How to check the OS and firmware versions

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"About this XO"

If you have Release 8.1.0 (also known as "Update.1", also known as Build 703) or later, then you can determine which build and firmware your XO is running by:

  1. Return to the Home view by pressing F3 (the F3 key is the same as the Home key Home key f3 small.png).
  2. Hover the cursor over the XO icon in the middle of the Home view.
  3. In the menu that pops up, click the item "About this XO".

Terminal commands

If you do not see the "About this XO" menu item when you put your cursor over the XO icon in the Home View, then you have a release older than 8.1.0. In that case you can find the release your XO is running by entering commands in a terminal.

Start the Terminal Activity or a console.

Then type the following and press Enter:

 olpc-netstatus -i

it will display your build and firmware

There are other commands that display your build number, including:

 more /etc/issue

There are other commands that display your firmware version, including:

su -l
olpc-bios-sig

and

more /ofw/openprom/model


Console displays build information

The console displays the build number, until it scrolls off the top of the screen.

  1. Press ctrl+alt+F2 (the F2 key is the same as the Group key Friends key f2 small.png. The Ctrl key has a solid diamond on it (♦); the Alt key has an open diamond on it (♢). See Keyboard Shortcuts for more details.)
  2. Read the build number from the first line of text that appears in the console window

Sample transcript:

OLPC build 650 (stream ship.2: variant devel_jffs2)
kernel 2.6.22-20070919.2.olpc.0987654321abcdefabcedf on an i586
xo-05-29-BB login:

The OS build number in the above example is 650.

To return to the Sugar graphical display press ctrl+alt+F3 . (The F3 key is the same as the Home key (Home key f3 small.png).)

See also