This is a brief guide to the steps that you should probably go through when upgrading from one stable release 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 only the applications outside of !Boot are packaged.
The procedure given here is suitable for upgrading from RISC OS 5.24 or 5.26. If you are upgrading from RISC OS 5.22 or earlier, see below.
That should leave you with a fully up to date !Boot on your current OS. Once that’s been shown to work for a week or two, you can progress to upgrade the OS by downloading the respective stable RISC OS 5 ROM or softload for your computer.
To perform an “in-situ” upgrade upgrade from these releases you will need the RISC OS 5.24 HardDisc4 zipfile and the appropriate RISC OS 5.24 ROM (if upgrading from RISC OS 5.20 you will also need the corresponding RISC OS 5.22 versions). These are not currently available for download, so if you are unable to find them elsewhere you will need to follow the procedure to upgrade from RISC OS 5.19 or earlier instead.
You are now ready to upgrade from RISC OS 5.24, as described above.
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 granularity (500, 510, 520 and so on). Rather than attempt to do this by hand, it is safer to start from the new !Boot and import any modifications you made from your old !Boot.
That should leave you with a fully up to date !Boot on your current OS. Once that’s been shown to work for a week or two, you can progress to upgrade the OS too by downloading the respective stable RISC OS 5 ROM or softload for your computer.