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[teapot]

Thanks teapot.  I will be working on the Hardy Heron installation tonight.  I have one last question before I get started.  When I installed Gutsy, I downloaded a separate package to install backported video drivers (xserver-xorg-video-amd_2.7.7.6-1ubuntu2_i386.deb from https://launchpad.net/~q-funk/+archive

The video drivers noticeably accelerated streaming video content.  Will I need to do the same after I install Hardy?

They are already included. Hardy uses a later version of X, that is binary-compatible with drivers that come with OLPC builds. Ubuntu comes with its own Geode drivers, however they don't work with XO hardware, so I replaced a driver from Ubuntu package with a driver from OLPC build, and included it in the tarball.

[JoeMac]

teapot - I followed the instructions for installing Xubuntu 8.04 on an SDHC.  I reused my olpc.fth and fstab from the Gutsy installed on my other SDHC.  The filesystem mounts and then immediately after I get to
 *INIT: version 2.86 booting
and then I start to get a string of "Permission denied" errors as it tries to execute the rc  bootscript in etc/init.d, for example:
/etc/init.d/rc:  317:  /etc/rcS.d/S08console-message:  Permission denied

and about 10 or so similar "Permission denied" lines.  It eventually spits me out onto a command-line login which reports back with "Unable to determine your tty name" if I try to login as olpc (I knew it was fruitless since GDM was supposed to start).

I took a look at the directory and file permissions via Nautilus on another computer.  The permission settings didn't allow the same levels of access as what I thought should be right for "group" and "others", so I compared to my bootable Gutsy SD and fixed the permissions to match that.  Still no joy - I'm getting the exact same errors .  Any ideas for me to try or have I washed out as a linux-cadet and now need to wait instead for the "Hardy XO - Compressed files edition"? 
-hey, at least this time I was smart enough to wait till I got a second SDHC card instead of hosing my Gutsy installation....

[teapot]

teapot - I followed the instructions for installing Xubuntu 8.04 on an SDHC.  I reused my olpc.fth and fstab from the Gutsy installed on my other SDHC.  The filesystem mounts and then immediately after I get to
 *INIT: version 2.86 booting
and then I start to get a string of "Permission denied" errors as it tries to execute the rc  bootscript in etc/init.d, for example:
/etc/init.d/rc:  317:  /etc/rcS.d/S08console-message:  Permission denied

Can you compare fstab and olpc.fth files that I have posted with ones you used? The ones in the archive are set to boot from SD, so they should work without editing.

and about 10 or so similar "Permission denied" lines.  It eventually spits me out onto a command-line login which reports back with "Unable to determine your tty name" if I try to login as olpc (I knew it was fruitless since GDM was supposed to start).

I took a look at the directory and file permissions via Nautilus on another computer.  The permission settings didn't allow the same levels of access as what I thought should be right for "group" and "others"

Boot-up scripts always run as root -- the only reason for them to get "Permission denied" error is being non-executable or non-readable by user. They are readable and executable by group and others, however this is done for convenience of system administration (so sysadmin won't have to be logged in as root to merely look at them).

, so I compared to my bootable Gutsy SD and fixed the permissions to match that.

Did you, by any chance, extract tar files as "olpc" user, as opposed to root (you have to become root by running "sudo -s" before doing anything with devices)? The whole installation process is supposed to be done as root, so tar will set permissions while extracting files.

The fact that you got an error about tty name suggests that your device files are not configured, either -- this is another thing that tar can only do when running as root (it should've shown multiple "Cannot mknod: Operation not permitted" messages while going through "dev" directory).

[teapot]

I have noticed that when installation is performed on XO, haldaemon may interfere with mounting/unmounting of devices. Run /etc/init.d/haldaemon stop after becoming root, to stop automated mounting.

Also it's very easy to insert SD card incompletely, so it will lose contact in the middle of installation. Since tar sets permissions after extracting files, you may end up with right files and wrong permissions (and possibly broken filesystem) -- make sure that the card clicked before trying to do anything with it.

[JoeMac]

Thanks for the help troubleshooting.  I was pretty sure that I unarchived onto the SD after doing "su -" in terminal, but I agree  that the symptoms certainly point towards something going wrong while I was extracring the tar files.  I extracted the tar using another computer with an sdhc-to-USB cardreader, and the Transcend 16GB sdhc did not fit nearly as tight into the reader as the previous cards that I have used.  I had some sporadic dificulty mounting this card using the reader when I was repartitioning it and formatting to ext3. Fortunately (or unfortunately for some) the sd slot on the XO is so tight that seating an sd is often less of an issue than inserting and removing an SD without damage.  I think my next move should be to take 2 steps back and try the installation again using a USB flash-drive that has previously worked consitently well as a boot drive.  I had to do that when I did my initial Gutsy intall on an sd.  It eliminates of some of the flakiness that I've seen mounting and writing to sd & sdhc as a variable during the installation and tended to be a more straightforwarrd path to a successfully booting drive.  On my previos Gutsy install I was able to trace a boot problem back to a bad SD-card by getting everything working on a USB drive first. I think the card seating that you mentioned might be a root cause of much of the buggy behavior with sd cards that many of us have struggled with.  I'm also going to go back to a simpler olpc.fth and fstab until I can get an initial good boot all the way into xfce.  The current ones are pretty busy (overclocked cpu&ram, multiboot option between sd & int. flash drive, swap partition, etc.).  Here's what they currently look like:

olpc.fth
\ Overclock to 500Mhz CPU, 200Mhz RAM
7de009e
5dd
4c000014
wrmsr
\
\ XO Multiboot olpc.fth
\
\ Boot image from SD card if circle button is pressed:
game-key-mask h# 80 and if

   " 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

else
\
\ Boot alternate image from internal flash if checker button is pressed
game-key-mask h# 2 and if
    \ Boot alternate image from internal fash if checker button is pressed
    " ro root=mtd0 console=ttyS0,115200 console=tty0 fbcon=font:SUN12x22" to boot-file
    " nand:\boot-alt\vmlinuz" to boot-device
    " nand:\boot-alt\olpcrd.img" to ramdisk
\
\ Uncomment to boot image from USB-Stick:
\ else
\   " ro root=/dev/sda1 rootdelay=1 console=ttyS0,115200 console=tty0 fbcon=font:SUN12x22" to boot-file
\   " disk:\boot\vmlinuz" to boot-device
\   " disk:\boot\olpcrd.img" to ramdisk
\
\ Uncomment to boot image from NAND:
 else
    " 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

unfreeze
    drop
then
then
boot


and fstab

#
# XO Multiboot /etc/fstab
#
# Uncomment if you are booting via internal flash
#  mtd0                    /                      jffs2    defaults,noatime 1 1
#
# Uncomment if you are booting from a usb-stick:
# /dev/sda1       /         ext3 noatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
#
# Uncomment if you are booting from a SD card:
  /dev/mmcblk0p1       /         ext3 noatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
#
  /dev/mmcblk0p2               swap                    swap    defaults        0 0
#
# Uncomment if you want to access internal flash via /mnt/flash
  mtd0                    /mnt/flash                       jffs2    defaults,noatime 1 1
#
# Uncomment if needed (not necesarry in Ubuntu)
# devpts                  /dev/pts                devpts  gid=5,mode=620    0 0
# tmpfs                   /dev/shm                tmpfs   defaults,size=15% 0 0
# proc                    /proc                   proc    defaults          0 0
# sysfs                   /sys                    sysfs   defaults          0 0


I need to learn to start these sorts of things a bit simpler and smaller before throwing everything in.  I really appreciate the patient help that you and moocapiean have given to amateurs like me.  I wouldn't have considered attempting Ubuntu via removable flash media without the help I get via this forum and the xo tinkering has been a great way to force me to feel my way through Xubuntu.

[teapot]

I have updated installation instructions, to include all possible problems that may happen when installation is done on XO itself. For initial testing I used a combo SD/USB flash card, so I could attach it to my desktop and extract files, then insert into XO and boot.

Faulty SD readers are common, but as long as the card is going to be usable in XO, it makes sense to install it using its built-in reader. This also spares the trouble for people who don't have other computers running Linux, or who don't have other SD readers.

[JoeMac]

teapot,  

What time-zone are you in?  I just noticed the time stamps on your posts.  If you're in North America, you're getting even less sleep than I am!

[JoeMac]

teapot - thanks for the updated instructions.  I think this thread may have reached a point where it needs to split into a separate thread, possibly a forum sticky under "other operating systems" to make it easy to find.  That would place your first 2 posts on the first page of a new thread.  What do others think?

[teapot]

teapot,  

What time-zone are you in?  I just noticed the time stamps on your posts.  If you're in North America, you're getting even less sleep than I am!

I am in US/Pacific, but being a programmer I have an odd sleep schedule.

[teapot]

Here is the whole installation sequence performed on XO itself:

http://mars.illtel.denver.co.us/~abelits/images/olpc-ubuntu/

[JoeMac]

Thanks for the help.  The photos and updated instructions did the trick.  The were a couple of items that were a bit different on my XO.  I couldn't get sudo -s to work.  I kept getting "command not found", so I used su - instead.  I also had a difficult time in terminal getting at the tar archive on the usb media.  I could get the drive to show up in /media doing ls but I kept getting a "file not found" when I tried to decompress the file.  I finally just broke down and used the SD adapter to stick the archive on the SDHC, booted back into Fedora/Sugar and proceded from there.  That did the trick.

I wasn't sure if I was navigating in aptitude properly. The aptitude interface was a bit of a challenge for me.  It didn't seem to do anything when I tried capital U for upgrade.  About all I could get it to do was "u" to download package lists and "q" to quit. I tried installing synaptic from a command line (aptitude install synaptic) to see if I could get a package manager more like what I am used to seeing, but the installation hung about 3/4 of the way through. I guess I'll need to google aptitude and see if there is a tuturial somewhere on how to get some basics installed.  If I can figure out how to get synaptic installed, I'll probably abandon the aptitude interface, although I'm a bit more comfortable with the apt-get and aptitude command line calls and still use those from time to time.

[JoeMac]

I think the synaptic installation problem may have been due to the rather sketchy wireless connection in the hotel I'm at (I'm travelling, hence the available time to install Ubuntu on an SD at time that's not 1 am ).  I noticed on another computer that I have with me that the connection keeps dropping out and then reconnecting.  I'll try again at installing synaptic and other packages once I get home and have a more stable connection to the Internet.  Is there a simple terminal command line call to upgrade to the final Hardy release (e.g. apt-get install or aptitude install or some such?

[teapot]

I'll try again at installing synaptic and other packages once I get home and have a more stable connection to the Internet.

If you have problems downloading packages, you can switch to another Ubuntu mirror in /etc/apt/sources.list -- I have left everything as default.

Is there a simple terminal command line call to upgrade to the final Hardy release (e.g. apt-get install or aptitude install or some such?

Yes, sudo aptitude update && sudo aptitude full-upgrade

I am currently working on another version of the tarball, and on packaging all customizations separately from things installed from Ubuntu packages. Among other things I made a nice green icons + controls theme based on what I have set as default in prerelease tarball (orange color is now completely absent from the default desktop, and contrast in b&w mode is slightly better), and working on improved versions of battery/keyboard/screen/rotation scripts to include. It would be nice to include support for XO power management, but then I would have to find (and possibly fix and rebuild) a kernel version that does not destroy SD cards when it tries to suspend to RAM, so I don't want to cause any delays because of that, and for now the only power-managed thing is going to be backlight.

I also made boot animation work on Ubuntu, but probably won't include it until I will find a way to package/integrate it properly.

[teapot]

Thanks for the help.  The photos and updated instructions did the trick.  The were a couple of items that were a bit different on my XO.  I couldn't get sudo -s to work.  I kept getting "command not found", so I used su - instead.

My bad. I did not notice that it's absent by default.

I also had a difficult time in terminal getting at the tar archive on the usb media.  I could get the drive to show up in /media doing ls but I kept getting a "file not found" when I tried to decompress the file.  I finally just broke down and used the SD adapter to stick the archive on the SDHC, booted back into Fedora/Sugar and proceded from there.  That did the trick.

If the disk label (and therefore a directory where it was mounted) had any spaces, dollar signs or other special characters in it, you have to put it in single quotes or precede the space by  a backslash.

I wasn't sure if I was navigating in aptitude properly. The aptitude interface was a bit of a challenge for me.  It didn't seem to do anything when I tried capital U for upgrade.

It does not say anything when you press it, it just marks all upgradable packages to be upgraded. When you press 'g', it will give you the list (and possibly messages about conflicts and suggested resolutions, though regular upgrade shouldn't cause conflcts)

After that another 'g' applies the changes.

[JoeMac]

I think I figured out why synaptic wouldn't install.  It wasn't an interupted wifi connection.  Either during my initial mucking around in aptitude or during the synaptic installation, a .deb that I think manages the apt repositories started to update.   It's called python-software-properties 0.63ubuntu1, and the installation hangs right there.  When I try to uninstall synaptic, the uninstall also hangs on this.  I tried punting (I'm way over my head here) and used a web-browser to download the python-software-properties_0.63ubuntu1_all.deb and tried manually installing it using dpkg -i, but again it just hangs.  I don't think I can install any packages without resolving this.  Am I  back to square 1 (wipe card, start over)?