[Server-devel] Wait for firmware fix or revert?

[James Cameron]

On Fri, Jul 19, 2013 at 12:26:02PM -0400, Kevin Cole wrote:
> In http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Holt/XS_Community_Edition/0.3/Installing
> I note:
> 
> > You will need almost an 8gb hard disk in order to proceed with the
> > installation. If the internal hard disk is less than that, you can
> > use a sdcard to install the system, check the following instructions:
> > http://activitycentral.com/community/news/installing-os-sd-card
> ...
> > 12. (SD CARD?) if you want your XSCE server to use the storage on an SD
> >     card for content, swap file, Activity-server, put the device into
> >     the XO and run "prep-storage.sh" NOW! (Note: upgrading to 13.2.0 will
> >     break this feature -- firmware related, so reinstalling 13.1.0 will
> >     still be broken, unless firmware is also reverted)
> 
> My XO 1.5 doesn't have 8GB and my original plan was the SD card route,
> but since I upgraded to 13.2.0, before noticing the caveat in step 12,
> I'm wondering: Wait for a firmware fix because I'm not in a tearing
> hurry to go backwards, and can happily wait a while?  Is it something
> well understood that will be fixed in a month or sooner?  Or is it a
> riddle wrapped in an enigma, shrouded in mystery that isn't worth
> fixing because there's newer hardware out there? (Or somewhere
> between?)

Unfortunately nobody has told the firmware engineer what the problem
is, so it won't get fixed until someone does.  I've no idea what the
issue is, and on what XO models it applies.

Meanwhile their suggestion is reasonable, but has some complexity that
they don't describe:

- before step 12, remove the file /bootpart/boot/bootfw*.zip to
prevent automatic firmware upgrade,

- downgrade the firmware manually to the version included in 13.1.0,

You'll get back all the firmware bugs that had been fixed between
13.1.0 and 13.2.0.  ;-)

-- 
James Cameron
http://quozl.linux.org.au/