Sugar on a Stick/Installation/OLPC

Do you have an OLPC XO-1?

 * See F16 SoaS Pineapple USB boot image for XO-1
 * Very slow but works

The following sections need an update:

Sugar 0.84 has a number of improvements above and beyond 0.82. And we have a version working on the OLPC XO-1, but because of the changes in process at OLPC (see Future releases), there is a new short-term strategy for updates. Until OLPC issues its next official release, we are recommending that XO-1 users who would like to try 0.84 use Sugar on a Stick. The XO-1 can be booted from an external USB or SD card storage device, Option 1 below.

There are four main options for OLPC XO users:
 * 1) Run v0.84 Sugar on a Stick from a USB flash drive or SD card
 * 2) Install v0.84 Sugar on a Stick-XO on the XO-1's internal NAND flash memory
 * 3) Convert a v0.84 Sugar on a Stick .iso image to one suitable to install on the XO-1's internal NAND flash memory
 * 4) Use olpc-update to update to the latest software release from OLPC (which is currently 8.2.0 incorporating Sugar v0.82).

Note: The OLPC XO-1 has some built-in protections which lock the computer down in order to prevent haphazard software changes. In order to use either Option 1, Option 2, or Option 3, XO-1 owners must request a developer key from OLPC; it's a simple process but takes up to 24 hours.

Warning: Options 2 & 3 will wipe /security directory, with any leases or devkeys there.

Option 1: Run v0.84 of Sugar on a Stick from an SD card or external USB
(Requires a developer key for your OLPC-XO-1 and access to a Windows or Fedora computer)

On Windows:
Create the USB stick as described on the Sugar on a Stick/Windows page in the "Windows Instructions" section.

Do not boot this stick on your Windows machine. Make sure the first boot is on your XO. If you do boot the stick on another machine first, the X server setup needed for the XO will not be done.

On Fedora:
Type the following commands in a terminal window: wget sudo yum install livecd-tools wget -O livecd-iso-to-disk.sh "http://git.fedoraproject.org/git/?p=hosted/livecd;a=blob_plain;f=tools/livecd-iso-to-disk.sh;hb=HEAD" sudo ./livecd-iso-to-disk.sh --format --xo --xo-no-home /dev/sdX1

Where  is the device associated with your removable media.

The livecd-iso-to-disk.sh script needs to be a current version with XO support (not what you get by default in Fedora 10, though Fedora 11's should be fine). You can find an up-to date version in the SoaS disk image /LiveOS/livecd-iso-to-disk.sh.

Option 2: Install a v0.84 SoaS-XO image on the XO-1 NAND flash drive
See:
 * http://www.mail-archive.com/sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org/msg05231.html and *https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-olpc-list/2009-June/msg00063.html

This build feels substantially faster than 802 (the last stable release). Serious issues:


 * No sound
 * No automounting of USB keys.

More recent builds are better
See:
 * http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/sugar-devel/2009-August/017775.html
 * The builds are located in http://people.sugarlabs.org/~mtd/soas-xo1/
 * The Fedora builds for the XO are here: http://dev.laptop.org/~smparrish/XO-1/builds

Be sure to update your XO to the latest firmware:

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Firmware_q2e41

Option 3: Convert a v0.84 Sugar on a Stick .iso image
WARNING: This option is wishful thinking until the jffs2 mount bug is fixed.

Note: Requires a developer key for your OLPC-XO-1 and access to a GNU/Linux computer) It also requires a recent OFW version (Q2E28 has been reported as working. Instructions for updating your firmware).

WARNING: this will overwrite all data on your OLPC-XO-1 NAND!!

On a Fedora10 system:

sudo yum -y install crcimg mtd-utils

On Debian or Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install mtd-utils


 * (On some older Debian/Ubuntu builds, you may need to install mtd-tools instead.)


 * crcimg is not packaged for Debian so you'll have to build it:

wget http://dev.laptop.org/~mstone/releases/SOURCES/crcimg-1.1.tar.bz2 tar xvf crcimg-1.1.tar.bz2 sudo make -f Makefile.build install

NB: Of course, if you do not have the packages of the program wget, install them by the command “yum install wget”

Next:

wget http://download.sugarlabs.org/soas/releases/livecd-iso-to-disk.sh wget

run this command (or something similar depending on the version number of your .iso file)

sudo sh livecd-iso-to-xo.sh Soas.img

and then copy Soas.img and Soas.crc to a USB key or SD card

On the OLPC-XO-1, boot with the USB key plugged in and the four game keys press to get to the OK prompt in Open Firmware (OFW).

Type the following commands:

disable-security copy-nand u:\Soas.img

Note: depending upon the file system on your USB key, the names maybe truncated:

dir u:\ copy-nand u:\SOAS-2~1.img

You should see an animation of the blocks being written to the NAND. When it is complete, you will be back at the OK prompt. Type:

reboot

and the OLPC-XO-1 will reboot and you should be running Sugar 0.84.

Option 4: Update to the official OLPC v802 Sugar build
(This does not give you a Sugar on a Stick image.)

You run olpc-update from the Terminal activity, e.g.,:

sudo olpc-update 802

where 802 is the build number of the latest stable image from OLPC. This is OLPC release 8.2.1, incorporating Sugar v0.82.

Supported_systems has some more details on upgrading OLPC software.

Notes on running Sugar on a Stick on XO-1

 * You must hold down the XO-1's ✓ ("check") gamepad key during boot, otherwise boot will hang at the gray "XO" logo.  You should see dots appear under the USB flash drive icon indicating the XO is booting from that drive.


 * SoaS images are based on Fedora "Rawhide" spins; Rawhide-XO describes many of the known issues running these on an XO-1.


 * Also make sure you got a dev-key before booting with the SoaS using the check button. (It takes 24 hours to get a developer key, so please plan accordingly.)

back to downloads page