Release notes/13.2.4

Overview

13.2.4 is an OLPC OS release, adding support for Sugar 0.104. The target platforms are XO-1.5 and XO-1.

Features

• based on Fedora 18,
• based on Sugar 0.104, see release notes, with new activities, a new activity updater, display background control panel, a backup control panel, and web services,
• about my computer shows extra details,
• Wikipedia EN and ES have been replaced by the Simple English Wikipedia activity on XO-1.5,

Fixes

• fix Google Search and Browse problems on XO-1, <trac>12863</trac>, <trac>12866</trac>,
• make more memory available on XO-1,
• slow down pulsing icon during activity start on XO-1,
• fix the activity updater, <trac>12878</trac>,
• fix language control panel for laptops with spanish keyboards,
• remove "failed to start" messages that may occur when an activity is started twice 90 seconds apart, Sugar Labs ticket #2974,
• remove conflicts during yum upgrade of the kernel package, <trac>11641</trac>,
• a new version of the journal datastore backup client for use with school servers,
• addition of the ntpdate package for clock synchronisation,
• a slightly lower default screen brightness after boot,

Installation

XO-1.5

How to install signed build 16 of release 13.2.4 on XO-1.5.

The build is installed to the internal microSD device. You will need a USB drive or Secure Digital card of at least 1 GB capacity, but only for the duration of the installation. We recommend the drive be FAT formatted, but other formats are supported, see how to prepare a drive for use by the firmware for more details.

ALL USER DATA WILL BE ERASED FROM THE LAPTOP!

• Prepare the USB or SD drive:
  • Download 32016o1.zd, see How to Download,
  • Save the file to the top directory of the drive,
  • Download fs1.zip,
  • Save the file to the top directory of the same drive,
  • Check that the drive contains at least the two files fs1.zip and 32016o1.zd.
• Prepare the laptop:
  • Make a copy of any data you wish to keep,
  • Check that 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 above the power button,
  • 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. You may remove the USB or SD drive during or after the reboot.

The USB or SD drive can be used on other laptops. If installation progress is not displayed, you may be running an old firmware version which does not recognise the fs1.zip file. Please rename fs1.zip to fs.zip and try again. If you see a message Boot failed then either:

• the USB or SD 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 16 of release 13.2.4 on XO-1.

The build is installed to the internal NAND flash device. You will need a USB drive or Secure Digital card of at least 1 GB capacity, but only for the duration of the installation. We recommend the drive be FAT formatted, but other formats are supported, see how to prepare a drive for use by the firmware for more details.

ALL USER DATA WILL BE ERASED FROM THE LAPTOP!

• Prepare the USB or SD drive:
  • Download 32016o0.img, see How to Download,
  • Save the file to the top directory of the drive,
  • Download fs0.zip,
  • Save the file to the top directory of the same drive,
  • Check that the drive contains at least the two files fs0.zip and 32016o0.img.
• Prepare the laptop:
  • Make a copy of any data you wish to keep,
  • Check that 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 above the power button,
  • 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. You may remove the USB or SD drive during or after the reboot.

The USB or SD drive can be used on other laptops. If installation progress is not displayed, you may be running an old firmware version which does not recognise the fs0.zip file. Please rename fs0.zip to fs.zip and try again. If you see a message Boot failed then either:

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

XO-1 with SD card

How to install signed build 16 of release 13.2.4 on XO-1, to an SD card in the external slot.

ALL USER DATA WILL BE ERASED FROM THE LAPTOP AND THE CARD!

• select an SD card of at least 4GB capacity; it will be erased by the process below,
• select a USB drive of at least 1GB capacity,
• download 32016o0.zip (606 MB) and expand the contents onto the USB drive,
• Shutdown the XO-1,
• insert the USB drive and the SD card into the XO-1,
• hold down all four game keys above the power button,
• turn on the laptop,
• wait for the message Release the game keys to continue,
• release the game keys, progress will be displayed, grey blocks will turn green, and the screen will show:

 Blocks/square: 2        Total blocks: 15283     Now writing: 70  0 %
 Installing to SD card ..... please wait.

• after a few minutes it will show:

 Blocks/square: 2        Total blocks: 15283     Now writing: 0  0 %
 Rebooting in 10 seconds ... please wait.

• it is finished, you may remove the USB drive then, during the reboot, or after the reboot.

Note: it is best to leave the SD card in the same laptop. Booting from it and then moving the card to another laptop can cause problems. In particular you may need to Discard wireless connections in the Network panel of My Settings. See also Imaging/Side_effects, in particular the sections regarding .olpc-configured, and network.

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.)

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 (in the Home view, erase them),
• remove any large collections (library content) you no longer need, and;
• use Software update to ensure the Terminal activity is the latest available version.

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

Simple Online Update

See Simple Online Update for more detail about the method.

• 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 13.2.4_xo1.5-16

XO-1

sudo olpc-update 13.2.4_xo1-16

An online update can be very slow on an XO-1, in one test it took two hours; please consider reinstalling.

Simple Offline Update

• Download a .usb and .toc file, see How to Download,
  • for XO-1.5
    • 32016o1.usb,
    • 32016o1.toc,
  • for XO-1
    • 32016o0.usb,
    • 32016o0.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.

Known Problems

The following known problems should be considered for impact to deployment support teams.

Welcome Activity Missing

The new version of Sugar does not start the Welcome activity on first boot. See <trac>12869</trac>.

Restricted Software

Restricted software, such as browser plugins, codecs, and so forth, is not included in the public release. Deployments who need this software should make their own builds, see OS_Builder/Add_Restricted.

The XO-1 cannot play YouTube videos in the Browse or Epiphany web browsers, because the Adobe Flash plugin is no longer available for the Geode processor.