VirtualRPC-DL which serial number?

I bought VirtualRPC-DL. Here are updates, but what serial number I have, because is was a direct download and I did not have a cd.

http://www.virtualacorn.co.uk/download.htm

Micky

I bought VirtualRPC-DL. Here are updates, but what serial number I have, because is was a direct download and I did not have a cd.

The -DL version is ready-to-run-out-of-the-box. It doesn’t (IIRC) have and doesn’t need a serial number, because that was only good to control the unlock code. Which you don’t need with the -DL variant.

Two different things here.

THe original VRPC from virtualAcorn comes on a CD. The “free downloads” are upgrades to the CD, and require the CD serial number. The licensing is tied to a particular hardware configuration on the computer too, which can be a real pain if, for example, a laptop decides to connect to a wireless network as well as wired, and requires a new license number as a result. It usually runs RO4 or 6, depending on which CD you bought. I think it may be possible to run RO5 on it as well, though I’ve never tried.

VRPC-DL is a free, standalone download. It runs RO 5. Unfortunately I can’t immediately find out where to download it from. I’m now using it instead of VRPC-SA, which I bought years ago, and kept tripping over the licensing problems.

VRPC-DL is not free, just less irritating than the previous ones. :-) http://www.riscos.com/shop/products/107/index.htm

Doesn’t look like the VirtualRPC-SA versions are on sale any more.

Hm, ok. I’m confused. Is it possible to update this version or not?

Micky.

Ask the vendor, but I would think not. I think it’s just the last release of VirtualRPC-SE for Windows minus the free and commercial bundled software.

Doesn’t look like the VirtualRPC-SA versions are on sale any more.

VA5000 and VRPC-DL which don’t need unlocking are here :
http://riscos.com/emulation/index.php

VRPC-SE , SA, adjust etc which are tied to specific hardware once installed and hence need an unlock code are here
http://www.virtualacorn.co.uk/product.htm

Hm, ok. I’m confused. Is it possible to update this version or not?

Maybe it can be updated, but nobody knows, because – to my knowledge – there was never a later version released.

The updates you found on the virtualacorn site are very old and for equally old CD-based versions of VRPC-SE and VRPC-SA. VRPC-DL already is the latest code available.

VRPC-DL is a free, standalone download. It runs RO 5.

VRPC-DL is sold currently for 25 UKP and most certainly not free. It is a standalone download however.

It does not run RISC OS 5 out-of-the-box, but RISC OS 4.02. Running RISC OS 5 on it is said to be possible, but by no means obvious.

It is not possible to make a update.

Boot sequence
Install is grayed.

Micky

AFAIK there aren’t any formal updates to VirtualRPC-DL. It is a much more recent product than the rest of the VRPC family, so its codebase is as up to date as anything VRPC-wise.

Of course, the actual OS/Disc image would certainly benefit from updates – you can use the !System update from the ROOL downloads or from !Store as a starting point, for example. Many of the bundled apps could also benefit from updates I suspect, simply because of the age of things.

However, I’d be careful of directly replacing/upgrading !Boot, since that is somewhat OS-specific and contains elements specific to VRPC.

Note, I think the problem here is a “language barrier” one. When you say you want to “upgrade” or “update” VRPC-DL, I’m not very clear on what specifically you want to update.

The RISC OS 4 disc image that is supplied with VRPC-DL can be enhanced by installing newer versions of programs etc, and following the instructions that come with those programs.

However OS4 never had an automated or formal “upgrade path”, and the same is true for VRPC-DL. Users are expected to install new programs and system resources as they see fit, in order to run the programs they want.

Don’t know if that’s really helpful… I’m afraid I heavily expanded/customised the disc image on the VirtualRPC-DL I use to the point where it doesn’t bear too much resemblance to the original.

For background, VRPC is a newer, cheaper release of VirtualRPC-SE with the copy protection removed. The 32bit-only floppy driver was removed for support reasons, as was the ATAPI CD driver. The disc image was pared back with the removal of many of the bundled apps, making VRPC-DL closer to a vanilla RISC OS 4 system “out of the box” (whilst still containing a few important extras).

Thanks for your answer.

As you can read here:

http://www.riscos.com/shop/products/107/index.htm

Directly read Acorn format floppy discs (requires an internal floppy disc drive, not USB).

This was the only reason to buy this software.

My idea was: Virtual-RPC-DL to upgrade with RISC OS 4.39 Easy upgrade – from RISC OS 4.02.

But it seems that this is not possible.

Micky

As the only reason for your purchase of VirtualRPC-DL was to access Acorn formatted floppies using the PC floppy drive, and if it does not provide this stated facility, I would demand your money back. Have you tried to see whether it does in fact work?

And note that the blurb also says:

Six months (from date of purchase) technical support via phone/e-mail.

Try getting in touch.

From what has been said on this site VRPC DL should work with WindowsXP 32bit and internal floppy – to access Acorn floppies.

and internal floppy

Important caveat: “internal floppy drive that is NOT connected via USB, but via a real floppy controller”. This is important to check because some of the laptops/notebooks at the end of the floppy era (especially those with “dockings” where you could put in your extra battery, or a CD-RW drive, or something else) were actually USB-based.

Which reminds me to try out the old Dell laptop that I bought exactly for the purpose of portable floppy access (for all kind of emulators). And to check Java old versions compatibility with my software.

I have a desktop pc with real floppy and real floppy controller.

My idea was to format a floppy disc in Acorn format and extract a disc image to it. All with Omniflop. I know that Omniflop works. I extract some Spectrum ZX 48 disc images to build floppys for the ZX 48. They works.

But VirtualRPC-DL always gives a error message:

Error when reading HostFS::Floppy.$-
Not found.

This means there is nothing on the disc. I can proof this with a formatted empty Dos disc. Same error messages. If there files on the Dos disc, then VirtualRPC-DL shows the directory from the disc.

What is wrong here?

Micky

Are you using Windows XP 32bit?

No, Windows Vista 32 bit.

Must it be Windows XP?

Micky

Error when reading HostFS::Floppy.$-

That sounds that you have created a HostFS mount of your floppy drive as it exists on the Windows side of things. Don’t do that. You need to configure the floppy drive from within RISC OS.

I don’t have a “real” floppy-equipped PC with VRPC-DL around at the moment, so cannot check myself. But the default config comes with a “RealFloppy” section, so it looks like it should be supported. Necessary dll for floppy access also there.

Does it work if you provide a floppy image from the VRPC-DL UI?

My floppyless images-only system says when clicking on the floppy icon :0 “Message from ADFS Filer – Disc not formatted” when not having “inserted” a disc image. I would expect the same with a physical drive.

Vista should be supported ok.
When I installed VRPC-DL on my PC it detected the Floppy Drive and the CD drives and the relevant Icons then appeared on the Icon Bar.

I click on the floppy icon and the contents are displayed

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Yh1M9fAiFSJFHxdgIKtxcMk6i1gCztjK?usp=sharing

>Does it work if you provide a floppy image from the VRPC-DL UI?<

Yes, it works.

>:0 “Message from ADFS Filer – Disc not formatted” when not having “inserted” a disc image. I would expect the same with a physical drive.<

With a physical drive and a disc inside I get the same message.

Formatting a disc gives:
Disc error 22 at: 0/00000000

I think the floppy is not detected from VirtualRPC-DL side. Because nothing happend. The led goes not on and the motor too.

The manual says:

Reading floppy discs

In order to read Acorn format floppy discs in RISC OS you will need a PC with a 32bit version of Windows and an internal ‘IDE’ floppy disc drive. It’s not possible to read Acorn format floppy discs using an external USB floppy drive as these drives are hardware designed to only read floppy discs with 512 bytes per sector. Acorn formatted discs have 1024 bytes per sector. You will also need to install the Direct Floppy Driver that’s supplied with VirtualRPC-DL.

There is no driver for Direct Floppy.

When I created a HostFS mount of the floppy drive it is detected.

>When I installed VRPC-DL on my PC it detected the Floppy Drive and the CD drives and the relevant Icons then appeared on the Icon Bar.>

What Windows did you use?

Micky

From his pictures it seems XP.

Have Linux softloads with Wine ever worked with VRpc DL Acorn floppy disc?