[Server-devel] new package: xs-activation

[Greg Smith]

Hi Douglas,

Thanks a lot for the write up. Just scanning through the recent activity 
on this list I see that you have been making an impressive impact since 
you started! It's making a big difference, keep it up.

Can you put this feature on the roadmap: 
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XS_Roadmap

link to it or put it wherever it belongs in terms of the target release 
with this functionality.

Can you explain the user experience on the XO for this feature? That is, 
user (or someone prepping XOs before distribution to the field?) opens 
XO and turns it on. Is that all they have to do or do they need to click 
the "register" menu option?

How do they know when the registration is successful from the XO side?

Who is the lead customer for this feature? I can help socialize it and 
see who is interested if you don't have a first target customer yet. I 
think it will be useful but I want to figure out who we should run the 
design by for verification.

What versions of SW on the XO is required? Maybe it works with 656, 703, 
708, 711 and 8.2?

You may want to just add those details to the Readme and post that to 
the wiki for the record.

Thanks,

Greg S


**********************
http://dev.laptop.org/git?p=users/dbagnall/xs-activation.git

I've attached the README below.


Douglas


-------------------------------------------------------------------

XS Activation Server
====================

This package allows the school server to activate laptops over the
network, and to import activation keys via USB.

Initially the server will not know any activation keys, so you need to
have a USB stick containing OLPC activation leases before this is much
use.

Activation Server
-----------------

The server listens on port 191 of the 172.18.0.1 interface.  The
laptops, during boot up know to look there.  Each laptop sends its 11
character serial number.  If the server has the activation lease for
that laptop, it sends it in reply.

With XS 0.4, special steps are necessary to get this working properly
(see below).

Importing leases from a USB stick
---------------------------------

The leases should be in a file called 'lease.sig' in the root
directory of the USB stick.  The format and location of this file is
exactly what you would use to activate a laptop directly via USB.

Plug the USB stick into the server and wait a few seconds.  With XS
0.4 the only clue as to the progress of the transfer is written to
/var/log/user.log.  With later systems, if the server beeps when the
USB stick is inserted, it will beep again when the transfer is
complete.

XS 0.4 caveats and special instructions
---------------------------------------

The activation server will not work on XS 0.4 until the network has
been reconfigured slightly.  The steps to take are:

#1. Copy ifcfg-br0:0 (in this directory) to
/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-br0:0

   mv ifcfg-br0:0 /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/

#2. Restart the bridge.

   ifdown br0; ifup br0

#3. Test it with:

   ping 172.18.16.1

If the ping works, so should the activation server.  To test the
network from a laptop, ping 172.18.0.1.

With 0.4, you will also not hear beeps when the USB transfer starts
and finishes.  The workarounds are to read /var/log/user.log, or to
wait a long time.

Other problems
--------------