[Server-devel] stability of XS 0.5

[Anna]

On Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 12:07 PM, Martin Langhoff <martin.langhoff at gmail.com
> wrote:

> On Thu, Dec 18, 2008 at 3:58 PM, Anna <aschoolf at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Would it work to install XS 0.5 to an SD card, then run that script to
> > customize the kernel and olpc.fth so it boots up on the XO?  And how
> would
> > networking work?
>
> It should work but I haven't explored the practicalities of it. You're
> welcome to play in this area!
>
> Networking-wise, the laptop has a libertas device that appears to the
> OS exactly like an Active Antenna, so the XS OS will spot it and
> configure it to be the 'school mesh' antenna.
>

I followed the instructions here for Fedora 9, but using the XS 0.5 install
CD instead.
http://www.reactivated.net/weblog/archives/2008/08/regular-linux-desktops-on-the-xo/

Also, in the kernel config file in /XO-alt-distro/kernel/2.6.25.15-XOaltF9-1
I enabled the bonding module before I ran the sd_fixup script.  At the end,
it failed to do the chroot thing, so I looked at the chroot.sh script in
/XO-alt-distro/distro/fedora-9 and then manually did:

sed -i "/VolGroup00/d" /media/disk/etc/fstab
cp olpc.fth /media/disk/boot

I didn't think I'd need the custom xorg.conf since the XS doesn't have a
GUI.

I don't have a USB to ethernet adaptor, so I downloaded and put the rpm in
/root before I disconnected the 8 GB SD card.  I booted up on an XO and did
the usual XS stuff, including installing the rpm, and got what looked like a
working XS, with the exception of failure to load the extra iptables
modules.  I booted up a regular XO, got an IP on msh0, and then successfully
registered to the XSXO.  Moodle looked like it was working on the XSXO, but
when I go to http://schoolserver/moodle, all I get on the regular XO is a
bunch of error messages related to scorm.

I haven't tried ejabberd yet, though I suspect the little XSXO might be a
little underpowered to handle that with too many users.

At any rate, this needs testing, but if all you wanted to do was serve html
content to students in a small environment without all the hardware
associated with an XS, this might be a solution.  Boa does work on a regular
XO, but I don't know if that would work within a simple mesh environment.

I bet this would even work on an XO with a broken screen if it was otherwise
going to go unused, as you could either ssh in to do stuff or simply swap
the SD card temporarily.  Using ssh might be a better idea anyway, as the
console display is very, very small.

Anna Schoolfield
Birmingham
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