next »

[BradyNana]

Hello All!  I am hoping to get some help before I do anything that totally messes up the X0.  I bought one of the original XO's in the first G1G1. I seem to recall receiving it in late 2007 or early 2008.  It's basically been in the box until recently.  Now that my grandson is 3, I want to start working on it with him.  HOWEVER, I confess to being a non-computer person.  SO, I have been reading the OLPC sites and forums and it looks like I need to upgrade this XO from the original "stuff" inside it. I don't want to screw it up!  I did go out and buy an HP USB 4gb flash drive since I think from what I have read, I need one of these to do the upgrade. 
Is there a pdf? a set of instructions?  a website? that I can access that will walk me through the process I need to undertake to get this fabulous little machine working for my grandson?  I get quite confused trying to follow what upgrade is necessary first! Step by step how to directions would be outstanding. Any assistance or recommendations you can send me my way is most appreciated.  Wayne suggested posting to the forum because there are many XO experts out there to help me do this correctly.
Thanks very much for your help, Jacquie

[eden]

Hi.  You can download the software for the original XO-1 here:

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Release_notes/10.1.2

You can download the software with any computer (Linux, Windows, Mac) and put it on the usb drive.  The instructions to follow are the ones for the XO-1.

When it says save it to the "top directory," this just means put it on the drive without putting in a folder, so when you plug in the drive you see the files right away (once you open the drive itself, of course).

Have fun!

[BradyNana]

Thank YOU, Eden.  I will give it a try and see what I can accomplish!

[BradyNana]

I  loaded the two files onto the USB, changed the name of one file, as instructed on the X-O page.  I followed the directions and the boot failed.  This is what i was afraid of.  Since the machine has not been used since it was built, except to turn it on and futz around, is there something else that needs to be done to this system prior to any updates.  I can't afford to buy my grandson a new computer.  I need this one to work for him.  Any other suggestions to do this correctly?  Thank YOU!

[Dinky]

Don't panic just yet -- sometimes the download goes awry.  This has happened to me a few times in the many XO downloads over the last couple of years.

You can check if the download arrived correctly by checking the md5sum, but more about that later.  It is simpler for new users to just try it again.

More information is needed about how the boot fails.  Do you see anything at all appear on the screen?    If not,  your internal Real Time Clock battery may be discharged after the long time setting on the shelf.  This can be corrected, but it is not easy.

If you do see things on the screen, you may want to try downloading and installing the software version just before this latest.  This older software is 8.2.1  and the instructions for the download are at:  http://wiki.laptop.org/go/No-fail_update  .  Ignore all the warnings directing you to 10.2.1  .   You just have to click on two links to download the software to the USB drive as for 10.2.1  -- no renaming of files.

Finally, when many intermediate versions of the software have been skipped, the type of formatting on the USB drive has been reported to affect the booting.

If you do see things on the screen and all the above fails, send me a Personal Message and I will send you (loan) USB drive with the software (8.2.1) and which is known to work.

[BradyNana]

OKAY, I won't panic yet, but I am too tired now to keep fididdling with it or I will get so frustrated I will talk to myself.
I tried to install from the USB drive twice and both times I got "Boot Failed."  The XO,did go through some machinations while it was whirring, but as i recall, it kept indicating it could find things it was looking for.

BTW, i did go and check the system info or whatever it is called.  This is the info I copied down:  OLPC Build 656 streamship.2; variant devel_jffs2  kernel \r on an \m
CLI Q2007 Q2DCOLPC @ko-14-60-54-    (I think i copied it all correctly!)

Am i using the wrong words that make you computer experts think i am looking to do something i am not trying to do?  I just want to make this XO-1 run with any and all activities, software, programs, whatever it needs to run properly.  Since it is so old, I am thinking there have been all kinds of "improvements" or whatever terminology that requires me to update/upgrade/improve/ this current system.  I apologize for my lack of expertise.  I wish i knew how to do this correctly without hassling other people, but i am concerned that i need to do it right initially.  Now, of course, I am back to the beginning. 

I will keep the XO plugged in to the power supply and turned off. I will plug the USB in the XO again and then simultaneously press the on button and the four litle buttons on the right hand side

[Dinky]

ok.  You have build 656, which may have been the original ship on some XO's -- means no Real Time Clock battery problem (but it does only recharge while the XO is on)
Your XO lights up -- good.
Try downloading  8.2.1 and installing.
OR
Get me to send you USB with 8.2.1 on it.

p.s.  your machine is not old --- it remains a great little piece of work and will serve you for many years to come.

[BradyNana]

Now I think i should panic,perhaps, Dinky. The USB is plugged into the XO,  I did the button thing and now the screen has lots of grey lines with green lines starting to fill in from across the top,but it says "erasing" along the bottom and it is running a bunch of numbers, up to 648 now.  Is this ok??

[Dinky]

Erasing is great !  The grey lines sometime appear on display -- does no affect operation and it goes away when you shutdown and reboot.

misread-- green lines erasing and counting is normal operation of installing software-- takes about 10 minutes.

[BradyNana]

Excellent!  SO i am going to try to connect to the internet and update the software.  THANK YOU very much for sticking with me on this.  If not tonight, I will let you know tomorrow after work how things are going/have gone, Dinky!

[Dinky]

If the erasing finished and XO rebooted, your XO software has been updated -  you should see a whole different world on the screen.   As you said, you will need to connect to the internet to update the Activities to the latest version (by hovering over X man and selecting Control Panel from the menu).

I see by your personal message that you succeeded in updating to 8.2.1 .  From here, you should be able to update to 10.1.2.  , if your 10.1.2 download is not corrupted and if you want to go to the newest ( 10.1.2 was released 30 August 2010).

You can check for corruption by running the md5sum command on your .img files (use Terminal Activity as "su" and go to the directory of the files on your USB drive download;  "md5sum os852.img").  Compare this resulting number to the os852.img.md5 file at:  

http://download.laptop.org/xo-1/os/official/os852

The numbers should be the same.

Edit:
If you have any trouble connecting the XO to the internet, you can also install the Activities via the USB drive (download on another computer). See the manual section on installing Activities:
http://laptop.org/8.2.0/manual/      It involves using the "sugar-install-bundle" command.
You can download Activities from the Laptop.org or SugarLabs.org wiki.  Check the compatibility version of each Activity.  Versions for sugar 0.82  will work on XO with 8.2 software and versions 0.82 and 0.84 will work with 10.1.  Higher versions will require Sugar on a Stick (SoaS), which runs on a PC entirely from a USB drive (have you checked this out ?).  The manual may also help you connect to the internet.
 

[BradyNana]

HI Dinky,
I am currently downloading the updates to the software on my XO-1 as I type this.  Naturally, i had/have "issues" with my own laptop so I have not been able to spend any additional time on the XO until now.  Plus, i had to get a wireless router connection to the internet set-up. 
In your earlier post, you mentioned that I can now, most likely, upgrade to the most recent XO build that was released on 8 30 10.
Is there any problem if i try to do that after these software updates finish installing?  I know it is a stupid question, but does there need to be a time lag between these installations?
I am thrilled that i was able to connect with you to help me with this upgrade/improvement of my XO-1.  Brady will be here Saturday and I hope to have it all good to go for us to use Saturday afternoon.   

[strider]

You need a firmware update to update to the latest version of the OS. For the instructions see here : http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Firmware
Note that to upgrade the firmware you need to "unlock" the XO Laptop and getting a developer key (see here : http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Developer_key )

Have you tried using the XO without updating ? It worked pretty well when I first got it in early 2008. Then I updated to 8.2 and it was even better, but from what I've seen the 10.2 seems a bit broken, at least on my machine and for my usage.

[Dinky]

BradyNana:

You may wish to stay with 8.2.1  . It has been out for a while and most bugs have been fixed.  This is especially true if the Activities that you want run under it.  10.1.2 switches to a different arrangement where the Sugar software runs in the linux  / Gnome environment rather than being the startup software.  

As with 8.2.1, you will get the bundled Activites with 10.1.2 and any recent revisions of the Activities since the software release can be obtained on the internet using the Software Update in the Control Panel (menu under X  icon).  Note that your 8.2.1 came with the bundle of Activities and the update process automatically asked if you wanted to get the most recent revisions from the Internet -- but the Activities were already there as part of the update.  There exist many, many other Activities beyond those in the this initial "bundle"  -- see the Sugarlabs.org website.

I do not know specifically why your initial update to 10.1.2 did not work.  If it was a too large jump in versions, that is now taken care of.

Oh, no time lag.

As to strider's post,  updates using "official" builds such as 8.2.1 and 10.1.2 will examine the firmware and update it when necessary ( at least for small jumps in versions).  This is my understanding from wiki articles, but I am only a user and not from the technical side.  You can see what version of firmware is now on your XO by looking at the Control Panel and examine the Release Notes (eden's post) for the requirements.

Best.

[GregYohn]

Hola!

Use a NEW never used SD or Memory stick to store your downloaded files!

That is most likely your problem that the upgrade failed!

Repeat your steps and then you will probably be fine!