Olpc-update
What version do I have now?
To tell what version of the system software you have, follow How to check the OS and firmware versions.
What version is available?
The latest stable system software release is
- 13.2.11 || 2020-01-29
There are later "builds" in various stages of development, see OS images. These are likely to be unstable and you will probably need a developer key to install them.
Before upgrading to any release, read its release notes carefully.
Simple online upgrade
olpc-update is designed to work with even the worst internet connections, and will do no harm if it is interrupted during download. If you don't like your new software update, you can revert to the older version by holding down the O key on the game pad (between the right speaker and the power button) when you next turn the laptop on.
To manually upgrade your machine when a new version is released:
- Plug the XO into an electrical outlet
- Connect to the internet. If you are upgrading because you have a WPA hotspot at home, you might want to go to a Public Hotspot to connect to the internet for an online upgrade, such as a T-Mobile hotspot or a local libary.
Firewall note: olpc-upgrade requires outgoing TCP PORT:873 to be unfiltered by the hotspot's firewall. In otherwords if the laptop has functional-access to the internet but olpc-upgrade returns the message "I don't think you're connected to the internet." check the hotspot's firewall is not blocking the outgoing TCP Port 873. - Open the Terminal Activity
or a console and type the following (press the Enter key after it):
From build 703 or later use the sudo command as described here. For earlier builds, see the note below.
sudo olpc-update build-number
For example:
sudo olpc-update 711
Where
- build-number is the number of the build to be updated to.
Note: sudo does not work with some builds which require a password until you become "root". You can become "root" by pressing the "#_" icon at the top of the terminal screen. In builds earlier than 703 you may need to type "su -l" (note it's lower case "L" not the number "1") and then "olpc-update build-number" instead.
- The latest stable build is 13.2.11 || 2020-01-29
- Note that in builds 700 and above, you must install activities separately. See Update.1 Software Release Notes for details.
In 8.2-series builds, you can use the software update control panel to do this.
- Note that in builds 700 and above, you must install activities separately. See Update.1 Software Release Notes for details.
If the update program successfully connects to the update server some messages should display
Downloading contents of build build-number
Updating to version hash xxxx
Making clean /versions/updates/...
Trying irsync_pristine update from rsync://updates.laptop.org/build-build-number
- Cleaning tree.
- Fetching contents.
- Performing incremental rsync.
Verifying update.
Installing update in /versions/{pristine,run}/xxxx
Where xxxx is a version-specific number.
This process may take more than thirty minutes. When the process is complete, you need to reboot, unless you supplied the -r option to olpc-update.
When the XO restarts the update will be complete. If the new build includes new firmware, then your XO will reboot twice.
The update mechanism preserves the build from which you ran the updater as an "alternate" image from which you can boot. To swap the "primary" and "alternate" images, hold the 'O' gamepad key during boot.
Note
- When upgrading from build number 656 to 703, the upgrade may fail due to random rsync errors, for example "rsync error: error in rsync protocol data stream (code 12) at io.c(824) [receive r=2.6.9]" and "rsync error: some files could not be transferred (code 23) at main.c(1385) [receiver=2.6.9]". In that case, retrying the command often allows the upgrade to complete successfully.
Simple Offline Upgrade
Before you begin
This describes how to update the software image on your laptop from a new image on a USB flash drive or disk. You must be using a B3 machine or better, and build 650 or better. NOTE: All G1G1 recipients have received C2 (also known as MP which is the latest model) these laptops have at least build 650. There is also a method of restoring to G1G1 (build 650) shipped defaults. If you've got an older machine or an older build, use the old Autoreinstallation image instructions (does not apply to G1G1).
If you want to wipe out your journal and all content you've generated and restore your machine to a pristine state, please use the Activated Upgrade instructions.
First, identify the build to which you want to update your system. To the right is a list of our latest releases. For most people, the numbered build after "Stable" (for example, "703") is what you should update to. If you have a developer key for your machine, and feel adventurous, you can try the latest developer build. Click on the 'devel_jffs2' link beside 'devel' in the box, and use the name at the top of the page, something like "joyride-1452". Ignore all this if you already know what you want to update to!
Now, you'll want to get a root shell on the machine. Open the Terminal Activity on your XO (or if you cannot do so, open the console), and type:
sudo -i
at the prompt. If you've set a password for the 'olpc' account, you may have to type it in. If you get an error message here, you're using a pre-update.1 build (or pre-joyride-1450); use
su -
instead to get your root shell. Either way, you should end up with a prompt with a # character in it. If olpc-update returns 'command not found', then olpc-update is not in your current working search path. (i.e. Update.1) Instead type /usr/sbin/olpc-update for the command.
Now you have two choices: update over the network, or download the build onto a USB flash drive and update from that.
USB upgrade
At the terminal prompt in your root shell, type:
/usr/sbin/olpc-update --version
The first line of the response should be something like:
olpc-update 2.12, Copyright (C) 2007 One Laptop Per Child Association, Inc.
If you don't even have the --version option, (this includes all G1G1 laptops shipped before July 2008) or if it does not say that you are using at least version 2.0 of olpc-update, you will need to update olpc-update before continuing.
Now follow one of the build links in the "latest releases" box above. You need to download two files to the top directory of your USB flash drive: osNNN.usb and osNNN.toc, where NNN is the numeric part of the build you are updating to. For example, if you are updating to build 711, the files would be named os711.usb and os711.toc; if you are updating to build joyride-1452, the files would be named os1452.usb and os1452.toc.
Insert your USB flash drive with these files on it into your XO. At the terminal prompt, type:
sudo olpc-update --usb
When olpc-update is finished, you should reboot to start using your new build.
As with other update sources, the update mechanism preserves the build from which you ran the updater as an "alternate" image from which you can boot. To swap the "primary" and "alternate" images, hold the 'O' gamepad key during boot.
Workaround: updating olpc-update
If you are using an old build, olpc-update might not be recent enough to let you update via USB, or update to a build containing a library. Here's how to upgrade olpc-update to allow you to use the processes described above.
From a root prompt on your XO (see su -l for information):
# wget -P /tmp/X -r -np -nd http://dev.laptop.org/~cscott/olpc-update/ # rpm -Uvh --force /tmp/X/olpc*.rpm
Or, if you are working without a internet connection on the XO-1, go to http://dev.laptop.org/~cscott/olpc-update/ and download both files to your USB drive. Then with the USB drive inserted into the XO-1:
# rpm -Uvh --force /media/USB_Drive_Name/olpc*.rpm
Now:
# olpc-update --version
should tell you that you have version 2.7 or higher of olpc-update.
More information
The olpc-update script works by transferring only the differences between builds from a USB flash drive or across the internet link from an updates server. This makes updating easier, mostly quicker, and almost always with less data transfer.
As an example of the data efficiency gain,
- A full reinstallation from OS build 602 to 603 would normally take about 279Mb of download data, whereas olpc-update takes 16Mb of download data,
- A full reinstallation from OS build 603 to 608 would normally take 262Mb of download data, whereas olpc-update takes 6.5Mb of download data,
- An olpc-update from OS build 602 to 625 takes 33Mb of download data.
The time efficiency gain is less easy to characterize. It depends on the speed of the internet link, the speed of the updates server, and whether the update was able to use its server-friendly efficiency mode. An olpc-update from 602 to 603 took under 17 minutes.
The current updates server is updates.laptop.org.
Usage
In summary:
- Be connected to the internet,
- In a terminal, become root,
- Type olpc-update NNN where NNN is the build number or name-number,
- Wait for the update to complete,
- Reboot.
Be Connected
Ensure the laptop or the emulator is able to access the internet, by being connected an an access point, or via the mesh, or using an ethernet connection.
Run olpc-update
Normally you only need to run olpc-update with a build number, like this:
# olpc-update 703
or
# olpc-update joyride-1779
There are other options. For example:
# olpc-update --help
Usage:
olpc-update [options] --hints hints-file
olpc-update [options] --latest stream-name
olpc-update [options] [-rf] build-number
olpc-update [options] [-rf] --usb
olpc-update --version
olpc-update --help
For example:
olpc-update 630
olpc-update joyride-2200
olpc-update --latest joyride
For convenience, 'olpc-update joyride-latest' is treated as an alias for
'olpc-update --latest joyride'.
Options:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-f, --full skip incremental update attempt.
--force force update to an unsigned build.
-r, --reboot reboot after a successful update.
-p, --poweroff poweroff after a successful update.
--hints=FILE name of json-encoded hints dictionary identifying the desired
new version.
--latest=STREAM update to the version named by the given update stream.
-u, --usb update to new build on inserted USB stick.
-v display verbose progress information; repeat for more verbose
output.
-q, --quiet don't output anything; use exit status to indicate success.
--version display version and license information.
Update Targets
There are several update targets available. There is usually one for each operating system build, and there are others for test builds and for Debian. To get a partial list of the available builds, use the command:
$ rsync rsync://updates.laptop.org | sort
Note that this does not list all the builds available. Instead, this just lists the builds which have been requested recently; the server loads new builds on demand and garbage collects old builds.
You can use the --latest option to olpc-update with one of the build streams listed at https://activation.laptop.org/streams/ -- for example:
$ sudo olpc-update --latest unstable
(But first <trac>7676</trac> needs to be fixed.)
You will need a developer key to install any of the builds below.
Joyride
Development version. Rebased on Fedora 9.
The latest joyride build number can generally be found at the top of http://dev.laptop.org/~rwh/announcer/joyride-pkgs.html
Debian/Debian-Big
[Add version and installed packages by default]
Debian created Apr 10 2008.
Installing Debian as an upgrade
Ubuntu/Edubuntu
Currently Broken to Olpc-update too. [1]
Ubuntu version (gutsy?) created May 1 2008.
Edubuntu version (gutsy?) created May 2 2008. Edubuntu
Update Using Another Laptop
Warning: Advanced usage!
Q: How can I re-use the bits for multiple laptops, using a laptop?
A: Imagine that you have two laptops, one is called SOURCE and the other TARGET.
On the SOURCE laptop, add an rsyncd.conf file to /etc:
[contents]
path = /versions/contents
uid = root
gid = root
[pristine]
path = /versions/pristine
uid = root
gid = root
Then start rsync --daemon there.
On the TARGET laptop, use rsync to check access and identify the build that is available:
SOURCE=10.0.0.1
rsync rsync://${SOURCE}/contents
Where 10.0.0.1 is the IP address or domain name of the SOURCE laptop.
Take note of the build identifier. It will be a hexadecimal hash, 64 characters long.
On the TARGET laptop, create an appropriate 'hints' file:
export SOURCE=10.0.0.1
export BUILD=dd44...597f
python2.5
>>> import os, bitfrost.util.json as json
>>> hints = ('%(BUILD)s' % os.environ, 'normal', [('rsync','rsync://%(SOURCE)s/pristine/%(BUILD)s' % os.environ)])
>>> open('hints.json','w').write(json.write(hints))
>>> exit()
Now on the TARGET laptop, use olpc-update to upgrade or downgrade to that build:
sudo olpc-update --hints hints.json
Several laptops can all be updated in the same way from one source with the same 'hints.json' file.
Setting Up A Local Updates Server
Q: How can I re-use the bits for multiple laptops, using a server?
A: This feature is available for testing but is not yet released.
The source code for the updates server is available at:
Basic installation instructions can be found at Upgrade Server.
Source Repository and Specification
Q: Where are the specifications?
A: See the XO updater article.
Q: Where is the source?
A: The source repository for olpc-update is
It also uses code from the olpc-contents package:
