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[mavrothal]

Wow! Not even a week after the release of OLPC-11.2.0/os874 and the development of the next version, OLPC 11.3.0 has started(!) with a target release date November 1 (yes, this year )

And when I say "started", I mean that the first development release, os1, is already out with considerable improvements! (Granted 11.2.0 was a major step forward but has a considerable number of "known problems")

OLPC11.3.0/os1 goes back to ubifs for XO-1 images, that OLPC-11.2.0 builds had up to os23, but with an almost 100MB decrease in size compared to os23! So its size is comparable os874.

To install on the XO-1 you need the "os1.uim" and "os1.onu" files on a USB stick, an unlocked XO-1 and to issue from the OFW "ok" prompt "update-nand u:\os1.onu", for clean install.

[mavrothal]

After a day or so with OLPC 11.3.0/os1 I would say that unless you want to help with development, stay with the last official build, os874!

There is nothing wrong with the build, I just did not find any worthy advantage over os874.

The boot speed advantage that earlier ubifs builds offered disappeared
I suspect because of the xz compression that is considerable heavier for the processor so from the moment that you get out of console till you get the fully populated home screen almost 30sec pass.

The major limitation though is that despite the image size being comparable to os874, the available free space in the NAND is ~100MB less. 
I suspect that is a configuration issue that should be fixed soon, but for the moment is a beaker for me.
Even after removing some unused files the free storage space barely reaches 300MB as oppose to 400MB for os874.

Talking about deleting unused files, the OLPC 11.2.0 delete_unsused script will work but I believe the one below is more appropriate. Frees ~40MB of disk space.
As usually copy/paste, chmod and execute as su/sudo.

Code:

#!/bin/sh
# This script will remove extra localization, dri, firmware and
# 256x256 icon files from the F14-based OLPC builds for the XO-1.
# Will also prevent installation of additional locales by new rpms
#
# mavrothal, GPL2, 2011
#
# No warranties.
#
# version 9
#
# Works with ubifs but not jffs2.
#
# Thx to KG for testing

# Check if it is an XO-1
XOVER=`cat /sys/class/dmi/id/product_version`
if [ "$XOVER" != "1" ] ; then
echo " This script is for the XO-1 only"
exit 0
fi

# Check if it is an OLPC build
BUILDORG=`cat /etc/issue | grep OLPC`
if [ "$BUILDORG" = "" ] ; then
echo " This script is for OLPC builds only"
exit 0
fi

# Check if it is an F14 build
KERNVER=`uname -r | cut -d "." -f 3`
if [ "$KERNVER" != "35" ] ; then
echo " This is script is for F14 builds only"
exit 0
fi

# Check if is an jffs2 build
JFFS=`df | grep mtdblock0`
if [ "$JFFS" != "" ] ; then
echo " Please use version 8 of this script for jffs2 builds from"
echo " http://www.olpcnews.com/forum/index.php?topic=4965.msg33324#msg33324"
exit 0
fi

# Make sure we have language set
LANGVER=`cat /home/olpc/.i18n | cut -d "\"" -f2 | cut -d "_" -f 1`
if [ "$LANGVER" = "" ] ; then
echo " There is no language set!"
echo " Please set language in the control panel"
echo " and then reboot and run this script again"
sleep 5
exit 0
fi

# How much space do we have available before deletions
AVAILBEF=`df -B M / | awk 'END {print $4}' | tr -d 'M'`

# Delete extra locales, dri and firmware files
OSVER=`ls /versions/pristine`
# Make sure we do not delete needed files
chattr +i /versions/{pristine,run}/"$OSVER"/lib/firmware/usb8388.bin
chattr +i -R /versions/{pristine,run}/"$OSVER"/usr/share/locale/"$LANGVER"*
chattr +i /versions/{pristine,run}/"$OSVER"/usr/share/locale/locale.alias
# Do delete what we do not need
rm -rf /versions/{pristine,run}/"$OSVER"/lib/firmware/* 2>/dev/null
rm -rf /versions/{pristine,run}/"$OSVER"/usr/share/locale/* 2>/dev/null
rm -rf /versions/{pristine,run}/"$OSVER"/usr/share/icons/*/256x256 2>/dev/null
# Restore needed
chattr -i /versions/{pristine,run}/"$OSVER"/lib/firmware/usb8388.bin
chattr -i -R /versions/{pristine,run}/"$OSVER"/usr/share/locale/"$LANGVER"*
chattr -i /versions/{pristine,run}/"$OSVER"/usr/share/locale/locale.alias

# Prevent additional locales being installed by new RPMs
LANGVERLONG=`cat /home/olpc/.i18n | cut -d "\"" -f2 | cut -d "." -f 1`
echo  "%_install_langs "$LANGVER":"$LANGVERLONG"" > /etc/rpm/macros.lang

sleep 1

# How much space do we have available after deletions
AVAILAFT=`df -B M / | awk 'END {print $4}' | tr -d 'M'`

# How much did we delete
DELETED=`expr $AVAILAFT - $AVAILBEF`
echo -e "\\0033[1;34m"
echo " An additional $DELETED MB of disk space is now available"
echo -en "\\0033[0;39m"
sleep 3
exit 0

[mavrothal]

In case you missed it , the first release candidate for OLPC 11.3.0 (os880) is out and works in both locked and unlocked XOs.

I guess the major focus of this release is to bring the XO-1.75 os in sync with the XO-1 and XO-1.5. So do not expect major changes from OLPC11.2.0 (os874).
However are some things that worth the update. You get Sugar 0.94 with the improved journal, as well as tab browsing and PDF viewing(!) in the browser, and of course the latest Fedora 14 updates.

If you are already running OLPC11.2.0, then olpc-update is straight forward, as long as you have ~120MB storage space available, and you get to keep all your data (though extra software other than activities will be removed).
If you are running OLPC 11.1.3 you are better off with a clean install unless you can make ~400MB room in your NAND.
Be advised that you can not update the XO-1 from OLPC 11.3.0 development-releases (os1-7) that use the dual jffs2/ubifs partition of the NABD. The files are trying to be written in the /bootpart partition and of course there is no sufficient space.

Give it a try.  

BTW the cleanup script from the post above will not work in os880+, since it has moved back to the jffs2 file system. Use this one instead, though the gain is considerable smaller now (~20MB) since major offenders (dri, firmware) have already been moved out of OLPC builds.

[kimtoufectis]

With over 200 MB free I tried an upgrade, and things started well enough.  I rebooted and it hung during startup, re-rebooted, and got to the home screen with my data intact!  Delighted, I opened the control panel and updated activities, also successfully.

I started Browse, which opened (in tab mode!) with my most recent bookmarks, and logged into webmail. For the first time it asked me whether I wanted it to remember a login and password; I said yes and the machine froze.  Rebooting hung up with only one of the circle of dots appearing on the splash screen, as did several re-rebootings.

Farewell data; hello USB upgrade...

[mavrothal]

Kim,
did you reboot with the XO connected to the power supply?
I always do that on new builds since it may need to update the firmware and if is not connected will not. In this build there is a firmware update.

More important however, is how long you waited on the first reboot "hung" before forcing reboot?
It can stay in the first dot for a minute or more (depending on your installation) because is cleaning up the old and re-configuring the new build. If you stop it prematurely will mess-up the OS in unpredictable ways depending on what's removed and what's configured properly .

If non of the above is true, then is definitely a bug worth reporting to OLPC Devel.

For the record, I had no problem with my yahoo webmail and other password websites, with or without saving the password

[kimtoufectis]

Yes. plugged in through the whole process.  It even updated firmware...but after an initial boot, a five minute wait wouldn't reboot; I gave it more than enough time.

Since there's a bug registered for using a USB LAN device, I'm wondering if my USB mouse could have caused a problem?

Have no idea how to log a bug; I tried once about an earlier version of Sugar and found the process about as intuitive (and well-described for a newcomer) as swap, which, by the way, has made my 4 GB SD card unusable ever since I set it up with XO pup 6 or 9 months back, no offense but for an open community this kind of programming development is impenetrable for a newcomer...

[mavrothal]

Have no idea how to log a bug;

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Reporting_bugs#Harder_but_more_helpful:_Trac_with_care

Regarding the rest, I report/respond on what I find/do/asked, the best I can.
Apologies if this is not sufficient for you or any other XO user.

[kimtoufectis]

Mav--

My comments are not a knock on you or any other individual.  They are my frank perception of a community that claims to be open but puts a very steep learning curve in front of new members.  [With ~2 million children having laptops, how many posts do we see from them?  I know only some have web access, but I suspect the answer is "about zero" and that says a lot.]

You reference a website in response to my frustration about that steep curve.  Let me quote back the first sentence at the linked page:  "If you can verify that the problem is to do with Sugar alone, and nothing to do with the XO at all, then report a bug in the Sugar Labs bug tracker."  Easy to type, but with only one XO (for that matter only one Linux personal computer), it effectively means they don't want to hear from me since I can never verify that, I can only surmise.

This great "open" community has tall, steep walls, my friend.  I'm grateful that you, and some others, give those of us on the outside some sense of what's inside the walls.  I just don't confuse that with being welcomed inside...

[ywarnier]

I'd just like to mention that this is pretty much the same for any software development community. The people who can develop best are not spending much time opening to the community because there's so much to do and so many people who take a long time to accompany along the steep learning curve, then just disappear without contributing the equivalent of the help invested.

I manage a 700,000 people community and only about 100 report bug over a one-year span, and this is a community of adults (I would assume they would tend to be more responsible and understand the concept of giving time to something that makes them save time). This is, being one of the easiest software to use in its category, with a documented way to report bugs and an open forum where they can discuss things before they are qualified as "bugs".

That's not to say it can't be better, but don't fool yourself either: people have to make a living of something and have to focus on specific things before they can spend their free time doing something interesting, and once they do, only part of that is spent on this project. That very limited part of their time should be spent helping others contribute only  for people who will give back, and this is a difficult quality to assert through a forum.

Having them complain on how difficult it is instead of giving clear recommendations to ease things up in a scalable way tends to show that they are not a good investment (but that's not an absolute measure, I've seen *one* case before when a very demanding person became a contributor).

But I'm just saying that as an external observer and maybe my views are not the ones of the people who contribute most around here.

[mavrothal]

Kim,
I can understand your frustration very well!
Like you, I got my G1G1 XO 3,5 years ago as my first linux system and still the XOs are my only linux machines. Like you (?) I am a Mac person and have no computer training of any kind.
The difference is that after the first 1,5 years I realized that unless you start understanding what's going on in the software side and in the open community, the frustration will stay with you for ever.
Now I can say that I probably understand maybe 90% of the principles but definitely less than 10%  of the actual code/details, but still get frustrated occasionally...

Open source software is only "open" and "fiendly"in its licensing! In every other aspect as as complex as any other and is developed mostly by professionals that either paid to do that or are paid to do something analogous and volunteer  the rest. These people are not "friendly" and if they were they wouldn't do any developing! First because of lack of time and second because of frustration!!!
Imaging going to your doctor and say "2 weeks ago I had a headache. Got 2 aspirins and went away. I demand to tell me what was the problem" and then you get frustrated because you did not get the right answer. Now, put your feet in the doctor's sho*es (sory but forum rules do not allow the word with out the asterisk ).

The reason that I gave you that link is for the part that reads

any bug can be fixed if it can be recreated...

I used the same G1G1 XO-1 machine, with the same(?) initial software (OLPC 11.2.0), and typed the identical update command and had no problem with boot or browse. How can I (or anybody) know what went wrong in your case if you do not provide some more info?
For example:
Describe the best you can what other software was installed in your XO before the update.
Describe the best you can the update sequence and any messages that showed up during the process.
Boot while pressing the check-mark game key so instead of the nice animation you get a console and actually tell at which point the XO freezes.
Run a hardware test to make sure that nothing is wrong with the specific XO-1.
See if you can boot from the SDcard/USB in Teapot's Ubuntu, Debian, XOpup or any other OS that you might have used, and recover the logs from the internal NAND that might shed some light to the problem. etc, etc...
In short, show that you invested some time before you ask other to invest theirs, even to give an extensive response like this one. And certainly before you get frustrated.
  
Instead you tell me that you can not be sure if this a Sugar or OLPC bug. I do not know why you would think that when the computer does not boot could be a Sugar bug?
But even if you are not sure, what I understand from the phrasing is that if you can not verify is "Sugar only", file it   here. No? And I did not see any warning that bug "miss-filers" will be beheaded either.
Further more if you do think that this statement is wrong, log into the wiki page and change it to more appropriate phrasing, so the next newcomer will not have this problem. That's the idea of a wiki page!

Then you go on mentioning "BTW" about some card that was messed up by swap, again providing no info and implying lack of support. I hope that you can realize how frustrating this can be. And by no account I am a "developer".

In short it takes 2 to dance. Quality problem reporting leads to quality fixing of software, wiki pages or forum posts. Being nice and friendly also helps a lot.
If the above are fulfilled in vain then frustration is warranted, though I'm afraid in many cases unavoidable...
However, I have a hard time seeing how this is worse than entering any other complex process/community.

PS: Regarding bug reports from the 2 million kids, just do a simple test. Take a very popular forum thread, say teapot's ubuntu. Out of 400.000 views you have 30-40 individuals posting at best and these are english speaking adults in the developed world. You can try the same in an Apple or Windows forum if you wish.
Why would you think that non-english speaking kids would contribute any more or even the same?
I do agree that people/kids must be encouraged to contribute more but this can be done only at a personal (face to face) level. The medium per se is not favoring this I'm afraid.

PPS To be "welcome inside" the developer (or any) community, you need to be able to contribute. At any level. Ask an interesting question, file a bug, translate to another language, edit/start a wiki page... something.
Above all try to get the mentality/ethics of the community and do not be negative even when you feel like that. At least in the beginning
Read this to get some ideas about developers, and this about bugs.

[mavrothal]

In case you missed it OLPC 11.3.0 final is out.

Do see New_features but also Known_problems to decide.
Sugar 0.94 and improved activity collaboration are the big pluses, and of course Fedora 14 if you are still running OLPC 10.1.x /dextrose-2 or earlier