This guide will guide you through the steps of installing Debian GNU/Linux “etch” on an OLPC XO-1, and get it online with functioning apt package system.

From there you can install a windowing system, or upgrade your edition of Debian.

There exists guides on the official OLPC website, but they are outdated and have broken links. This page aims to update the documentation from the official source, until the official document is updated. This page will link to local sources, so as long as this page is up, so are all the required resources for downloads etc.

This documentation assumes that you are running a clean install of OLPC XO-1 software, but should work on a system with at least 300 MB free space on the system disk. If you are having issues with any steps documented before booting into Debian, try reimaging the OLPC XO-1 software with version 8.2.0 (also known as build 767). Follow the instructions here under Offline upgrade to reinstall the operating system. All existing files on the OLPC will be erased!

Follow the steps outlined here: Installing Debian as an upgrade mirror of aforementioned document

In Step 1, if you do not have a pre-existing Debian system, you may want to download a prebuilt bootstrap package: xo-debian.tgz Right-click the link and shift-click “Save As” if the file doesn't download automatically.

In Step 2, the TAR command will probably not work as documented. Use the following command instead:

# tar xzf /media/*/xo-debian.tgz

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