Reviving RiscPC

Hi all,

After a bit of advice!

I’ve finally sorted out a replacement motherboard for my RiscPC, and it’s now happily booting again. I’m now wondering what the options are for either (or both) of the following:

1) Locating a clean !Boot (the existing one has all kinds of junk all over the, and some things – such as NetSurf – don’t like it)
2) Soft-loading RISC OS 5.24

The machine is a first-revision RiscPC 600 currently running RISC OS 4.03, and has a Kinetic card (200MHz I think – can’t recall) along with a ViewFinder (Rage 128 with 32MB), a Simtec IDEFS podule and a 10/100Mb network-slot interface (not sure exactly which one, but it reports details using exinfo). I’m not certain if any/all of the devices are supported by RISC OS 5.24 either?

Any tips appreciated!

Stephen

I binned my Iyonix some 5 or so years ago and went for a (selection of) Raspberry Pi(s).

Do you really want to run a museum piece?

Consider what are the advantages of trying to maintain an out-of-date machine versus its performance criteria.

Yes, nice to have working – but to what practical outcome? A novelty, not a useable machine!

In a nutshell: Why?

I also have Pi, but the RiscPC is the one I had at uni many years ago (although with a replacement motherboard and PSU it’s becoming more like Trigger’s broom these days!).

I’ve disposed of almost all my other old RISC OS systems, so this one I’d like to keep running – but for old time’s sake really.

I think probably just a refresh of the !Boot would do, and I’ll keep RISC OS 5 for the Pi.

I think probably just a refresh of the !Boot would do

Googling RISCOS Universal Boot brings up a number of options, some of which may suit!

When I started, !Boot was a Desktop file, but developments defined a universal boot system which was capable of working with many different machines.

I would (after renaming and saving your existing Boot) try that at:
http://www.riscos.com/ftp_space/generic/uniboot/index.htm

All at your own risk!

I think probably just a refresh of the !Boot would do

Looks like you can download the !Boot here

Stephen – I think most podules will not work unless the manufacturer has made a 32 bit compatible version of the driver modules. Which means “no” to most of them…

You can find !Boot and all the latest stuff at https://www.riscosopen.org/content/downloads/common – poke around inside the harddisc4 archive. You’ll need the system resources archive too, for earlier machines.
You might prefer the riscos.com version for the older machine, but just be aware that time has frozen there…

John – When I started, !Boot was an Exec file, so nerr. ;-)

Looks like you can download the !Boot here

Ah – that’s what I was hunting for! I’d only found versions for older systems. Thanks!

John – When I started, !Boot was an Exec file, so nerr. ;-)

OK – you have seniority there, but you definately ain’t older!

I did like the DeskTop files and the System floppies – one seemed to be in control!

you’ll never be taller than me!

Size isn’t everything, John.

With the list of add on cards you’ve named, then run 4.03 and rename the existing !boot (i.e. don’t destroy it) and install a clean boot from the site named by everyone else.
You can use a bit of the spare space in the RPC case to tuck in a Pi and hack together a power supply from the RPC power.
Pop the USB and video lines from the Pi out onto panel on the rear of the RPC and you have both 4.03 and 5.2x at the same desk.

Or, if you have a spare podule slot (backplane connection not needed though) there’s the PiPOD

Just a quick update – after much prodding and poking, I managed to revive my existing !Boot structure (the current version of NetSurf – 3.9 – disliked most of the fonts I had installed).
This is being posted (hopefully!) using the RiscPC – thanks to all for links to the clean !Boot, which helped me narrow down the issue.

Great news. Well done!