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.

The process is not very streamlined. Some steps are being made to improve the situation by using PackMan to manage updates, but currently this has limited coverage.

Procedure to upgrade from RISC OS 5.19 or earlier

Whenever the OS version rolls over to the next multiple of 0.10 (5.09 to 5.10, 5.19 to 5.20, and so on) extra actions are usually required because major versions within !Boot are handled with that granuarity (500, 510, 520 and so on). When RISC OS 5.20 was reached the opportunity was taken to solve some structural deficiencies to make future changes easier to install; skip to the next section if you already have RISC OS 5.20’s disc image.

• 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 page
• Reboot – this will populate a default set of choices which correspond to your OS (this only happens once)
• Added any additional modules to your old !System?
  • Merge this with the new one by running !Configure and opening the System plug-in, then drag your old !System on top
  • Try rebooting – find out what’s broken and fix it
• Added any additional fonts to your old !Fonts?
  • Merge this with the new one by running !Configure and opening the Fonts plug-in, click Install fonts…, then drag your old !Fonts on top
  • Try rebooting – find out what’s broken and fix it
• Added any custom stuff to !Boot.Library?
  • Move these across from your old !Boot, taking care not to overwrite any newer versions
  • Try rebooting – find out what’s broken and fix it
• Added any custom stuff 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 these across from your old !Boot, many will have been updated so it’s worth getting newer copies rather than copying
  • Try rebooting – find out what’s broken and fix it
• Move across everything from your old !Boot.Choices except !Boot.Choices.Boot
  • Moving Choices.Boot will break things; it’s best to forget about it!
  • Try rebooting – find out what’s broken and fix it
• Personalise your set up (pinboard, backdrop, other things you had set up at boot time) using !Configure
• The remainder of the contents of the HardDisc4 zipfile are ordinary applications
  • Simply delete the old ones you have of the same name and replace them – this is safe because none of them store any settings inside themselves, that’s all in !Boot.Choices

Procedure to upgrade from RISC OS 5.20 or later

Once the hassle of getting at least as far as RISC OS 5.20 is done, subsequent stable releases (5.22/24/26/28) are much easier.

• Download the the stable HardDisc4 zipfile from the ROOL downloads page
• Open the archive and double click on the obey file called InSituBootUpdate, this will apply all the changes from the previous stable release
  • You must apply them in order, don’t skip intermediate ones
  • Try rebooting – find out what’s broken and fix it
• The remainder of the contents of the HardDisc4 zipfile are ordinary applications
  • Simply delete the old ones you have of the same name and replace them – this is safe because none of them store any settings inside themselves, that’s all in !Boot.Choices

Now change the OS ROM

That should leave you with a fully up to date !Boot on your current OS. Once that’s been shown to work for a few weeks, you can progress to upgrade to OS too by downloading the respective RISC OS 5 ROM or softload for your computer.