Imaging/Side effects

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Imaging laptops is not supported by OLPCA's deployment support team. However, it sometimes works in limited testing.

[edit] Introduction

We haven't worked on figuring out what pieces of the system are touched, so copying the machines can have unintended side effects. It seems that nearly everyone who tries to distribute images by cloning runs into some oddities.

There are a number of changes made to system files during the first boot of the machine which you might not want to copy between machines. SSH keys, for instance, are generated once at first boot on every XO. Also, hardware-dependent information from the firmware is cached on the laptop after first boot.

That said, it also seems that this method of customization is the most appealing and straightforward, and matches some of the existing desktop deployment practices for ICT in education.

[edit] Procedure

To correct for the side-effects you may either prepare the source system before it is cloned, or fix each target system after it is cloned. If you are cloning to more than one target, then it is more efficient to modify the source system, so that the modifications are cloned. The same actions can be used in both cases:

Delete the ".olpc-configured" files which tell olpc-configure it does not have to run again. This allows some of the files deleted below to be checked for and replaced. 

sudo rm -f /.olpc-configured
rm -f /home/olpc/.olpc-configured

Destroy any saved volume settings, forcing defaults: 

sudo rm -f /etc/alsa/asound.state

If the installed build is later than 12.1.0 build os9, destroy the saved hostname (ticket #11710): 

sudo rm -f /etc/sysconfig/network

If the installed build is ealier than 10.1.2 build os851, destroy the saved wireless MAC address: 

sudo rm -f /etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules

Destroy the SSH host key, forcing regeneration on next boot: 

sudo rm -f /etc/ssh/ssh_host_rsa_key{,.pub}

Destroy the Sugar settings, forcing a first boot name prompt, and fixing collaboration: 

rm -rf /home/olpc/.sugar

If a developer key was ever requested using the Browse activity, or you are not sure, clear the developer key request file: 

rm -rf /home/.devkey.html

If the laptop was ever registered with a school server, or you are not sure, clear the registration by destroying the GConf settings: 

rm -rf /home/olpc/.gconf*

Immediately shutdown without restarting sugar, to avoid the .sugar directory being recreated: 

sudo poweroff

To fix loss of collaboration and first boot name prompt on an already cloned target system, start Terminal, enter the command: 

rm -r .sugar

and then shutdown using a double power button press.

[edit] See Also

Retrieved from "http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Imaging/Side_effects"
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