XS Release Notes

Please read these notes to understand the capabilities and known problems with a particular release of the XS ("XO School server") software. For older release notes, see XS Release Notes archived.

XS 0.7

Read steps to install.

• Rebased onto CentOS 6.2.
• Linux-3.2 backported from Fedora 15 for maximum hardware compatibility
• USB install is easier than before, and is expected to be more reliable
• Supports installation on top of existing RHEL-compatible install (e.g. CentOS), in addition to regular install media
• Interoperates better when run on an existing network - you are no longer required to make the XS 'run' the network.
• Networking setup greatly simplified: no more bonding
• eth0 is now the LAN, eth1 is now WAN. This is the opposite of previous XS releases, aimed at situations where no WAN connection is available (or when running on a previously existing network).
• Active antenna and mesh support dropped.

Known issues/untested items:

• XS-on-XO1 not generated for this release (and XO-1 mesh is no longer supported)
• No tested upgrade path from XS-0.6. Feedback/documentation welcome. The xs-backup and xs-restore utilities are probably your best option.
• The USB installer skips some steps (language, bootloader config, etc) for unknown reasons. Most of them aren't important (you're supposed to accept the defaults in most places anyway), but the one significant one missing is the keyboard configuration.
• Squid has been seen crashing on occasion (see squid bug #3048). However, it restarts automatically after a few seconds of downtime.
• <trac>11636</trac>: The Moodle autologin is suspected not to work on all occasions.
• <trac>11619</trac>: Moodle-based Journal restore of recent versions of the Sugar Journal is not yet supported.

XS 0.6

XS 0.6 was released on 07 October 2009!

1. Download OLPC-School-Server-0.6-i386.iso ,
2. Read steps to install. From XS-0.5.x, the upgrade is easy -- see upgrade notes.

This release provides

• Installation improvements: significantly easier installation and configuration.
• Moodle+XO automagic authentication: using Browse.xo v101 or newer, users autologin to Moodle after registration.
• Better network scalability through Moodle+ejabberd integration Moodle can now control the presence information shown in ejabberd.
• Delegated security: xs-activation now handles lease delegation, making it possible to delegate activation to disconnected or partially connected School Servers.
• WAN connections: Better handling of alternative WAN connections.
• An experimental XS build that runs on the XO: this is suitable for small groups or schools.
• Bugfixes
• Full details.

Recommended reading:

• XS Techniques and Configuration

Known issues:

• ejabberd:Users added to a shared roster don't see pubsub presence of existing users immediately
• Installing from USB is buggy

XS 0.5.2

XS 0.5.2 was released in March 18th, 2009!

1. Download OLPC-School-Server-0.5.2-i386.iso ,
2. Read steps to install. From XS-0.5, you can 'yum update'.

This release provides important bugfixes for ejabberd, activation and installation.

XS 0.5.1

XS 0.5.1 was released in January 28th, 2009!

1. Download OLPC-School-Server-0.5.1-i386.iso ,
2. Read steps to install. From XS-0.5, you can 'yum update'.

This release provides important bugfixes for networking and ejabberd.

XS 0.5

XS 0.5 was released around November 15, 2008.

1. Download OLPC-School-Server-0.5-i386.iso ,
2. Read steps to install.

This release provides:

• Major improvements in installation and upgrade infrastructure
• Major improvements in the network configuration -- allowing up to 8192 devices on the LAN
• Now based on Fedora 9, which brings major overall improvements and better security support
• An install and upgrade service for activities, complementing the OS upgrade service
• Simple One Time Password (SOTP) scheme for administrator password management
• A cryptographic signing scheme to ensure the XS only accepts trusted content and configuration
• A newer eJabberd Jabber server for better scalability in the presence service
• Significantly tighter security
• A simple Moodle installation

Notes:

• If you are upgrading from 0.4 or earlier there are special upgrade instructions.
• Some issues with the LAN port have been identified, please use the latest 0.5.x instead.

WLAN Firmware: 5.110.22.p14-1.fc9 Kernel: 2.6.26.6-79.fc9 xs-config: 0.5.6.gb81

XS 0.4

1. Download OLPC_XS_0_4.iso ,
2. Read steps to install.

This release provides:

• A complete reimplementation of xs-config, and a upgrade-and-cleanup from earlier configurations.
• An upgrade server for the XO.
• RSSH-jailing of ds-backup
• PAM SOTP package (unconfigured)
• DHCP Leases for up to 512 Devices off the LAN NIC.
• See Example school server configuration for a step-by-step installation and configuration guide.
• Backup and restore of XO journal. Requires XO running 8.2 or later. Documentation at XS_Blueprints:Datastore_Simple_Backup_and_Restore

WLAN Firmware: 22.p6 Kernel: 2.6.23.1-23.fc7 xs-config: 0.3.6-1

Notes

• Upgrades: With this release you can now upgrade sanely from earlier version. The steps are:
  1. Recommended: Backup the system! :-)
  2. Edit /etc/yum.repos.olpc.d/stable.repo - set the 'baseurl' of the 'olpc' repo to http://fedora.laptop.org/xs/stable/olpc/xs-0.4/i386/
  3. Run yum -y upgrade
  4. You will have to re-run /etc/sysconfig/olpc-scripts/domain_config <yourbasedomain>
  5. Some new system daemons are set to start on the next restart - either restart the machine or start them manually. The services that need starting should be: incrond, apache
• New installations: there is a bug in Anaconda which prevents it from setting the ownerships and permissions correctly in the /library directory. After installation, execute chown -R xs-rsync.xs-rsync /library/xs-rsync/{pub,tmp,state}
• This release contains the DS-Backup implementation, with a restore facility aimed mainly at the test team. The user-friendly (and privacy-friendly) version of this will be part of Moodle - coming to a build near you soon. For production deployments you might want to disable the restore page. See documentation on this feature here.

• This build requires a minimum of a 5.5Gig hard drive to install -- thanks to Grant Patterson for the kickstart fixes for trac 7241 .