We've done several tens of thousands of FLASH updates here at LANL over the last 5 years. I also am in touch with other labs with the same level of experience.
The experiences of us all are basically the same. The most reliable way to update FLASH on a massive scale is via the OS, viz. Linux. I have routinely updated 1024 nodes at a time in 30 seconds with no need for console intervention. The most unreliable way to update FLASH is via BIOS mechanisms. If USB is involved, multiply the problems by a large number. Console interaction causes further issues. Every single company that comes in here with a BIOS-based FLASH update mechanism -- save one -- is eventually convinced to give us an OS-based FLASH update mechanism, due to problems with the BIOS-based mechanisms. One Very Large Vendor, who had been strongly pushing their BIOS-based update mechanism, recently told us they had created an OS-based FLASH update mechanism. The one company that did not change, has caused us enormous trouble, as we had to scour store shelves for USB sticks that would work with the BIOS. This is not uncommon with USB. I just had a brand-new system in here last month, and had to go through 3 keyboards before I found one that would work with the BIOS -- new bios, new keyboards. The single two most common phrases we hear from a vendor -- "We have not seen this" and "Nobody else is reporting this problem" -- are the two phrases I've been hearing w.r.t. my inability to update my FLASH :-) While this is a sign of progress -- it means OLPC is a real product -- it should also be taken as a warning -- things are going to happen that you can't anticipate, understand, or reproduce. Flexibility is paramount. You're going to be working on a scale few have seen. If you are trying to set up some sort of protection from BIOS to enable/disable flash upgrades, a useful thing to do is to require that some BIOS command be run that allows FLASH writes, e.g.: ok enable-flash-write Warning: FLASH can now be written from the OS or applications ok boot I would not even have bothered to mention this, but I've still got an OLPC that can't use any of my USB sticks. It's not so much my problem that concerns me -- I can work around my problem -- it's the fact that my little problem might become OLPC's big problem on a very large scale. I still think it would be useful to rethink the FLASH update mechanism. thanks ron _______________________________________________ Devel mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.laptop.org/mailman/listinfo/devel
