Changes

1. As Caroline Meeks and I are wrapping up the Sugar-on-a-Stick summer programs, it has been a time to reflect upon what we have learned and what challenges face us in September (Many thanks to Greg, Anurag, Jennifer, et al. for their help). The goal of our pilots was to identify any issues we might face with a school-wide rollout of Sugar on a Stick and to work through many unknowns regarding the logistics of deployment.

1. As Caroline Meeks and I are wrapping up the Sugar-on-a-Stick summer programs, it has been a time to reflect upon what we have learned and what challenges face us in September (Many thanks to Greg, Anurag, Jennifer, et al. for their help). The goal of our pilots was to identify any issues we might face with a school-wide rollout of Sugar on a Stick and to work through many unknowns regarding the logistics of deployment.

We learned a great deal, e.g., replication of custom keys: be sure to remove any owner keys in the .sugar/default directory before copying. And we experimented with a number of different workflows regarding how to prepare for a class: use USB extension cables if possible; preload helper boot CDs; have the children turn on their computers and then gather for a discussion of the lesson plan while the machines are booting; have a cache of hot spares since some keys inevitably will not boot (more on this in a moment); have the children shutdown the computers and then gather for a wrap-up discussion while the machines power off; etc. And we uncovered some bugs in our sharing logic (See my post from last week); and experienced some issues regarding robustness of the USB images.  

We learned a great deal, e.g., replication of custom keys: be sure to remove any owner keys in the .sugar/default directory before copying. And we experimented with a number of different workflows regarding how to prepare for a class: use USB extension cables if possible; preload helper boot CDs; have the children turn on their computers and then gather for a discussion of the lesson plan while the machines are booting; have a cache of hot spares since some USB devices inevitably will not boot (more on this in a moment); have the children shutdown the computers and then gather for a wrap-up discussion while the machines power off; etc. And we uncovered some bugs in our sharing logic (See my post from last week); and experienced some issues regarding robustness of the USB images.  

It is this latter topic that was the subject of much debate on the Sugar mailing lists this week and which I would like to touch upon today.

It is this latter topic that was the subject of much debate on the Sugar mailing lists this week and which I would like to touch upon today.

* Which Sugar-on-a-Stick image is being tested?

* Which Sugar-on-a-Stick image is being tested?

* What customizations have been made?

* What customizations have been made?

* What process was used to create the key?

* What process was used to create the USB device?

* What size and brand of key is being tested?

* What size and brand of device is being tested?

* What hardware the key is being tested on?

* What hardware the device is being tested on?

* What is the nature of the failure? (no boot, corrupted data, etc.?)

* What is the nature of the failure? (no boot, corrupted data, etc.?)

* What was the history of use prior to failure?

* What was the history of use prior to failure?