Questions from New Users

Schoolchildren reportedly are able to discover how to use an XO without adult assistance, except for features that are not currently working correctly. For those who are having trouble, and in particular those who have run into bugs and unfinished features, help is available.

• If you have questions about how to use the software, please see the draft manual.
• If you are having technical problems, please see the Support page.

If the available documentation doesn't help, please post your questions here. Somebody is sure to answer.

These questions will become input to the documentation process. So even having trouble becomes a contribution to the success of the program.

Questions

Anything about the XO hardware or software that you can't figure out and is not documented.

• How do you enable the use of a stylus?

• Is it possible to alter the orientation of the touchpad to match the screen orientation in book mode?

• My WiFi network uses 64 bit WEP encoding. when I try to connect in Neighborhood, a pop up box asks for a 128 n\bit key. The 64 bit key is not accepted. Do I have to change the network? Is there a way to have the laptop accept 64 bit encoding?

• What about Anti-Virus software? Don't I need it? Is it already installed?
  • Someone will probably replace this with a more "official" answer, but in a sense of humor let me say this. By asking a question about anti-virus software, you are probably a Windows user. The XO laptop runs on the Linux OS. People who run Linux instead of Windows don't usually run anti-virus software. This concept may enlighten you to stop paying for poor software (Windows and Anti-virus software) and open your mind to more secure, software with freedom. Specifically, OLPC uses a variant of Red Hat's Desktop Linux called Fedora Core. Also, you can run the full blown Fedora Core, for little to no cost, on the same machine you currently run Windows and anti-virus software. The XO laptop is exceptionally good at compartmentalizing program and data to limit what a virus or "bad" program can do, see Online threats and security and Bitfrost Paul Bock 13:04, 19 December 2007 (EST)

• How can I set the correct time on this computer? And time zone, for that matter? I get that there wouldn't be a whole lot of config programs à la System Preferences on the Mac, but I would think there'd have to be something for this sort of basic configuration.blahedo 01:18, 18 December 2007 (EST)

There will be a control panel user interface available eventually. Until then, there is a command line application that can tweak various system settings, including time zone; see Sugar Control Panel. I'm not sure why it doesn't let you set the time as well... Perhaps it syncs with an internet server? —Joe 01:41, 18 December 2007 (EST)

• What exactly is a "mesh"? I don't really understand this concept- can someone explain it in lay terms?
  • Imagine trying to yell a message to someone a couple miles away. And you are not allowed to use a telephone (wired network). You will probably have a hard time getting your message to the other person a couple miles away. Now imagine that you live in a neighborhood with people spaced about 10 feet apart. You can easily talk with your neighbor and you tell him the message and who it has to go to. Then your neighbor relays your message to his neighbor and so on until it gets to the person a couple miles away. So anybody that is close enough to communicate with at least one person on the network, can then gain the ability to talk to everybody that is on the network. That's what this mesh network is all about. PaulBock 12/19/2007
  • And then if one of the people in the network has a telephone, you can talk to anyone that can be called on that phone. The parallel here is that hopefully someone in a village of XO laptops has a connection to the internet, thereby giving everybody in that small mesh network access to the internet. This connection to the internet will probably exist through a School Server. Paul Bock 13:04, 19 December 2007 (EST)

• Using the Write application, I can save a file but I cannot find a way to open an existing file. For that matter, I cannot determine where (or even if) this file is saved. How does the file saving/opening work?
  • This was difficult for me too. Every time you use an activity, or save a file, an entry is created in the Journal activity that is by default always running. Go to the Journal activity from the home view and scroll up and down the list to find the file you want. The Journal activity also handles the mounting of an SD card and any USB flash drives. Paul Bock 13:04, 19 December 2007 (EST)

• How do you get a user name on this wiki?

There should be a "Sign in/create an account" link in the upper right corner of each page. —Joe 12:59, 19 December 2007 (EST)

• I don't see a "Slideshow" activity - is there a good way to create a slideshow on the XO?

Issues

Bugs, unfinished features.

In the first-time user startup instructions - there is no mention of the inital User Name: entry required

• my experience was that after typing the child's name, the NEXT> button on screen did not work - it wasn't until I pressed the keyboard ENTER key that I got the system to actually start and bring up the UI.

The REGISTER feature never confirmed in any way what was registered - is this a central registration of the machine - or is this in a dynamic ad-hoc network?

Have not seen Wiki entries for the following:

• simple instructions for laoding new apps (Activities)
• re-imaging the system - where to get image and how to re-install OS
• how to install patches and upgrades tot he OS

[thank you]

WPA WiFi

From OLPC Ship.2 Software Release Notes

We continue to work on improving support for WPA encryption, and hope to have a better solution in our Update.1 release. In the meanwhile, WPA Manual Setting documents procedures for manual use of WPA encrypted access points.