Installing the OLPC School Server

To install the OLPC School Server you'll first need the latest ISO from the OLPC site. As of this writing version 1.7 is the latest. Once you have the ISO you need to be sure to burn the ISO to the disk using a tool that is able to correctly write the ISO. If you don't use special tools you'll end with a CD holding the ISO file, which won't do you much good. Ubuntu has a pretty good walk through on how to burn an ISO on Windows, Mac OS X and Ubuntu. Just replace their Ubuntu ISO with the OLPC School Server ISO.

Once you've got the CD ready to go, you'll need a computer. I'll refer you to the XO Recommend Hardware page to help with computer selection since I suspect these are likely to change frequently. I'm using a Dell Latitude D610.

Once you have a computer you may need to set the CD-ROM drive as the boot primary boot device. This is a process that can vary wildly based on your computer's make, model and age. It may very well be that your computer is set to boot from CD-ROM first by default. To save some head-aches just put the CD in the drive and restart your computer. If it worked the your monitor will eventually come to rest on the OLPC Server boot screen.

OLPC School Server boot screen

If it didn't work you'll end up loading the usual operating system. This will most likely be the case. In this situation you can either try to search for your model of computer on google and see if other people have figured out the right key to push to get into the boot menu, see if you can catch which button it says to press to enter the settings menu or try alternating between F2, Delete and F12 as the computer starts up. If one of these works you'll find yourself in the BIOS.

At which point things get ever more specific to the machine you're on. First, thing to try is to find something that may be the name and version of the BIOS then google for "changing the boot sequence". If that fails read the on-screen instructions for how to navigate the BIOS. Then look for a menu called "boot sequence", "boot order" or anything involving the word "boot". Once you find the menu review the instructions on the screen for how to change the boot order and set the CD-ROM to be the first device to boot. Finally, exit the BIOS settings screen, being sure to save changes when you leave. If you're concerned you may have mistakenly changed something vital to the system exit without saving and repeat the steps to enter the BIOS and set the CD-ROM as the first boot-able device.

At this point, if everything worked as hoped you should be able to put the OLPC School Server CD in the drive and have it boot to the OLPC School server boot screen pictured above. Once at this screen choose "Install a new system from kickstart". Some cryptic text will appear while the installer loads. While installing I found it sat on a blank blue screen for some time(minutes) before going to graphical installer. At which point the graphical installer should be able to guide you through the rest of the installation.

Unless, like me, it keeps telling you there isn't enough space on the hard drive. I believe I found a solution by deleting all of the current partitions on the drive then telling it to install use all of the space on the disk. I will post a more detail explanation once I'm confident this did the trick.