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[kimtoufectis]

Time flies.  I posted "Yes" to the query whether os140py was the best xo-1 os ever, and  just weeks later I believe it's been surpassed.

In struggling to get os180py loaded (finally did it, but very much like 140 as I see it) a SugarLabs IRC'er informed me he was using 240; a web search on "os240py.img" took me promptly to a SugarLabs repository of successive versions for the xo-1 running all the way to 295; they install the same way as 140.

All these versions switch from Sugar to a typical Linux desktop in about 30 seconds, with a decent suite of applications (Firefox 3.5, AbiWord, Audacity, a spreadsheet, IRC client, and so forth).  What got Wayan so excited about the XO-1.5 that he posted a video of the switch-over is certainly available on the XO-1 without heroic means...

295 seems quite a stable version of Sugar, with several advances:
-  The journal has made some strides in usability.
-  Browse now supports multiple tabs and has a more sophisticated but still compact interface.
-  The camera works (it didn't on my machine in 140), and while the touchpad still isn't great it seems improved over 140.
-  Several activities new to me...I was impressed with one to locate free books, and pulled down Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court as a test; it saved to the journal and opened promptly in Read (which also shows some new features).

Even as I explore 295, SugarLabs has put out what appears to be a version with a different naming convention, os16, that may consolidate gains in the development stream for the rest of us; it may be a logical next step for those of you who appreciate 140.  You can find it here:
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Deployment_Team/Fedora_on_the_XO-1

Happy exploring--
--Kim

[Freemor]

Thanks for the heads up on os16.img. I flashed it in and it seems to be working great. Has anyone written a script to convert the jffs2 image to an ext3 image so it can be used on an SD card. I've done such manually before and will again if no scrpit exists (possibly writing a scriptin the process). Just wodering if there was now a quick and easy route to ext3/SD niceness?

Regards,
Freemor

[Eddie Owens]

I just took the new OS out for a test drive today (skipped the os140py and went streight to the os180py) and it looks very good!  "High Honors" should go to the developers!

Question: Has anyone tried using the "Multiboot" version of the olpc.fth on a usb or sd card with the new q2e42d OFW?  I put it on an sd card with Deborah 0.5 and and a usb stick with an experimental Puppy Linux:  The SD card hangs at the OFW "OK" prompt, and the USB stick hangs at the stick man and does not even get to the OFW messages and "OK" prompt.

Anyone know if it is possible to use the multiboot option with q2e42d OFW?

[kimtoufectis]

Freemor--

A chat with Bernie at SugarLabs clarifies the os16 versus osxxxpy naming conventions:  to date the former series still runs Sugar 0.84, whereas the latter series runs an early version of Sugar 0.88.  I've been running os295py for a few days without difficulty, so it may be worth a try just for the advances in Browse (tabs!) and some of the other mainstay activities show updates.

--Kim

[goney3]

I checked out this link:
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Deployment_Team/Fedora_on_the_XO-1

I've been running os16 (most recent as of this posting) for two days now. This is outstanding! I've ran everything from teapots Ubuntu to eXtraOrdinary 2010... this beats them all (as far as how EASY it was to install and getting things running). I can play movies off my SD card with no glitches, the wifi works, things are good... the only real "issue" I ran into so far is that any kind of graphic package manager (yumex and packagekit) die when running. So YUM still installs stuff from the command line. I've put on gnome-games (it adds them to the "start menu") and now the little laptop is ready to play!



Feel free to use/resize the wallpaper I made here: (500k)
http://www.metafocus.net/~goney/images/XO-Background-Fedora.jpg

[mavrothal]

I've been running os16 (most recent as of this posting) for two days now.

Actually the latest is os300 !!!
Is a mix of os16 and os180py with some more bugs fixed and soon will become an official OLPC build so will be able to install even in locked XOs (without a developers key).
I would expect os301,2... final/official, to appear really soon (days)

the only real "issue" I ran into so far is that any kind of graphic package manager (yumex and packagekit) die when running. So YUM still installs stuff from the command line.

Yumex and yum and the XO in general, works much better with some swap. 256 or even 128MB makes it a new machine

Feel free to use/resize the wallpaper I made here: (500k)
http://www.metafocus.net/~goney/images/XO-Background-Fedora.jpg

Very nice
Is it release under GPL or other license?

[kimtoufectis]

Hmmm, another week and 295 has already been superseded!  I'm presuming these are modest bug-fix advances, but Sugar 0.88 seems about ready for prime time.

Mav:  If swap is the enabler you report, then back up and tell me, a linux newbie, how to set it up...

Meanwhile:  I've been exploring browser alternatives to Firefox.  Some findings to date:

• Opera is an old favorite from my first weeks with the xo; version 10.60 installed painlessly but runs so slowly it's useless; any guidance about reverting to an earlier version--10.50, 10.10, 9.64?
• Midori is quick, light, installs painlessly via yum, and is customizable, but locks up on certain websites; I don't know enough about website design to know why.
• Konqueror installed via yum much as Midori, but I can't find it--no new entry in the list of Internet applications, and it doesn't launch from the Terminal.
• Epiphany installed easily and runs as "GNOME Web Browser 2.26.3"

It's worth noting that all these browsers go in and out of fullscreen more easily on my xo than Firefox (that lack of an F11 key!) and in Midori it's easy to set the box and double-box keys (the two at the top right of the xo) to toggle fullscreen and menu toolbars.

Get in there and explore folks...

--Kim

[Freemor]

Kim:

   thanks for the clarification. I'll stick with os16.img until the official new release comes out. the osXXXpy.img series is moving very fast and I don't feel like a re-flash every 4 days to keep up.

Goney:

    Thanks for the cool wallpaper.

Also, I was able to get os16.img to boot from an SD card. it was quite easy just a find . -xdev -print0 | cpio -v -o -c /dev/mmcblk0p1  type thing. I'd need to double check the cpio options. If they do not produce an ext3 image of the official os I'll post a step by step with the exact command and/or throw up an ext3 dd able image.

The nicest surprise was that the olpc.fth was so well written it did not need to be modified. Unfortunately my 8GB sd card is tied up right now so I'm not going to bother doing a lot of customizing until I have the official release on the 8GB card.

Goney:

  the way I do swap is I formatted an old 1GB  SD card that I no longer cared about as a linux swap partition. (using an SD as swap will burn it out much faster then "normal" use). When I need swap I put it in a usb SD reader. plug it into the XO and run:

sudo swapon /dev/sdxx
 
where sdxx is the device that the usb cardreader/card was detected as (dmesg will tell you this) usually sda1 unless you already have another thumb drive inserted.

Regards,
Freemor

[goney3]

Very nice
Is it release under GPL or other license?

I believe the OLPC logo is under the Creative Commons
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC:License
The Fedora logo (at second look) seems like I did a "no no" with it.
I deviated from the original color pallet, and the "tm" isn't visible.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Logo/UsageGuidelines
Though if you ever wanted to include this in a project it would need clearance from here:
[email protected]

I just made it for fun to match the laptops green/white color scheme. I would love for it to just be in the public domain but I think that violates the other two agreements, so I guess that makes it CC-BY-SA? or GPL?

Goney:

  the way I do swap is I formatted an old 1GB  SD card that I no longer cared about as a linux swap partition. (using an SD as swap will burn it out much faster then "normal" use). When I need swap I put it in a usb SD reader. plug it into the XO and run:

sudo swapon /dev/sdxx
 

Awesome! Thank you, I'll have to give it a try.
Does that also work with just usb flash drives in general too?

[mavrothal]

@kim
os300 is Sugar 0.84 not 0.88 so continuation of os16

Swap: Unfortunately there are many ways to setup swap...
you  can use fdisk or parted to format a stick or SDcard and make a swap partition. Then edit /etc/fstab. Alternatively you can make a swap file on any device (internal NAND, SDcard, USB stick) that is ext2/3 formatted with the flowing direction. In terminal type

Code:

su
dd if=/dev/zero of=/swap.bin bs=1M count=256 #will take some time
chmod 600 /swap.bin
mkswap /swap.bin
swapon /swap.bin
nano /etc/fstab
#in the window that opens add this line
/swap.bin none swap defaults 0 0
#exit and save

This will make a swap file in your internal NAND.
If you want to make the swap in a USB replace in all instances "/swap.bin", with "/dev/sda1/swap.bin" and for an SDcard  with "/dev/mmcblk0p1/swap.bin

Note: Lines starting with # above are comments. Even if you copy/paste is OK
Note2: dd is very "powerfull". Typos can messup everything

Opera: "yum erase opera" should do it.

Midori: from the preferences/network have midori report as Firefox or Safari

[goney3]

I tried os300 tonight, gnome-games wouldn't install (freezes-up terminal and crashes desktop) ... and movies don't play at all (missing stuff).

back to os16 again

[mavrothal]

I tried os300 tonight, gnome-games wouldn't install (freezes-up terminal and crashes desktop)

Which games?

... and movies don't play at all (missing stuff).

you probably need to

Code:

yum install gstreamer-plugins-bad gstreamer-plugins-ugly gstreamer-ffmpeg a52dec faac faad2 ffmpeg-libs

that are additional video codecs not included in os300 but present in os16 (os16 is 40+MB bigger and has several more additional libraries)

...or you use os16

[tinghar]

thanks you for this post

if using this operating system,will it affect the backlight off mode.
Because I use it as ebook reader most of the time,will the turn backlight off (black\white mode) button will be malfunctional?
I want to make sure it has no problem before installing this?

If you know please help me figure out this suspicous!
 

[kimtoufectis]

Mav--

Yes, os300 is 0.84.  os300py, on the other hand, is 0.88...though I'm happy enough with os295py that I've not felt the need to jump for the latest yet.  You'll find it here:

http://people.sugarlabs.org/bernie/olpc/f11-xo1-0.88/

I'm not sure what all the differences are between 0.84 and 0.88, but if you'd like the Browse activity to allow tabs 0.88 will do that job, and it is good to see progress on the control panel and the journal as well.

Tinghar--

It's always a big step:  if you're happy with your xo as it is, changes are a risk.  In this case, I have found few negative changes.  The backlight control seems to work as ever.  The trackpad remains touchy but an external mouse does not.  The only change that bothers me so far is that I used to be able to plug in my wired aluminum iMac keyboard and it no longer seems compatible, though a cheap mini USB keyboard still works.

If you decide to try one of the new versions, let us know what you find...

--Kim

[tinghar]

thanks to kimtoufectis ,I will try out this best version !