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 (see olpc: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.

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There are three 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 on the XO-1's internal NAND flash memory
3. 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 or Option 2, XO-1 owners must request a developer key from OLPC; it's a simple process but takes up to 24 hours.

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:

wget http://download.sugarlabs.org/soas/snapshots/2/Soas2-200906221314.iso

sudo yum install livecd-tools

sudo livecd-iso-to-disk --format --xo --xo-no-home Soas2-200906221314.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

(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

Next:

wget http://dev.laptop.org/~cjb/rawhide-xo/livecd-iso-to-xo.sh
wget http://download.sugarlabs.org/soas/snapshots/2/Soas2-200906221314.iso

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

sudo sh livecd-iso-to-xo.sh Soas2-200906221314.iso 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 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 build number of the latest stable release from OLPC. This is OLPC release 8.2.0, incorporating Sugar v0.82.

As of March, OLPC has candidate builds for an upcoming 8.2.1 release.

Supported_systems#Fedora_on_an_OLPC_XO 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-2 images are based on Fedora "Rawhide" spins; olpc:Rawhide-XO describes many of the known issues running these on an XO-1.

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