[Server-devel] 8.2 and updating

[Martin Langhoff]

2008/10/31 David Leeming <leeming at pipolfastaem.gov.sb>:
> We are all getting used to the new slick version 8.2

Cool!


> (a)    Will the XS support update service, caching updates so that they are
> only downloaded once?

Yes - look for wiki documentation (and posts on this list) about

 - "xs-rsync" for core OS updates
 - activity server

> (b)   With version 0.4, is it possible to load the new updates (OS and
> activities) on the server so that the laptops can update to 8.2 from the
> server automatically or with prompting? (i.e. if there is no Internet or
> Internet is too slow)

Not easily. You can install the required packages for 0.4 but it
xs-0.5 has everything presintalled and in place. Still, the software
on the older version of the XO isn't that smart, and won't recognise
the server (the software on XO-8.2 is a bit smarter but not that
much).

We should put together a mini-guide on how to do this with xs-0.5 by
faking the DNS entries.

> (c)    Will updates from 8.2.0 onwards be supported by the server?

Yes.

> We are still having to go through all several hundred laptops in a trial
> site with a set of flash drives to update them to 8.2. We have to also
> update all the activities, as even in places where there is Internet, it is
> too expensive and time consuming (slow access) to use the automatic update
> facility on each laptop. (or tell me, if we try this using server version
> 0.4, maybe it is already be caching these updates? No?)

olpc-update is not cacheable unless you use xs-rsync on the server,
unfortunately.

>  We are missing the ability to download a bundle of activities. Now, we have
> to individually download each latest version of an activity separately into
> the "bundles" folder. This is only a minor inconvenience but each site has
> to do this without error.

Hmmm, you can prepare an activity bundle. Look in the wiki for that
exact name :-)

At this stage, the process is a bit awkward -- I am hoping to make it
smoother for 8.2->9.1 and 9.1->9.2. Still, we can document how to make
it as easy as possible.

However, for large numbers of laptops you'll quickly saturate the RF spectrum --

cheers,




m
-- 
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 martin at laptop.org -- School Server Architect
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