RO Direct 2.1 (March 2023)

Was just looking at the RISC OS Developments page and noticed there is a new version of their RISC OS Direct image. Version 2.1 dated March 2023. It states that “v2.1 supports latest Pi4 revisions and contains app updates for 4GB+ RAM”. When I go to the page here: https://www.riscosdev.com/direct/history.html there is a link for more info that doesn’t seem to go anywhere.

Has this been discussed somewhere? I am having trouble finding any further info. The only link I found was on *. where it mentioned that it now works on Pi4 v1.5 systems.

Am particularly curious as to if it supports up to 8GB Ram?

Does the standard RO OPEN ROM support 8GB ?

Thanks in anticipation of any help/further info.

where it mentioned that it now works on Pi4 v1.5 systems

It does indeed.

Am particularly curious as to if it supports up to 8GB Ram?

Does the standard RO OPEN ROM support 8GB ?

8GB support remains work in progress. I believe it is intended that that should appear in OS5.31 at some point.

v2.1 supports latest Pi4 revisions and contains app updates for 4GB+ RAM

I think what that actually means is that StrongED is updated to a version that does not fail with more than 2GB RAM.

thanks David – not sure where you find the detail but thanks for the insight into 8GB and ROS5.31.

I think that 8GB appears to RISC OS as 4GB. StrongEd has been updated to work in 4GB (and thus 8GB). Daily roms need updated Pi firmware.

I don’t think ARM’s equivalent of Physical Address Extensions is planned for RISC OS anytime soon, so having more than 4GB isn’t much use – unless you run Linux on the remaining 4GB and 3 cores.

I don’t think ARM’s equivalent of Physical Address Extensions is planned for RISC OS anytime soon

LPAE support

I believe Organizer also had an update to correctly indicate >2GB of RAM, rather than always reporting 2GB on 4GB systems. The main changes were to the firmware and the mentioned applications – hence it was just a .1 release. Important to support the latest hardware revisions, so that new users don’t stumble at the first hurdle.

LPAE support

I missed that was actually being worked on – well done to all concerned.

mmm… an 8GB PiROM beta release this weekend. might have to have a play with that later this month

an 8GB PiROM beta release this weekend. might have to have a play with that later this month

PythonAlpha4 as found on the ROD Direct distro crashes in the Kernel of the 8GB rom. Double click on !Python3 to open an Edit TaskWindow, close that window and then try to do something else. That old Python is not good with OS5.28 either.

The current Python 3.8.8 is OK however.

PythonAlpha4 as found on the ROD Direct distro crashes in the Kernel of the 8GB rom. Double click on !Python3 to open an Edit TaskWindow, close that window and then try to do something else.

It goes into an endless loop of errors requiring a power restart.

One of the errors was in Organizer, which is run at startup. Delete that setting and the crash goes away. If Organizer is subsequently started then the crash returns.

Organizer has been updated to more accurately report free RAM on machines with over 2GB. May be there is another issue lurking, somewhere.

Python3 Alpha4 + Organizer 1.61 is the combination to avoid.

Python2 in the ROD Direct distro seems OK.

8GB support is beta so there may be surprises in store, but it is stable here with my usage of RISC OS.

Thanks, David. Hopefully, the distribution in its next incarnation releases with the latest version of Python, until then, enjoy the playlist.

DPlngScan 1.29 as supplied with the ROD Direct distro fails to start up on the 8GB RPi4B with the supplied 4GB only OS 5.28 ROM. The error box simply says “ENOE”. It is OK on a 2GB RPi4B.

DPlngScan 1.33 does startup on the 8GB RPI4B in 4GB mode OS5.28 and in 8GB mode with my OS5.29 Long Descriptor ROM.

P.S. DPlngScan. Main changes in version 1.30.
Changes to various memory management functions to allow operation on hardware with 4GB of RAM, when all of which is accessible to RISC OS, such as the 4GB RaPi4

Thanks for the bug reports, David.

However, it would be appreciated it if you reported them to us directly via email rather than posting on ROOL’s forum (assuming you’d like to see things resolved speedily). We’ll try and look into this ASAP, although replacing Python might be more then a decimal-point update patch allows (the zip needs to be small enough to transfer in from other OS’s via the FAT partition). We’ll see what we can do :)

DPlngScan 1.33 does startup on the 8GB RPI4B in 4GB mode OS5.28 and in 8GB mode with my OS5.29 Long Descriptor ROM

David – do I understand correctly that DPScan 1.33 works fine on an 8GB Pi?

David – do I understand correctly that DPScan 1.33 works fine on an 8GB Pi?

At the time that meant that DPScan made it to the iconbar on the 8GB machine which is more than the earlier version did. Briefly tested further it renders a jpeg, converts it, renders the new format and displays exif data. I have clicked on a few menu options without breaking anything. I don’t have the TWAIN module so cannot test that bit of it. It’s good so far, but not exhaustively tested. If there is anything specific to look at just ask.

HTH.

One of the errors was in Organizer

If you have problems with Organizer please email me with details and I will investigate. See help for contact details.

It’s good so far, but not exhaustively tested.

OK, thanks David.

I hope that the changes that were done to fix 4GB problems will mean that it holds up on 8GB as well.

I haven’t received any reports of problems on 4GB machines since the fixes, but maybe there are not many 4 (and now 8) GB hardware being used.