbin/pdcmd WLANTrigger	Enable Wifi. If Wifi is enabled it will be disabled

Old releases

01

Full debian GNU/Linux 7.2 codename Wheezy (stable) with LXDE desktop environment
hardfloat armv7l released Date: 29.09.2013 forum link

Features

Hard-Float-ABI
Ext4 Root for better performance
Working Touch-Screen
Working Nubs
Screen-Off on LID-Close
Low-Power-Mode
WLAN
Music ( with Sonata/MPD )
Automount

Upcoming/Ideas

Assistant for tzdata
libpnd - PND-Support
OpenGL not tested yet
Aptitude
Minimal-Network-Installation
Pandian-Debian-Repository for special packages ( libpnd, touch-screen-calibrator )
of course, in-system-documentation ( Documentation on the pandora )

Download here

Forum thread

Installation

note: It is assumed here, that the card-reader load the card as /dev/sdc. Please check before which device is your SD-card ! This can be checked with gparted. Minimum requirement 2GB SD-card.

Download Image ( as 7z )
Verify md5-checksum:
pandian-stable-hf_2013-09-29.001.7z 2a85bbb40bbe7c6e8f92f058e150951a
pandian-stable-hf_2013-09-29.001.img e62d101dc708de49af1ca7743e2df2bd
Unzip with 7z ( in Linux with 7zr e <image.7z> )
Copy image to SD-Card ( dd if=<image.img> of=/dev/sdx ) Don't specify "bs="

Username: Pandian
Root password: Root (change after intsallation as per instructions below)

Open a terminal
Type "su"
Type "passwd"
Enter your new root password when prompted, and then again to confirm.
Dont forget your password

Resize

Default installation is limited to 2GB, if you want to expand it, you can, provided you have installed it on a bigger SD-card and want to make use of the space.

Size will be changed with parted
parted /dev/sdx
show size with "print free"

(parted) print free # Model: USB Mass Storage Device (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdc: 7965MB# Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B# Partition Table: msdos

Number	Start	End	Size	Type	File system	Flags
	32,3kB	1049kB	1016kB		Free Space
1	1049kB	53,5MB	52,4MB	primary	fat32
2	53,5MB	1933MB	1879MB	primary	ext4
	1933MB	7965MB	6032MB		Free Space

we would like to resize the second partition to the nearly end ( -512MB for swap )

(parted) resizepart # Partition number? 2 # Warning: Partition /dev/sdc2 is being used. Are you sure you want to continue?# Yes/No? YES # End? [1933MB]? 7453MB this is how the partitions looks like after

(parted) print free * Model: USB Mass Storage Device (scsi)* Disk /dev/sdc: 7965MB* Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B* Partition Table: msdos

Number	Start	End	Size	Type	File system	Flags
	32,3kB	1049kB	1016kB		Free Space
1	1049kB	53,5MB	52,4MB	primary	fat32
2	53,5MB	7453MB	7400MB	primary	ext4
	7453MB	7965MB	512MB		Free Space

create Swap (optional)

(parted) mkpart primary linux-swap Start? 7453MB End? 7965MB

this is how the partitions looks like after