Issues with !Configure and !PackMan

Hi,

I’m a total RISC OS newbie; I’d heard of it before but never had a chance to give it a go until I got my Pi. In my first day I’ve run into a couple of issues.

In !Configure > Screen, the default settings are:
Monitor type: Auto
Colours: Unknown (greyed out)
Resolution: Unknown (greyed out)

The system happily runs in 1920×1080 with 16 million colours. However, once I change any setting, such as selecting a screen saver, then click Set, it drops to 640×480 with 256 colours. Is that expected or is it an incompatibility between my TV (Sony KDL-32EX400, using HDMI) and RISC OS’ autodetection?

I can restore full resolution by selecting “Generic” as the Monitor type (as a side note, this list isn’t in alphabetical order; is there a reason for that or has it just been overlooked?), which then allows me to select Colours and Resolution. Clicking Set works.

If I shut down and restart, then I lose the screen saver; “Blank delay” returns to its default value of Off. That’s not the only setting that I lose; the Monitor type returns to Auto so I need to reselect Generic, 16 million, and 1920×1080 if I want to enable the screensaver again. Additionally, under the “Time and date” settings icon, “DST active” also turns itself off after a restart.

Now, onto !PackMan. Fortunately my issue here is purely cosmetic. Some of the package descriptions are too wide and run off the edge of the description box. There doesn’t appear to be a way to scroll horizontally; there’s a horizontal scroll bar but it only scrolls the “main” part of the window and not the description box. The description also don’t grow if you enlarge the window.

My last question is around hardware. Is there a compatibility list somewhere? I have a mouse that doesn’t work in RISC OS (although it works in Linux). This wiki exists for the Raspberry Pi itself but obviously RISC OS will have its own drivers, etc. Is there a similar list available for RISC OS?

That’s everything that I’ve found. It’s not my intention to complain about everything; the OS itself looks like it will be really useful once I get my head around it! :)

Download the latest rom from the downloads page at http://www.riscosopen.org/content/downloads/other-zipfiles go down page to development RPi.
Then Open the !boot Folder by Holding Down The shift key while clinking on !Boot, this will open the folder inside you will see a folder called loader click to open,
Then unzip the downloaded rom image you will find a file inside called riscos you need to copy this to the sdcard you then need to rename riscos to riscos/img
then copy this file into the loader folder. then restart the system
The problem is the SDCMOS module is dormant on the first release it is discussed in more detail here http://www.riscosopen.org/forum/forums/5/topics/1396?page=1#posts-16710
not used packman yet i will check it out.

Aha! I saw that topic yesterday but it didn’t have the solution posted at that point – I should’ve re-checked it (although being new to the OS I didn’t know that I was trying to change “CMOS settings” anyway).

With that said, since the settings that I’m trying to change aren’t major, I’m content to patiently wait for the update via PackMan that Steve Revill mentioned in that thread. Thanks for pointing it out. :)

(although being new to the OS I didn’t know that I was trying to change “CMOS settings” anyway).

CMOS settings were always required to be able to retain user tweaks of the OS settings back in the days when the system might not even have a hard disc. As time went on the tweaks could be put into the boot sequence but CMOS bit settings gave a quicker version and didn’t go AWOL when a disc died.¹ There is some confusion these days as the CMOS settings can be stored in a file on “disc”² now although the “widget” add-on you may see mentioned has the required CMOS storage function. The question is do we rename as “system settings” for newcomers or stay the same for the oldies?

¹ Not that the discs seem to die that often, some people have systems still using the original manufacturers fitted disc which is often 10+ year old.

² If there is anything less aptly labelled “disc” storage than the SD card or a USB memory “stick”³ then let me know.

³ Things these days are so small they barely project from the USB port so “stick” isn’t correct

The PackMan window display problem is a known bug. I’m collating PackMan issues here: https://github.com/caliston/packman/issues
so if there’s any others feel free to add (this one is #2)

Ah, so it is. Thanks for the link :)

I’ve downloaded RC6 and it appears to correctly save the settings… but there is now a black “border” around the entire screen and I can’t find anything in Configure that makes it fill the entire screen again. Any ideas?

I’m collating PackMan issues here: https://github.com/caliston/packman/issues

Please add inadequate or unpublicised (not sure which) documentation for developers trying to package their software so that it can be uploaded to PackMan. I can’t see how to log on to post on the link you give above.

I’ve downloaded RC6 and it appears to correctly save the settings… but there is now a black “border” around the entire screen and I can’t find anything in Configure that makes it fill the entire screen again.

RC6 is excellent!

Very well done to RISC OS Open Limited – a superb achievement which must have been very demanding on your time and patience.

But my screen is exactly filled and the only black border is solid plastic (which it would be unreasonable to expect RISC OS to use).

What monitors are you using?

I suspect there’s an overscan setting change involved. (I haven’t downloaded RC6.)

Chris Mahoney: Try going to !Boot.Loader.config/txt and add disable_overscan=1, if it’s not present.

Success! Adding disable_overscan=1 has indeed fixed it (and I see that this line was present in RC5 but has been removed from RC6). Now that I know that it’s an overscan issue, I can see why this setting has been changed (there’s another post in this forum where the edges are being cut off instead).

I’m not trying to whine about everything but this could probably do with an option in Configure so that newbies like myself don’t have to go hand-editing configuration files.

With that out of the way, everything else seems to be working the way that I’d expect. Now it’s time to start properly exploring and seeing what I can do with this system! :)

Thanks for your help :)

PS. I almost forgot to answer your question: I’m using a Sony KDL-32EX400. This TV has a “zoom” feature but it only seems to work with analogue inputs; it simply doesn’t show up when I’m using the Pi.