Release notes/10.1.3

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Purpose

This is an update to software release 10.1.2 that fixes important bugs and includes some new improvements. The release is available for XO-1.5 and XO-1 laptops. It is based on Fedora 11 and contains the latest Sugar 0.84 and the GNOME desktop.

• Installation instructions

New features

Collaboration "under a tree" on XO-1.5

We have significantly improved collaboration when XO-1.5 is used with no Access Points available ("under a tree"). The Neighborhood View now shows three default Ad-hoc networks (for channels 1, 6, and 11) in user-friendly icons, and XOs will auto-connect without user intervention. This behavior is similar to the "mesh" behavior on XO-1.

Sharing/Backup Journal entries using a mass storage device

You may now share Journal entries with another learner using a USB drive or SD card. The user experience is: Martin wants to give a picture he has been drawing to Simon. He plugs in his USB drive and copies the Journal entry on the drive. Simon plugs in Martin's drive in his laptop. The entry will be shown with Martin's XO color on the drive. Simon copies Martin's entry into his Journal.

You can use this feature to backup Journal entries to a USB drive or SD card.

Connect your XO to external projectors and monitors

We have added support for USB2VGA adapters. You can now connect an XO to a projector over a USB2VGA adapter and project what is on your XO screen onto a screen or for many people to see.

More info in the USB2VGA feature page.

Screen Rotation on XO-1.5

On XO-1.5 it is now possible to rotate the screen using the 'rotate' button. This allows learners to use the XO in ebook mode.

Protected Activities Support

In this build certain activities are protected from being deleted by accident. In the activity list in the home view the erase option is disabled for those. Protected activities are: Browse, Terminal, Log, Write, ImageViewer and Record.

Better interaction between GNOME and Sugar

Switching between Sugar and GNOME user interfaces is smoother. Changes of settings in GNOME now do not affect Sugar, and vice-versa.

The ~/Activities directory is now hidden from the user in GNOME, to prevent accidental deletions that could harm Sugar (<trac>10531</trac>). The networking settings are now synchronized so enabling/disabling networking is unified (<trac>10532</trac>).

Users can now change GNOME panels (<trac>10539</trac>) and fonts (<trac>10545</trac>) without risk of breaking GNOME -- invalid settings are reset on restart.

The dialog to set a GNOME keyring password when connecting to a secure wireless network has been disabled.

Browse

A home button has been added into the Browse toolbar. The button returns to the home page, where important links are.

A busy cursor has been added for when a page is loading. This was present in 8.2.1 but missing from 10.1.2.

Previews for downloaded images have been added, so that the Journal will show appropriate thumbnails of downloaded images.

Paint

The Paint activity has been improved a lot:

• The cursor has been enhanced and realigned,
• Text tool has been improved
• New filters: invert colors and mirror effects
• Tool size and shape are shown
• Improvements to copy and paste

Read

Scrolling has been improved. The up and down directional keypad to the left of the XO display will now scroll, which is especially useful if the laptop is in ebook mode.

Using the fn key with the up and down arrow keys will now scroll by page.

Write

You can now paste images into Write. The images can be copied from Browse, Paint or Write.

You can now put images into tables.

You can now export to PDF.

The style list has been reordered to place paragraph text styles before heading styles.

Wikipedia

Page loading has been sped up and several smaller fixes made.

Scratch

A new camera plugin adds importing from camera on XO-1.

Activity Updates

We included the latest versions of Calculate, Colors, Distance, Etoys, Help, InfoSlicer, Jukebox, Labyrinth, Memorize, Physics, Pippy, Turtle Art and Typing Turtle.

System Lid Behavior

When the lid is closed on the XO, the laptop will suspend its operations and turn off the screen. Historically re-opening the lid has turned on the screen and woken up the laptop for normal use. In order to avoid a problem where stacked XO units may accidentally turn each other back on, this wake-up behavior has been disabled. To wake up the laptop from suspend press the power button once.

Installation

XO-1.5

How to install signed build os860-4g of release 10.1.3 on XO-1.5.

The build is installed to the internal microSD device. You will need a USB drive of at least 1 GB capacity, but only for the duration of the installation.

ALL USER DATA WILL BE ERASED FROM THE LAPTOP!

• Prepare the USB drive:
  • Download os860-4g.zd,
  • Save the file to the top directory of the USB drive,
  • Download os860-4g.zsp.fs.zip,
  • Save the file to the top directory of the same USB drive,
  • Rename the file to fs.zip, (removing the os860-4g.zsp part of the name),
  • Check the USB drive contains at least the two files fs.zip and os860-4g.zd.

• Prepare the laptop:
  • Make a copy of any data you wish to keep,
  • Check 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 (see this in pictures),
  • 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 ten minutes. Once finished, the laptop will reboot automatically. Remove the USB drive during or after the reboot. The USB drive can be used on other laptops.

If you see a message Boot failed then either:

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

XO-1

How to install signed build os860 of release 10.1.3 on XO-1.

The build is installed to the internal NAND flash device. You will need a USB drive of at least 1 GB capacity, but only for the duration of the installation.

ALL USER DATA WILL BE ERASED FROM THE LAPTOP!

• Prepare the USB drive:
  • Download os860.img,
  • Save the file to the top directory of the USB drive,
  • Download os860.img.fs.zip,
  • Save the file to the top directory of the same USB drive,
  • Rename the file to fs.zip, (removing the os860.img part of the name),
  • Check the USB drive contains at least the two files fs.zip and os860.img.

• Prepare the laptop:
  • Make a copy of any data you wish to keep,
  • Check 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 (see this in pictures),
  • 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 yellow blocks. It will take about five minutes. Once finished, the laptop will reboot automatically. Remove the USB drive during or after the reboot. The USB drive can be used on other laptops.

If you see a message Boot failed then either:

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

Note: if you are installing after using XO-1 builds os650, os653 or os656 have your XO plugged into external power during the install process in order to update the firmware. Otherwise, XO-1's updated from these builds will hang during the 10.1.3 boot process. After installation completes, you may also need to briefly remove the battery as well as the external power source in order to ensure that your keyboard works properly (<trac>10598</trac>).

Update

You may wish to update from a previous version of the operating system. This method preserves most user data, the Sugar Journal and installed Sugar Activities, but does not preserve certain operating system customizations such as additional packages.

(Update is distinct from install. If you have followed the install procedures above, then you need not follow this section.)

Compatibility

A few previous versions do not support this method. Here are the known working update combinations:

• release 8.2.1 (build os802.img and gg-802-1.img) to release 10.1.3 on XO-1,
• release 10.1.0 to release 10.1.3 on XO-1.5,
• release 10.1.1 to release 10.1.3 on XO-1.5,
• release 10.1.2 to release 10.1.3 on XO-1.5.

Known Update problems

After an operating system update there are a few known problems:

• if you update from a version before 10.1.x all known wireless access points are forgotten, and you must choose an access point again,
• the Scratch activity will not be updated to the version included with 10.1.3 by running the activity updater in the Control Panel when upgrading from a previous OS version (<trac>10601</trac>). A workaround is to erase the Scratch activity (in the activity list) and run the activity updater in the Control Panel again. This problem does not happen if you install 10.1.3 directly without upgrading from a previous operating system release.
• the "Journal is full" message is likely to appear if not enough space has been made prior to update; you can remove journal entries, activities, and the previous operating system version to bring the system back to normal operation.

Preparation

To prepare for an operating system update:

• remove as much saved content as you no longer need,
• remove any large activities you no longer need, and;
• use Software update to ensure the Terminal activity is the latest available version.
• if you are updating from 8.2.1, remove the activity groups file, start the Terminal Activity and type:

 rm /home/olpc/Activities/.groups

Follow the instructions in one of the subsections below, according to which method and laptop model you are using.

Simple Online Update

• establish an internet connection from the laptop (if you plan to do online update),
• start the laptop normally,
• start the Terminal Activity, and depending on the laptop model type:

XO-1.5

sudo olpc-update 10.1.3_xo1.5-860

XO-1

sudo olpc-update 10.1.3_xo1-860

See Simple Online Update for more detail about the method.

Simple Offline Update

• download a .usb and .toc file,
  • for XO-1.5
    • os860.usb,
    • os860.toc,
  • for XO-1
    • os860.usb,
    • os860.toc,
• put them on a USB drive,
• boot the laptop normally,
• plug the USB drive into the laptop,
• start the Terminal Activity, and type:

sudo olpc-update --usb

See Simple Offline Update for more detail about the method.

After the Update

• It is likely that the system will have limited disk space available. The "Journal is full" message may appear -- you can remove the previous operating system version.
• Sugar will attempt to update its Activities -- you should be online for the Activity Updater to complete.

Known Problems

Sugar

Record activity video recording may pause

When recording a video of a very complex natural scene, such as moving vegetation, the recording may pause. If this happens, reducing camera movement may allow the laptop to catch up. The pause is visible on playback.

On XO-1.5, switch to Low quality and try again. XO-1 only has Low quality.

On XO-1.5, the class of SD card ordered by the deployment will have some bearing on the video recording performance. Lower class cards such as Class 2 are more likely to experience pauses during recording. Higher class cards such as Class 6 are less likely to experience pauses.

In the previous release 8.2.1, the pause was spread throughout the recording, lowering the effective frame rate. In this release the frame rate is kept as fast as possible until the pause is unavoidable.

Some Language Support Removed

Your language preference may not be available in the Sugar -> My Settings -> Language control panel icon.

Compared to the 8.2.1 release for XO-1, the 10.1.x series removes several languages that are not required by the current mass deployments of XO-1.5, in order to conserve disk space on the smallest configuration that can be ordered -- see <trac>9982</trac>.

These languages can be added back by deployments that require them, by regenerating the build -- our support team will be glad to help.

Under the tree is not automatic when mixing laptop models

In the absence of a wireless access point, a group of mixed XO-1 and XO-1.5 laptops will not automatically begin to collaborate over wireless. A workaround is to join an ad-hoc network on an XO-1.5 unit, and then join it from the other laptops.

Restoring wireless connection takes too long

It can take between 30 and 35 seconds before wireless access points are detected or the wireless connection is restored after:

• opening the lid, or resuming from suspend, <trac>9854</trac>
• manually turning the radio back on, <trac>10272</trac>

Sugar frame speaker icon does not reflect volume hot key usage

When pressing the volume hot keys (f11/f12) the volume levels are changed accordingly. The icon in the Sugar frame does not show the change - <trac>9913</trac>.

Content update not available

The activity updater cannot update content bundles. It will download the new bundle, but silently fail to install it, and continue offering the same update for installation (<trac>11064</trac>).

GNOME

Repeating file browser window

A new file browser window may appear as the system wakes if a USB or SD card is inserted, <trac>10306</trac>.

Fedora

CUPS Documentation

If CUPS is to be installed, the documentation used by the web browser won't be available. To fix this, remove the _excludedocs macro from /etc/rpm/macros.imgcreate before installing CUPS. <trac>10283</trac>.

XO-1.5

XO-1.5 Record activity preview black on lid close and open

With the Record activity on screen displaying a preview of the camera image, closing the laptop lid for long enough to cause a suspend, and then opening it, results in the preview going black (<trac>10068</trac>).

If this happens, the preview can be restored by pressing Alt/Tab, or switching between Sugar views using the keyboard keys or the frame icons.

The black preview does not affect the taking of photographs, or recording of video. If a video recording is being made, there will be a segment of time missing in the playback.

XO-1

XO-1 Automatic power management issues

With My Settings -> Power -> Automatic power management turned on:

• wireless network connectivity may fail, <trac>10232</trac>, or take some time to resume, <trac>9854</trac>, <trac>10272</trac>,
• touchpad may seem slow to respond as the system wakes, <trac>10233</trac>,
• in GNOME a new file browser window may appear as the system wakes if a USB or SD card is inserted, <trac>10306</trac>.

Bugs fixed

sugar

os350

• Journal: Show alert when error occurs while writing to external devices <trac>10312</trac>
• AP: separate signal strength from status <trac>10347</trac>
• Add default Ad-hoc networks <trac>9845</trac>
• Connect to gabble immediately when possible <trac>10350</trac>
• Unable to register a laptop after trying on the wrong network <trac>6857</trac>
• Feedback when deleting files on an external device <trac>10351</trac>
• Do not break if the string contains no conversion specifier <trac>10372</trac>
• Save title when closing <trac>10346</trac>

os351

• Disable start option for entries that can't be opened <trac>8733</trac>
• Cleanup temporary files on startup <trac>10301</trac>
• restore sugar-launch by bundle id substring, fixes <trac>9189</trac>
• New go-home icon, needed by Browse <trac>10364</trac>
• Remove shared activity from the neighborhood view when no members left <trac>10308</trac>
• Deal with unicode nick names <trac>889</trac> (moved patch from rpm into repository)

os353

• Adapt bundleregistry to use the new activity version scheme <trac>10379</trac>
• Sugar Ad-hoc icons show in search results when connect/disconnect to AP OLPC <trac>10412</trac>
• Add new activity numbering scheme <trac>10379</trac>

os354

• Add new activity numbering scheme to the activity updater <trac>10397</trac>

os355

• bundlebuilder: install mimetypes.xml and associated icon <trac>10427</trac>
• Apply new version scheme as well to content bundles <trac>10379</trac>

os357

• Convert Journal entries that have been saved to a storage device in 0.82 <trac>9658</trac>
• Possibility to share Journal entry using a storage device <trac>9657</trac>
• Adjust copyright in Control Panel <trac>10273</trac>
• Journal bundle removal won't remove installed activity <trac>10486</trac>

olpc-kbdshim

os351

• dpad rotates wrong <trac>10380</trac>

olpc-powerd

os351

• avoids resume from suspend when lid opens <trac>10402</trac>

os354

• Better collaboration support when idle suspend is enabled <trac>9535</trac>
• Do not wake up on lid open on XO-1 <trac>10424</trac>

os357

• better power logging

olpc-utils

os352

• add config for screen rotation (part of <trac>9350</trac>)
• Enable SiSUSB support (part of <trac>10210</trac>)

squeak-vm

• Remove MySqueak option from GNOME <trac>9785</trac>

kernel

os354

• Support for uvcvideo <trac>10378</trac>
• Lid wakeups on XO-1 are now implemented via new /sys/power/wake-on-lid node <trac>10398</trac>, <trac>10399</trac>, <trac>10424</trac>

xorg-x11-drv-openchrome

os351

• Screen rotation support for XO-1.5 <trac>9350</trac>

xorg-x11-drv-sisusb

os352

• Make SISUSBVGA devices trivial to use <trac>10210</trac>

Browse

os351

• Browse has no "busy" indication <trac>10383</trac>

os353

• Web activity uses gettext on file name <trac>6874</trac>
• History not right when resuming activity <trac>10437</trac>
• Add Home Button in Browse <trac>10364</trac>
• Browse fails to download some files with non-ascii characters <trac>8857</trac>
• Can not save pictures from the olpc library with Browse to Journal <trac>10365</trac>
• Palettes in Browse do not always go away <trac>10407</trac>

Distance

os353

• Changes ringdown values for mor stable meassures (part of <trac>10122</trac>)

Paint

os353

• Use new colorchooser (still use ColorSelector for <= 0.82) <trac>1015</trac>
• Fixed aspect ratio mode for Shape tools <trac>3705</trac>
• New suggestion for arrow drawing in Paint <trac>4170</trac>
• Changes made to save the last added text item <trac>5917</trac>
• Paint - Rect. Marquee icon changes erratically <trac>5882</trac>
• Implemented Mirroring Effect in Paint Activity - SL#2463
• Added Invert Color Effect to Paint Activity - <trac>2495</trac>
• Title for 'Rectangualar Marquee' tool changed to 'Select Area' - SL #2266
• Paint starts with a random color selected SL #2053
• Paste images from clipboard - SL #813, <trac>9022</trac>
• paint overwrites file type instead of creating new file - SL #1771
• Slider bar should change brush and line width - <trac>8865</trac>
• Tools & Shapes would be a radio button set - <trac>3695</trac> and <trac>3694</trac>
• Active point of Paint pointers should be at tip of penscil, brush, drip on fill bucket, etc - SL #296
• The free form polygn tool should be in the shapes toolbar - <trac>3693</trac>
• turn off activity sharing - SL #1863
• Make "keep aspect ratio" selection visible in the UI. - SL #931
• Under tools tab, pencil size funcionality is not working - SL #1902
• Change in the icon activity to avoid errors in new librsvg
• Clean up cursors
• Add binary files to python 2.7

Write

os353

• Change the default method to insert images <trac>3066</trac> and <trac>7405</trac>. This adds a checkbox to enable the user to select the method
• Preserve the mime type when reading and saving files. Related to tickets <trac>8972</trac>, <trac>5291</trac>, <trac>1925</trac> and SL #2127.
• Add option to export to PDF - SL #1458
• Paste images in write <trac>2507</trac> and <trac>7186</trac>. Now you can copy an image from Paint, Browse or Write and paste in Write.

os354

• Don't set the activity metadata property when save PDF file because Write can save PDF files but can't open them <trac>10442</trac>
• The mime types from files rtf and html have text/plain in mime_parents. We need to modify the criteria to open them like rich text <trac>8972</trac>

Read

os353

• Add scrolling options for PDFs <trac>10396</trac>

Help

os353

• Fix permissions for HTML pages: use 0644
• Fix icon for F13 changes in rendering <trac>8513</trac>
• Use go-home icon <trac>8575</trac>, <trac>10267</trac>
• Add view toolbar, with zoom in, zoom out and full screen buttons
• Remove width from content section in css to improve screen usage
• Merge with latest XO 1.5 branch

Pippy

os353

• Cannot start "Thanks" example <trac>10384</trac>
• Add EditToolbar & modify toolbars for <=0.84 compatibility <trac>10395</trac>
• Fix svg icons for Pippy
• Remove the 'dobject'/groupthink submodule
• Switch activity.info from class to exec

Memorize

• Game not transferred when loading a created game <trac>10302</trac>

Etoys

• added translation: hi, ta
• update translations: de, mn, vi
• use compressed sources file (EtoysV4.stc) To take up less space on machines with a non-compressing file system (i.e., about anything except XO-1, but in particular the XO-1.5) this version uses a compressed sources file (before: 18 MB, now: 4.5 MB).

Scratch

• new camera plugin 0.8, fixes import from camera on XO-1 <trac>10413</trac>

Physics

• Fix for cpu idling events when in background special case for Sugar 0.84.
• Physics now idles when in the background to free up the cpu and save power.
• Saves thumbnail image of simulation for details view in Journal.
• Better behaviour when attempting to create minimum sized triangles, boxes, and circles (SL#1249).
• Fixed new toolbars expanding separator from overflowing the Stop icons off the XO toolbar
• Fixed the python/gtk/pygame int/float bug affecting F14 based builds (SL#2363).
• Includes latest translations.
• Switch activity.info from using the depreciated class, to exec.
• Source code clean-up.
• Added support for new toolbar design for Sugar 0.86 (old toolbars still work for Sugar 0.84 and back)
• Objects can now be moved with the Grab tool while the simulation is paused!
• Tool code cleanup and refactoring
• Includes latest translations

Turtle Art

Bug Fixes:

• Refactoring of audio/video code based on Jukebox (#1613)
• Catch depreciated format during project load (#2501, #2447)
• Reorganized some palettes (flow, portfolio) to fit smaller screen sizes
• Map mouse coordinates to screen coordinates (#2502)
• Also closed #2490, #2475, #2449, and #1057

Enhancements:

• Sample Python code stored in individual files
• New sample Python code (#548): (copy/paste heap to/from clipboard and to/from Journal)
• Sensor calibration for XO 1.5 hardware (Tony Forster)
• Text-only support for RTF files (#893)
• Block at bottom of stack is hidden when stack is 'collapsed' (#2506)
• Palette hides on repeat click of selector (#2505)
• Elimination of redundant Hide Palette button (#2505)
• Spanish translation of new blocks

Jukebox

• Update of the translations