[OLPC-SF] [Server-devel] New XS release very soon

[Sameer Verma]

On Tue, Feb 7, 2012 at 8:59 AM, Daniel Drake <dsd at laptop.org> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> To avoid leaving the other threads dangling:
>
> I have been working on a new XS release in collaboration with the
> Zamora Teran Foundation (http://www.fundacionzt.org/). The underlying
> goal here is to move the XS to a new OS base, which supports new
> hardware. The foundation has recently had a fair amount of trouble
> finding hardware that is compatible with the dated Fedora 9 release.
>
> As agreed and directed by Martin this will become the next OLPC XS release.
>
> There are 3 major changes compared to XS-0.6:
>
> 1. CentOS 6.2 is the base (which is equivalent to Fedora 13/14), but
> we have included Linux 3.2 from Fedora 15 for maximum hardware
> compatibility.
>
> 2. It will be released as both a traditional install CD only requiring
> a couple of commands after the install to get up and running, but also
> as a set of packages that can be added to an existing CentOS
> installation (which probably also works with RHEL/Scientific
> Linux/etc). Some steps have been taken for these packages to be easier
> to install and run on existing networks (e.g. you can now run parts of
> the XS without the requirement that you surrender your networking
> setup and layout to the strange configuration that the XS ships). The
> usual "take over my network" option will still be there though.
>
> 3. If you choose to let the XS take over your network: Networking
> setup is reworked and greatly simplified. No more bonding, no more
> mesh support. eth0 is now the LAN, and eth1 is now the WAN (based on
> the thinking that if you only have 1 interface, you're going to want
> LAN, not WAN). eth0 runs on a single subnet (not 3) and all the
> services bind to 0.0.0.0, and we rely on iptables to drop traffic from
> the WAN to the school-internal services.
>
>
> Here in Nicaragua, the Zamora Teran Foundation has the task *this
> month* of deploying One Laptop per Child to every child on the
> mythical and beautiful island of Ometepe
> (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ometepe). Unfortunately the hardware
> received for these 32 school servers is not compatible with XS-0.6, so
> we are under pressure to deploy this very very soon. This means the
> plan is to release this as an official XS release *next week* to be
> installed on servers immediately shipped to the island. Any help
> testing this before we ship it off will be greatly appreciated.
>
> I'll post installation instructions and some test media within a day
> or two - there are just a couple of obvious bugs remaining that need
> to be washed out first.
>
> cheers
> Daniel
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>
>

We have a OLPC SF meeting coming up on the 11th (Saturday). If you
have an image ready for testing, we can roll up our sleeves and text
it on a few boxes. I have a OLPCorps style SolidLogic box, a FitPC2, a
FitPC, and a Fujitsu LifeBook P2120. I'm sure others have other boxes.

cheers,
Sameer
-- 
Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
Professor, Information Systems
San Francisco State University
http://verma.sfsu.edu/
http://commons.sfsu.edu/
http://olpcsf.org/