User Feedback on Images

On this page you can share your experiences of particular build number with other users.

For example, say which build you tried, what system you were using, and how the build worked for you. This page is just for your reviews. For instructions on how to use the images, look at OS_images.

You can find the latest stable build here.

Images on an emulator

QEMU on Linux

Build Name	QEmu Version	System Info	Description	username
olpc-redhat-stream-development-build-239-20070118_1355-ext3.img	qemu 0.9	Ubuntu 6.06.1 1GB RAM (qemu had 512MB)	works fine, but could not network / browse internet / did not auto-configure networking... You definitely need to put some hint balloons in that GUI, it's hard to understand what's what	towsonu2003, 2007.02.17
olpc-redhat-stream-development-build-239-20070118_1416-devel_ext3.img.bz2	qeumu 0.8.0	Ubuntu 6.06LTS, Linux 2.6.15-27-386, Centrino 1280MB RAM	when Qemu goes graphical, freezes with weird screen garbage	ShawnMurphy, 2007.01.19
olpc-redhat-stream-development-build-239-20070118_1416-devel_ext3.img.bz2	qeumu 0.6.0-2mdk	Mandrake 10.1, Linux 2.6.8.1-12mdk, Athlon XP 2100+, 1536MB RAM	when Qemu goes graphical, freezes with weird screen garbage	ShawnMurphy, 2007.01.19
build 217 20070105_1724 devel_ext3.img	qemu 0.8.2	Debian unstable, Athlon XP 2400+, 512MB RAM Linux 2.6.18.2 (vanilla)	Boots fine, but very slow. Apps work, except for abiword which just has a gray screen (same color as frame). No IP, but 'dhclient' fixes that. Changing 'onboot=yes' doesn't help. Got some kernel problems (IRQ4?) when starting vi/nano though, see http://rootshell.be/~ludoa/messages for my logfile & more info. Installed kqemu, modprobe'd it, but -kernel-kqemu gives a kernel panic, see rootshell.be/~ludoa/olpc_qemu_with_kqemu.png	LudoA, 2007.01.06
build-193 20061203_1727 devel_ext3.img	qemu 0.8.2	Ubuntu 6.10 Edgy Eft - x86_64	Hangs on boot. Adding apm=off to kernel boot params in grub fixes this. It then boots Sugar (the UI), but no keyboard or mouse. CTRL-3 and then modprobe i8042 fixes this. Sugar works fine, but is quite slow. Also, no sound (even with qemu -soundhw all). Networking works fine. Will try to get qemu accelerator working in the future to improve performance.	2007.01.05
build-193 20061203_1727 devel_ext3.img	qemu 0.8.2 (-std-vga)	Ununtu 6.06	Boots into GUI, asks for nickname and then no keyboard or mouse. The modprobe i8042 trick did not work until I told qemu to use a standard vga output (-std-vga). Still pretty slow. I have tried to get networking or sound going yet.	Jeff Waddell 2007.01.04
build-193 20061203_1727 devel_ext3.img	qemu 0.8.1-1 (-soundhw all -hda)	Debian etch (testing)	Boots into GUI, but no keyboard or mouse before "modprobe i8042" several times (!) on the serial console (Ctrl-Alt-3). No networking or sound, slow.
build-183 20061116_1824 devel_ext3.img	Qemu 0.8.1, from Debian's repository	Acer Aspire AMD 1.8 Ghz 1GB RAM; Debian etch (testing); Linux 2.6.17-2-k7;	Boots into the GUI and works fine. Is not 100% responsive, but it's expected. To be able to view the entire eToys screen, had to edit the Grub boot entry and change the display size to vga=0x317	To_be_created
build-182 20061114_2135 devel_ext3.img	Qemu 0.6.2 from Debian Sarge	Dual-cpu AMD Athlon MP, 1GHz; Debian Sarge; 2.6.11-1-k7-smp	Boots into GUI and works OK, using apm=off. Slow. Had to edit Grub boot entry; the image already handled the suggested xorg.conf fix.	John Gilmore
build-182 20061114_2117 ext3.img(.bz2)	Qemu 0.8.2 + kqemu 1.3.0pre9 2.4.33.3	Athlon XP 2000+ 786 RAM; Slackware 11.0; Linux 2.4.33.3;	Boot into GUI ok, the system works fine and fast	darkmagus
build 185 and 197	QEmu 0.8.2 kqemu-1.3.0pre9	AMD AthlonXP 3000+ 2.16 GHz 512MB RAM, Suse 10.1	Booted into GUI successfully，keyboard and mouse work, no sound - good with qemu accelerator	Tim UK. 19 Dec 2006

QEMU on Windows

See Using QEMU on Windows XP instructions and Using QEMU on Troubleshooting.

Build Name	QEmu Version	Windows System	Description	username
build-276-20070228_1834-devel_ext3.img	Qemu 20070114-windows, kqemu-1.3.0pre9	Pentium 4 2.6GHz, 512Mb RAM, XP Pro SP2	Boots OK, but the sign-in screen does not let you select an image and therefore will not let you proceed. Apparently, the camera module imports OK but won't return a valid pixmap? Worked around it by commenting out the part of /usr/share/sugar/shell/intro/intro.py that tries to import the glive module. This gives a file button you can click to select an image, but it will not let you browse to files... I had to find an image filename in the system and manually type it in (/usr/share/icons/olpc/16x16/stock/emoticons/stock-smiley-1.png). This gets me past the opening screen to the sugar shell. Camera, abiword, memosono, and slideshow fail to launch. Blockparty, Groupchat, PenguinTV, etoys, web, and tamtam seem to work, although there is of course no sound in any application. Using yum to install the full version of vim fails due to lack of space in the image.	—Leejc 00:13, 1 March 2007 (EST)
build-239-20070118_1355-ext3.img	Qemu 20070114-windows, kqemu-1.3.0pre9	Pentium 4 HT 3.0GHz, 1GB RAM, XP Pro SP2	Seems to boot and work well, no control problems, but does not run DHCP on startup, easily worked around by pressing Ctrl-Alt-F1, logging in as root, and running dhclient then returning with Ctrl-Alt-F7. Seems a little slower than running the same image under VMWare Player on Linux on an Athlon64 3200+, but this only really seems to affect boot speed. Looks nice! Unfortunately the default save location is "File System" which crashes AbiWord on saving, and loading files from the "OLPC" folder doesn't appear to work either (again apparent crash).	--RP 16:34, 31 January 2007 (CST)
build-231-20070113_0023-ext3.img	Qemu 0.8.2-windows, kqemu-1.3.0pre9	Celeron M 1.60GHz, 1GB RAM, XP Pro SP2	No problems booting, no problems with mouse or keyboard (didn't need to use modprobe at all). Network worked fine after applying the documented fix. However, after getting the network running, experienced the same problem below with repeated '1's appearing in an input text field (actually Google's search field) immediately afterwards. The system's speed is a little slower than what normally might be expected, but not too bad. No problems starting/using applications (I'm editing this page using the emulator!)	--Dox 04:45, 15 January 2007 (EST)
build-193-20061203_1714-ext3.img	Qemu 0.8.2-windows, kqemu-1.3.0pre9	Dell Precision M70 Laptop, Pentium M 2.27 GHz, 2GB RAM, XP Pro SP2	Boots fine and into GUI, had to use modprobe twice to get keyboard/mouse to work. Network worked after fix. Works fine except the frame around the edge is very slow to appear.	Sam
build-193 20061203_1714 ext3.img	Qemu 0.8.2-windows, kqemu-1.3.0pre9	Intel 2.6 GHz dualcore, 2GB RAM, XP Pro SP2	had to use ctrl-alt-3 (not 1) to bring up shell and ctrl-alt-1 (not 7) to bring back gui. had to modprobe 6 times to get mouse and keyboard to run. gui works ok and fast. tamtam looks garbled.	martsch
build-193 20061203_1714 ext3.img	Qemu 0.8.2-windows, kqemu-1.3.0pre9	Intel 2.16 GHz, 2GB RAM, XP Pro SP2	Same mouse and keyboard issue. Used the "modprobe i8042" fix but it ctrl-alt-1 and ctrl-alt-2 do not work so I could not switch back from ctrl-alt-3 after modprobe.	flatwethat
build-193 20061203_1714 ext3.img	Qemu 0.8.2, kqemu-1.3.0pre9	Intel 2.66 GHz, 2GB RAM, XP Pro SP2	Same mouse and keyboard issue. Used the "modprobe i8042" fix but it needed to be run three times before OK. Then when input text field is given focus it prints 11111111111111111... until the delete key is hit. After deleting the input, the input text field works as expected.	illations
build-193 20061203_1714 ext3.img	Qemu 0.8.2, kqemu-1.3.0pre9	Celeron M 1.60 GHz, 500MB RAM, XP home SP2	Mouse and keyboard do not work as reported below but I used the "modprobe i8042" fix listed in the Linux feedback above and it works OK	James
build-193 20061203_1714 ext3.img	Qemu 0.8.2, kqemu-1.3.0pre9	Pentium 4 3.02 GHz, 1GB RAM, XP SP2	Mouse and keyboard do not work	Aaron
build-193 20061203_1714 ext3.img	Qemu 0.8.2, kqemu-1.3.0pre9	HP Pavillion dv5000 laptop,1.8Ghz, 1gb ram, XP MCE SP2	mouse and keyboard don't work	anger2headshot
build-192 20061201_1843 devel_ext3.img	Qemu 0.8.2, kqemu-1.3.0pre9	Fujitsu Siemens 3,2 Ghz 1 Gb RAM, XP SP2	keyboard and mouse do not work, nothing really possible	Henubis DEC 3, 2006
build-185 20061117_2030 devel_ext3.img	Qemu 0.8.2, kqemu-1.3.0pre9	Falcon Mach V AMD Athlon64 3200, 2 GHz 1GB RAM, XP SP2	keyboard and mouse OK, no network or sound. (network worked converted to VMWare Player). I updated instructions	-- Skierpage 19:06, 3 December 2006 (EST)
59-20060808_1153 ext3.img	QEmu 0.8.2 kqemu-1.3.0pre9	Dell Latitude D600 1.5GHz 512MB RAM, XP SP2	Booted into GUI successfully	--Tomhannen 21:33, 17 November 2006 (EST)
olpc-redhat stream-development devel_ext3.img	QEmu 0.8.2 kqemu-1.3.0pre9	Lenovo AMD Athlon(tm)XP 3000+ 2.16 GHz 512MB RAM, XP SP2	Booted into GUI successfully，keyboard and mouse do not work	--User:wonder from xi‘an，china 12:33, 7 December 2006 (EST)
build-185 20061117_2000 ext3.img	QEmu 0.8.2 kqemu-1.3.0pre9	Dell Latitude D600 1.5GHz 512MB RAM, XP SP2	Booted into GUI successfully, but had to [do this] to get a network connection	--Tomhannen 10:35, 7 December 2006 (EST)
build-193 20061203_1714 ext3.img	Qemu 0.8.2, kqemu-1.3.0pre9	HP Compaq, 1 Gb RAM, XP SP2	keyboard and mouse did not work, "modprobe i8042" fix couldn't load module at first - but repeatedly running the modprobe command (quickly) eventually succeeded and now it works ok	CNS Jan 2, 2007
build-193 20061203_1714 ext3.img	QEMU 0.8.2, kqemu-1.3.0pre9	AMD Athlon XP 3200+, 1GB Ram, ATI Radeon 9800 Pro, Windows XP SP2	Booted into GUI successfully, keyboard and mouse seemed broken but the issue was resolved used the 'modprobe' fix mentioned above. Slightly slow and the frame kept popping up at inconvenient points. Also after fixing keyboard issue and after enabling network access the first textbox I entered began to fill up with the character 1 and did not stop until I pressed something else on the keyboard. I expect this has something to do with the switching screen procedures common to each scenario.	Anon. Jan 02. 2007
build-193 20061203_1714 ext3.img	Qemu 0.8.2, kqemu-1.3.0pre9	AMD Athlon XP 2000+ 1.7 GHz 512MB RAM, XP Pro SP1	As above keyboard and mouse did not work but repeated "modprobe i8042" eventually worked (it's Ctrl+Alt+F7 to return to the GUI once the module has loaded). Also had to follow instructions as linked to in feedback above to get a network connection and I too found the textbox filling with 1s.	tom. Jan 2, 2007
build-193 20061203_1714 ext3.img	Qemu 0.8.2, kqemu-1.3.0pre9	Intel P4 3GHz 512MB RAM, XP Pro SP2	Got the mouse and keyboard working with: ctrl+alt+3, login as "root", enter "modprobe i8042", enter, ctrl+alt+1 Got the network connected as per the instructions. Obviously the OS is a work in progress so a few little niggles but it's quick enough and looks good.	Tim. Jan 2, 2007
build-193 20061203_1714 ext3.img	Qemu 0.8.2, kqemu-1.3.0pre9	AMD X2 4200+ 2.2 GHz 2048MB RAM, Vista RC2 Build 5744	Problem and solution the same as above. Just wanted to say it's running on Vista RC2	ACluk90. Jan 2, 2007
build-193 20061203_1714 ext3.img	Qemu 0.8.2, kqemu-1.3.0pre9	Dell Inspiron, 512 MB RAM, XP SP2	The usual (had to use keyboard, mouse, and networking fixes). 7-Zip said the first two images I downloaded were corrupt (olpc-redhat-stream-development-build-193-20061203_1714-ext3.img.bz2 and olpc-redhat-stream-development-ext3.img.bz2). Loved the interface. Great use of screenspace, etc.	Anon. Jan 3, 2007

QEMU on MacOS X

Build Name	QEmu Version	System Info	Description	username
olpc-redhat-stream-development-build-166-20061110_1609-ext3.img	Q 0.8.1	MacBook 13" Intel Core Duo, 2GB RAM	Boots into GUI, a bit sluggish response	Calyth
olpc-redhat-stream-development-build-185-20061117_2030-devel_ext3.img	Q 0.8.1	MacBook 13" Intel Core Duo, 2GB RAM	Same feel as build 166 documented above	Calyth

Parallels on MacOS X

Build Name	Parallels Version	System Info	Description	username
olpc-redhat-stream-development-build-185-20061117_2030-devel_ext3.img	Build 1970	MacBook 13" 2Ghz Intel Core2Duo, 1GB RAM	Runs well, no networking or sound - perhaps configuration of Parallels?	mpesce 1 Dec 2006
olpc-redhat-stream-development-devel_ext3.img.bz2 (build 206)	Build 1898	MacBook 13" 1,83Ghz Intel CoreDuo, 1,256GB RAM	Runs but would not start GUI; fbdev blinks and keeps respawning	wooky 1 Jan 2007
olpc-redhat-stream-development-build-217-20070105_1724-devel_ext3.img	Build 3094	MacBook Pro 15.4" 2.33Ghz Intel Core2Duo, 2GB RAM	Runs ok. Had to manually run ifup eth0 to get networking. Abiword shows grey screen. No shutdown button (is there one yet?). No sound	theothermike 6 Jan 2007

VMWare on Windows

Build Name	VMware Version	System Info	Description	username
olpc-redhat-stream-development-build-185-20061117_2030-devel_ext3.img	Player 1.0.3 build-34682	Fujitsu Siemens Scaleo T 3,2 GHz P4 1GB Ram, Windows XP SP2	Booted into GUI successfully, no sound, mouse accelerate very high	Henubis Nov 22. 2006

VMWare on Mac OSX

Build Name	VMware Version	System Info	Description	username
olpc-build182.vmdk	VMWare beta for Mac OsX	Fujitsu Siemens Scaleo T 3,2 GHz P4 1GB Ram, Windows XP SP2	Booted into GUI successfully, mouse accelerate very high. Most importantly, the screen soze was only 640x480, impossible to use e-toys.	Alexandre Van de Sande, january 11, 2007

Images on a USB disk

Build Name	QEmu Version	System Info	Description	username
enter details here

Images with the on-board NAND flash on OLPC hardware

Build Name	System Info	Description	Username
Running Build 231 on two OLPC laptops.		No way to show camera in full-screen mode. This feature should be re-instated. Instead the new screen capture feature works but causes the captured shots to be almost illegible - colours run. Network Neighbourhood - Group Chat works fine but have not had ANY success sharing any other activity. Perhaps this is not yet developed ? Quite stable - has never crashed but performance is very very slow.	David Chatterton 14 Jan 2007
Build 239_B21 on OLPC B-1	B-1 Hardware	Overall impression of Build 239: Sluggy but stable. Hardware: Mouse pointer is quite difficult to position, jumps around quite often. Keyboard LED are mostly useless as they do not really light the keyboard. Maybe better to move them to top of screen as with Lenovo? Camera activity: Cool. Seems though that you can only fill the picture bar with 8 pix, after that it FIFOs out, no arrows. Could be a problem when activity is shared with a few olpc and the bar fills fast. Chat Activity: Hard to criticise with just one OLPC ;-) Text Activity: Still supports too much non-open file formats. Word Doc is IMHO patent-encumbered. It should only support ODT, HTML and maybe RTF. RSS Activity: Does not really work. Clicking on "Full entry" does not open the web page. Maybe I don't understand how it is supposed to work though. eToys Activity: No time to play with it, takes ages to load. Browser activity: I reconfigured fontsize to 8pt for fixed and 10pt for variable, now Slashdot.org looks acceptable. The tabbing feature really seems to be just a bokmark collection, correct? Memory Activity: I liked the older version better, or more precise, my kids liked the older version better. The new version relies too much on color and is not really playable in transflective mode. TamTam activity: Simply rocks.	Jan (dot) Wildeboer (at) redhat (dot) com