Re: [Server-devel] stability of XS 0.5
On Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 8:24 PM, Anna ascho...@gmail.com wrote: On Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 12:07 PM, Martin Langhoff martin.langh...@gmail.com wrote: I followed the instructions here for Fedora 9, but using the XS 0.5 install CD instead. http://www.reactivated.net/weblog/archives/2008/08/regular-linux-desktops-on-the-xo/ Also, in the kernel config file in /XO-alt-distro/kernel/2.6.25.15-XOaltF9-1 That's the main thing that worries me - the kernel. I'd like to use a standard F9 kernel -- when I talk about backporting cleverness, it's about applying some fixes that IIRC Jeremy Katz applied to the initrd that F10 carries. We need a standard Fedora kernel because - we don't need all the latest cleverness in power saving - we need as many drivers for network and usb kit as possible - we don't have easy access to kernel folk - Deepak is kept busy with laptop concerns I enabled the bonding module before I ran the sd_fixup script. At the end, it failed to do the chroot thing, so I looked at the chroot.sh script in /XO-alt-distro/distro/fedora-9 and then manually did: sed -i /VolGroup00/d /media/disk/etc/fstab cp olpc.fth /media/disk/boot Alternatively, you can use a more conventional disk partitioning scheme :-) I don't have a USB to ethernet adaptor, so I downloaded and put the rpm in /root before I disconnected the 8 GB SD card. I booted up on an XO and did the usual XS stuff, including installing the rpm, and got what looked like a working XS, with the exception of failure to load the extra iptables modules. I booted up a regular XO, got an IP on msh0, and then successfully registered to the XSXO. Moodle looked like it was working on the XSXO, but when I go to http://schoolserver/moodle, all I get on the regular XO is a bunch of error messages related to scorm. Overall, promising results :-) The iptables modules perhaps aren't included. That Moodle's failed is odd! /var/log/moodle/ will have an installation log that probably tells us what went wrong, can you post it. I haven't tried ejabberd yet, though I suspect the little XSXO might be a little underpowered to handle that with too many users. It should cope with 20~30 users. Simultaneous use with Moodle might need further tuning, but it can be made to work. At any rate, this needs testing definitely. But that's a great start :-) associated with an XS, this might be a solution. Boa does work on a regular XO, but I don't know if that would work within a simple mesh environment. We're still a bit tied to apache, can boa work with mod_python's low level hooks? I bet this would even work on an XO with a broken screen if it was otherwise going to go unused, as you could either ssh in to do stuff or simply swap the SD card temporarily. Using ssh might be a better idea anyway, as the console display is very, very small. Yeah. OTOH, I woudn't want to promote cannibalising the XS ;-) we'll see where this leads... cheers, m -- martin.langh...@gmail.com mar...@laptop.org -- School Server Architect - ask interesting questions - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff ___ Server-devel mailing list Server-devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel
Re: [Server-devel] stability of XS 0.5
On Fri, Dec 19, 2008 at 7:32 AM, Martin Langhoff martin.langh...@gmail.comwrote: That Moodle's failed is odd! /var/log/moodle/ will have an installation log that probably tells us what went wrong, can you post it. Here's the contents of /var/log/moodle/cron.log on the XSXO. That was the only file in there. I didn't see an install log. == Running cron - Thu Dec 18 16:00:03 CST 2008 == htmlbodytable align=centertrtd style=color:#99; text-align:center; font-size:large; border-width:1px; border-color:#00; border-style:solid; border-radius: 20px; border-collapse: collapse; -moz-border-radius: 20px; padding: 15pxpError: Database connection failed./ppIt is possible that the database is overloaded or otherwise not running properly./ppThe site administrator should also check that the database details have been correctly specified in config.php/p/td/tr/table/body/htmlADODB Error: Database connection failed == Running cron - Thu Dec 18 16:05:02 CST 2008 == PHP Fatal error: __clone method called on non-object in /var/www/moodle/web/lib/moodlelib.php on line 1817 == Running cron - Thu Dec 18 16:10:01 CST 2008 == PHP Fatal error: __clone method called on non-object in /var/www/moodle/web/lib/moodlelib.php on line 1817 == Running cron - Thu Dec 18 16:15:01 CST 2008 == PHP Fatal error: __clone method called on non-object in /var/www/moodle/web/lib/moodlelib.php on line 1817 == Running cron - Thu Dec 18 16:20:02 CST 2008 == PHP Fatal error: __clone method called on non-object in /var/www/moodle/web/lib/moodlelib.php on line 1817 == Running cron - Thu Dec 18 16:25:01 CST 2008 == PHP Fatal error: __clone method called on non-object in /var/www/moodle/web/lib/moodlelib.php on line 1817 Anna Schoolfield Birmingham ___ Server-devel mailing list Server-devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel
Re: [Server-devel] stability of XS 0.5
Hi All, I agree with Sameer that people should be informed in advance if there are known issues. I put a note on the release notes page and a link to this list at http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XS_Release_Notes#XS_0.5 When the documented features are working as designed we can remove it. Until then its better to warn people. Thanks, Greg S From: Sameer Verma sve...@sfsu.edu Subject: Re: [Server-devel] stability of XS 0.5 To: Martin Langhoff martin.langh...@gmail.com Cc: server-devel@lists.laptop.org Message-ID: 5fb387c70812180912o557b3c4bya86a82b9d66c4...@mail.gmail.com Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 On Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 3:42 AM, Martin Langhoff martin.langh...@gmail.com wrote: On Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 4:48 AM, Sameer Verma sve...@sfsu.edu wrote: Given that we still have issues cropping up with XS 0.5, are we still going to call it stable? It's great news that you care about this. Do you have a spare (standard modernish x86) you can use to join the testing efforts? Sure! I have a Fujitsu P2120 (Transmeta Crusoe ~900MHz proc, 384MB RAM) that I've been using for testing. We use it at all the OLPC-SF meetings. XS 0.4 works fine on it right out of the box, but no such love with 0.5, hence the concern. I've been following your thread on the built-in wireless card confusion and it looks like I may have the same issue. It's much easier than with the XO, which requires special HW. If you get involved, I can organise shipping additional hw that'll be useful. We can always dig up a relatively modern P4 for testing. What additional hw would this be? I'll soon push a new 0.5.1 candidate build. You'll be CC'd so you can lend a hand. OK. I'll wait for it. OTOH, all the reported issues have been diagnosed, and all but one fixed. Not bad for a milestone release in what is a fast development schedule towards 1.0. Don't get me wrong. I really appreciate your efforts. On my recent trip to India (http://opensource.sfsu.edu/node/593), I realized the immense importance of the school server in environs with no Internet backhaul. Khairat, India's first pilot, has a server, but its an old build (160 or 161, I think) and they recently lost their backhaul, so they don't use it anymore. The teacher asked for a lot of things that could be fixed easily with the current XS feature set. In other schools where they might consider getting XOs, the immense cost of backhaul will kill the effort before it gets off the ground. The XS fills that gap. This reminds me: We should explore sneakernet-like e-mail at some point, but I digress. The offline nature of content and software (wikislice, moodle, etc.) is going to be instrumental in getting XOs to poorer school districts that cannot afford backhaul connectivity.. In fact, I think the role of the school server is undersold and overshadowed by the XO's capabilities and eye candy. I'm just concerned that folks like Manoocher (http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/grassroots/2008-December/000953.html) might get misled by the stable monkier only to find out that the 0.5 ISO has issues. cheers, Sameer ___ Server-devel mailing list Server-devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel
Re: [Server-devel] stability of XS 0.5
On Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 3:42 AM, Martin Langhoff martin.langh...@gmail.com wrote: On Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 4:48 AM, Sameer Verma sve...@sfsu.edu wrote: Given that we still have issues cropping up with XS 0.5, are we still going to call it stable? It's great news that you care about this. Do you have a spare (standard modernish x86) you can use to join the testing efforts? Sure! I have a Fujitsu P2120 (Transmeta Crusoe ~900MHz proc, 384MB RAM) that I've been using for testing. We use it at all the OLPC-SF meetings. XS 0.4 works fine on it right out of the box, but no such love with 0.5, hence the concern. I've been following your thread on the built-in wireless card confusion and it looks like I may have the same issue. It's much easier than with the XO, which requires special HW. If you get involved, I can organise shipping additional hw that'll be useful. We can always dig up a relatively modern P4 for testing. What additional hw would this be? I'll soon push a new 0.5.1 candidate build. You'll be CC'd so you can lend a hand. OK. I'll wait for it. OTOH, all the reported issues have been diagnosed, and all but one fixed. Not bad for a milestone release in what is a fast development schedule towards 1.0. Don't get me wrong. I really appreciate your efforts. On my recent trip to India (http://opensource.sfsu.edu/node/593), I realized the immense importance of the school server in environs with no Internet backhaul. Khairat, India's first pilot, has a server, but its an old build (160 or 161, I think) and they recently lost their backhaul, so they don't use it anymore. The teacher asked for a lot of things that could be fixed easily with the current XS feature set. In other schools where they might consider getting XOs, the immense cost of backhaul will kill the effort before it gets off the ground. The XS fills that gap. This reminds me: We should explore sneakernet-like e-mail at some point, but I digress. The offline nature of content and software (wikislice, moodle, etc.) is going to be instrumental in getting XOs to poorer school districts that cannot afford backhaul connectivity.. In fact, I think the role of the school server is undersold and overshadowed by the XO's capabilities and eye candy. I'm just concerned that folks like Manoocher (http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/grassroots/2008-December/000953.html) might get misled by the stable monkier only to find out that the 0.5 ISO has issues. cheers, Sameer -- Dr. Sameer Verma, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Information Systems San Francisco State University San Francisco CA 94132 USA http://verma.sfsu.edu/ http://opensource.sfsu.edu/ ___ Server-devel mailing list server-de...@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel
Re: [Server-devel] stability of XS 0.5
On Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 3:12 PM, Sameer Verma sve...@sfsu.edu wrote: Sure! I have a Fujitsu P2120 (Transmeta Crusoe ~900MHz proc, 384MB RAM) that I've been using for testing. We use it at all the OLPC-SF meetings. XS 0.4 works fine on it right out of the box, but no such love with 0.5, hence the concern. I've been following your thread on the built-in wireless card confusion and it looks like I may have the same issue. Is that the only issue? What does the output of iwconfig look like? Do you have an AA? In other words, bugreports and/or reports to this list can give me enough hints to fix it. I depend on you reporting it... We can always dig up a relatively modern P4 for testing. What additional hw would this be? The machine you have is low end, but it should do for small groups - no need for a P4. Was thinking of an AA and/or an XO if you don't have them. Depends on what you're testing. Don't get me wrong. I really appreciate your efforts. On my recent trip to India (http://opensource.sfsu.edu/node/593), I realized the immense importance of the school server in environs with no Internet backhaul. Khairat, India's first pilot, has a server, but its an old build (160 or 161, I think) and they recently lost their backhaul, so they don't use it anymore. The teacher asked for a lot of things that could be fixed easily with the current XS feature set. Interesting to hear that. Do you think you could write up a brief summary of the things that teacher asked for...? (the slides linked, while interesting, don't seem to refer to this...) In other schools where they might consider getting XOs, the immense cost of backhaul will kill the effort before it gets off the ground. The XS fills that gap. This reminds me: We should explore sneakernet-like e-mail at some point, but I digress. Have you got an XO? I really need someone to help me experiment with booting F9 off an SD card (backporting whatever cleverness has been applied to F10) so we can put XS-0.6 on SD cards and say: XO + SD card + external USB HD = XS! (I don't think the XO will boot from an ext USB HD...) The offline nature of content and software (wikislice, moodle, etc.) is going to be instrumental in getting XOs to poorer school districts that cannot afford backhaul connectivity.. In fact, I think the role of the school server is undersold and overshadowed by the XO's capabilities and eye candy. Of course I agree, the XS is the sexiest part of OLPC, and we're the only ones that have noticed ;-) Is it feasible to make Wikislices with cjb's toolchain for the various languages in India? I'm just concerned that folks like Manoocher (http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/grassroots/2008-December/000953.html) might get misled by the stable monkier only to find out that the 0.5 ISO has issues. Reasonable point. It does say stable, and it also says 0.5 ;-) And we can also say that 0.4 is not very stable either -- I know quite a few scenarios where it has significantly more trouble than 0.5. cheers, m -- martin.langh...@gmail.com mar...@laptop.org -- School Server Architect - ask interesting questions - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff ___ Server-devel mailing list server-de...@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel
Re: [Server-devel] stability of XS 0.5
On Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 11:46 AM, Martin Langhoff martin.langh...@gmail.com wrote: Have you got an XO? I really need someone to help me experiment with booting F9 off an SD card (backporting whatever cleverness has been applied to F10) so we can put XS-0.6 on SD cards and say: XO + SD card + external USB HD = XS! (I don't think the XO will boot from an ext USB HD...) I tried FC9 following these instructions awhile back. http://www.reactivated.net/weblog/archives/2008/08/regular-linux-desktops-on-the-xo/ Would it work to install XS 0.5 to an SD card, then run that script to customize the kernel and olpc.fth so it boots up on the XO? And how would networking work? Anna Schoolfield Birmingham ___ Server-devel mailing list server-de...@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel
Re: [Server-devel] stability of XS 0.5
On Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 3:58 PM, Anna ascho...@gmail.com wrote: Would it work to install XS 0.5 to an SD card, then run that script to customize the kernel and olpc.fth so it boots up on the XO? And how would networking work? It should work but I haven't explored the practicalities of it. You're welcome to play in this area! Networking-wise, the laptop has a libertas device that appears to the OS exactly like an Active Antenna, so the XS OS will spot it and configure it to be the 'school mesh' antenna. That means that we're missing the WAN port, mainly. I think (and hope!) that if you plug in a USB-ethernet adapter (any that F9 supports), it'll be taken as eth0, and you're good to go if the school has dsl or something similar. Most linux-supported G3 (CDMA?) usb modems will also be autodetected -- configure ppp with the ISP-supplied details and run. This could be improved quite a bit to remove the need for local configuration -- take a usb stick with a predefined file with the ppp configuration, and autoconfigure a ppp0 device to automatically come up (and stay up). It should do something similar with a USB ext HD - use it for /library ... m -- martin.langh...@gmail.com mar...@laptop.org -- School Server Architect - ask interesting questions - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff ___ Server-devel mailing list server-de...@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel
Re: [Server-devel] stability of XS 0.5
On Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 12:07 PM, Martin Langhoff martin.langh...@gmail.com wrote: On Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 3:58 PM, Anna ascho...@gmail.com wrote: Would it work to install XS 0.5 to an SD card, then run that script to customize the kernel and olpc.fth so it boots up on the XO? And how would networking work? It should work but I haven't explored the practicalities of it. You're welcome to play in this area! Networking-wise, the laptop has a libertas device that appears to the OS exactly like an Active Antenna, so the XS OS will spot it and configure it to be the 'school mesh' antenna. I followed the instructions here for Fedora 9, but using the XS 0.5 install CD instead. http://www.reactivated.net/weblog/archives/2008/08/regular-linux-desktops-on-the-xo/ Also, in the kernel config file in /XO-alt-distro/kernel/2.6.25.15-XOaltF9-1 I enabled the bonding module before I ran the sd_fixup script. At the end, it failed to do the chroot thing, so I looked at the chroot.sh script in /XO-alt-distro/distro/fedora-9 and then manually did: sed -i /VolGroup00/d /media/disk/etc/fstab cp olpc.fth /media/disk/boot I didn't think I'd need the custom xorg.conf since the XS doesn't have a GUI. I don't have a USB to ethernet adaptor, so I downloaded and put the rpm in /root before I disconnected the 8 GB SD card. I booted up on an XO and did the usual XS stuff, including installing the rpm, and got what looked like a working XS, with the exception of failure to load the extra iptables modules. I booted up a regular XO, got an IP on msh0, and then successfully registered to the XSXO. Moodle looked like it was working on the XSXO, but when I go to http://schoolserver/moodle, all I get on the regular XO is a bunch of error messages related to scorm. I haven't tried ejabberd yet, though I suspect the little XSXO might be a little underpowered to handle that with too many users. At any rate, this needs testing, but if all you wanted to do was serve html content to students in a small environment without all the hardware associated with an XS, this might be a solution. Boa does work on a regular XO, but I don't know if that would work within a simple mesh environment. I bet this would even work on an XO with a broken screen if it was otherwise going to go unused, as you could either ssh in to do stuff or simply swap the SD card temporarily. Using ssh might be a better idea anyway, as the console display is very, very small. Anna Schoolfield Birmingham ___ Server-devel mailing list server-de...@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel
Re: [Server-devel] stability of XS 0.5
On Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 4:48 AM, Sameer Verma sve...@sfsu.edu wrote: Given that we still have issues cropping up with XS 0.5, are we still going to call it stable? It's great news that you care about this. Do you have a spare (standard modernish x86) you can use to join the testing efforts? It's much easier than with the XO, which requires special HW. If you get involved, I can organise shipping additional hw that'll be useful. I'll soon push a new 0.5.1 candidate build. You'll be CC'd so you can lend a hand. OTOH, all the reported issues have been diagnosed, and all but one fixed. Not bad for a milestone release in what is a fast development schedule towards 1.0. cheers, m -- martin.langh...@gmail.com mar...@laptop.org -- School Server Architect - ask interesting questions - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff ___ Server-devel mailing list Server-devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel
[Server-devel] stability of XS 0.5
Given that we still have issues cropping up with XS 0.5, are we still going to call it stable? Sameer -- Dr. Sameer Verma, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Information Systems San Francisco State University San Francisco CA 94132 USA http://verma.sfsu.edu/ http://opensource.sfsu.edu/ ___ Server-devel mailing list Server-devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel
