Support

Getting Started, Troubleshooting Resources

• Learn about your XO laptop and what it can do: http://laptop.org/start

• For common problems, check our Troubleshooting Guide.

• If your laptop is damaged, please call 800-201-7144.

• By December 26th, fee-based technical support will be available at 800-269-1347.

• Email "help AT laptop.org" if you are completely stuck, including all problems details. Join our community (below) for more direct responses.

Community/Live Support

XO laptop owners are passionate about helping each other, in keeping with OLPC's constructionist learning mission within developing countries. You too can learn about the XO and its activities, collaborating on the issues that matter most to you, by exploring OLPC's many great community forums:

• Join one or several mailing lists at: http://lists.laptop.org.
  For example: olpc-open
  For example: community-support
  For example: community-news
  For example: grassroots

• Read/Comment on OLPC developers' blogged newsbits:
  http://planet.laptop.org
  http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/community-news/

• Soon we expect Live Chat on the web. Today you can download IRC chat software and join the conversation immediately, exploring many OLPC chat channels.

• Educators and others may get involved at many different levels:
  http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Getting_involved_in_OLPC
  http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Contact_OLPC
  http://laptopfoundation.org/en/participate/
  Or email "volunteers AT laptop.org"

Further Documentation Forthcoming

• An expanding "Knowledge Base" of Frequently Asked Questions will soon be available right from this site.

• A number of people are working on more formal manuals. Links will be posted here when these become mature.

• Up-to-date Release Notes are forthcoming, as XO software upgrades are released going forward into 2008.

Support and Maintenance

Each location worldwide is encouraged to establish a tech support center for hardware repairs and replacement. We encourage the students to be involved in the repair as much as possible. Some ideas on this have been written up in the Laptop Service Program Ideas.

Older Demo Notes: Using the Laptop

These demo notes & tips are increasingly outdated, but offer archival context to the technically savvy:

• Original Demo Notes
• Build 542 Demo Notes
• Build 608 Demo Notes
• Manual

• File:071020 insert english lores-1.pdf - English version of 2 page 'getting started' distributed in the shipping box with every XO (G1G1)

• Collaboration Setup
• Collaboration Activities

Trouble-shooting

For common problems, check our Troubleshooting Guide. Some finer details include:

• XO Returns Test - Basic laptop, battery, power adapter problem isolation testing
• Powerup Boot Sequence - Standard power up sequence that should appear on any activated or pre-activated laptops
• Powerup Non-Secure Boot Sequence - Standard power up sequence on a non-secure laptop.

Hardware

Q&A about Hardware

Tool Box Suggestion

The following tools are recommended for an XO repair shop:

• Long magnetized screwdriver, Cross-shaped or Phillips head tip
• Mini screwdriver set, Cross-shaped or Phillips head tips
• Extra screws (add the 6 different types used on the XO)
• Super Glue
• Masking tape or Labelling materials, markers
• Duct tape
• USB Memory sticks for backups or transferring files
• Nylok screws of all 7 sizes used in the laptop
• Spare parts including: antennas, keyboards, display screens, speaker, direction button, game keys, touchpad, power adapters, XO power supplies

For School Server, also include:

• RJ45 crimp tool and connectors
• Cat 5e ethernet cable
• Cable ties
• USB ethernet adaptors
• Known good Ethernet cable, and cross-over ethernet cable - for debug
• Ethernet hub (to connect multiple ethernet devices) - for debug

Here is a picture of the toolbox created by Carla Gomez in Nigeria. She also included a soldering iron for repairs of the antenna cables. After the B4 builds the antenna connection will change and there should be no need for a soldering iron in the XO repair kit.

• Nigerian Toolbox

Replaceable components

Images of the inside of the Laptop, images provided by Ari.

Directional Pad

Display

Keyboard

Antenna Ears

In the B4 and earlier builds, you need to first remove the screen bevel, the display, the top cover, and then the antennas themselves. In the C build and the MP builds, you will need to remove only the screen bevel (details will be filled in when they are known).

Case

The individual parts that constitute the case are all replaceable with just the use of a screw driver. There are extra screws in the laptop (interior to the handle) in case any are lost during the repair process.

Firmware

• The firmware sources are located in the Openfirmware page
• Firmware faq

Software

• Q&A about Software
• Sugar

Upgrades

• Please read the Autoreinstallation page carefully and follow all the steps for a successful upgrade or downgrade.
• For differential updates SoftwareBinaryDifferentialUpdate

Older Custom Builds

• Here is a Spanish language build equivalent to 542, except TamTam is removed since sound doesn't work on the Spanish laptop. When TamTam is working with languages, that activity can be installed separately.

Build 542.4 - This is the full boot directory for auto-install. Unzip it and copy the entire boot directory to a USB stick; boot the laptop with this stick inserted.

• The new way to custom language is Olpc-utils
• Also see Customizing NAND images