Difference between revisions of "Sugar on a Stick"

Revision as of 14:23, 18 March 2009

Introduction

The Sugar on a Stick project gives children access to their Sugar on any computer in their environment with just a USB flash drive. You can learn more from Walter Bender's interview with Xconomy, Wayan Vota's video and Mike Lee's pictures.

Project Goals

Sugar on a Stick as 1 to 1 computing in an elementary school
Sugar on a Stick to empower middle and high school students to help test
Sugar on a Stick for conferences to let people try Sugar and collaborate with other conference participants

Get Sugar on a Stick

We are currently working towards the first SoaS release, with a hard launch date of April 10th, 2009 where Caroline Meeks and Walter Bender will premiere and distribute SoaS at FOSSVT. What this means is that the current snapshots are still unstable and in testing, and that if you download and try out this software, it might not work yet. Please download, test, and give feedback - we need your help to make our launch date - please follow the instructions below to grab your copy of it!

Downloads

Depending on what you want to do with your SoaS copy, we've several options available for testing.

available solution	current state	download location
SoaS-1 Image	post-beta quality	Template:SoaSiso
SoaS-2 Image	pre-beta quality	http://download.sugarlabs.org/soas/snapshots/2/
SoaS-2 Virtual Appliance	alpha quality	http://download.sugarlabs.org/soas/appliances/

Previous snapshots are provided in the subsequent directories on http://download.sugarlabs.org/soas/.

Creating your stick

The basics of creating and using a bootable Sugar on a Stick are:

Download a .iso image file containing Sugar on a Stick.
Use a Bootable USB creator program to copy the image file to a USB stick.
Configure the target computer to boot from USB.

Please see the installation instructions for more information, for example regarding multiple platforms.

Booting your stick

Once you have created your USB key, you still need to set your target system to boot from USB.

The trick is to set the BIOS to boot from USB. Unfortunately this is slightly different on each computer. Explore the setup screen for your system (press Esc or F1 while the computer is booting). If you can't figure it out, search Google for information on your computer model's BIOS.

If you have an older machine unable to boot from USB, you can burn a "Boot Helper" CD using the .iso below. This will start the boot from the CD, then read files from the USB stick:

http://people.sugarlabs.org/garycmartin/boot.iso

Or use the Fedora boot CD image:

http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/releases/10/Fedora/i386/os/images/boot.iso

You can also use the "PLoP Boot Manager" to create a boot floppy for machines without the ability to boot from CD or USB, see:

http://syslinux.zytor.com/wiki/index.php/No_native_BIOS_support

Using your stick

Once your stick boot, you'll find yourself in your own Sugar environment, ready to play and learn.

For a guide on how to use Sugar, see the FLOSSmanuals Sugar Users Guide. olpc:Keyboard_shortcuts lists some of the Sugar keyboard shortcuts on a PC keyboard.

Report Bugs

Please keep notes on which version of Sugar on a Stick you have downloaded when reporting issues.

When booting SoaS, you'll see for a short time a screen showing a kind of solar system.
Press the "Escape" button here and you'll get to the boot menu.
There, you should find the images name in the following structure: Soas[version number}-{date of creation}

Alternatively, you can also refer to the name of the .iso file, if you still have it around.

Report bugs to http://dev.sugarlabs.org/. Use the "SoaS" component when entering new bugs.

Testing

For testing SoaS, you might want to follow the Sugar Smoke Test procedures!

Join the development effort

We are coordinating work on this project on Sugar Labs Moodle system. Please consider also joining the Sugar Devel mailing list!

Roadmap

There roadmap has been moved to its own sub-page, so you can have a look at it here.

@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 * Sugar on a Stick as 1 to 1 computing in an elementary school
-* Sugar on a Stick to empower middle and high school students to help test [[Sugar as Service Learning]]
+* Sugar on a Stick to empower middle and high school students to help test
 * Sugar on a Stick for conferences to let people try Sugar and collaborate with other conference participants
 == Get Sugar on a Stick ==
-We are currently working towards the first SoaS release, with a hard launch date of April 10th, 2009 where Caroline Meeks and Walter Bender will premiere and distribute SoaS at [http://www.ncose.org/node/47 FOSSVT]. What this means is that the current snapshots are still unstable and in testing, and that if you download and try out this software, ''it might not work yet.'' Please download, test, and give feedback - we need your help to make our launch date!
+We are currently working towards the first SoaS release, with a hard launch date of April 10th, 2009 where Caroline Meeks and Walter Bender will premiere and distribute SoaS at [http://www.ncose.org/node/47 FOSSVT]. What this means is that the current snapshots are still unstable and in testing, and that if you download and try out this software, ''it might not work yet.'' Please download, test, and give feedback - we need your help to make our launch date - please follow the instructions below to grab your copy of it!
 === Downloads ===
-An .iso image file of the latest development snapshot of Sugar on a Stick is located here:
+Depending on what you want to do with your SoaS copy, we've several options available for testing.
-*{{SoaSiso}}
-Previous snapshots of SoaS are available:
+{| border=1 cellpadding=3 style="border: 1px solid white; border-collapse: collapse; background: #e3e4e5;"
-*[http://download.sugarlabs.org/soas/snapshots/1/?C=M;O=D http://download.sugarlabs.org/soas/snapshots/1/]
+|-style="background:#787878; color: white;"
+| '''available solution''' || '''current state''' || '''download location'''
+|-
+| SoaS-1 ''Image'' || post-beta quality || {{SoaSiso}}
+|-
+| SoaS-2 ''Image'' || pre-beta quality || [http://download.sugarlabs.org/soas/snapshots/2/?C=M;O=D http://download.sugarlabs.org/soas/snapshots/2/]
+|-
+| SoaS-2 ''Virtual Appliance'' || alpha quality || [http://download.sugarlabs.org/soas/appliances/?C=M;O=D http://download.sugarlabs.org/soas/appliances/]
+|-
+|}
-Alpha development snapshots based on Fedora 11 (Rawhide) are in the /2 branch at
+Previous snapshots are provided in the subsequent directories on http://download.sugarlabs.org/soas/.
-*[http://download.sugarlabs.org/soas/snapshots/2/?C=M;O=D http://download.sugarlabs.org/soas/snapshots/2/]
 === Creating your stick ===
@@ Line 33: / Line 40: @@
 #Configure the target computer to boot from USB.
-For more detailed installation instructions on multiple platforms, see [[/Installation]].
+Please see the [[/Installation|installation instructions]] for more information, for example regarding multiple platforms.
 === Booting your stick ===
 Once you have created your USB key, you still need to set your target system to boot from USB.
 The trick is to set the BIOS to boot from USB.  Unfortunately this is slightly different on each computer.  Explore the setup screen for your system (press Esc or F1 while the computer is booting).  If you can't figure it out, search Google for information on your computer model's BIOS.
@@ Line 47: / Line 54: @@
 *:http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/releases/10/Fedora/i386/os/images/boot.iso
-You can also use the 'PLoP Boot Manager' to create a boot floppy for machines without the ability to boot from CD or USB, see:
+You can also use the "PLoP Boot Manager" to create a boot floppy for machines without the ability to boot from CD or USB, see:
 *:http://syslinux.zytor.com/wiki/index.php/No_native_BIOS_support
@@ Line 57: / Line 64: @@
 ==Report Bugs==
-Please keep notes on which version of Sugar on a Stick you have downloaded as the user interface currently does not display this information.
-Report bugs to http://dev.sugarlabs.org/.  Use the "SoaS" component when entering new bugs.
+Please keep notes on which version of Sugar on a Stick you have downloaded when reporting issues.
+* When booting SoaS, you'll see for a short time a screen showing a kind of solar system.
+* Press the "Escape" button here and you'll get to the boot menu.
+* There, you should find the images name in the following structure: ''Soas[version number}-{date of creation}''
+Alternatively, you can also refer to the name of the .iso file, if you still have it around.
+Report bugs to http://dev.sugarlabs.org/. Use the "SoaS" component when entering new bugs.
+===Testing===
+For testing SoaS, you might want to follow the Sugar [[Smoke_test| Smoke Test]] procedures!
 ===Join the development effort===
-We are coordinating work on this project on Sugar Labs Moodle system. Please create an account and join the Sugar on a Stick Class.
+We are coordinating work on this project on Sugar Labs Moodle system. Please consider also joining the Sugar Devel [http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel mailing list]!
-:http://schools.sugarlabs.org/course/view.php?id=17
+===Roadmap===
-====TODO List====
+There roadmap has been moved to its own sub-page, so you can have a look at it [[/Roadmap| here]].
-*Create an Easy Emulation for Boston School teachers macbooks - http://dev.sugarlabs.org/ticket/114 <-- [[User:Mick|Mick]] is working on this
-*Create a boot helper CD that lets Macs boot from the stick
-*Install the latest version of Sugar on a Stick, pick an activity and test it
-*Create a system for tracking activity testing
-*Solicit USB stick donations from companies
-*Create a design for a CD sticker to put on boot helper CDs
-*Develop specs for Cloning Sugar on a Stick: The vision is that an adult will be able to create a Sugar on a Stick, add activities, set the language and the collaboration service and then "clone" the stick to create Sugar on a Stick for all the students in a class or a school.
-*[[Sugar on a Stick/Wish List]] of activities etc to put on the stick
 == See Also ==