Dingoo A320 question

[Gryzor]

Hello guys!

Anyone's got an A320? I had bought myself one and fiddled around with it, but due to lack of time I just stored it away...

Now, with vacation approaching, I dragged it out and it looks so cute So I was wondering if anyone's got some starting pointers - games, emulators, OSes etc - that you could give me to get me going?

Cheers
Gry

[remax]

I have one... great little machine. The first thing to do is installing Dingux (a linux for Dingoo) on a SD card.

Tutorial here : http://dingoowiki.com/index.php/Dingux:Tutorials

Then you can find some kind of starter pack here : http://boards.dingoonity.org/dingux-games-and-homebrew/dingux-local-pack-v0-35-31-05-2010/

it's a bit outdated but most of what is available on Dingux is in it.

You'll find for exemple the two CPC emulators Piituka and Dingux-Caprice.

You'll still have to use the standard OS if you want to use the best emulators for (in my opinion) GBA and SMS. But most of the best emulators work under Dingux.

Well, there is a lot lot to say about this handheld so i give you two links : http://boards.dingoonity.org/ and http://dingoowiki.com

[Gryzor]

Thanks for your reply mate... Actually I got Dingux installed and working last night, but guess what? It kind of sucks. Sure, you can play all the native linux stuff on it and the ready-made menu is nice, but:

a.it can't put the machine to sleep/turn it off!!! What kind of a fuckup is this? So every time you have to reboot through the menu and then....
b...you get back to the machine's built-in OS. Noooo, you have to reset while holding down START to boot dingux? So what if I'm somewhere with no pins to reset the machine? Let alone giving it to my girlfriend to play ("You see, this little thing here loads Linux, and see! that's a pretty console when it's booting! When you're done playing reboot then shut down! Oh, also, if it hangs or whatever, it doesn't suffice to just reset it, you have to remember this combination here..."). Awful.

So that's that about Dingux, I find it's useful only for specialised stuff - like, indeed, the CPC emus.

Thanks for the two other links! I had totally forgotten about the wiki one...

What I don't recall is - where do you keep the ROMs? In other words, what must the directory structure be?

Thanks again mate!

[remax]

what? of course you can turn off Dingux lol! If you use the pack i linked, you have the shutdown option on the last page of menu (and you can also bruteforce poweroff by holding off the power button for a few seconds).

That's right that when the dingoo hangs, you have no choice but to reset it with a pin but it's the case for both the the original OS and Dingoo. There are tutos on how to add a button in the reset hole to be able to reset easily (but you have to open the dingoo to put it in place).

Besides, you can install an another boot prog (i can give you the link) that make dingux the default OS (and you boot in the standard OS by holding "select") as Dingux will be the OS where you'll spend most of your time when you'll really know it.

For the roms, in the standard OS, i'm quite sure you can put the roms anywhere but the easier is in a subdir of GAMES. You have to put the emulator file in GAMES.
For Dingux, most of the time it is where you want.

[Gryzor]

You mean the toddler Dingux Local Pack v0.35? I didn't know extra packs can offer extra functionality, only extra apps... downloading now. And yes, pleeeeease tell me where to go to make Dingux the primary OS!

Thanks so much for your help, it's really appreciated. Hopefully I'll turn this thing into something vaguely amusing

[remax]

Yep the toddler local pack...

i look for the installer to make Dingux the default OS and i edit my post as soon as i find it

EDIT : here http://clogging.web.fc2.com/dingoo/

Linux SPL installer - linux boot first-(on megaupload.com)
 filesize : 6762137
 MD5 : 8716545d3d240b5e141fd0ad7b3bd4ed
 This SPL makes A320 to boot DINGUX first.
 WARNING : This SPL has some chance to make it to be bricked. 
 (even so,it should be booted from USB mode)

You have to install it the same way you installed the boot program for Dingux on the dingoo

[Gryzor]

Yeeeeeeeeeah! Thanks mate! Ah - SPL. Cool.

Btw, last night I installed that package. It took ages, what with all those very small files, and when I rebooted it appeared the package was for the wrong CRTC - errrrrr, I mean LCD - but it was too late to load another zImage. So I'll do it all today

You got any emu/ROM packages you could share?

[Gryzor]

Ah... I just downloaded it. Works like a charm! So now my Dingoo is where I want it to be... again, a million thanks man!

Btw: I had found somewhere a tutorial on how to set up the RNDIS/Ethernet device (under Win) so you can ftp into it, but can't find it anywhere... I just spent a good half hour looking for it but nothing! Any ideas (sorry...)?

[remax]

I don't understand what you are looking for?

You can ftp (or sftp i am not sure) on 10.1.0.2. I think it is automaticly detected by Windows (or perhaps i installed a driver, i have forgotten).

You can even telnet on the same adress.

Only problem : it is very unstable under windows and you will probably lose your connection after some time (at least it is what happens on mine, so i use the standard OS for every data transfert).

[Gryzor]

Nope, it needs a driver... and I guess that I'm out of luck under Win7 64-bit. But it doesn't matter, indeed the normal OS is just a reboot away

[nurgle]

Hmmm, maybe it's time to dig out my Dingoo again. pituka on Dingoo is really nice.

[Gryzor]

Yeah it is! I had never seen it before - though it does have some issues with controls (can't figure them out )

[nurgle]

Well it's not ideal to play CPC games on such a small screen with a Joypad. I still prefer the real thing or at least a PC with an USB Competition Pro. But anyway it's fun to carry around a CPC in your pocket.

[remax]

Well it's not ideal to play CPC games on such a small screen with a Joypad. I still prefer the real thing or at least a PC with an USB Competition Pro. But anyway it's fun to carry around a CPC in your pocket.

Totally... It's not as great as the real thing but being able to play CPC everywhere is something great!

[Gryzor]

I also love it how the gfx appear on such a small screen... marvellous!