Collection stick

A Collection stick is a USB drive with a program on it that collects data in order to request developer keys. Developer keys are the unique cryptographic signatures for XO laptops that permit access to the system firmware.

Making a Collection stick

You'll need a FAT-formatted USB drive, as well as a computer with Internet access. The USB drive does not need to be empty. On the computer with Internet access:

1. Insert the USB drive,
2. Delete any directory with name boot,
3. Create a new directory with name boot in the top level of your USB drive.
4. Download Actos.zip and Runos.zip into that /boot directory.

You should now have a USB drive containing a directory boot which contains two files Actos.zip, and Runos.zip. This is a collection stick ready to use.

Collecting with a Collection stick

For each XO for which you need a Developer key:

1. Make sure the XO is powered off.
2. Plug the USB drive into the XO, then power it on.
3. You will see a graphical "XO" screen and then a short message like "SHFxxxxxxxx nnnnnnnnnnnnnnn; Laptop data recorded successfully". The XO will then power itself off or otherwise indicate that it is done.
4. Remove the USB drive from the XO.

(This step will not record the data if the laptop is unlocked already -- to make this work on an unlocked laptop, hold the '×' game pad key to force "secure" booting.)

When you have done this on all the XOs you need Developer keys for, move to the next step below.

Requesting keys

Plug the USB drive into the computer with Internet access and then either:

• for individuals and small groups, open laptops.dat, treat the first number as a serial number and the second as UUID, and enter them on OLPC Activation Service, and follow the instructions there to generate each developer key, saving them as separate files,
• for larger groups, attach the laptops.dat file from the USB drive to an email to your OLPC or deployment contact. This may take several days.

Receiving keys

You will receive back one or two files from OLPC after submitting your laptops.dat file.

1. If you requested a Developer key: You will get a file called develop.sig. It contains a developer key for each laptop.
2. If you requested an activation key: You will get a file called lease.sig. It contains an activation key for each laptop.

You are now ready to make an unlock stick.

Making an Unlock stick

Here is what to do once you get these files.

1. Insert a USB drive (this can be the Collection stick; but you must rename the /boot directory to something else like /collection. If you don't do this, your laptop will just re-run the collection.)
2. If you have a file called develop.sig, make a directory called security/ in the root directory of your USB drive and copy this file into it.
3. If you have a file called lease.sig, copy this file into the root directory of your USB drive.

You should now have a USB drive containing either a directory security which contains develop.sig, or lease.sig in the top of the drive. This is an unlock stick ready to use.

Unlocking with an Unlock stick

For each XO you are trying to unlock:

1. Make sure the XO is powered off.
2. Plug the USB storage device into the XO, then power it on.

That's it! Note that this process only unlocks your XO for one boot - if you want to unlock your XO permanently without needing to plug in the USB storage device every time you boot, see #Permanently unlocking with an Unlock stick.

Activation keys

No action is required. Activation keys are automatically copied to /security/lease.sig on your XO. Keep the activation key around (or copy it to your School Server) in case you later need to reflash the XO.

Developer keys

When the XO boots the first time, you should see a textual prompt, which you will see within the first few seconds of booting (along with a short countdown to give you time to hit the , Escape key). This is your indication that the Developer key on the Unlock stick has been found.

Permanently unlocking with an Unlock stick

To permanently disable secure booting, with the Unlock stick inserted, obtain the Ok prompt, type "disable-security", then power cycle the laptop and repeat the sequence. See Activation and developer keys.

Once you do this, you will not need the Developer key on the laptop, but you can keep it in case security is ever enabled.

Unlocking only until the next reinstall or upgrade

The firmware checks for the Developer key on all available storage, which is why an Unlock stick works the way it does. But this means you would need to keep the Unlock stick handy to use it.

Alternatively, you can copy Developer key to your laptop's internal flash memory. Copy security/develop.sig from the USB drive into /security/develop.sig on the XO. You'll need to be root in a Terminal activity to do that:

cp /run/media/olpc/USBDRIVE/security/develop.sig /security/develop.sig

Where USBDRIVE is the label of the USB drive.

• (Note that /media was used instead of /run/media/olpc before 12.1.0).

See Also

• source code