How To Use Sugar

Using the Interface

What is an "interface"?

A User Interface is defined by Wikipedia as "is the aggregate of means by which people—the users—interact with the system—a particular machine, device, computer program or other complex tools. The user interface provides means of:

Input, allowing the users to manipulate a system
Output, allowing the system to produce the effects of the users' manipulation."

So, the Sugar interface is the icons and words on the screen that you click on using the keyboard, mouse, or touchpad buttons.

Where's The Desktop?

Sugar is a different desktop environment to what is normally used in Windows, Apple's OS X or other Linux operating systems. The first thing that a child sees, therefore, is not a hard disk or a trash can — it’s the other kids in the “neighborhood.” Sugar's closest desktop metaphor is the Home view: where the user can see what Activities thy are currently using and access the Journal.

Starting Activities

Installing and Deleting Activities

Sugar Activities
Linux Applications
Windows Applications

Connecting To Wireless Networks

Wireless access point (WiFi hotspot);
“School Server” mesh network; or
“simple” mesh network, which lets you collaborate directly with other XOs.

Connecting To The Internet

Connecting to Jabber Servers

Jabber servers allow Sugar users to interact, play and collaborate with each other in the Sugar environment.

While the OLPC is designed with mesh wireless networking built in (where users can connect to each other without having a central wireless internet router/connection), Sugar users around the world may not be able to connect with others using the platform unless it's through the Internet, since mesh networking relies on a concentration of users (for example, in a classroom, school or business environment).

Jabber networks link Sugar users to each other in order to chat, interact and collaborate. There are global Sugar Jabber networks, or regional ones hosted by organizations and individuals around the world. You can choose whichever Jabber network you wish to connect to. Connecting Sugar to one of these networks will greatly enhance your Sugar experience.

Changing an XO's Nickname and Color on Sugar Views

Terminal Activity

Sugar-Control-Panel

Setting The Clock & Timezone

You may set the date and time as follows:

Connect to the Internet. (For details, see How can I access the Internet? )
Open a Linux prompt. (For details, see How do I access a Linux command prompt? Note that unless you are an advanced user, you should use the Terminal Activity button to open the prompt.)
Log in as "root". Assuming you are using the Terminal Activity program, you can log in as root by typing "su -" at the command prompt and pressing the Enter key. Note that as user "root" you have the ability to destroy all software on the XO, so you should end your session as soon as you successfully change the date and time.
At the command prompt, enter the following commands:
/usr/sbin/ntpdate time.nist.gov
/usr/sbin/hwclock --systohc
Press the Enter key after each. In response to the ntpdate command, if it successfully contacts this US government official time server, the system will output a line of data displaying the correct date and time.
Click the "Stop" icon 25px at the upper right corner of the screen to log out and close the Terminal Activity program.

How to set the timezone on my laptop

You can set the timezone by typing the Sugar-Control-Panel command in the Terminal Activity.

Sound Control

Disabling the bootup sound

Turn the volume down while the laptop is booting (i.e. before getting into Sugar).

Installing Sugar

Installing Sugar (on various platforms)
Sugar Instructions, booting and getting started with Sugar

Developing For Sugar

Building the XO: Introducing Sugar - Red Hat Magazine 2007-02-23
Build from sources, and get started.
Read the human interaction guidelines
Get an overview of the architecture
Write your own activity
Check out the code snippets library
Understanding sugar code organization.
See a list of Sugar activities and specifications.
Sugar source repository
Current trac tickets, sorted by category. The TODO list.
Roadmap

Documentation Team/User Manual

Contents