Developer key philosophy: Difference between revisions

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''For a more complete description of developer keys, see [[Activation and developer keys]].''
The XO contains hardware and software theft-deterrence features, which sometimes get in the way of a prospective hardware or software hacker. The first step in joining the developer community is to request a developer key to allow you to turn these off if needed. Depending on where you are in the world, getting your developer key may take up to two weeks (!) so putting in the request should be the absolute first thing you do. There are many things you can hack around with even without a developer key, but you might as well get the process started so it won't be an impediment when you need one.


The XO contains hardware and software theft deterrence features, which can get in the way of a prospective hardware or software developer. A 'developer key' allows a developer to bypass these theft deterrence features if needed, so the first step in joining the developer community is requesting a key.
(Since the developer key turns off the theft-deterrence features, a deployment needs to verify that your laptop has not been reported stolen before granting the key. Depending on the deployment and its communications infrastructure, this could take a while, and we try to set the "wait time" to an appropriate interval for each deployment. If you feel like the wait is excessive, please email help at laptop.org -- but try not to burden them unduly.)


While there are many things a developer can edit without a developer key, a request can take up to two weeks, so it is important to put in a request as soon as possible--that way when a developer key is needed it is available. See [[Activation and developer keys]] for instructions on requesting and installing a developer key.
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Instructions for requesting and installing a developer key are at [[Activation and developer keys]] on our wiki.


When you've received your developer key, there are two ways you can use it:
There are two ways to use a developer key, once received:
# You can invoke 'disable-security' from the Open Firmware prompt to skip all key checking (until you invoke 'enable-security' again). This also turns off "pretty boot" allowing you to see all the start up messages when you boot.
# By invoking 'disable-security' from the Open Firmware prompt to skip all key checking (until you invoke 'enable-security' again). This also turns off "pretty boot," allowing you to see all the start up messages when you boot.
# You can install your developer key in /security/develop.sig, where it can be managed with the Security control panel (<trac>6428</trac>).
# By installing the developer key in /security/develop.sig, where it can be managed with the Security control panel (<trac>6428</trac>).


Although the choice is up to you, we hope you'll chose the latter option, since that exercises the key-checking and "pretty boot" code. Although we hope these never break, bugs do happen, and having our developers regularly testing this code ensures that problems are quickly discovered and fixed. Better you finding the bugs than some poor 6-year-old in Peru!
While this choice is left to the developer, the latter option is recommended, because it exercises the key-checking and "pretty boot" code. This ensures that developers are regularly testing this code, so that any bugs can be quickly discovered and fixed--instead of making it to the machine of some poor six year old in Peru.

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The Security control panel (will) also let you easily enable/disable the 'unlocking' performed by the developer key, so you can test your code in "secured" mode if necessary. (You can do the same with 'enable-security' from the Open Firmware prompt, but there's less safety checking performed, so it's easier to inadvertently lock yourself out of your machine that way.)


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Using the Security control panel also allows developers to easily enable and disable the theft deterrence features. This way, a developer can test code with theft deterrence enabled when necessary. While this is also possible with 'enable-security' from the Open Firmware prompt, this will perform fewer safety checks, making it easier for a developer to inadvertently lock himself out of his machine.


[[Category:Developer]]
[[Category:Developer]]

Revision as of 21:48, 28 September 2008


This page needs clean-up and editing for coherence, clarity, and completeness.

Please improve this article if you can.

For a more complete description of developer keys, see Activation and developer keys.

The XO contains hardware and software theft deterrence features, which can get in the way of a prospective hardware or software developer. A 'developer key' allows a developer to bypass these theft deterrence features if needed, so the first step in joining the developer community is requesting a key.

While there are many things a developer can edit without a developer key, a request can take up to two weeks, so it is important to put in a request as soon as possible--that way when a developer key is needed it is available. See Activation and developer keys for instructions on requesting and installing a developer key.

There are two ways to use a developer key, once received:

  1. By invoking 'disable-security' from the Open Firmware prompt to skip all key checking (until you invoke 'enable-security' again). This also turns off "pretty boot," allowing you to see all the start up messages when you boot.
  2. By installing the developer key in /security/develop.sig, where it can be managed with the Security control panel (<trac>6428</trac>).

While this choice is left to the developer, the latter option is recommended, because it exercises the key-checking and "pretty boot" code. This ensures that developers are regularly testing this code, so that any bugs can be quickly discovered and fixed--instead of making it to the machine of some poor six year old in Peru.

Using the Security control panel also allows developers to easily enable and disable the theft deterrence features. This way, a developer can test code with theft deterrence enabled when necessary. While this is also possible with 'enable-security' from the Open Firmware prompt, this will perform fewer safety checks, making it easier for a developer to inadvertently lock himself out of his machine.

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