Emulating the XO/Quick Start

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< Emulating the XO
Revision as of 22:21, 26 May 2007 by MitchellNCharity (talk | contribs) (→‎Two steps: The LATEST-STABLE-BUILD symlink is apparently broken (points to old build). Added a temporary link to the correct file.)
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This page will help you get a look at the XO software, by running a "virtual XO" in an emulator. Another option is burning a LiveCd instead.

What to expect

This "virtual XO" was created as a software development tool. It is not intended for general use, and many things will not work. It is "just to get a taste" (and to help software developers). With time and people constraints, we are focused tightly on the real XO.

  • Collaboration, the centerpiece of OLPC, is currently not easily set up in emulation. Sorry.
  • The camera and video will not work. Perhaps not even sound.
  • Things are slower than on the actual machine. If you are unable to install qemu's kqemu accelerator, very much slower.
  • You will see a snapshot of the past. The instructions will have you download the "latest stable build", which is sometimes quite a few weeks old. Development is very rapid. So things will be missing or different compared with the present.
  • While rapidly maturing, this is still "alpha" software.

Two steps

First, download olpc-redhat-stream-development-ext3.img.bz2. It is in this directory.

As of 2007-May-26, this incorrectly points to build 385. The correct file is here in 406. This will get fixed. MitchellNCharity 18:21, 26 May 2007 (EDT)

Second, get the qemu emulator which will run the image:

You should now have a running "virtual XO".

Running for the first time

Sugar Instructions will help you get oriented. Though you may not need it.

TODO - a couple additional steps are needed to get the virtual XO's network working. Just in case you want to surf the web. Depending on how os-specific the steps are, they should go either here or in the articles above. MitchellNCharity 01:41, 24 May 2007 (EDT)