[jboody]

What is Pandev Linux?

Pandev Linux is a Live-CD based on Puppy Linux whose goals are to:

• Provide a complete development environment for the Linux based Pandora game system
• Provide documentation and tutorials which is designed to make Pandora developers productive

A Live-CD contains an operating system (OS) that is launched at boot time from CD-ROM which does NOT require to be installed on the hard drive. The Live-CD contains software drivers for most common hardware however the user may be required to help configure some devices (i.e. video settings, wireless connection settings). When the Linux OS boots up from the Live-CD you will be greeted with a GUI (similar to what you might find in Ubuntu or Windows) and have access typical applications such as a web browser, a text editor and a console.

Since the Pandev Linux OS is not installed on the hard drive, it does NOT overwrite your existing operating system. To boot your existing operating system, just remove the Live-CD and reboot the system normally. The user must specify where to put user data (i.e. a game's project files) and persistent system settings (i.e. browser settings or a custom background image). User data (i.e. a game's project files) is probably best stored on a USB flash drive so that it may also be read by your primary operating system. Persistent system settings can be stored in a special save file containing a Linux file system which can also be written to a USB flash drive. Subsequent boots from the Live-CD will search for the save file and will load it if found.

Pandev Linux includes the following key software at this time:

• GNU C/C++ compiler
• Text editors including Vim, Geany (an IDE) and Leafpad (similar to Notepad)
• A web browser called SeaMonkey (very similar to Firefox)
• Gimp image editor
• A Console
• SDL libraries including SDL_image, SDL_ttf, SDL_net and SDL_mixer
• Lua scripting language
• Python scripting language
• Includes example programs and documentation

Where can I get Pandev Linux?
Pandev Linux Website

[cb88]

remember puppylinux runs as root... just keep that in mind

slitaz might also be a good candidate for a mod

[_Sterling]

I'm a bit confused, even after reading the project page. Just so I'm clear on this... it's is an x86 liveCD that comes with tools needed to develop SDL applications and compile them to run on x86 systems?

Is there a facility included on the cd for cross-compiling to ARM, or for emulating/testing once you've done so?

[todd]

Awesome! Thanks for putting this together!

Some suggested includes:

• ruby
• CodeBlocks (IDE)
• source control (I prefer Mercurial; svn/cvs/git all seem even more popular)

This is great stuff. Of course, it would fabulous if someone would create a .deb which installs all this stuff as well! (Maybe docs are in the .deb and the SDL/GCC/cross-compile stuff are listed as dependencies.)

--Todd

[SteveM]

Is there a facility included on the cd for cross-compiling to ARM, or for emulating/testing once you've done so?

I was kind of expecting so too, but on the download page is stated that this isn't supported in the first release. Without cross-compilation I'm also kind of in "huh?" mode regarding the intended purpose of the CD ;-) I guess the idea is to build that (and maybe some emulation software) into later releases(?)

[dentrado]

pygame and codeblocks would be nice too,
... and a version for the Pandora itself!

[centus]

Great idea! looking forward for the next release.

I just love this community...

[Squidge]

How about the Windows users? They might not want to reboot to use your version of Linux. You could sort this by making it downloadable as a vmware image, then they could just run it inside Windows.

[jboody]

I'll try to clear up the confusion about the lack of a cross-compiler at the moment.

I decided not to include a cross compiler in the first release for the following reasons:

• My primary goal was to create a development environment ASAP to help beginners to start coding for the Pandora game console
• No Pandora hardware exists yet so the cross-compiled binaries can't be executed anyway
• Porting from x86 to the Pandora ought to require minimal effort (see Getting Started for more details)

Adding the cross-compiler will be my primary focus for the next release.

Time allowing other features that you have requested will also be added such as Pygame, Ruby, Codeblocks, source control, etc.

--Jeff

[Pickle]

How about the Windows users? They might not want to reboot to use your version of Linux. You could sort this by making it downloadable as a vmware image, then they could just run it inside Windows.

It doesnt have to be a image of machine, as long as the image for the CD is provided vmware can boot off the cd just as well as a real machine.

I'll try to clear up the confusion about the lack of a cross-compiler at the moment.
Adding the cross-compiler will be my primary focus for the next release.

All you have to do is install code sourcery toolchain.

Right now I have I have a vmware opensuse installation that includes CS toolchain, code blocks, gp2x devkit, svn, all the SDL dev packages. It was pretty simple everything is installed through yast. I had to do an extra search to find codeblocks but there is a repo with it.

[cb88]

why VMware? Virtualbox FTW!... acourse you couldn't do any 3d accelereated work...

This post has been edited by cb88: 30 October 2008 - 07:03 PM

[sindbad]

Just make an iso. It can be run on anything.

[(naw)mcx]

Now, if you can make a file that runs a system emulator, with nothing to installed, just all in one, that would be cool!

[dentrado]

Now, if you can make a file that runs a system emulator, with nothing to installed, just all in one, that would be cool!

DSL has this possibility: http://www.damnsmall...g/usb-qemu.html

[pcklee123]

Something similar to Andlinux would be nice for windows users.