Iyonix ROS 5.11r3 to 5.24 update ?
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G Jon Keates (5473) 7 posts |
Hello, everyone |
GavinWraith (26) 1538 posts |
I started with an Acorn Atom in 1979 and have owned Acorn/RISC OS systems ever since, upgrading whenever my purse allowed. I think the list goes
As to the corresponding OS versions, my memory struggles. My current system is a Raspberry Pi 3B with RO5.24. I also have a Raspberry Pi 3B+ with Raspbian Stretch Linux for doing things and going places that RISC OS cannot currently reach (and perhaps may not ever). I once had a Windows XP Notebook to make up for the deficiencies of RISC OS, on which I ran VirtualRPC (RO 4.02). It was easy to transfer files between RISC OS on the Raspberry Pi and VRPC using Access. But Windows XP becomes progressively more obsolete, so now I use Raspbian. It would be easy to set up networked file transfer between the two Raspberry Pis, but in practice it is easier simply to use a memory stick formatted to Fat32FS and transfer stuff between the two systems with that. The Raspberry Pi 3B+ supports WiFi. Unfortunately RISC OS does not yet have the software to exploit that. Where once computer systems were monolithic and expensive, they now can be had very cheaply by sticking components together: CPU, power cable, monitor/TV + HDMI cable, WiFi keyboard+mouse, SSD cards, all manner of storage devices and peripherals. None need have moving parts, most can be bought online or at your local supermarket. Of course much depends on what you want to use your system for, but my humble needs are met for an outlay of less than £100. I got rid of my old equipment as soon as it was superseded. I would rather face the future than the past – it is cheaper! So I cannot say that I am into retro-computing. When, years ago, I saw the old Acorn Atom, which I had given to the university Physics laboratory, lying in a skip, I did have a momentary impulse to rescue it. But I hardened my heart and left it. Please excuse these personal ramblings. I leave it to others to answer your queries more accurately than I can. |
Rick Murray (539) 13428 posts |
Loads of stuff. You know, there’s a softload version (two actually, the stable and the beta) for the Iyonix so you can try it out. You’ll probably need to upgrade your !Boot resources though as 5.11 is ancient old.
‘86 or so. I’d never used a computer before, sat at the BBC Micro and tried some rudimentary BASIC, realised that it could do my maths homework for me (teachers were not pleased when my “show your working” was a listing!). I would break into the computer room on rainy weekends and alternate between Chuckie Egg and studying the user guide in detail. The only computer studies teacher I’ve ever known to be worth a damn gifted me his copy of the AUG to which I spent many many hours matching the schematic to the board. Etc etc. My first computer was my own Beeb, second hand. I “upgraded” it to Econet from a kit, cloned EdWord from a ROM in a school computer, and later added a dual 5.25" drive and for my own EPROM programmer. I don’t get rid of anything unless my mother presses me into it. I’m quite aware that there is zero need for a BBC Micro tape lead given I have neither tapes nor a tape recorder, however “you never know when this might be exactly the thing I need”. Well, I think it’s been something like 25 years now, but maybe next week…… ;-) |
G Jon Keates (5473) 7 posts |
Hi Gavin and Rick |
GavinWraith (26) 1538 posts |
If Bluetooth comes under Wifi and the keyboard/mouse come with a USB receiver dongle then the answer should be yes . The RPi3 has Bluetooth, but as far as I know RISC OS does not have the drivers.
I do not know – probably not. See this description of the file config.txt that the GPU reads before the ARM core is initialized. As far as I can make out the system expects a 1920×1080 resolution as standard and rescales accordingly. |
David Feugey (2125) 2687 posts |
I use 2560×1440 mode without any problem. |
Timo Hartong (2813) 195 posts |
If its a bluetooth dongle which translates to a standard mouse and keyboard USB class it should work if it is Bluetooth only as far as I know there is no bluetooth stack for RISCOS |
Steffen Huber (91) 1945 posts |
I configured a few of my various RPis to work with my 4K monitor with 24Hz which seems to be stable. However, it pushes the RPi to its limit, so no guarantees. I read reports that it only works if you overclock the GPU. See here http://riscosblog.huber-net.de/2018/03/raspberry-pi-3-b-4k-und-risc-os/ for the necessary stuff to configure on the RPi (config.txt) and RISC OS side (MDF entry). Just ignore the many German words around the monospaced essence :-) |
Jeffrey Lee (213) 6046 posts |
5.14 was the first release to contain ROOL contributions – which would make the last pure Castle release 5.13 (a version of which is what I think my 2006-era Iyonix shipped with). https://www.riscosopen.org/news/articles/2009/04/28/new-iyonix-rom-release-version-5-14. And I think this is essentially the point at which ROOL started managing all the development themselves, only relying on Castle for the rubber stamp of approval for new Iyonix releases. 5.14 was relatively quickly followed by 5.16, after a long-standing bug in the RTC code caused things to go wrong at the start of 2010: https://www.riscosopen.org/news/articles/2010/01/23/new-iyonix-rom-release-version-5-16. And as you can see from that link, 5.15 didn’t have a release since that version number was reserved for use with the many nightly development builds that happened between 5.14 & 5.16. 5.18 was available for Iyonix & OMAP3: https://www.riscosopen.org/news/articles/2012/02/24/risc-os-5-18-for-iyonix-and-beagleboard 5.20 for Iyonix, OMAP3 & IOMD: https://www.riscosopen.org/news/articles/2013/07/24/risc-os-5-20-stable-is-now-available 5.22 for Iyonix, OMAP3, IOMD & OMAP4: https://www.riscosopen.org/news/articles/2015/04/25/risc-os-5-22-stable-is-now-available And then most recently, 5.24 for Iyonix, OMAP3, IOMD, OMAP4, Raspberry Pi and Titanium: https://www.riscosopen.org/news/articles/2018/04/23/risc-os-5-24-stable-is-now-available Most of the above press releases also changelogs for the releases (only 5.14 which seems to be missing them); if you want to find out what happened before 5.14 you’ll have to go digging in CVS. |
G Jon Keates (5473) 7 posts |
Thanks for the info, have already downloaded the three 5.24 ZIPs but need to make sure all important personal files are transferred to USB Drives and my Handroids, will check what’s Uplugged before updating. |
Jeffrey Lee (213) 6046 posts |
Yes, that’s probably the bug that was fixed in 5.16. |
Colin Ferris (399) 1753 posts |
Wasn’t there a patch for this? After all the trouble Jon went through – updating his Iyonix’s – wouldn’t it be more sensible to softload RO 5.25? |
Jon Abbott (1421) 2608 posts |
I believe the correct phrase is “bricking his Iyonix’s” !! I’ve still not plucked up the courage to desolder the replacement Flash chips and try reflowing them again. My advise for Iyonix is to NEVER reflash, always softload. Flash memory has a lifespan and irrespective of what the spec says about cycles, they appear to degrade with time, to the point they don’t erase reliably – even the first batch of new old stock replacement chips I received failed to program correctly. |
Jeffrey Lee (213) 6046 posts |
You could stick a program into the start of your boot sequence which attempts to detect the bad year and fix it (obviously you’ll need to remember to remove it once 2020 does come around). A similar system would be needed if you were to softload newer OS versions ontop – because by the time the softloaded OS starts, the original OS will have already written the bad year back to CMOS. If you’re happy with things being wrong during the early part of the boot sequence, enabling network time is probably the easiest solution. |
G Jon Keates (5473) 7 posts |
Thanks for the Never Flash advice, worked my way through the new !Boot just need to finish off a few things before trying the soft load version. bq.“You could stick a program into the start of your boot sequence which attempts to detect the bad year and fix it” Which OS Call or SWI is used to set the year correctly to 2018, that’ll do for now, save me having to remember to run ! Alarm every time it’s powered up. |
John Williams (567) 768 posts |
I keep an obeyfile in Tasks called !CheckYear:
One could add the line:
Need to remember to change it next year, though! |
Martin Avison (27) 1436 posts |
For anyone using Organizer v2.23 (22 Apr 2015) or later, when it is started it always checks the current RISC OS date with the last saved date from within the OrgData file. If there is over 1 year difference then it is likely that the RISC OS machine clock has not been set, or it has been corrupted. To avoid problems, an error is raised showing the two dates, and options of: Continue, Set Clock or Cancel. |
RonM (387) 60 posts |
I have been using I have never heard of reflashing Iyonix problems, has there been other cases of chip failure? A new subject, I am getting no response from the |
Chris Johnson (125) 823 posts |
Yes – my old Iyonix bricked itself during an upgrade of the flash. May have been OS 5.18. |
GavinWraith (26) 1538 posts |
I think you misread. You need |
RonM (387) 60 posts |
Your tilde switches off the recursion. Guilty (-: I was following my already used pattern of |
Martin Avison (27) 1436 posts |
I have a Netsurf cache stats & cleanup program – please PM me to riscos at avisoft dot f9 dot co dot uk if interested. |
G Jon Keates (5473) 7 posts |
Thanks, used the System Variable Sys$Year check to give me a reminder to reset the year. |
Rick Murray (539) 13428 posts |
https://riscos.fr/english.html Halfway down the page – free hosting service… |
David Feugey (2125) 2687 posts |
Just drop me a mail… |
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