Release LXtools/LXfileman


moxie

The voice of reason, sense and exasperation
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OK, so I finally got my hands on Freamons C/C++-tools-pnd and thought: "What could I possibly want to try here?". And the answer, quite surprisingly, was lxtools. For those not in the know (i.e. everyone except me, hmc and some other guy whose name I've forgotten), lxtools are command-line utilities for communicating with a hp200lx (or 100lx) over a serial connection. Backing up, copying files, that sort of thing. I thought I'll try this, since it was


1) Fairly simple (only text based)


2) Not used by a lot of people (i.e. if I fail completely, he boards wont hate me)


3) Something I want.


So far, so good - A quick make compiled everything with no more than a few warnings. My setbacks so far are hardware-wise - The pandora does not recognize my USB-to-serial-cable, and so actually trying it with the LXes is right now a smidgen difficult. That will be fixed in the end, though. My goal for this one is to make a pnd with the command line tools and hopefully LXFileman, too. We'll see. Since this is my first go at pandora-developing, I'll go slowly :D


Still, question: Anyone have a link to, or a make of, USB-to-serial-thingie that is known good with the pandora? The one I have works with my ubuntu netbook, but is "not enumerated" according to dmesg.
 
No, I was wrong: It does recognize it, when put through an USB2.0 hub. Apparently, it is an USB1.1 thingie. However, it seems that if I try to plug it directly into the pandora, it says "could not enumerate device on blahblah", and then my USB port locks up until reboot? Because after that, nothing responds there - I tried a hub, I tried an ordinary USB memory stick - No response. After a reboot, though, the USB stick was suddenly recognized again, and if I plugged in the hub and then the serial thingie, everything works nicely (well, at least it is recognized and bound to /dev/ttyUSB0). That means I can do some further stuff on the tools - change the compiled in defaults for serial prefix, start looking at things like permissions and try to get a connection, and so on - but still: Is it supposed to do that? Weird.
 
Yep. And I just found out from a minty fresh post from MarioPandio that trying to use a 1.1 device actually crashes the USB somethingorother, leading to my confusing stint of nothing working at all :D I knew about the hub thing, but not that I actually need to reboot after trying a non2.0 device. Ah well, back to normal.
 
You can also use a mini usb to otg adapter so you dont have to use a 2.0 hub
 
Yup! Now, armed with that knowledge, everything suddenly worked a lot better :D


The lxtools work flawlessly, as far as I've been testing so far. I can list files on the lx and copy stuff back and forth. Now, even I realize that this is a fairly minor success - These are really simple command line tools with nothing much in terms of dependencies and so on - but still, it is my first compilation on the pandora :) Now, lxfileman


Oh, and the info about the 1.1-crashing-the-USB-whatnot also enabled me to fiinally get the pandora to talk to my mobile, so once again, I can actually post from the panda. Wheee!
 
Pretty hardcore to use this tool these days, i would say..


". if I fail completely, he boards wont hate me" -> LOL, why anyone should care anyway, when you configure/make this kind of app..
 
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Exactly! When I fail with this, only I will hate me. And that is part of my regular monday morning routine anyway, so it is no problem :)
 
There are a few 100lx/200lx owners hereabouts - I remember this from discussions a long, long time ago on GP32x! I have a 95lx, but right now I'd probably stand a better chance of finding the actual Holy Grail than my serial cable.


Intriguing piece of software nonetheless ;)
 
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