Release notes/11.3.1

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Purpose

This is an update OLPC software release that fixes important bugs and improves support of the ARM platform for the upcoming XO-1.75 laptop. XO-1 and XO-1.5 builds are also supported as usual, and include a small number of important fixes.

New features

Most system features are shared with 11.3.0

Improved XO-1.75 support

A great deal of engineering effort has gone into the production of the hardware and software of OLPC's new XO-1.75 laptop and this OS release completes the task.

This new laptop model may look and feel the same as previous XOs, but represents a radical change internally: an ARM processor is now used (similar to those found in common mobile phones and tablets). The processor is now included on the same chip as the rest of the core system functionality, taking the definition of System-on-Chip to a new level.

Battery run time is significantly better than earlier XO models, thanks mainly to the efficiency of the ARM CPU. The XO-1.75 adds light sensor hardware that allows us to switch off the LCD backlight when in bright sunlight; this allows for even further power savings and longer battery run times.

The XO-1.75 also adds accelerometer hardware, presenting many new opportunities for user interaction with the laptop. For example, see Bert Freudenberg's example of how tilting of the laptop can be used to control a ball's motion in Etoys. Other activities that take advantage of the accelerometer include Turtle Blocks and Fraction Bounce, a game for exploring fractions.

Many thanks to all OLPC, Sugar and Fedora community members who have helped with development and testing of this new laptop and its software.

XO-1.75 - new touchpad and camera drivers

The OS image for XO-1.75 includes current drivers for Sentelic AVC touchpads ("sentelic") and Foxlink cameras ("siv120d") in addition to the existing touchpad and camera drivers.

Bluetooth drivers

Drivers are included for many popular Bluetooth USB host adapters. These are setup to work correctly with Bluetooth-controlled robots (such as LEGO's). (No general purpose Bluetooth support in this build.)

Updated 3G USB modem database

An updated "USB modeswitch" database is included to add support for current 3G modems.

Bug fixes of note

XO-1.75

  • Suspend/resume is now stable, and enabled by default (<trac>11396</trac>, <trac>11658</trac>).
  • Audio capture and playback has improved significantly (<trac>11575</trac>,<trac>11545</trac>, <trac>11685</trac> and <trac>11656</trac>). See however "Known issues" for some remaining concerns.
  • Video capture and playback has improved significantly (<trac>11430</trac>, <trac>11699</trac>)
  • Graphics driver freezes and screen corruption issues resolved (<trac>11321</trac>, <trac>11399</trac>, <trac>11350</trac> and <trac>11256</trac>).

All platforms

  • Sentelic AVC touchpads are now reliable (mainly affecting XO-1.75, some XO-1.5 units) (<trac>11196</trac>, <trac>11581</trac> and <trac>11659</trac>).

Installation

Installation is distinct from update. If you have user data on the laptop that you wish to preserve, you may want to follow the Update instructions, below.

XO-1.75

How to install signed build 885 of release 11.3.1 on XO-1.75.

The build is installed to the internal microSD device. You will need a USB drive or Secure Digital card of at least 1 GB capacity, but only for the duration of the installation.

ALL USER DATA WILL BE ERASED FROM THE LAPTOP!

  • Prepare the USB or SD drive:
    • Download os885.zd4, see How to Download,
    • Save the file to the top directory of the drive,
    • Download os885.zd4.zsp.fs.zip,
    • Save the file to the top directory of the same drive,
    • Rename the file to fs.zip, (removing the os885.zd4.zsp part of the name),
    • Check that the drive contains at least the two files fs.zip and os885.zd4.
  • Prepare the laptop:
    • Make a copy of any data you wish to keep,
    • Check the battery is inserted and locked,
    • Check that the power cord is in place and the battery indicator is green,
    • Turn off the laptop, unless it is already off,
    • Insert the USB drive into any USB port on the laptop,
  • Start installing:
    • Hold down all four game keys above the power button,
    • Turn on the laptop,
    • Wait for the message Release the game keys to continue,
    • Release the game keys.

Installation progress will be displayed. Green colour will fill grey blocks. It will take about five minutes. Once finished, the laptop will reboot automatically. You may remove the USB or SD drive during or after the reboot.

The USB or SD drive can be used on other laptops.

If you see a message Boot failed then either:

  • the USB or SD drive has not been properly prepared, or;
  • the firmware is out of date and should be updated (see Firmware).

The above instructions assume that you are installing onto a 4 GB internal eMMC. For the 8 GB version, use the os885.zd8 and os885.zd8.zsp.fs.zip files.

If you have many laptops of different sizes, check out How to avoid downloading multiple sizes of a build, which applies equally to XO-1.75.

XO-1.5

How to install signed build 885 of release 11.3.1 on XO-1.5.

The build is installed to the internal microSD device. You will need a USB drive or Secure Digital card of at least 1 GB capacity, but only for the duration of the installation.

ALL USER DATA WILL BE ERASED FROM THE LAPTOP!

  • Prepare the USB or SD drive:
    • Download os885.zd4, see How to Download,
    • Save the file to the top directory of the drive,
    • Download os885.zd4.zsp.fs.zip,
    • Save the file to the top directory of the same drive,
    • Rename the file to fs.zip, (removing the os885.zd4.zsp part of the name),
    • Check that the drive contains at least the two files fs.zip and os885.zd4.
  • Prepare the laptop:
    • Make a copy of any data you wish to keep,
    • Check the battery is inserted and locked,
    • Check that the power cord is in place and the battery indicator is green,
    • Turn off the laptop, unless it is already off,
    • Insert the USB drive into any USB port on the laptop,
  • Start installing:
    • Hold down all four game keys above the power button,
    • Turn on the laptop,
    • Wait for the message Release the game keys to continue,
    • Release the game keys.

Installation progress will be displayed. Green colour will fill grey blocks. It will take about ten minutes. Once finished, the laptop will reboot automatically. You may remove the USB or SD drive during or after the reboot.

The USB or SD drive can be used on other laptops.

If you see a message Boot failed then either:

  • the USB or SD drive has not been properly prepared, or;
  • the firmware is out of date and should be updated (see Firmware).

The above instructions assume that you are installing onto a 4 GB internal microSD card. For the 2 GB version, use the os885.zd2 file, and for the 8 GB version, use the os885.zd8 file. The downloads are roughly the same size.

If you have laptops of different sizes, check out How to avoid downloading multiple sizes of a build for a set of XO-1.5 where the microSD or SD card size varies.

XO-1

How to install signed build 885 of release 11.3.1 on XO-1.

The build is installed to the internal NAND flash device. You will need a USB drive or Secure Digital card of at least 1 GB capacity, but only for the duration of the installation.

ALL USER DATA WILL BE ERASED FROM THE LAPTOP!

  • Prepare the USB or SD drive:
    • Download os885.img, see How to Download,
    • Save the file to the top directory of the drive,
    • Download os885.img.fs.zip,
    • Save the file to the top directory of the same drive,
    • Rename the file to fs.zip, (removing the os885.img part of the name),
    • Check that the drive contains at least the two files fs.zip and os885.img.
  • Prepare the laptop:
    • Make a copy of any data you wish to keep,
    • Check the battery is inserted and locked,
    • Check that the power cord is in place and the battery indicator is green,
    • Turn off the laptop, unless it is already off,
    • Insert the USB drive into any USB port on the laptop,
  • Start installing:
    • Hold down all four game keys above the power button,
    • Turn on the laptop,
    • Wait for the message Release the game keys to continue,
    • Release the game keys.

Installation progress will be displayed. Green colour will fill yellow blocks. It will take about five minutes. Once finished, the laptop will reboot automatically. You may remove the USB or SD drive during or after the reboot.

The USB or SD drive can be used on other laptops.

If you see a message Boot failed then either:

  • the USB or SD drive has not been properly prepared, or;
  • the firmware is out of date and should be updated (see Firmware).

There are no other build sizes for XO-1.

Update

You may wish to update from a previous version of the operating system. This method preserves most user data, the Sugar Journal and installed Sugar Activities, but does not preserve certain operating system customizations such as additional packages.

(Update is distinct from install. If you have followed the install procedures above, then you need not follow this section.)

Preparation

To prepare for an operating system update:

  • remove as much saved content as you no longer need,
  • remove any large activities you no longer need (in the Home view, erase them),
  • remove any large collections (library content) you no longer need, and;
  • use Software update to ensure the Terminal activity is the latest available version.

Follow the instructions in one of the subsections below, according to which method and laptop model you are using.

Simple Online Update

  • establish an internet connection from the laptop (if you plan to do online update),
  • start the laptop normally,
  • start the Terminal Activity, and depending on the laptop model type:

XO-1.75

sudo olpc-update official_xo1.75-885

XO-1.5

sudo olpc-update official_xo1.5-885

XO-1

sudo olpc-update candidate_xo1-885

See Simple Online Update for more detail about the method.

Simple Offline Update

sudo olpc-update --usb

See Simple Offline Update for more detail about the method.

After the Update

  • Sugar will attempt to update its Activities -- you should be online for the Activity Updater to complete.

Known problems

This section lists significant known issues that we hope to solve in future releases.

If deployments have solid plans and schedules to deploy 11.3.1 but feel blocked by some of these issues in particular, they are encouraged to get in contact with OLPC far in advance of the installation date. OLPC may be able to produce a limited scope point-release fixing highlighted issues.

System

  • If the wireless network card is not available during first boot, the system will disable its wireless network support permanently. As a workaround, reinstall the OS after replacing/repairing the wireless network card or see the alternative described in the bug entry (<trac>11534</trac>)

Sugar

  • When pressing the volume hotkeys (F11/F12), the volume levels are changed accordingly, but the icon in the Sugar frame does not show the change - <trac>9913</trac>.
  • The option to disable wireless networking in the Sugar Settings dialog no longer results in removal of power from the wifi hardware (<trac>10913</trac>) and does not disable XO-1 mesh functionality.
  • Copying an item from an external device to the journal may result in the copied item incorrectly appearing at the bottom of the list of Journal items (instead of at the top), the item appear at the correct position after 5 seconds (<trac>10905</trac>).
  • Browse no longer reports that it is running on an XO, which may affect the behaviour of certain sites which attempt to display an XO-optimized version (<trac>10921</trac>). The title of the webpage is not always displayed correctly (<trac>10751</trac>). Scrolling with the arrow keys and game keys does not work as expected (<trac>10514</trac>) and the activity will display pages with the wrong scaling settings if started when the screen is in a rotated mode (<trac>10566</trac>).
  • In the Browse homepage, the "Search OLPC" form leads to a problem report page by Google (<trac>11375</trac>).
  • Etoys sound recording may freeze or record low-quality audio (<trac>9724</trac>, <trac>9527</trac>). When collaborating, items may fail to be transferred (<trac>10744</trac>), and chat messages may fail to display the sender icon (<trac>10745</trac>).
  • Record does not correctly pause itself when it is left running but is no longer the active activity. Multiple instances of Record will not always work correctly when run simultaneously (<trac>10659</trac>).
  • The Moon activity fails to launch if the system date is wildly incorrect (SL#3223).
  • When upgrading activities using the Software Update functionality, activity icons may be duplicated in the home screen until reboot (<trac>11373</trac>).
  • Switching between Sugar and GNOME desktops quickly may fail after a few switches. Seeing the graphical desktop environment exit every few seconds, the system assumes there is a problem and blocks it. As a workaround, wait a minute between switches from one desktop to the other (<trac>11838</trac>.
  • After running for extended periods of time (measured in days) in an environment with many Wireless Access Points, a memory leak in Sugar Shell may prevent opening activities and lead the system to an out-of-memory (OOM) condition (<trac>11708</trac>).

Sugar collaboration

The following issues are all believed to be regressions over OLPC OS 10.1.3.

  • When the initiator of a shared activity leaves the activity, the icon of the shared activity will disappear from the neighborhood view of other participants (<trac>10674</trac>).
  • When collaborating over a jabber server, names of other users may be displayed as their account hashes (e.g. c72019147aed6de8731769a126c2931a8a9ecfeb) rather than their name (<trac>10750</trac>).
  • If a user changes his name, the new name is not reliably communicated to his peers (<trac>10749</trac>).
  • The friends tray in the Sugar frame is incorrect for the initiator of a shared activity; it will not show other users who have joined (<trac>10801</trac>)
  • When collaborating over a jabber server, information regarding who has joined and left an activity is not displayed reliably (<trac>11075</trac>)
  • If a user is invited to an activity but does not have that activity installed, a confusing grey circle is displayed where the invitation would normally be (<trac>10821</trac>).
  • Upon accepting a private invitation via the frame, if the frame is left open during activity launch then the invitation will not disappear as it should (<trac>11073</trac>).
  • The olpc-xos diagnostic tool for developers no longer shows the users connected to the jabber server (<trac>10677</trac>).
  • When inviting another learner to an activity the frame does only show ourself, this is true for both members of the session <trac>11074</trac>

Web Content

  • Wikimedia OggPlayer javascript does not run on Browse and Firefox. Workaround is to use the link to the .ogg file below the player. See <trac>11771</trac> and http://bugs.sugarlabs.org/ticket/3320. It has been fixed in 12.1.0.

Input

  • F5 and F6 are bound to Search and Frame on all laptops, when these mappings should ideally only apply to XO High-School laptops where these icons are printed on the keys (<trac>10534</trac>)
  • Some keyboard layouts (ie: Pt_BR) are missing the Linux console keyboard map -- can still be used correctly in Sugar's Terminal activity and in GNOME's Terminal (<trac>11557</trac>).

Power management

Automatic power management is enabled on XO-1.5 and XO-1.75 by default, and can be optionally enabled on XO-1 via the Sugar Settings dialog.

When enabled, the following bugs are present:

  • On XO-1, wireless network connectivity may disappear while the system is sleeping (<trac>10232</trac>)
  • On XO-1, touchpad may seem slow to respond as the system wakes (<trac>10233</trac>)
  • XO-1.5 and XO-1.75 may fail to be woken up by network traffic directed at it (<trac>9960</trac>)
  • XO-1.5 and XO-1.75 wireless may fail and be automatically reset during system resume. This will cause a momentary interruption of connectivity, and could result in the XO-1.5 connecting to a different network after the reset.
  • The laptop may only sleep for short periods of time due to being woken up by unrelated/uninteresting multicast network traffic.
  • The mouse will occasionally be excessively jumpy for a few seconds after system wakeup, before it gets automatically recalibrated (<trac>10967</trac>).
  • If put into a state where the system is suspended and cannot be woken up with the power button, typing on the keyboard while in suspended state may result in a misbehaving keyboard when the system resumes (<trac>11223</trac>).

Also of note:

  • Sugar Control Panel offers an "Extreme Power Management" option in its "Power" section. This option currently is not operational <trac>11673</trac>

OS update

  • After updating the system using olpc-update, the following boot takes a bit longer than usual while some disk space is recovered. If Ctrl+Alt+F1 is pressed during this operation, the system will halt with an error message (<trac>11371</trac>). Power cycling the system will cause the process to continue from where it left off and boot successfully.

XO-1.75

  • Browse under Sugar and Firefox under GNOME may crash when displaying very large images. This can be triggered with pages where many large images are displayed in smaller dimensions.The rendering enginer must allocate memory for the full size of the original emails, and may hit memory limits (<trac>11569</trac>).
  • Sound quality may suffer when the system is busy(<trac>11187</trac>). Some clicks or scratches can be heard sometiems every 80ms (<trac>11334</trac>).
  • USBVGA support does not work yet on the XO-1.75 platform (<trac>11621</trac>).
  • Screen rotation works, but video performance is noticably degraded in the rotated modes, and some activities misbehave after the screen has been rotated (<trac>11344</trac>).
  • "Customization stick" and "collection stick" do not work on XO-1.75 units (<trac>11432</trac>)

XO-1.5

  • The microphone recording level is believed to be too low in comparison to XO-1 (<trac>10903</trac>).

XO-1

  • The system may hang (in some cases intermittently, in some cases every time) when a USBVGA adapter is attached during boot (<trac>10568</trac>).
  • Unfortunately, the base filesystem has grown in this release to the point where it is not possible to upgrade from a freshly-installed 10.1.3 OS to 11.2.0. This is due to temporary disk space requirements during the upgrade process. The update preparation steps are therefore essential, so that enough disk space is available.
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