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[teapot]

I understand that a lot of people want additional kernel functionality, however before releasing anything for it I want to make sure that userspace works well with the stable kernel from 8.2.0.

Making clear that I understand very little (read: nothing) about it, here is an idea. Given the Ubuntu is based on Debian and DebXO has a more complete kernel would it be possible to run Ubuntu with the DebXO kernel? Eg how much of your Intrepid modifications are 767-kernel specific? If it's easy (less than 50 lines of commands... ) and you say how I would be willing to try a Deb-untu    

All packaged kernels in all distributions are mostly the "official" or "Linus" source plus some set of patches, compiled for some hardware platform and packaged for particular distribution. Ubuntu and Debian share the same package format, however releases of both don't support XO hardware, so one has to apply patches from OLPC kernels and compile them with XO-specific options to produce a packaged kernel that will install and work on XO/Ubuntu as native package. This is the same as relationship between RPMs from Fedora for x86 and OLPC kernel packages -- both are in the same format and compiled for the same type of CPU, however options and applied patches are different.

There is also a matter of ramdisk content and build procedure -- it's slightly different between distributions. I had to use SysV init (used in Fedora and Debian) instead of upstart (used in regular Ubuntu by default) to make system compatible with OLPC ramdisk, however it should also work with Debian and Ubuntu ramdisks, given that they are built from the same kernel/modules set.

Building is fast and easy but testing is hard and time-consuming, so instead of doing this before Intrepid release I have taken kernel from a well-tested OLPC release and included it in its original form. Of course, Intrepid release also "inherited" its limitations, so it's not a replacement for a properly packaged kernel, it just allowed me to avoid inflicting potentially buggy kernel builds on the users who want something reliable. Now Intrepid is out and apparently works without problems, so I can mess with kernel.

I don't know how close DebXO kernel is to the current releases in OLPC joyrides, so it's possible that either it can be installed directly in Intrepid, or that it will be a better idea to take current OLPC source, enable missing devices/filesystems support and build a Debian package from it. There were a lot of changes and patches in OLPC kernel before 8.2.0, so at least those things should be preserved.

I should look at OLPC, DebXO and "official" kernel sources, check which updates went where, and either recommend DebXO binary packages or make packages from updated sources. Intrepid for XO uses non-packaged OLPC kernel, however since everything uses version-specific names, it should be possible to simply install a new kernel on top of it, update symlinks, and do all further upgrades using Debian packages like the rest of Ubuntu.

[teapot]

I would like to make my Ubuntu installation faster and it seems that my 2Gb card won't be enough after installing everything I need.

So, I decided to buy a high-speed SDHC card for my XO in order to be able to install everything and comfortably use my XO as a download station (with Azureus which I think is the best bittorrent client).

Will the SDHC cards work with Intrepot? I mean, there were SDHC boot and other issues earlier in 2008 here in the forums.

Has anyone installed Intrepot on an SDHC card? Issues?

All I know is that some cards had problems at various times, however it wasn't specifically SDHC cards. Personally I have only seen the [in]famous "write garbage into partition table on suspend/resume" bug that deprived Ubuntu of power management until it was fixed, however that was not specific to any type or model of SD cards.

[mavrothal]

I would like to make my Ubuntu installation faster and it seems that my 2Gb card won't be enough after installing everything I need.

So, I decided to buy a high-speed SDHC card for my XO in order to be able to install everything and comfortably use my XO as a download station (with Azureus which I think is the best bittorrent client).

Will the SDHC cards work with Intrepot? I mean, there were SDHC boot and other issues earlier in 2008 here in the forums.

Has anyone installed Intrepot on an SDHC card? Issues?

I have used Ubuntu Hardy/Intrepid with  a Kingston class 6 and a Transcend Class 6, 4GB SDHC cards (all cards over 2GB are HC) without a problem. An A-data Turbo class 6, 8GB card was a nightmare with continuous corruptions, unrelated to the XO-suspend bug. I remember I had found in a post (only too late) outside this forum  a comparison of various SDHD cards on different netbooks including the XO. The conclusion was A-data, no-good for the XO (OK for EeePC), the other 3-4, OK for the XO. I do not really remember the brands but I think Kingston, SanDisk and PNY were among the "good" ones. However, SDcards specs/manufacturing are changing quite often.... 

Edit I found the link for SD card comparison http://ossguy.com/?p=27
Of course it refers to last year products...

[Directive0]

could someone please seed the .tar?

[mavrothal]

could someone please seed the .tar?

The .tar is 817 MB....

[Casey]

Wow, Intrepid is really nice! Thanks so much, Teapot, for all your hard work!

I would like to make my Ubuntu installation faster and it seems that my 2Gb card won't be enough after installing everything I need.

So, I decided to buy a high-speed SDHC card for my XO in order to be able to install everything and comfortably use my XO as a download station (with Azureus which I think is the best bittorrent client).

Will the SDHC cards work with Intrepot? I mean, there were SDHC boot and other issues earlier in 2008 here in the forums.

Has anyone installed Intrepot on an SDHC card? Issues?

I couldn't get sfdisk to work at all on a Kingston 8GB Class 6 card. Instead I followed Teapot's Hardy instructions using fdisk and that did the trick.
I had the same problem when I tried to use mavrothal's script (also using sfdisk) to install Hardy on a different Kingston 8GB Class 6 card but the script worked a treat on a PNY 2GB SD card and a Lexar 4GB SDHC card. Weird!

Thanks, again, Teapot! 

[jrobbins]

Why did I wait so long to try out Ubuntu?  Fabulous, Teapot!  No more fighting to get the keybindings to function (I hadn't realized you already did that work).  I now understand the advantages of deb packages over the dependency disaster that is the normal Linux.

A few quick impressions/issues:

Please look at www.nyt.com.  In the configuration of Firefox brower size/fonts, text is cut out or slammed together.  See, for example, the stock quotes under "Market" on the right side.  How does one adjust to read this, but not adversely affect the way that this site basically (not totally) is visible in a single view?

I am using a Kingston SDHC 8Gb card (model SD4/8GB) and it is working fine.

OpenOffice took nearly 3 minutes to open, and then was sluggish.  I added the swap file (and makde it permanent) per your instructions.  OpenOffice now opens in 10-15 seconds (and I can still reboot this computer, so I guess I edited the correct files for the swap).

I am having trouble with Skype audio, just as I did with my Xfce installation over Sugar.  What advice can you offer regarding the settings to resolve this?

VLC and Audacity both install nicely, and the deb package for Audacity supports mp3 import (the standard Linux offering on sourceforge.net does not).  JRE properly runs (I see a VPN in my future).

I now understand that Wine is, essentially, a layer to allow running of Windows applications.  Is that actually useful and workable through Ubuntu?

Can I configure the XO now to print wirelessly over my network to any printer I so choose, and do I need print drivers?

Other than rebooting without the SD card installed, is there a way to run the 8.2.0 Sugar (seems now that this computer can work both for adults and kids)?  And, is there any reason now that I would not want to reflash back to a clean 8.2.0 underlying Sugar install?

Whew!  Thanks.  JCR

[Directive0]

could someone please seed the .tar?

The .tar is 817 MB....

Okay, sorry, whatever we're going to call the torrent file.  Could someone please seed it, I'm sitting at 45%.  Thanks.

[StewieGriffin]

Please look at www.nyt.com.  In the configuration of Firefox brower size/fonts, text is cut out or slammed together.  See, for example, the stock quotes under "Market" on the right side.  How does one adjust to read this, but not adversely affect the way that this site basically (not totally) is visible in a single view?

Edit...Preferences...Font...Advanced...Turn off minimum font size.  Then you can use the normal Firefox zooming to fit your web pages.

[sola]

I just wrote a small summary in the laptop.org Wiki about Teapot's Intrepid release.

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Ubuntu_Intrepid_for_the_XO

Feel free to improve it (requires login).

If I have some time, I will copy the install instructions and create entries for typical customizations.

[mavrothal]

Okay, sorry, whatever we're going to call the torrent file.  Could someone please seed it, I'm sitting at 45%.  Thanks.

The torrent is seeding fine as far as I can see right now. You may want to check/restart your torrent client. Will save whatever is downloaded

I am having trouble with Skype audio, just as I did with my Xfce installation over Sugar.  What advice can you offer regarding the settings to resolve this?

Set in skype options sound in/out/ringing  to "CS5535 audio (hw:audio,0)". If this does not fix open alsa mixer by typing "alsamixer -V all" (not the sound control panel) and set it as in these post http://www.olpcnews.com/forum/index.php?topic=2240.msg24416#msg24416 and http://www.olpcnews.com/forum/index.php?topic=2240.msg24419#msg24419 
Make sure you select "mic 1" "V_REFOUT MM" and "external amplifier 00"
Skype video should be disabled

I now understand that Wine is, essentially, a layer to allow running of Windows applications.  Is that actually useful and workable through Ubuntu?

Not really. Check at the bottom of this post http://www.olpcnews.com/forum/index.php?topic=3062.msg24411#msg24411

Other than rebooting without the SD card installed, is there a way to run the 8.2.0 Sugar (seems now that this computer can work both for adults and kids)?

Press the "O" game button while starting up till it tells you to release the game key

And, is there any reason now that I would not want to reflash back to a clean 8.2.0 underlying Sugar install?

No but make sure you get your developers key before you boot in Ubuntu again. May not be necessary but just in case.

[electropriest]

in regards to the usb-vga adapters, they do work quite well for presentations. i used the binaries that had been posted on the wiki most of last summer for presentations in joyride builds, but they ceased to work as the builds progressed. i have not had the time to rebuild a current kernel, but hope to, only for the sake of the sisusbvga drivers. (i suppose i could then post the binaries, assuming we are all using the same kernel version).

then again, if this is on your slate for an upcoming build, teapot, i will hold off.

It sounds like your version of Intrepid, Teapot, is a huge success and that even novices like me can attempt it (which I plan to do in the next week or so).  Does anyone know what the prospects are for getting USB to VGA output to a LCD projector (apart from the hardware modification approach or projecting through a PC monitor) in Intrepid?  Or is that task too tall an order to expect?  That one modification would make the XO do everything I'd want it to do, and I bet others might feel the same way.  

It can be done ( http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Remote_display and http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Adding_USB_SVGA ), however it requires kernel modules update, so I can only add this in the new kernel package. I understand that a lot of people want additional kernel functionality, however before releasing anything for it I want to make sure that userspace works well with the stable kernel from 8.2.0.

Also take into account that USB VGA adapters are slow -- their primary purpose is slideshows/presentations.

[Devon]

That's great news, Electropriest and Teapot, about the potential for rebuilding the kernel to accommodate USB to VGA output.  That will make the XO into a true road machine for giving presentations. 

Once you rebuild the kernel, Teapot, what will take to update/install it with your current Intrepid set-up on SD?  Or would this be a "back to the beginning" kind of task, requiring a whole new installation of Intrepid to SD?

[mavrothal]

It would appear there is a problem with audio players (file location issues?) Neither Audacious nor Rhythmbox are capable of playing mp3 or m4a audio files. Rhythmox explicitly states that does not have the required codec to play mp3 (!) and does nothing for m4a. VLC and MPlayer also refuse to play m4a (though VLC does in other platforms) but they are fine with mp3 files. Any ideas?

[Sam J.]

Serious problem:
-I installed the intrepid release on a 4gb SD card and it seemed to work extremely well for a day or so.
- first hint of problem came after enabling power management: I noticed a loss of scroll down function of the rocker key in tablet mode after coming out of suspend.
- then it lost keyboard function; ie some keypresses had no effect.
- I rebooted several times but keyboard problem persisted; couldn't login due to faulty key response.
- booted into sugar, found similar loss of keyboard function.
- (opened terminal, first few keypresses would work, but then subsequent ones would have odd effects such as changing the terminal prompt, even closing terminal.)
- decided to start over completely by, first, doing a clean install of sugar os767.img but on attempting to do so (ie booting with 4 game-pad buttons down, os767 on USB drive) I received following message:
****
<buffer@900000>:1: Image file size is not a multiple of the NAND erase block size
OLPC C2, 256 MiB memory installed S/N CSN...
OpenFirmware Cl1 Q2E18 Q2E
Use power button to power off.
****
So now I'm really stuck.
(In case you're wondering: I didn't dump the xo into the bathtub.)
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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