[Application] RISC OS on the Pandora


The Problem for the most old Software is the 5.xx ROM inside the PandRPCEmu. With a older system the most old games are working.

In the next few days I will upload a "downgrade" and additionals for ArcEm.

Look at this ;-)



cMan.png
 
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That's good to know. I've an old 3.6 ROM hanging about somewhere, and I'll have to see about imaging it.


Still, with regards to Zarch which technically predates RISC OS (it came out with the Acorn Archimedes, when the OS was called Arthur, though that's effectively RISC OS v1.0). Given it was coded before the OS was finished, it used very few OS functions and was tied pretty closely to the metal. I forget what hardware change broke it - the original version worked on RISC OS 2 on an Archimedes, I think, but either the changes in the A5000 or the Risc PC would have broken it, and I forget if it was ever updated to support these newer systems.


Your links above don't work for me, by the way.
 
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If anybody have the "writeprotect" problem with liveimage, there is a fix in the actually ROM. The write protect detection is disabled. Copy riscos to the FAT Partition.
 
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I have now tried this, and it is amazing! Not in the sense of being, uh, "The computer environment I always wanted" (I haven't tried it long enough to have an opinion), but in the sense that it is a completely new computer, again. To me, who has never heard about RiscOS before, this is a complete new environment - And it is running native on my pandora!

This really is an embarassment of riches. Just by changing the left card, I can make my little computer run Ångström, Slackware, Android or RiscOS. All of these have different software ecologies and different environments, so that in a quite real sense, they make my pandora into 4 different computers (ok , 3½, given that Slack is also a linux). And that is before we've considered emulation at all.

To a retro-quirky enthusiast as myself, this is pure bliss. Thank you Raik, as well ass all the other developers who transform my pandora to new wondrous things.
 
Ok, I have now burned two 2GB and one 4GB SD cards with the images for the right side card and get "Disc not Understood - Has it been formatted?" after formatting through Pandora as mass storage and through a card reader (FAT and FAT32)  I've read this thread from start to finish, I must be missing something.  Oh, using USbits on windows 7.  

Any suggestions?
 
Hi

May be asking a silly question here but... anyone know how to bring up the 'tweaks' menu when running Arcem from Risc OS?

The readme suggests pressing both Windows keys together but obviously they aren't present on the Pandora!

Apologies if I'm missing something obvious!

Thanks
 
algro said:
anyone know how to bring up the 'tweaks' menu when running Arcem from Risc OS?

The readme suggests pressing both Windows keys together but obviously they aren't present on the Pandora!
Click to expand...
I don't know, buy FYI IIRC the "pandora" button is a "windows key".

We only have one of them, and it's used as a "kill button" under mini-menu, so that might not help very much.
 
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@liveunderwater

The RISC OS card for the right slot is only readable with RISC OS. It is ADFS formatted.

You need the bootfiles (boot.scr, cmos and riscos) in the root of the left card and boot via right shoulder button or use the live card at first for the left slot (the same files inside). This take a autostart. After this you can build your own system, if you want.

@algro

The 'tweaks' menu not work with this version on the Pandora. It works only in a singletask mode(?). Try a external keyboard, maybe it works.

I have a slower arcem that works in multitasking and the menu is present.

I use aemulor but it works only on a 1GHz Pandora.
 
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I think I have incompatible sd cards.  I'm getting the error message from RISC OS from properly burned (no errors) images to SD cards, boot left and large image right.  I'm ordering some new SD cards now with my Amazon cat food order...  I'll see if I can work this out.  I get it running but without the bell's and whistles or storage space.  I am really excited to have this as an alternative OS.  Thanks for your diligent work RAIK.
 
@ liveunderwater

Thank you for your efforts in testing. Unfortunately I have some problems with my internet provider. Uploading an image takes about 16 hours. But it should go 20x faster. Work is in progress. Therefore, first there is not a new image.
It might help to use a new ROM. There are some bugfixes inside e.g. the write protection relating. Here https://www.riscosopen.org/content/downloads/other-zipfiles download the newest 5.19 Beagle ROM (!!!The 5.18 stable not work!!!) and unzip the riscos file and replace it on your left card.
 
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I've got some new supposedly compatible sd cards in now. What is the best method to prepare my cards for the first time? 
 
With new cards you shouldt have no problems. "Burn" the Liveimage and try it in the left slot.

A format tool you find in /Utilitys/Caution. Format the right card and create your own ...

Or use the Image for the right card and copy the bootfiles to the left one.

If you use a old card it is better you reformat and overwrite it with sdformatter before you "burn" the image.

Use a new ROM if you have "write protect" problems.
 
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Well, the live image burned successfully with USBit.  I safely ejected the card and quit SD Mass Storage (using the Pandora as card reader). SD storage however did not show a device when I returned 'ok.'   I thought maybe it was the image having a different filesystem and rebooted.  Angstrom.  Then rebooted with right shoulder and no boot SD1 option.  Desktop in Angstrom has no SD icon and media directory has nothing.  Switched the card to my other Pandora... oh come on, nothing!  Brand new 16gb SanDisk Ultra gone 2 minutes out of the package.  The epitome of "Use at your own risc."  

It's time to go to the arcade for some hands on Robotron.  Maybe I can get my hands on another sdhc reader afterwards. Pandoras and my Nikon D7000 is all I've got, doubt the D7000 will be much help.  I'd still like to play with Risc OS.
 
At first there is one problem if you use USBit. The progress bar is greyed out but USBit is not ready. Click to the device icon and the progress bar ist back.

You can use the Pandora as a cardreader. You need not a other one.

If all things ok and the card ist mounted in Linux you will see a fat-partition with the bootfiles. The RISC OS adfs-partition is not visible and usable under Linux and WIN.

At second, if you use the Liveimage you must take the card to the left slot. Power on the Pandora and do nothing. It will take a autostart.
 
Tried all day to write images to what has turned into stacks of my SD cards and with no success.  When I use my pc with USbit with any img,imz,img.gz type file to write to a card in the pandora through SD Mass Storage the master blocks get wacked and I have to format the card in my camera to get it to show up again on anything (Asus Transfromer too.. forgot about that thing for a bit)  Seeing a lot of Bogus sector size errors.  SDFormatter only gives device not compatible status no matter what card I have in the pandora through SD Mass storage.  

I gave up on USbit for now and decided to try burning with dd on the pandora from slot to slot.

I did:

dd if=/media/SDCARD/Pandora_D001.imz of=/dev/mmcblk1

and got what looked like successful results.  The SD card still had it's master blocks intact enough for me to still see the filesystem but the filenames were all garbage symbols and of course no boot files.

At least I'm out of the SD reformatting loop.  I'll have to put together some more information here about what I am seeing as errors when they fly by right now.  I haven't redirected stdin/stdout/stderr kinda thing in many years.

Any ideas why Windows 7 64bit USbit would fail to keep the master tables on the cards readable?  And apparently only for me?

Just rebooted the pandora and the card doesn't show up anymore...  Guess I'm not out of the reformatting loop... sheez.

Raik, thanks again for all of the help that you have already delivered here and thank you for anything you can say that would help me experience Risc Os on my Pandora.
 
notaz said:
Neelix said:
That's easy enough to fix if you want to.


You would need to edit /usr/pandora/scripts/op_storage.sh


Look for this line:


modprobe g_file_storage file=$device stall=0


and change it to:


modprobe g_file_storage file=$device stall=0 removable=1
Click to expand...
Hmm maybe we should have it set by default, are you aware of any downsides of doing it like this?
Click to expand...
I update pretty regularly and I checked anyhow, this change is in my op_storage.sh already.  I'm booting from the left card again now with the new beagleboard rom.  Back to SDFS::1.$  Disc not understood - has it been formatted?  

I put the !SDCreate tools on the left card but I don't know how to use them.  No program found to run them and I don't which or how to find said program.  At least I'm looking at RISC OS now.  If only I could get your imz to work on the right card.

SDFS.Messages  is like this

Card:Card

ExcEscape:Escape

BadDrive:Disc drive is empty

BadFileCore:SDFS requires Filecore 3.31 or later

NotMem: Not a memory card

CardLocked: Card is locked

#{Token0=SDFS}

HSDFSDF: *SDFS selects

Couple more token entries that I dont think are relevant.
 
Last hour I do the following... only with my Pandora!

(I've always wanted to do and provide a guide on my website.)

1. download http://riscos.openpandora.org/Pandora_D001.img.gz

2. unzip Pandora_D001.img with squeeze (takes a little) and move it to the root of the left card named MASTER

3. destinaton RISC OS card in the right slot

4. open the Terminal

6. sudo dd if=/media/MASTER/Pandora_D001.img of=/dev/mmcblk1 (change MASTER with your card NAME)

7. Password:******

(takes a little)

Ready... Message like this: 1977614336 bytes (2.0GB) copied; 678.997s, 2,9MB/s

8. Shut Down

9. remove the left card and move the new from the right to the left slot

10. Power on and do nothing... after 15s (Batch1) you should have a working Desktop

11. If you not a RISC OS user, doubleclick the Quickstart/pdf

12. have fun (I hope)

I hope that helps.
 
Very helpful indeed.  I just came back to this post after doing nearly the exact same thing on my own.  I tried with the Pandora_D001.img.gz that you describe for use in the right slot and boot from the left with fat32 boot files.  gzipped the img and did a sudo dd just the same way.  Resulted in an almost functioning Desktop.  Got a stack of Disk error 08 (I think)/SDaddress errors but I could open the newly made SD card and see your files.  A couple executable worked, most did nothing or just added another Disk error.  I'll try with the img card in the left slot but I ...  yep!  Wohoo!  Seams to be up.  

Thanks for all of your help so far with this Raik.  On page 5 or so you said something about using boot files on the left and an image for the right.  The image for the right is apparently the same as the liveimage?  So I was trying to boot from left to a system that wanted to be primary and it made things bad.  Looks pretty interesting.  

Uhh, off to start a thread about repairing SD card filesystems.  Gparted by itself is not helping.
 
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