Autoreinstallation image

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Automatic Reinstallation Image

Under construction: do not yet use

We've worked very hard to make it as easy as possible to update a machine in the field. Until network boot and update is available, this is as easy as it can get.

NOTE: this procedure creates a USB flash key or disk that when booted on an OLPC system, updates its BIOS and installs (OVERWRITES) an operating system image onto NAND flash. NEVER boot this USB flash key or disk unless you intend to update your system, which will entirely erase anything you had on the flash memory of the system.

System Update Procedure

Before you start: plug in your machine and ensure the battery is charged. It is very important that the update process not be interrupted.

1. Download the file http://olpc.download.redhat.com/olpc/autoupdate/olpc193.zip.
2. Unzip the files onto a sufficiently large USB flash key or disk drive (currently 256 megabytes is sufficient), creating a directory called "boot". If you drag and drop the files from the zip archive, you'll have to create the "boot" directory manually on the flash or disk drive. All the files must be in the directory named "boot", for the automatic update to occur. Do not use a flash key or disk for which there have been any errors reported during unzipping: the files may (probably are) damaged. As a further safeguard, the OLPC OFW BIOS checks the integrity of any BIOS flash image before reflashing the BIOS.
3. Insert the USB flash key into the machine. Boot the machine.

You will see messages like those in the following section as the system is updated. NAND flash always has some bad blocks: the "Skipping bad block" messages during writing NAND flash are therefore normal, informing you of the bad blocks that will never be used by Linux.

The system will automatically poweroff.

If anything goes wrong DO NOT TURN OFF THE MACHINE but please get help from OLPC, preferably immediately on IRC or by email.

As a final step, to ensure the embedded controller has been reset, unplug the power supply, and remove the battery. After 10 seconds, reinsert the battery and boot the system. This may not actually be necessary, but we have not yet verified that the embedded controller is actually being reset.

Congratulations: you are finished! You can power the machine back on and start use.

Transcript of System Update

Type any key to interrrupt startup
Erasing
0
Writing
f000

Updating firmware
Reading disk:\boot\q2a52.rom
Got firmware version: CL1  Q2A5a  Q2A
Checking integrity ...
SPI FLASH is type 13 - Spansion, Winbond, or ST
Merging existing manufacturing data
Erasing
0
Writing
ff000
...
Done
Checking existing OS image on NAND FLASH

Updating OS image on NAND FLASH
Erasing
1d00
Skipping bad block at 0xea000 = page 0x1d40 = eblock 0x75
4ec0
Skipping bad block at 0x2780000 = page 0x4f00 = eblock 0x13c
3ff40
Writing
57a
Done
Automatic power off in 5 seconds.
Please remove the USB disk.