[Server-devel] XSCE Sprint

[Tony Anderson]

Hi,

Thanks again for this!

What I gather is that we should use Nandblast from an XO for reflash. 
For a time it was not supported for XO-1.5, but my current understanding 
is that it supported for all versions of XO.

In Lesotho, the flash was taking 15min from boot to reboot for 
registration. These laptops (XO-1) date from the first G1G1 and so there 
is no telling about endurance.

Naturally, reload of the Journal occurs via the file system after the 
flash. Sadly, this is not a current issue because none of the 
deployments actually use the Journal (e.g. in Lesotho the laptops are 
shared among several students).

The laptops (XO-1.5s) at Saint Jacobs were sponsored by a group in 
Stuttgart and are not part of the Rwanda purchase. In any case, I 
believe the information needed for the collection stick is available 
(serial number and uuid).

Yours,

Tony


On 07/10/2013 10:55 AM, James Cameron wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 10, 2013 at 10:11:14AM +0200, Tony Anderson wrote:
>> The 'locked' XO problem derives from XOs distributed in the minimum
>> 100 XO purchase - many of these are locked. Also, in Rwanda the
>> policy is to keep the laptops locked even though they have
>> indefinite leases.
> Rwanda probably has a deployment key and should be able to sign builds
> with it.  My guess is that the laptops would also have the deployment
> keys injected already.  You will need to work with the people who have
> the keys.
>
>> My current plans are to visit these schools in December and so I may
>> be able to get them unlocked then.
> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Collection_stick is perfect for this,
> provided the deployment did not remove the OLPC keys.
>
> (I don't have records of what deployments have done).
>
>> What I would really love is a 'Nandblast' capability in the firmware
>> that gets it's image from the schoolserver. That probably would work
>> (how does an XO know an image is coming over wifi from an XO or a
>> school server?).
> There is no implementation of NANDblaster for the school server,
> because it requires special support in the wireless device.  A typical
> access point will not work.  It requires an XO as the sender.
>
> (NANDblaster is implemented in the firmware, not the operating system.
> An alternate design could be engineered, but that doesn't seem likely
> to be attempted.)
>
>> The normal flash problem is that several XOs need to be reflashed at
>> one time, so the usb key approach is time-consuming. My experience
>> is that a reflash from usb key takes 15min. Naturally, one key to
>> this process is the ability to reload the backed up (hopefully)
>> Journal.
> Reloading the backed up journal is costing you 10min?  Reflashing an
> XO-1 from USB drive 13.2.0-12 costs only 5min.  If the reflash is
> taking much longer than that, there may be an endurance or end of life
> problem with the internal storage of the XO.
>