Re: Announcing Q3C05 for XO-1.5
On Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 03:43:02PM +1000, James Cameron wrote: We do not have a program available at the moment for the reverse of fs-copy, Sorry, fs-save. fs-copy was a name used in early development but it was changed to fs-save. The reverse, if written, would be fs-restore. -- James Cameron http://quozl.linux.org.au/ ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: [Techteam] Announcing Q3C05 for XO-1.5
On Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 1:10 AM, Sridhar Dhanapalan srid...@laptop.org.au wrote: How useful is this for a layperson to clone an XO's setup across a school/classroom? Is this a replacement for http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Imaging_for_XO-1.5 ? All those paths are unsupported, and full of nasty surprises. Tell us about things you want to do that OOB doesn't for for you :-) m -- mar...@laptop.org -- Software Architect - OLPC - ask interesting questions - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Announcing Q3C05 for XO-1.5
On Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 1:43 AM, James Cameron qu...@laptop.org wrote: Jerry could also write a startup script that does these actions All the startup (or shutdown) scripts I can think of that could return the filesystem to a pristine condition... they also undo customizations you may be wanting to retain. - nuke everything from /home/olpc except activities, we may be removing customizations (custom gnome background, or desktop icons, for example) - reset /etc to the pristine etc -- may be removing desired customizations - reset / to the pristine OS filesystem -- may be removing desired customizations Booting into Sugar or GNOME for the first time has makes some changes to the filesystem -- these change with each OS version, and they change with additional sw, so they are hard to track. Installing additional software, configuring things also makes changes to the filesystem -- some intended, some side-effects you'd want to undo. It's impossible to write a magic script that guesses what you want to keep, and what you want to discard. Unless until we get the driver sorted for that that USB-2.0 mind reader James has been talking about. So in the meantime, do tell us what your frustrations with OOB are. cheers, m -- martin.langh...@gmail.com mar...@laptop.org -- Software Architect - OLPC - ask interesting questions - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: [Techteam] Announcing Q3C05 for XO-1.5
On Thu, 2012-04-12 at 09:46 -0400, Martin Langhoff wrote: On Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 1:10 AM, Sridhar Dhanapalan srid...@laptop.org.au wrote: How useful is this for a layperson to clone an XO's setup across a school/classroom? Is this a replacement for http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Imaging_for_XO-1.5 ? All those paths are unsupported, and full of nasty surprises. Tell us about things you want to do that OOB doesn't for for you :-) Hi Martin, My wish list has generate an image without an internet connection. I just haven't had the chance to work through the details as this has not been made a priority for me. I'm thinking that the gathering of the activities and rpms could be split out from the creation of the image like what is done for the XS with pungi. Once the cache has been populated its reuse could be done if there was no internet present. The advantage is you could generate new images with local customizations on-site while offline. Jerry ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: [Techteam] Announcing Q3C05 for XO-1.5
On Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 11:37 AM, Jerry Vonau jvo...@shaw.ca wrote: My wish list has generate an image without an internet connection. I just haven't had the chance to work through the details as this has not been made a priority for me. I'm thinking that the gathering of the activities and rpms could be split out from the creation of the image like what is done for the XS with pungi. Once the cache has been populated its reuse could be done if there was no internet present. The advantage is you could generate new images with local customizations on-site while offline. Understood. So quick recipe: - run it once, while connected - _copy_ the build/cache directory - change to an alternative .ini file, apply minor patches -- careful here! = patch activity_group module to ignore the failure to connect to server, it should still save the activity_group URL in the resulting image = change .ini to pick activities from a directory (activities_extra modules = in the cache directory, copy the yum repos caches to another location; keep them separate from eachother, you may need to run createrepo on each of them = change all repo references in the ini file, _keeping the repo names_ but pointing to the new file:// locations -- some of those repo references are in module code. Keeping repo names is important for the setup of yum excludes. Alternatively, you could run a webserver, and frob your /etc/hosts file to make OOB connect via http to the loopback address -- just write a small script to fake the yum repos and the Activities repo, based on the hardcoded repo names embedded in OOB and an ini file passed as a parameter. That's be a Dr Evil kinda move, but I'd add it to OOB in a utils directory :-) You might have to flesh out a few additional details but it seems eminently doable, with trivial patches and/or a fake-the-servers script. cheers, m -- martin.langh...@gmail.com mar...@laptop.org -- Software Architect - OLPC - ask interesting questions - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: [Techteam] Announcing Q3C05 for XO-1.5
FYI. I apply extensive customizations to the builds I install. In my case, both the customization scripts and the packages-to-be-installed reside on the permanent SD card I place into each XO. But there is no reason why in your case they could not reside on a non-permanent USB stick used only during the customization procedure. My customizations (and the run-time scripts I have added to my systems) depend upon certain environmental variables. When I first boot a new build, I enter these by hand. But as soon as my customization scripts run, they insert commands into the appropriate places in /etc to set these values on boot (so every session has them). I also substitute my own /home/olpc/.bashrc, which extends $PATH to access all the scripts (particularly for run-time) that I have added. I manually run (at first boot) all my customization scripts (currently 10 or so) from the Terminal Activity (after doing 'su' to get into root, but keeping the environmental variables set up for user olpc). The steps performed by those initialization scripts are (roughly): *) Set up well-known filenames (I use /home as the location) to provide pointers to things like the installed python version and to provide values for things like the net address of the ethernet. *) Install additional RPMs ( for instance, those needed by Linux applications I will be running -- those applications themselves reside on my permanent SD card ). *) Customize certain files in /etc *) Link up my Activities (they reside on the permanent SD card) *) Add pointers into the system for resources kept on the permanent SD card -- such as Java, additional fonts, Adobe, Chrome, etc. *) Customize certain files in Sugar As new releases of Fedora and Sugar come out, I need to update my customization scripts to accomodate any changes. But how I have structured the customizations application process has served me well -- all the way from Fedora 9 to Fedora 17, and from Sugar 0.82 to Sugar 0.96. mikus ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: [Techteam] Announcing Q3C05 for XO-1.5
Like Mikus, also FYI, I find olpc-os-builder entirely unwieldy for customising, and use a scripted approach applied to a pristine build. This is so that I can attach local engineering tests, missing programs that I find essential for testing and that aren't in the build (ntpdate, screen, pv, strace), remote monitoring, network configuration, and remote access components to a test bed. The method I use is to process the .zd file, generating a new .zd file, using a script that is under change control. http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Quozl/Remastering is a snapshot of the script some time ago. For use with laypersons, this method could be placed in a virtual appliance with a UI that separates the components into plugins that can be enabled or disabled. -- James Cameron http://quozl.linux.org.au/ ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Announcing Q3C05 for XO-1.5
On Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 11:31:44AM -0400, Martin Langhoff wrote: On Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 1:43 AM, James Cameron qu...@laptop.org wrote: Jerry could also write a startup script that does these actions All the startup (or shutdown) scripts I can think of that could return the filesystem to a pristine condition... they also undo customizations you may be wanting to retain. I disagree. The mentioned side effects of cloning can be scripted in a way that do not damage what is to be kept. - nuke everything from /home/olpc except activities, we may be removing customizations (custom gnome background, or desktop icons, for example) - reset /etc to the pristine etc -- may be removing desired customizations - reset / to the pristine OS filesystem -- may be removing desired customizations Booting into Sugar or GNOME for the first time has makes some changes to the filesystem -- these change with each OS version, and they change with additional sw, so they are hard to track. Installing additional software, configuring things also makes changes to the filesystem -- some intended, some side-effects you'd want to undo. It's impossible to write a magic script that guesses what you want to keep, and what you want to discard. I think it is possible, but high cost due to maintenance, which is why we aren't doing it. The cost of testing is also increased. But that high cost may be reasonable for deployments like Australia that are many individual schools or classrooms without central control, if the result is layperson driven classroom customisation before term begins. Unless until we get the driver sorted for that that USB-2.0 mind reader James has been talking about. So in the meantime, do tell us what your frustrations with OOB are. cheers, m -- ?martin.langh...@gmail.com ?mar...@laptop.org -- Software Architect - OLPC ?- ask interesting questions ?- don't get distracted with shiny stuff? - working code first ?- http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff -- James Cameron http://quozl.linux.org.au/ ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Announcing Q3C05 for XO-1.5
On 9 April 2012 13:25, James Cameron qu...@laptop.org wrote: - add new fs-save command [1] for preparing an image copy of internal storage, [1] http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Firmware_q4d09/fs-save How useful is this for a layperson to clone an XO's setup across a school/classroom? Is this a replacement for http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Imaging_for_XO-1.5 ? Do we still need to manually mitigate the side effects? http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Imaging/Side_effects Thanks, Sridhar Sridhar Dhanapalan Engineering Manager One Laptop per Child Australia ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Announcing Q3C05 for XO-1.5
On Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 03:10:16PM +1000, Sridhar Dhanapalan wrote: On 9 April 2012 13:25, James Cameron qu...@laptop.org wrote: - add new fs-save command [1] for preparing an image copy of internal ?storage, [1] ?http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Firmware_q4d09/fs-save How useful is this for a layperson to clone an XO's setup across a school/classroom? Not useful. The layperson would require training in http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Ok and use of USB drives, and then once the image is obtained they would need to be shown how to run zhashfs in olpc-os-builder. We do not have a program available at the moment for the reverse of fs-copy, that is, reading an image from USB drive and writing it to internal storage. It would take about 15 minutes to run, as opposed to the usual 5 minutes for fs-update. This would not be a difficult program to write, estimated four hours effort. But I don't think we have a need for it at the moment, and our deployment support team does not wish to encourage imaging. I'd have to get some buy-in. Both steps could be wrapped in a boot script to avoid typing by the layperson. Is this a replacement for http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Imaging_for_XO-1.5 ? No, not entirely. It is a slow replacement for the Capture Internal microSD step http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Imaging_for_XO-1.5#Capture_Internal_microSD Do we still need to manually mitigate the side effects? http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Imaging/Side_effects Yes. Jerry could also write a startup script that does these actions if the serial number changes since last boot. But that would have an unpleasant side-effect of losing all saved data if either (a) the serial number can't be read, or (b) the internal microSD card is moved to another unit as part of a repair. Making /home/olpc a symlink to /home/$SERIAL_NUMBER might be useful. -- James Cameron http://quozl.linux.org.au/ ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Announcing Q3C05 for XO-1.5
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Firmware_q3c05 - fix ext2 filesystem access failure, a regression introduced in q3c series, impacted mass production runin test setup. - add new fs-save command [1] for preparing an image copy of internal storage, [1] http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Firmware_q4d09/fs-save -- James Cameron http://quozl.linux.org.au/ ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
