Sugar on a Stick/Installation/OLPC

Do you have an OLPC XO-1?

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, 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.

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There are three main options for OLPC XO users: (1) run v0.84 Sugar on a Stick on an SD card (2) install v0.84 Sugar on a Stick on the internal NAND; or (3) use olpc-update (which is currently Sugar v0.82).

Note: The OLPC XO-1 has some built-in protections including a lock designed to prevent haphazard software changes. In order to use either Option 1 or Option 2, XO-1 owners must request a developer key from OLPC. It may take up to 24 hours after the request has been made to receive your developer key.

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/Installation/Windows page in the "Instructions for creating a Sugar-on-a-Stick USB key from Windows" 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 an other machine first, the X server setup needed for the XO will not be done.

On Fedora:

wget Template:SoaSiso

sudo yum install livecd-tools

sudo livecd-iso-to-disk --format --xo --xo-no-home Soas-200903051021.iso /dev/sdX1

where /dev/sdX1 is the device associated with your removable media.

Option 2: Install the v0.84 Sugar on a Stick image

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

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

Next:

wget http://dev.laptop.org/~cjb/rawhide-xo/livecd-iso-to-xo.sh
wget Template:SoaSiso

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

sudo sh livecd-iso-to-xo.sh Soas-200903051021.iso Soas-200903051021.img

and then copy Soas-200903051021.img and Soas-200903051021.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-200903051021.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 3: Update to the official OLPC v0.82 Sugar build

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

sudo olpc-update 767

where 767 is the latest stable release from OLPC (OLPC 8.2, Sugar 0.82)

Details regarding the 8.2.1 release will be available in late March or early April.

More details can be found here.

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