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[jrobbins]

So, Teapot, if I understand correctly, I can install the Ubuntu on my SD card and not touch the 8.2.0/Xfce install on my XO drive -- so that, if I have issues, I merely take the SD card out and the computer will reboot directly into Xfce, as I have it set up right now (and, were I then to erase the SD card contents on another computer, it would again act merely as a storage device for the flash-installed OS)?

Can the SD card be used anymore to store files on it, or is its purpose solely to run the Ubuntu operating system and all programs installed thereafter?  I assume if the answer is the latter, I just use the USB stick to store files.

I assume that I cannot use a "swap file" if I want to leave the XO's flash OS intact, correct?  If I can, what is the advantage of this rather complex process?

I have many more questions, but perhaps they are best taken up real-time after taking a stab at loading Ubuntu on my SD card.  [Oh, great, another project with the Little Green Computer to drive my spouse to distraction.]  JCR

[Chris J]

Thanks, Teapot, for your hard work on this. Question:

I have your Ubuntu Hardy installed on two XOs and have used it for some time with no problems. Given that Hardy works fine for me and I have several hours of tweak time in each installation, is there any material advantage to my starting over with Intrepid? I'll go there if it is worth the work, but am disinclined to do a whole reinstall unless there is a good reason.

[brettpim]

I am setting up an Intrepid SD for my sister to use, but I cannot get the java plugin to work with firefox.  I  have done

sudo aptitude install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin sun-java6-bin

and run update-alternatives to make sure that all alternatives are being set to the version from sun-java6,  but still the only things in about:plugins are flash and acrobat.

Also for basic photo-editing what should I install for her?

brettpim

[teapot]

So, Teapot, if I understand correctly, I can install the Ubuntu on my SD card and not touch the 8.2.0/Xfce install on my XO drive -- so that, if I have issues, I merely take the SD card out and the computer will reboot directly into Xfce, as I have it set up right now (and, were I then to erase the SD card contents on another computer, it would again act merely as a storage device for the flash-installed OS)?

Yes.

Can the SD card be used anymore to store files on it, or is its purpose solely to run the Ubuntu operating system and all programs installed thereafter?  I assume if the answer is the latter, I just use the USB stick to store files.

SD card formatted as ext3 can be used for storage by XO's original OS (with Sugar or Xfce) as long as you keep user's files under /home/olpc on that card (/media/OLPCRoot/home/olpc when booted from NAND and mounted from GUI). The card won't be usable from Windows.

Alternatively you can create a separate partition and format it as FAT32 (use cfdisk after resetting the partition table instead of non-interactive cfdisk command and split the drive between Linux and FAT32 partitions, format FAT32 partition after installing the OS).

I assume that I cannot use a "swap file" if I want to leave the XO's flash OS intact, correct?  If I can, what is the advantage of this rather complex process?

I have posted the steps to create/re-enable/delete the swap file few messages above in this thread. Swap file should be on SD card, so it won't affect built-in flash. If your card is large enough you can make a permanent swap partition on it (should give better performance compared to the file, though I don't think, the difference is really noticeable) and include it in /etc/fstab so it will be automatically mounted.

[mavrothal]

Given that Hardy works fine for me and I have several hours of tweak time in each installation, is there any material advantage to my starting over with Intrepid? I'll go there if it is worth the work, but am disinclined to do a whole reinstall unless there is a good reason.

I had the same doubts but from my short experience with Intrepid I can say that is already fairly modified  by Teapot. So a lot of things needed for Hardy are already there. Synaptic is included but most important the included package installation utility will automatically install and uninstall any debian package (.deb) that you download from the web, regardless if it is in the repositories or not. Just like other mainstream operating systems . This makes setup much easier (installing Opera and Skype was as easy as in a PC or Mac). Intrepid is certainly step forward in mainstreaming/ease of use for the non-linux-savvy.
Performance-wise I did not see any difference either way.  
So if you have a lot of custom scripts and applications not available as debian packages, you may want to wait till Ubuntu 9.4... Other wise you could be up to specs within few hours and most of it will be waiting to download and install the packages/applications.

[teapot]

I am setting up an Intrepid SD for my sister to use, but I cannot get the java plugin to work with firefox.  I  have done

sudo aptitude install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin sun-java6-bin

and run update-alternatives to make sure that all alternatives are being set to the version from sun-java6,  but still the only things in about:plugins are flash and acrobat.

Incompatible directories strike again:
sudo ln -sf /etc/alternatives/firefox-javaplugin.so /usr/lib/firefox-addons/plugins/libjavaplugin.so

Also for basic photo-editing what should I install for her?

GQview (viewer) and Gimp (editor).

Gimp is a pretty advanced image editing program, though some Photoshop users find it unfamiliar -- all complex functionality is hidden in menus.

I recommend changing toolbox/dock window types from "Utility window" to "Normal window" (in Edit -> Preferences -> Window Management) so you can place them on a separate workspace. Some people prefer "Shade/Unshade" window manager button (I set double click on title bar to be "Shade" instead of "Maximize") to keep those windows hidden when they are not needed.

[mavrothal]

Quote
Also for basic photo-editing what should I install for her?
GQview (viewer) and Gimp (editor).

What about video recording from the XO camera? Cheese is fine for pictures but poor for video

[teapot]

Quote
Also for basic photo-editing what should I install for her?
GQview (viewer) and Gimp (editor).

What about video recording from the XO camera? Cheese is fine for pictures but poor for video

wxcam should work once I'll fix the way how it estimates frame rate.

[brettpim]

Thanks Teapot.

My sister requested realplayer but it wants to install a HUGE number of things (because it needed lsb) and I was hesitant to install so much if there are other slimmer solutions.  Are there alternatives for her to access realmedia content on the web?

Regarding swap space, I thought that the write/rewrite rate to swap space would kill flash memory pretty fast.  Is this true?  for openoffice and gimp what are the tradeoff factors I should be considering when I think about swap space?

Also, can you please describe how aggressive the `aggressive' power management?  is there a middle ground setting?


Thank you all
brettpim

[teapot]

Thanks Teapot.

My sister requested realplayer but it wants to install a HUGE number of things (because it needed lsb) and I was hesitant to install so much if there are other slimmer solutions.  Are there alternatives for her to access realmedia content on the web?

You can install mozilla-mplayer (and run sudo ln -s /usr/lib/firefox/plugins/mplayerplug-in* /usr/lib/firefox-addons/plugins/ ) , libavcodec51, libavformat52, and binary codecs from http://packages.medibuntu.org/intrepid/w32codecs.html -- they will work with mplayer and some other media players. For some reason embedding does not work, so plugin may show an embedded window and video will show in a completely separate window (though I prefer it that way).

Regarding swap space, I thought that the write/rewrite rate to swap space would kill flash memory pretty fast.  Is this true?  for openoffice and gimp what are the tradeoff factors I should be considering when I think about swap space?

Flash wears out after some number of rewriting (usually 100000), so using it for swap decreases its lifetime. It's still a very high number, so it takes years to wear out the card unless swapping is happening all the time. Just in case, keep a backup.

Also, can you please describe how aggressive the `aggressive' power management?  is there a middle ground setting?

It imitates OLPC suspend by inactivity feature -- if there was no user input or significant flash I/O activity over 30 seconds, system is suspended with screen and radio remaining on (so user still can read it and network packet still can wake it up). After some events (user input, opening/closing, network packet) system immediately wakes up (screen flashes briefly when it happens) and continues running, however if nothing happens within 10 second it's suspended again.

This is useful when laptop is used for reading/web surfing/movie playing... and usually properly prevents suspend while something is actively reading/writing flash (for example, installation procedures, compilation) but can't be used if it is used for long number-crunching sessions. It also does not count external USB input devices as "user input", so it is better turned off if external USB mouse is used as the primary input device.

[mavrothal]

Here is one little annoying bug with Intrepid.  Text Editor opens in all 3 work spaces. Is edited in all 3 simultaneously and closing one closes all 3!? This seams to be Text Editor-specific

[sola]

@Teapot

I created a swap file by the instructions of the first page. As I read your post, this is not persistent between restarts.

How can I make this persistent, so that I don't have to manually re-set it?

Thanks for the great work on Intrepid.

[teapot]

Here is one little annoying bug with Intrepid.  Text Editor opens in all 3 work spaces. Is edited in all 3 simultaneously and closing one closes all 3!? This seams to be Text Editor-specific

Uncheck "Sticky" attribute in the Text Editor window (click on the second button on the left in the window title bar or "Unstick" in window menu). Attributes are persistent across restarts (recorded in .gnome2/gedit-2 file).

[jrobbins]

Teapot, your swap file instructions are for 256 size.  Is there an advantage to 512 or 1024, or larger, size?  I guess I don't understand the purpose of a swap file.  Thanks.  JCR

[teapot]

@Teapot

I created a swap file by the instructions of the first page. As I read your post, this is not persistent between restarts.

How can I make this persistent, so that I don't have to manually re-set it?

Thanks for the great work on Intrepid.

Add the following to /etc/fstab file:

Code:

/swap.bin none swap defaults 0 0

and this to /etc/sysctl.conf:

Code:

# Swap as little as possible
vm.swappiness=0

(use sudo nano filename to edit those files and be very careful -- wrong entries can render your system unbootable).

This will enable swap on boot and tell the system to use it as little as possible to reduce flash wear.