Emulating the XO/Quick Start

This page will help you get a look at the XO software, by running a "virtual XO" in an emulator. Another option is burning a LiveCd instead.

What to expect

This "virtual XO" was created as a software development tool. It is not intended for general use, and many things will not work. It is "just to get a taste" (and to help software developers). With time and people constraints, we are focused tightly on the real XO.

• Collaboration, the centerpiece of OLPC, is currently not easily set up in emulation. Sorry.
• The camera and video will not work. Perhaps not even sound.
• Things are slower than on the actual machine. If you are unable to install qemu's kqemu accelerator, very much slower.
• You will see a snapshot of the past. The instructions will have you download the "latest stable build", which is sometimes quite a few weeks old. Development is very rapid. So things will be missing or different compared with the present.
• While rapidly maturing, this is still "alpha" software.

Two steps

First, download olpc-redhat-stream-development-ext3.img.bz2. It is in this directory.

Second, get the qemu emulator which will run the image:

• Windows
• Mac
• Linux
• FreeBSD

You should now have a running "virtual XO".

Running for the first time

Sugar Instructions will help you get oriented. Though you may not need it.

TODO - a couple additional steps are needed to get the virtual XO's network working. Just in case you want to surf the web. Depending on how os-specific the steps are, they should go either here or in the articles above. MitchellNCharity 01:41, 24 May 2007 (EDT)