Unofficial Debian+XFCE build

[Ivan Krstić]

While waiting for the servers to finish churning last night, I put  
together an UNOFFICIAL Debian "etch" 4.0 + XFCE4 build for the XO. It  
includes Firefox, Thunderbird, a suite of development tools (python,  
git, gcc, gdb, flex, bison, automake, autoconf, libtool), a music  
player (XMMS), IRC client (irssi) and a graphical wireless AP  
selector. The entire build takes up 250MB of flash. I optimized the  
Firefox window layout to give you maximum screen estate, and  
configured a number of keyboard shortcuts. Feedback welcome. Standard  
disclaimer applies.


How to install
--------------

1. download the following two files to a USB stick:

     <http://radian.org/~krstic/etch-xfce.tar>
     <http://radian.org/~krstic/etch-xfce-home.tar>

2. get a developer key, disable security
3. boot the normal build, switch to tty1 (ctrl+alt+f1), become root
4. mount the USB key if not automounted; let's say it's mounted at / 
media/KEY
4. # cd /versions/pristine; tar xf /media/KEY/etch-xfce.tar
5. # cd /home/olpc; tar xf /media/KEY/etch-xfce-home.tar
6. # cp -rl /versions/pristine/debian /versions/run/debian
7. # /usr/sbin/setattr -R --iunlink /versions/run/debian
8. # ln -s /versions/pristine/debian /versions/boot/alt
9. # sync
10. Power off the XO. Power on and immediately hold the 'O' game key  
(right hand side of the screen.

Boot should now proceed to a blue-background login screen. Log in as  
user 'olpc' with password 'olpc' -- that user has sudo access. Give  
XFCE a bit of time to load, and voila! Use the keyboard shortcuts  
below for some of the most useful options. Note that Firefox can take  
up to 15-20s to load after you start it, and you won't see a progress  
indication on the screen; that's expected. Also, you don't need to  
hold the 'O' key to boot into Debian next time; it'll be the default.  
Holding the key will get you back to the regular Sugar build.


Keyboard shortcuts
------------------

- Ctrl+alt+w -- wireless AP picker
- Ctrl+alt+t -- xterm (also alt+`)
- Ctrl+alt+f -- firefox
- Ctrl+alt+b -- thunderbird
- Ctrl+alt+x -- xmms

Enjoy,

--
Ivan Krstić <krstic at solarsail.hcs.harvard.edu> | http://radian.org