RISC OS Upgrade

About this document

This is a brief guide to the steps that you should probably go through when upgrading from one version of RISC OS to the next. It does not include instructions for system-specific issues (such as flash programming a new ROM) but covers the generic steps to get your disc image and at least a softload installed and working.

It assumes some level of prior RISC OS knowledge, notably how to open directories and applications in the Filer, how to move and copy things around the file system, how to extract the contents of zipfiles and so on. You may also need to understand how to edit files (such as Obey files) in order to fix issues that might crop up.

Yes, this is tedious and no, it’s not very user friendly. That’s just how the RISC OS disc image (especially the boot sequence) is at the moment. :( Some steps are being made to improve the situation, notably on the RISC OS Pi release where PackMan is the recommended mechanism for updating your system. It is hoped in future that this will be used more widely across all platforms running RISC OS 5.

Upgrade installation procedure

• Move your existing !Boot aside (rename it Boot or Old!Boot or anything not starting with a ! pling)
• Extract the new !Boot from the stable HardDisc4 zipfile from the ROOL downloads pages
• Try rebooting – find out what’s broken and fix it
• Merge your old !System with the new one using the System Merge part of the configuration tools (i.e. the stuff that appears when you double-click on !Boot)
• Try rebooting – find out what’s broken and fix it
• Merge your old !Fonts using the Font Merge part of the configuration tools
• Try rebooting – find out what’s broken and fix it
• Move across any custom stuff you had in !Boot.Library
• Move across any custom stuff you had in !Boot.Resources – this could include things like !SysLog, !ConfiX, !Packages, !UnixHome, etc. It could also include monitor definition files in !Boot.Resources.Configure.Monitors
• Move across everything from your old !Boot.Choices except !Boot.Choices.Boot – if you move that, you will break things! If you really, really know what you are doing, you can hand-pick selected bits from Choices.Boot to move over, but it’s best to forget about it!
• Try rebooting – find out what’s broken and fix it
• Add the Stable RISC OS5 ROM or softload
• Try rebooting – find out what’s broken and fix it
• Sort out any missing configuration (pinboard, backdrop, other things you had set up at boot time)
• Try rebooting – find out what’s broken and fix it