XS Installing Software 0.6

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This page describes how to obtain a copy of the school server software, load it onto media, and install it onto a system. For a more complete description of the software repositories, see XS Software Repositories.

This page is very much under construction.

Downloading the System Image

You can obtain the latest image from: 

wget http://xs-dev.laptop.org/xs/OLPC_XS_LATEST.iso

This can be copied onto a CD or DVD using your favorite toaster software.

It may also be copied onto a USB key, using the livecd-tools provided by Fedora 7: 

livecd-iso-to-disk OLPC_XS_LATEST.iso /dev/sdb1

where /dev/sdb1 represents the USB key being copied onto.

Installing the Software

The install from a CD or USB key will eventually be automatic upon booting. While the install is currently mostly automated (not interactive), it is not performed automatically upon boot.

  1. Boot from the USB Key or CD-ROM -- Getting an older system to boot from a USB key can be difficult, but most will do it.
  2. Select "Run from Image" at the initial boot screen.
  3. When it has finished booting, login as root (no password is required) and type:
./olpc-install
  1. You will be prompted for the root password
  2. When it has finished installing, you will need to reboot. Remove the CD-ROM or USB key after power-down, but before the boot process begins.

You should now have a machine which somewhat resembles a school server.

Release Notes

OLPC_XS_125

This release has basic network functionality. It supports laptops on the mesh.

It does NOT autoinstall automatically. You will need to login as root (no password), then run /root/olpc-install. You will be prompted for a root password, otherwise the installation is automatic.

Missing:

  • Registration
  • Web services
  • Presence service
  • A configuration interface

Known Problems:

  • /etc/named.conf isn't being installed correctly from the xs-config RPM. The fix is:
cp /etc/named.conf.olpcnew /etc/named.conf
  • Hotplug of the mesh interfaces doesn't trigger a restart of the olpc-mesh-config, which is needed for the mesh to work.
  • SELinux is left in permissive mode, instead of completely disabled. Edit /etc/selinux/config and set SELINUX=disabled
  • The channel on the mesh interface isn't being set correctly. This causes problems with XO builds later than 542. Set the channel manually using iwconfig for now. A fix is forthcoming.

The most common problem with the mesh is due to a hardware problem with the Marvell wireless modules. They frequently do not reset properly, and need to be power cycled. The symptom is that you will get a message: "libertas: Unable to init firmware" on the console, and ifconfig won't show a mesh interface. A reboot will not fix the situation, you need to actually power cycle the USB adapter by unplugging it and plugging it back in.

Manual Configuration

There are some site-specific configuration which will need to be manually administered until we have a configuration interface in place. Specifically, these are setting up the WAN interface and assigning a domain name.

WAN Connection

The file which configures this interface is /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0.

Domain Name

This name currently set to random.xs.laptop.org is unfortunately embedded in a number of files: 

/etc/named.conf
/var/named/school.zone.inaddr.db
/var/named/school.zone.16.inaddr.db
/var/named/school.zone.32.inaddr.db
/var/named/school.zone.48.inaddr.db
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