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[Wayan Vota]

This week in Washington DC, we had two XO Upgrade Parties with much geeking out.



 We even got to a bit of <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dcmetroblogger/2953318106/>UI hacking[/url] with Kevin Cole.

 

I'll have a Software Release 8.2.0 review up on OLPC News in a bit and I'd also love to hear of your 8.2.0 impressions.  What do you think of the new release?

Our conclusion: Finally, the XO laptop works!

[sracer]

I installed 8.2.0 and kicked the tires a bit.  Not too much time to explore.  Things certainly look tighter, consistent, and usable... but are the following things implemented yet?
- stylus pads on either side of the touch pad. (are they active yet?)
- "View source" button.  is that there?
- D-pad active for browser and reader when in "book" mode?

[newbie]

I am quite excited about it! It seems way more stable and reliable, and is just so much more convenient to use! Copy&pasting into the journal! Power management! Disabling the stupid "hot corners" with a simple click!

[Torokun]

I really like the 8.2.0 build. 

This is what they should have shipped XO with one year ago. 

-I love how D-Pad's orientation changes with screen orientation now. 
-Control panel is a huge welcome.

I did notice that when I leave the computer on too long in sleep mode, things slow down significantly when I wake it up and it doesn't shut down properly.  It always goes to some kind of "log" mode and never shuts down and forces me to force shutdown.

[davewa]

sracer:
To answer your questions, "No -- it worked in 711 and is turned off again in 767", "Sometimes -- some applications support it and some (most) don't" and "what is D-Pad?".

[sracer]

sracer:
To answer your questions, "No -- it worked in 711 and is turned off again in 767", "Sometimes -- some applications support it and some (most) don't" and "what is D-Pad?".

Thanks...  D-Pad is the large circular "directional pad" button.  It appears that it works for Reader but not for Browse.

I also noticed that when I flip the screen into bookreader mode the backlighting remains on.  How do I turn it off?

[kimtoufectis]

Generally, very positive, but with a significant problem.

The control panel is a godsend for those of us who don't speak Linux!  Updating software is a breeze now, and the Home view is much more functional.

My problem is that anything related to the camera seems to have stopped.  Record loads, but all I see is a black screen.  Colors! loads, but won't take a picture.  Pointilism, Watch & Listen, and Video Chat each blink a good while but never finish loading.  I read somewhere that Flash might interfere with the camera, so I reloaded 767 offline from a USB stick to make sure everything was reset as new, but no recovery.

Don't have any ideas about what to try next...

[eden]

I can use Record and see an image.  I haven't tried Read yet.  So far everything I've used works, and works better, and looks prettier.  The only two problems I have had to this point are having the mouse jump around in Turtle Art and having the laptop hang at shutdown sometimes (especially after using Browse). 

[Torokun]

has anyone tried using the m-player from the activities list?  I tried running it but it has that blank circle icon and does not launch any app.  -_-

Also, I get many failed shutdown procedure.  it goes into some sort of console mode saying something like "failed security test 15" or something like that.  It makes me force quit all the time.

[eden]

Torokun, that is the same error I often get when I shut down.

I tried using Read today.  It worked okay at first.  Then I rotated the view and it went to a gray screen and stayed there on every orientation except the original one.  I also couldn't get the document to center itself after I magnified it.  It was off to the side.

I did get motion up and running but I still haven't found a way to completely kill it to release the camera unless I restart.

I used mplayer on audio files but launched it from the command line only.  I choose mplayer in the first place because it was a much smaller install than vlc and I didn't install a GUI.

Browse seems to be doing better.  I only wish the bookmarks were handled differently.

Programs do seem to launch faster and I haven't yet had one hang and not start up like I used to with 656.

[mavrothal]

You get shutdown freezes when a (malformed) activity is still running while you shutdown. Firefox-6 activity is a sure bet for that freeze.  Try close all activities before you shutdown.

Use the  killall motion command at the terminal to exit motion and release the camera.

xo-get, mplayer and other activities do not work from sugar because apparently they do not conform to the new standards but they could be run from the terminal with the appropriate command. For a list of activities that work or not look here http://wiki.laptop.org/go/TestResults_8.2.0. Add your own experience if your favorite activity is not there.

A work around for xo-get is to add the activity group http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Activities/All in your software update control panel. The down side is that every-time you do an update 1. takes longer 2. All the activities there, default to install(!!!) and you have to manually deselect the ones you do not want. So, if this is the most, you are better off to point Browse to this page and manually select what you want.

I did not use os650-714 a lot to be able to compare but os767 looks much better and you can use many more standard Linux/Fedora applications, albeit you have to lunch from the terminal. If a sugarized luncher activity was available things would be much easier (unfortunately ExecCommand activity does not work in 767)

[eden]

Thank you, mavrothal.  I am going to experiment some more.   

[infomaven]

I just took my XO with me to a conference (Internet Librarian in Monterey - http://www.infotoday.com/il2008 or www.twitter.com/tag/#il2008) with os767, and it was useful, most of the time. I have Opera installed, and it seemed to hang more than in 65* builds. Also, it felt a bit slower to me; bad wifi was part of the problem, but I assume it was a lot of what was reported above by Torokun/Mavrothal re: hanging after suspend. However, the GUI / Control Panel updates are the bomb, and power saving by shutting off Radio and the grayscale screen was fun to demostrate. Getting closer to a device I can use as a conference machine. Lots of fun showing people my xo -- lots of Acer and Asus little pcs and even a Dell around - but the xo is the cutest by far :-) It will always get the "awwww" factor.

[Grampa]

Some activities and programs (like mplayer) have not been modified to work with the new security/isolation system in the xo. They will run fine under Sugar if you delete the file /etc/olpc-security, but then other programs that HAVE been modified will not run properly.

See http://olpcnews.com/forum/index.php?topic=3706.msg25880#msg25880.

[Brian Basgen]

Things seem great so far. I was hoping flash would work out of the box, but alas, going to youtube videos do not work. It seems to partially work with the controls present, but the video won't run.

Wikipedia is a really nice addition in terms of the custom interface, etc. The moon program is a great default install as well.