Anyone got an A9 still?

Hi,
First post is a begging one, not a good start! :(
I’ve recently purchased an A9home. Anything above edit, alarm and configure is missing from the OS.
Does anyone have a copy of the OS CD or something they could help me out with please?
The usual downloads aren’t of any use as I’m sure most will know it’s a fairly unique branch of RISC and apparently was never completed…
Cheers,
Gavin :)

I have put something together from a backup of my A9home HTH.

I still have the A9home, disconnected ATM but I could fire it up if required.

apparently was never completed…

That’s right, it’s forever in beta. It does work though with a few foibles, which I have mostly forgotten about now.

Hi,
Thank you so very much David :)
I’ll give that a try this evening.
Cheers,
Gavin :)

I have mine working now, and can remind myself of how it was organised.

In OS4.42 Edit 2.06 and Alarm 2.77 are in the ROM and Configure is in !Boot, these will automatically appear in the IconBar Apps folder. The others such as Paint and Draw are disc based and should go in the hard drive root in $.Apps, that location will also by default show its contents in the IconBar Apps folder. (The Alarm in my download is older, 2.74. and probably related to an earlier ROM.)

HTH.

Hi,
I’ve given this a go already.
I did notice alarm is different, still trying to get the clock to stay in the toolbar after rebooting. Not a majoor issuue.
What little bit of USB functionality I had would appear to have ceased.
The only mass storage device that worked was an old card reader as long as you waited 10 minutes after booting before pluging it in!
If you’ve got anything to get USB working that will be great.
I’ve tried USB stiick from 256Mb upwards with no joy.
I’ve got noo icons in the toolbar for USB storage. This wireless USB keyboard works ok most of the time though.
Should I have a sound folder?
Cheers,
Gavin :)

still trying to get the clock to stay in the toolbar after rebooting

That needs to be done explicitly in Configuration > Boot > Run

What little bit of USB functionality I had would appear to have ceased.

I’m not having much luck either. I have got as far as remembering that entries derived from *USBdevices need to added to :-

!Boot.Choices.Hardware.Disabled.Boot.Tasks.!MassFS.OtherDevs

I can see devices on the IconBar but so far the only one I have got to open is 256MB Fat32 pen. (Edit. That’s crashed now!!!)

I could not get either of my wired USB keyboards to work directly but fortunately one of them does work via a USB to PS2 adaptor. Mice do not seem to be a problem.

Should I have a sound folder?

No.

Sound does work. For a very short while this A9home did Media duties installed underneath a Sony TV. The A9home was such a success that I rushed out and bought a Windows Media Centre PC. Unfortunately that was Vista so eventually I rushed out and bought a Mac Mini which was just perfect.

Hi,
At least I don’t feel so bad about my RISC skills, lol
It’s a shame the USB side doesn’t work well as it’s a great little box.
Problem is there’s no floppy or CD in the box so you’re relying on being able to plug things in!
I did read you can swap the PS2 mouse and keyboard around and get better results.
I’ll see if it works after a reboot…
Cheers,
Gavin :)

Hi,
PS2 mouse and keyboard working :)
Before I had to plug the keyboard in after booting or the mouse wouldn’t work!
Cheers,
Gavin :)

Unless you have one of the latest OS’es flashed by your supplier, A9home USB is only able to read/write FAT16 up to a little less than 2 Gb. Use short names in capitals (8 chars name /3 chars extension). Before you can use a USB device, the A9home must first get to know it by its vendor ID, the product ID and flags. The beginning of the Otherdevs file explains it all. Those ID’s could be read by !USBUtil by Kees Meijer, or currently by !USBInfo from www.xat.nl. A9home is USB1, due to processor limitations, do not expect large transfer speeds. However you can connect the A9home over network. After initial problems with IDEFS, which were cured by Disknight over network, I still find the A9home very reliable. And there is a mailing list, mail to a9home-list-owner@riscository.co.uk

Hi Jan,
Thanks for your reply. I purchased my A9 as a used item so it’s still on what’s left of the original OS.
Dave’s back up has helped :)
Most of what you’ve posted isn’t making much sense to me at the moment. I’ll need to look all that up and try to get file sharing over network working…
Do I just need to send an email to that address and ask to be added to the list?
Cheers,
Gavin :)

Do I just need to send an email to that address and ask to be added to the list?

The mailing list can be joined from here

My a9home is still alive and I use from time to time…

Any useful tools you find here and here.
A “clean” IsoImage from a HDBackup before I use it first, you can find here.
Have made this with any small changes to use a 120GB SSD.
With the USBUtils in the first link you can easy “mount” USB storage devices. But note, there is a 2GB limitation.
There is a WIN95FS upgrade for the a9home aviable from Warm Silence. Is not in the list, you must send a question via Mail or buy it from CJEs. Is more stable than DOSFS.