Testing of firmware and base system on B2 and B1.

[Jim Gettys]

As we run up to mass production of systems, the team at OLPC must
focus its efforts on testing and bug fixing on the mass-production
hardware.

To date, we've been careful to ensure that our firmware and software
works on all five variants of our beta hardware. Testing all these
variants is taking time from key developers; therefore we will stop
testing firmware and builds on the B1 and B2 systems.

What does this mean?

(1) B2-1 systems (128 meg) will only run builds up through 406, due to
insufficient RAM. We don't have time to fix this anytime soon.
Community help, of course, is always appreciated.

(2) While our current software builds run on B1, and B2-2 systems, we
cannot guarantee that later builds will work; bug fixes, of course,
are gratefully accepted.

We cannot fix the video problems on B1 and B2 systems due to a hardware
design mistake (fixed in newer hardware). If you upgrade a B1 or B2-2
system to current builds, don't expect the camera activity to work. An
able and willing to volunteer interested in maintaining a replacement
camera activity based on an old version of the camera activity, would be
welcome.

(3) Do *not* upgrade your firmware on B1 or B2 systems to any version
after Q2C27. It will never have been tested on your hardware and could
break it completely.

(4) B3, B4, and C test systems are identical from a programmer's point
of view.

(5) If you are doing active development and need a B4 system, please
use the developer's program to ask for a replacement. While we cannot
guarantee that we can replace all developer's machines, we do have
some available for those who really need them.
                        Jim Gettys
			on behalf of the entire OLPC team.
-- 
Jim Gettys
One Laptop Per Child