Release notes/14.1.0

Private Builds

There was not enough community interest in testing this release, and so we switched to private builds from build 3 onwards, and worked directly with the customers. If you are interested in this release, please tell your technical contact at OLPC.

The private builds are:

• build 3, as at 2014-10-08,
• build 4, as at 2014-11-07,
• build 5, as at 2014-12-08, with OpenGL-ES integration,
• build 6, as at 2014-12-30, with dual core kernel integration,

The most recent public build from September 2014 is below.

Installation

How to install signed build 8 of release 14.1.0 on XO-4.

The build is installed to the internal storage device. You will need a USB drive or Secure Digital card of at least 1 GB capacity, but only for the duration of the installation. We recommend the drive be FAT formatted, but other formats are supported, see how to prepare a drive for use by the firmware for more details.

ALL USER DATA WILL BE ERASED FROM THE LAPTOP!

• Prepare the USB or SD drive:
  • Download 41008o4.zd, see How to Download,
  • Save the file to the top directory of the drive,
  • Download fs4.zip,
  • Save the file to the top directory of the same drive,
  • Check that the drive contains at least the two files fs4.zip and 41008o4.zd.
• Prepare the laptop:
  • Make a copy of any data you wish to keep,
  • Check that the battery is inserted and locked,
  • Check that the power cord is in place and the battery indicator is green,
  • Turn off the laptop, unless it is already off,
  • Insert the USB drive into any USB port on the laptop,

• Start installing:
  • Hold down all four game keys above the power button,
  • Turn on the laptop,
  • Wait for the message Release the game keys to continue,
  • Release the game keys.

Installation progress will be displayed. Green colour will fill grey blocks. It will take about five minutes. Once finished, the laptop will reboot automatically. You may remove the USB or SD drive during or after the reboot.

The USB or SD drive can be used on other laptops. If installation progress is not displayed, you may be running an old firmware version which does not recognise the fs4.zip file. Please rename fs4.zip to fs.zip and try again. If you see a message Boot failed then either:

• the USB or SD drive has not been properly prepared, or;
• the firmware is out of date and should be updated (see Firmware).

Deployment Support Impacts

External Power Mandatory for Upgrade

On an XO-4, when upgrading to 14.1.0 build 6 or later from a previous release, both a battery and external power must be present, so that the firmware upgrade will complete.

Without the firmware upgrade to Q7C01, our dual-core kernel will not boot. If this happens, turn off the XO-4, add battery and external power, and turn it back on. The firmware upgrade should occur and the kernel should boot.

To return to a build before 14.1.0 build 6, you must install Q7B41 or later in the Q7B series.

The reason for the restriction is that changes to firmware and kernel needed to occur at the same time.

rsyslog replaced by systemd journal

The /var/log/messages file has gone. For system messages, refer to

• Systemd Journal

This is a change introduced by Fedora.