RiscOS


I'm now following a couple of risc os-based youtube channels (wifisheep and leo white for ROUGOL videos), so I am still interested in RISC OS and since I last used it JASSP and potentially now cloverleaf could make things more interesting. But my Pandora is currently not feeling very well, and I don't think I'm willing to use RISC OS for my Pyra usage yet. I might buy a cheap rPi to try it out again, but ROOL alone support that way of working themselves. I'm appreciative of your efforts therefore, but I don't think they're for me.
 
Hi @Raik :)

Thanks for your quick reply ! I'm really interested in RiscOS, following the news on ROOL website on a daily basis, also checking the status of the various on-going bounties and donating to them when possible.

I played with your Pandora port a couple of times, but I'm still pretty green when it comes to RiscOS, so I'm sorry for the lack of feedback on my part, there's just not much to say :)

Cheers, Magic Sam (really hoping for a working touchscreen and Wi-Fi connection with RiscOS someday)
 
I think one or two of the ROOL bounties was about reworking the networking stack, I think the first fruits of that (better TLS support) are out already. I don't think they're actively targetting the wifi chips on board yet though, but surely that will help. The cloverleaf project is currently talking about wifi, but that's still in the preplanning stage as I see it, and depends on an expensive kickstarter to come to anything much.
 
@levi, Magic Sam...

I also working behind the scenes on the "Cloverleave Distro". Comming soon but not for free. Is part of crowdfunding project.
You find me also at ROOL forum ;-)
My youtube channel is "RISC OS Berlin" (all is made or finished in RISC OS). You can also visit my www.riscos.berlin. Both just for fun ;-)
Have try to made a small tutorial ...
Tutorial V1
... if anyone find it useful, maybe I made more.
The latest Pandora Image was based on the RODirect Image for the Raspberry Pi. I have a Pi-Top V1 mod with a Pi4 working with RISC OS...
For the Pyra: The German developer of the RISC OS OMAP5 port has preordered a Pyra any month ago. If my arrives me a lot of time earlier, I send to him for porting.

There is a lot for "playing around" and more comming soon or you do the same I make... use it ;-)
It's not WIN, it's not Linux but you don't have to change many familiar things ;-)
 
Yes those were the bounties I was thinking of. I didn't realise that bounty 3 actually referred to making wifi chipsets talk, but that's cool if it does. The cloverleaf project is intending to pay developers to work on things like wifi, and could perhaps use that to take the money from the bounty when they succeed in that, I hadn't realised that before. That could in term pay developers to do more cool stuff.

Edit: @Raik Nice video. Cool music, although it took me a moment to realise I wasn't meant to listen to the instructions in the music but instead read the text. There seems to be some difference in terminology between different video producers; wifisheep's Tom calls them left button and scroll wheel, which is a bit odd because I believe the a new configurable feature in Direct is that it enables you to swap the functions of the menu button and the adjust button and the right button, so that if you're using a modern mouse with two buttons and a clickable scroll wheel, you can map menu to a real button. I recall using RISC OS back in the day I didn't use the adjust button an awful lot. I mean it's cool that you have such control over the window stack, but RISC OS makes it easy not to clutter the screen with lots of windows so it's not really necessary. Now I think of it given that adjust-closing a filer window makes me think that adjust double-clicking a folder makes that folder appear and the parent folder disappear at the same time, so maybe I did use it for that.
 
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For my PiTops I use the Wifi Hat from Elesar.
Ether2WiFi bridge are also possible but better wouldt be it is possible tu use the internal one or USB solutions.
Is one of the RISC OS main problems.:-(
They are not enough RISC OS developer. Is a very small marked. Most are enthusiasts and have to earn their money with other things.
 
Pan_528.jpg


Normally you have to change "riscos" in !Boot.Loader.RISCOS but the ROM you can download at RISC OS is not "rompressed" so it fails with the Pandora.
If anyone need I can upload a pressed.
For a first easy step I will made a !Boot to "merge in" with the needed content.
 
The Beagleboard Image ist the right one. Is for all supported OMAP3 + clone.
The Problem for the Pandora ... after unzip the ROM is to big (>5MB). The Pandora needs "pressed" ROMs to boot RISC OS. The pressed ROMs are working with all. The daily build is pressed. Not sure why the "stable" ROMs are unpressed. Was the same in 5.22 and 5.24.
If you have the rompress app (e.g. part of the RISC OS development tools) you have to perform
*rompress -Z riscosbig riscospress
Copy the riscospress as riscos to the place where the old riscos is stored (For my Distro: !Boot.Loader.RISCOS from RISC OS... Loader ist the FAT-Partition if you will try it from outside (not recommended)).
Recommended: Merge in !Boot from the new HardDisc4 Image (https://www.riscosopen.org/zipfiles/platform/common/HardDisc4.5.28.zip?1603104212) to the old one.
 
Hi @Raik :)

Thanks for your quick reply !

Daily builds seem indeed to be smaller:


Are the RiscOS developers aware of this Pandora related issue ? Wouldn't it be great to be able to buy an official SD card for the Pandora straight from the website ?


And last but not least, what is HardDisc4 ? :p

EDIT: https://www.riscosopen.org/wiki/documentation/show/Software information: HardDisc4

Cheers, Magic Sam (/me going to buy the RISC OS 5 User Guide)
 
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@Linux-SWAT
"Pressed" means compressed. I think Squeeze. The Pandora only supports ROM < 4MB I mean. The ROM will be decompressed if it is loaded.

@Magic Sam
Jeffrey (the "RISC OS overall contributer") has a Pandora and tells me the solution many years ago (RISC OS 5.20?).

I not know the content of the SD card. It is possible but not sure. It is not a problem to add the needed boot files for the Pandora. The contend off the RISC OS part is the same.
Maybe there is a display problem. The video driver falls back to 800x600 if EDID fails.
I can try to collect some informations.

HardDisc4 is the basicly content of the RISC OS boot device (RISC OS Partition = FileCore). In history, the first (Master/Boot) HDD connect to an Archimedes was 4 (comparable to C: for DOS). Now also. The First HDD of a FileSystem is 4. So the global Name for this "!Boot File archive" is HardDisc4. For the Pandora you need this in SDFS::0... the left SD card by default.
 
@Raik : according to riscosopen.org, the SD card includes:

You can also buy the Beagle micro SD Card which has the operating system, disc image, and pre-installed NetSurf browser to get you started.
Click to expand...

If I understand correctly, one needs the RiscOS ROM + HardDisc4 (boot device) + U-Boot + boot.txt for RiscOS to work correctly, right ?

Cheers, Magic Sam
 
Magic Sam said:
If I understand correctly, one needs the RiscOS ROM + HardDisc4 (boot device) + U-Boot + boot.txt for RiscOS to work correctly, right ?
Click to expand...

Yes, no, maybe ;-)

ROM I wrote, the HardDisc4 download is only a collection of needed file in a zip archiv you have to copy to the filecore partition...
Generally you need a FAT-Partition for the bootfiles and a FileCore-Partition for the RISC OS stuff. You can use one or two "cards" (the second can also be a pendrive or HDD).
ROOL offer a 16GB (µ)SD card. Looks like only for the BeagleXM. The card is a "SystemDisc". Same like I offer or for Pi RC16... SystemDisc means is a FileCore formatted card with a "embedded DOSDisc". This card you can create with a commercial Tool named !SystemDisc.
The DOSDisc is what WIN and Linux can see and destroy anytimes. For the Pandora you need min. an autoboot.txt and riscos. The BeagleXM need other files.
The FileCore part can contain the same for all but the auto screen detect fails (only the resolution) but you can set manually.
So yo can pick the 2GB RPi RC16 Image, change the bootfiles in the FAT partition ...
The smallest RISC OS you get... use only autoboot.txt ans riscos on a FAT card (max. 4GB). Boot and type *Desktop ;-)
 
levi said:
The cloverleaf project is currently talking about wifi, but that's still in the preplanning stage as I see it, and depends on an expensive kickstarter to come to anything much.
Click to expand...

Cloverleaf project has started on kickstarter.
I think the idea behind is a good one, so I help if I can but I am not part of / responsible for RISC OS Cloverleaf.
 
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