OLPC XO1 software images on XO1.5?

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WhyNot?
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Joined: Sat 13 Oct 2012, 03:04

OLPC XO1 software images on XO1.5?

#1 Post by WhyNot? »

Anyone know of a way to boot older XO1 images on an XO1.5? From an SD card or USB external drive, I mean.

Seems simple enough, right? If hardware dependencies aren't too different, and we're not "Scaling Down" from 1.5 software architecture onto the 1.0, trying to do the opposite.

Would know this, I suppose, if I were a developer but I'm just an OLPC supporter (own 3 now) who's interested in this possibility, know software libraries are typically hardware specific but why not ask, right?

Haven't "Built" these images from scratch, know PuppyLinux 2.2 and several other flavors for the XO support BOTH hardware platforms. I've in fact installed XOPuppy 2.2 on my new XO1.5 and was already familiar with it, have used it for several months on the XO1.

But I've got 3 or 4 full-featured compressed images saved from the XO1 and would really appreciate the new speed provided on the 1.5 hardware.

Ubuntu Intrepid, DebianXO, XFCE on Sugar, I've used and shared scripts for these on the OLPC forum when it was active, would now hate to let these images go to waste, even if repositories aren't active any longer.

I'm just an end-user (Enthusiast!) who's trying to adapt my favorite software (Intrepid for the XO, Ubuntu) if there's a simple solution.

Anyone? Thanks in advance, Puppy kicks butt too!
Last edited by WhyNot? on Wed 17 Oct 2012, 02:38, edited 1 time in total.

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NeroVance
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Location: Halifax, Canada

#2 Post by NeroVance »

Unless they have changed CPU arch and the like, I imagine an XO1 puplet (or puppy) could work on a later version.

Unless they only included drivers for that particular machine, I can't see why a general Puppy derivative for netbooks wouldn't do the trick.

But maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.

WhyNot?
Posts: 15
Joined: Sat 13 Oct 2012, 03:04

OLPC XO1 software images on XO1.5?

#3 Post by WhyNot? »

NeroVance wrote:Unless they have changed CPU arch and the like, I imagine an XO1 puplet (or puppy) could work on a later version.

Unless they only included drivers for that particular machine, I can't see why a general Puppy derivative for netbooks wouldn't do the trick.

But maybe I don't know what I'm talking about.
So, NV, if I interpret this correctly I'm thinking you mean that Puppy (Puplet/Applet) could be an interface to boot, let's say, Intrepid. So long as that Intrepid/Ubuntu image was designed to run on similar hardware, and my understanding is that the biggest difference between the XO1 and 1.5 is video support.

If I were to compile that "Applet" it would support booting an SD from my XO1? Know that the kernel support would be different, but library support for the XO1 images I'm trying to run are no longer existing, and I wouldn't care about repository updates regardless.

I'm only interested in allowing the features/applications I've already installed on those images to run on my new XO1.5, and am wondering whether that could happen without compiling under Puppy. What if I can accomplish this by simply editing the configuration files for the XO1 image?

Don't know that I can, just supposing. And the best resource for that information would seem to be the support developers who designed/released the images on the OLPC site.

But the OLPC support site isn't active any more, so that resource apparently evaporated.

If there's already a simple solution (revise boot configuration files?) I'm supposing it's already been done among the software developer crowd. But I don't have the insider viewpoint on that, wouldn't know without inquiring.

Hence my current post ;-) But thanks for the suggestion, I'm open to any possible discussions.

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mavrothal
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Re: OLPC XO1 software images on XO1.5?

#4 Post by mavrothal »

WhyNot? wrote:Anyone know of a way to boot older XO1 images on an XO1.5? From an SD card or USB external drive, I mean.
See http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 097#663097

As a friendly advice :wink: , OLPC XO related questions have better chance to be seen (by me) and answered in the XOpup thread, as I only monitor a handful of puppy threads and not much more.
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WhyNot?
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XoPuppy SD card on XO1 and XO1.5

#5 Post by WhyNot? »

Per the XoPuppy Linux page, I'll switch the configuration files by renaming, shouldn't be a complicated issue.

On that particular topic, tho, ever have issues with booting on the XO1.5 related to CHOWN file rights?

Seems that if I modify the XoPupp SD card under Xubuntu 11.0 plus the XO1.5 sometimes locks on boot without error messages. I've then discovered that toggling ownership of the boot files resolves this, hadn't run into this before doing a DD image backup to BZ2 compressed format but have now encountered this minor problem twice.

The image copy method is how I've kept older XO1 functional backups including Xubuntu Intrepid "Office" image with my preferred apps., never had that issue before buying the XO1.5 which I'm otherwise very impressed with.

Thanks again.

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mavrothal
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Re: XoPuppy SD card on XO1 and XO1.5

#6 Post by mavrothal »

WhyNot? wrote:
On that particular topic, tho, ever have issues with booting on the XO1.5 related to CHOWN file rights?

Seems that if I modify the XoPupp SD card under Xubuntu 11.0 plus the XO1.5 sometimes locks on boot without error messages. I've then discovered that toggling ownership of the boot files resolves this, hadn't run into this before doing a DD image backup to BZ2 compressed format but have now encountered this minor problem twice.

The image copy method is how I've kept older XO1 functional backups including Xubuntu Intrepid "Office" image with my preferred apps., never had that issue before buying the XO1.5 which I'm otherwise very impressed with.

Thanks again.
I'm afraid is not clear to me what exactly is the setup nor what you are doing. I also have no experience at all of "Xubuntu 11.0 plus" and I'm not sure if "Xubuntu Intrepid "Office" image" refers to teapot's intrepid or other.
Of course I have no clue of your tweaks in every OS and finally is not clear to me which devices you have mounted at startup and how your /boot/olpc.fth in the 1st boot device looks like.
Some (a lot :D ) more info is needed.

In general though standard linux folder permissions (ie 755 for everything but /tmp that should be 777) are OK
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WhyNot?
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Joined: Sat 13 Oct 2012, 03:04

CHOWN issues for XO1.5 Boot

#7 Post by WhyNot? »

Further information? OK, a few further details.

More specifically, I was burning a compressed XoPuppy image (using DD) by writing to a BZ2 compressed file.

The 11.0+ Xubuntu system I mentioned was my desktop, unrelated to the boot issue. I was simply using an SD card adapter on my desktop to produce an image copy of XoPup2.2, easily done with very few steps involved.

BUT when later booting from the same SD media my XO1.5 refused to load, no error messages either. My initial reaction was to wonder whether I'd just corrupted that drive, so I went to the prompt with SU rights and opened MC (Midnight Commander) to look at the card.

Only issue I could find was that CHOWN rights to the root directory files had changed.

As you've mentioned XOPupp had up until then booted reliably, and after changing the rights to RW for all users that SD card booted immediately, no further issues. This has actually happened a 2nd time unrelated to backups, after I was browsing the card directories and sub-directories for outdated media files.

The same boot problem occurred without providing any onscreen errors, my XO1.5 system simply froze up. Again, toggled user rights (RW) for the root directory files and the card is now booting without issues.

My real question is WHY this was necessary since I've created these compressed images many times without this occurring, but that was on the XO1. So far only the XO1.5 has responded that way, just wondering exactly why that should happen.

Same desktop PC running Xubuntu, same methods employed every time over several years, this is a new issue.

A bit scary the first time, as I've said my first thoughts were about file corruption or SD card hardware issues but having done fsck (file system check) I know that's not the case, no corruption on that card. And runs now without further issues.

Mystery to me, oh well. Thanks Again Mavrothal.

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mavrothal
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Re: CHOWN issues for XO1.5 Boot

#8 Post by mavrothal »

WhyNot? wrote: BUT when later booting from the same SD media my XO1.5 refused to load, no error messages either. My initial reaction was to wonder whether I'd just corrupted that drive, so I went to the prompt with SU rights and opened MC (Midnight Commander) to look at the card.
Ah, OK. I have seen that both in SDcards and USBs in and out of the XOs, but I can not find a consistent pattern. Some times is just journal coruption (in ext3/4 media) and just need recovery or fsck. If is the journal, given enough time (2-5min) the XO will eventually boot.
If somehow the permissions are messed up then yes you need a chmod.
I have also noticed that a lot depends on the kind of card/stick. ie I have it with some occasionally but never with other.

Short answer, I do not know, :o but the kind of card/usb is a factor.
Also is not a good idea to dd from one card to another because can result in a wrong formatting. tar is much better for backup. Finally make sure that you use the latest firmware as it is considerably improved in handling SDcards.
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