ARMbo(o)k news update

Thanks Andrew. Very interesting :)
Will RISC OS support eMMC booting?
Can it be bought online?

Since every one is built to order, you’ll need to email us, David. Or use the online order/enquiry form neatly provided on the site.

When we used to provide “off the shelf” online order forms for computers, nobody ever used them (in close to 15 years). They always preferred to discuss it first, due to the size of the purchase.

eMMC boot – no, because the laptop is more useful as a dual boot system, and Linux works more effectively from the eMMC. Since the SD storage always over-rides the eMMC, RISC OS is better on that medium, and larger discs are possible (256GB) vs eMMC (64GB or 128GB are max currently offered, and have to be special-ordered from the far east).

It may be possible in due course, but honestly, I’d be sceptical of whether it would be worth compromising the Linux for marginal benefits. Also, it’s a heck of a lot easier to extract data off the SD media than eMMC in case of any problems, or if you wish to do backups etc.

It may be possible in due course, but honestly, I’d be sceptical of whether it would be worth compromising the Linux for marginal benefits.

It would be possible to partition the eMMC such that a filecore partition (which does have a partition type code) for RISC OS can coexist with a boot partition (for both RISC OS and Linux) as well as a Linux partition. It would then be possible to interact with the start up process to select (1) RISC OS with laptop screen; (2) RISC OS with external HDMI monitor or (3) Linux.

Or simply to use the faster and more reliable eMMC for RISC OS only.
I have zero interest in Linux.

For example, Ovation Pro forcibly enables NumLock, which causes half of the keyboard to behave like a numeric keypad. A drop-on fix is provided on our download area.

Sorry to slightly derail the thread but is there a general fix available for this Ovation-Pro-forcing-NumLock-issue? I came across it tonight on my Pi (with Raspberry Pi Foundation keyboard) and it makes the software unusable.

Ovation-Pro-forcing-NumLock-issue

Never heard of it. What’s the symptom?

Never heard of it. What’s the symptom?

See the second and third posts at the start of this thread but basically, Ovation Pro takes it upon itself to force Num Lock to be on, regardless of your system setting. This isn’t really a problem when you’ve an extended keyboard with a number pad, but if you’re using a small keyboard, like the Raspberry Pi foundation keyboard that I have, then it makes it rather difficult to type in Ovation Pro when the U key is 4, I is 5 etc.

OIC. There is a fix but it’s not generally available?

This’ll be the UniversalKey module I presume? Yes, I see it messes with the Keyboard Status byte via OS_Byte. It would be trivial to prevent that from happening. Basically you just need a ByteV claimant that does this:

    TEQ     R0, #202
    BICEQ   R1, R1, #4
    ORREQ   R2, R2, #4
    MOV     PC, R14

That stops anything from changing the state of NumLock. If you want to always force NumLock off, ORR R1 and BIC R2 instead.

Ovation Pro takes it upon itself to force Num Lock to be on, regardless of your system setting.

Has anyone asked David? I don’t recall seeing this discussed on the Ovation Pro list, and he hasn’t been averse to releasing fixes for things in the past.

Has anyone asked David?

I did, and the fix came by return of email. The fix is now on the Armbook download site.

Regarding the Linux, obviously its value will vary to each customer. Right now, the advantages are clear – Wifi, FireFox, LibreOffice and (depending on Linux distro) external HDMI.

From my experience in 15 years of selling RISCbooks (Windows+RISC OS), the second OS is generally considered very useful, allowing the laptop to be the sole mobile device needed when away from home (alongside your phone). It allows access to things like guest-wifi in hotels which often require some form of browser-based login, for example.

Of course, much of this is in ROD’s plans for RISC OS, and some of the fruits will be visible at the London show. It’s the timescale that is more problematic – things take time to complete, and there’s a lot of work to do on all fronts. In all likelihood, by the time things like Wifi and browser are solved, eMMC install will also be possible, at which point Linux probably wouldn’t be all that useful. For now, though, I believe it adds significant value for most (but not all, I’ll grant you) users, one way or another.

I can agree. I use RISC OS (more than 95% in private) and Linux on my Pandora and Titanium and I like it.
For me it is a very good solution to have two OS available on the same computer to use it without changing a card or what ever.

Ovation Pro takes it upon itself to force Num Lock to be on,

Just OvationPro, or does Ovation do likewise?

Rick – just check if Ovation includes UniversalKey module. If it does, then yes, it may do so. The test is very easy – just open a document and press the NumLock key. If the LED on your keyboard changes state (and stays there) then all is well. With Ovation Pro (unpatched) it will immediately turn NumLock back on.

It turned out to be a problem on ARMbok because some of the alphabetic keys turn into a number pad when NumLock is active. This meant that without the (tiny) fix, some characters couldn’t be typed.

In fact, David had already resolved the issue for some other people privately (long before ARMbok) so it was a “known solved” issue.

and browser are solved

In fact I use Office365 for one of my jobs, so a good browser will probably raise all issues for me.
(Expect Wifi, but I can live with a Vonets).

In fact, David had already resolved the issue for some other people privately (long before ARMbok) so it was a “known solved” issue.

According to a post from David P on his mail list in March 2012, the fix was described in 1998.

Sorry, couldn’t resist.

Rick – just check if Ovation includes UniversalKey module.

It does, sort of, but it’s a different one. And, no doubt, different again to the one in Hearsay… ‘cos the Wimp’s keyboard reporting is a bit rubbish (in defence of the Wimp, the underlying OS isn’t much better at some key combos…).

Just loaded Ovation, pressed NumLock. Light went off, stayed off. Good. :-)

cos the Wimp’s keyboard reporting is a bit rubbish

<cough> DeepKeys <cough>

DeepKeys

I think Rick’s point still stands.
What the Wimp and OS do vs. what can be done when someone loads a third party utility is obviously significant but what the user has available out-of-the-box is still lacking capability – or did someone add the functionality to a recent ROM and I missed it?

I’m in no way disagreeing with Rick, which is what moved me to fix the problem twenty years ago.