#4406 HIGH Future : XO leaves trash on USB sticks

[Zarro Boogs per Child]

#4406: XO leaves trash on USB sticks
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  Reporter:  gnu        |       Owner:  tomeu                            
      Type:  defect     |      Status:  new                              
  Priority:  high       |   Milestone:  Future Release                   
 Component:  datastore  |     Version:  Development build as of this date
Resolution:             |    Keywords:                                   
  Verified:  0          |    Blocking:                                   
 Blockedby:             |  
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Comment(by gnu):

 Here's an example of why computers should not leave trash on USB sticks.
 The Peru OLPC team was trying to make a USB key that could be used to
 install new XO's.  They unfortunately built it on a Macintosh, and the Mac
 added extra trash files to the USB key.  These trash files confused the
 installer.

 On a Mac there is no way to get rid of the trash files.  On an OLPC there
 is no way to get rid of the trash files.  The user has zero control over
 the naming and placement of the files that they put onto a USB stick.
 This is a bug.

 This bug isn't that the UI is broken, not that we failed to make "activity
 closures", not that the trash is in a binary format that breaks.  The bug
 is that the trash is there AT ALL.  Put your trash on your own NAND
 filesystem if you want to keep trash around that describes a USB key.

 IRC transcript:

 <cscott> yanni wondered if perhaps some of the bundles he put on the key
 were corrupt

 <m_stone> cscott: I've tried it with basic corruption; which is to say,
 with a '.xo' that was a zero-length file.

 <cscott> backing up -- what's our current status?

 <m_stone> It manages to notice that and keep going without problems.

 <cscott> they created this key on a mac, and there were .foo.xo files
 (note leading dot) on it
 which caused errors but seemed to be properly skipped.

 <m_stone> cscott: the current status is that the customization-1.zip
 material is having difficulty installing some of the bundles cjb prepared,
 and that the (unsigned) initramfs with your patches appeared to go through
 cleanly.

 We have had the opportunity for five months (since this bug was filed) to
 make sure that nobody will ever say "They created this key on an OLPC, so
 there were trash files which caused errors to the application we later
 plugged the key into".  So far the team is still arguing about the color
 of the bikeshed rather than the fact that USB sticks are not zoned to have
 ANY bikesheds on them.

 I think the involvement of the UI designer (Eben) is inappropriate.  This
 bug is not about the UI.  This bug is about what gets written to the USB
 keys.  Eben should play no part in deciding that issue.  There may be a
 separate bug (which, if so, someone should file) along the lines of "GUI
 for USB keys is inappropriate or clumsy", or "GUI can't do X for files
 that it has no metadata about".  Those possible bugs are not this bug.

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://dev.laptop.org/ticket/4406#comment:15>
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