Release notes/8.1.0

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  This page is monitored by the OLPC team.
 + Software 
XO
13.2.11 2020-01-29
XS
xs-0.7 2012-02-20
  For the general public


DRAFT

(((See Similar Page: Update.1)))

Pending successful completion of the Release Checklist, we will release build candidate-703 as official-703.


Breaking Changes from official-656

Activities must be installed separately.

Motivation: OLPC cannot presently afford to maintain more than one stable build. Therefore, we have decided to provide a "blank slate" which must be customized with activities and content bundles at installation time. (Some people have asked OLPC to provide a single step upgrade/customization path but no resources have been allocated to this task).


Finding Activities

OLPC hosts many Activities and several activity packs including:

To use an activity pack:

  1. Download it.
  2. Unzip it onto the root of a USB key.
  3. Insert the USB key into your XO and reboot. (Hold the X game key while booting if your machine's firmware is unlocked.)

Linux will boot and unpack each of the bundles into place.

  • Another future option for installing 'activity pack' bundles, from console use xo-get.


What's the recommended way to upgrade?

The recommended method is to run Olpc-update to the new build, and then to reboot with a G1G1 Activity Pack key inserted.

If you are upgrading from 69x (the build is already separated from the activities), you can use 'olpc-update candidate-703' and your activities will not be affected.


Improvements from build 656

See OLPC_SW-ECO_4 for a more precise list of the changes, indexed by ticket, that lead from candidate-699 to candidate-703. To summarize, we added:

  • Open Firmware version Q2D14 which will delay firmware updates until power is available (easing mass laptop updates).
  • Better Spanish localization of the library and of the X and console keymaps.
  • The ability to customize installed activities, boot screens, and activity order via USB key.
  • Rainbow prevents faulty activities from damaging many parts of the system configuration.
  • OHM power management software can be manually enabled to provide better battery life in solo-use situations.
  • The XO announces its build identifier under the "About this XO" palette entry available from the central XO Icon on the Home View.


Misc. Fixes

  • A new telepathy-salut which should lead to more reliable long-running Chat sessions and that may avoid the "Christmas tree" effect ([1]).
  • A new libabiword that fixes a Write sharing crasher.


Notable Current Bugs

  • #6777 Library bundles cannot use non-ascii characters in their file names
  • #6729 Read doesn't save the PDFs it opens (when sharing)
  • #6532 SD Card Corruption: partition table gets corrupted on ext3-formatted SD cards on suspend/resume
  • The contents of a USB key didn't show in the journal. So couldn't install activity bundles from the USB through the journal.

Customization Issues

  • Customization key won't install if the activities or library directories had already been created as root


Activity Issues

  • #6773 TamTamJam: Recorded microphone slots don't playback
  • Couldn't add feeds to news reader because clicking "+"/dropdown on the feeds tab didn't do anything.

(Almost) full activity testing results for Update.1 RC-2, all results are from build 702


Network Issues

  • WEP and WPA initially worked fine and were tested several times; however, after some time, no XOs could connect to the WPA access point. The icon also disappeared in one of the XOs.


Collaboration Issues

Activity sharing is quite fragile in candidate-703. See Collaboration Network Testbed for more detailed results.


Network Related Issues

Access Points

  • Association with WEP/WPA encryption works. However this must be tested for a wider range of access points.
  • Sometimes obsolete APs show in the mesh view. Ticket number?

Jabber Server

  • To register to a school server and connect to the school jabber server you must
    1. Hover over the XO icon in the main view and select Register.
    2. Hover again over the XO icon and verify that the Register entry has disappeared.
    3. Restart sugar by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Erase.
    4. Confirm you have connected to the jabber server by typing olpc-netstatus from the terminal.
  • When connecting to a School Wifi, you must click Register after you connect to the AP. If you do otherwise, you wont be able to register unless you reboot. Ticket number?
  • You should restart sugar(Ctrl+Alt+Erase) to resolve the following bugs
    • You can't register to the school server.
    • You can't connect to the default jabber server alhtough you have registered.#6881
    • You connected to the jabber server, and gabble is running, but no XOs, or few XOs are seen in the neighborhood view.#6883,#6884
    • You are running both gabble and salut.#6881,#6886


In particular, Read sharing is not a reliable mechanism for transporting PDFs between laptops. Other less bandwidth-intensive activities such as Write, Distance, Chat, and Memorize were somewhat can be shared with somewhat more reliability.

Sharing in Etoys only works if the laptops are in the same network (on same mesh channel, or connected to same access point).

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