[Sugar-devel] GSoC projects

[Iain Brown Douglas]

Hi James,

Thank you for taking the time to make a thoughtful contribution.
Perhaps you will forgive me if I brainstorm this a bit.

On Fri, 2015-03-20 at 08:48 +1100, James Cameron wrote:
> I've often thought of making such an application, because of the
> difficulties that some people report with downloading files and
> putting them on USB drive.
> 
> The problem with an application is one may end up having to explain
> how to download the application; transferring the issue from the
> original problem to an application that was supposed to fix the
> problem.
> 
> In the meanwhile, I have been working the overall problem as a
> training and experience issue, and maintaining a structured
> document:
> 
> 	http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Download

Thanks for that - I believe that systematic approach would be great
backup for those experiencing difficulties downloading.

(Using curl is a sound idea from the point of view that one set of
instructions can cover a host of different OS)
> 
> Some further ideas for what your application might do:
> 
> 1.  the initial download,
> 
> 2.  resuming an interrupted download,
> 
> 3.  verification of download using md5sum or other hashes,
> 
> 4.  media verification, reading back the files or image to check that
> writing was successful and the media still works.
> 
I think I am right that 4 is covered already by livecd-iso-to-disk, so
(in my model) the user only has to write a bootable CD.

If one knew that a SoaS CD would always make a "Sugar stick", the
prospect of selling the CD, (by third parties ?) becomes more doable.

> I've no evidence of proportion of people who have problems with
> downloading files and putting them on media; perhaps it is a
> non-problem.
> 
> A more correct approach would be to do research and survey of people
> before and after such an application is made available.  A GSoC
> project could be padded out with this research, and easily fill three
> months.
> 
> A systems engineering view would change the product so that the files
> don't have to be written to media in any particular way.  That's what
> we did with the original XO laptops, but SoaS bootable images are
> different because of the typical PC firmware being so exacting.
> 

I think this would be achieved if `liveinst` could be persuaded to write
*only* to an automatically confirmed target USB, with the host hard
drive locked out during install and during use of the stick, and grub
instructed to find only the USB SoaS system.


With reasonably priced availability of 8 GB sticks, this would seem a
preferable option to me.

Regards,

Iain
> On Thu, Mar 19, 2015 at 03:54:02PM +0000, Iain Brown Douglas wrote:
> > On Thu, 2015-03-19 at 12:12 -0300, Gonzalo Odiard wrote:
> > > Hi Iain!
> > > GSoC project are for 3 months of work for a university student.
> > > Do you think that script imply that amount of work? 
> > No :)
> > > What should be the use case? Auto duplicate SoaS?
> > > Reagrds,
> > > 
> > The use case is in the field of Auto duplicate SoaS, yes.
> > 
> > SoaS Loader [2] is horribly clunky, *but* it is a way to get the
> > instructions where they are accessible.
> > 
> > Perhaps I should instead ask here whether anyone would work with me on
> > SoaS Loader to make such a script.
> > 
> > Iain
> > 
> > > Gonzalo
> > > 
> > > On Thu, Mar 19, 2015 at 11:38 AM, Iain Brown Douglas
> > > <iain at browndouglas.plus.com> wrote:
> > >         Hi All,
> > >         
> > >         I wonder if anyone would think it appropriate (or
> > >         inappropriate) to add this idea to Google Summer of Code [1]?
> > >         
> > >         To write a script for use with Sugar on a Stick, which would
> > >         probe the capacity of an
> > >         inserted USB stick,and deliver the livecd-iso-to-disk command
> > >         on
> > >         confirmation by the user. The command would suit the
> > >         aspirations of SoaS Loader [2].
> > >         
> > >         Regards,
> > >         
> > >         Iain
> > >         
> > >         [1] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Summer_of_Code/2015
> > >         [2] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/SoaS_Loader
> > >         
> > >         _______________________________________________
> > >         Sugar-devel mailing list
> > >         Sugar-devel at lists.sugarlabs.org
> > >         http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > -- 
> > > Gonzalo Odiard
> > > 
> > > SugarLabs - Software for children learning 
> > > 
> > 
> > 
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>