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[newbie2]

It seems that since OLPC decided to cave to M$ and allow XP on the formally reliable linux platform. OLPC XO guru's have decided what is good for the XP idots is good for those of us who wanted some choice about what we did or did not put on our OLPC XO.
This morning while on vaction in NC I received the following message when I booted up the  XO.  Firmware update, power not connected, shutting down. I pluger the XO in and on on the next powered boot the "firmware" update proceed to run, installing the new and deleting the oldfirm ware. on reboot ALL my previously installed apps were GONE. the fix for the irritating window frame, my mplayer, my opera, my firefox my midnight commander.
So far the standard XO apps are funtioning.I am very disturbed that now I have to, I hope be able , to reinstall ALL my apps.
What happens in the third world when the same thing happens to a 8 year old?
Thanks for the considration. If I want to change my XO it should be MY choice. I would love to hear from one of the "developers" big dawgs responsible for this INVASION of my right to CHOOSE what and when I add or delete. You have learned your lesson early and well from M$.
[email protected]

[anna]

This has been an issue for a while now.  I don't think it has anything to do with the M$ involvement.  To keep it from happening in the future, you can prevent the XO from updating unless you explicitly tell it to.

This page has instruction on how to turn off automatic updates.
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Update_streams

(As root)
echo none > /security/update-stream

You can still update the XO using the olpc-update command, of course.

I made sure to turn off automatic updates for the Glen Iris pilot.  That's all we need are hundreds of upset and confused children.  I would rather touch every single XO manually than deal with that fallout.

[Jordan]

Thank-you for the heads up here.  I too dislike automatic updates.

newbie2: I'm sorry, but your post is an incoherent rant.  These changes have nothing to do with Microsoft.  Rather, it appears to be the product of a design decision.  A decision that is popular among software developers these days, including open source developers.  (For example, Firefox also has automatic updates.)  Even the consequences of those updates are typical of manual updates of the XO itself.  There is nothing sinister going on here.  There are just some awful design decsions, in my opinion.

[Gabey8]

Automatic update? Has everyone been getting this, or only people with certain versions of the OS (like joyrides)?

I have Build 656, and I haven't had any automatic updates applied to my XO so far. Is this little suprise something I have to look forward to, unless I enter the command described above?

[Jordan]

My system hasn't updated itself, but the noted configuration files are present in the latest joyride builds.

I don't know why my system hasn't updated itself.  It may be because it is rarely connected to the network.  It may also be because I don't use sugar itself (just the base system).

[brisalta]

It is my understanding that automatic updates are being pushed out for builds prior to build 656.  The reason for this is that for instance build 653 comes with firmware q2d06 which has a serious flaw.  If the cmos battery comes lose the XO will be bricked and need specialized tools to revive.  Later firmware versions not have this problem.

This will not be a problem for the intended audience  because the updates for field deployments will be coordinated with the school server, and backups of XOs will be stored there.

All this information is freely available at the http://wiki.laptop.org/

[Gabey8]

It is my understanding that automatic updates are being pushed out for builds prior to build 656.  The reason for this is that for instance build 653 comes with firmware q2d06 which has a serious flaw.  If the cmos battery comes lose the XO will be bricked and need specialized tools to revive.  Later firmware versions not have this problem.

This will not be a problem for the intended audience  because the updates for field deployments will be coordinated with the school server, and backups of XOs will be stored there.

All this information is freely available at the http://wiki.laptop.org/

Thanks. I've already upgraded both the firmware to a version that won't brick the XO if the battery comes loose, and my Build to 656, so I guess I'm safe for the time being from unexpected updates.

I don't mind keeping my machine up-to-date, but I just want to do so on MY timetable. That way, I'll be prepared with lists of what I need to reinstall when the time comes. Looks like I can resume using the XO, as it won't automagically update itself and make my personal installations like Opera, etc. disappear.

Thanks.

[brisalta]

Hold down the game key O when booting and the backup of your OS should be restored.

[Jordan]

I think part of the issue is that we are talking about firmware and the OS interchangably.  While pressing the O key will restore the old version of the OS, it will not restore the old firmware.  Never mind a corrupted version of the firmware.

I haven't had to deal with corrupted firmware yet, but a friend did have to deal with that problem on a developer XO.