RPCEmu0810 / RO520 from scratch

I made some notes during a new installation of RPCEmu 0.8.10 / RO 5.20 on a Windows 7 32bit host. After posting them to the RPCEmu mailing list, two members confirmed that the notes led to working installations. I’m posting them below, in case they may be of general interest.

The following actions are performed on a Windows machine:

1 Download
http://www.marutan.net/rpcemu/cgi/download.php?sFName=0.8.10/rpcemu-win32-archive-0.8.10.zip
https://www.riscosopen.org/zipfiles/misc/HardDisc4.5.20.util
https://www.riscosopen.org/zipfiles/misc/IOMD-Soft.5.20.zip

2 Unpack rpcemu-win32-archive-0.8.10.zip, change the folder name to RPCemu520, and move the folder to C:\Program Files\RPCemu520

3 Unpack IOMD-Soft.5.20.zip and copy the ROM image file ‘riscos’ from soft\Boot\Choices\Boot\PreDesk\!!SoftLoad into RPCemu520\roms

4 Move HardDisc4.5.20.util into RPCemu520\hostfs

5 Double-click RPCemu520\RPCEmu-Recompiler.exe to launch it

6 Ignore the taskmanager error and open Settings > Configure… Set CPU = StrongARM, RAM = 128MB, VRAM = 2MB. It is important to do this now, to avoid ‘ofla, ofla…’ errors, later. Click OK, to re-start RPCEmu.

7 *desktop to start the TaskManager

8 At the error ‘Machine startup has not completed …’ click Cancel, to enter the desktop

9 Click HostFS, on the iconbar, to open the root directory

10 Set the filetype of HardDisc4/5/20/util to Utility, and double-click to extract the HardDisc4 directory

11 Double-click HardDisc4, cancel the error ‘No Boot application has been run…’, and move !Boot to HostFS:$

12 Press f12 and issue the following commands

    configure filesystem hostfs
    configure boot

13 Press ctrl-shft-f12 to shutdown, and click the Windows Close button. Double-click RPCemu520\RPCEmu-Recompiler.exe to re-launch RPCEmu These two actions, in effect, re-start RPCEmu. The Restart button, on the Shutdown window, should be avoided, because it seems not to re-set everything.

14 When RPCemu520\RPCEmu-Recompiler.exe is launched, RPCEmu should now boot to the desktop. (I suggest making a backup copy of the folder Program Files\RPCemu520 , before continuing)

15 Configure can be used to set-up the machine generally but, here, we will go to networking and assume that the network bridge has been set up as in http://www.marutan.net/rpcemu/manual/net-win.html . IP addresses mentioned below are those entered here, and so may need to be changed

16 Open Configure… > System and drag HostFS:$.Network.!System to it. Click Merge

17 Open HostFS:$.InetSetup.Autosense and copy, into it, the BASIC file HostFS:$.Network.Autosense.EtherRPCem

18 Open Settings > Networking. Choose Ethernet Bridging, click OK, to re-start RPCEmu

19 Open Configure… > Network > Internet and tick ‘Enable TCP/IP Protocol Suite’

20 Click Interfaces. Tick EtherRPCem. Click Configure… Enter the IP address of the RPCEmu (192.168.1.12). Enter the corresponding Netmask (255.255.255.0). Choose ‘manually’, click ‘Set’, click ‘Close’

21 Click Routing. Enter Gateway address (192.168.1.1 = router). Ignore the rest of the window. Click ‘Set’

22 Click Hostnames. Enter Host name (rpcemu5). Enter Local domain (home). Tick ‘Try name server too’. Enter ‘Primary name server’ (192.168.1.1 = router). Ignore Secondary and Tertiary name servers. ‘Name resolver module’ should read Resolver (Acorn). Double click the icon to open Hosts file. Enter the IP addresses, and names, of local hosts. Save the Hosts file. and close its window. Click ‘Set’.

23 Ignore ‘User options’

24 Click ‘Close’, click ‘Save’, click ‘Reset later’. ‘Reset now’ doesn’t seem to work properly and, I believe, causes the networking config to fail.

25 Ctrl-shft-f12 to shutdown, then exit via the Windows ‘Close’ icon. Double-click RPCEmu-Recompiler.exe to re-launch RPCEmu. Networking should now be available. (Again, I suggest making a backup copy of the folder Program Files\RPCemu520)
 

I note that some Windows 8 installations (my 64-bit ones at least) seem to default to enabling DEP (Data Execution Prevention) for all programs and services – this stops the RPCEmu-Recompiler dead in its tracks. At least good old Windows XP used to throw a sensible error pointing you in the right direction, but W8’s attempt at ‘helpful’ troubleshooting doesn’t.

It is possible to selectively disable DEP for such applications (adapted from MS help as they refer you to a non-existent web page):

1 In Control Panel, tap or click to open the System option.

2 Tap or click Advanced system settings. Administrator permission required You might be asked for an admin password or to confirm your choice.

3 Under Performance, tap or click Settings.

4 Tap or click the Data Execution Prevention tab.

5 If it’s crashing, it probably has the ‘Turn on DEP for all programs and services …’ radio button selected.

6 Click the Add… button and locate the RPCEmu-Recompiler.exe executable

7 Select the exe and click the Open button to add it to the list of applications that will run with DEP disabled.

Ummm – doesn’t DEP firing imply that the emulator is accessing some place it shouldn’t?

MS in their wisdom must have turned on DEP by default on Windows 7 64 bit versions as well recently during a security update as RPCemu recompiler fails in this way on my laptop. Where as it used to work fine. Will try the fix later and report back.

MS in their wisdom

11 out of 10 for irony.

Thank you Steve :-)

Yes the fix works on Win7 64 bit. It’s a bit obscure though. Go to…

Control Panel > System and Security > System.

Click advanced system settings. (Give UAC permission)

On the Advanced Tab, click Settings under Performance, then select the Data Execution Prevention tab of the Performance Options window and do as the nice man said.

Worked for me! Thanks Stuart.