Installing XSCE on an XO1
Overview
The XO-1 a relatively older, and slower machine. It is not as capable of supporting many classroom client XO's as the later machines. But it is often freely available, and might be able to service a small class of 15-20 student machines. As you can see from the chart, the XO-1 only has 1GB of flash memory, and about 700MB are required for the basic XO operating system, before any additional XSCE code is added. And the XSCE code itself take about 1.3GB. So the install process for XSCE, if it is going to work at all needs a lot of help.
The first part of the install process disables the Graphical User Interface (GUI) because it takes RAM away from the install process (and there is only 256MB available).
Also, the install will refuse to proceed if there is no SD card present in the optional slot at the lower right corner of the screen. This SD card should be fast, (class 10 is currently available), and at least 4 GB. Larger SD cards will be able to store student backups, and content, activities, and other services to the student's XO's. The prices of SD cards is typical:
| Size | Dollars |
|---|---|
| 4 | 7 |
| 8 | 8 |
| 16 | 13 |
| 32 | 23 |
| 64 | 42 |
So there's really no point in using anything less than 8GB.
Comparison chart
| XO | Processor/Speed | Memory | Hard Disk | Idle Power | Install Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | Geode/433MHz | 256MB | 1GB | 7W | 100Minutes |
| 1.5 | Via/400-1000MHz | 1000MB | 4GB | 5W | 70Min |
| 1.75 | ARM/800mHz | 512MB | 4-8GB* | 2W | 60Min |
| 4 | dual core ARM/1000mHz | 1-2GB* | 4-8GB* | 2W | 40min |
- optional memory and flash disk--usually lower value