Re: [SoaS] Plans for SoaS v9
Hi Rodolfo and all... Long ago, in a very early version of SoaS, I seem to recall that Tam Tam was included. However, it did not work well as each operating system had its own way of making sounds on ttam he computer. I remember it being very poor quality on the Mac. If they could overcome this problem, it would be wonderful to include Tam Tam. I hope that will someday be possible. Caryl Date: Sun, 24 Mar 2013 16:33:56 + From: pbrobin...@gmail.com To: soas@lists.sugarlabs.org CC: sugar-de...@lists.sugarlabs.org Subject: Re: [SoaS] Plans for SoaS v9 On Sun, Mar 24, 2013 at 4:23 PM, Rodolfo D. Arce S. r...@sugarlabs.org wrote: I realize that this is not merely a whishlist, but I would like to see added to the SoaS all other packages that are also present in the OLPC 12.1 build. I noticed just recently (because i haven't been using my XO for a while) that the standard OLPC build has the gnome (and desktop switcher) and several applications for it installed allong with the Sugar envirment. I'm working as I get the time, along with Kalpa, to get the Sugar Activities to the same list as OLPC ships. The biggest missing ones at the moment is the Tam Tam suite. We're not going to ever ship the gnome desktop as part of the SoaS spin, but there's nothing to stop people installing it side by side with SoaS if you install it to hard disk. It basically adds more packages, and I understand that it makes it harder to maintain, but it seems to me that it would be good to have the same enviroment for the SoaS as for the OLPC desktop. From the sugar side of things we are basically the same. The distro is based on the same package set and being derived from Fedora there's nothing to stop you from installing gnome if it's what you want to do, we don't have the resources to provide the support for it out of the box. This was probably discussed before, but i would think that providing the same enviroment could help spread Sugar to a regular more wider audience of i686 (or x86_64) bit desktop or notebook/netbook owners. From the sugar side of things we are basically providing the same environment. There's a few minor differences but not much. If there's a particular sugar feature you feel is missing please let me know. GNOME is not a missing feature... it's intended. Peter Cheers 2013/3/22 Peter Robinson pbrobin...@gmail.com: On Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 12:59 PM, Peter Robinson pbrobin...@gmail.com wrote: Hi All, I'm trying to get a little bit more organised for this cycle than I have been over the last couple. The plans for SoaS v9 are going to be somewhat simple. We're going to stick with the 0.98.x release of Sugar and focusing on polish. I would like to see more people testing and using it during the dev cycle so I don't get the My Activity is broken post release or five minutes before release when we're generating final images and pushing them out to the Fedora mirrors. I would also like to remove sugar-presence-service but that would mean either dropping eToys or the developers stepping up to actually fix the dependency that they've only been promising to do for 2 or so years. Is there anything in particular that people would like to contribute during this cycle? Anything I can help someone achieve? Does anyone want to dig into the documentation on the web site to improve the process? I'd also love marketing to get involved since we've not had any publicity for a number of releases and after all Walter was telling me some time back that it's the biggest single driver in the wiki. Finally there's a Test Compose for the alpha available in the following link. I've used it briefly in a VM and it boots and seems to mostly work. http://alt.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/stage/19-Alpha-TC1/Live/ I forget to mention for this cycle we'll also produce SoaS images to run on a number of ARM platforms. The first test of these should arrive around F-19 Beta. Peter ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas -- Rodolfo D. Arce S. http://people.sugarlabs.org/~rolf ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
Re: [SoaS] Record with camera and microphone input on VirtualBox / VMWare
Hi SoaS folks... plus Greg! If you do find a way to do this it would be wonderful. But, it will have to be easy to explain to parents, teachers, and kids. They are our target audience (right?). I'll forward a copy of this to Greg Dreshler up at UCSB. He was one of my booth volunteers from SCaLE 10X and is very knowledgable about how to use Parallels. Maybe he will have some ideas too. If you guys can figure this out and show me how, I will write the documentation to make it easy for our target audience to do. Caryl Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2012 08:30:15 -0500 From: d...@solutiongrove.com To: soas@lists.sugarlabs.org CC: m...@ntugigroup.org; sugar-de...@lists.sugarlabs.org Subject: Re: [SoaS] Record with camera and microphone input on VirtualBox / VMWare On Thu, Mar 1, 2012 at 7:29 AM, Christoph Derndorfer christoph.derndor...@gmail.com wrote: Hi all, I was talking to Mark (in CC) yesterday and he has been working with SoaS in VirtualBox and Parallels and VMware, trying to get all the features of the Record Activity working in conjunction with the host computer's microphone and camera inputs. He wants to be able to use SoaS on a Mac to record screencasts of Activities such as FotoToon and Memorize being used in combination with Record (both audio and camera) I now spent some time trying to get this to work on VirtualBox but didn't find a solution. Is there some reason why this might not work at all or are we simply missing something here? You need the VirtualBox Guest Additions or equivalant compiled inside the Guest OS before this has any chance of working. If you are inside the VM click the Devices menu and install Guest Additions. This adds a new device that you can mount as a disk. From there the Guest Additions need to be compiled. there is a script for that. I am not sure if you are allowed to distribute the compiled Guest Additions with a preconfigured VM image. VMWare has a similar feature, I am not sure about Parallels. Dave Any help, links, suggestions, etc. would be much appreciated. Thanks,Christoph -- Christoph Derndorfer volunteer, OLPC (Austria) [www.olpc.at] editor, OLPC News [www.olpcnews.com] contributor, TechnikBasteln [www.technikbasteln.net] e-mail: christ...@derndorfer.eu ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas -- Dave Bauer d...@solutiongrove.com http://www.solutiongrove.com ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
[SoaS] Need Help With SoaS! (Including Mac)
Hi Folks... I finally have a couple of days with access to both PCs and my Mac, so now is the time to try SoaS! I need to be able to test it on both the Windows machines and the Mac. After about an hour of reading confusing, conflicting, and convoluted info online, I am now thoroughly just that... confused, conflicted and convoluted! This a a cry for help! First some questions... and, please, if at all possible I don't want to go into terminal. When I try to show this to educators at SCaLE 10 X in January that will definitely turn them off. 1) Is there any possibility of using the same SoaS stick on both a PC and a Mac with Virtual Box running (on the Mac)? Is there any reason to run Virtual Box on a PC to run SoaS? Would this be a way to get the same usb stick to work on both? 2) Some folks have reported being able to get SoaS to run on a Mac with persistent storage. Exactly how, in simple terms did they do this? Virtual Box I assume? But, maybe I am mistaken. 3) When I set up the Live USB creator parameters, what do you recommend for persistent storage? I am using a 4 GB stick. 4) Is there an easy way to add Activities to the SoaS build? If so, does this need to be done before the stick is created or can they be added later? I'm sure this will be enough to get me started, but there will undoubtedly be other questions as I go along. Thanks! Caryl ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
Re: [SoaS] [Sugar-devel] MacBook_Persistent_SoaS_v5_and_SoaS_v6_EFI_Boot_USB ( boots directly from USB )
Hi All.. Are we talking about Coconut or Pineapple? Caryl Date: Wed, 9 Nov 2011 18:24:52 +0100 From: raffael.reich...@googlemail.com To: soas@lists.sugarlabs.org Subject: Re: [SoaS] [Sugar-devel] MacBook_Persistent_SoaS_v5_and_SoaS_v6_EFI_Boot_USB ( boots directly from USB ) Hello Peter! It finally works! Got a working F16/Sugar V6 with persistence booting on my MacBookAir, late 2008 from usb. Sorry, I am not the kind of low-level, deep into it Linux-Guy. The Problem was the grub root= parameter. I prepared my Sticks with liveusb-creator on a fedora 15. This parameter was set to the name of the .iso - File: wrong. Should be the name of the usb volume. ANYWAY: Great! And I am really happy! Regards,Raffael 2011/11/2 Peter Robinson pbrobin...@gmail.com On Wed, Nov 2, 2011 at 1:32 PM, Raffael Reichelt raffael.reich...@googlemail.com wrote: 2011/11/2 Peter Robinson pbrobin...@gmail.com It should work with all Intel based Macs Unfortunately not. Tried both images on my MacBookAir, End 2008, 1,6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo. As with F15 Images before + self prepared ones it stops booting after a while with the error: sh: can't access tty; job control turned off dracut:/# The F16 is nearly the same, but here complaining about not finding the root filesystem. What image did you use? URL please? Peter ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
Re: [SoaS] SoaS v7?
Any chance of trying to get Tam Tam to work on SoaS? Caryl Date: Thu, 10 Nov 2011 00:18:36 + From: pbrobin...@gmail.com To: soas@lists.sugarlabs.org; sugar-de...@lists.sugarlabs.org Subject: [SoaS] SoaS v7? Hi All, So there's no rest for the wicked its time to think about what you would like to develop for SoaS v7. I know upstream is all very busy already the sugar team are full pelt into the conversion of sugar to gtk3 and PyGI and there's all sorts of fun stuff going into Fedora... so what do you want? Peter ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
Re: [SoaS] [Sugar-devel] MacBook_Persistent_SoaS_v5_and_SoaS_v6_EFI_Boot_USB ( boots directly from USB )
Hi... As I said, it will be several days before I get a chance to try this. I will be testing it on with Mac OSX 10.4.8 on a 3-year-old 2.4GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo. I am also +1 for all the things Bert mentioned in the message below. Caryl Date: Wed, 2 Nov 2011 12:22:35 -0700 From: satel...@bendbroadband.com To: cbige...@hotmail.com CC: soas@lists.sugarlabs.org; i...@lists.sugarlabs.org Subject: Re: [SoaS] [Sugar-devel] MacBook_Persistent_SoaS_v5_and_SoaS_v6_EFI_Boot_USB ( boots directly from USB ) Caryl: look at: http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Community/Distributions/Fedora-SoaS#Soasv6-Desktop_EFI_USB_Builder_prebuilt_Virtualbox_Appliance I am uploading it now (This should be available to download in several hours) after I finish testing the Download here. This is an importable VirtualBox Appliance that has all of the tools needed to build an EFI boot USB. The problem is that the EFI boot USB does not boot on all Macs... my 8.1 MacBook Pro i7 boots and works well but my wife's MacBook Air does not... I am also building an importable Virtual Box Appliance of Soav6 so that it will run in OSX on the Mac. The VirtualBox version of Soas is preferred as wireless is handled in the VirtualBox envelope. Regards; Tom Gilliard Note: A Soasv5 Coconut importable virtualbox appliance is already on the wiki http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_Creation_Kit#Sugar_on_a_Stick-V5-Coconut On 11/02/2011 11:01 AM, Caryl Bigenho wrote: Hi Tom, I was hoping this would be a plug-and-play thing like Etoys-to-go is. While, with effort, I can get VB to work, it is beyond most non-techies... parents, teachers, most kids. I'll try it soon and see if I can come up with a Grannies Guide that explains the process in simple English. Any hints you can send will be appreciated. Right now I am working on the XO Users Manual Revision, but when I have that under control, I will have a chance to try the new SoaS. Caryl Date: Wed, 2 Nov 2011 06:05:10 -0700 From: satel...@bendbroadband.com To: cbige...@hotmail.com Subject: Re: [Sugar-devel] [SoaS] MacBook_Persistent_SoaS_v5_and_SoaS_v6_EFI_Boot_USB ( boots directly from USB ) Caryl: I just made a f16 EFI Boot USB using VirtualBox 4.1.4 on my MAcbook Pro i7 using the guest additions. It boots RC4 of x86-64 Soas live nicely look at the page again: http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Community/Distributions/Fedora-SoaS#MacBook_Persistent_SoaS_v5_and_SoaS_v6_EFI_Boot_USB Regards; Tom Gilliard/satellit_ On 11/02/2011 12:16 AM, Caryl Bigenho wrote: Hi... I am following the progress of this with great interest, and as soon as I finish the work I promised to do on the Help Activity/Users Manual refresh, I will have a chance to try it. I do have a few questions that will help me get started. 1) Which Mac OS X are you running? 2) Has this been tested on a MacBook? 3) Can I create the persistent usb on my MacBook using the instructions I found in item 4 on this page? http://www.webupd8.org/2009/04/4-ways-to-create-bootable-live-usb.html If this works, it is really good news! I would love to be able to show it at SCaLE 10X in Los Angeles on Jan 20-22. Should I put in a proposal for a presentation or is it not ready for the big time yet? Better still would someone from Sugar Labs like to do a presentation at SCaLE? I'm looking forward to hearing answers! Caryl Date: Tue, 1 Nov 2011 20:32:57 -0700 From: satel...@bendbroadband.com To: i...@lists.sugarlabs.org CC: test...@lists.laptop.org; soas@lists.sugarlabs.org; sugar-de...@lists.sugarlabs.org Subject: [SoaS] MacBook_Persistent_SoaS_v5_and_SoaS_v6_EFI_Boot_USB ( boots directly from USB ) We now have a persistent EFI boot USB for Macs... http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Community/Distributions/Fedora-SoaS#MacBook_Persistent_SoaS_v5_and_SoaS_v6_EFI_Boot_USB works with f16 RC4 x86-64 Soas.iso http://alt.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/stage/16.RC4/Live/x86_64/Fedora-16-x86_64-Live-Desktop.iso Use: livecd-iso-to-disk see first link for details. Tom Gilliard/satellit_ ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas ___ Sugar-devel mailing list sugar-de...@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas ___ SoaS
Re: [SoaS] SoaSv6 - Last stages
Wow! Is this for real? Does it have persistent storage too? Guess I'll have to find out how to do this. Hope I'll be able to pass it on to someone I am working with in Southern California who works at an Apple school. Caryl Date: Fri, 28 Oct 2011 07:39:07 +0200 From: raffael.reich...@googlemail.com To: soas@lists.sugarlabs.org Subject: Re: [SoaS] SoaSv6 - Last stages 2011/10/27 Thomas C Gilliard satel...@bendbroadband.com Tried the same with soas-v5-Coconut x86-64 with f16 diskutility (reformat to fat): It boots on MacBook Pro i7 fine. (hold option key during boot than == to EFI USB and it works. A bootable USB for the MAC : ) Tried the V5 64bit Image too, but could not get it to work. Did you use the one linked in the wiki?I really would need to have a working SOAS on my Mac. Raffael ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
[SoaS] Still More About the Khan Academy/Aun más sobre el Khan Academy
Hi All... There was a lot of discussion about the Khan Academy videos at eduJAM in Montevideo last week. I just ran across something else about them. ck12.0rg, the group that is doing open source textbooks for California has tied the Khan Academy videos their Algebra 1 Flex Books. They may have done others. I haven't checked yet. So, here is the link: http://www.khanacademy.org/?video=graphs-of-quadratic-functions#ck12org-algebra-1-examples And here is a link to the cK12 Algebra 1 Flexbook: http://www.ck12.org/flexbook/book/3659 The flexbooks are all open source. Caryl P.S. The link for the videos in ogg is in an earlier email. Hola a todos Era muchos discusiones sobre el videos del Khan Academy al eduJAM en Montevideo la semana pasado. Acabo de encontrar alguna cosa más sobre ellos. ck12.org es el grupo que esta haciendo libros de open source por las escuelas y liceos en California. Ellos han suggerando el uso del los videos del Khan Academy con sus Flexbooks para Algebra 1. Es posible que hay otros. Aqui está un enlace para los videos:http://www.khanacademy.org/?video=graphs-of-quadratic-functions#ck12org-algebra-1-examplesY aquí esta un enlace a el libro ck12 Algebra 1:http://www.ck12.org/flexbook/book/3659Todos los flexbooks estan open source. Carolina P.D. El enlace para los videos en ogg es en un correo anterior. ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
Re: [SoaS] [IAEP] the 4 GB USB containing Soas-v3-Mirabelle appliance can be run interchangeably on a PC or a mac with VMPlayer or Virtualbox
Hi All This is great news! I will work on learning to do this when I get back to SoCal in Dec. Then I can share it with others at presentations, visits and the like. I really like the way Etoys-to-go can move from system to system. If this works even half as well, it will be big news. Caryl (aka GrannieB, Carolina) Date: Sat, 27 Nov 2010 07:27:24 -0800 From: satel...@bendbroadband.com To: raffael.reich...@googlemail.com CC: soas@lists.sugarlabs.org; i...@lists.sugarlabs.org Subject: Re: [SoaS] [IAEP] the 4 GB USB containing Soas-v3-Mirabelle appliance can be run interchangeably on a PC or a mac with VMPlayer or Virtualbox Raffael Reichelt wrote: 2010/11/25 Thomas C Gilliard satel...@bendbroadband.com Raffael; I just built a f14-Desktop 2nd USB using the same method and it boots fine on the MacBook Air. I then did yum groupinstall sugar-desktop and then yum install sugar-emulator. (took 2 hrs because of the slowness of USB) Now I have a USB that will boot sugar or gnome via the gdm login. thanks for testing; Tom Gilliard Raffael Reichelt wrote: 2010/11/25 Thomas C Gilliard satel...@bendbroadband.com satel...@bendbroadband.com Raffael Reichelt wrote: 2010/11/25 Thomas C Gilliard satel...@bendbroadband.com satel...@bendbroadband.com satel...@bendbroadband.com satel...@bendbroadband.com Running Soas files on a 2nd USB in Virtualbox 3.2 installed on the MacBook Air : In VirtualBox Make a new Virtualbox appliance where you specify the existing vmdk file on the 2nd USB as the Hard Disk. NOTE the same 4 GB USB; 2nd USB containing the students appliance files runs interchagably in BOTH VMPlayer and Virtualbox on Mac and PC.s This a very simple solution with [http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/3.2.10/VirtualBox-3.2.10-66523-OSX.dmgVirtualBox-3.2.10-66523-OSX.dmg] installed on your Mac. See: [http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Mac_OS_X-Boot_USB_with_Virtualbox#Soas-v3_Mirabelle_virtualbox_files_to_put_on_2nd_USBSoas-v3_Mirabelle_virtualbox_files_to_put_on_2nd_USB] I just discovered the great feature that the 4 GB USB containing Soas-v3-Mirabelle can be run interchangeably on a PC or a mac with either VMPlayer or Virtualbox. This may be why Virtualbox 3.2 now allows multiple expanding HD of 2 Gb slices. :: TESTED ON: :: Acer Aspire One Netbook Ubuntu 9.10 Virtualbox :: MacBook Air OSX Virtualbox :: Dell 520n Dektop PC Ubuntu 9.04 VMPlayer This means that the student has his individual copy of Soas on the USB stick and can open it on multiple computers and operating systems. This is not a live image but a full install to a virtual Harddisk. It should be much more robust. Plus the stick's contents can be copied any time as a backup. The application goes thru firstboot with the student's name and password required to access it. I think that this may be the solution we have been looking for. A compressed version of the Soas-v3 Appliance (before firstboot) is downloadable from http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Mac_OS_X-Boot_USB_with_Virtualbox#Prebuilt_Soas-v3-Mirabelle_4GB_Appliance Thomas Gilliard satellit __ _ SoaS mailing lists...@lists.sugarlabs.orghttp://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas Raffael; Here are the specs I used: http://people.sugarlabs.org/Tgillard/Soas-v3-Mirabelle_no_firstboot.tar.bz2 -*Root Password=sugarroot*_ Expanded and copied 8 files to USB* Built on this site:http://www.easyvmx.com/ CDhttp://download.sugarlabs.org/soas/releases/soas-3-mirabelle.iso Used Soas-v3-Mirabelle CD in VMplayer to install: Used liveinst in sugar-root terminal USB* Soas-v3-Mirabelle.vmx (on 4GB Firefly USB) Formatted fat 16 Label=MIRABELLE Specs: Other Linux 2.6.x kernel Workstation 6.0 virtual machine 512 MB 1 Processor 4.7 GB HD CD/DVD (IDE) Auto Detect Network Adapter NAT Oracle Virtualbox 3.2.10 r66523 for OSX settings: OS: Linux/fedora 512 Base Memory 12 MB Video Memory Storage:Soas-v3-Mirabelle.vmdk Slot SATA Port 0 Attached to Soas-v3-on 2nd USB Network Adapter 1 enabled NAT Works fine here. thanks for testing! Tom Gilliard satellit I tried it on my MacBookAir, OSX 10.6.5, VirtualBox 3.2.10 and it needed about 3 times booting undtil it worked (crashes during firstboot and logon). One Problem is there is a root password set and my user is not in sudoers. -- __ _ SoaS mailing lists...@lists.sugarlabs.orghttp://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas Hello Tom! Thanks for the root password - I will test a little bit further. Let you know then ... Raffael Hello Thomas! Is there no way to boot a virtual machine physically from usb (virtualbox under OSX)? So far I have not found any way to boot a USB directly in OSX Look at: http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Mac_OS_X-Boot_USB_with_Virtualbox#Mac_OSX-F14-desktop_with_Virtualbox_Boot_USB
Re: [SoaS] [Sugar-devel] SoaS 4 - Mango Lassi is out.
Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2010 03:15:53 + From: mar...@martindengler.com To: danceswithc...@gmail.com CC: abhun...@uncg.edu; soas@lists.sugarlabs.org Subject: Re: [SoaS] [Sugar-devel] SoaS 4 - Mango Lassi is out. On Thu, Nov 18, 2010 at 09:53:27PM -0500, DancesWithCars wrote: This has probably been mentioned elsewhere, but is there a Sugar/ soas on Mac list? Some days I think soas@ _is_ soas-mac@ ;)Those must be the days when I am pleading for help doing SoaS things on my MacBook.BTW a casual survey of about 20 teachers showed about 60% using PCs and 40% using Macs with their students.These teachers were from all over SoCal. All the LAUSD teachers seem to have MacBooks issued to them bythe district.Caryl Martin ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
[SoaS] Boot SoaS on Windows machines? Help!
Hi It has been about 6 mos since I last ran SoaS on my eeePC. I am a Mac person. I can't remember how to get Sugar running on the PC. I have tried a lot of different things... alt, ctrl, ctrl-c, ctrl-d, F2, ctrl-alt, and so forth. Nothing works. I tried opening Windows first and then accessing the usb (FEDORA). No luck. I need to know this for Saturday, along with variations for different kinds of PCs so I can tell folks what to do. Is it the same on all of them? If not, how do I find the variations for other folks? I really thought I could remember this, but I didn't write it down and the wiki doesn't seem to have the info. Thanks,GrannieB ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
[SoaS] Getting to BIOS (was Boot SoaS on Windows machines? Help!)
Thanks, Mike. Maybe we could make a little table of which key works on which machine and put it on the wiki. I found that the Esc key works on my eeePC.Anyone else want to contribute? Here's a Start, just add yours to the list: Getting to BIOS eeePC 701 F2 eeePC 900 Esc Caryl Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2010 01:22:47 -0500 Subject: Re: [IAEP] Boot SoaS on Windows machines? Help! From: curious...@gmail.com To: cbige...@hotmail.com CC: soas@lists.sugarlabs.org; i...@lists.sugarlabs.org; support-g...@laptop.org Caryl, Which eeePC do you have? On the eeePC 701 I have (the original), I press and hold F2, then power on with the SoaS inserted. The American Megatrends logo should appear on black, then the blue BIOS SETUP UTILITY screen. Hit the right arrow to select the Boot tab. Then follow the instructions to change the Boot Device Priority to your USB drive. I have my eeePC handy, but not SoaS. If you need more help, I can look for one of my SoaS drives tomorrow to test the procedure. Unfortunately, the function key for opening the BIOS setup is different on every PC I've encountered. I've placed a sticker dot over the proper function key on some of my machines. Mike On Wed, Nov 10, 2010 at 10:02 PM, Caryl Bigenho cbige...@hotmail.com wrote: Hi It has been about 6 mos since I last ran SoaS on my eeePC. I am a Mac person. I can't remember how to get Sugar running on the PC. I have tried a lot of different things... alt, ctrl, ctrl-c, ctrl-d, F2, ctrl-alt, and so forth. Nothing works. I tried opening Windows first and then accessing the usb (FEDORA). No luck. I need to know this for Saturday, along with variations for different kinds of PCs so I can tell folks what to do. Is it the same on all of them? If not, how do I find the variations for other folks? I really thought I could remember this, but I didn't write it down and the wiki doesn't seem to have the info. Thanks, GrannieB ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) i...@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
Re: [SoaS] [IAEP] [MARKETING] Get Sugar landing page
Hi... I have been advocating for SoaS to run on both Intel and PowerPC platforms all along. I think Sugar Labs has done pretty well with getting it up and running on the Intel machines and should continue working in that direction. At the same time, there are still a lot of the old PowerPC Macs floating around. They are well built and last a long time. It is pretty hard to convince a principal (or superintendent or school board) that they should buy new hardware if the old stuff is still working... especially in these lean times. There are some folks in SoCal who are playing around with getting Sugar to run on the old Macs. They were inspired when someone was given a set of the old Mac clamshell machines. So far they haven't reported back whether they have had any success, but I know they are working on it. Most of these are folks who met Sugar at the Southern California Linux Expo (SCaLE) in the last 2 years. I'd like to remind all of you that SCaLE 9X will take place at the Los Angeles Airport Hilton Hotel on Feb 25-27, 2011. It would be great if some of you from Sugar Labs could attend, and even present. There are a lot of open-source advocates in the Southern California area, and this is the time and place to encourage them to volunteer some time with Sugar Labs. Here is a link to the Call For Papers if you would like to do a presentation: http://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale9x/blog/scale-9x-call-papers There will probably also be a OLPC/SugarLabs booth again. Volunteers to help there would be very welcome! Caryl Date: Thu, 16 Sep 2010 09:34:55 +1200 From: paperl...@timmcnamara.co.nz To: soas@lists.sugarlabs.org; i...@lists.sugarlabs.org Subject: Re: [SoaS] [IAEP] [MARKETING] Get Sugar landing page On 16 September 2010 09:00, Tabitha Roder tabi...@tabitha.net.nz wrote: If we support VIrtualBox we should probably also support VMWare, Hyper-V, KVM and Xen. Who's going to do all that testing when we have barely the resources to do a single image. Peter I am a teacher of sorts and have been into loads of education institutes from pre school through to tertiary. Apple is everywhere so we have to solve this problem. Apple designs vertically integrated systems. If schools teachers decide to adopt this philosophy, they take the risk that they can't use external stuff. I don't know if Sugar Labs have the capacity to remedy this. I think that Sugar Labs should focus on making quality software, and push responsibility for adoption downstream to distributions and companies/orgs that want to promote Sugar's adoption. I'm sorry for my lack of sympathy, but I don't see Sugar running natively on a Mac platform as a priority for Sugar Labs. It's a priority, but we have many priorities and few resources. I use Virtualbox and have a geek master to turn to for help when I need it. I have not heard of those other virtual machine things and all the teachers I know that have tried a virtual machine have done so with Virtualbox or something called bootcamp (which might not even be a virtual machine, who knows?) You're right there, Boot Camp[1] is not virtualisation. It is more like an installer to make things easier for people to install a second operating system. It assists people with repartitioning their hard drives and so forth. I think that Boot Camp is a good route to investigate if someone has the energy. Perhaps some intrepid Mac users could adapt current tutorials[3] for Sugar. Tim [1] http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/ [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BootCamp [2] http://www.helium.com/items/421906-how-to-install-linux-on-an-intel-mac-with-boot-camp [note: marketing list removed from discussion] ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
Re: [SoaS] Request for comments: A Proposed way to report Soas tests
Hi Tom and all... You have done a great job organizing this. The only thing I would suggest is adding something for Mac testers, maybe a separate chart, that refers to the method (and version of the method) they are using... Virtual Box or boot-helper CD or something else if something else will work too. Also, it should include the model of the Mac. There are actually some folks in SoCal who are working on trying to get it to run on the old G4 (PowerPC) Macs. Caryl Date: Wed, 1 Sep 2010 07:50:32 -0700 From: satel...@bendbroadband.com To: soas@lists.sugarlabs.org CC: sugar-de...@lists.sugarlabs.org Subject: [SoaS] Request for comments: A Proposed way to report Soas tests I have been using this format to report testing of Soas Nightly Composes. [1] Please comment on the usability of such a format. Tom Gilliard satellit [1] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Talk:Sugar_on_a_Stick_release_process#Test_Matrix ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
Re: [SoaS] Limited Internet Access for SOAS
* +1 to Sascha's very astute comments below. Caryl From: sascha-ml-ui-sugar-s...@silbe.org To: soas@lists.sugarlabs.org Date: Sat, 19 Jun 2010 09:53:22 + Subject: Re: [SoaS] Limited Internet Access for SOAS Excerpts from Raffael Reichelt's message of Sat Jun 19 06:47:02 + 2010: I had a talk with sebastian at linuxtag about including local squid with a whitelist in soas. Censoring internet access with Sugar (or SoaS in this case) comes up regularly. If you really must filter (*), it's a task for the device providing internet access, not the client device (the computer running Sugar). One of the reasons is that it's way too easy (kinderleicht in german) to circumvent local filtering if the user has full access (as Sugar users do by design). (*) Whether filtering is a good idea / achieves what it's supposed to is a separate topic and doesn't belong on the SoaS list. Let me just mention that filters are very dumb tools with a lot of false positives AND negatives (e.g. some german blacklist even blocked Wikipedia). Having a filter can make the parents believe their kids are safe and stop supervising them. It's quite similar to anti- virus software and personal firewalls: they make you believe you are safe, while in fact you are not. Sascha -- http://sascha.silbe.org/ http://www.infra-silbe.de/ ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
[SoaS] Free Online Conference About Online Learning
Hi All, Here is a chance to see what educators are thinking about in online learning. This Online Teaching Conference 2010 is being held in San Diego June 16-18. As its name implies, if you can't attend in person, you can attend online! Registration for online participation is free. If the sessions don't fit with your schedule, they are being recorded and you can watch them later. If you choose to participate live, many sessions will have opportunities to interact. The conference is jointly sponsored the California Educational Technology Consortium (CTEC) and Computer Using Educators (CUE). Fourteen corporate sponsors are helping fund the event. For more information and free registration, check it out at: http://www.otc10.org/ Caryl ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
Re: [SoaS] [Marketing] [IAEP] Soliciting SoaS v.4 Codename Colour Suggestions
I thought it was fruit and varieties of fruit? Things you might combine with Sugar to make a Jam? Caryl From: b...@freudenbergs.de Date: Fri, 4 Jun 2010 11:43:40 +0200 To: pbrobin...@gmail.com CC: soas@lists.sugarlabs.org; i...@lists.sugarlabs.org; sugar-de...@lists.sugarlabs.org; market...@lists.sugarlabs.org Subject: Re: [SoaS] [Marketing] [IAEP] Soliciting SoaS v.4 Codename Colour Suggestions Ah. Had forgotten about that theme. And Mirabelle isn't an ice cream I recognize either ;) - Bert - On 04.06.2010, at 11:12, Peter Robinson wrote: I believe the themeing for SoaS is Icecream and not berries. I vote for vanilla or Cookies Cream :-P Peter On Fri, Jun 4, 2010 at 10:00 AM, Bert Freudenberg b...@freudenbergs.de wrote: Gooseberry. Green. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gooseberry Tasty, funny name, what more do we want? ;) - Bert - On 03.06.2010, at 20:31, Sebastian Dziallas wrote: We'd like to kick off the process for the upcoming Sugar on a Stick v.4 already, while gearing up for the SoaS PR at LinuxTag, too. And so we're looking forward to your ideas and suggestions on the codename and colour selections for the next release iteration. These will be discussed at the next meeting, which is scheduled to take place on Monday, June 7 on 1900 UTC in #sugar-meeting. Thanks, --Sebastian ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) i...@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep ___ Marketing mailing list market...@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/marketing ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
Re: [SoaS] [Marketing] Soliciting SoaS v.4 Codename Colour Suggestions
Mirabelle isn't a berry... it is a plum! Caryl From: sdaly...@gmail.com Date: Fri, 4 Jun 2010 17:32:23 +0200 To: sebast...@when.com CC: soas@lists.sugarlabs.org; i...@lists.sugarlabs.org; sugar-de...@lists.sugarlabs.org; market...@lists.sugarlabs.org Subject: Re: [SoaS] [Marketing] Soliciting SoaS v.4 Codename Colour Suggestions Sebastian, I guess you want to drop the name we had chosen together previously, Cloudberry? If you remember we had wanted to underline collaboration and connectivity, and decided to postpone that name when we realized that it was too ambitious for this release. This is a marketing discussion and should really be in the marketing meeting. Sugar on a Stick is a pillar of our marketing strategy and the name needs to fit with our strategy. That said, I wouldn't want to spoil anyone's fun choosing ice cream flavors. It could be nice to pick a non-berry flavor too as Peter and others have said in the past. Sean On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 8:31 PM, Sebastian Dziallas sebast...@when.com wrote: We'd like to kick off the process for the upcoming Sugar on a Stick v.4 already, while gearing up for the SoaS PR at LinuxTag, too. And so we're looking forward to your ideas and suggestions on the codename and colour selections for the next release iteration. These will be discussed at the next meeting, which is scheduled to take place on Monday, June 7 on 1900 UTC in #sugar-meeting. Thanks, --Sebastian ___ Marketing mailing list market...@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/marketing ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
Re: [SoaS] Soliciting SoaS v.4 Codename Colour Suggestions
Hi... Funny this has come up. I was just thinking about this how about Sequoia? Sequoia is a variety of strawberry, a national park, and a Native American (more properly spelled Sequoyah) who independently invented a written language, bringing literacy to his Cherokee Nation. In addition to being an outstanding educator, he was also a peacemaker. The man: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequoyah The strawberry (one of the best!): http://www.hortusb.com/sts.html Caryl Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2010 20:31:03 +0200 From: sebast...@when.com To: soas@lists.sugarlabs.org; i...@lists.sugarlabs.org; market...@lists.sugarlabs.org; sugar-de...@lists.sugarlabs.org Subject: [SoaS] Soliciting SoaS v.4 Codename Colour Suggestions We'd like to kick off the process for the upcoming Sugar on a Stick v.4 already, while gearing up for the SoaS PR at LinuxTag, too. And so we're looking forward to your ideas and suggestions on the codename and colour selections for the next release iteration. These will be discussed at the next meeting, which is scheduled to take place on Monday, June 7 on 1900 UTC in #sugar-meeting. Thanks, --Sebastian ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
Re: [SoaS] Soliciting SoaS v.4 Codename Colour Suggestions
Hi... Funny this has come up. I was just thinking about this how about Sequoia? Sequoia is a variety of strawberry, a national park, and a Native American (more properly spelled Sequoyah) who independently invented a written language, bringing literacy to his Cherokee Nation. In addition to being an outstanding educator, he was also a peacemaker. The man: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequoyah The strawberry (one of the best!): http://www.hortusb.com/sts.html Caryl Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2010 20:31:03 +0200 From: sebast...@when.com To: soas@lists.sugarlabs.org; i...@lists.sugarlabs.org; market...@lists.sugarlabs.org; sugar-de...@lists.sugarlabs.org Subject: [SoaS] Soliciting SoaS v.4 Codename Colour Suggestions We'd like to kick off the process for the upcoming Sugar on a Stick v.4 already, while gearing up for the SoaS PR at LinuxTag, too. And so we're looking forward to your ideas and suggestions on the codename and colour selections for the next release iteration. These will be discussed at the next meeting, which is scheduled to take place on Monday, June 7 on 1900 UTC in #sugar-meeting. Thanks, --Sebastian ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
Re: [SoaS] Mirabelle page updated
Very shiny Mel, love it! I will try it as soon as I get to MT. No time right now since we are packing and will leave early Thursday. Caryl Date: Tue, 25 May 2010 21:58:11 -0400 From: m...@melchua.com To: soas@lists.sugarlabs.org Subject: [SoaS] Mirabelle page updated It's got shiny on it now - links are updated as well, and so forth. http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_on_a_Stick/Mirabelle Mostly based off the text on http://sdziallas.com/blog/sebastian/2010/05/mirabelles-they-are-there.html. --Mel ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
Re: [SoaS] Making Creation Kit Less Technical
Hi Ed,
As I see it, the whole idea of the SoaS creation kit is to have something that
a user (hopefully an educator when the process is smoothed out) will be able to
get in a self-contained unit with all of the resources needed to create and use
SoaS in all of its forms... live cd, usb stick, and even installed on their
hard drive. The user should not need internet access to do this... in fact,
they may not have it. Since SoaS and the installation process are constantly
being changed, updated, and improved there will naturally be many versions out
in the world. What works for one, may not work for another. Hence, the problem
with the FLOSS manual. The instructions for each specific version should be
included in the file or distributed dvd. The end user should not need to access
an online FLOSS manual. They may not even create their own creation kit... it
may be given to them in dvd form. BTW, no print form need be used. We are
saving trees... now about the plastic... maybe we should campaign for dvds made
from plastics that come from corn or algae rather than petroleum. ;-D
Caryl
Date: Mon, 3 May 2010 17:21:24 -0400
Subject: Re: [SoaS] Making Creation Kit Less Technical
From: echer...@gmail.com
To: cbige...@hotmail.com
On Mon, May 3, 2010 at 13:43, Caryl Bigenho cbige...@hotmail.com wrote:
FLOSS manuals don't seem like the place for something like this that changes
constantly and rapidly.
I thought that that was part of the point of FLOSS Manuals, as opposed to
print.
Caryl
Date: Sun, 2 May 2010 21:52:38 -0400
From: echer...@gmail.com
To: jtis4...@hotmail.com
CC: soas@lists.sugarlabs.org; gerald.ard...@gmail.com;
disc...@lists.flossmanuals.net
Subject: Re: [SoaS] Making Creation Kit Less Technical
Should we move the SOAS Creation Kit guide into FLOSS Manuals? I will
be happy to join in a book sprint there. I have lots of experience
reading engineering documents and producing manuals for novices. We
have many other editors with similar experience in making sure that
the resulting manual is at the level of the intended users.
http://en.flossmanuals.net/write
On Sun, May 2, 2010 at 16:26, John Tierney jtis4...@hotmail.com wrote:
Hi Tom,
Thanks for the link and info on Sugar on a Stick Creation Kit. I
downloaded
and was able to sucessfully burn. There is a lot of great resources
included,
if we can translate/package into a slightly less Technical Format I
think it
could be very helpful and will allow new users to engage Sugar and
become
distributors of Sugar as well as participating members of the community.
For myself and the audience who will be receiving the SoaS Creation Kit
DVD,
the present layout is slightly overwhelming. So I would like to do a
little
collaborative
effort over the next week to try to put the files in a delivery format
that
would allow
the recipient to have a clear and successful path from First interacting
with Sugar,
Secondly becoming an expert at creating SoaS through Fedora USB Creator,
and
then
with a little introduction to Command Line we can turn them into
SugarClone
stars.
What I have done below is to reorder and try to group files. This to
allow
new users to
have a clear presentation of what they are, what they are used for. Big
piece that needs
to be added is the USB Creator and instructions how to use.
My belief is we presently have most of the pieces of the puzzle for
this,
with a little polish
we can put together Creation Kit with an easily navaigable landscape. I
think one of the
first documents should be a what's in the creation kit, with short
explanation of what it's
used for. Also a comment on level of difficulty might help.
Thanks for taking this Creation Kit up. I think we are pretty close to
having something
pretty cool, which will be a big bonus to our outreach efforts and
ability
to attract new
resources. Look forward to collaborating on this.
2-) Download and burn the DVD:
http://people.sugarlabs.org/Tgillard/SugarCreatonKit07.iso
Was able to sucessfully download-Took about 7hrs
This has pdf.s of the Floss Manuals and Many other source and learning
materials :
==What is on this DVD?==
version .07
* What is Sugar.pdf
(http://en.flossmanuals.net/sugar)
*-Read Me First Floss Manuals {Folder}
http://en.flossmanuals.net
(Browse)
(Chat)
(funWith the Journal)
(Make Your Own Activities)
How to write sugar activities by James Simmons
(Write)
(Record)
(The Terminal)
(Turtle art)
(Write)
-
*-The Undiscoverable Features
Re: [SoaS] sugar on a stick
And just who will the end user be? Hopefully an educator. And what os are they likely to use? Windows or Mac OS-10. A few enlightened folks may run Linux. Strange... right now, the SoaS I made on a friend's PC runs only on my MacBook. The one George Hunt helped me make on my MacBook runs only on my eeePC! I still haven't figured out how to make one on the eeePC... and that is one of the reasons I bought it. No one has answered my question: If I run the LiveUSB creator program on the eeePC can I do the download directly from Fedora to the usb stick without filling up the machine's tiny memory and crashing it or causing a fatal freeze? Caryl Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2010 18:37:46 +1000 From: qu...@laptop.org To: carol...@solutiongrove.com; soas@lists.sugarlabs.org; andybrookes...@yahoo.com Subject: Re: [SoaS] sugar on a stick On Mon, Apr 26, 2010 at 10:31:05AM +0200, Sascha Silbe wrote: Given that it's sole use is writing a Linux image to a stick, I find it rather puzzling that it only works on Windows. While there is a need for a Windows based tool to achieve this purpose, and also for a Linux or Mac OS X based tool, there's little reason I can see for the tool to be cross-platform except to reduce development effort. It's up to the tool developer to make that decision. I'm glad there exist developers who choose not to make everything cross-platform, as it allows them to optimise for their chosen platform. I do the same; most of my code doesn't run on anything bar Linux. ;-) -- James Cameron http://quozl.linux.org.au/ ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
[SoaS] Reformat USB stick, How?
Hi All, In my experiments trying to create usable SoaS sticks, I have had a few flops. Unfortunately these USB sticks now have a severe identity crisis. They believe they are actually CDs. You can't write to them. You can't rename them (at least not in a way a mere mortal like me knows how to do). Do I have to just junk them (like throwing away money... not good). Or, is there an easy way to reformat them and start all over? Maybe even a hard way? Thanks, Caryl ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
[SoaS] InfoTech Report and link to Photos
Hi All, Today was showtime for SoaS at the LAUSD InfoTech and Parent Summit at the Los Angeles Convention center. This year's event was sponsored by Target as one of their community involvement projects. Everything was free... even parking and a great lunch! They said there were about 4000 people there including kids. We had a lot of parents and teachers stop by and ask about getting XOs for their schools and about SoaS. I gave them a special handout with links to lots of info. Some also signed up for the olpc-SoCal mailing list. Their names will be added sometime next week. You can see some photos of the event here. I wish I had had time to take more (and to see the other booths). http://bit.ly/9xfTAz We showed SoaS Blueberry running on the eeePC and MacBook (with a boot helper cd) and it worked fine. This was a non-persistant version. A couple of teachers who stopped by were very interested in trying it and may help us work on the Grannies Guide. I will keep working on it myself in the next couple of weeks. Thanks again to all of you who helped me get the project this far! Hopefully by CUELA's Tech Fair in November we will be ready for a hands-on make and take workshop... BYOLT and usb, take home SoaS ready to go! Caryl ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
Re: [SoaS] [support-gang] SoaS Creation Saga
Great! Send me a link. It probably was something something I wrote last summer when I got Strawberry running in VirtualBox on my MacBook. I started with a live cd. It would be a good place to expand and really should be moved to the wiki where more folks will see it and more can contribute to it. Caryl Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2010 11:28:24 -0500 From: nices...@gmail.com To: support-g...@lists.laptop.org CC: soas@lists.sugarlabs.org; i...@lists.sugarlabs.org; support-g...@laptop.org; satel...@bendbroadband.com Subject: Re: [support-gang] [SoaS] SoaS Creation Saga Caryl, I noticed that there is a Grannies Guide to Sugar on a Stick at FLOSS Manuals that has your name on one of the chapters. It looks like it never got finished or published to the front page. This might be the best place for the kind of information you're talking about. James Simmons On Thu, Apr 22, 2010 at 11:13 AM, Caryl Bigenho cbige...@hotmail.com wrote: You are absolutely right, Tom! I wrote that without looking at my notes... a bad idea when it is past bedtime! Has anyone started a wiki page about the different ways to use SoaS on different kinds and models of machines? I will add to it if someone has started one, or start one myself sometime after Saturday. It should link to the main SoaS instructions page, list specific machines we have tested it on and the ways to run whatever will run on each. Caryl ___ support-gang mailing list support-g...@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/support-gang ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
Re: [SoaS] [support-gang] FLOSS Grannie's Guide
Hi James, Thanks for the great suggestions and offer. I will work on this after Saturday. I am busy reflashing 12 XOs from the CUELA lending library and all my Roadshow In A Box machines (including a bunch of M-stock I repaired). Saturday is showtime at the LAUSD InfoTech at the LA Convention center. I will be showing off SoaS running on a MacBook and the cutest little mauve and pearl-white eeePC you ever saw! I will also have at least 1 XO-1 for folks to play with and one XO-1.5... probably showing off the Gnome desktop. The twelve machines from the CUELA library will ba available to check out to CUELA members. I will be very, very, busy! Caryl P.S. I bought a nice lavender netbook case for my pearl and mauve refurb eeePC today... but I guess you guys don't care about that sort of thing... ;-D (maybe Caroline would) Date: Thu, 22 Apr 2010 21:19:45 -0500 From: nices...@gmail.com To: support-g...@lists.laptop.org Subject: Re: [support-gang] FLOSS Grannie's Guide Caryl, If I were you I would rewrite what there is until it does meet your standards. If someone already knows things like what a BIOS is he doesn't need a guide. The Wiki page we have already is adequate. BIOS is different for different kinds of PCs. Some have a boot menu option, which lets you select the device to boot from. All have a setup which more often than not will let you specify a boot sequence (first try the USB, then the floppy drive, then the hard drive). Older PCs don't support booting off a USB at all. I'll help you on this if I can. I should be able to provide screen shots, digital pictures of BIOS screens, etc. I'm sure others will help as well. In any case I would not worry about what is already there. I think the people who wrote it would agree that it is not suitable for the audience intended without some revisions. James Simmons On Thu, Apr 22, 2010 at 7:01 PM, Caryl Bigenho cbige...@hotmail.com wrote: Thanks for the link... Most of this was written by other folks and doesn't meet what I would call Grannie's Guide standards... i.e., it needs to be able to be used by folks who haven't a clue what BIOS is and it needs to stay out of complicated instructions. Plug'n Play is the goal. For example, BIOS can be avoided completely in the eeePC by pressing the esc key. Is this true for most PCs? Unfortunately, I think that once a title is established in a FLOSS manual, it is there forever. Maybe we can modify somehow or add a new Super Simple Sugar Guide with a link. The target audience is the average classroom teacher whose computer experience probably does not go beyond email, creating documents and maybe using a classroom management system like BlackBoard or Moodle. I am just being really, really realistic here. The FLOSS Grannie's Guide might work for the school IT person, but not every school can afford one and sometimes they are just a teacher who volunteers in exchange for a lighter teaching load, foolishly thinking it will be easier! Not! Caryl (aka Grumpy Grannie) ___ support-gang mailing list support-g...@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/support-gang ___ support-gang mailing list support-g...@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/support-gang ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
[SoaS] SoaS on eeePC900 Problem#1 solved Question about file...
Sweet! Thanks, Dave. That is so much easier! I'll be back soon with another problem. Actually, here is a small question right now: I have having difficulty getting a persistent USB created. I'll keep trying the Live USB utility on the eeePC. Can I use a download directly onto a USB done on the Mac rather than taxing Sweet Pea's small memory? (I named her that because of her mauve colored top ;-). Caryl Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2010 18:13:44 -0400 From: dave.ba...@gmail.com To: cbige...@hotmail.com CC: soas@lists.sugarlabs.org; support-g...@laptop.org; support-g...@lists.laptop.org Subject: Re: [SoaS] SoaS on eeePC900... change boot order in BIOS... not working. On Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 5:39 PM, Caryl Bigenho cbige...@hotmail.com wrote: HI Friends, I am now struggling with several new SoaS issues. Let's solve them one at a time. If you have an eeePC900 can you tell me how to get it to boot first from a USB stick? Instead of editing the BIOS i hit ESC as soon as the eeepc screen appears. This brings up the boot menu and you can choose what to boot from. Dave It keeps going directly to Windows. I have managed to enter the BIOS utility and on the Boot page change the boot order priority to put the USB as #1. I saved and exited. But it is still going directly to Windows even though it actively reads the USB stick. Hints anyone? Saturday is fast approaching! I'll keep trying and report back if I stumble on the answer. Caryl ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas -- Dave Bauer d...@solutiongrove.com http://www.solutiongrove.com ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
[SoaS] Progress Report on SoaS for InfoTech
Hi Folks... Here is a progress report on my attempt to get SoaS ready to demonstrate at InfoTech this coming Saturday. I was hoping to have it ready to Disseminate as well, but that part hasn't come together yet. So, for now it is Demonstrate, yes. Disseminate, no. But that could change for the better! So the good news, bad news is: Good News: I have 2 non-persistant SoaS blueberry usb sticks that I can run on my MacBook with the boot-helper cd (hold down the c key until Sugar comes on the screen). Bad News: Function keys won't work at all. Can't get home if you open the Journal. Hangs on Tam-Tam Mini. Also if you turn the sound off with the Mac sound key, you can't turn it back on. But all in all, it is a viable start. Good News: It also runs on my new (refurbished) eeePC (it is so cute!) by plugging in the SoaS and, as Dave Bauer suggested, holding down the Esc key until a screen allowing you to choose the boot device appears. Thank you Dave! Good News: One of these sticks was created on a friend's PC with the Fedora Live USB creator. Bad news: We thought we were making it with persistent storage but, for some reason, that part didn't work. Good News: The other one was created on my Macbook with the help of many phone calls back and forth with George Hunt. We finally got it to work, and I took copious notes and did another after we did the first one together. Thanks George! Bad News: I couldn't manage to get a third one made yesterday. Terminal couldn't find the image-writer-mac file on my Mac. I even deleted the one I had and downloaded again... but no luck. (I was trying to make one of the 64bit versions). Other Bad news, I still haven't succeeded in creating a live cd of either Strawberry or Blueberry. Don't know why. Tried to do it in Disk Utility on my MacBook which should work. But, it didn't. After my Chinese class, NCIS, and dinner tonight, I will try to work on some of these problems... principally on creating a persistant live usb on the eeePC. Stay tuned! Caryl ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
Re: [SoaS] [support-gang] Progress Report on SoaS for InfoTech
Hi James, I haven't been able to bring up the frame yet, but will keep trying. Caryl Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2010 10:34:37 +1000 From: qu...@laptop.org To: support-g...@lists.laptop.org CC: soas@lists.sugarlabs.org; i...@lists.sugarlabs.org; support-g...@laptop.org Subject: Re: [SoaS] [support-gang] Progress Report on SoaS for InfoTech On Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 05:18:18PM -0700, Caryl Bigenho wrote: Bad News: Function keys won't work at all. Can't get home if you open the Journal. If you mean the F1 through F4 keys don't work to switch between Sugar views, you should be able to move the mouse to a corner to bring up the frame and click on the view icons instead. -- James Cameron http://quozl.linux.org.au/ ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
Re: [SoaS] [IAEP] [support-gang] Quake Catcher Network
. I would be surprised a sensor that actually can give useful information would cost less than an XO! On 04/18/2010 09:39 PM, Caryl Bigenho wrote: Hi Nick, Thanks for the link to the Science For Citizens site. Sounds like most of these projects are for the US only. I wonder if there are similar projects in other countries? Some really nice lessons could be developed for students to do with their XOs with web access. Does anyone know of others? Caryl ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
Re: [SoaS] Read Only SoaS Almost Passes the Teacher Test... but not quite.
Hi Peter, I have started the download. Would you like me to make a non-persistant version using the Terminal on the Mac or would you like me to do it with the Fedora live usb creator on my new (refurb) eeePC that is supposed to arrive tomorrow? Or both? Caryl Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2010 09:31:00 +0100 Subject: Re: [SoaS] Read Only SoaS Almost Passes the Teacher Test... but not quite. From: pbrobin...@gmail.com To: cbige...@hotmail.com CC: support-g...@lists.laptop.org; soas@lists.sugarlabs.org; support-g...@laptop.org Hi Caryl, Do you think you could try the 64 bit version of SOAS on your Mac and see if it works? There is an issue booting the 32 bit version off newer Macs. http://alt.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/nightly-composes/soas/soas-x86_64-20100416.18.iso Regards, Peter On Fri, Apr 16, 2010 at 6:46 PM, Caryl Bigenho cbige...@hotmail.com wrote: Hi George and All, OK, so I tried changing the name of the SoaS usb stick to FEDORA in the finder on 2 different Macs, running 10.4 and 10.5. It wasn't an option on either... but I found out why. I just don't know how to fix it. I did the get-info process (highlight the item on the screen, then command-i. At the very bottom I expanded Sharing Permissions You can only read So that explains why I can't change the name and why the Name and Color Combination choices don't persist between boots (recall... I was able to boot it with the extra step of holding down the c key while booting with the boot helper disk and then Tab and editing the text that appears on the screen as suggested by George below). So... How do we create an SoaS stick that isn't read only Caryl Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2010 11:17:23 -0400 From: georgejh...@gmail.com To: support-g...@lists.laptop.org Subject: Re: [support-gang] SoaS Almost Passes the Teacher Test... but not quite. on my OSX10.4, if you open finder, ctlclick on the usb name in the left column, I am given the option to rename the USB stick. George On Fri, Apr 16, 2010 at 3:14 AM, Caryl Bigenho cbige...@hotmail.com wrote: Hi George and All, Thanks to George's patience and persistence and all of the hints you sent, I finally got the image-writer-mac program to work and make a SoaS usb stick. We used the method where we dragged the files over from a finder window to the terminal window. I feel sure it is good, but I don't have a handy PC to try it on and there is a funny problem trying to boot it on the MacBook with the help of the Boot Helper CD. I got that same fateful sounding sleeping forever message that someone else got earlier in the week. The MacBook, requires a boot helper disk that looks for a usb stick named FEDORA. I suspect they wrote it that way so it can also be used with Strawberry and with other future versions of SoaS. However, this stick is named soas-2-blueberry, not FEDORA. Well I tried to rename the usb stick FEDORA when it was finished so I could use it on the MacBook, but, try as I may, I cannot change the name. I even tried it on Ed's computer too (a G4 Powerbook) with no luck. I can change the name of any other file or other usb stick, but not this one. It is apparently soas-2-blueberry, forever. I even tried another tack. I changed the name of the soas-2-blueberry.iso file to FEDORA.iso before going to terminal to run the image-writer-mac program again and make another stick. It still wrote the name as soas-2-blueberry. So now, I have made 2 SoaS usb drives I can probably use on PCs, but not on Macs. Finally, I tried the method one of you put up a few days ago where you boot holding down the C key, then the Tab, then change the instructions in the edit mode. While this did work, it is definitely not Teacher-friendly. If someone could figure out a way to change the name of the usb stick from soas-2-blueberry to FEDORA somewhere along the way when making the SoaS stick, we would have something that definitely would meet the teacher test. I repeat, all usual methods failed. Any ideas??? I still have 8 days before InfoTech. Caryl BTW, The choice of Name and color combination did not persist from boot to boot. ___ support-gang mailing list support-g...@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/support-gang ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
Re: [SoaS] [support-gang] [IAEP] Quake Catcher Network
Hi Nick, Thanks for the link to the Science For Citizens site. Sounds like most of these projects are for the US only. I wonder if there are similar projects in other countries? Some really nice lessons could be developed for students to do with their XOs with web access. Does anyone know of others? Caryl Date: Sun, 18 Apr 2010 20:18:15 -0400 From: ndoi...@andrew.cmu.edu To: support-g...@lists.laptop.org CC: soas@lists.sugarlabs.org; i...@lists.sugarlabs.org Subject: Re: [support-gang] [IAEP] Quake Catcher Network The accuracy of an individual sensor, yes, is suspect. But that's why Stanford is asking for many sensors to be registered -- a thousand or laptops moving simultaneously (or in outgoing waves) could triangulate the location of an earthquake before the waves even register at the main USGS seismometers. These projects also connect the kids to science in a direct way. Most volunteer science projects are a bit more hands-on and a little less hardware-intensive. I've been interested for awhile in seeing the laptops connected to a project such as this -- see http://www.scienceforcitizens.net/ for some more examples =) Regards, Nick Doiron On Sun, April 18, 2010 8:04 pm, Yamandu Ploskonka wrote: Caryl, I think it is wonderful you do share about this. It is always interesting to see how some idea can have unreached effects and become a wish for more I have been quite involved in seismic monitoring in my day, and to imagine personal computers could be used for that, beats everything else this week as to wishful thinking turned into vaporware, even though I spent a lot of time reading so called evaluations of ICT for education, and there was that revival of the crank... Now, if you can, and abusing a lot on your patience, please do not see what I said as a criticism to you, or that you should not share with us this kind of stuff. Actually, for someone like me it is extremely valuable to be aware of what is going on out there, and in the absence of things that make sense completely, it does help me hugely to, well, hear about this kind of things, because at some level these do reflect real dreams and desires which are perfectly true and valid, even though their put into effect is not. I guess I could go into detail, but the basic reason this cannot work is separating real seismic data from any other, from steps close to the machine, to a car rolling outside... This of course will not stop a skilled grantwriter, who would offer to prepare software that can discriminate data. However, the nearly mathematically unsolvable problem is in separating *overlapping* data, which is the real reason they forbid cellphones on planes. That is why real seismeters are set underground, as far away from human activity as possible. On 04/18/2010 05:31 PM, Caryl Bigenho wrote: Hi... Here is something intriguing I heard about on NPR yesterday. It is a Seismic Monitoring program that can run in the background on computers that have built-in accelerometers (newer Macs) or PCs with an external one with usb connection. The hope is to have a world wide network of computers sensing quakes, especially in places where there are many quakes. It is designed to be an educational project with schools involved doing citizen science (sort of like CoCoRaHS). They have interactive/educational software and seismic monitoring software. Disclaimer... I haven't tried the software yet so I can't recommend it one way or the other until I do. Does the XO have an accelerometer? No matter if it doesn't because it has usb ports to spare. Any chance of someone getting a version of the software to work on the XOs? Maybe one of our developers who knows what would have to be done to get it to work on the XO could contact the Quake Catcher Network and ask it they could do it? Here is a link to the site: http://qcn.stanford.edu/downloads/ Looks like it is based at Stanford. Caryl ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) i...@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep ___ support-gang mailing list support-g...@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/support-gang ___ support-gang mailing list support-g...@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/support-gang ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
[SoaS] FW: [Olpc-uruguay] (Translated-prog ramming help request) Visor de imágenes
Hi All... Mario González in Uruguay has a question. Perhaps one of you has an answer for him. I will translate...if you need a translation of a response, I'm a little bit better than Google! Caryl Hi. I came across an image viewer on sugarlabs (http://download.sugarlabs.org/activities/4032/), but it appears that these versions of sugar aren't there or have another name. If you could give me a hand I would appreciate it. For example, it uses sugar.graphics.toolbarbox, but it doesn't exist (was there a toolbox?) and the sugar.activity.widgets, that I can't find. I would like to find an image viewer to start my image editor, and I had the thought of implementing one to learn to program sugar, but if I can use this it would be better. Or perhaps you know of another. It is very inconvienient to open the navigator every time you want to open a photo from the journal. Good luck with Mini Jam (an event in Uruguay) and thanks Mario González Olmedo - Date: Sat, 17 Apr 2010 14:05:43 -0300 From: mago...@gmail.com To: olpc-urug...@lists.laptop.org Subject: [Olpc-uruguay] Visor de imágenes Buenas. Encontré un visor de imágenes en sugarlabs (http://download.sugarlabs.org/activities/4032/), pero al parecer usa módulos de sugar que no están, o que tienen otro nombre. Si podrían darme una mano, les agradezco. Por ejemplo, usa sugar.graphics.toolbarbox, pero no existe (será el toolbox?), y el sugar.activity.widgets, que no lo encuentra. Me gustaría contar con un visor de imágenes para comenzar mi editor de imágenes, y tenía pensado implementar uno para aprender a programar para sugar, pero si puedo este, mejor. O quizás conozcan otro. Es muy incómodo tener que abrir el navegador cada vez que se quiere abrir una foto desde el journal... Suerte con el miniJAM, y gracias. -- Mario González Olmedo ___ Olpc-uruguay mailing list olpc-urug...@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc-uruguay ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
[SoaS] SoaS Almost Passes the Teacher Test... but not quite.
Hi George and All, Thanks to George's patience and persistence and all of the hints you sent, I finally got the image-writer-mac program to work and make a SoaS usb stick. We used the method where we dragged the files over from a finder window to the terminal window. I feel sure it is good, but I don't have a handy PC to try it on and there is a funny problem trying to boot it on the MacBook with the help of the Boot Helper CD. I got that same fateful sounding sleeping forever message that someone else got earlier in the week. The MacBook, requires a boot helper disk that looks for a usb stick named FEDORA. I suspect they wrote it that way so it can also be used with Strawberry and with other future versions of SoaS. However, this stick is named soas-2-blueberry, not FEDORA. Well I tried to rename the usb stick FEDORA when it was finished so I could use it on the MacBook, but, try as I may, I cannot change the name. I even tried it on Ed's computer too (a G4 Powerbook) with no luck. I can change the name of any other file or other usb stick, but not this one. It is apparently soas-2-blueberry, forever. I even tried another tack. I changed the name of the soas-2-blueberry.iso file to FEDORA.iso before going to terminal to run the image-writer-mac program again and make another stick. It still wrote the name as soas-2-blueberry. So now, I have made 2 SoaS usb drives I can probably use on PCs, but not on Macs. Finally, I tried the method one of you put up a few days ago where you boot holding down the C key, then the Tab, then change the instructions in the edit mode. While this did work, it is definitely not Teacher-friendly. If someone could figure out a way to change the name of the usb stick from soas-2-blueberry to FEDORA somewhere along the way when making the SoaS stick, we would have something that definitely would meet the teacher test. I repeat, all usual methods failed. Any ideas??? I still have 8 days before InfoTech. Caryl BTW, The choice of Name and color combination did not persist from boot to boot. ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
[SoaS] Read Only SoaS Almost Passes the Teacher Test... but not quite.
Hi George and All, OK, so I tried changing the name of the SoaS usb stick to FEDORA in the finder on 2 different Macs, running 10.4 and 10.5. It wasn't an option on either... but I found out why. I just don't know how to fix it. I did the get-info process (highlight the item on the screen, then command-i. At the very bottom I expanded Sharing Permissions You can only read So that explains why I can't change the name and why the Name and Color Combination choices don't persist between boots (recall... I was able to boot it with the extra step of holding down the c key while booting with the boot helper disk and then Tab and editing the text that appears on the screen as suggested by George below). So... How do we create an SoaS stick that isn't read only Caryl Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2010 11:17:23 -0400 From: georgejh...@gmail.com To: support-g...@lists.laptop.org Subject: Re: [support-gang] SoaS Almost Passes the Teacher Test... but not quite. on my OSX10.4, if you open finder, ctlclick on the usb name in the left column, I am given the option to rename the USB stick. George On Fri, Apr 16, 2010 at 3:14 AM, Caryl Bigenho cbige...@hotmail.com wrote: Hi George and All, Thanks to George's patience and persistence and all of the hints you sent, I finally got the image-writer-mac program to work and make a SoaS usb stick. We used the method where we dragged the files over from a finder window to the terminal window. I feel sure it is good, but I don't have a handy PC to try it on and there is a funny problem trying to boot it on the MacBook with the help of the Boot Helper CD. I got that same fateful sounding sleeping forever message that someone else got earlier in the week. The MacBook, requires a boot helper disk that looks for a usb stick named FEDORA. I suspect they wrote it that way so it can also be used with Strawberry and with other future versions of SoaS. However, this stick is named soas-2-blueberry, not FEDORA. Well I tried to rename the usb stick FEDORA when it was finished so I could use it on the MacBook, but, try as I may, I cannot change the name. I even tried it on Ed's computer too (a G4 Powerbook) with no luck. I can change the name of any other file or other usb stick, but not this one. It is apparently soas-2-blueberry, forever. I even tried another tack. I changed the name of the soas-2-blueberry.iso file to FEDORA.iso before going to terminal to run the image-writer-mac program again and make another stick. It still wrote the name as soas-2-blueberry. So now, I have made 2 SoaS usb drives I can probably use on PCs, but not on Macs. Finally, I tried the method one of you put up a few days ago where you boot holding down the C key, then the Tab, then change the instructions in the edit mode. While this did work, it is definitely not Teacher-friendly. If someone could figure out a way to change the name of the usb stick from soas-2-blueberry to FEDORA somewhere along the way when making the SoaS stick, we would have something that definitely would meet the teacher test. I repeat, all usual methods failed. Any ideas??? I still have 8 days before InfoTech. Caryl BTW, The choice of Name and color combination did not persist from boot to boot. ___ support-gang mailing list support-g...@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/support-gang ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
[SoaS] SoaS For Dummies?
Hi Bert, Tom, and All, In case you are all wondering why I want to make this so easy, remember that while I am sort of a closet techie and could learn to do all these fancy work-arounds, I also have many years experience working with and training other educators who are very shy about using computers. For most of them it has to be very simple and work almost as a plug-'n-play. Even the boot-helper disk is a stretch, but I think it is doable with some very clear step-by-step instructions. It needs to be easy, and hopefully fun, with a high probability of success. Bert wrote: The iso file is a CD image. ISO is short for ISO 9660, a.k.a. CDFS (Compact Disc File System). It is a file system designed for CDs, which is read-only. So, I could save money and just use an image on a cd, but unfortunately the live CD will not boot on a MacBook. It needs a boot helper cd to run the usb stick version and there is only one optical drive on the machine. Probably about 50% of the teachers will have Macs. And, Tom suggested using Virtual Box: I really didn't want to use the Virtual Box again. I did that with an early version of Strawberry. I think the Virtual Box would be a deal breaker for a lot of teachers, whereas a usb version with the boot helper cd should be quite acceptable and easy to use. That is why I was hoping to get a usb version that could be used on both PCs and Macs. After all the advice I got from you folks, I ordered a refurbished eeePC 900 with Windows XP today. It will arrive Monday. I chose to get one with Windows XP because the Fedora Live USB Creator seems to be the easiest route to success... sort of SoaS for Dummies! So... according to the instructions at http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/SoaS_Blueberry_Instructions you download the blueberry image while in the LiveUSB Creator. Rather than downloading all over again, can I just plug in one of my usb sticks with SoaS (created on the Mac) and use it? Or could I download it to the eeePC once and use it there? What would be the easiest, most fool-proof way to do this? I do plan to purchase an optical drive as well, so I could put the image on cd. I could probably pick one up tomorrow or Sunday at Fry's so I would have it when the eeePC arrives Monday. If the CD/DVD will work for accessing the files in the LiveUSB Creator process, I could make a mini-version of Tom's Soas Creation Kit with just a few files and hand it out at InfoTech. I would probably just include the blueberry iso file, the boot-helper file, and maybe some instructions in a text file. What else would be good to include on this SoaS For Dummies disk? Remember KISS. Thanks for helping get this ready for the Big Time! Caryl ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
Re: [SoaS] SoaS For Dummies?
Thanks Tom for the confirmation! I suspected it might work like that, but not being a PC person, I wasn't sure. Sounds like a piece of cake. Caryl Date: Fri, 16 Apr 2010 16:08:38 -0700 From: satel...@bendbroadband.com To: cbige...@hotmail.com CC: soas@lists.sugarlabs.org; i...@lists.sugarlabs.org; support-g...@laptop.org Subject: Re: [SoaS] SoaS For Dummies? Caryl Bigenho wrote: Hi Bert, Tom, and All, In case you are all wondering why I want to make this so easy, remember that while I am sort of a closet techie and could learn to do all these fancy work-arounds, I also have many years experience working with and training other educators who are very shy about using computers. For most of them it has to be very simple and work almost as a plug-'n-play. Even the boot-helper disk is a stretch, but I think it is doable with some very clear step-by-step instructions. It needs to be easy, and hopefully fun, with a high probability of success. Bert wrote: The iso file is a CD image. ISO is short for ISO 9660, a.k.a. CDFS (Compact Disc File System). It is a file system designed for CDs, which is read-only. So, I could save money and just use an image on a cd, but unfortunately the live CD will not boot on a MacBook. It needs a boot helper cd to run the usb stick version and there is only one optical drive on the machine. Probably about 50% of the teachers will have Macs. And, Tom suggested using Virtual Box: I really didn't want to use the Virtual Box again. I did that with an early version of Strawberry. I think the Virtual Box would be a deal breaker for a lot of teachers, whereas a usb version with the boot helper cd should be quite acceptable and easy to use. That is why I was hoping to get a usb version that could be used on both PCs and Macs. After all the advice I got from you folks, I ordered a refurbished eeePC 900 with Windows XP today. It will arrive Monday. I chose to get one with Windows XP because the Fedora Live USB Creator seems to be the easiest route to success... sort of SoaS for Dummies! So... according to the instructions at http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/SoaS_Blueberry_Instructions you download the blueberry image while in the LiveUSB Creator. Rather than downloading all over again, can I just plug in one of my usb sticks with SoaS (created on the Mac) and use it? Or could I download it to the eeePC once and use it there? What would be the easiest, most fool-proof way to do this? Caryl; YOU DO NOT NEED external CD to do this: * Copy-paste the Blueberry.isofile from the SugarCreation Kit CD onto an empty USB inserted in your MAC * transfer the .iso to your EeePC900 by inserting that USB into the EeePC900 and (drag - drop/copy-paste) the .iso to the XP Desktop. * Install Liveusb-creator for Windows: (See attached .png file) https://fedorahosted.org/liveusb-creator/ * Use Liveusb-creator for windows to make a soas USB with it. * Do not do a Download again. use left select box (use existing live CD/ Browse) to find the blueberry.iso on the XP Desktop * Insert a new target USB (2GB fat16) into EeePC900 ad see it appear in Target Device window * move slider to set persistence storage (Max it ) *Create Live USB: ) Very simple You can repeat this process for as many USB sticks that you want. Tom Gilliard satellit - note: If you get a message in graphical window :... reset mbr exit the running graphical liveusb-creator and start windows terminal enter liveusb-creator --reset-mbr it will restart graphical liveusb-creator using this extra command. I do plan to purchase an optical drive as well, so I could put the image on cd. I could probably pick one up tomorrow or Sunday at Fry's so I would have it when the eeePC arrives Monday. If the CD/DVD will work for accessing the files in the LiveUSB Creator process, I could make a mini-version of Tom's Soas Creation Kit with just a few files and hand it out at InfoTech. I would probably just include the blueberry iso file, the boot-helper file, and maybe some instructions in a text file. What else would be good to include on this SoaS For Dummies disk? Remember KISS. Thanks for helping get this ready for the Big Time! Caryl ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
Re: [SoaS] [IAEP] SoaS on What Machines?
Hi Sean and All. I have installed Windows xp on my Mac via BootCamp because there were some things I needed it for (updating my gps for example). However, for some reason it has stopped working. It boots but stalls on the welcome screen. I have misplaced my install disk so I an dead in the water on that. Any ideas for that? Caryl Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:41:23 -0700 From: s...@manybits.net To: cbige...@hotmail.com CC: soas@lists.sugarlabs.org; i...@lists.sugarlabs.org; support-g...@laptop.org Subject: Re: [IAEP] SoaS on What Machines? Caryl Bigenho wrote: Hi All... [...] I want to spend as little $$$ as possible. After all, I have a perfectly wonderful MacBook and this other machine will be used mainly for my volunteer work. The Mac will run SoaS, with a boot helper disk, will burn cds and dvds, but it is much easier to create the SoaS sticks on a Windows machine. Virtual Box on the MacBook running Windows to create SoaS ? [...] -- Sean McGrath s...@manybits.net ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
[SoaS] New Questiona RE: SoaS on What Machines?
Hi Again, I think I should have included these questions in my original email: 1) Have you run SoaS? And which version was it? a) from a usb stick without a boot helper cd? b) from a usb stick with a boot helper cd? 2) Have you run it from a Live CD? 3) Have you run it in a Virtual Box? In each case where the answer is yes, what were the results? For example, my answers to the questions would be: 1) a) yes, v.2, on a MSI L1300 N450. Booted right away. Some programs worked 1) b) Yes, v.2 on a MacBook. Slow boot, but worked. Some programs worked. 2) No success yet with the live cd on Macbook either v.1 or v.2 3) Virtual box worked well on MacBook with an early version of Strawberry This sort of info could be useful to others as well if anyone can contribute it would be greatly appreciated. Caryl ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
[SoaS] SoaS on What Machines?
Hi All... I have decided that I really should invest in an inexpensive windows laptop or netbook to use in my volunteer work with Sugar Labs and OLPC. I have been looking online and visited one electronics store yesterday (Fry's). Here are my thoughts... I would prefer an ultralight netbook with a good webcam so I can travel with it and use it for Skype. If I get a netbook it will have to have 3 usb ports so that I can plug in an optical drive that can burn dvds and cds. The one I am looking at draws it's power from 2 usb ports so I would need another to be able to plug in a usb stick or drive or anything else usb (unless I get a usb hub... rather not). I don't like windows in general, but If I have to have it, would prefer xp. Linux is nice, but the easiest instructions seem to be for Windows machines and very few of the educators I will be working with will have Linux. At Fry's they let me play a bit. I put an SoaS usb stick in an MSI and it booted on startup with no problems. It would not start on a Gateway. With no optical drive, I can't rely on a boot helper cd. There were other, more expensive machines, but time was short so that was all I tried. I want to spend as little $$$ as possible. After all, I have a perfectly wonderful MacBook and this other machine will be used mainly for my volunteer work. The Mac will run SoaS, with a boot helper disk, will burn cds and dvds, but it is much easier to create the SoaS sticks on a Windows machine. So here is the question... Which netbooks and laptops will work with SoaS on a Plug-'n-Play basis like the MSI did? Do you know of any other electronics store chains that might let me come in and test SoaS on their floor models? Do you know of any place to get a really good price on these machines? My son (a Computer Educator Extraordinare) said he likes Toshiba, Samsung, and either Acer or Asus but has not tried Sugar on any of them. He definitely advised against getting the MSI. I would love to get this before the 24th so I would have it at the InfoTech exhibit. Any and all suggestions would be welcome. Caryl P.S. There goes my tax refund! ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
Re: [SoaS] SoaS Good News/Bad News (Congratulations and Comments)
OK... So how do I get it to work? Caryl (MacBook running OS 10.5.8) Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2010 16:19:27 +1000 From: qu...@laptop.org To: satel...@bendbroadband.com CC: soas@lists.sugarlabs.org Subject: Re: [SoaS] SoaS Good News/Bad News (Congratulations and Comments) On Wed, Apr 07, 2010 at 08:36:22PM -0700, Thomas C Gilliard wrote: image-writer-mac is appears to be a linux program: No, it certainly isn't. I've checked. It is a Python program, but it relies on the Mac OS X specific diskutil program. So it is certainly Mac OS X specific. -- James Cameron http://quozl.linux.org.au/ ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
Re: [SoaS] [support-gang] SoaS Good News/Bad News
Hi James, You must not open it that way. You should open Terminal, and type cd ~/Downloads; python image-writer-mac.py soas-2-blueberry.iso Doing it this way should not cause PythonLauncher to be run. Can you please confirm you were trying to open the file in a Finder window? Right... I was trying to open it in a Finder window. I don't have a lot of experience with the terminal. Do I type in exactly what you have above including the ; or is is that a punctuation? I'll try it tomorrow. It's about midnight here. Caryl -- James Cameron http://quozl.linux.org.au/ ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
[SoaS] SoaS Good News/Bad News
Hi All... Here, at last, is an SoaS progress report along with some more questions. As you may recall, I am hoping to have a good working version of SoaS to distribute to interested educators at the LAUSD Tech Fair at the LA Convention Center on April 24. http://sites.google.com/site/lausdinfotech2010/. This afternoon I took my things over to a friend's house where they have 2 PCs running Windows XP. We were successful in making a SoaS v2 usb stick using the file on the Starter Kit Tom Gilliard made and the Fedora LiveUSB Creator (which my friend reluctantly downloaded). The resulting USB would not boot alone, but with the help of the Book Helper CD (made from the file on Tom's starter kit) it worked fine. His machine was a Compaq impressario or something like that. When I got home, I tried the stick on my MacBook, using the Boot Helper CD, and it worked! This is great! But there are still some problems and questions. 1) I burned both the Strawberry and Blueberry files on CDs, thinking they would be live CDs... wrong! Neither would boot on my friend's PC. He said it is because they are iso files. Did I miss something? How do I turn these files into a bootable file that I can burn to a CD to make a live CD? 2) Is there any way to return to the Home View from the Journal when running SoaS on a Mac? The frame that shows the Home View button is not visible and there doesn't seem to be a way to access it. If is iffy, but visible, on the PC (comes and goes). Could there be a keyboard shortcut for this? 3) There is a problem with the image-writer-mac file. I have tried to open the one on Tom's starter kit and have also downloaded it several times and tried. It will not open. I always get this error message: The document “image-writer-mac” could not be opened. PythonLauncher cannot open files of this type. A a small PythonLauncher Preferences window also opens with several options to choose including, Reset to factory settings. I haven't a clue what to do with it, but perhaps I could change something so it will open the image-writer-mac file? This is enough for now. I'm sure more will come up, but getting these answered will be a good start. Thanks! Caryl ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
Re: [SoaS] Sugar-Creation-Kit DVD (preliminary version): soas-1-strawberry.iso problem
Hi Tom, I am still working my way through the resources in the Sugar Creation Kit and I ran into a snag when trying to make the Strawberry Live CD. The Blueberry (v.2) appears to be OK with the disk having 581.9 MG written to it (I will test it on a PC at a friends house Tuesday afternoon). I tried the same process with Strawberry (v.1) and ended up with a CD with only 8.4 MB on it. Looking at the back, you can see that very little space was used. I thought I would try again, so I put in another new CD. When I got the info on the file I had downloaded (for the DVD but also saved on my computer), it said it was 379.9 MB but when I moved it to a burn folder to make the live CD it shrank to 44MB! I didn't try to burn another with this file because something seems to be amiss. I'm going to proceed with trying to make some of the other things like the boot helper CD and the usb stick versions and see if I can get anything to run in an updated Virtual Box on my MacBook. But, what could be the problem with the soas-1-strawberry.iso? More later! Caryl ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
Re: [SoaS] Sugar-Creation-Kit DVD (preliminary version): soas-1-strawberry.iso problem
Hi Again, Tom and SoaS Team, I'm really struggling with this! I accidently stumbled on the method described below, which seems to have worked. Now... when I put the disk in and open it to see what is there it shows a picture of a disk and says soas-1-strawberry.iso under it. The Blueberry disk has a similar image. Is this correct? The boot helper disk is very different. It shows these files: BOOT.CAT, INITRD0.IMG, ISOLINUX.BIN, ISOLINUX.CFG, SPLASH.JPG, VESAMENU.C32, and VMLINUZ0. Is that what it is supposed to have on it? Here is how I did the Live CD for Strawberry that seems to be right (I won't know until Tuesday afternoon when I try it on a PC): ** Open the Sugar Creation Kit and in the file window Click on the soas-1-strawberry.iso file to highlight it The Finder will be running Open the File menu in the Finder and select: Burn soas-1-strawberry.iso to disk Insert CD at prompt Window opens, name it, choose burn speed, Click Burn * Now I am trying to figure out how to do the usb sticks. What would happen if I just dragged and dropped the SoaS file over and let it load on (copy to) the stick? Whenever I try to do anything in Terminal it doesn't understand the commands I am entering. I did successfully make a Soas on a usb on a PC back in January. It was the same one that later crashed my daughter-in-law's laptop because I hadn't allotted storage space for the Journal and it quickly filled up and froze the whole system! If there are any other easier, more specific instructions for the Mac, please point me in the right direction. Maybe I will have to do it with a direct download even though it takes a lot of time. That is what worked on the PC. Help! Caryl Note to the rest of you... if you think I am having problems, just wait until we get the classroom teachers started on this! We need to get me through this so I can help them! Date: Sat, 3 Apr 2010 16:54:18 -0700 From: satel...@bendbroadband.com To: cbige...@hotmail.com CC: soas@lists.sugarlabs.org Subject: Re: [SoaS] Sugar-Creation-Kit DVD (preliminary version): soas-1-strawberry.iso problem Caryl Bigenho wrote: Hi Tom, I am still working my way through the resources in the Sugar Creation Kit and I ran into a snag when trying to make the Strawberry Live CD. The Blueberry (v.2) appears to be OK with the disk having 581.9 MG written to it (I will test it on a PC at a friends house Tuesday afternoon). I tried the same process with Strawberry (v.1) and ended up with a CD with only 8.4 MB on it. Looking at the back, you can see that very little space was used. I thought I would try again, so I put in another new CD. When I got the info on the file I had downloaded (for the DVD but also saved on my computer), it said it was 379.9 MB but when I moved it to a burn folder to make the live CD it shrank to 44MB! I didn't try to burn another with this file because something seems to be amiss. Caryl; I took a DVD burned from a downloaded DVD.iso of v05 Sugar Creation Kit copied soas-1-strawberry.iso to the desktop from the DVD Burned it to a CD I did this same procedure in a PC running Ubuntu9.04 and my wifes' Apple G4 Laptop The CD Burned on the apple works fine on the PC with Ubuntu. Both CD's showed the same properties: Soas2-200906221314 25 items, totalling 387.6 MB This appears to have been an computer error on your end. Please try again. : ) Tom Gilliard satellit I'm going to proceed with trying to make some of the other things like the boot helper CD and the usb stick versions and see if I can get anything to run in an updated Virtual Box on my MacBook. But, what could be the problem with the soas-1-strawberry.iso? More later! Caryl ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
Re: [SoaS] Sugar-Creation-Kit DVD (preliminary version) is available to download for testing and comments (I have just burned the , iso on a G4 Mac sucessfully ans suggestions)
Hi Tom, I have started making my way through the huge collection of resources you have compiled for the DVD. It will take a while as I keep getting distracted by interesting things and wanting to read more than needed for a simple test. So far I have only gone over the first few on the list. Here are my comments. I will do more tomorrow. ==What is on this DVD?== version .04 (version .05?) *-READ THIS FIRST.html (What is Sugar- a grapical introduction) This is an excellent resource, however are the instructions for Mac the latest? What about the other OSs? If not, should there be a note referring the reader to the latest information? *-Activities Guide Sugar.pdf http://objavi.flossmanuals.net/books/ActivitiesGuideSugar-en-2010.03.28-03.52.19.pdf (How to write sugar activities by James Simmons) I look forward to having the time to read and try this! Only one of the links worked. It opened Safari. I don't know whether the problem lies with the original links or the copy on the DVD. They do need to be fixed/updated. I bid on a couple of EeePCs on ebay today and was immediately outbid. I have a target of getting it for $100 including shipping. Maybe that is not realistic. We shall see. Caryl ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
Re: [SoaS] EEEPC900
Hi Tom, Thanks for all the information. Now I have lots more questions! 1a) Do you think the DVD will run on anything other than Ubuntu? 1b) If it has to have Ubuntu, does this mean that the average classroom teacher will have to install it on their machine to run it? 2) I've been looking at EEEPC 900s on the web. It seems to be a discontinued model. There are a few retailers still selling them and quite a few used ones on ebay. It looks like the memory and storage size vary quite a bit. Some come with Linux, some with Windows (various varieties), and I even saw one with no operating system. What should I look for if I want to buy one of these? 3) You mentioned having a cd/dvd burner. Is this necessary if I have a MacBook that has one of these? 4) What other things would I need to consider if I decide to buy one of these? Thanks for everything! Caryl Date: Mon, 29 Mar 2010 10:24:36 -0700 From: satel...@bendbroadband.com To: cbige...@hotmail.com CC: soas@lists.sugarlabs.org Subject: Re: [SoaS] Sugar-Creation-Kit DVD (preliminary version) is available to download for testing and comments (I have just burned the , iso on a G4 Mac sucessfully ans suggestions) Caryl; I just did a test DL and then burned the .iso file on my wife's Apple G4 Resulting DVD works fine when loaded in Ubuntu9.04 You should be able to do the same. Tom Gilliard satellit RE: Suggestions 1-)I use a cheap EeePC900 with an external usb hp dvd555a cd/dvd burner Boot it with a Gnome + Sugar 8GB SD in its slot (installed to SD from normal downloaded cd) sugar wireless works out of the box 2-)I also have used a 320GB usb (seagate freeagent) Hard disk on which I installed f12 + (in terminal:) yum install liveusb-creator sugar* This gives Gnome plus sugar gdm logins plus sugar-emulator in Gnome. I also installed sun-virtualbox (free) for running different OS (including windows) as virtual machines. This is a nice portable fast solution with the benefit of being able to switch OS, and OSVersions ,with different usb Hard disks Regards; Tom Gilliard Hit tab on first booting to get boot device selector menu It works great to make soas usb's Caryl Bigenho wrote: Hi All... The download appears to be successful. It took about 13 hours on my plain-wrap ATT dsl line. I will try to make the DVD later today. I am still looking for a PC to try it on. Looked on ebay last night... they have some real dogs for almost as much as the low end machines you find at Walmart. Any suggestions? I put a note on Freecycle, but no response yet. Caryl Date: Sun, 28 Mar 2010 20:19:04 -0700 From: satel...@bendbroadband.com To: soas@lists.sugarlabs.org Subject: [SoaS] Sugar-Creation-Kit DVD (preliminary version) is available to download for testing and comments I just did a download of the Sugar-Creation-Kit DVD.iso here and it burns correctly. Please download it and test it. i am sure there are many improvements that can be added. Note that this is a preliminary version and needs polishing. I have tried to include a compilation of the most useful software, and instructions on how to apply it' so that people off line can make soas sticks and add activities to them. Note:the DVD includes 111 .xo activities from ASLO that can be copied to a 1 GB USB and copy-pasted to the sugar journal as a way to install them. This file can be downloaded separately: http://people.sugarlabs.org/Tgillard/ASLO-xo.tar.gz I did this project visualizing the following use case: sneaker-net,off internet, locations and fire walled schools. (A side benefit may be that it will lessen the load on sugarlabs servers once the DVD's are distributed, as it easy to make copies locally) Tom Gilliard satellit Hey, why don't we repost this to soas@ ? Other people may be interested as well. On Sun, 2010-03-28 at 17:01 -0700, Thomas C Gilliard wrote: Caryl; It is up there: Just finished uploading (about 7 hrs) I am doing a test DL here ETA 1 hr(HS Cable Modem) http://people.sugarlabs.org/Tgillard/Sugar-Creation-Kit-ver05.iso http://people.sugarlabs.org/Tgillard/CONTENTS-OF-SugarCreation-Kit-DVD.txt It is a normal DVD.iso you should be able to download it and burn it on you Mac. Or maybe mount it and transfer files from the mounted .iso file to a folder on the Mac. I hope somone can polish it more. But it works as a first try. (You should not need internet access to use everthing on it.) Sneeker-net or if behind firewall in school. Have fun Cordially Tom Gilliard Caryl Bigenho wrote: Hi Tom, If this works it will be a major step forward for Sugar Labs! I still need to find someone to lend or give me a PC to try it on. I may actually have to break down and buy one ;-(. I still have 4 weeks before my first opportunity to hand these out at the LAUSD InfoTech event. CUELA
[SoaS] FW: Crazy SoaS Idea
Hi All, Semi-techie teacher here (me) has a crazy idea. Mel asked me to send it along for further discussion on the SoaS list. I was hoping to have this be something I could use at a tech fair for teachers next month, but better later than never if it is possible. Caryl DVD costs more, but would work. Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2010 10:45:06 -0400 From: m...@melchua.com To: cbige...@hotmail.com CC: s...@sugarlabs.org; sdaly...@gmail.com Subject: Re: Crazy SoaS Idea Hi, Caryl - would you mind forwarding this convo to the soas list? Thomas Gilliard has been having a few similar ideas and perhaps there's a chance to work together here. The biggest problem I see with this is that the files needed to do it wouldn't fit on a CD - but maybe it could be done on a DVD. If so, that would definitely make a nice project for someone to pick up. --Mel On 03/26/2010 01:29 AM, Caryl Bigenho wrote: Hi Mel, Sebastian and Sean, Here is a crazy mindstorm for you... Is it possible to create a single CD that has the SoaS file download that could be transferred to a computer that could then make the USB version... and at the same time (same CD) have the live CD version that could be bootable on PCs? Could these files be downloaded on a Mac, put into a Burn folder, and burned on a CD that would work on a PC even if it didn't play on a Mac? In other words something like this: Regular Live CD to boot... but with a separate file folder on the CD with the SoaS image that could be accessed to create the SoaS USB stick??? A dual purpose CD? This would make it possible to distribute a CD that folks could try as a live CD and also give them a file they could use to make their own USB stick??? So there would be 2 files... One with the SoaS files for the creation of the USB stick and the other to play as a live CD. Am I crazy or what??? Caryl ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
Re: [SoaS] Sugar on a Stick Changing Engineering Direction
Hi... This could result in having, at last, what I have been asking for for over a year now... a stable, easy to use version that I can encourage teachers and others to use. That would be wonderful! The ideal version would: Be easy to make either a usb or live cd version for Linux (both Fedora and Ubuntu), Mac, and Windows operating systems... hopefully without the need for a boot helper or virtual box... something the average teacher or parent could create without too much trouble. On April 24 I will have another chance to distribute SoaS to a fairly large group of teachers and parents at the LAUSD InfoTech event at the LA Convention Center. Is there any possibility that this will be able to happen in time? Caryl P.S. A live cd would be great because we could afford to make some in advance and hand them out at our booth (CUELA). Date: Sat, 20 Mar 2010 03:19:00 +0100 From: sebast...@when.com To: soas@lists.sugarlabs.org Subject: [SoaS] Sugar on a Stick Changing Engineering Direction Some of you may have overheard activity in #sugar-meeting today discussing the upcoming beta freeze for SoaS, and the engineering capacity we have to work on things for the upcoming release (in May, since as a Fedora Spin we are tied to the Fedora release schedule). The short version is that we'd like to try something pretty drastic - prior SoaS versions have included large numbers of Activities, which weren't always maintained and didn't always work, so we propose shipping a slimmed down version of SoaS with a small number of known-to-work Activities with active upstream maintainers (that we'll have the bandwidth to thoroughly test between now and May's release, and the bandwidth to relay deployment feedback back up to) and creating resources on how to find other excellent material at http://activities.sugarlabs.org. Here's a draft kickstart file of what a slimmed-down SoaS release might look like. It includes a few core Activities that will help you get, debug, and ask questions about more Activities (Browse, Log, and IRC), as well as a few well-tested Activities with active upstreams that we think tend to demo well for a variety of audiences and contexts (young/adult audience, large/small audience, dev/user/teacher audience, hands-on-lab/demo-on-projector audience, etc). http://git.sugarlabs.org/projects/soas/repos/mainline/blobs/master/fedora-livecd-soas.ks And here's the image it produces - we haven't had time to download and test it yet, but are working on that right now, so you may beat us to finding out whether it works or not. ;-) http://download.sugarlabs.org/soas/snapshots/3/soas-3-20100319.iso In comparison, here's the old kickstart file with a large number of Activities, and the image it produced - if you try it out, you'll find that many of the Activities don't work, the quality of experience is inconsistent, and... well, we hope you'll see why we'd like to narrow the scope of this release's features to the amount of work we can comfortably maintain. http://git.fedorahosted.org/git/spin-kickstarts?p=spin-kickstarts.git;a=blob;f=fedora-livecd-soas.ks http://alt.fedoraproject.org/pub/alt/nightly-composes/soas/soas-i386-20100318.17.iso The rationale behind this is as follows: 1. Our ultimate goal is to produce a rock-solid deployment image with a wide variety of many Activities with active upstream maintainers, plus resources to engage users with those upstream communities and with communities of other learners. This was clarified in the earlier Sugar on a Stick Mission Statement: http://lists.sugarlabs.org/archive/iaep/2009-September/008322.html 2. Since we don't currently have the resources to do this, we think a good intermediate step is to produce a rock-solid deployment image with a SMALL variety of many Activities with active upstream maintainers, plus resources to engage users with those upstream communities and with communities of other learners. This sets the bar for both the quality of the Activity and maintenance, and the level of interaction that Activity upstreams can expect from users. 3. Saving a good number of known-to-be-awesome Activities for http://activities.sugarlabs.org and creating (kid-tested and teacher-tested) resources on how to get stuff from ASLO sets a dynamic of experimentation, trying-stuff-out, and user community engagement that we want to see. We don't know if this is a good idea or not. We think so, and we don't have much time to decide as Beta Freeze is this upcoming Tuesday, March 23. Feedback? Questions? Comments? Firestorm? We'll be tinkering further on this over the weekend - we can do another kickstart on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, so we have 3 drafts left to figure this out with. Please join us (sdziallas mchua on #sugar) and ask questions if you have any, or join in and help if you have ideas on how to improve this.
Re: [SoaS] Sugar on a Stick Changing Engineering Direction
The Memorize Activity is so versitile... can be used in all subjects and even other languages. IMHO it should be a part of any version of Sugar. Kids like it. Teachers like it. It can be used collaboratively. It is one of the best Sugar Activities. It is not on the list the link below leads to. Caryl From: b...@freudenbergs.de Date: Sat, 20 Mar 2010 21:34:50 +0100 To: soas@lists.sugarlabs.org Subject: Re: [SoaS] Sugar on a Stick Changing Engineering Direction On 20.03.2010, at 03:19, Sebastian Dziallas wrote: Here's a draft kickstart file of what a slimmed-down SoaS release might look like. It includes a few core Activities that will help you get, debug, and ask questions about more Activities (Browse, Log, and IRC), as well as a few well-tested Activities with active upstreams that we think tend to demo well for a variety of audiences and contexts (young/adult audience, large/small audience, dev/user/teacher audience, hands-on-lab/demo-on-projector audience, etc). http://git.sugarlabs.org/projects/soas/repos/mainline/blobs/master/fedora-livecd-soas.ks IMHO Etoys should be included as well. It's well-tested, has an active upstream, and includes a couple nice demos. Or is there a specific reason to exclude it? Besides, we have always told people that there is no need to download the Etoys activity from ASLO because it is just a tiny wrapper for the etoys executable that comes with the Sugar platform anyway. - Bert - ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
Re: [SoaS] Sugar on a Stick Changing Engineering Direction
Wow! This is an offer I can't refuse. I'll come up with a list for you in a few days. One of my problems is that I am a Mac person and these would have to be made on a PC... right? I may have to try to find an inexpensive old Windows machine to use for this... alas. Maybe I can find a small used notebook that will do the trick. Is there any way the sticks and CDs could be made on a Mac even if they won't run on it? Caryl Date: Sat, 20 Mar 2010 22:35:24 +0100 From: sebast...@when.com To: cbige...@hotmail.com CC: m...@melchua.com; soas@lists.sugarlabs.org Subject: Re: [SoaS] Sugar on a Stick Changing Engineering Direction Caryl Bigenho wrote: Hi... This could result in having, at last, what I have been asking for for over a year now... a stable, easy to use version that I can encourage teachers and others to use. That would be wonderful! We think so too :-) The ideal version would: Be easy to make either a usb or live cd version for Linux (both Fedora and Ubuntu), Mac, and Windows operating systems... hopefully without the need for a boot helper or virtual box... something the average teacher or parent could create without too much trouble. We're currently working on making the instructions generally easier for v3 and are also trying to get the graphical LiveUSB Creator working on other distributions, so that everybody could use the same interface - without having trouble. Right now, the sticks should boot on most reasonably-modern computers running Windows or any variant of Linux. We can make sticks that boot on some Macs, but because of the different architecture, those sticks only work on Macs (if they work at all). The creation process for sticks to boot on Macs is also quite tricky and given the low success rate we've had, it's probably not worth recommending, other than marking it as experimental. However, you can make the Windows/Linux sticks in any operating system - so it's just Mac stuff that doesn't work. We'd like to figure this out for future releases, but will need help from engineers who know about this kind of thing (and have Macs at home - we don't) - if you know anyone who'd like to help, that would be great. ;-) On April 24 I will have another chance to distribute SoaS to a fairly large group of teachers and parents at the LAUSD InfoTech event at the LA Convention Center. Is there any possibility that this will be able to happen in time? We'd be happy to create a custom remix for you - just tell us what Activities you'd like to have on it, and we can work on that together so you have the image a few days (or a week, or however long you need to burn media) in advance. In fact, we're happy to make a just-in-time custom demo remix (images for liveusb and/or livecd) for anyone who wants - with the understanding that these images are *demo* sticks, haven't been tested, and are *not* suitable for deployment. This is how we'd like to support folks going out to demo this at conferences and such - if you tell us the Activities you want and the date you'd like the image on, we'll spin it up the day before and you'll have the most recent code for all of the Activities on your image, instead of having to use 6-month-old code. Caryl P.S. A live cd would be great because we could afford to make some in advance and hand them out at our booth (CUELA). As Tim said, you can simply burn the .iso image onto a CD. So if we created such a remix, you could just burn it in time for the conference. Would that work for you? --Mel and Sebastian Date: Sat, 20 Mar 2010 03:19:00 +0100 From: sebast...@when.com To: soas@lists.sugarlabs.org Subject: [SoaS] Sugar on a Stick Changing Engineering Direction Some of you may have overheard activity in #sugar-meeting today discussing the upcoming beta freeze for SoaS, and the engineering capacity we have to work on things for the upcoming release (in May, since as a Fedora Spin we are tied to the Fedora release schedule). The short version is that we'd like to try something pretty drastic - prior SoaS versions have included large numbers of Activities, which weren't always maintained and didn't always work, so we propose shipping a slimmed down version of SoaS with a small number of known-to-work Activities with active upstream maintainers (that we'll have the bandwidth to thoroughly test between now and May's release, and the bandwidth to relay deployment feedback back up to) and creating resources on how to find other excellent material at http://activities.sugarlabs.org. Here's a draft kickstart file of what a slimmed-down SoaS release might look like. It includes a few core Activities that will help you get, debug, and ask questions about more Activities (Browse, Log, and IRC), as well as a few well-tested Activities with active upstreams
[SoaS] La Rioja Training DVD
Hi All... Thanks to the help of Gonzalo Odiard of Sugar Labs Argentina, I have just finished downloading the last of 14 files that contain the contents of the 2 disk training DVD sent to all of the schools in La Rioja Argentina after the teams of 2 (one teacher and one school IT person). They will use them in the training of all the other teachers at their schools. I am hoping this can be a tool we can adapt/adopt and translate into other languages. Now I need help putting it all together. The files are fairly large, 13 of them are 200MB and the last one is 78MB. I have them all in a folder. They are still packed so far. There are 14 little virtual cardboard boxes marked .RAR and with a little picture of a c-clamp on a blue quarter-circle label. The files are all of the .rar format. I have never done a project where I needed to assemble a group of files into one (actually, 2 in this case). Gonzalo sent these instructions: Si copias todos los archivos descargados en un mismo directorio, y usas un programa para decomprimir, te deberia crear el archivo .iso descomprimiendolos If you copy all of the downloaded files in the same directory and use a program to decompress them, you should create the file iso. decompressed OK how do I do this? What program will I need to get? How do I put them all into the same directory and correct order for the DVD? Has anyone done anything like this? No rush on this because family is arriving from TX tonight and we are taking them to the local mountains to ski. I may not have much time to work on it until sometime next week, but I would love to get the information now so I can get started if I get the chance. Caryl ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
[SoaS] SCaLE 8X Update
Hi All... Here are a few random musings about the first 2 days of SCaLE 8X. Day One... OSSIE (Open Source Software In Education)... my presentation went well and a lot of folks have commented on how much they enjoyed it. It was definitely low tech. I had a slide set to talk about followed by a demonstration of some of the Sugar Activities using SoaS Strawberry running on my Mac with the help of Virtual Box. Not many teachers attended. Too hard to get Friday off. It would be nice if this track could be on Saturday. Some of the OSSIE track talks were very high tech... way over my head. Did hear one about web filters that I could understand at least some of... it was interesting. Another about programmable robots was interesting too. Day Two... We had our OLPC/Sugar Labs booth. Powered up my Roadshow In A BOx (5 XO-1s and one XO-1.5). Soon after, the internet police came by to tell us that our mesh network was messing up the conference wifi. I didn't know this could happen. He told us to connect them to the wifi to eliminate the problem. We did and it must have worked because he didn't come back... not to us anyway. Lots of people played with both the XO-1s and the 1.5. There is a lot of interest in getting a 1.5, especially among the ones who already have an XO-1. Someone suggested that a special G1G1 program with the 1.5s could be done at tech conferences like SCaLE. This would have the added advantage of getting the machines into the hands of more developers. Adam said if I could get 10 people to sign up for a SoCal mailing list we could have one. I already have close to 50 interested people and there is still tomorrow! Interesting thing happened with Speak after running it for a while. On some (not all), the mouth stopped moving. Closing and re-opening the Activity did not help. I was able to get one of them to do the frequency mode, but the other 2 modes did not work. Very strange! I got some help making a SoaS from someone in the Engineers Without Borders booth next to ours. In fact, they made one for me. The folks in the LUG booth on the other side of them couldn't figure out how to do it. Something about they were running the wrong kind of Linux??? Someone else took a stick from me to make one in the exhibit hall and never brought it back. Maybe tomorrow. The ethernet to usb connectors Adam sent for swag are a big hit. I have been giving them to everyone who tells me they are an XO owner. Some will go to others tomorrow since it looks like I should have enough. I also gave out some of the picture cards Adam sent. I tried printing information and links on the back of them but the paper has a very slick finish and the ink just sort of balled up and smeared. I gave up. The information is on the back of my business card anyway, which I give them along with the picture card. Tomorrow we will have the booth again and I will be doing a 1 hour hands-on session right after lunch. We will use 10 XOs from the CUELA XO lending library and 6 m-stock machines I have repaired. The Roadshow machines will stay in the booth. We will also have one PC set up as a station where people can make their own SoaS (if they bring a usb drive) and machines for then to try them on. The one they make them on will be running Windows. Unfortunately that appears to be the easiest way to make them. Linux has too many varieties and Mac can't do it stand-alone. So much for the open source purists. 2 people from the UCSB Contributors Program project will be coming tomorrow to help in the booth. I met someone who worked on the XO-1.5 software and also has a 1.5 at the conference. He is a Gnash developer. I will get his name tomorrow. It is late. I am still on South American time and right now it would be 4 am. Nitey-nite! Caryl P.S. Don't you all wish you were here? P.P.S. Tomorrow's (Sunday's) conference call/online meeting sounds great. Unfortunately, it comes at the same time as my hands-on session so I will have to miss it. I hope it is recorded. If you get a chance to attend... don't miss it! ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
[SoaS] Blueberry Strawberry Activities Lists?
Hi, I'm working on my presentation for SCaLE 8X this weekend and do not at the moment have access to Blueberry and Strawberry SoaS. Can someone give me links to lists of Activities included in each of these? Thanks, Caryl ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
Re: [SoaS] [Marketing] Fresh Sugar presetnations?(+? about SoaS)
Hi Bernie and all, I am working on a presentation for educators about Sugar at the SCaLE 8X event in Los Angeles on Feb 19-21. I am away from home at the moment and probably won't get a chance to post or send it to you until just before the talk. I do plan to include a lot of screen shots of various Activities and hope to be able to demonstrate Strawberry running in a Virtual Box on my Macbook. I may also be able to borrow a PC from someone at the event and get Blueberry to run from a pendrive on it. Here is the rub: I know a lot of you have been working on getting Blueberry fixed so it will run without glitches on classroom PCs in the hands of non-techie educators. Have the problems I was encountering a couple of weeks ago been solved? I would love to be able to send a lot of folks home with loaded pendrives or live CDs they could use at their schools. Back to Bernie's question...If your audience is not educators, you might find it better to concentrate on what help is need from volunteer programmers to help make Sugar the best choice for educators everywhere. You may also want to feature some of the interesting things being done in the Contributors Program that go far beyond the simple classroom applications. Have fun... share what you come up with with all of us. If you have yours ready to go before mine. I could love to steal some of your ideas. Caryl Date: Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:21:58 +0100 From: to...@tomeuvizoso.net To: ber...@codewiz.org CC: soas@lists.sugarlabs.org; market...@lists.sugarlabs.org; sugar-de...@lists.sugarlabs.org Subject: Re: [SoaS] [Marketing] Fresh Sugar presetnations? 2010/2/10 Bernie Innocenti ber...@codewiz.org: For an upcoming talk, I'd like to remix some of my old Sugar presentations and include new technical and introductory information about SoaS and Sugar's core components. Can anyone point me at existing presentations from which I could shamelessly rip graphics and good ideas? Just gave this talk: http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Marketing_Team/Presentations#2010 Not sure about graphics and good ideas :) Regards, Tomeu -- // Bernie Innocenti - http://codewiz.org/ \X/ Sugar Labs - http://sugarlabs.org/ ___ Marketing mailing list market...@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/marketing ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
Re: [SoaS] [Sugar-devel] SOAS 2 problems
Hi... I've been following your discussion with interest, especially since I set it off... and I am meeting with the folks in Buenos Aires tomorrow evening. One thing I should have mentioned in one of my earlier emails is that when I created the usb stick for Blueberry with the live usb creator, I forgot to allot storage space on the stick... it was my first time using the tool and didn't realize I had to do it. Therefore, I suspect the journal filled quickly (it was working fine at first). The end result was that everything froze and when we finally did a hard shut down, we were unable to get Windows to load again. I think it was XP, but I'm not sure. It was my daughter-in-law's machine. As an aside, we seemed to have the reverse midas touch at their house. We put our clothes in their computerized washing machine to wash them before going to the airport. The machine froze! Our clothes were locked in! Our son came home from work to liberate them. Evidently it has happened before. He had to open the machine and keep plugging and unplugging various wires. Seems that some things are better not computerized! But for SoaS, I'm looking forward to using the wonderful new easy to use version that you folks are working on! Caryl Date: Sun, 24 Jan 2010 14:41:46 -0700 From: dmc.su...@filteredperception.org To: soas@lists.sugarlabs.org Subject: Re: [SoaS] [Sugar-devel] SOAS 2 problems On 01/24/2010 02:07 PM, Bernie Innocenti wrote: On Sun, 2010-01-24 at 14:34 +1200, David Leeming wrote: I am sorry that I am a little slow on the uptake. Blueberry SOAS2 seems to work OK. I have used LiveUSBCreator and it's installed on a flash drive. Is this what you are recommending? We have done this on several PCs and notebooks and it is fine, although I admit we haven't really pushed it. Are you saying that there is a risk that whilst in use, there is a chance that they could render it inoperable? If so, no worries as it can simply be re-flashed, we can live with that. Have you tried writing to the journal until you fill up the overlay space? Unless I'm seriously misunderstanding how LVM snapshots work, this should systematically make the flash drive inoperable until reformatted, and all data inaccessible. This is not a random bug, it's the result of copy-on-write becoming read-only due to lack of spare blocks and the ext3 filesystem being unwilling to mount itself without first committing the journal. Each subsystem is doing the right thing individually, but the resulting interaction results in this very unfortunate behavior. I would disagree that ext3 refusing to mount itself in read only mode without committing the journal is the 'right thing'. I myself haven't run into this combination of events, but what you describe is plausible. There are pretty easy ways to work around the 'unrecoverable' aspect. I.e. easy to have a rescue mode where additional blocks can be made available to the overlay from ram. ... Hope I'm not being too technical :) The bottom line is: we shouldn't be doing this in SoaS, no matter what upstream is doing. Upstream is wrong in doing it. ... That is quite a pronouncement, but you didn't bother to explain why things are the way they are as opposed to some alternate way that you didn't mention. It is important to remember that the fedora _liveusb_ is the way it is, because it was an extension of the _livecd_. Lots of reasons, many historically transient, contribute to the way things are, and you need to understand that history when discussing how to go forward. For instance, the livecd was compressed, importantly fitting 1.5G of applications in .5G of filesystem. A filesystem that had to be readonly. Clearly moving the media from a 700MB read-only one, to a 1G slowly writable one, changed the game, opened new possibilites, and thus you have people enjoying the F7 liveusb on 1G stick experience. To the point that SoaS grew from that useful experience. Now, these days you have relatively cheap 8G sticks, that don't suffer nearly as badly from slow write performance. Thus more possibilities are opened. My understanding is that Fedora would also like to get this problem fixed, but the live usb tools package is currently missing a full-time maintainer and, thus, the fix is not happening. What 'fix' do you speak of? Please note that this discussion came up on centos-devel. It was noted that the only bulletproof way to use the overlay method without running into out-of-overlay problems, is for your overlay to be a little bit larger (say 105%) than the size of the uncompressed root filesystem. I.e. that may be 2G in SoaS-BB (haven't looked recently). Another vast improvement that I posited to dm-devel, was to utilize the new discard request feature of the kernel to let devicemapper intelligently reuse overlay blocks that the
[SoaS] 2 Major Sugar Issues
Hi... Two rather huge issues: 1) Sugar Labs does not have Spanish translations available on either the SoaS Strawberry or Blueberry web pages. I wanted to print these out to take to the school in Argentina that wants to do a Sugar deployment in the PC lab in one of their elementary schools. There doesn't even seem to be an autotranslate button. We can't expect the whole world to be able to read and understand English. 2) I thought the issue with trying to burn a CD with Blueberry on it to take to Argentina was due to my inexperience with a Windows machine. Not so. My son, the PC guru, tried to do it on his computer yesterday and it would not work there either. He tried twice. It stalled on the liveusb-creator. He was able to reboot with no serious problems like I had the day before on the hp netbook. He was able to create a cd with Strawberry. Hopefully it will work. If all else fails, I still have a very old copy of Strawberry in a Virtual Box on my Mac that works fairly well. These folks are eager to get something going with Sugar in Argentina without waiting for a big government project that will buy XOs. We need to help them by solving these 2 major issues. Caryl ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
Re: [SoaS] 2 Major Sugar Issues
Hi... see below... Was he trying to burn onto the CD with Blueberry? This shouldn't be needed, he can just use his favorite disc burning application. Right... he was using his favorite disk burning app. --Sebastian Caryl = ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
[SoaS] Small SoaS Disaster
Hi All, I was playing in PC Land yesterday, trying to get a working SoaS Blueberry. Downloaded the live usb maker from the net. Made the stick. Put it in daughter-in-law's medium-sized hp netbook and tried it. After we finally got it booted (she insisted it wouldn't work, only Windows would) she pushed some button or clicked some icon and there it was! Tried Speak... great... spoke reasonably good Spanish. Tried paint... beautiful. Checked the Journal... working fine. Checked out TamTam Mini... it froze. Did a force quit. Started it up again and tried to make another stick with Strawberry. Totally crashed the PC! It kept trying to start up, said it was fixing the system software, shut down, started up again...etc over and over and over! Finally, after more than an hour of this, she did a force quit and put it away. Is it possible that there is a virus in: http://fedorahosted.org/liveusb-creator ?? While she has other computers, this is a very bad disaster! My son, the PC guru says not to worry, you can't break a PC. I sort of doubt him. Any ideas about what could have happened, how to fix it, and how to avoid it next time? Thanks,Caryl ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
Re: [SoaS] Booting Fedora live USB on MacBookPro
Hi, My MacBook is a 4,1. Will it work on my machine? Caryl Date: Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:32:26 -0500 From: pjo...@redhat.com To: fedora-devel-l...@redhat.com CC: soas@lists.sugarlabs.org Subject: Re: [SoaS] Booting Fedora live USB on MacBookPro On 11/10/2009 02:40 PM, Bernie Innocenti wrote: Hello, I'm creating an EFI bootable USB image on my rawhide system with this command-line: ./livecd-iso-to-disk.sh --format --efi --overlay-size-mb 400 \ --delete-home --extra-kernel-args selinux=0 ./soas04.iso /dev/sdb1 The resulting USB stick boots fine on a black MacBook, but not on a silver MacBook Pro. The bootable stick does not even show up in the list of boot devices. Which generation of MBP and MBP, and are you using the i386 tree or the x86_64 tree? It sounds like the MacBook is a Santa Rosa (MacBook3,1) or later and the MacBook Pro is an earlier generation, and you're using x86_64. Or vice-versa regarding the ages, and you're using the i386 tree. This won't work, as pre-Santa Rosa mac will only boot 32-bit EFI images, and post-Santa Rosa macs will only boot 64-bit EFI images. -- Peter ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
Re: [SoaS] updating the draft decision panel report
OK How about Sugar to Go which could include all types of media? Caryl Date: Tue, 3 Nov 2009 18:47:38 -0500 Subject: Re: [SoaS] updating the draft decision panel report From: meta...@gmail.com To: sdaly...@gmail.com CC: cbige...@hotmail.com; tabi...@hrdnz.com; market...@lists.sugarlabs.org; sugar-l...@solarsail.media.mit.edu; soas@lists.sugarlabs.org On Mon, Nov 2, 2009 at 5:17 PM, Sean DALY sdaly...@gmail.com wrote: The marketing list has again disappeared, I have added it back, again. Weird, thanks. This seems reasonable, but all it would do is compromise Sugar on a Stick as a meaningful name. Any other suggestion for a generic name for the class of external-media distributions would be fine. Sebastian likes Sugar Live Media which works for me. The most generic term for what Sugar on a Stick is a liveUSB version of Sugar. This seems somewhat confusing to me, since as a newbie I wouldn't know what 'liveUSB' means and I might be using an SD card. SJ On Mon, Nov 2, 2009 at 5:22 PM, Caryl Bigenho cbige...@hotmail.com wrote: Hi... It's sort of like root beer... You can buy AW or Barq's or other private labels... or make your own. It is still root beer. Sugar on a Stick is really exactly what it says, Sugar running on a usb stick. It is a very descriptive label. To call other distributions of Sugar on a usb stick something else would be confusing. However, calling it say, Blueberry Sugar on a Stick by Sugar Labs or Orange Sugar on a Stick by Skunk Works would distinguish the developer and variety without being confusing and still tell folks what it is. Then they could tell one another... get the Blueberry by SugarLabs, it's much better than Skunk Works' Orange. Remember your, generally, technologically innocent (not all of them) intended end user. Caryl Date: Mon, 2 Nov 2009 12:31:33 + From: mar...@martindengler.com To: cbige...@hotmail.com CC: dmc.su...@filteredperception.org; tabi...@hrdnz.com; soas@lists.sugarlabs.org Subject: Re: [SoaS] updating the draft decision panel report On Sun, Nov 01, 2009 at 11:08:22PM -0800, Caryl Bigenho wrote: I'm having trouble squaring this with your earlier statement[1]. Aren't you saying both: [let's allow lots of Sugar On A Stick products] and[2]: [too many names are confusing] Please can you explain how to reconcile both [1] and [2]. Caryl Martin 1. Hi... I guess I've become the minority. I still believe that the name Sugar On A Stick should be allowed for all distributions of Sugar on a usb stick or even a live CD. Sugar Labs can control and identify their special builds in a special way... SoaS by SugarLabs or whatever, but the term has already become so generic that trying to make it exclusive at this point seems to be a waste of time and energy. 2. Having many different names for different versions of Sugar on a usb stick will only confuse them. ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
Re: [SoaS] updating the draft decision panel report
Hi Again, Douglas has a good point... if you are a Linux developer. However, if our target end users are to come from the education community, it is very doubtful that they will be familiar with publications such as the excellent one he references. Having many different names for different versions of Sugar on a usb stick will only confuse them. This seems a place where the good old KISS principle should apply. Caryl ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
[SoaS] FW: Fwd: Experimental Virtualbox Boothelper for Mac OS X
Hi Again, I looked at again this morning and found that I do now have the updated Virtual Box and 2 copies of SoaS that I installed this summer from a liveCD Scott Dowdle (from MSU in Bozeman MT) gave me. One of them opens and runs, but is an old version with very few Activities. I would like to be able to show the latest version to the teachers at the CUELA/LAUSD Tech Fair on Nov. 14... even tell them how they can get it... in simple easy to understand terms. So, what happens to the non-techie teacher who has access to Macs only and hasn't a clue how to use Windows? If she/he has a techie friend with a PC to help, it would be fine, but if not, she won't be able to use Sugar. Remember the mantra: Free is good! Caryl P.S. I do have a dual boot Windows install on my Mac, but I don't know how to use it to create a usb stick. Date: Thu, 29 Oct 2009 09:33:49 -0400 From: d...@solutiongrove.com To: soas@lists.sugarlabs.org Subject: [SoaS] Fwd: Experimental Virtualbox Boothelper for Mac OS X -- Forwarded message -- From: Dave Bauer d...@solutiongrove.com Date: Thu, Oct 29, 2009 at 9:33 AM Subject: Re: [SoaS] Experimental Virtualbox Boothelper for Mac OS X To: Carlo Falciola cfalci...@yahoo.it On Thu, Oct 29, 2009 at 9:28 AM, Carlo Falciola cfalci...@yahoo.it wrote: Ok. Here is the first problem! There is no way to create a SoaS USB stick on a Mac. what about create a minimal fedora appliance for VirtualBox (eventalually stripped down to the basic) with the liveusb-creator already installed ready ? Moreover in the appliance fs there could already be stored the soas image in a well known location, so it would be oneshot download... Shure It's a waste of download-space but should do the trick? Does It? BTW I assume that a VB fedora VM is able to write an USB stick properly... I do this all the time since my desktop is Ubuntu and its a pain to create SoaS from there. I use the livecd-iso-to-disk but the liveusb-creator runs fine also in a VM. I'll see how small I can make one. Dave Then the enduser detailed procedure should be: 1. Download the VM image properly packed 2. boot it into Virtual Box 3. mount the USB stick in the VM 4. run liveusb-creator available in the VM 5. prepare the stick (cicle 3 to 5 as desired). ciao Carlo (F) --- Gio 29/10/09, Dave Bauer d...@solutiongrove.com ha scritto: Da: Dave Bauer d...@solutiongrove.com Oggetto: Re: [SoaS] Experimental Virtualbox Boothelper for Mac OS X A: Caryl Bigenho cbige...@hotmail.com Cc: Sugar-Labs Mailing lists soas@lists.sugarlabs.org Data: Giovedì 29 ottobre 2009, 14:01 On Thu, Oct 29, 2009 at 12:31 AM, Caryl Bigenho cbige...@hotmail.com wrote: Hi Dave and All, Well, I tried to get the SoaS to work on my MacBook from a USB with no luck. Here is what I did... I had an old version of Virtual Box (2.???) so I downloaded the new one and uninstalled the old one before installing the new one. I downloaded the appliance and attempted to follow the instructions. The Boothelper does show up on Virtual Box... powered off. The I also seem to have Sugar and Sugar/SoaS... possibly left over from the old version I uninstalled. I tried to download SoaS to a usb stick. When I look at the contents it shows up as 599-sugar-on-a-stick-v084 and the information says it is a Unix executable file. Ok. Here is the first problem! There is no way to create a SoaS USB stick on a Mac. Well I suppose you could install Windows or Fedora and dual boot and then run the liveusb-creator, but that seems ever more complicated. I did a restart holding down the option key... it gave me a choice of Mac or Windows, nothing else. I also tried the C key. That just went straight to Mac. Ok. With Virtualbox you don't need to reboot at all. SoaS will run inside Virtualbox as a guest to your OS X operating system. I think I may have the files a downloaded correctly but just don't know how to make it work. I'll work on some better instructions. Thanks for the feedback. Dave Help??? Caryl Date: Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:05:26 -0400 From: d...@solutiongrove.com To: soas@lists.sugarlabs.org Subject: [SoaS] Experimental Virtualbox Boothelper for Mac OS X I have created an experimental USB boothelper for Virtualbox on OS X. This will let you boot from SoaS on USB into a virtual machine so you don't have to try to reboot and use a cdrom. This includes an applescript application called Soas USB which will manage starting the virtual machine and connecting the USB to the virtual machine. It has been tested on a Macbook and an iMac running OS X 10.5.8 so far. It seems to work reliably on my Macbook but the iMac had some trouble getting the USB to be recognized. I am
Re: [SoaS] Experimental Virtualbox Boothelper for Mac OS X
Hi Dave and All, During the summer of 2008 I helped write a guide to updating the software on the XO. Officially it is called the No-Fail Update but unofficially and in rtfm it is called Grannies Guide to Updating. FWIW, I'm Grannie. If you check it out, you will find it is very detailed and assumes the reader really doesn't know very much about computers. It also gives info abouthow to do things on both a PC and a Mac. All the needed links are right on the page with instructions for downloading. I propose we write a couple of new Grannies Guides for SoaS on a PC and one for the Mac. Perhaps a live cd guide would also be useful. In a couple of weeks I will be presenting about the XO and SosS at the CUELA/LAUSD Tech Fair. I would like to be able to have these available for attendees. We could start with the Mac Virtualbox Boot-helper. I'll try it and see where I get stuck. Then I'll ask for help and work from there for the GG. Can we do this? http://wiki.laptop.org/go/No-fail_update Caryl (aka Grannie) Date: Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:05:26 -0400 From: d...@solutiongrove.com To: soas@lists.sugarlabs.org Subject: [SoaS] Experimental Virtualbox Boothelper for Mac OS X I have created an experimental USB boothelper for Virtualbox on OS X. This will let you boot from SoaS on USB into a virtual machine so you don't have to try to reboot and use a cdrom. This includes an applescript application called Soas USB which will manage starting the virtual machine and connecting the USB to the virtual machine. It has been tested on a Macbook and an iMac running OS X 10.5.8 so far. It seems to work reliably on my Macbook but the iMac had some trouble getting the USB to be recognized. I am looking for folks for might want to test and give feedback. You'll need SoaS installed on a USB stick. To install the appliance first download and install Virtualbox http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads. Note this only works with the Personal and Evaluation License edition since the Open Source edition does not have USB support. Next download http://www.solutiongrove.com/SoaS%20Virtualbox%20Boothelper.zip and unzip it. Next open up Virtualbox and select File-Import Appliance. Navigate to where you unzipped the appliance and select the Soas Boothelper.ovf file. Insert a SoaS USB. Make sure it is named FEDORA in the finder. Now you can run the SoaS USB application which will eject FEDORA from the finder, start up virtualbox and the virtual appliance and attach the USB. Right now its using the verbose boot process to detect errors. If anyone has a chance to test this out I would appeciate it. Similar automated solutions could exist for Windows and Linux virtualbox hosts. -- Dave Bauer d...@solutiongrove.com http://www.solutiongrove.com ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
Re: [SoaS] As requested: RE: Thoughts on RE: SOAS decision panel : thoughts
I'm fine with that! Please do. Caryl Date: Tue, 6 Oct 2009 16:22:06 +0100 From: mar...@martindengler.com To: cbige...@hotmail.com CC: meta...@gmail.com; bogs...@pobox.com; s...@sugarlabs.org; l...@faraone.cc; o...@sadeq.me.uk; bmsch...@fas.harvard.edu; sdaly...@gmail.com; tabitha.ro...@gmail.com; dsd.o...@gmail.com; hackerboymaya...@gmail.com Subject: Re: As requested: RE: Thoughts on RE: SOAS decision panel : thoughts Any objections if I rudely post these discussions to the soas@ list? So far attempts to get people to post to it seem to be meeting some friction but nobody's telling me why. Martin On Fri, Oct 02, 2009 at 06:36:19PM -0700, Caryl Bigenho wrote: SJ wrote: Caryl, your input on the recent thread on the soas-list would be appreciated. I think Bill got some of this summary right, but some of it needs to be clarified. (And I'm not sure that many of the people who would like to *see* a 'set of versions that can be run on all kinds of machines' understood the support costs and prioritization required when saying that.) Hello All... Greetings from beautiful (50 years ago) Butte MT, the country's largest Superfund site. Over half the town has disappeared into the huge Berkeley Pit (open pit copper mine). What is left is very contaminated with metal dust and asbestos. But, enough of that. First I want to apologize for the flood of old messages from me that arrived this afternoon. They were sent 4 days ago on 9/28 when I was having trouble with my sign-up to the list. So today, they show up as sent at 2:04 p.m. MDT... I assure you not by me. I was riding down I-90 in MT far from any internet signal. Now, I still have the problem of getting 2 of everything sent to the [SoaS] list. So let's get back to the issues at hand. SJ asked me to go over the message I sent several days ago and clarify some of the things I wrote. Re: A new mailing list... a dead issue, we are already functioning on the regular [SoaS} list. Re: Several different distributions and if so, for what machines? This is a really huge issue. First of all, has anyone really done any research, even informal, to see what machines are used regularly in the schools? Probably not. Without this information, the question can't be answered in any meaningful way. There is a way that we could make this happen, thoughnot nearly soon enough, but better late than never. It would take some effort on the part of both Sugar Labs volunteers and OLPC volunteers. It goes like this: 1) Send representatives (preferably 2 or more) to every Tech Conference for educators that we can find. Take XOs and SoaS, Live CDs, SD cards and different non-XO machines to demonstrate that Sugar will run on them. People will be curious and want to try things. Set up in a booth if possible or in their internet cafe area (or do a presentation!). We may have to actually pay to attend. 2) Have a simple survey for educators to fill out asking what machines they have at their school, how many, how old, are there any plans to replace them, if yes, with what machines and, finally, how much use do they get and by who. While we are at it we might as well ask what level or subject they teach and what kinds of new programs would they like to have to use with their students. 3) If they have something that will run SoaS, a Live CD, or Sugar on a SD card, offer to help them download their own copy. Maybe even give away some Live CDs. I will be presenting at the CUELA/LAUSD Tech Fair in mid-November. I will make up a survey like this and ask teachers to complete it. Can we get others to do the same sort of thing? Even just having a presence with a few XOs and other computers running Sugar for folks to try and getting them to fill out the survey would help a lot. Not a lot of prior prep needed for that! In other words, don't just guess what students and teachers need.. ask them. Until we do this, we are just taking wild stabs in the dark. Students and teachers won't care what we call the Sugar software they are using. They will just care that it is easy to use and works. Re: the XO-1 Glad to hear the batteries will be interchangable. That is one crisis we won't have to face. This might not be the right time and place to discuss activating the entire track pad, but someone else mentioned it and I thought it was a great idea. I still do. While some might think this is a topic for OLPC, I thought I read somewhere that it is a software matter. That could be a Sugar Labs project. Too long... and I will get 2 copies. Got to read all the other emails I got since yesterday. Thanks for reading! Caryl P.S. I did a reply all on this. If I missed anyone who should read it, please forward. Thanks
[SoaS] SOAS[DP] Educator's Opinion
Hello Folks, With all this discussion of naming conventions, we seem to be failing to consider our targeted end-users: classroom teachers. Most of them think Fedora is a hat. It could just as well be derby as far as they are concerned. I suggest we propose a name to apply to all Sugar distributions in every form. Then these could be labeled in a way that developers will know what the underlying software is and that educators can tell whether it will work on the machines they have. Choose a name. Get it registered. Add things like USB, SD, CD to indicate the intended carrier. Also add something that indicates what machines it will run on. Version numbers could be included too. All this could end up with a long name for each version, but it would tell everyone what it is in a way that they can understand. Such as (for example): Sugar4CD/PC/F11 (Sugar, version 4, made for liveCD, runs on PCs, Fedora11 based). Caryl ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
Re: [SoaS] [IAEP] SOAS[DP] Educator's Opinion
Yes! Roland, this is exactly what Apple does with their big cats. We have Tiger (10.4) running on a Powerbook that originally came with Jaguar (10.2). I skipped Panther (10.3). My MacBook came with Leopard (10.5). Now they have come out with Snow Leopard (10.6-I don't plan to switch... it has some problems). I think Apple will run out of big cats long before we would run out of sugar related things. Note that Apple still uses version numbers just as Ubuntu does, which Sugar Labs should also do. I like a system like this. It would help make the software a little less threatening to teachers, parents, and inexperienced children using it. Caryl From: rgesthui...@gmail.com Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:11:50 +1000 Subject: Re: [IAEP] SOAS[DP] Educator's Opinion To: cbige...@hotmail.com CC: soas@lists.sugarlabs.org; i...@lists.sugarlabs.org I must admit Caryl that I like the Ubuntu system that uses a mix of release version number / build number and generic names for distributions based on animals (hardy herron etc.) http://www.ubuntu.com/aboutus/faq It would be interesting for Sugar to do something similar, rotating every year or so between different 'sugar' eating animals or plants .. perhaps even sugar based molecules such as monosaccharides glucose, dextrose, fructose, levulose, galactose, xylose then ribose. If you run out of these, you can then switch to polysaccharides such as sucrose etc. Now there is enough for 10 or more years. :-) Nicely, glucose is a primary key to life on our planet and nicely fits the launch of the version for the OLPC X0-1 :-) Regards Roland 2009/9/30 Caryl Bigenho cbige...@hotmail.com Hello Folks, With all this discussion of naming conventions, we seem to be failing to consider our targeted end-users: classroom teachers. Most of them think Fedora is a hat. It could just as well be derby as far as they are concerned. I suggest we propose a name to apply to all Sugar distributions in every form. Then these could be labeled in a way that developers will know what the underlying software is and that educators can tell whether it will work on the machines they have. Choose a name. Get it registered. Add things like USB, SD, CD to indicate the intended carrier. Also add something that indicates what machines it will run on. Version numbers could be included too. All this could end up with a long name for each version, but it would tell everyone what it is in a way that they can understand. Such as (for example): Sugar4CD/PC/F11 (Sugar, version 4, made for liveCD, runs on PCs, Fedora11 based). Caryl ___ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) i...@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep -- Roland Gesthuizen - ICT Coordinator - Westall Secondary College http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has. --Margaret Mead ___ SoaS mailing list SoaS@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/soas
