Ubuntu up and running on Pandora

All kinds of exciting things are happening in the Pandora universe, and now one enterprising individual has succeeded in getting Ubuntu 7.04 up and running on his development model. Things move pretty slowly, and no luck yet with Firefox, but the thrilling video does catch him playing with GIMP and the Xfce desktop environment. See for yourself after the break.

[Thanks, Stern]

[bob sakamano @ Sep 29th 2008 10:08AM]

Joseph L. Flatley, you, you.. you are one uninformed hound. I am surprised the producers at late night even let-you-out today!

[Dhomas @ Sep 29th 2008 10:15AM]

If it's running Xfce, don't you mean Xubuntu?

[cb88 @ Sep 29th 2008 1:04PM]

no... he means ubuntu running xfce

xubuntu is a x86 and x64 only distro that boots from cd

so to get this setup he probably installed ubuntu then added the xfce package which is not xubuntu it is ubuntu with xfce

[Dubb @ Sep 29th 2008 3:00PM]

I don't know what you're smoking cb88, but please share.

http://www.xubuntu.org/

Xubuntu is a Linux Distribution that installs Ubuntu with the Xfce desktop panel manager.

You would be a retard if you downloaded Ubuntu (Gnome) just to reinstall the desktop panel manager as Xfce when you got done installing Ubuntu. That's what Xubuntu is for.

There's another one called Kubuntu that uses the KDE desktop panel manager.

[Dubb @ Sep 29th 2008 3:02PM]

Bah, the Pandora is not x86, so now your comment makes more sense.

I still wouldn't mind what your smoking, it might make me pay more attention to detail.

[cb88 @ Oct 29th 2008 11:58AM]

did you miss the part where i said xubuntu is a livecd that boots on x86 and x64? this is running on an ARM processor and doesn't even have a CD drive although you could plug one in via the USB

[Frogboy @ Sep 29th 2008 10:17AM]

So, Emu fans. Are you going to open Pandora's box or would you rather take a Wiz?

[JohnTitor @ Sep 29th 2008 10:28AM]

as usual asian companies don't seem to grasp the creativity of american and european enthusiasts, each new model adds something but only quirks while adding some flaws at the same time. the f200 for example added a touch screen which was nice, and a much needed d-pad (the anolog stick before wasn't really anolog) but then the horrid gui required more clicks then if they had the original one with all menus layed out and now the wiz still doesn't improve the real hardware with a much needed gpu, and installed makes a useless dual dpad design

[Hey Ya @ Sep 29th 2008 1:22PM]

Unfortunately, the D-pad on the f200 wasn't a D-pad at all. It was four separate buttons, which made for some pretty painful control (especially for classic fighters). It really made an, otherwise, decent device a pretty big disappointment.

[Frogboy @ Sep 29th 2008 3:57PM]

It looks like the d-pad on the Wiz is also just four buttons and not a real d-pad. It probably for the better though. I don't think that I'd trust GPH to put a real, quality d-pad on their gaming device and make sure that it worked well before shipping them out. They obviously didn't on my F-100s joystick. Four buttons is the cheap and easy way to go and it'll probably suit them better. A decent majority of games will work fine with that set up. Of course, I'm demanding a real d-pad this time around and it seems my wishes are about to come true.

I never bothered spending the money to upgrade my F-100 but there's no way that the directional controls were worse on the F-200. Thankfully, I didn't buy the MK1 which had the convex joystick cap which was supposed to be even worse.

[ishism @ Sep 29th 2008 5:43PM]

The good thing about the OpenPandora people is that they left GPH to better support what the western community was looking for in a handheld. The OpenPandora project was led by community input. I have good faith the project will not disappoint. I'm preordering as soon as possible.

[Shinigami @ Sep 29th 2008 10:31AM]

I guess I'm one uneducated geek here - I don't get what you're talking about...

[maveric101 @ Sep 29th 2008 12:34PM]

sir, i'm going to have to suspend your geek license...

[Matthew C @ Sep 29th 2008 10:14PM]

and I quote, from the pandora we site:

http://www.openpandora.org/

"it is very small, around about the same size as a DS. It can easily fit in your pocket."

questions?

[therpham @ Sep 29th 2008 10:34AM]

I was very confused at first because I associate the word Pandora with the streaming service.

[wilcoholic @ Sep 29th 2008 10:41AM]

Pandora is alot bigger then the Wiz, DS, iPod touch and the PSP. Pandora should be compared to netbooks since its not that portable at all. Its almost 3cm thick! It's about the size of a small text book.

[atomicthumbs @ Sep 29th 2008 10:48AM]

The Pandora is actually a bit smaller than the original DS. The one you're talking about is the developer version, using inexpensive cases (which are thicker and have no smooth, sexy curves).

[Frogboy @ Sep 29th 2008 11:03AM]

You have some really small text books at your school. I usually couldn't get mine to fit in my pocket. I was lucky to get mine to fit in a backpack. Just messin' with you. :)

The pictures make Pandora look a lot bigger than it actually is. Everyone that I've shown it to thought that it a more EEE size when it is actually more DS size. It's definitely bigger than the Wiz although I'd rather have a bigger screen and better controls than extreme pocketability. That's my preference at least.

[Chip @ Sep 29th 2008 11:39AM]

Size comparison: http://www.sizeasy.com/page/size_comparison/16085-Eeepc-701-vs-Pandora-vs-DS-Lite-vs-psp-vs-Apple-iPhone

Definitely in the "pocketable" category, and nowhere near the size of an eeePC.

[wilcoholic @ Sep 29th 2008 1:32PM]

Ok actually I was wrong about the other measurements but you can definately not fit this in your pocket. 2.7cm thickness is quite alot if you ask me. But I guess you cant fit a DS or a PSP in your pocket either.

[wootman @ Sep 29th 2008 11:37PM]

You must have some pretty friggin small pockets, i can fit both a ds phat and psp f-1000 in the same pocket without much bulge.

[atomicthumbs @ Sep 29th 2008 10:48AM]

Although, as Craig has said, there isn't really any reason to run Ubuntu on it.

Oh well, it's fun anyway. :)

[fischju @ Sep 29th 2008 11:27AM]

That guys needs to try Damn Small Linux, as I'm sure that would work at a perfectly usable speed and with Firefox.

[z0phi3l @ Sep 29th 2008 11:43AM]

Or even Arch Linux with a minimal install should do it

[cb88 @ Sep 29th 2008 1:08PM]

DSL doesn't have an arm port

and neither does Arch Linux

the pandora does not have an x86 processor cause if it did to get the same performance as the ARM cortex a8 that it does have it would probably only have an hour or 2 battery life but the Arm has a 10+ hour battery life (about 8 hours at 100% system load with LCD on and no power saving features active)

[raging_hamsterx @ Sep 29th 2008 1:21PM]

but does it run Mojave?

[TheGZeus @ Sep 29th 2008 2:55PM]

WTF?
Ubuntu doesn't support the ARM processor!

That's NOT ubuntu, or the stated specs are bs. Where's the beef?

What the hell is going on?

[salasq @ Sep 29th 2008 4:15PM]

recompiled.

[Chip @ Sep 29th 2008 4:17PM]

Good catch! You've uncovered an elaborate scam - the same scam Nokia apparently tried to pull off six months ago: http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/24/nokia-internet-tablets-to-get-ubuntu-and-qt-ports/

Luckily we have such well informed citizens as yourself pointing out the impossible. The beef, sir, is with you.

[madnux @ Sep 29th 2008 3:43PM]

If they can install fluxbuntu more fast window management (Ubuntu with FluxBox)... I think we can use blender game engine to put games in OpenPandora :)

[gbrendel @ Sep 30th 2008 10:33AM]

Preorders have started!

http://gbax.com

[cb88 @ Oct 29th 2008 11:59AM]

ROFL... I missed your comment .... sorry ... apparently i also have an attention deficit