Beginners FAQ:Installing RISC OS

Raspberry Pi 3 (and earlier models)

Please note these instructions will not work for the Raspberry Pi 4. When a Pi 4 build suitable for beginners is available, this page will be updated accordingly.

Choosing an SD card

RISC OS will fit on a 2GB card. SD cards up to 32GB capacity can be used, but it may be worth checking the known good cards list as there have been problems with a few cards. Be aware that some cards sold as Sandisk are counterfeit: if in doubt, buy from a reputable supplier.

Method 1: NOOBS Lite

The easiest method is to use NOOBS Lite
Be sure to download NOOBS Lite – the process will not work if you use full NOOBS.

• Unpack the NOOBS Lite archive and copy the contents to a blank microSD card (2GB minimum, 32GB maximum).
• Connect your Raspberry Pi to a broadband router (or equivalent network port with Internet access), insert the SD card into the SD slot of the Raspberry Pi and switch on.
• NOOBS will ask you which OS to install. Choose “RISC OS”.
• The installation will take about 1-2 minutes (depending on network speed) after which the RISC OS desktop will appear.

Method 2: Preparing the media using a pre-built SD card image

First, download a suitable SD card image:

• For most models of Raspberry Pi, you can use the “RISC OS Pi” SD card image available on the Downloads page. This will fit on a 2GB card.
• Alternatively, the RISC OS Direct image can be used. This needs an 8GB or 16GB card.

Unpack the archive, then use a utility such as Win32DiskImager (Windows) or Etcher (Linux/macOS) to copy the image to the MicroSD card¹.

¹ RISC OS will only be able to use the space occupied by the .IMG file, so there is no advantage to using large-capacity cards.

Method 3: Preparing the media manually (RISC OS only)

Start with a blank formatted SD or SDHC card.

SystemDisc is a general-purpose tool for managing the system software on modern RISC OS systems. SystemDisc allows you, easily and quickly, to initialise new SD cards for booting your RISC OS system, entirely from within RISC OS. It creates a two-partition SD card which can use all of the available space on your SD card.

You will also need to download the stable RPi ROM and the HardDisc4 image.

Firmware files

SystemDisc will prompt you to copy the ‘firmware’ files into !Boot.Loader where they can be seen by the Pi as it starts up (before RISC OS is started).

• For the Pi these are: BOOTCODE/BIN, CONFIG/TXT, FIXUP/DAT, RISCOS/IMG, START/ELF
  (most of these files are in the “stable RPi ROM” archive, and a suitable CONFIG/TXT can be found here)
• For the Beagleboard and Beagleboard xM they are: BOOT/SCR, MLO, RISCOS, U-BOOT/BIN
• For the Pandaboard and Pandaboard ES they are: MLO, PREENV/TXT, RISCOS, U-BOOT/BIN, UENV/TXT

HardDisc4

Unpack the HardDisc4 archive and copy !Boot onto the FileCore partition. Do not delete the !Boot application already present on the card: simply copy the new !Boot on top of it. Once this has been done, copy the other directories to the FileCore partition.

Remember to dismount the drive before unplugging the SD card.

First system boot

Insert the SD card into the SD slot of the Raspberry Pi and power on. RISC OS should now boot to the desktop.

On the Raspberry Pi, CMOS RAM settings are saved in a file called “CMOS”, but the file may not exist yet. From the RISC OS desktop, press F12 and enter:
*SaveCMOS !Boot.Loader.CMOS
Press RETURN again to return to the desktop.

The system is now ready for use. It is possible that the screen resolution will need changing to suit your needs, so please see the Beginners FAQ:Look and Feel

Troubleshooting

If the boot-up gets stuck at a blank screen (or a “rainbow” screen with no text) the first likely candidate is the SD card. Check it is seated correctly, check that the contacts in the card slot aren’t damaged in any way, clean it all up, and try again. The next thing to check is that all of the firmware files are present and correct. If you’re still having problems, it may be that the SD card has become corrupt, and needs re-imaging. This is a good time to remind all users of the importance of backups…

Pandaboard, Pandaboard ES, Beagleboard, Beagleboard XM

The basic approach is the same – create an SD card with the firmware and the RISC OS boot drive – but there is not yet a pre-built SD card image available so you will have to use the manual option. If you don’t have another RISC OS system to create the SD card, you can do it on the BeagleBoard/PandaBoard itself by following the instructions at Generic OMAP port setup information.