Talk:No-fail update to 8.2

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SD Card Use

I did this with a SD Card (2GB Sandisk) instead of the USB Drive, and it seemed to work OK. - (portseven - 31 Dec 2008)

Would you like to add this to the wiki article? Were there any differences in the procedure?

Questions:

1) Why are the instructions only for Win or Mac users?

A. Originally they were only for PC. Mac was then added, and someone added directions for the Thunderbird browser. If you can contribute hints for other machines and browsers, please do!

2) Does it matter what format the USB drive is? e.g. I have an ext3-formatted one. Can I use that? Or is FAT32 recommended?

A. I've been told it needs to be FAT-32. That is the only one I have tried. If you find another that works, add it in (that's how wikis work).

Answering myself:

  • No, ext3 does not work.

3) I have an 8GB USB drive. (In fact, most thumb drives are pretty huge these days) Do I really have to empty it?

Answering myself:

  • Yes, using a big thumb drive with stuff on it works. (i.e. "No" you do not have to empty the drive) Just put the XO upgrade files in the very top level directory on the thumb drive.

A. One of the biggest problems people have had is with corrupted used drives. The cost of a brand new 2GB USB drive is pretty low. Simply starting with a new drive and removing all other files like games and empty file folders (but not the formatting) gives very reliable results. Just save the small drive for new XO updates. I have been able to update with a newer software version using the same drive, but that is all I use that one for.

Great, thanks for the help.

Also, why on earth is "Reboot your computer" a recommended step? Seems a bit silly, really.

A. Sometimes there are too many programs running and it slows down the download or even "chokes" the computer (some folks haven't updated their hardware in years...e.g. schools). You could ask folks just to close everything, but it is easier to just start fresh...with a "clean desk," so to speak. Now if I could just clean my desk and office that way.....

Merge with update recommended

I think it would be a good idea to merge this page with the olpc update page.

It gives users the option to do a clean install which would let them have more space for other apps since a backup of their previous os would not be stored.

yup, I agree. If someone has the time to do it, that would be great.