Re: HTML Canvas performance in the Browse activity
I suspect that the reason relates to the OLPC's unique screen. The physical pixels are spaced at 200 per inch horizontally and vertically. But there's only one color per pixel, not three. Each pixel lights up in a particular color. In a 'red' pixel, the green and blue sub-values from the frame buffer are ignored (but they get averaged into a nearby blue pixel by the dcon chip). (In 'normal' 96 dpi screens they actually have three subpixels horizontally (red, green, and blue), so the resolution in the horizontal direction is almost 300 dpi while vertically it's only 96 dpi.) Perhaps it's that you'd like the software to draw very crisp text by knowing that the screen really renders 200 dpi, but draw pictures at some lower dpi like 134, knowing that you can't represent all the colors in the original pixels unless you enlarge it somewhat. The XO browser has two problems actually: 1) performance issue caused by scaling everything up; 2) the difference in the scaling logic from a normal Gecko build. Problem 2: Keeping the current 134 DPI value would always require Gecko to be patched, thus making it different from other Gecko builds. Maybe the browser could use 200 DPI? Perhaps pages would render too big. Is there a good reason that the upstream Gecko maintainers wouldn't take this a patch, or one like it? As long as the scale factor is 1 on ordinary screens (and the code optimizes that path), adding this would have little impact on speed or space on non-OLPCs. (And if Pixel Qi succeeds in selling their screens, there are going to be more 'unusual' cheap high performance screens that we'll want good free software support for.) John ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Browse page with full-sized images crashes Browse and Firefox, it seems partly a wiki.laptop.org issue
or Browse no browse Browse :-) Visit http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Browse in either Browse or Firefox on 8.2.1 and your laptop will lock up and minutes later Browse will die. This is mentioned in comments on http://dev.laptop.org/ticket/8278 and http://dev.laptop.org/ticket/8719 If you use Firefox's Tools Page Info Media and scroll through the list of images, you see that the page has dozens of full-sized screenshots, all around 1,200 x 900 px, that the browser scales to tiny thumbnails according to the img tag's width and height. But that's not how Mediawiki is supposed to work. If a page on wikipedia.org calls for a thumbnail of a large image, it contains a reference to a pre-shrunk image rather than the original full-size image. E.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Vista#End-user_features has a thumbnail of a screenshot. So the image it references is http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f0/Windows_Explorer_Vista.png/180px-Windows_Explorer_Vista.png which is 180px wide, rather than the full-size original http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f0/Windows_Explorer_Vista.png Somehow wiki.laptop.org doesn't create thumbnails, it seems to only refer to the originals. I reopened bug 8278 and e-mail this to OLPC sysadmin. http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Image_Administration#Image_thumbnailing has the configuration instructions. Could this thumbnail problem be related to the wiki.laptop.org's ImageMagick failures on the large SVGs http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Image:Olpc-deployments-20090515.svg ? The XO should be able to deal with complex image-heavy pages on the web better. I guess it's allocating memory close to a limit, then OLPC's bad out-of-memory behavior kicks in. Why can't the O.S. kill Browse faster instead of locking up for minutes? http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Feature_roadmap/Memory_pressure references previous e-mail threads on this subject. Cheers, -- =S Page ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: [Fwd: Xo 1.5 wlan]
On Mon, Jun 1, 2009 at 07:20, Andrés Ambrois andresambr...@gmail.com wrote: On Sunday 31 May 2009 11:15:58 am Tomeu Vizoso wrote: On Sun, May 31, 2009 at 16:09, Tiago Marques tiago...@gmail.com wrote: On 5/31/09, John Watlington w...@laptop.org wrote: On May 30, 2009, at 12:04 PM, Reinder E.N. de Haan wrote: Subject: Xo 1.5 wlan Date: Thu, 07 May 2009 19:56:27 +0200 From: Reinder de Haan r...@mveas.com To: John Watlington w...@laptop.org Hello, I have a couple of questions regarding the wlan module in xo 1.5; 1) will it be an off the shelf module (3th party) or a quanta/olpc 'private' module One of the complications of the Gen 1.5 design has been improving the WLAN module. The existing module takes lots of power, and the USB driver still needs extensive modification to speed up suspend/resume. Being power the major concern, will wireless range also be enhanced in some way? Most of the early claims that the XO had a top class wireless range have not materialized, at least when I compare it to other devices like a Fon2100 or an IPW2200 from Intel, which is probably the device with best wireless range that I've ever seen. A way to change the transmit power in software would be great for power and range, depending on the application. Does the module have anything like that or are you just mainly focusing on power and relegating range to 2nd place? I think that there have been recent improvements in the algorithm for choosing the transmission power in the linux kernel. I'm not sure if all wifi drivers benefit from it, but a laptop with b43 has improved dramatically its range after updating to Ubuntu Jaunty. I think what you're talking about is the rate selection algorithm, I dont think the kernel dynamically changes the Tx power. Ok, then it may have been a improvement in that particular wifi driver. Regards, Tomeu Linux has moved to minstrel [0] as its default rate control algorithm, which is way better than what we had previously in dealing with lots of collisions, where slower rates may not increase the chance of getting a packet through. This scenario is common in schools with lots of XOs. Some drivers still have their own algorithm, it is probable that the closed fullmac Marvell implementation has one. [0] http://linuxwireless.org/en/developers/Documentation/mac80211/RateControl/minstrel Best regards, Tiago Marques Unlike Gen 1, we don't have the time or expected market to develop and certify a custom module. The current plan is to use an existing WLAN module, based on the Marvell 88W8686 and connected to the system using an SDIO interface. 2) if it is a private module please break out jtag and the serial port for debugging (xo 1.0 only had jtag.. serial ended right at the balls of the chip :-( Sorry, the module doesn't bring any of the internal debugging signal out. 3a) if its a 3th party moduel is it posible to buy it somewhere ? Yes and no. There are 88W8686-based SDIO modules already available, and electrically/software-wise they will be identical to the one we are planning to use. The actual module used in XO-1.5 will have a half-height miniPCI-e form factor. Even if you could buy it in small quantities, you would have to arrange an adapter board to use internally. Cheers, wad ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: HTML Canvas performance in the Browse activity
Hello John! Le Mon, 01 Jun 2009 09:26:20 +0300, John Gilmore g...@toad.com a écrit: The XO browser has two problems actually: 1) performance issue caused by scaling everything up; 2) the difference in the scaling logic from a normal Gecko build. Problem 2: Keeping the current 134 DPI value would always require Gecko to be patched, thus making it different from other Gecko builds. Maybe the browser could use 200 DPI? Perhaps pages would render too big. Is there a good reason that the upstream Gecko maintainers wouldn't take this a patch, or one like it? As long as the scale factor is 1 on ordinary screens (and the code optimizes that path), adding this would have little impact on speed or space on non-OLPCs. (And if Pixel Qi succeeds in selling their screens, there are going to be more 'unusual' cheap high performance screens that we'll want good free software support for.) I understand from Robert O'Callahan that it's better to constrain CSS pixels to integer device pixels. When the patch is applied, CSS pixels no longer map strictly to integer device pixels (IIANM). -- Mihai Sucan http://www.robodesign.ro ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Longer XO transformer power cord in the plans?
On 31 May 2009, at 15:34, Reinder de Haan wrote: Tiago Marques wrote: On 5/31/09, Reinder de Haan r...@mveas.com wrote: Sascha Silbe wrote: On Sun, May 31, 2009 at 03:16:53PM +1000, James Cameron wrote: 1. Earthing. The current design has no earth at the AC end, and is isolated in relation to the DC end. An earthed AC plug in some countries produces a more reliable and positive insertion and anchoring. All travel adapters (power outlet adapters) I've come across so far had no earthing so would be impossible to use (unaltered). Of course this wouldn't be much of a change as the current wall warts also don't fit any adapter I've seen at shops. At SugarCamp in Paris, quite a few people (including myself) had custom ones, i.e. with mechanic alterations. Personally, I feel comfortable making minor mechanic changes to an adapter, but I won't usually dare using a non-earthing adapter with a device having an earthed plug (unless I know for sure this is safe). Actually, if you are able to use a standard plug (e.g. IEC-60320- C5/C6) at the power supply end, above won't apply at all as it's usually easy to get a matching cable, no travel adapter needed. :) +1 for inline adaptor its MUCH easier to exchange only the mains cable: 1) when its demaged 2) when shiping to a different part of the world you would need only one powersupply brick for (almost?) all or the world. i have seen some companies ship a couple of different cables so the device is usable almost everywhere and doesn't need to be custom packed/country. i would go which IEC-60320 C8/C9 which is used for half of the laptops today. Completely not the picture around this part of Europe. Most of them come with C13 and some are being sold with C7, which is pretty much a oops i meant C7/C8 NOT C9!! This map appeared in my feeds today, a nice illustration of world usage (don't know how accurate it is, but seems good from what I know of): http://www.eurocom.com/support/images/plug_map.jpg Regards, --Gary standard for other types electronics. C13 would be my favorite, if the size of the plug is not an issue, since it is also the standard for computer power supplies. As mentioned above, C5 would also be sweet. both are an earthed connector and so 'require' an earthed outlet. combined with that almost all power supplies i have seen with a C5/ C6 or C13/C14 connect the earth input to the ground/0V dc output... if you insert such power supply into an not earthed outlet (which are quite common) your whole laptop will be at ~1/2*Uin Vac due to the filter capacitors in the mains filter. which gives a nasty shock if you touch both a non insulated part of your laptop and a earthed object.. As for safety, adding something like the cable plug of the original Xbox pads would work perfectly and it's not as expensive as Apple's magnetic plug. Cost of this is something I have no clue about. Best regards, Tiago Marques i feel a earthed design only increases the risks, even more so when you cant depend on the quality of the mains supply. the only advantage to the earthed design that im aware of is that the power supply easier(cheaper?) meets EMC/FCC regulations. I hope future XO versions will still have the same broad power input specs as the XO-1. It's been very useful already (e.g. cable-only car adapter, no voltage conversion or even voltage limit necessary). CU Sascha ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: [Server-devel] [Sugar-devel] What is the vision for software update?
On Mon, Jun 01, 2009 at 11:54:34AM -0400, Caroline Meeks wrote: Does it require Root to update the software? root is required to update the OS via yum/rpm. Do students do it themselves somehow? Students can update Activities via the Sugar control panel. Is the updating of activities vs sugar code vs fedora code integrate or separate? There are separate mechanisms for Activties vs. OS code updates. The pros and cons of this have been periodically discussed (rpm vs. xo debates). We are imagining that having the XS control all this is the optimal solution. I think it should work, but not be required or optimal. SoaS does, and should continue to, work well independently of an XS. Martin pgpBgtEboVw62.pgp Description: PGP signature ___ Server-devel mailing list server-de...@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel
Re: Longer XO transformer power cord in the plans?
The chart is of limited utility. For example, Argentina and Oz share the same socket except that the pins are different lengths, so that if you try to import an Oz plug into Argentina, you will get stopped in customs. (Lesson learned the hard way.) -walter On Mon, Jun 1, 2009 at 12:06 PM, Gary C Martin g...@garycmartin.com wrote: On 31 May 2009, at 15:34, Reinder de Haan wrote: Tiago Marques wrote: On 5/31/09, Reinder de Haan r...@mveas.com wrote: Sascha Silbe wrote: On Sun, May 31, 2009 at 03:16:53PM +1000, James Cameron wrote: 1. Earthing. The current design has no earth at the AC end, and is isolated in relation to the DC end. An earthed AC plug in some countries produces a more reliable and positive insertion and anchoring. All travel adapters (power outlet adapters) I've come across so far had no earthing so would be impossible to use (unaltered). Of course this wouldn't be much of a change as the current wall warts also don't fit any adapter I've seen at shops. At SugarCamp in Paris, quite a few people (including myself) had custom ones, i.e. with mechanic alterations. Personally, I feel comfortable making minor mechanic changes to an adapter, but I won't usually dare using a non-earthing adapter with a device having an earthed plug (unless I know for sure this is safe). Actually, if you are able to use a standard plug (e.g. IEC-60320- C5/C6) at the power supply end, above won't apply at all as it's usually easy to get a matching cable, no travel adapter needed. :) +1 for inline adaptor its MUCH easier to exchange only the mains cable: 1) when its demaged 2) when shiping to a different part of the world you would need only one powersupply brick for (almost?) all or the world. i have seen some companies ship a couple of different cables so the device is usable almost everywhere and doesn't need to be custom packed/country. i would go which IEC-60320 C8/C9 which is used for half of the laptops today. Completely not the picture around this part of Europe. Most of them come with C13 and some are being sold with C7, which is pretty much a oops i meant C7/C8 NOT C9!! This map appeared in my feeds today, a nice illustration of world usage (don't know how accurate it is, but seems good from what I know of): http://www.eurocom.com/support/images/plug_map.jpg Regards, --Gary standard for other types electronics. C13 would be my favorite, if the size of the plug is not an issue, since it is also the standard for computer power supplies. As mentioned above, C5 would also be sweet. both are an earthed connector and so 'require' an earthed outlet. combined with that almost all power supplies i have seen with a C5/ C6 or C13/C14 connect the earth input to the ground/0V dc output... if you insert such power supply into an not earthed outlet (which are quite common) your whole laptop will be at ~1/2*Uin Vac due to the filter capacitors in the mains filter. which gives a nasty shock if you touch both a non insulated part of your laptop and a earthed object.. As for safety, adding something like the cable plug of the original Xbox pads would work perfectly and it's not as expensive as Apple's magnetic plug. Cost of this is something I have no clue about. Best regards, Tiago Marques i feel a earthed design only increases the risks, even more so when you cant depend on the quality of the mains supply. the only advantage to the earthed design that im aware of is that the power supply easier(cheaper?) meets EMC/FCC regulations. I hope future XO versions will still have the same broad power input specs as the XO-1. It's been very useful already (e.g. cable-only car adapter, no voltage conversion or even voltage limit necessary). CU Sascha ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel -- Walter Bender Sugar Labs http://www.sugarlabs.org ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Videos of XO 1.5 in Taipei
Posted to http://olpc.tv Filming Pixel Qi and more in just a bit.. -- Charbax, Nicolas Charbonnier ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Bootloader question
Hello I'm still preparing my custom images for the Haïti project, and I am quite disturbed by the JFFS2 boottime. From what I've read on the wiki, JFFS2 is here only because OFW doesn't know how to use UBIFS. This brings a question - is it possible to replace OFW with something that could use UBIFS? Say coreboot , or even a bios with grub, anything will do! If there's no security, if there's little functionality, not field upgrades etc, it will just be fine as long as it can boot any quicker. I just can't keep the boot delays currently experienced with jffs2 -- Dr. Guylhem Aznar, MD PhD Unité d'Analyse Médico-Économique Service de Santé Publique et d'Économie de la Santé Pôle SPSSR CHU de Fort de France BP 632 97261 Fort De France Cedex Martinique, France Tel : 05 96 55 23 47 Fax : 05 96 75 84 57 ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Videos of XO 1.5 in Taipei
It would be nice if olpc.tv used ogg vorbis. Is there any way to get the videos of XO 1.5 in Taipei, etc. posted in a linux friendly format? XO users are excluded from viewing material about the XO. Where the FOSS are you!! In other words FOSS you..tube, use Ogg Vorbis!! : ) rihowa...@gmail.com linux - the best things in life are free On Jun 1, 2009, at 5:06 PM, Charbax wrote: Posted to http://olpc.tv Filming Pixel Qi and more in just a bit.. -- Charbax, Nicolas Charbonnier ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: [Server-devel] Server configuration
Hi Martin, I have never setup a static address before and therefore have never had this issue before. Below is the step-by-step configuration that I followed and I am having a problem with the DNS as the XO's do not connect to the Internet I downloaded the XS 0.5.2 image and followed the instructions http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XS_Installing_Software. 1.I initially ran the script /etc/sysconfig/olpc-scripts/domainconfig katane.org with katane.org being the hostname 2.I also changed the HOSTNAME=localhost.localdomain to HOSTNAME=schoolserver.katane.org Our internet has a static IP address therefore I copied /usr/share/doc/xs-config-*/ifcfg-eth0-local.example to /etc/sysconfig/olpc-scripts/ifcfg-eth0-local and edited the file with the following: IPADDR=10.50.211.15 IPV6ADDR=no NETMASK=255.255.255.0 NETWORK=10.50.211.0 BROADCAST=10.50.211.255 GATEWAY=10.50.211.5 I also edited the /etc/resolv.conf to resolve the DNS nameserver as follows: search katane.org nameservers 10.50.211.5 3. Restarted the machine 4. I then started the ejabberd service at runlevels 345 5. Restarted the machine shutdown -r now 6. After reboot I pinged www.google.com and I got reply packets which meant that I had connection to the internet 7. now the problem is that when I check the ejabberd status ejabberdctl status I get an error RPC failed on the node ejabb...@schoolserver: nodedown so I went back to my /etc/resolv.conf file and edited the nameserver back to 172.18.0.1 and restarted ejabberd and this executed with no errors. But now the server does not resolve the DNS addresses cause when I ping www.google.com I get the error unknown host www.google.com 8.Another thing is that the XO does not connect to the internet under all scenarios but it connects to the schoolserver as I get to the who are you? page Now what do I need to do to make this work as I am using Active Antenna to connect the XO's to the Server Regards Neo Masilo ___ Server-devel mailing list Server-devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel
Re: [Server-devel] Server configuration
Neo, Hi. I'm wondering why you need the Static IP. Does the XS have one or two network cards? Will the XS act as a gateway to the Internet? Thanks, Reuben Grape Projects IT wrote: Hi Martin, I have never setup a static address before and therefore have never had this issue before. Below is the step-by-step configuration that I followed and I am having a problem with the DNS as the XO's do not connect to the Internet I downloaded the XS 0.5.2 image and followed the instructions http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XS_Installing_Software. 1.I initially ran the script /etc/sysconfig/olpc-scripts/domainconfig katane.org with katane.org being the hostname 2.I also changed the HOSTNAME=localhost.localdomain to HOSTNAME=schoolserver.katane.org Our internet has a static IP address therefore I copied /usr/share/doc/xs-config-*/ifcfg-eth0-local.example to /etc/sysconfig/olpc-scripts/ifcfg-eth0-local and edited the file with the following: IPADDR=10.50.211.15 IPV6ADDR=no NETMASK=255.255.255.0 NETWORK=10.50.211.0 BROADCAST=10.50.211.255 GATEWAY=10.50.211.5 I also edited the /etc/resolv.conf to resolve the DNS nameserver as follows: search katane.org nameservers 10.50.211.5 3. Restarted the machine 4. I then started the ejabberd service at runlevels 345 5. Restarted the machine shutdown -r now 6. After reboot I pinged www.google.com and I got reply packets which meant that I had connection to the internet 7. now the problem is that when I check the ejabberd status ejabberdctl status I get an error RPC failed on the node ejabb...@schoolserver: nodedown so I went back to my /etc/resolv.conf file and edited the nameserver back to 172.18.0.1 and restarted ejabberd and this executed with no errors. But now the server does not resolve the DNS addresses cause when I ping www.google.com I get the error unknown host www.google.com 8.Another thing is that the XO does not connect to the internet under all scenarios but it connects to the schoolserver as I get to the who are you? page Now what do I need to do to make this work as I am using Active Antenna to connect the XO's to the Server Regards Neo Masilo ___ Server-devel mailing list Server-devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel -- Reuben K. Caron Country Support Engineer One Laptop per Child Mobile: +1-617-230-3893 reu...@laptop.org Deployments Support http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Deployments_Support ___ Server-devel mailing list Server-devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel
[Server-devel] What is the vision for software update?
Hi, We are working on making software update (both activities and underlying OS) work for Sugar on a Stick and we aren't that clear on what the vision, spec and state of code is for software update on the XO. Does it require Root to update the software? Do students do it themselves somehow? Do updates come from the school server or an OLPC server somewhere? Is the updating of activities vs sugar code vs fedora code integrate or separate? We are imagining that having the XS control all this is the optimal solution. Do other people see it the same way? Is this code written for the XS+XO or speced and not yet written or wished for but not yet speced? -- Caroline Meeks Solution Grove carol...@solutiongrove.com 617-500-3488 - Office 505-213-3268 - Fax ___ Server-devel mailing list Server-devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel
[Server-devel] Aliasing and backup
Ok, I am asked here after I read the XS Blueprint for account aliasing, I am not sure I am thinking about this the right way. I registered SoaS and generated a backup and its available from Moodle just fine. I later register another SoaS and go to the the old registration, click the alias tab, choose the new registration and click the Alias this account button. I login to the XS from the new registration and an logged in automatically. I go to my backup tab and it says this user has no backup data yet. As an experiment I also tried aliasing in the opposite direction, going to the new user, clicking that alias tab and choosing the old user to the same effect. Should the backups from the original account show up on the new aliased account? Thanks Dave -- Dave Bauer d...@solutiongrove.com http://www.solutiongrove.com ___ Server-devel mailing list Server-devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel
