[Server-devel] questions: lease/activation, deploying .xo/.xol, register XOs

[Martin Langhoff]

Welcome to the list!

On Sun, Aug 3, 2008 at 6:44 PM, Christian Schmitt
<christian.schmitt at nakora.net> wrote:
> 1. How can I activate XOs with the XS? Where do I have to put the lease
> files?

I am working on that :-) hopefully the xs-0.4 release in a couple of
weeks will have a lease server. Keep an eye on the following tasks on
http://dev.laptop.org/

#1504  	 Package robust schoolserver activation server
#6429  	 Autoinstallation of leases on schoolserver via USB

> 2. We like to do software updates (deploying .xo and .xol files) for the
> XOs with the server. Is this possible? We are looking for an option that
> works automatically (like the USB-stick option)

I am just finishing with "xs-rsync" which provides XO base OS updates
- on the laptop side, it's driven by the olpc-update utility.
Unfortunately, none of the activity installer/updaters I have seen
reads from rsync://updates/ yet. Once they do, it will be possible to
use the facility

xs-rsync dev is mostly complete, and it will be in the xs-0.4 release.
There is a README file with documentation here -
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XS-rsync - but the idea is to automate it
further, so you can just insert a USB key with OS updates (and later -
xo/xol activities) in a directory and it will get published
automagically.

> 3. What does it mean to register an XO on a server? What is the benefit
> to do so?

 - Better collaboration - once they are registered and rebooted, the
XOs will use a protocol that scales better to a larger number of
nodes.

 - DS-Backup - backups from XO to XS. For this to work you needWith
build 165 on the XS and a recent 8.2.0 (when it's released towards end
of the month, try a recent joyride).  The "restore" UI is missing
unfortunately (there's one for testing). It will come with Moodle in
the next release... More info on DS-backup here
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XS_Blueprints:Datastore_Simple_Backup_and_Restore

 - Moodle automagic authentication - will be in xs-0.4 or xs-0.5, and
will include the restore part of ds-backup.

Unfortunately, things aren't ready - the XS lags behind the XO quite a
bit at the moment, but things are starting to move quickly. I
appreciate your patience, and *thanks* for the work you are doing in
Ethiopia.

cheers,



m
-- 
 martin.langhoff at gmail.com
 martin at laptop.org -- School Server Architect
 - ask interesting questions
 - don't get distracted with shiny stuff  - working code first
 - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff