Run the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) OS on Your Computer
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UPDATE: All download links have been updated.
Has the OLPC project and the “Sugar” OS piqued your interest with all the press coverage it has received? Thankfully since the whole project was created with an open source mission, users can easily download the OLPC OS (Which is a fork of Red Hat) and run on any hardware they see fit.
If you run VMWare (Player for PC or Fusion for Mac) we made it easy by making available a pre-configured VMWare image of the OLPC OS that is already customized (and has networking enabled) that you can download here. To use the VMWare image just open the configuration file in VMWare.
If you are a Parallels user you can also run the OLPC “Sugar” UI in but it will have significantly more steps, because there is no pre-configured image. You must download the OLPC OS from Red Hats servers (Which is available here) and configure it in Parallels.
In Parallels:
- File Menu, choose New
- Click Custom, then Next button
- OS Type: Linux, OS version: Other Linux, then next button
- Set ram to 512, Next Button
- Leave “Create a new hard disk image” selected, click Next button
- Specify 512 for hard disk image size, select “Plain” and then click Next button
- Leave Shared Networking checked and click Next button
- Name this VM “OLPC” and click Next button
- Click Finish
What will happen after you hit finish your OLPC VM will launch, but obviously fail to boot. Ignore that error and stop the VM environment and quit Parallels.
- Now extract the IMG file from the “olpc-redhat-stream-development-build-529-20070722_0329-devel_ext3.img.bz2″ that you downloaded earlier and copy that IMG to /Users/YOURUSERNAME/Documents/Parallels/OLPC/
- Delete otherlin.hdd in your Parallels folder, and rename the just copied IMG file (You know, the one with the really long name) to otherlin.hdd
- Launch Parallels. When OLPC opens, click the green Play button to launch OLPC
I’m getting prompted for a username and password when I boot in Parallels. Do you have any suggestions?
nevermind i figured it out.
I get this for the Parallels version:
Not Found
The requested URL /olpc/streams/development/LATEST/devel_ext3/olpc-redhat-stream-development-build-529-20070722_0329-devel_ext3.img.bz2 was not found on this server.
Apache/2.0.52 (Red Hat) Server at olpc.download.redhat.com Port 80
I get an error when I click on the download link:
No shared files/folders found.
Please email support@box.net for support
The VMWare image file is no longer available. I get a No shared files/folders found error from box.
I’ve updated the download links
Simply goto http://olpc.download.redhat.com/olpc/streams/development/LATEST/devel_ext3/
And grab the latest .img.gz file
I’ve grabbed it, but in Parallels the X session doesn’t seem to be able to start, the console goes all black but then returns to the login prompt.
I’m getting prompted for a username and password when I boot in Parallels. Do you have any suggestions?
i did’nt figured it out. What is the procedure?
Gilbert:
Login: “Root” and no password.
OLPC is trying to boot from , HDD, floppy, CD/DVD and failing. I am using Parallels… followed instructions to the T.
I’m getting same problem as Gilbert, boots but no windows, process respawning etc
be nice to get it fixed, any ideas anyone
I got it working now, but I can’t connect to the network (macbook pro). How do I do it?
Interestingly, Ubuntu has a place where I click to connect, Solaris has to run network.sh from vmtools, and I don’t have a clue about OLPC.
How do you get the sound working (macbook pro)?
Got this working in Parallels (Build 3214) and seems to work great.. except the system font is amazingly tiny. Not at all like the screenshots I’ve seen. Anyone encounter this or have a workaround? But regardless, thank you. I’ve been wanting to play around with this…
Hey!
You don’t know how thankful I am, I finally got this thing to work!, I’ve been trying to do it for 2 days, and it didn’t run at all until I got to use VMware
Is there a way to adjust the screen resolution in the Sugar UI to better display under Parallels?
Martin:
Did you manage to get the sound working on your macbook pro? If not, try this:
1. Bring up a console: press ctrl+alt+space+F1
2. login as “root” with no password, unless you changed it.
3. type “alsamixer” at the command prompt.
4. Increase “Master” to about 75% (or until you are well into the green bar zone) by pressing the up-arrow on your keyboard
5. Now press “m” to unmute the master output.
6. Press “esc” on your keyboard to exit and return to the console.
7. Return to the activities screen: press ctrl+alt+space+F3
8. Give it a try on one of the activities
Let me know if this does not work for you now.