View source for OS images

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{{OLPC}}
'''To emulate the OLPC environment on your Windows, Mac, or Linux machine''', see [[Emulating the XO]].
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== Definition ==

OLPC and Red Hat continually develop the [[Fedora]]-derived OLPC [[Linux]] operating system. Each day, we freeze the most up-to-date version of that OS, "build" an '''OS image''', and make it available for download in various formats.

== Upgrades ==

XO users should follow [[Upgrading the XO]] to upgrade to later system software.

For developers, another recommended method to update your development board or BTest system, is [[Autoreinstallation image]].  Please see that and then return here if you want a different image.

== Download directories for images ==

There have been several major [[releases]] and many minor releases of the operating system for OLPC, and maintenance and development continues.
Thus there are many builds available! The latest build might not always be stable since developers are experimenting with new features.  Each build is labeled with a unique version number.  When reporting problems on mailing lists, please [[How to check the OS and firmware versions|provide the build number you are using]].

=== Stable builds ===
Stable, signed builds for the XO-1 are available from:
: http://download.laptop.org/xo-1/os/official/

Stable builds are cryptographically signed so that any XO can be upgraded to them &mdash; you do not need a [[developer key]].

A build is marked "stable" when the developers are happy with it. At minimum, it should boot successfully on XO laptops and have [[release notes]]; it normally goes through the [[Software ECO process]].

==== Latest stable build ====
The latest stable build is the highest-numbered build at http://download.laptop.org/xo-1/os/official; the green "infobox" on this page and others also gives the latest stable.

=== Release candidate ===
When developers have some confidence in a particular build, they may invite wider testing of it;
see [[Friends in testing]].
Some release candidates are signed and thus can be installed on any XO; others are unsigned and require that you get a [[developer key]].

Signed release candidate builds are available from:
: http://download.laptop.org/xo-1/os/candidate/

=== Development builds ===

Casual downloaders and those upgrading to a new build '''beware''':
* check the [http://dev.laptop.org/tinderbox/ Tinderbox] to see whether there are known problems before selecting a build
* read the [[Test Group Release Notes]] to look for testing results on a build
* you must get a [[Developer key]] before you can install a development build on your XO

OLPC development proceeds in several streams.  There are updates to existing major releases, experimental features, and the general "latest version", called [[joyride]].  Each stream has development builds.

"Update.1" images include relatively stable builds leading up to the next 8.1.''x'' build. (As of September 2008, build 714 is the latest candidate for a possible [[8.1.3]] release in the update.1 build stream).
: http://pilgrim.laptop.org/~pilgrim/olpc/streams/update.1/

Similarly, "8.2" includes relatively stable builds leading up to the upcoming (as of September 2008) [[8.2.0]] release.
: http://pilgrim.laptop.org/~pilgrim/olpc/streams/8.2/

You can download unstable development images from:
: http://xs-dev.laptop.org/~cscott/olpc/streams (look in "latest" in each stream's directory) 
[[joyride]] is the primary development stream, other streams such as "faster" may be available for testing experimental features

=== Historical builds ===
Finally, historical builds are available from:
: http://olpc.download.redhat.com/olpc/streams/development

== Image variants ==

Images are available in five variants

* Normal images in the <tt>ext3/</tt> and <tt>jffs2/</tt> sub-directories
** Intended for production use
** Does not contain tools or software suitable for developers of the OLPC operating system
** The <tt>ext3/</tt> images are intended for USB drives (both hard drives and flash drives)
** The <tt>jffs2/</tt> images are intended for the on-board NAND flash.

* Developer images in the <tt>devel_ext3/</tt> and <tt>devel_jffs2/</tt> sub-directories
** Contains tools useful for developers of the OLPC operating system, including: <tt>yum, rpm, vim-minimal, openssh-server, xterm, which, file, tree, wget, xorg-x11-twm, gdb</tt> packages
** The <tt>devel_ext3/</tt> images are intended for USB drives (both hard drives and flash drives)
** The <tt>devel_jffs2/</tt> images are intended for the on-board NAND flash
** '''WARNING''': Do not attempt to update the kernel on <tt>devel_*</tt> builds - the <tt>initrd</tt> will be wrong. We're working on fixing this through including an <tt>olpc-mkinitrd</tt> package.

* Live CD images in the <tt>livecd/</tt> sub-directory
** Contains an iso of a normal image which can be burned onto a cd and run by booting off the cd drive 

Each variant may have available several sub-variants:

* <tt>tree</tt>: a tarball of the OS directory tree, without a filesystem
* <tt>img</tt>: a filesystem image (of one of the types described above): you can follow the [[Clean-install procedure]] to re-flash your XO with this.
* <tt>.toc</tt> and <tt>.usb</tt>: the OS image in a special format that [[olpc-update]] can use to perform an update from USB drive

These may be compressed in the <tt>bz2</tt> format, requiring the free bunzip2 utility to uncompress.

== What's in an OS image ==
The download directory for a build's often includes a <tt>build.log</tt> that shows the software packages and steps that created it. It is the output of the [[Build system|build process]].

You can uncompress the <tt>tree</tt> version of a build on a running computer to examine the files in the build.

== Languages in which the images are available ==

* English
* The [[Localization|home Language]] for each participating country

== Using images ==

=== Installing images to on-board NAND flash on OLPC hardware ===

The '''[[Clean-install procedure]]''' describes how to put an image and supporting files on a USB disk or flash drive so that your XO's [[firmware]] will re-flash its NAND memory and thus update to the new image.

=== Updating OLPC hardware from USB ===
Newer build directories also provide <tt>os''NNN''.toc</tt> and <tt>os''NNN''.usb</tt> files.
These are reference files for the [[olpc-update]] command-line tool, so that you can update a running XO to the new build from a USB flash drive.

=== Booting images from a USB drive ===
For development we offer images that run the OLPC operating system off a USB storage device.  These images are located in the <tt>devel_ext3/</tt> sub-directory, and should be used if you're unsure of which image to choose.

The '''[[OS images for USB disks]]''' page describes how to write these images to a USB disk or flash drive, so that you can test the images on real OLPC hardware, or attempt to boot from them on your own PC.

=== Images on an emulator ===

The '''[[Emulating the XO]]''' page details how you can run an image of the OLPC operating system on a normal computer that doesn't have the OLPC hardware.

=== Passwords ===	 

Some recent builds do not permit root login.  There are quite a few tickets.  You can login as ''olpc'', no password, and <tt>sudo -i</tt> instead. [[User:MitchellNCharity|MitchellNCharity]] 14:40, 6 January 2008 (EST)

The images have no password set at build time. This means you can log in as root using no password. Always remember to change the password as the first thing when start using an image.

As the <tt>image-rpm</tt> variant ships with an SSH server you thus need to set the password to be able to login from a remote host. This is a feature of <tt>sshd</tt>.

''Password handling is subject to change before official release.''

=== Wireless ===

See the [[Wireless]] page for detailed instructions.

== Test group release notes for images ==

The [[Test Group Release Notes]] page lists the "official" changelog and known problems for each build.  Check that page to see if there are any known problems with the build you're installing.

== User feedback on images ==

If you have an XO, see [[Friends in testing]].

Using the [[User Feedback on Images]] page, you can see how the images worked on various systems, using various different hardware and emulator set-ups.  You can also add your own reviews.

== Build names and branches ==
XO users should see [[Release notes]] and [[What release am I running?]]; 
developers can also refer to [[Builds]] and [[Future releases]].

== Building your own custom images ==

See [[Building custom images]]

[[Category:Hardware]]
[[Category:Developers]]
[[Category:OS]]
[[Category:Build system]]
[[Category:Update paths]]
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