Release notes/8.2.0

  This page is monitored by the OLPC team.

+	Software
XO
	13.2.11	2020-01-29
XS
	xs-0.7	2012-02-20

  For the general public

NOTE: The contents of this page are not set in stone, and are subject to change! This page is a draft in active flux ... Please leave suggestions on the talk page.

DRAFT - Subject to Change - Contains Errors

Steps to Take Before Upgrading to this Release

• If you are in a school or other Deployment, make sure you contact your technical support team before upgrading. Some deployments have special configurations which will need special steps taken before upgrading or may not be able to upgrade at all.

• Determine which release you are on and whether you plan to upgrade over the Internet or via USB stick. Then, choose an upgrade method from the available upgrade options.

• Determine the version of your activities. Decide if you need to re-install or upgrade them and make sure you have access those them. See the list of activities you must upgrade, and go here for instructions on how to reinstall all activities.

New Features in 8.2.0

GUI and Usability Improvements

Home View and Frame Redesign

The new Home View including an updated Frame provides

• Easier switching from one activity to another by showing all running activities in the Frame.
  
• Status of devices (e.g. battery, speakers, network)
• List, ring and freeform views of activities with option to choose favorite activities

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Designs/Frame

Activity Management

Activity Management
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Designs/Activity_Management

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XO_updater#Application_updater
7534

Other docs:
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/User:Walter/sandbox

Graphical Sugar Control Panel

Accessible from the pop-up menu on the home view XO icon, the control panel currently provides a graphical interface for setting the below options.

• 

  Sugar Control Panel
  Graphical interface for setting many XO preferences.

• 

  Language
  Allows selection of the default language.

• 

  Power
  Enables power saving modes. See Improved Power Management section below for more details.

• 

  Frame
  Sets the time it takes the Frame to appear when the cursor is on the corner or on the edge (side) of the screen.

• 

  About my XO
  Shows the build number, firmware version and serial number.

• 

  Software Updates

• 

  Date & Time
  Allows setting of the Timezone. Note: this function no longer needs Super User access as it did in releases prior to 8.2.0.

• 

  About Me
  Sets the name and color of your XO icon. These values are seen by other XOs when using collaboration.

• 

  Network
  Allows turning off the wireless radio and identifying a server for collaboration (needs link and more info on server - GS)

Technical details at http://dev.laptop.org/ticket/7380

Longer Battery Life

This feature is implemented via the Sugar Control Panel. It is off by default so you must enable it in the Sugar Control Panel, power section to take advantage of it.

The feature offers two options:

• Automatic power management

This mode dims the screen and turns of the CPU when it switches the laptop to power saving mode. Power saving mode comes on automatically when the user does not interact with the touchpad or keyboard for more than a minute and when no active processes are running on the XO. For example, power saving mode would not be turned on if the video camera is recording or showing video on the screen, regardless of whether the user touches the keyboard or not. Power saving mode would be turned on when Battery will last longer by dimming the screen and turning off the CPU when the user doesn't touch the touchpad.

• Extreme power management

This mode is the same as above with the addition that it turns off the wireless radio. Once this mode is turned on the XO wireless network connection will disconnect. This is the most agressive power saving mode available and will give the longest battery life.

Details on the software implementation at http://dev.laptop.org/ticket/7384

Faster launching of activities

details tbd

Improved Cursor Control (not confirmed)

Its better but if you still experience problems where the cursor moves unexpectedly, the touchpad may be trying to recalibrate. It cannot recalibrate accurately while you are touching it. So taking your finger off the touchpad for 10 seconds may help solve problems of unexpected cursor movement.

Collaboration Improvements

1. 7387 Server-based Collaboration Scalability Improvements (Gadget)
   
2. 7389 Collaboration and Presence Bug fixing
   
3. 7390 Alternate Collaboration Technology (Cerebro)
   

Activity Related Improvements

7382 Browser Improvements

Backup and Restore to School Server

7392 Disaster-recovery backup+restore w/ XS

New OS (Fedora 9) Improves Security & Supports More Devices

Better security than Fedora 7

More external device support (needs edit & support confirmation)

We are upgrading from v2.6.22 to v2.6.25. These pages document most of the new hardware support (and other kernel features):
http://kernelnewbies.org/Linux_2_6_23
http://kernelnewbies.org/Linux_2_6_24
http://kernelnewbies.org/Linux_2_6_25
Much of the new hardware support won't be relevant for us - e.g. all of the internal hardware support (I don't think we have users adding hardware on the inside!). Also some of the external hardware support will be irrelevant too, e.g. we probably don't have any software that could operate a USB TV tuner.

Master trac ID: #7383

Improved Flash compatibility

OLPC ships Gnash, an open source flash movie player integrated into the Browse activity. This release includes an automatic update from Gnash-0.8.1 to Gnash-0.8.3.

The newer version of Gnash increases compatibility with many sites. For example, Caillou animation rendering was incorrect in previous releases, but now appears to work correctly.

Upgrading from Previous Releases

Important Note: Please check with your deployment technical contacts before upgrading. Countries using the XO may have custom configurations which may require special actions to be taken before new releases can be installed.

Important Note: On the first reboot after upgrading the XO will run slowly for about 1 minute. After that it will run normally. 7356

For release notes on all previous releases see:
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Release_Notes

To determine which release you currently have on your XO, see:
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/How_to_check_the_OS_and_firmware_versions

For instructions on upgrading see the upgrade instructions and use build name xxxxxx (insert final build here when done).

If you are upgrading from any release after build 699, the build is already separated from the activities and you will not lose your existing activities.

Important Note: If you are upgrading from a build prior to 700, such as the original G1G1 software you will lose all you existing activities!

To re-install activities after upgrading follow these instructions:

1. Download the G1G1 Activity Pack (from here) and unzip it in the base (root) directory of a USB flash drive. You should see two directories (boot and bundles, and a file called customization-2) in the base directory. Commands such as "extract here" in ubuntu / windows will sometimes create a directory with the same name as the zip file, placing the unzipped files within it. If this happens, you will have to move the files to the base directory in order for your XO to see them on boot. (Note that the "boot" directory will contain two zip files, actos.zip and runos.zip. This is normal; these files SHOULD NOT be unzipped).
2. Plug the XO into AC power and connect it to the internet.
3. In a console, run Olpc-update to the new build. ( terminal -> su -l (lowercase L, not 1) -> olpc-update -f candidate-708 ) This may take half an hour or more, depending on your internet connection.
4. Insert the USB flash drive and reboot the XO. It will display text on a black screen as the activities are installed, after which it will power off.
5. Remove the USB flash drive. Connect the XO to AC power, so that it will be able to proceed if it determines that a firmware update is needed. Then power on your XO as per usual.

Some commonly installed activity packs include the:

• G1G1 activity pack (download)
• Peru activity pack
• Nepal activity pack
• ...more activity packs

(The Nepal activity pack contains some additional customizations made by OLE Nepal for their pilot).

TO INSTALL AN ACTIVITY PACK: Install an activity pack

Activities Needing Upgrade

• Pippy-21 (and older versions) will fail to launch, upgrade to Pippy-22.
• Record-54 (and older versions) will fail to take photos and record videos, upgrade to Record-55.
• Browse-91 (and older versions) will fail to download files and install .xo/.xol bundles. Upgrade to Browse-92.
• Implode-3 does not launch. Author has been informed, hopefully we'll seen an updated version soon.
• Measure does not launch properly. Waiting for fixed version.

Resolved Bugs In This Release

http://dev.laptop.org/report/22

Notable Open Bugs In This Release

All known open bugs (defects) in this release are here

This is an open bug tracking system so anyone can enter bugs. Therefore, please use caution when interpreting the content of this list. If you have a question about the validity or status of any know bug you can e-mail the owner or send a note to devel@lists.laptop.org

• #6532 SD Card Corruption: partition table gets corrupted on ext3-formatted SD cards on suspend/resume

6014 activity info not saved on power off. You must close the activity before you shut down the XO in order to save your work.

Activity Issues

• #6773 TamTamJam: Recorded microphone slots don't playback. ?need to test
• Couldn't add feeds to news reader because clicking "+"/dropdown on the feeds tab didn't do anything. ?need to test
• Read will not reliably share a PDF document.
• #6729 Read doesn't save the PDFs it opens (when sharing)
• #4539 Sharing in Etoys only works if the laptops are in the same network (on same mesh channel, or connected to same access point). ?need to test

Network Related Issues

There are many open mesh and collaboration bugs.

Work is being done in that area in this release but it is not confirmed yet.

Tips and Tricks

Add power user ideas and suggestions here.

e.g. an explanation of how to tweak cursor interaction at the CLI or how to get activities with XO-get

Star in journal doesn't do anything! Its there for possible future use.