Peru Upgrade process.

[C. Scott Ananian]

On Fri, Jun 6, 2008 at 11:32 PM, Martin Langhoff <martin at laptop.org> wrote:
> As Wad discussed today, the new upgrade process is a step backwards
> from what we had before. Specifically, it will wipe activation keys
> and homedirs.
>
> I am not sure how important people @ 1CC find this to be, but it's a
> pretty awkward thing when contemplating on-the-field upgrades. And I
> have no idea how feasible it to add that back.
>
> What Wad had prepared was a usb stick with an rpm, an image file and a
> shellscript that - when executed - would install the olpc-upgrade
> (update?) rpm and execute it pointing to the image file. We did notget
> a chance to test it, as plans changed and we ended up going to
> Arahuay, where XOs were mostly up-to-date.

I'm not sure where this "new upgrade process" stuff is coming from.
If by "new upgrade process" we're talking about olpc-update, then it
certainly does preserve activation and home dirs.  If "new upgrade
process" means secure reflash: it is specifically meant for clean
"factory fresh" installs only.  If you're trying to preserve user
homedirs, then that's not what you want to be using.  (And how "new"
is this, anyway?)

Talking to wad over IRC, what he seemed to really be saying was that
there wasn't a "no keystrokes required" way to use olpc-update on a
classroom full of machines *without involving a school server*.  And I
will admit that that wasn't a use case I ever had in mind, for a
variety of reasons.

As you mention, there are a number of "minimal keystroke" methods of
upgrading a classroom full of machines, with the most direct being to
put a small script on a USB key that can be invoked from console or
terminal to run through the steps.  The initial "upgrade olpc-update
from an RPM" step in that script won't be necessary going from 703.

The intent was to do field upgrades primarily over the network from a
school server.  Is that no longer the plan of record?
  --scott

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