Science On a Sphere 6.0 Release Notes

This document summarizes the changes and additions to the Science On a Sphere® (SOS) main software in the version 6.0.x releases.

For detailed information on SOS display features, please refer to the SOS Display Software Manual.

Version 6.0.3

November 16, 2023

Version 6.0.2

October 19, 2023

Version 6.0.1

September 12, 2023

Version 6.0.0

May 31, 2023

• Wibu CodeMeter security USB dongle: Starting with SOS version 5.3, we increased our software security measures by requiring each site to have a licensed Wibu CodeMeter security USB dongle before you can do a software upgrade. If your site is running SOS version 5.2.x or below, you will need to request a WiBu dongle using the online SOS Version 5.3.0+ Upgrade Request form. Once SOS Support has received your request, a dongle will be mailed to your site. If you run into any problems using the request form, you can email sos.support@noaa.gov. Follow the version instructions to check your SOS version.

Upgraded the SOS software to work on the latest long-term supported (LTS) version of the Ubuntu operating system, version 22.04. This includes the main SOS software, the Visual Playlist Editor (see release notes), and a few other supporting applications that reside on the SOS computer.

Each SOS site has two computers (a primary and a backup) that run the main SOS application and other supporting applications. Each of these computers are installed with the Ubuntu operating system. Most SOS sites are on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, and a few sites are on even earlier versions. In this release, we have updated the SOS software to run on the Ubuntu 22.04 LTS operating system.

While we haven’t implemented any new features to the SOS software for this release, advantages to upgrading to the latest LTS version of Ubuntu include:

• 4 years worth of Ubuntu feature additions and bug fixes since version 18.04
• Receiving security patches and application updates from Ubuntu through April 2027
• Getting new SOS software updates going forward

Because this SOS release includes not only an update of the SOS software but also an upgrade of the Ubuntu operating system, it is a lengthier process that will require sites to do some pre-update tasks as well set up a time slot with the SOS Tech Support team to perform the rest of the update.

Assuming you have completed the pre-update tasks outlined below in steps #1 through #3, the estimated time to set aside with SOS Tech Support for one computer update is two hours. During this time, if you are not comfortable with navigating the SOS system hardware and the Linux operating system, please make sure you have an IT support technician available during your time slot who can assist.

Please follow the steps below to start the update process. If your site has two SOS computers, start with your backup SOS computer first and only once that is completed and working, you can start the update on the primary SOS computer:

1. Write down the current version of SOS that you are running. Follow the version instructions to check your SOS version.
2. IMPORTANT: Follow the SOS Backups Guide to backup all SOS data that is specific to your site. Because the update involves doing a fresh install of the operating system, if you do not make a backup of this data, you will lose all of your custom SOS site measurements, alignment files, custom content, etc.
3. Create a USB stick with Ubuntu 22.04 on it and install the Ubuntu 22.04 on your SOS computer. Follow the SOS Ubuntu Installation Guide to do this step. If you run into any issues after trying this, please just proceed to Step 4.
4. Email sos.support@noaa.gov to set up an update time slot.
   • In the email subject line, please write “SOS Ubuntu 22.04 Upgrade Request”.
   • In the email body, include the version of SOS that you wrote down in Step 1.
5. Go to the TeamViewer website and download TeamViewer. This application allows us to remotely log in to your SOS computer.
6. On the day of your time slot, start up TeamViewer and write down the ID and Password shown on the interface, and email the ID and Password to sos.support@noaa.gov.
7. We will then install the SOS software, copy over your backup data and make sure SOS is in working order.

• Added a “Check for SOS Update” button to the SOS Utilities application that resides on the SOS Desktop. This is a quick way to check if there are any updates available to Ubuntu software as well as your SOS software and if so, install them.

• General fixes related to application runtime and security.

• Resolved issue where user sosdemo did not have permissions to access the default startup presentation playlist normal-demo.sos when starting the SOS application.

• The iPad SOS Remote App (version 5.7.x) and the SOS Kiosk (version 5.5.0) do not need to be updated.
• Some SOS sites running SOS off of significantly old hardware or graphics cards might not be able to update to Ubuntu 22.04 due to graphics drivers issues. If this is the case, we do have SOS running on Ubuntu 20.04 and we can upgrade your computer to Ubuntu 20.04 and SOS 5.6. Ubuntu 20.04 LTS is officially supported by Ubuntu until April 2025. Alternatively, the site may elect to buy new hardware at this point and we can provide recommendations.