Release notes/8.2.0

  This page is monitored by the OLPC team.

+	Software
XO
	13.2.11	2020-01-29
XS
	xs-0.7	2012-02-20

  For the general public

NOTE: The contents of this page are not set in stone, and are subject to change! This page is a draft in active flux ... Please leave suggestions on the talk page.

DRAFT

New Features in 8.2.0

GUI and Usability Improvements

Graphical Sugar Control Panel

Provides a graphical interface for setting: Time
Color
Name
more?

Technical details at http://dev.laptop.org/ticket/7380

Home View and Frame Redesign

The new Home View including an updated Frame provides

• Faster launching of activities
• Easier switching from one activity to another by showing all running activities in the Frame.
• Icons including status for all "Devices". This includes Battery, Wireless Radio, Extenral USB Drives, Camera, Volume.

For more details on the User Interface Improvements see:
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Designs/Activity_Management
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Designs/Frame

http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/User:Walter/sandbox

Technical details and code changes are documented at:
http://dev.laptop.org/ticket/7381

Improved Power Management

Manually enabled USB-disabling Power Management
master trac ID #7384

Collaboration Improvements

IDs

1. 7387 Server-based Collaboration Scalability Improvements (Gadget)
   
2. 7389 Collaboration and Presence Bug fixing
   
3. 7390 Alternate Collaboration Technology (Cerebro)
   

Activity Related Improvements

1. 7396 Activity Management
   

7382 Browser Improvements

1. 7428 Chat with non Sugar XMPP clients
   

Unknown User Impact

1. 7392 Disaster-recovery backup+restore w/ XS
   

1. 7393 Kernel, initramfs, and wireless firmware Refresh
   
2. 7394 OFW Refresh
   
3. 7395 Rainbow Improvements (Speed + Compatibility)
   
4. 7397 Theft-deterrence Features
   
5. 7413 High-quality release
   

New Operating System (Fedora 9) Improves Security and Supports More Devices

Better security than Fedora 7

Support for More Types of APs

http://hostap.epitest.fi/wpa_supplicant/

We were running v0.5.7, we now run v0.6.3

Quick skim through the changelog, I see the following notable things:

Improved EAP-GPSK compatibility
Various crash fixes for uncommon network setups
Various improvements for protocol compliance
Added support for some new authentication types (although I guess some of these might not be usable through sugar - they may require some advanced configuration that we don't have a GUI for)

More external device support (needs edit and support confirmation)

We are upgrading from v2.6.22 to v2.6.25. These pages document most of the new hardware support (and other kernel features):
http://kernelnewbies.org/Linux_2_6_23
http://kernelnewbies.org/Linux_2_6_24
http://kernelnewbies.org/Linux_2_6_25
Much of the new hardware support won't be relevant for us - e.g. all of the internal hardware support (I don't think we have users adding hardware on the inside!). Also some of the external hardware support will be irrelevant too, e.g. we probably don't have any software that could operate a USB TV tuner.

Master trac ID: #7383

Changes from official-656 Needs update

Activities must be installed separately.

Motivation: OLPC cannot presently afford to maintain more than one stable build. Therefore, we have decided to provide a "blank slate" which must be customized with activities and content bundles at installation time.

What's the recommended way to upgrade? Needs update

If you are upgrading from any build after 699, the build is already separated from the activities. So you can run olpc-update -f candidate-708 and your activities should not be affected. Just:

1. Plug the XO into AC power and connect it to the internet.
2. In a console, run Olpc-update to the new build. ( terminal -> su -l (lowercase L, not 1) -> olpc-update -f candidate-708 ). This may take half an hour or more, depending on your internet connection.
3. Reboot

If you are upgrading from a build prior to 700, such as Ship.1 or the original G1G1 software:

1. Download the G1G1 Activity Pack (from here) and unzip it in the base (root) directory of a USB flash drive. You should see two directories (boot and bundles, and a file called customization-2) in the base directory. Commands such as "extract here" in ubuntu / windows will sometimes create a directory with the same name as the zip file, placing the unzipped files within it. If this happens, you will have to move the files to the base directory in order for your XO to see them on boot. (Note that the "boot" directory will contain two zip files, actos.zip and runos.zip. This is normal; these files SHOULD NOT be unzipped).
2. Plug the XO into AC power and connect it to the internet.
3. In a console, run Olpc-update to the new build. ( terminal -> su -l (lowercase L, not 1) -> olpc-update -f candidate-708 ) This may take half an hour or more, depending on your internet connection.
4. Insert the USB flash drive and reboot the XO. It will display text on a black screen as the activities are installed, after which it will power off.
5. Remove the USB flash drive. Connect the XO to AC power, so that it will be able to proceed if it determines that a firmware update is needed. Then power on your XO as per usual.

Finding Activities Needs update

OLPC hosts many Activities. These activities can be installed in en masse onto 8.1.1 with either:

• a customization key and an activity pack or
• with Bert's script

Some commonly installed activity packs include the:

• G1G1 activity pack (download)
• Peru activity pack
• Nepal activity pack
• ...more activity packs

(The Nepal activity pack contains some additional customizations made by OLE Nepal for their pilot).

TO INSTALL AN ACTIVITY PACK: Install an activity pack

Activity Incompatibilities

• Pippy-21 (and older versions) will fail to launch, upgrade to Pippy-22.
• Record-54 (and older versions) will fail to take photos and record videos, upgrade to Record-55.
• Browse-91 (and older versions) will fail to download files and install .xo/.xol bundles. Upgrade to Browse-92.

Notable Open Bugs In This Release Needs update

• #6532 SD Card Corruption: partition table gets corrupted on ext3-formatted SD cards on suspend/resume
• #7158 Upgrade from 656 to 703 leaves su unusable when you fallback to 656

Customization Issues

• Customization key won't install if the activities or library directories had already been created as root

Activity Issues

• #6773 TamTamJam: Recorded microphone slots don't playback. ?need to test
• Couldn't add feeds to news reader because clicking "+"/dropdown on the feeds tab didn't do anything. ?need to test
• Read will not reliably share a PDF document.
• #6729 Read doesn't save the PDFs it opens (when sharing)
• #4539 Sharing in Etoys only works if the laptops are in the same network (on same mesh channel, or connected to same access point). ?need to test

(Almost) full activity testing results for Update.1 RC-2, all results are from build 702

Touchpad Issues

• The Nepal pilot reported "jumpy touchpad" problems in dusty conditions. In response, we have surveyed known touchpad issues and have examined potential software work-arounds . See also [1].

Network Related Issues Needs Update

Access Points

• When a number of laptops try to connect to the school server (either over a WiFi AP or a mesh) at one time, random "failure to associate" will occur and the laptops will join a simple mesh instead #4153 (#5963 is dup). This is indicated by the network indicator in the home view (it will say "Connected to a simple mesh" instead of "Connected to a school mesh portal" or "Connected to <school_essid>" when hovered over. Simply click on the school Wifi AP or one of the mesh circles in the laptop's neighborhood view to restart the association process.
• Sometimes when a number of laptops try to connect to the school server at one time, random laptops may be unable to connect to schoolserver presence service (ejabber) #5908. This is indicated by a greatly reduced number of XO icons in the neighborhood view (compared to a laptop which is connected to the presence service). Simply click on the school Wifi AP or one of the mesh circles in the laptop's neighborhood view to restart the association process (in extreme cases, restart Sugar (CTL + ALT + ERASE) or reboot the laptop).
• Association with WEP/WPA encryption works. However this must be tested for a wider range of access points.
• Sometimes obsolete APs show in the neighborhood view, or an AP is shown more than once. #6909

School Server/ Jabber Server

• To register to a school server and connect to the school jabber server you must
  1. Ensure that you are connected to the appropriate Network by hovering over the Network circle in the Home View.
  2. Hover over the XO icon in the main view and select Register.
  3. Hover again over the XO icon and verify that the Register entry has disappeared.
  4. Restart sugar by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Erase.
  5. Confirm you have connected to the jabber server by typing olpc-netstatus from the terminal.
• When registering with a school server, you MUST associate with the correct network before clicking Register for the first time. Otherwise, you wont be able to register until you restart Sugar (Ctrl+Alt+Erase) #6857.
• You should restart sugar (Ctrl+Alt+Erase) to resolve the following bugs
  • You can't register with the school server. #6857
  • You can't connect to the default jabber server alhtough you have registered.#6881
  • You connected to the jabber server, and gabble is running, but no XOs, or few XOs are seen in the neighborhood view. #6883,#6884
  • You are running both gabble and salut. #6881,#6886
• If you are not at a school (G1G1 user) you can connect to a community jabber server with this method.

Simple Mesh / Salut

• When XOs leave the mesh, the neighborhood view will notice with a delay between 10-30min.#6282,#5501
• However, when XOs enter the mesh or start an activity it is shown instantly.
• You can refresh the data of the neighborhood view by reconnecting to the mesh.
• Suspend/Resume will not work with salut.

UI

• Sometimes in the neighborhood view, when connected to an Access Point a mesh circle continues to blink. This will also show up as two network circles in the Home view. This shows false information, but also causes no harm, so it may be ignored. #5459
• When an XO joins a shared activity its icon should disappear and reappear next to the activity. It happens that the XO icon will just disappear. Its collaboration will work properly, and if it leaves the activity it will show again as normal. You can see the correct number of XOs clustered around the activity by restarting sugar(Ctrl+Alt+Erase). However the bug will continue from this point on when new XOs join the same or other activities. #5904