F11 for 1.5

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OLPC is developing a Fedora 11 Remix for the XO-1.5. The aim is to ship this software release with the XO-1.5 laptop as it begins to ship, later in 2009. We aim for the release to reach a suitable quality for immediate release to OLPC deployments.

Requirements

The release is primarily [[Has objective:: targeted at the XO 1.5]], and must be ready in time for that hardware to ship. Because of the new kernel work required, no previous distribution will work on the XO-1.5 without modification. As a result, we must prioritize creating a shippable XO-1.5 build over creating a build that works well on both XO-1.5 and XO-1. F11-1.5 builds do not run on the XO-1, however volunteers have leveraged this work to create F11 for XO-1 builds.

Hardware status

A small number of XO-1.5 A-test boards were manufactured and distributed to the core developers. A larger stock of B-test boards and laptops were distributed to more developers and testers through the Contributors program.

Software status

Most of the system is functional, but there are some rough edges. It boots into Sugar, and the My Settings window offers a choice between Sugar and GNOME.

(obsolete reference, see release notes).

Mailing list

We talk to each other on the fedora-olpc-list mailing list. New builds are announced here.

Bugs and outstanding work

This trac report shows current bugs for the XO-1.5. Look in the distro, kernel and x window system components for the software-related tickets.

Build system

We are using Fedora's standard livecd-creator to produce LiveCD images of our release. We then run a script on the output .iso which makes it an "installed" (non-live) image and repacks it in a format suitable for flashing onto the XO-1.5.

The code is at git://dev.laptop.org/projects/fedora-xo in the xo-1.5 branch (web interface).

Download

Builds are here: http://dev.laptop.org/~cjb/f11-1.5/

Installation

Make sure your Firmware is up to date. These instructions were tested with q3a16, but be sure to use the latest!

Internal microSD

This is the conventional method; the build is installed to the internal microSD device and no external device needs to be attached afterward to boot it.

ALL USER DATA WILL BE ERASED FROM THE LAPTOP!

Download osXY.zd from the build directory and put it on a USB memory. Turn on the XO-1.5 with the check mark (tick) game key pressed down, then press ESC (X) to get to the OFW prompt "ok".

Insert the USB memory, then type 

fs-update u:\osXY.zd

Progress will be displayed. Once finished, remove the USB memory, and type 

reboot

If you use an SD card instead of a USB memory, use "sd:\" instead of "u:\".

External SD

This is an alternate method; the build is installed onto a portable SD card memory device, which must be plugged in to boot, and must remain plugged in while the system is running. It is intended for testing, and should not change the data on the internal microSD.

Select an SD card that has nothing you need on it, and is at least 4Gb in size.

ALL USER DATA WILL BE ERASED FROM THE SD CARD

Perform the steps as above for the internal microSD, but change the target used by the fs-update command, like this 

devalias fsdisk /sd/disk@1:0
fs-update u:\osXY.zd

External USB

This is an alternate method; the build is installed onto a portable USB memory device, which must be plugged in to boot, and must remain plugged in while the system is running. It is intended for testing, and should not change the data on the internal microSD.

This method is also more risky, since it is so easy to destroy data on a system.

Select a USB memory that has nothing you need on it, and is at least 4Gb in size.

ALL USER DATA WILL BE ERASED FROM THE USB MEMORY!

Download osXY.img.gz from the build directory and write it block-wise to a USB memory 

zcat osXY.img.gz > /dev/sdX

Note: known to work on os48, known to not work on os40 (per #9681 and #9686).

Updating OS

If you wish to update the XO 1.5 operative system you can type on the terminal: 

olpc-update f11_xo1.5-NN   #Where NN is the os build number


Modifications to Fedora

We're trying to work as close to Fedora (and the upstream projects which Fedora distributes) as possible; however, we also have the pressure of having to build a laptop and its software on a fixed timetable, so our priority remains on making things work.

We'll keep this list updated as modifications come and go. Most of the changes can be found in the source RPMs found here: http://dev.laptop.org/~dsd/xo1.5-rpms/

kernel

We maintain our own kernels for XO-1 and XO-1.5 based on Linux 2.6.31 at git://dev.laptop.org/olpc-2.6 in the olpc-2.6.31 branch (web interface) or later branches for newer kernels (laptop devel mailing list post).

RPMs

We aim to get much or all of this work upstream, but at the same time there are various challenges associated with that, and we need somewhere to develop and test our changes before they are ready.

The main modifications in our kernel include:

  • Various patches to VIA drivers to support the brand-new VX855 chipset which the XO-1.5 is based on
  • Support for OpenFirmware, the XO equivalent of a BIOS.
  • We build the initramfs using dracut, not mkinitrd.

olpc-bootanim

This new package is OLPC's boot animation. Plymouth doesn't play nicely in the presence of serial consoles and has performance issues so we are sticking to a system which we know is working for now.

We tried to get this included in Fedora at https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=510573 but ran into a headache because the package needs to have a Conflict with plymouth (it provides /usr/bin/plymouth by-design), Conflicts are not permitted without good reason and "we don't have time to fix plymouth" is not a good reason. This package can live out-of-tree for now, and will hopefully die one day when plymouth is usable on XO and includes our theme.

sugar

<trac>9403</trac>: we've added Ad-Hoc networking support to Sugar-0.84 <trac>9384</trac>: and fixed a crash that occurs when you install content bundles

sugar-toolkit

Sugar hardcodes the font size of certain elements at size 10 and does not allow this to be configured. This looks too big on the small XO screen. We fork the package to adjust the font size to size 7.

See also

Standard information

Build number and URL: Build number::999

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