[IAEP] Testing SoaS at Waltham MA YMCA

[David Farning]

On Sat, Apr 4, 2009 at 6:20 PM, Carol Farlow Lerche <cafl at msbit.com> wrote:
> Regarding the "SoaS2 Assuming Drive Cache write Through -- no boot"  -- It
> was pretty common in older commodity Wintel systems for the drives to not
> write through the cache.  This was for "performance".  I think the
> assumption was that if the system died in the middle, you were only writing
> a sequential file, and could just rerun whatever program you were in without
> really losing much.  Of course this played hell with database reliability in
> a power failure.  This could often be changed in a BIOS setting.  Does
> someone know if SOAS/Fedora is testing/verifying this setting in some way?

Careful, Caroline is going to give you the 'Sugar Labs is family
friendly place' lecture.  If she forgets, consider yourself lectured
at by me:)

david

> On Sat, Apr 4, 2009 at 3:27 PM, Caroline Meeks <caroline at solutiongrove.com>
> wrote:
>>
>> YMCA Computer Lab 4/4/09
>>
>> The Waltham YMCA is a community center with a room with 10 computers
>> pretty much all different.  We have been invited to present Sugar at Healthy
>> Kids Day on April 18th.
>>
>> I went today to test SoaS
>>
>> Overall Results
>>
>> Only one computer (#8) was able to run SoaS2
>>
>> Three computers ran SoaS1 = #2, #3, #4,
>>
>> No computers could connect to the internet or see any other Sugar machine.
>>
>> Here are my notes. It worries me that we are giving out SoaS2 at FOSSVT
>> yet it seems to have a much higher failure rate. It would be good if we
>> could figure out some of these bugs.
>>
>> Detailed Notes:
>>
>> Starting to the left of the door ordering computers clockwise.
>>
>> Computer 1 – Does not stay on regardless of USB – Broken Computer.
>>
>> Computer 2 – F8 for setup then you can boot from USB.
>>
>> SoaS2 Assuming Drive Cache write Through – No boot
>>
>> SoaS1 – Boots
>>
>> Computer 3
>>
>> Boots with CD helper on Soas2 but you can't see a curser for the mouse. I
>> can tell its there because I can get the frame to appear and disappear.
>>
>> SoaS1 Boots and you can see the curser arrow
>>
>> No internet access no one in neighborhood
>>
>> Del allowed me to change bios to boot from USB. Booting SoaS1
>>
>> Computer 4
>>
>> SoaS2 Assuming Drive Cache write Through – No boot
>>
>> SoaS1 – Boots, no internet access, no one in neighborhood.
>>
>> Computer 5
>>
>> Delete to enter setup.
>>
>> SoaS1 create symlink error.
>>
>> Computer 6
>>
>> Power button appears to be broken – Broken Computer
>>
>> Computer 7
>>
>> Started to boot from USB SosS2
>>
>> :: Denied BIOS AML access to invaldi pot 0x4d0+0x2
>>
>> SoaS1 Gets to blue line then
>>
>> EXT – Fs error device dm-0 ext3_journal_start_sb deteceted aborted journal
>> – inode 6609, block544159 and 54305
>>
>> Remounting filesystem read-only
>>
>> but does not boot
>>
>> Computer 8
>>
>> Boots SoaS 2 from USB, no internet
>>
>> Used Del then changed the order of the hard drives
>>
>> Sound works
>>
>> Computer 9
>>
>> Used Del then changed the order of the hard drives
>>
>> SoaS2
>>
>> :: Denied BIOS AML access to invaldi port 0x4d0+0x1 (PICO)
>>
>> [sdb] Assuming drive cahce: write through
>>
>> SoaS1 – you must specify a file system type
>>
>> Computer 10
>>
>> SoaS2 with Boot helper - Canot find root file system
>>
>> Same error with SoaS1
>>
>>
>> --
>> Caroline Meeks
>> Solution Grove
>> Caroline at SolutionGrove.com
>>
>> 617-500-3488 - Office
>> 505-213-3268 - Fax
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
>> IAEP at lists.sugarlabs.org
>> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
>
>
>
> --
> "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary
> depends upon his not understanding it." -- Upton Sinclair
>
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>