Hi Iain: > On March 19, 2015 at 5:25 PM Iain Brown Douglas > <i...@browndouglas.plus.com> wrote: > > > Hi James, > > Thank you for taking the time to make a thoughtful contribution. > Perhaps you will forgive me if I brainstorm this a bit. > > On Fri, 2015-03-20 at 08:48 +1100, James Cameron wrote: > > I've often thought of making such an application, because of the > > difficulties that some people report with downloading files and > > putting them on USB drive. > > > > The problem with an application is one may end up having to explain > > how to download the application; transferring the issue from the > > original problem to an application that was supposed to fix the > > problem. > > > > In the meanwhile, I have been working the overall problem as a > > training and experience issue, and maintaining a structured > > document: > > > > http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Download > > Thanks for that - I believe that systematic approach would be great > backup for those experiencing difficulties downloading. > > (Using curl is a sound idea from the point of view that one set of > instructions can cover a host of different OS) > > > > Some further ideas for what your application might do: > > > > 1. the initial download, > > > > 2. resuming an interrupted download, > > > > 3. verification of download using md5sum or other hashes, > > > > 4. media verification, reading back the files or image to check that > > writing was successful and the media still works. > > > I think I am right that 4 is covered already by livecd-iso-to-disk, so > (in my model) the user only has to write a bootable CD. >
Yes > If one knew that a SoaS CD would always make a "Sugar stick", the > prospect of selling the CD, (by third parties ?) becomes more doable. > Is there any specific branding that you want to use? > > I've no evidence of proportion of people who have problems with > > downloading files and putting them on media; perhaps it is a > > non-problem. > > > > A more correct approach would be to do research and survey of people > > before and after such an application is made available. A GSoC > > project could be padded out with this research, and easily fill three > > months. > > > > A systems engineering view would change the product so that the files > > don't have to be written to media in any particular way. That's what > > we did with the original XO laptops, but SoaS bootable images are > > different because of the typical PC firmware being so exacting. > > > > I think this would be achieved if `liveinst` could be persuaded to write > *only* to an automatically confirmed target USB, with the host hard > drive locked out during install and during use of the stick, and grub > instructed to find only the USB SoaS system. > One would not use 'liveinst' to create a bootable "live" usb device that is done as you said with livecd-iso-to-disk. Using 'liveinst' installs a non-live version of what is booted to a disk, this could be a internal harddisk or a removable usb drive. > > With reasonably priced availability of 8 GB sticks, this would seem a > preferable option to me. > 'liveinst' is a thin wrapper around Fedora's installer anaconda, which can use use a kickstart file to automate all or part the process. With a bit of wizardry one could feed the needed info for the target's partitioning into a kickstart file and use that with liveinst. Once you have a non-live install on a usb drive you could clone the device, just don't boot it before you clone it. Think I'd be interested in working out the details to make this work. Jerry > Regards, > > Iain > > On Thu, Mar 19, 2015 at 03:54:02PM +0000, Iain Brown Douglas wrote: > > > On Thu, 2015-03-19 at 12:12 -0300, Gonzalo Odiard wrote: > > > > Hi Iain! > > > > GSoC project are for 3 months of work for a university student. > > > > Do you think that script imply that amount of work? > > > No :) > > > > What should be the use case? Auto duplicate SoaS? > > > > Reagrds, > > > > > > > The use case is in the field of Auto duplicate SoaS, yes. > > > > > > SoaS Loader [2] is horribly clunky, *but* it is a way to get the > > > instructions where they are accessible. > > > > > > Perhaps I should instead ask here whether anyone would work with me > > > on > > > SoaS Loader to make such a script. > > > > > > Iain > > > > > > > Gonzalo > > > > > > > > On Thu, Mar 19, 2015 at 11:38 AM, Iain Brown Douglas > > > > <i...@browndouglas.plus.com> wrote: > > > > Hi All, > > > > > > > > I wonder if anyone would think it appropriate (or > > > > inappropriate) to add this idea to Google Summer of Code > > > >[1]? > > > > > > > > To write a script for use with Sugar on a Stick, which > > > >would > > > > probe the capacity of an > > > > inserted USB stick,and deliver the livecd-iso-to-disk > > > >command > > > > on > > > > confirmation by the user. The command would suit the > > > > aspirations of SoaS Loader [2]. > > > > > > > > Regards, > > > > > > > > Iain > > > > > > > > [1] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Summer_of_Code/2015 > > > > [2] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/SoaS_Loader > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > > Sugar-devel mailing list > > > > Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org > > > > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > > Gonzalo Odiard > > > > > > > > SugarLabs - Software for children learning > > > > > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Sugar-devel mailing list > > > Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org > > > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Sugar-devel mailing list > Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel _______________________________________________ Sugar-devel mailing list Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel