Upgrading to 653

[BradandRhonda]

Tried the Activated Upgrade procedure http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Activated_Upgrade and I get the following

Trying nand:\boot-alt\bootfw.zip
Trying nand:\boot-alt\runos.zip
Boot failed [in red]
Use power button to power off

There is a frowny face aboce the XO logo and 3 icons below a red USB, orange SD and green laptop.

Anybody know why?

I would try the other USB drive process but I couln't find a file with a USB extension from http://download.laptop.org/xo-1/os/official/653/jffs2/

Am I suppose to rename something?

I haven't been succesful in getting the XO on a home network with 128 bit WEP so I'm trying the upgrade. I was able to get Internet access by temporarily disabling any security on the router but would prefer not to upgrade this way.

[Ben James Ben]

It sounds as if the XO might not like your USB key drive. What brand is it, and is it formatted in FAT32? It needs to FAT32, apparently. Also, anecdotally there seem to be problems with Kingston USB drives.

[BradandRhonda]

That's funny because I bought a Kingston drive that was more expensive because I figured they were the largest manufacturer of USB thumb drives. When the 2 GB drive was the XO colour scheme (green and white) I figured it was meant to be.

Forced the format to FAT 32 and same problem.

There are also some file not found on the first screen after release the 4 game buttons. The XO sees the files on the USB drive, then cannot find some files (OLPCFPW) and some mesh files. Then you get the screen I displayed above.

[Lace]

I ran into the same problem with the frowny face when I first tried going to 653. At that time I was using a USB stick with a ton of files on it. I then moved all those files off the stick to a holding folder on my desktop, leaving the stick empty. Then I put the two update files mentioned in the activated update instructions on the stick:

http://download.laptop.org/xo-1/os/offi ... fs2/fs.zip
http://download.laptop.org/xo-1/os/offi ... /os653.img

After putting the stick into the XO I continued to follow the activated update instructions again. Things worked as described.

After the update I got rid of the two files and moved the original content back to the stick.

At least with 650 my XO always had problems reading a stick that had hundreds of files on it, many of them quite large. Now I use a cheapy stick (old 256MB one) for just files that I use with my XO. I think the problem was that the XO took a long time to index files into the Journal from a USB stick. I haven't fiddled with testing that hypothesis on 653.

[jheiman]

I also had a problem with a failed upgrade. And I too, had bought the Kensington 2GB USB that is color matched to the XO. I did reformat it (came formatted as FAT) to FAT32 and only included the two needed files on it and it refused to work. I then transferred those 2 needed files to my SD card which also has lots of other files on it and tried again to do the upgrade and it worked right away.

The only thing I can think of that might be a problem with the Kensington USB is that comes labelled with the name KENSINGTON as the drive volume. I wonder if I tried to delete the volume name if the USB drive might work.

[franco]

The only thing I can think of that might be a problem with the Kensington USB is that comes labelled with the name KENSINGTON as the drive volume. I wonder if I tried to delete the volume name if the USB drive might work.

Worth a try, no?

I updated using a USB drive. I also bought three Kensington 1Gb Sd cards and only one would load with the XO, though all three worked just fine on my PC.

[LarryGB]

Kingston or Kensington?

[jheiman]

Sorry, that should read Kingston.

[franco]

My post should be Kingston too.

[ektoric]

FYI, this might be related to OLPC Trac 5717 and 5354, which didn't give SD cards and USB drives enough time to power up and become ready.

This was fixed in firmware Q2D08. (Most shipping XOs came with Q2D03.) Latest as of writing is Q2D11.

Edit: Note that this is refering to the firmware, not the OS image level. 650/653/joyride is refering to the OS level. Activated Upgrade updates the OS, but not the firmware.

[twt]

Received my XO yesterday (huge delay in my G1G1 order!) and since my wireless network uses WPA security, after making sure the laptop powered up, the first thing I did was update the software to the latest stable.

I started by downloading the file with the .usb extension but then noticed the "wipe everything" directions said to put only the .zip and .img files on the drive. i'm using a cheapo generic "Super Talent" brand 1gig USB stick, and the erase/install apparently went OK BUT it took a couple of restarts before it successfully loaded the new firmware.

I'm writing this on the XO now!

I have found a few rough spots, and I was having some apparent memory errors on boot (screen went black though sugar eventually came up), but I reinstalled again today and it's better. so my recommendation might be to try reinstalling the image again after the firmware updates.

one concern -- when the system is being installed from USB, a grid appears, a message about erasing, and then green squares start filling the grid. On my system one of the black squares about 2/3 down appears red. Is this a bad spot in RAM or a reserved memory location?

another concern -- I'm getting "invalid filter" messages filling the console. Haven't explored that yet, but no ill effects noted so far.

Still exploring... but I agree that someone needs to check the update procedures on the wiki to delete outdated info about installing the current stable build (AND update the pages that say WPA "soon" because with this build it works perfectly with no workarounds, though YMMV).

[Ben James Ben]

when the system is being installed from USB, a grid appears, a message about erasing, and then green squares start filling the grid. On my system one of the black squares about 2/3 down appears red. Is this a bad spot in RAM or a reserved memory location?

It's a bad block on the flash drive. There's been some discussion of the issue in the olpcnews.com forum.

I'm getting "invalid filter" messages filling the console. Haven't explored that yet, but no ill effects noted so far.

I don't know what the message means, but for what it's worth, I get them, too. No adverse effects seen.

[twt]

I'm getting "invalid filter" messages filling the console. Haven't explored that yet, but no ill effects noted so far.

I don't know what the message means, but for what it's worth, I get them, too. No adverse effects seen.

the few hits I found via Google described an Xwindows trackpad issue. I see X errors about the trackpad as described in that message, but have found no other comments describing a better config. (Also this is my first Red Hat system in years, and I am still learning its quirks compared to the Debian & Ubuntu systems I've used more recently.)

thanks for the response... [and if I'm gonna type much on this thing I'm buying an "adult" keyboard for it! ]

[_tone]

when i tried following the instructions linked above i ended up with build 656. it went just as described, quite a simple process, and i've got a build with a bigger number. this seems like a good thing to me, but what do i know i'm a neoluddite. any insights into how this miracle may have occurred?

[twt]

when i tried following the instructions linked above i ended up with build 656. it went just as described, quite a simple process, and i've got a build with a bigger number. this seems like a good thing to me, but what do i know i'm a neoluddite. any insights into how this miracle may have occurred?

You are correct -- 656 is the number of the latest stable build, and the upgrade links above (and the ones linked from the main page of the wiki) point to 656.

Since I just got my XO a couple of days ago I cannot say whether 653 was a short-lived stable release or the original poster got the number wrong, HOWEVER the current stable is 656.