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[moocapiean]

These instructions are for installing Ubuntu using the compressed files approach.  If you want to install using the image, see the Installing Ubuntu using a disk image topic.  If you're not sure which install technique to use, see the Ubuntu Install Technique Comparison thread.

Before you begin, you'll need at least three things:
1. A USB or SD drive that's at least 600 MB
2. The developer key for your XO (see here for how to get one)
3. A computer running Linux
Your XO can function as #3, as long as you have 194 MB of space free on its drive, otherwise you'll need another drive.

Start up your Linux computer.  Since you'll need root privileges for various parts below, let's gain root access right away.  If you're on the XO, just run: su -

Now that you're root, we need to start working with the USB/SD drive, so insert that now.  It's important to know what device Linux thinks your drive is, so after it's inserted, wait a few seconds, then try to determine what device node your drive is associated with.  On the XO, you should be able to run df -k and look at the last entry.  Since Sugar will automatically mount your USB/SD drive, it should show up as something like /dev/device.  For me, it was /dev/sda, so I'll use that for the rest of the instructions.

If you're using an SD card, your device node will probably look like /dev/mmcblk0.  When translating my instructions to what you need to type, these translations should be helpful:
/dev/sda becomes /dev/mmcblk0
/dev/sda1 becomes /dev/mmcblk0p1

Make sure the drive isn't mounted, by doing:
mount | grep /dev/sda | awk '{ print $1 }'
For every line that shows up, run:
umount device
where device is one of those lines that appeared.  You may run into a problem where you're told that the device is still busy.  Sugar likes to take a look at what's on your drive and doesn't like it when you try to unmount them.  However, it will give in if you go through the Journal activity and tell it to unmount it there.

Ok, once you're done that, it's time to partition and format your drive:
fdisk /dev/sda
p
You might see something like this:
   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1           4       32098+  16  Fat16

The important thing is what's in the Device column.  Notice that my device is /dev/sda1.  The important thing is the number at the end, it represents the partition number.  Since we want to delete all partitions (I don't think we actually have to, but I think the XO wants the boot partition to be the first, so for simplicity...), we're going to have to delete each partition.  For each partition, do:
d
partition_number
When you're going to delete the last partition, you won't need to give it the number.

Once you deleted all the partitions, let's create a new one.
n
p
1
press enter to accept the default starting location
if you want a specific size, specify it here (follow the instructions given by the program, or press enter to use the entire drive

Now that we're finished creating the partition, let's make it bootable:
a
1

While we're here, let's also make sure the partition table knows that this is partition will be an ext3 partition:
t
1    (here you're specifying the partition number so if you only have one, fdisk might not ask you to specify)
83

And now we can write the changes to the drive and close:
w

If the drive was mounted again, unmount it (see the instructions above).  Now let's apply the filesystem:
mke2fs -j /dev/sda1

Now we can mount the partition.  To solve a minor problem in the tar file (see this post), we're going to mount the partition onto /mnt/OLPCRoot.  The directory name here is important!  If it isn't created already, let's create it first:
mkdir /mnt/OLPCRoot
and now mount it:
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/OLPCRoot

Now we're ready to download the file.  Let's assume that you downloaded it to /home/olpc:
cd /home/olpc
wget http://www.echo-flow.com/olpc/OLPCFile.tar.bz2
Although this direct download is possible, the person hosting the file has asked that you download the file using bittorrent if possible.  The torrent file is http://torrents.thepiratebay.org/4002289/OLPCFile.tar.bz2.4002289.TPB.torrent
See the New home for Ubuntu files? thread for more information.

Now go to your USB/SD drive and decompress the file.  I'm assuming that your drive is mounted to /mnt/OLPCRoot, so let's move into the /mnt directory and decompress (again, see this post for why we're not moving into /mnt/OLPCRoot)
cd /mnt
tar -jxf /home/olpc/OLPCFile.tar.bz2

Once that's done, you'll need to set the correct olpc.fth file.  See this post for a multiboot olpc.fth file that should be used.  It appears to work better than the files included in the download: http://olpcnews.com/forum/index.php?topic=1525.0
If you're using an SD card and that doesn't work, try following the instructions here: http://olpcnews.com/forum/index.php?topic=1767.0

Now, unmount the drive.  It may take awhile to unmount it since it may still be transferring files over, just be patient:
umount /mnt/OLPCRoot

Once it's unmounted, we need to give the partition the proper name:
tune2fs /dev/sda1 -L OLPCRoot
If you're using an XO, you might need to type /sbin/tune2fs instead of tune2fs

It's now time to move over to your XO and transfer over the last few files.  Since our drive isn't ready to boot off of just yet, let's boot into Sugar, Xfce, or whatever you have running on there right now.

Once it's loaded, issue the following command:
cp -ra /security /media/OLPCRoot/
Check to see if the directory /media/OLPCRoot/security/.private exists:
ls /media/OLPCRoot/security/.private
If it doesn't, create it with:
mkdir /media/OLPCRoot/security/.private

And you're done!  If you want to log into your new Xubuntu installation, just reboot, hold down the right game button (it looks like a check mark) until it tells you to release it, then let it boot up.  The username is olpc and the password is olpcolpc.  To start Xfce, after you log in, run startxfce4.

You'll notice that I applied all modifications mentioned on the Xfce? thread (as of January 13, 2008).

Update: I created a battery monitor script for the Xfce panel.  See this post for more details: http://olpcnews.com/forum/index.php?topic=917.msg10648#msg10648

You may also want to check out the Beyond the Ubuntu Installation thread for some more information on getting started with your new Ubuntu installation.

[freelikegnu]

You'll notice that I applied all modifications mentioned on the Xfce? thread (as of January 13, 2008).  One problem I ran into though is that the battery monitor doesn't work properly, nor does the workaround mentioned here: http://www.freelikegnu.org/?p=15

do you have hal installed?

[moocapiean]

Yep, following your instructions, I get up to hal-device | grep battery, then everything after that doesn't work.  "charge_level.percentage" doesn't show up in the output.

[Boone]

Thanks for all your hard work on this installation procedure, moocapiean.  Following these instructions, I've got Ubuntu up and running smoothly!  I only hit one snag in the installation procedure: After installing and attempting to boot into Ubuntu, the system kept hanging at the point in the boot process where the system looks for/tries to create /sysroot/security/.private.  I worked around it by booting into a Sugar terminal and typing mkdir /media/OLPCRoot/security/.private.  I was then able to boot onto Ubuntu just fine (although I must admit that I don't really understand why that happened or why the fix worked).

I'm pleasantly surprised with how smooth the Xubuntu/XFCE interface is.  I installed Opera, which I prefer to Firefox because of its page-zoom/accessibility features (very useful on the XO's small screen).  I also loaded OpenOffice and am extremely happy with how well it runs, or at least seems to run.  It loads quickly and runs snappily. 

One small frustration has been the trackpad's performance.  Pointer control seems to be very touchy, making it a bit difficult to navigate accurately.  To my surprise, I can tap on the trackpad in place of a left mouse click.  I love this feature on my normal laptop, but the XO is much more cramped, and there've been a lot of accidental clicks.  I've been playing around with /etc/X11/xorg.conf to change these settings, but so far I haven't had much luck.

Anyway, thanks again!

[moocapiean]

Glad to hear :-), both about your success and that OpenOffice works nicely.  I'll update my post to address your problem.

I have the same problem with the trackpad.  I found plugging in a regular mouse to help somewhat.  I'm sure there's a way to fix the mouse problems (yet...this has been quite a learning experience for me!)

[gameguy43]

re: tweaking the touchpad.

read this article: http://ubuntu-tutorials.com/2006/12/10/tweaking-your-synaptics-touchpad-laptops-ubuntu-6061-610/

or just get qsynaptics

had to figure that out a long time ago to keep inadvertand palm taps on my touchpad from clicking me out of text boxes on my hp pavilion notebook running ubuntu.  cheers, and thanks so much for setting this up.  we've been waiting

[Boone]

re: tweaking the touchpad.

read this article: http://ubuntu-tutorials.com/2006/12/10/tweaking-your-synaptics-touchpad-laptops-ubuntu-6061-610/

or just get qsynaptics

Thanks for the suggestion, gameguy43.  I actually tried this earlier this afternoon when I was goofing around with /etc/X11/xorg.conf.  I wasn't able to make it work either then or now.  Even after making the edits to xorg.conf that the website suggests, qsynaptics wouldn't work--it gave a message that SHMConfig was not enabled, even though it was.

After a little snooping, both on the internet and in xorg.conf (where, as far as I can tell, the central touchpad is referred to as "OLPC ALPS GlideSensor"), I gathered that this can probably be chalked up to the fact that the XO trackpad hardware is pretty heavily modified from the normal Synaptics/ALPS model, thus requiring a heavily modified driver to operate right. (See here, for instance.)  So the software mods that work for most trackpads don't work for the XO.  This would also explain why adding the line

Code:

Option   "MaxTapTime"   "0"

into the trackpad section of xorg.conf didn't do anything for me either.

That said, maybe I'm just overlooking something obvious here.  The search goes on....

[Eph Zero]

One question -- this works fine (thank you!), but booting to Sugar hangs if I leave the Ubuntu SD card in and don't press the game key at startup. Is that supposed to happen? Do I need to remove the card every time I want to boot to Sugar? If not, I'll try again and post more details.

[humptybump]

argotnaut: you said "Ubuntu SD" so I assume you got that to work. I've tried three different SD cards and have failed each time. I'd be interested in your process. Here is what I have been doing ...

stuck the SD card in a "USB SD card reader"
followed all the instructions up to transferring the security files
booted the XO
inserted the SD card
<once it recognized the card the other times not>
copy the security directory/files
reboot XO
... it times trying to read the SD card and falls back to NAND

interesting, if I try put the SD back into the USB SD card reader, the SD has been trashed and nothing shows up. I have start back at the very first step again.

Update: If I copy the .fth.usb file rather than the .fth.sd file and then leave the SD card in the reader and just use the reader on the XO (i.e. treat my SD as a USB key) the instructions work perfectly. Any thoughts on what I might be doing wrong with the strait SD method ?

Question: How do I start / configure wireless ? chalk it up to SUS (stupid user syndrome) - the networking is access by clicking the little icon in lower right next to the virtual display switcher.

[moocapiean]

One question -- this works fine (thank you!), but booting to Sugar hangs if I leave the Ubuntu SD card in and don't press the game key at startup. Is that supposed to happen? Do I need to remove the card every time I want to boot to Sugar? If not, I'll try again and post more details.

I know, this is a problem I haven't gotten around to solving yet.  What's actually happening is that the Sugar boot screen hides the fact that Ubuntu is loading up normally.  Pressing the game key at startup lets us see Ubuntu starting up (and the login prompt when it appears).  So, you're still booting up Ubuntu, you just can't see it.

In theory, if Xfce were to start automatically instead of having to start it manually, Xfce might take over the screen once it loads.  Unfortunately, I haven't gotten around to figuring out how to get Xfce to load automatically.  One could install a display manager (like gdm or xdm) to hopefully solve this problem.

I think I tried this, but if I didn't, try pressing Ctrl+Alt+Network (F1) to see if you can get to the "debugging" screen (where you should also be able to log in).  Maybe also try the Friends/Group button next to it (I can't remember the real names for those buttons): Ctrl+Alt+Friends.

[moocapiean]

Update: If I copy the .fth.usb file rather than the .fth.sd file and then leave the SD card in the reader and just use the reader on the XO (i.e. treat my SD as a USB key) the instructions work perfectly. Any thoughts on what I might be doing wrong with the strait SD method ?

Are you saying that you used the fth.usb file, didn't make changes to it, and it worked just fine?  If so, I'll update my instructions.

[humptybump]

Are you saying that you used the fth.usb file, didn't make changes to it, and it worked just fine?  If so, I'll update my instructions.

I did not edit the fth file (should I?). I just issued the "mv" command to rename the boot.fth.usb file to booth.fth.

My problem appears to be when I do nearly the same thing but rename the boot.fth.sd file to booth.fth and then try to use the SD card.

BTW - I did find at least one thing missing - "gnome-mount" to get USB keys to auto mount. It's easy to install thru synaptic.

I also tried to install a .deb package that I use on my Ubuntu laptop but for some reason I could not get it to install - not the least was that the system didn't know what to do with a .deb file. Not sure what was up with that. use the command "sudo dpkg -i <file name> to install a debian package.

[atraw]

argotnaut: you said "Ubuntu SD" so I assume you got that to work. I've tried three different SD cards and have failed each time.

Looks like olpc.fth.sd is pretty broken try the following olpc.fth instead (it did work for me):

Code:

\ Boot script
game-key-mask h# 80 and if
    \ Boot from internal flash if circle button is pressed
    " ro root=mtd0 console=ttyS0,115200 console=tty0 fbcon=font:SUN12x22" to boot-file
    " nand:\boot\vmlinuz" to boot-device
    " nand:\boot\olpcrd.img" to ramdisk
else
    \ Boot from SD card
    " ro root=/dev/mmcblk0p1 rootdelay=1 console=ttyS0,115200 console=tty0 fbcon=font:SUN12x22" to boot-file
    " sd:\boot\vmlinuz" to boot-device
    " sd:\boot\olpcrd.img" to ramdisk
then
boot

Warnings:

• There shouldn't be any empty lines in olpc.fth. Otherwise you end up getting strange can't read buffer errors in Open Firmware.
• Be carefull with trying suspend in xfce. Last time I tried (about 30 minutes ago) it did erase my SD card.

[moocapiean]

Thanks atraw for the information.  I'll update my posts.

It's also very good to know that suspending Xfce will do that.  I'll add a note about that too.

[Eph Zero]

Hmmm, olpc.fth.sd did work for me.

Thanks for the info about booting. I thought I was going to be in a magical land where I could just boot one or the other, depending on whether or not I held down that game key.

Maybe for now I'll put it on a USB key -- I don't want to have to pop the card out every time I want to use Sugar.

At any rate, thanks, moocapiean (and freelikegnu)! This is the coolest thing ever.