[sugar] Sugar USB testing

Sun Oct 5 12:37:15 EDT 2008

CCing the Sugar list.

It seems that one of the problems we will be encountering with generic
spins is footprint. Even a standard Ubuntu without Sugar was seeming
too fat to load from a LiveCD on a Pentium 4 with 256K of DRAM.
Although we didn't try it, I expect Fedora would present similar
challenges. I don't know how feasible it is to make a lean Fedora for
these use cases: Maybe the subset of packages we grab for the OLPC
image only. I defer to the magic that Dennis and Greg can yield.
Meanwhile, it is probably worth looking at some of the purposefully
small distros, such as TinyLinux, to see how bloated they get when we
build Sugar on top of them. It may be a good interim-term solution.

-walter

On Sun, Oct 5, 2008 at 12:24 PM, Caroline Meeks
<caroline at solutiongrove.com> wrote:
> Yes, I'm absolutely willing to test any and all USB work!  I have several
> test computers at home and when we get something that works on everything
> here I can go into Shaw any Friday morning.
>
> Thank you for your help.
>
> Caroline
>
> On Sun, Oct 5, 2008 at 12:18 PM, David Farning <dfarning at sugarlabs.org>
> wrote:
>>
>> Yes, the Sugar spin is really an early beta.  The engineers at Redhat were
>> still working on it Thursday night to get it ready for you and another
>> Boston area deployment to test.
>>
>> Are you willing to try again this Friday?  We can leverage your
>> willingness to test the spin as an incentive for the Redhat engineers to
>> improve the spin for another release later this week.
>>
>> thanks
>> david
>>
>> On Fri, Oct 3, 2008 at 10:32 AM, Caroline Meeks
>> <caroline at solutiongrove.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> hmm new sugar-spin did not boot my home 4GB Pentium 4 successfully.  So
>>> it may not be ready for prime time yet.
>>>
>>> On Fri, Oct 3, 2008 at 11:28 AM, Caroline Meeks
>>> <caroline at solutiongrove.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Cool, I have a Fedora CD and i also just burned the new sugar-spin.
>>>>
>>>> I have bootable USBs of other things.
>>>>
>>>> So I think we will have the tools we need for diagnosis.
>>>>
>>>> See you soon.
>>>>
>>>> On Fri, Oct 3, 2008 at 11:22 AM, Walter Bender <walter.bender at gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> I recommend the Fedora CD for today. If I get a chance, I'll try to
>>>>> make a LiveUSB of the same image as well.
>>>>>
>>>>> -walter
>>>>>
>>>>> On Fri, Oct 3, 2008 at 10:59 AM, Caroline Meeks
>>>>> <caroline at solutiongrove.com> wrote:
>>>>> > Hi David,
>>>>> >
>>>>> > Any luck with the USB? How is it going?
>>>>> >
>>>>> > Walter and I will be at the school today and we will try the Fedora
>>>>> > CDs and
>>>>> > the joyride CD.
>>>>> >
>>>>> > Anythign else you want us to try while we are there?
>>>>> >
>>>>> > Thanks,
>>>>> > Caroline
>>>>> >
>>>>> > On Mon, Sep 29, 2008 at 7:17 PM, David Farning
>>>>> > <dfarning at sugarlabs.org>
>>>>> > wrote:
>>>>> >>
>>>>> >> On Mon, Sep 29, 2008 at 5:35 PM, Caroline Meeks
>>>>> >> <caroline at solutiongrove.com> wrote:
>>>>> >>>
>>>>> >>> Hi David,
>>>>> >>>
>>>>> >>> Since I don't have an exact duplicate of the machine here, Friday's
>>>>> >>> trip
>>>>> >>> will be devoted to figuring out the answers to your questions.
>>>>> >>>
>>>>> >>> Let me test my understanding. Are these statements true? -
>>>>> >>>
>>>>> >>>  The XO hardware only has 256MB of RAM so in theory Sugar should
>>>>> >>> work on
>>>>> >>> a Pentium 4 with 256MB RAM
>>>>> >>
>>>>> >> This is not necessarily true.  The xo runs a heavily modified
>>>>> >> version of
>>>>> >> Fedora.  We are putting Sugar on top of stock Fedora, Debian, and
>>>>> >> Ubuntu
>>>>> >> distributions.  The trade off is engineering time vs. size.  It take
>>>>> >> a
>>>>> >> tremendous amount of engineering time to maintain a modified
>>>>> >> distribution.
>>>>> >> By using stock distributions as our base we greatly reduce the
>>>>> >> effort needed
>>>>> >> to push Sugar through the distribution channels.
>>>>> >>
>>>>> >>>
>>>>> >>> The JoyRide live CD you were giving out at the conference will
>>>>> >>> likely not
>>>>> >>> work unless there is more then 300MB of RAM
>>>>> >>
>>>>> >> I am not sure of the specific needs of the version of Sugar we
>>>>> >> distributed.  Rather then try to determine if a older CD works,
>>>>> >> let's see if
>>>>> >> stock fedora, ubuntu and debian work on your equipment.
>>>>> >>>
>>>>> >>> Let me know what information you'd like me to collect on Friday.
>>>>> >>>  Here
>>>>> >>> are my thoughts.
>>>>> >>>
>>>>> >>> Goal 1 - See if we can get Sugar to run stable on the Shaw Computer
>>>>> >>> Lab
>>>>> >>> computers.  Sounds like  I can probably just burn a bunch of CDs
>>>>> >>> and use
>>>>> >>> those.  What do you want me to test?
>>>>> >>>
>>>>> >>> The distributions listed on this page:
>>>>> >>> http://www.sugarlabs.org/go/Supported_systems
>>>>> >>> Are the various ones for different Linux Distros full system or are
>>>>> >>> they
>>>>> >>> just the files you need to add Sugar to an existing Linux install?
>>>>> >>>
>>>>> >>> Fedora This one? http://fedoraproject.org/en/get-fedora i686 - Live
>>>>> >>> CD
>>>>> >>
>>>>> >> Yes, the live cd would be the place to start.
>>>>> >>
>>>>> >> 6.3. x86 Specifics for Fedora
>>>>> >>
>>>>> >> This section covers specific information about Fedora and the x86
>>>>> >> hardware
>>>>> >> platform.
>>>>> >>
>>>>> >> 6.3.1. Hardware requirements for x86
>>>>> >>
>>>>> >> In order to use specific features of Fedora 9 during or after
>>>>> >> installation, you may need to know details of other hardware
>>>>> >> components such
>>>>> >> as video and network cards.
>>>>> >>
>>>>> >> 6.3.1.1. Processor and memory
>>>>> >>
>>>>> >> The following CPU specifications are stated in terms of Intel
>>>>> >> processors.
>>>>> >> Other processors, such as those from AMD, Cyrix, and VIA that are
>>>>> >> compatible
>>>>> >> with and equivalent to the following Intel processors, may also be
>>>>> >> used with
>>>>> >> Fedora.
>>>>> >>
>>>>> >> Fedora 9 requires an Intel Pentium or better processor, and is
>>>>> >> optimized
>>>>> >> for Pentium 4 and later processors.
>>>>> >>
>>>>> >> Recommended for text-mode: 200 MHz Pentium-class or better.
>>>>> >>
>>>>> >> Recommended for graphical: 400 MHz Pentium II or better.
>>>>> >>
>>>>> >> Minimum RAM for text-mode: 128MiB.
>>>>> >>
>>>>> >> Minimum RAM for graphical: 192MiB.
>>>>> >>
>>>>> >> Recommended RAM for graphical: 256MiB.
>>>>> >>
>>>>> >> According to the release notes Fedora should work with 256MB
>>>>> >>
>>>>> >>>
>>>>> >>> Ubuntu - http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download
>>>>> >>
>>>>> >>  Yes again.
>>>>> >>>
>>>>> >>> UbuntuMobile - Where is the best place to get an iso?
>>>>> >>>
>>>>> >>> http://linux.softpedia.com/get/System/Operating-Systems/Other/Ubuntu-MID-39213.shtml
>>>>> >>
>>>>> >> For now let's forget about Gnome Mobile.
>>>>> >>>
>>>>> >>> Sugar - Where can I get an iso for a live CD that will has a chance
>>>>> >>> of
>>>>> >>> working on 256MB of RAM? Should I use any of these?
>>>>> >>> http://dev.laptop.org/pub/livebackupcd/
>>>>> >>>
>>>>> >>>
>>>>> >>>
>>>>> >>>
>>>>> >> I will send you links to newer Live CD by Thursday evening.
>>>>> >>
>>>>> >>>
>>>>> >>> Goal 2 - Demoing Sugar capability to the Shaw School Staff.
>>>>> >>>
>>>>> >>> It turns out the technology teacher Marian is out this Friday so
>>>>> >>> the goal
>>>>> >>> of showing the collaborative features maybe next week.  However,
>>>>> >>> doing a
>>>>> >>> demo for adults on a wired network shouldn't be that hard right? Is
>>>>> >>> there
>>>>> >>> some Jabber server that adults who own XOs are using that we could
>>>>> >>> use for
>>>>> >>> the demo?
>>>>> >>
>>>>> >>
>>>>> >> I was asked at least ten times about the availability of Jabber
>>>>> >> servers
>>>>> >> for test purposes at Openminds.  As a result, I am looking into
>>>>> >> setting up a
>>>>> >> jabber server so each community of Sugar users will have access to a
>>>>> >> community specific server.  Once that is in place it should not be
>>>>> >> too hard
>>>>> >> to set a batch of USB keys or Live CDs to go to that server by
>>>>> >> default.
>>>>> >>>
>>>>> >>> Goal 3 - Testing speed and durability of Sugar on a USB Key.
>>>>> >>>
>>>>> >>> I can do initial testing of that from here. We don't have to do
>>>>> >>> that at
>>>>> >>> the Shaw but if we had a USB that would be good.
>>>>> >>
>>>>> >> This would be of great value to our developers.
>>>>> >>>
>>>>> >>> Thanks!
>>>>> >>> Caroline
>>>>> >>
>>>>> >> Would you be interested in moving this conversation to  our mailing
>>>>> >> list
>>>>> >> at iaep at lists.sugarlabs.org so we can publicly archive this
>>>>> >> conversation.
>>>>> >>
>>>>> >> Thanks
>>>>> >> david
>>>>> >>
>>>>> >>
>>>>> >
>>>>> >
>>>>> >
>>>>> > --
>>>>> > Caroline Meeks
>>>>> > Solution Grove
>>>>> > Caroline at SolutionGrove.com
>>>>> >
>>>>> > 617-500-3488 - Office
>>>>> > 505-213-3268 - Fax
>>>>> >
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Walter Bender
>>>>> Sugar Labs
>>>>> http://www.sugarlabs.org
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Caroline Meeks
>>>> Solution Grove
>>>> Caroline at SolutionGrove.com
>>>>
>>>> 617-500-3488 - Office
>>>> 505-213-3268 - Fax
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Caroline Meeks
>>> Solution Grove
>>> Caroline at SolutionGrove.com
>>>
>>> 617-500-3488 - Office
>>> 505-213-3268 - Fax
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Caroline Meeks
> Solution Grove
> Caroline at SolutionGrove.com
>
> 617-500-3488 - Office
> 505-213-3268 - Fax
>

-- 
Walter Bender
Sugar Labs
http://www.sugarlabs.org