[Application] RISC OS on the Pandora


The content of the RISC OS ADFS partition is the same for all images. Besides the "Grundimage". There is only the pure operating system from ROOL without Freeware etc.
The images for the right card and the stick are not with FAT partition. The boot files (boot.scr, cmos, riscos) shouldt placed in the root of the left card. Decisive is the cmos. Here RISC OS searches the place of the ADFS partition and run !Boot.  For myself I use left the Pandora card with the boot files and a complete ADFS formatted card in the right slot. It works best for me and it is the "stable" way.
 
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Good news everyone! RISC OS is going open source (Apache license).

Actually, that doesn't really affect us as the only things changing licensing were the things you could get under the old license anyway. It's only now able to be sold with devices as the default os, and that's probably not a great fit for the Pyra or Pandora because it still doesn't support their networking peripherals and other bits and pieces yet probably.
 
Hi all :)

@levi: I have started to edit the wiki page (IP owner is now ROD, license is Apache 2.0, updated some links from gp32x.com to pyra-handheld.com and new link to beagleboard images).

Do you know whether RISC OS 5.24 runs correctly on the Pandora ? Are USB hub, mouse, keyboard and storage device still necessary ?

Cheers, Magic Sam
 
I've never actually got round to booting it on my Pandora I'm afraid. Looking at the risc os wiki and forums, I can't find anyone actually trying to boot it from on board flash on any devices, and I don't know how well it'll talk to the Pandora's SD slots off the top of my head. As for keyboard and mouse, I've not heard of anyone adapting it for the Pandora's keyboard and nubs, and if anyone had I'd expect to have heard about it in this very thread.
 
Hi all :)

@levi: what about this thread ? Could it come in handy ?

https://www.pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/risc-os-keypad-driver-pndkbd.66155/

Cheers, Magic Sam
[doublepost=1540745156,1540742326][/doublepost]Hi again,

RISC OS 5.26 is out (under the Apache 2.0 license):

https://www.riscosopen.org/news/articles/2018/10/26/risc-os-5-26-is-alive

Cheers, Magic Sam
[doublepost=1540749040][/doublepost]Hi again,

If RISC OS proves too difficult to run natively on the Pandora, maybe we could use one of those emulators:

http://arcem.sourceforge.net/
http://www.marutan.net/rpcemu/index.php

Both emulators have already been ported to the Pandora:

http://repo.openpandora.org/?page=detail&app=arcem-19584
http://repo.openpandora.org/?page=detail&app=pandrpcemu

I also found this in one of the above links:

https://riscos.openpandora.org/

Looks like people really tried hard to make RISC OS run on the Pandora some years ago...

Too bad I didn't pay much attention back then, I regret it now...:(

Cheers, Magic Sam
[doublepost=1540749463][/doublepost]Hi again,

@Raik, @sswam and @hideki: are you still part of this community ?

Cheers, Magic Sam
 
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Has arrived ;)

Sorry, I'm a bit busy with non RISC OS (Computer) things.

The Pandora RISC OS Distro is alive (on my Pandoras ;) ). I use 5.25 and since any days 5.27.

The latest Distro I made was based o the RPi RC15 with RISC OS 5.25 and any Pandora additionals. You find *here* .

Is "all in one" 4GB. Take it to the left slot and it will boot. Is for "play around"

I use a other configuraton wirh a 64GB card, a bootmenu entry and so on. WiFi is not working. I use a UMTS Sufstick "on the road".

Looks like 5.26 is not for download yet.

If anyone has an interest, I can made a new (bigger) card with a lot of more additionals.
[doublepost=1541429258,1541423177][/doublepost]
Looks like people really tried hard to make RISC OS run on the Pandora some years ago...
Click to expand...

If you read page one of this... the entry was for the Dragonbox Coding Competition 2013... RISC OS is working since.
But it looks like there is no really interest. So I work on this port only for me ;-)
 
@Raik: thank you very much for your quick reply, that's really appreciated :) I'll give your 4GB distribution a go ASAP, and I'm available to test any updated version :) What I'd really like (if time allows of course) is a description of all the different steps you took in order to build the Pandora distribution: choice of the basic image, hardware support, new applications, etc..

Silly question (I'm completely new to RISC OS), when you say it's based on RPi RC15, do you mean you used the RPi image ?

https://www.riscosopen.org/content/downloads/raspberry-pi

I thought the BeagleBoard would be more appropriate:

https://www.riscosopen.org/content/downloads/beagleboard

Regarding the not working WiFi, there are two opened bounties at ROOL for that purpose:

https://www.riscosopen.org/bounty/polls/26
https://www.riscosopen.org/bounty/polls/29

I suggest we all contribute some £££ to this great cause :)

As you can see on my profile, I've been around for a while now, and I do obviously remember the Dragonbox Coding Competition of 2013 :) As said before, I'm really sorry I didn't pay much attention to your RISC OS port back then, I'm sure it's worth it !

Cheers, Magic Sam
[doublepost=1541439350,1541434131][/doublepost]Hi again,

@Raik: it doesn't work on my end :(
dd if=/path/to/Pandora_RC15.img of=/dev/mmcblk1p1
Click to expand...

The Pandora refuses to boot off that SD-card (inserted in the left slot, while pressing the right trigger at boot time).

What am I doing wrong ?

EDIT: @Raik : nevermind, my SD-card adapter appears to be faulty... I'll try again later with a new one.

Cheers, Magic Sam
 
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I'm interested, I hope it will run on the Pyra too!
Click to expand...

We have contact to the Pyra-development-team. We (Willi) use the same Board for the OMAP5 RISC OS port like the Pyra-Team for the first development. So we hope it will be possible.
The OMAP5 port is working fine on various boads.

In Linux I use something like
sudo gunzip-c /media/disk/path/Image_name.img.gz | sudo dd of = /dev/mmcblk1 (for the card in the right slot) to write the comressed image.

In WIN I use https://www.alexpage.de/usb-image-tool/ to write the compress image direct to the card.

The RPi distro is the only complete for the supported boards and a good collection of freeware und documentation. So I use also this collection and add any Pandora useful stuff.
The bootpartition must be change and the Pandora specific stuff insert... I made my own ROMs from CVS with any small changes for the Pandora.
My Pandora Distro is also working on the normal Beagleboard. For the BeaglexM the bootfiles must be change. Also no problem. RISC OS is not working on the BeagleBone and newer.

As I wrote, I'm a bit busy. If I find the time I work on my ffmpeg-based movie stuff for RISC OS. Is also working on my Pandora.

Mittendrin.jpg


Streaming and recording is working. Cutting also. But is a long way ;)
 
@Raik : I just tried a similar approach on the Pandora:
sudo unzip -p /path/to/Pandora_RC15.zip | dd of=/dev/mmcblk1
Click to expand...

/dev/mmcblk1p1 in my previous post was obviously a mistake, as I needed to target the device, not the partition... Sometimes I'd kick myself in the head if I could :D

Now the Pandora agrees to boot from that SD card, but eventually it will stop booting up with the following "Message from Desktop":
Machine startup has not completed successfully: "the disc drive is empty"
Click to expand...

Any idea what I could be doing wrong ?

Cheers, Magic Sam
 
Any idea what I could be doing wrong ?
Click to expand...

Not really. Have download my image and made a card this morning. Is working fine on my Classic.My GHz is "out of order". Find not the time to repair.

Witch Pandora do you use?

Can you try to boot via bootmenu?
 
@Raik : I'm using a Rebirth Pandora. RISC OS stops booting no matter which boot method I try (normal boot with the SD card in the left slot or via the boot menu (right trigger)).

I'll try again later with a new adapter and a new SD card. My Pandora does corrupt data sometimes, and the SD card I used is really old.

@Silent-Hunter and @levi : any better luck on your end ?

Cheers, Magic Sam
 
In my experience, the results with older cards are better, if you write zeros with DD before you write the image. Not sure why.

I mean the Rebirth and the GHz boots a bit different than the Classic but it should work. Looks like there is the reason to repair my GHz ;)

RC 14 based was created on my GHz. As I remember, the freeware version of Starfighter 3000 was inside.
 
It should be relatively easy to tell the difference between a RISC OS and a uboot error; since your error is talking about the desktop I assume it's a RISC OS error, but to be sure the RISC OS system font is derived from the old bitmap mode font of the BBC micro. One obvious thing I could suggest to check is that on my linux screen terminals, capital D has rearwards serifs on top and bottom while the D of Desktop if printed on RISC OS should not at least if this is reliable.

If it's coming from the RISC OS side, I don't recognise it as a system error. It perhaps comes from the !Boot application. There are various keys you can hold down as a RISC OS system is booting which might help in diagnosing this problem, but I'm currently having trouble finding a reference for the keys. From memory, holding down delete or R clear different parts of the CMOS and the real time clock, and I've honestly no idea what that would do on a Pandora. Holding down shift while booting should be safe and stop !Boot from running and dump you into a slightly unconfigured desktop. There's also a way to stop the desktop loading at all and stop at a * (command line) prompt, but I can't remember what that is.

Yes, I've just hooked up my old RISC PC and tried booting it up. Shift booting seems to stop !Boot loading and dumps me straight into the desktop, which then warns me when I open up the hard disc that !Boot has not been run. I couldn't find the key to go into the * command cli.
 
Magic Sam said:
@Raik : I'm using a Rebirth Pandora. RISC OS stops booting no matter which boot method I try (normal boot with the SD card in the left slot or via the boot menu (right trigger)).

I'll try again later with a new adapter and a new SD card. My Pandora does corrupt data sometimes, and the SD card I used is really old.

@Silent-Hunter and @levi : any better luck on your end ?

Cheers, Magic Sam
Click to expand...
I haven't tried to run it, I'll have to get a new SD card,
 
It looks like the Filecore patition is corrupt.
Try to use [ESC] and if you see the * type desktop. This will open the Desktop from ROM without configure. If the screen is "to big" try to press [F12] and type

Wimpmode 28 [Return/Enter]
[Return/Enter] should return to the Desktop in VGA.
Now you can try to open the card.
Device 0: is the left card!

Anytimes it is better to unzip the image first and write the card after.
[doublepost=1541523253,1541522970][/doublepost]
I couldn't find the key to go into the * command cli.
Click to expand...

I mean it was [del]. I can look at if I back at home.
[doublepost=1541531146][/doublepost]Sorry, [Del] reset the cmos.
The reset types you find here http://www.riscos.com/support/developers/riscos6/startup/resettypes.html
Problem: The keyboard driver are one of the latest modules that loads on the newer machines.

Have try any minutes before. My GHz Pandora boot without problems with the new card but I can not really use it because one of the nubs is def. Have replacements but...
 
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Oh, right, it was keypad *. I'm currently using a compact tenkeyless keyboard on my RiscPC and similarly I wouldn't know where to find keypad * on a Pandora. But yeah, shift prevented my boot from loading before it sent me to the desktop.

Does RISC OS not drop to a * prompt or something if it really can't get to the desktop?

Edit: It reads to me like shift should now drop you into a boot menu on newer versions of the OS. My RISC PC is still rocking RISC OS 4.02 chips as I recall. But delete and keypad * should still do the same as they used to, if that's what you really want (which I don't think we do, but never mind).
 
Hi all :)

@Raik : I tried again from the Pandora, after zeroing the SD card completely, but still no luck... Pressing "ESC" does get me to a 640x480 desktop though. I pressed F12 and entered Wimpmode 28, but that didn't change the resolution. The device 0: also appears to be empty...

Well, can't wait to get my hands on a new USB SD card adapter :D

Cheers, Magic Sam

P.S: the touchscreen doesn't work. Is it to be expected ?
 
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