XOpup Interest Group. Puppy Linux for the OLPC XO-1 laptop

[hailpuppy]

ttuuxxx, buddy i was just telling you my wish regarding the addition of Gnumeric. didnt intend to go against you or any thing ok? By the way im ok with the Gnemeric pet idea.My wish was to see that it reaches completeness. Even i havent used Gnumeric to any extent so far..but just thought that it would be cool to have it there.And im also with you regarding keeping the iso size below or at 100MB, Mavrothal,what i love about this 100MB thing is it adds to the hype of Puppy. Remember the slogan of DAmn Small Linux...A complete OS just in 50MB.

[Minnesota]

ttuuxxx:

Hi guys, been following this thread with interest. No, I do not have a xo, but been in the computer field for over forty years.

ttuuxxx .... do not abandon gnumeric....I know it is not your favorite app...but it needs to be readily accessible....why.. .because many teachers use it to teach everything from accounting to data base organization. That said... if you can find a substitute smaller spread sheet program.. even if it does not have all the bells and whistles... I am sure it will be appreciated. For years I wrote my own programs commercially and did not have a need for a spreadsheet... but most of my clients used them on a daily basis to supplement programs. It is an extremely powerful tool. Last year I used it in puppy to build a client appointment system. Five to ten contract operators each with her own sheet for appointments. A master sheet of clients. They have been using it for a year now... GO PUPPY! Personally I use spread sheets for quick adding machines as well as historic data collections.

In short... do not abandon a spreadsheet or a word processor.. they are part of the heart of the ability to use the XO as a learning tool.

[mavrothal]

Mavrothal,what i love about this 100MB thing is it adds to the hype of Puppy.

Yeh,... like "the 100MB OS for the $100 laptop"

I really think that an XO-1 specific puppy will be easily bellow 100MB even with Goffice. But this is not really the important part right now. The important thing is to have an XOpup that will support all the XO functions (from game keys and screen rotation to power management and ad-hoc networking), have the puppy feel and speed and not break easily.
Believe me the 100MB is going to be the easy part...

But for know, I'll take anything that will run

[hailpuppy]

Mavrothal, Yes Sir Im with you!!! just counting the days before I can proudly present my XO with Puppy in it.ttuuxxx Please be noted the many thousands of XO and non xo users who are knowingly or unknowingly watching every post you post to this (and of course other. ) threads.. We are with you buddy...not a day passes without me checking on this thread as the first and the last thing i do when i log on to web. Your effort will revolutionize the XO use..and it will benefit millions of under privileged kids and adults world wide who are deprived of the comfort of a pc. Remember the reason the price of XO went up than 100$ ws due to the poor distribution. Im sure the reason for that was the unusable Sugar. with puppy enabled xo ,the OLPC lap will be readily usable and hopefully with the demand the price will go down hence again the poor will benefit. You guys are my heroes...Hail Puppy!!!!

[ttuuxxx]

I haven't tried BK's 2.6.31 kernel source but I did try 2.6.30 source and even with the olpc config it does not compile (to anything usable). Also I know that there are still OLPC kernel hacks that are not upstream, and finally playdayz' uPup does not boot with its kernel/initrd. I provided an OLPC based modified kernel /initrd/modules to "convince" the XO to boot.
Initrd is the other headache. OFW does several checks that must see in the initrd and if it doesn't it just stops. So "modifying" the OLPC initrd is much easier than rebuilding puppy's/your own.

I recompiled the linux_kernel-2.6.18.8 from puppy 2.20 and well It didn't boot I would say because of initrd, do you have the olpc initrd from kernel-2.6.25-20090822.1.olpc.c7d5d12b96a0999.src.rpm which is found at http://dev.laptop.org/~dilinger/testing/
So I can compare the two of them. also I'm going to compile kernel-2.6.25-20090822.1.olpc.c7d5d12b96a0999.src.rpm and see how that goes
ttuuxxx

[mavrothal]

I recompiled the linux_kernel-2.6.18.8 from puppy 2.20 and well It didn't boot I would say because of initrd, do you have the olpc initrd from kernel-2.6.25-20090822.1.olpc.c7d5d12b96a0999.src.rpm which is found at http://dev.laptop.org/~dilinger/testing/
So I can compare the two of them. also I'm going to compile kernel-2.6.25-20090822.1.olpc.c7d5d12b96a0999.src.rpm and see how that goes
ttuuxxx

No I do not. I do have the 20090223.1 which is the last official kernel found in os802 (the one that came with your XO's I believe). However if you download the kernels (not the src) and rpm -i them in your XO should also install the initrd (the newer ones do at least).
Also keep in mind that these initrds do not boot from external usb/sd without a small modification.
Anyway... the 20090223.1-modified "It's in the mail" (hopefully you have space in your in box)

[mavrothal]

ttuuxxx
I do not know what is your work flow/plan but if you want to build a puppy in the iso form (initrd/vmlinuz/pup.sfs) it may be _way more_ tricky and will _not_ boot any locked XO (eg the ones without developer's key).
To boot a locked XO you need in addition to the vmlinuz/initrd from a signed official image the cryptographed /boot/os.zip and /boot/rd.zip files as well as the /security that come from the official build.
So ideally theses files eg the entire "official" /boot folder should be preserved and additional modules should be loaded after, by rc.local. The trick here (I guess) is when you rebuild your kernel from the same_version_olpc_src to give it the same extraversion so is named like the original and then (hopefully) the modules can be inserted in the "official" running kernel. Of course such a scheme allows only for the "full install".

Any way, as I said let's get something that will run on an unlocked machine and then take it from there. Besides running on locked machines might not be such a good idea for the start, before a mature/secure build is ready.

[mavrothal]

OK! Still using playdayz uPup with the OLPC 2.6.31 kernel and the mouse is working. It was "easy". Just set the 'Option "Device" "dev/mouse0" ' instead of the default "dev/mouse". Also adjusted the Xft.dpi to 117 (50% increase) in .Xresources so the default letters are viewable in the 7.5" 1200x900(!) XO-1 screen.

As you can see though now the network is missing although libertas is there! I guess puppy is totally unaware of the XO.

ttuuxxx you have your job cut out for you

BTW can anybody tell me how you can make puppy that runs in full install and does _not_ uses GRUB to load, to run from the RAM? Please!

[eowens2]

Ttuuxxx and Mavrothal - I am delighted to see all of the progress that you guys have made booting Puppy on the XO.

Mavrothal: what did you have to do to get xorg to make you a window? I have been working off-and-on at booting puppy too, and have been stuck at this point for several days.

I have tried to fuse the XO's 8.2.0 kernel (2.6.25.15 with squashfs added, and using unionfs, not AUFS) with Puppy 4.12 components on an ext3 USB stick to construct a hybrid. I moved the XO's xorg-dcon.conf to the hybrid's /etc/X11/, and symlinked xorg.conf to xorg-dcon.conf. I also moved over to the hybrid the XO's xorg drivers: evdev_drv.so, amd_drv.so and mouse_drv.so.

This hybrid makes it thru switch_root but hits a wall at trying to get x-windows up and running and I am dropped to a shell. All of the contents of pup_412.sfs are visible and it is easy to move around in them using the shell.

At this point the /var/Xorg.0.log reveals: "failed to load amd_(evdev,mouse)drv.so" because of "undefined symbols" (The XO's 8.2 uses xorg version 1.4.99.906 whereas Puppy 4.12 uses xorg version 1.3.0). I even tried to move the XO'x xorg into the hybrid...the "undefined symbols" disappear, but incompatable C library problems appear. (Puppy's xorg v 1.3.0 seem pretty tightly bound to libc.so.6=>libc-2.6.1 whereas XO's xorg v1.4.99.906 and its libraries seem to need libc.so.6=>libc-2.8.so...I thought these libraries were supposed to be backward compatible!).

Any ideas on how to proceed? Maybe re-compiling xorg and the drivers with this kernel would do it? I have been working on that, but so far without success.

Ttuuxxx, I cast my vote for a spreadsheet capability too. But if it can be added by a "plug-in", that's fine. There is, I admit, a certain appeal in keeping the base package < 100MB!

In any event I am happy to see all of the activity and interest in this thread.

[ttuuxxx]

I bought a usb Lan card, that looks like the image below, its has a identical blue clear case, but the chipset inside looks different, Anyways I bought it locally for like $20 but on ebay you can purchase them delivered for less than $5, do a search on ebay with the term usb lan and you'll get links like http://cgi.ebay.com.au/USB-Ethernet-10- ... 2a021416ab

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/USB-to-RJ45-Card ... 414983042a

anyways I plugged it into the XO with original OS with sugar, etc and booted up, when It came to the desktop I clicked the internet and boom it was working, I didn't have to configure anything, so finally I sent away for my keys to unlock the laptops I did it on each
Soon guys I'll have something, Man I'm not used to this security stuff, etc


Ps I tried it on puppy on my main pc and it didn't work, so I'll have to try to figure something out.

So it works excellent on xo but not yet on puppy.
ttuuxxx

[mavrothal]

anyways I plugged it into the XO with original OS with sugar, etc and booted up, when It came to the desktop I clicked the internet and boom it was working, I didn't have to configure anything,
...
Ps I tried it on puppy on my main pc and it didn't work, so I'll have to try to figure something out.

So it works excellent on xo but not yet on puppy.

Sugar-puppy 1-0

so finally I sent away for my keys to unlock the laptops I did it on each

For the next one keep in mind that you do _not_ need an internet connected XO to unlock it. You can download the key in another computer and pass it on

Man I'm not used to this security stuff, etc

Well,... if you think that the XO is given to elementary school kids with parents that may not even know how to read and write and in countries that the safety/security might not be stellar, you may want to consider it

[mavrothal]

Mavrothal: what did you have to do to get xorg to make you a window? I have been working off-and-on at booting puppy too, and have been stuck at this point for several days.

Actually, nothing! (see the post with the picture on page 6)
But I think is due on how the xserver is compiled and configured. Even when I use technosaurus' (sorry ttuuxxx ) geode video drivers for puppy 4.3.1 it did not work

I have tried to fuse the XO's 8.2.0 kernel (2.6.25.15 with squashfs added, and using unionfs, not AUFS) with Puppy 4.12 components on an ext3 USB stick to construct a hybrid.
....
This hybrid makes it thru switch_root but hits a wall at trying to get x-windows up and running and I am dropped to a shell. All of the contents of pup_412.sfs are visible and it is easy to move around in them using the shell.

That's nice! Does the stick boots by itself (assuming you corrected the 8.2.0 initutil.py)?
Are you using the sfs file as is or its contents copied to the stick?

[mavrothal]

Let me ask again:

BTW can anybody tell me how you can make puppy that runs in full install and does _not_ uses GRUB to load, to run from the RAM? Please!

C'mon ttuuxxx (and other puppy gurus), don't be so "tight-liped"

[ttuuxxx]

Let me ask again:

BTW can anybody tell me how you can make puppy that runs in full install and does _not_ uses GRUB to load, to run from the RAM? Please!

C'mon ttuuxxx (and other puppy gurus), don't be so "tight-liped"

wakepup2 can do that http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=7979
ttuuxxx

[mavrothal]

I give up
I did managed to get the wireless going on playdayz uPup 451 running as full install from an SD card under the OLPC 2.6.31 kernel and initrd. I tried network-wizard, terminal, manual configuration, no luck. I did manage to get puppy to use liberats for the wireless but then it kept connecting with a IV4ALL warning as pppop and the wrong IP.

Anyway, besides that puppy on the XO-1 is a huge disappointment (got you attention didn't I? ). Not because is not running or apps are missing or anything else but because is as slow as any other distro running on the XO-1. Actually faster than Sugar or Gentoo on par with DebXO and probably slower than Ubuntu 8.10.
Parenthesis: Given that puppy does not have a spinning mouse when apps are loading, in the beginning I thought that it does not work at all and then I was ending up with 5 copies of the application from re-clicking the icon...

I guess the major problem is that in full install and without GRUB, puppy is not running from the ram ( and ttuuxxx, there was nothing in that thread that I could figure out) so all the speed benefits of that are gone and you are stuck with the slow seek times and reads of the SD card. Obviously using a generic uPup not optimized at all for the XO did not help either...
I can now better appreciate ttuuxxx' persistence of getting as small an XOpup as possible running as frugal. That's where the speed comes from

So as a proof of principle the exercise was good. Woof-build pups will run on the XO provided an OLPC kernel and initrd is used. As an actual XOpup,... not even close...

I guess the real challenge, that hopefully ttuuxxx will tackle soon, is to build an initrd that will satisfy both XO's and puppy's needs and allow puppy to run from the RAM and show its true power.

[hailpuppy]

Come on!!! Mavrothal....dont give up on us yet..

There has to be something that we can do....Please please please..OK what help do you want on this? Cant Barry do something about this..Or is this just a joke and is the surprise of our working xopup yet to come???

Please ttuuxxx dont give up up yet..Remember Barrys idea of the mascot Puppy..Small but brave!!!

[ttuuxxx]

guys guys guys, I'll get it going soon, next week is my last week working then I have 3 months off, lol I'll look for another job durring the 3 months
So I'll have ample time to devote to this project very soon. Until then I'll just putter around.

ttuuxxx

[mavrothal]

Come on!!! Mavrothal....dont give up on us yet..

I'm giving up on going down that specific road.

What I wanted to know is if OFW or the XO hardware has anything that would block puppy from running on it. Obviously it does not.
I also wanted to know if any generic puppy (with minor modifications) will run on the XO. Not any that I could find.
Incidentally I realized that in full install puppy loses all its obvious speed advantages on the XO and becomes comparable to any other distro. Thus I give up on this road.

So this little exercise suggested that an XOpup can be build but it must be XO specific (build for the exact hardware) to have any impact.
Here is where ttuuxxx, BK and other puppy developers must take an active initiative.

ttuuxxx already gave us some time frame and hopefully (for the children of the world and unfortunately for him ) is going to deliver. However, remember that is a free software eg is developed on spare time....

....Yes, I could try to learn and do what these people do, but will take me a couple of years to get going...

[raffy]

Hi guys,

Keep in mind that only earlier GTK will run speedily in a Geode version earlier than LX800 (XO-1 uses LX 700, right?).

So if the kernel issue can be solved, ttuuxxx can then try getting 214X or even earlier Puppy version - pakt has packaged iPup based on Puppy 2.02 regression, and this should give some speed to the XO.

[hailpuppy]

Bravo Raffy!!!! Thanks for joining in... Hm Im just wondering what Barry could be thinking of this thread...this effort is cumbersome ,as it seems, but the prize is worthy for your great effort!!!