<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Sep 15, 2009 at 9:15 PM, Art Hunkins <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:abhunkin@uncg.edu">abhunkin@uncg.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div bgcolor="#ffffff">
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">I've done considerable testing of SoaS Strawberry
on legacy PC's: 1 Pentium II laptop, and 3 Pentium III desktops.</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial"></font> </div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">First of all, Caroline was correct about CD and
floppy boot assists; I was wrong. It takes *at most* a minute more to boot from
a floppy. Occasionally, the floppy is even a bit faster. (I set timeout = 0 on
my floppy assists.)</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial"></font> </div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">All these systems have non-bootable USB ports, but
do boot from either CD or floppy.</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial"></font> </div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">My Pentium II (IBM ThinkPad, 233MHz) is a complete
disaster either way. Anywhere from 8-9+ minutes to boot up. Won't make it
through an Activity. More than 2 minutes to instigate an Activity from its icon.
Bottom line: don't even consider Pentium II's.</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial"></font> </div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">The Pentium III's included one running at 500MHz
and two at 1GHz. The former limped along, barely useable (an IBM Aptiva). Boot
times for the Aptiva = 4.5 to 5.5 minutes. Kids would get highly frustrated by
the pokey Activity runs.</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial"></font> </div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">Of the 1GHz machines (a Dell Inspiron and an HP),
the Dell did somewhat better. Boot times = 3-4 minutes for the Dell, 4-5+ for
the HP. Activity running was adequate, if a bit sluggish.</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial"></font> </div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">I certainly understand Caroline's limiting her
donations to Pentium IV's. They run SoaS satisfactorily - similar to the native
XO. (Native XO is noticeably faster than SoaS on the XO.) I do think, however,
"higher end" (i.e., 1GHz) Pentium III's would work "OK" with SoaS where
necessary.</font></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>We do a Pentium III 800 MHz in the classroom. Scott added memory to it and that seemed to help quite a bit. I'm waiting to see if it turns out to work ok or be the computer the kids fight not to get. </div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;"><div bgcolor="#ffffff">
<div><font size="2" face="Arial"></font> </div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">One disappointment: t</font><font size="2" face="Arial">wo of the three Pentium III's did not have their on-board audio
recognized by SoaS: they were silent (though their sound works fine in
Windows). Only the Dell played - well, and without sonic stutter. This
potential lack of audio would seem a real problem for SoaS.</font> <font size="2" face="Arial">It's certainly a major issue for my music
Activity.</font></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>Does that mean you got audio to work well on other systems? Have you been following the audio work? I've seen a lot of emails go by and some of them seemed optimistic so I'm hoping things might be working soon. So far I;ve not even been putting Tam Tam on the sticks because audo has not been reliable at all. Which I agree is a very big disappointment. The Tam Tam suite is wonderful! </div>
<div><br></div><div>Thanks for your help with this. Anurag is going to try to compile a list, probably in a google doc, of what hardware we have and what performance time we are getting and then we'll also record is kids favor or avoid it. Maybe you can add to this list. It would be good to be able to give deployments a clear idea of what is good enough.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Cheers,</div><div>Caroline</div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;"><div bgcolor="#ffffff">
<div><font size="2" face="Arial"></font> </div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">Art Hunkins</font></div>
<blockquote style="border-left:#000000 2px solid;padding-left:5px;padding-right:0px;margin-left:5px;margin-right:0px">
<div style="font:10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </div>
<div style="font:10pt arial;background:#e4e4e4"><b>From:</b>
<a title="caroline@solutiongrove.com" href="mailto:caroline@solutiongrove.com" target="_blank">Caroline Meeks</a> </div>
<div style="font:10pt arial"><b>To:</b> <a title="abhunkin@uncg.edu" href="mailto:abhunkin@uncg.edu" target="_blank">Art Hunkins</a> </div>
<div style="font:10pt arial"><b>Cc:</b> <a title="iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org" href="mailto:iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org" target="_blank">iaep</a> ; <a title="sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org" href="mailto:sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org" target="_blank">Sugar-dev Devel</a> ; <a title="community-news@lists.sugarlabs.org" href="mailto:community-news@lists.sugarlabs.org" target="_blank">community-news@lists.sugarlabs.org</a>
; <a title="walter.bender@gmail.com" href="mailto:walter.bender@gmail.com" target="_blank">Walter Bender</a> </div>
<div style="font:10pt arial"><b>Sent:</b> Sunday, September 13, 2009 6:10
PM</div>
<div style="font:10pt arial"><b>Subject:</b> Re: [Sugar-devel] Bill Bogstad's
floppy disk boot (Soas)</div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial"></font><font size="2" face="Arial"></font><br></div><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<blockquote style="border-left:rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid;margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex;padding-left:1ex" class="gmail_quote">
<div bgcolor="#ffffff">
<div>
<div>some idea of what is going on.<br><br></div><font size="2" face="Arial">I've tested CD helper vs. floppy helper on Pentium III generation
computer. On these, floppies take *way* longer than CD's: 5 minutes
(minimum) to 1 (actually, more like 10:2). Even though boot times are
significant, the actual *Activity* executions are satisfactory (though
hardly "peppy"). Overall performance is similar to the
XO-1.</font></div></div></blockquote>
<div><br>Wow, thats very different then the results I've gotten. I found that
it took a minute for the floppy to boot, then it starts the USB boot which
takes the same amount of time as it does without the floppy. Thus we add about
a minute. I wonder what the difference is.<br> <br></div>
<blockquote style="border-left:rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid;margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex;padding-left:1ex" class="gmail_quote">
<div bgcolor="#ffffff">
<div><font size="2" face="Arial"></font> </div><font color="#888888">
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">Art Hunkins</font></div></font>
<blockquote style="border-left:rgb(0,0,0) 2px solid;padding-left:5px;padding-right:0px;margin-left:5px;margin-right:0px" dir="ltr">
<div>
<div style="font:10pt arial;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal">-----
Original Message ----- </div>
<div style="font:10pt arial;background:rgb(228,228,228);font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal"><b>From:</b>
<a title="solutiongrove@gmail.com" href="mailto:solutiongrove@gmail.com" target="_blank">Caroline Meeks</a> </div>
<div style="font:10pt arial;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal"><b>To:</b>
<a title="abhunkin@uncg.edu" href="mailto:abhunkin@uncg.edu" target="_blank">Art Hunkins</a> </div>
<div style="font:10pt arial;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal"><b>Cc:</b>
<a title="walter.bender@gmail.com" href="mailto:walter.bender@gmail.com" target="_blank">Walter Bender</a> ; <a title="community-news@lists.sugarlabs.org" href="mailto:community-news@lists.sugarlabs.org" target="_blank">community-news@lists.sugarlabs.org</a> ; <a title="iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org" href="mailto:iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org" target="_blank">iaep</a> ; <a title="sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org" href="mailto:sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org" target="_blank">Sugar-dev
Devel</a> </div>
<div style="font:10pt arial;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal"><b>Sent:</b>
Sunday, September 13, 2009 10:48 AM</div>
<div style="font:10pt arial;font-size-adjust:none;font-stretch:normal"><b>Subject:</b>
Re: [Sugar-devel] Bill Bogstad's floppy disk boot (Soas)</div>
<div><br></div></div>
<div>
<div></div>
<div>I tested this on the GPA computer lab computers. It takes
about 1 more minute (4.5 vs 3.5) to boot. I think that it will take
more then a minute on average to give all the students CDs, have them open
the CD drawer, turn off the computer, turn it on again and collect all the
CD at the end of class so that the next class boots into Windows. My
plan is the floppies can just live in the machines, not pushed in all the
way.
<div><br></div>
<div>The current version
requires the user to press enter 1 minute into the process. Can we get a version that we just start the boot, then goto the rug for our lesson and 4.5 minutes later the machines are booted?</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Thanks!<br><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Sep 11, 2009 at 12:00 PM, Art Hunkins <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:abhunkin@uncg.edu" target="_blank">abhunkin@uncg.edu</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote style="border-left:rgb(204,204,204) 1px solid;margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;padding-left:1ex" class="gmail_quote">With regard to Bill Bogstad's floppy boot disk project
for SoaS: it works<br>flawlessly for me. (I've tried it successfully on
both an older Windows<br>laptop and desktop - vintages: Pentium
II/III.)<br><br>I've one suggestion for Bill: for use by children, I'd
make everything as<br>automatic as possible. Either delete the display
where the user needs to<br>make a choice (it's *way* technical and *I*
didn't know what to do), or put<br>a (10"?) auto-timer on it so that it
goes on through (the usual way) without<br>user intervention.<br><br>For
Windows people: I suggest creating the boot disk with RAWriteWin.
It's<br>simple, user-friendly and efficient.<br><br>Great job,
Bill.<br><br>Art Hunkins<br><br>----- Original Message -----<br>From:
"Walter Bender" <<a href="mailto:walter.bender@gmail.com" target="_blank">walter.bender@gmail.com</a>><br>To: <<a href="mailto:community-news@lists.sugarlabs.org" target="_blank">community-news@lists.sugarlabs.org</a>><br>
Cc: "iaep"
<<a href="mailto:iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org" target="_blank">iaep@lists.sugarlabs.org</a>>; "Sugar-dev
Devel"<br><<a href="mailto:sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org" target="_blank">sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org</a>><br>Sent: Friday,
September 11, 2009 9:55 AM<br>Subject: [Sugar-devel] Sugar Digest
2009-09-11<br><br><br>=== Sugar Digest ===<br><br>7. Bill Bogstad has
been working on a floppy boot disk for Sugar on a<br>Stick. See <a href="http://people.sugarlabs.org/%7Ebogstad/floppy/" target="_blank">http://people.sugarlabs.org/~bogstad/floppy/</a> for
more<br>details.<br><br>-walter<br>--<br>Walter Bender<br>Sugar
Labs<br><a href="http://www.sugarlabs.org" target="_blank">http://www.sugarlabs.org</a><br>_______________________________________________<br>Sugar-devel
mailing list<br><a href="mailto:Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org" target="_blank">Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org</a><br><a href="http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel" target="_blank">http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel</a><br>
<br>_______________________________________________<br>Sugar-devel
mailing list<br><a href="mailto:Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org" target="_blank">Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org</a><br><a href="http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel" target="_blank">http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel</a><br>
</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Caroline Meeks<br>Solution
Grove<br>Caroline@SolutionGrove.com<br><br>617-500-3488 -
Office<br>505-213-3268 -
Fax<br></div></div></div></blockquote></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Caroline Meeks<br>Solution
Grove<br>Caroline@SolutionGrove.com<br><br>617-500-3488 -
Office<br>505-213-3268 - Fax<br>
<p>
</p><hr>
<p></p>_______________________________________________<br>Sugar-devel mailing
list<br><a href="mailto:Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org" target="_blank">Sugar-devel@lists.sugarlabs.org</a><br><a href="http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel" target="_blank">http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel</a><br>
<p></p></blockquote></div>
</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Caroline Meeks<br>Solution Grove<br>Caroline@SolutionGrove.com<br><br>617-500-3488 - Office<br>505-213-3268 - Fax<br>