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IIAB 6.2 Release Notes

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A Holt edited this page Sep 28, 2018 · 100 revisions

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IIAB/XSCE 6.2 is the April 19, 2017 release of Internet-in-a-Box which is used in schools/libraries/clinics worldwide — to bring Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap and the best open learning jewels to kids and all building community digital libraries that are often OFF.NETWORK. We've recently merged with One Laptop Per Child's School Server Community Edition (XSCE), so please check back soon when our new web site is launched, alongside our new community forums: http://IIAB.io

What's New?

Internet-in-a-Box 6.2 (IIAB/XSCE) now runs on the $35 Raspberry Pi computer's Raspbian OS, supported by the Raspberry Pi Foundation. Raspbian is built upon Debian GNU/Linux, the granddaddy of community Linux distros, often preferred in commercial hosting environments for its stability, with long-term support (LTS).

Preliminary/experimental support for Ubuntu Server 16.04.2 LTS has also been demonstrated. Please contact holt @ laptop.org if you'd like to assist.

This reorganization of the IIAB/XSCE codebase builds upon our legacy with Red Hat-supported CentOS (LTS), and ongoing support for OLPC's XO laptops (Fedora 18). Support will largely end for Fedora, other than on XO laptops, due to Fedora being end-of-lifed within a year typically, with corollary support headaches due to its 6-month release cycle and lack of LTS (Long-Term Support).

What's Upgraded?

  • Emphasizing our new name, as we transition from XSCE to IIAB (Internet-in-a-Box!)
  • Tested install images for different CPU's, OS's and languages (many including sample content) are accumulating on a clean download site: http://download.iiab.io
  • Many digital security updates. We recommend you use a very recent version of Raspbian or Debian as your underlying OS — or help us to better test on CentOS or Ubuntu Server, if you can!
  • WordPress 4.7.3 instead of 4.3.1 for modern blogging and community publishing.
  • Moodle 3.1.5 with LTS support (security fixes) offered by Moodle until 2019-5-13.
  • Calibre e-book library support across campus (WAN side of server) when enabled in local_vars.yml.
  • Sugarizer bumped from 0.7 to the dramatically improved 0.8, bringing One Laptop per Child's Sugar activities to laptops, tablets and smartphones. Kids can explore & build immediately after their Internet-in-a-Box is turned on, starting at http://box/sugarizer
  • KA Lite (LMS for Khan Academy videos & exercises) is upgraded to Version 0.17.0.
  • http://box works as a universal portal/menu to your Internet-in-a-Box digital library, for most every user and their personal devices. Consequently training is much simplified going forward, without the need for long-winded URLs like http://schoolserver.lan. Note however that http://box.lan or http://172.18.96.1 are sometimes still necessary when using older smartphones and browsers.
  • USB sticks/drives (thumb drives, or full USB-connected drives) permit teachers/librarians to instantly share lesson materials from their own USB sticks/drives. This ad hoc content is instantly available to all kids at http://box/usb as soon as the USB stick/drive is inserted into the server. Better yet, teachers can pull out their own USB sticks/drives whenever they need to run, without delay!
  • An hourly restart of kiwix-serve now eases teachers' burdens. Kiwix-serve was sometimes unreliable, preventing access to offline Wikipedia and educational videos. This is now far more reliable so teachers/librarians can keep focus on learning instead of IT headaches.
  • Many optimizations to Internet-in-a-Box's Admin Console http://box/admin now permit cleaner server installation and maintenance.
  • Sample Content Packs pre-loaded into more polished install images will be available later in April 2017, stepping stones to rapidly build your own community library.
  • Streamlined installation of OpenStreetMap and all content, thanks to iiab-factory toolkit/scripts.
  • Rapid customization of your server's home page layout (i.e. re-ordering of your Content Packs at http://box) thanks to improved Dynamic Menuing. No more HTML hand coding required.
  • Our FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) was overhauled from the ground up. Also dramatically improved documentation is now available to in-field (offline) operators/contributors, at http://box/info

Known Issues

  • Chrome 56+ (and Chromium 56+) failed to display certain ZIMs, due to strict JavaScript parsing of JQuery characters at the end of ZIM files. WORKAROUND: Use the Firefox browser instead, or revert to Chrome/Chromium 55 temporarily. PROGNOSIS: kiwix-serve improvements should solve this in 2017, thanks to a more recent version of JQuery (3.x instead of 1.x), still handling legacy ZIM files. June 2017 Update: IIAB 6.3 pre-releases fully fix this problem!
  • Powering off takes ~1.5 minutes since February 2017, displaying "Deconfiguring network interfaces" or "x2drfkill.slice" or "LSB" for ~80 sec typically on IIAB RPi 3's. A similar "LSB: Raise network interfaces" issue happens on boot, also for ~80 sec. These issues are likely solvable, as they generally did not happen in January 2017, on these very same systems (prior to git and apt-get updates). Work is ongoing in April 2017 towards resolving these delays. May 2017 Update: this was largely fixed on May 15th 2017 thanks to #913. The usual "cd /opt/schoolserver/xsce; git pull; ./runansible" is required to put this into effect.
  • The "POWER OFF Server" button within http://box/admin is visible but not clickable from an iPhone 5. It appears to work fine from most other iPhones.
  • MongoDB (underlying Sugarizer) regularly self-destructs on power failure or system freeze. Subsequent Ansible runs are blocked, until MongoDB's database is deleted.
  • On Raspberry Pi, when in "LAN Controller" mode (no internet connection), the Ethernet adapter does not pass data reliably (Wi-Fi however appears reliable).