OLPC-Update + RPMs WAS:Re: OLPC XO Opera browser as Sugar activity

[C. Scott Ananian]

On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 9:03 PM,  <david at lang.hm> wrote:
> what I would really like to see is for OLPC to not just release the
> snapshots, but to have a way for developers to get the rest of the build
> environment, complete with either the scripts, or command logs of what is
> done to go from the fedora build to the OLPC build. (This may already be
> available and I just don't know where to look)

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Pilgrim
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Building_custom_images

> I would then like to see someone maintain another base-level distro that can
> run on the OLPC, but not be based on Sugar so that people who want a normal
> distro can use one, and also so that various performance and usability
> issues can be identified as being caused by the software vs being caused by
> the limited hardware. there have been a few people who have made single-shot
> builds, but AFAIK nobody has maintained/improved the image after the initial
> 'here, see, it boots' announcement

Partly this is because, once you have a traditional system in place
and booting, you can use the package manager on that system to keep it
continually up-to-date, so (IMO) there's no much need for me to keep
re-releasing
  http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Installing_Debian_as_an_upgrade
(for example).

Red Hat developers used to routinely run "full Fedora" on the
machines, but the very limited NAND space make this a tricky
proposition, unless you plan on running on an external SD card.  I did
create a full Edubuntu installation on an SD card, but the result
wasn't what I'd call "child-friendly", mostly due to lack of a good
activity chooser.

As Martin points out, what's really been missing is a dedicated
maintainer.  Perhaps this is because (a) it's pretty easy to get
started & put a new distro on, but (b) it's really really hard to make
something which will satisfy all those who want a non-Sugar distro.
 --scott

-- 
 ( http://cscott.net/ )