Re: [RFC] obtaining and using field samples of XO system images
On Fri, Sep 05, 2008 at 03:00:35PM -0300, Erik Garrison wrote: -= Question =- How are we planning on obtaining simple information such as [1] which activities are most used/downloaded, [2] which ones generate the most data, [3] common software failures, [4] bug manifestation rate etc.? -= Proposal =- The diagnostic process could be as simple from the country's perspective as: 1) dropping a USB key containing the system-copier script into the machine in question booting, and waiting for shutdown, 2) then inserting the system-copier key (now containing an image of the target system) into an XO running an XS build with a diagnostic script attached, 3) which produces a report and automatically sends it to a server on our end for further analysis. [...] Thoughts? How about: 1) Teaching the Sugar Control Panel System updater how to patch Sugar (Glucose) 2) Patching Sugar (Glucose) to collect/maintain [1] and [2] - this feels like a very minor amount of data that are very useful 3) Developing any number of ways to get those data home to 1cc (new XO activity, XS script, USB stick with a collector script that copied the collected data to itself and then was used as in your step #2). I seem to remember a discussion about automatically sending somethign back to 1cc, but I think it was just before my time. Any pointers to that discussion welcome (so as not to needlessly repeat it...). Best, Erik Martin pgpHCiObHx16l.pgp Description: PGP signature ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
[RFC] obtaining and using field samples of XO system images
Devel, -= Some background =- Today on [EMAIL PROTECTED] and [EMAIL PROTECTED] There has been a discussion of the security rammifications of an automatic save-nand usb key script: http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/security/2008-September/000488.html The immediate use for this script was acquiring system images from the repair center here at LATU in Montevideo for use in tests of upgrade procedures. We need to know if certain failure modes arise commonly on the deployed systems, but presently there are no field samples to test. Because there was not immediate support for signing the script I am using the developer-key approach to copy the images. In the process of this discussion I suggested that a system-copier USB script would be a valuable point-of-entry tool for data analysis of our deployed systems. Currently such a system does not exist, and we consequently lack valuable information about the usage of our systems (XO and Sugar). -= Question =- How are we planning on obtaining simple information such as which activities are most used/downloaded, which ones generate the most data, common software failures, bug manifestation rate etc.? -= Proposal =- The diagnostic process could be as simple from the country's perspective as: 1) dropping a USB key containing the system-copier script into the machine in question booting, and waiting for shutdown, 2) then inserting the system-copier key (now containing an image of the target system) into an XO running an XS build with a diagnostic script attached, 3) which produces a report and automatically sends it to a server on our end for further analysis. Alternatively a future firmware could provide a menu to all users which included a nand-save script, but this would not be useful until deployed systems were upgraded to run it. We could request that, in order to better our software development efforts, that a repair center executes this diagnostic process randomly on machines which come in from the field with problems that are most-likely hardware-related. -= Comments =- Such a system would have been extremely useful during the recent NAND Full crisis. During this event hundreds of laptops had to be sent back to the Uruguay's repair center because their NAND Flash filled with junk data created by http://dev.laptop.org/ticket/5637. Obtaining information about the problem an the state of the machines proved to be a bottleneck in the resolution process. Thoughts? Best, Erik ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
