#3677 NORM First D: activation failure mode and fail-screen are confusing

[Zarro Boogs per Child]

#3677: activation failure mode and fail-screen are confusing
--------------------------+-------------------------------------------------
  Reporter:  sj           |       Owner:  Eben                  
      Type:  enhancement  |      Status:  new                   
  Priority:  normal       |   Milestone:  First Deployment, V1.0
 Component:  distro       |     Version:                        
Resolution:               |    Keywords:                        
  Verified:  0            |  
--------------------------+-------------------------------------------------

Comment(by HoboPrimate):

 Hm, I see Eben's point in that, extra textual information won't be enough
 to give kids the means to "fix" things themselves, even more because the
 probably won't be the ones handling activation leases, and that this step
 will probably be documented right in the beginnings of any XO manual.
 But I also see it this way: The difference between simply having a
 question mark and an outlined XO, and having it in adittion to a carefully
 thought-out text, perhaps "Activation lease not found", will make the
 user, teacher or student, go from total puzzlement upon seeing the screen
 ("Laptop stops at a question mark, what do I do?"), to slightly more
 informed ("Laptop stops at a question mark, saying it couldn't find
 something called "Activation lease". What is his, and how can I give this
 to it?"). In this latter case, at least some light in the end of the
 tunnel is provided, dim as it may be, and also provides a more clear way
 to fix it.

 I think that since this is a non-obvious error in itself, it _should_ try
 more to inform the user user, rather than not. do so because of that
 reason.

 Of course, this should be done with care, so as not to fall into the
 Windows trap, of having huge text boxes for everything, anything,
 everywhere, which just tires users which so much verbosity and eventually
 almost forces them to ignore them.

 P.S. - I was puzzled myself when I reinstalled a fresh build and reached
 the question mark screen, since until that point I was used to the lock
 icon. After some thinking, I remembered that this had been changed. Had i
 never seen known that, and even if I knew what a activation lease was and
 had one stored away, I would have to make a guess that this was what it
 needed (that, or bug someone about it).

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://dev.laptop.org/ticket/3677#comment:6>
One Laptop Per Child <https://dev.laptop.org>
OLPC bug tracking system