Supported systems

A matrix of Sugar "solutions"

There are many ways to run Sugar:

• As a separate disk image on an existing machine (Please see Try Sugar for examples of running Sugar on top of other systems, e.g., MS-Windows);
• As a session on a Linux system; or
• As part of a complete hardware-software platform.

(A discussion of technical considerations regarding supported systems is found here.)

Starch

• Starch is a complete disk image for Sugar.

A complete disk image for Sugar

Name	Sugar Version	Tested	Notes
LiveBackup XO-LiveCD	0.75.13-1	Yes	This is a Live CD of the OLPC system
LiveBackup Fedora-LiveCD	0.82	Yes	This is a Fedora Live CD of the Sugar system

Sucrose

• Sucrose is the Sugar interface plus a set of demonstration activities.

The interface, plus a set of demonstration activities

Operating System	Version	Sugar Version	Bundled	Tested	Notes
binary packages available
Debian	4.0		Yes	Yes	Sugar on Debian
Fedora	7,8,9		Yes	Yes	Sugar on Fedora (Also see Sugar on Fedora)
Ubuntu	8.04 (Hardy)	0.79.0-0ubuntu3	Yes	Yes	Sugar on Ubuntu
	8.04 (Hardy)	0.82	Yes		Sugar on Ubuntu
packages not pre-built
Gentoo	[x86] [amd64] 2008-10-23	0.82.1	Yes	Yes	Sugar on Gentoo
MacOS X					Sugar on MacOS X
	Slackware 12				Sugar on Slackware
	WindowsXP			No	Sugar on Windows Tom van Overbeek describes how to run Sugar using QEMU

Sugar for Various Systems

Complete Sugar Solutions

Manufacturer	Model	Operating System	Tested	Notes
OLPC	XO-1	Fedora-7	Yes	Standard (reference) distribution
ASUSTeK	Eee PC		In initial testing phase
Intel	Classmate Gen 1 & Gen 2		under development

Getting the Sugar sources

Distributors can find the latest sources for the sucrose components here. Each sucrose roadmap entry has as well links to the release pages of earlier releases.

Updating Sugar to the Latest Version

Ubuntu

Updated sucrose packages are usually published in a PPA: See here for details.

If you want up-to-the-minute freshness (and brokenness) you can use jhbuild to build from source instead of the released packages. Follow the instructions here to install sugar-jhbuild as an xsession option.

Debian

Sucrose packages are usually updated in unstable. These packages migrate to testing after a while. You can see the current package versions here.

If you want up-to-the-minute freshness (and brokenness) you can use jhbuild to build from source instead of the released packages.

OLPC XO-1 (Fedora)

Update to the Latest Version

On an OLPC XO-1 laptop, run olpc-update as root.

Normally you only need to run olpc-update in the Terminal application with a build number, like this:

# olpc-update 703

Note: Now you can do this by means of the graphical Control Panel.

Update to the latest experimental version (a.k.a. Joyride)

Joyride is for developers; it is not supported. Joyride builds may cause data corruption and in rare cases, even cause hardware damage, so please do not use Joyride on mission-critical systems.

Joyride contains all the "bleeding-edge" features that are being debugged for inclusion in the next release.

Open the Terminal application and type the following, substituting 2469 for the latest version number.

# olpc-update joyride-2469

What's the latest version? You can find the latest build number (shown above as 1779) at the bottom of http://xs-dev.laptop.org/~cscott/xo-1/streams/joyride/

Updates usually takes 10–15 minutes. It's advised that you plug your XO in while Sugar updates itself, then reboot it to see the new OS take effect.

Other Options

These are options that can be used with the update command:

# olpc-update --help

Usage: 
 olpc-update [options] --hints hints-file
 olpc-update [options] [-rf] build-number
 olpc-update [options] [-rf] --usb
 olpc-update --version
 olpc-update --help

For example:
 olpc-update 630
 olpc-update joyride-1779
 olpc-update update.1-700

Options:
  -h, --help    show this help message and exit
  -f, --full    skip incremental update attempt.
  --force       force update to an unsigned build.
  -r, --reboot  reboot after a successful update.
  --hints=FILE  name of json-encoded hints dictionary identifying the desired
                new version.
  -u, --usb     upgrade from new build on inserted USB stick.
  -v            display verbose progress information; repeat for more verbose
                output.
  -q, --quiet   don't output anything; use exit status to indicate success.
  --version     display version and license information.