[sugar] Sugar USB testing

[Walter Bender]

On Sun, Oct 5, 2008 at 12:37 PM, Walter Bender <walter.bender at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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
>


^256K^256M

-walter