Beebit on Pinebook Pro

I get an error trying to run Beebit — “a suitable screen mode could not be found”. I’ve had a look at the source code; the message appears to be generated by some code that’s trying to set up a screen mode of 1920 × 1080 and checks for validity. The comments in the code suggests that this check will always fail…

Has anybody managed to get Beebit working on a PB Pro or an original Pinebook?

Have you tried Aemulor which I believe handles old non 32bit screen modes.

Aemulor runs non 32 bit code, I don’t think it does anything for screen modes.

Hi, I do have a version of BeebIt that works on the Pinebook Pro currently being tested.
The reason the current version does not work is because the Pinebook only supports 32 bit graphics modes and BeebIt does not.
Send me a message with your email and I can send you the test version to try out.

Does Beebit handle ROMs – I noticed on Stardot a BBC PCB designer that seems BASIC /Rom?

Michael: How do I send you a message? There doesn’t appear to be an obvious way.

Michael: How do I send you a message? There doesn’t appear to be an obvious way.

My email is in the !Help file of BeebIt and also at the bottom of my webpage.

Does Beebit handle ROMs – I noticed on Stardot a BBC PCB designer that seems BASIC /Rom?

Yes, BeebIt handles standard 8K or 16K ROM images.

Thanks Michael, version 0.75 works well on the Pinebook Pro.

I wonder if this is why some AMCOG games (eg Legends of Magic) come up with the same error on the Pinebook Pro?

Did you try Aemulor?

Michael: I found the link at last! Email sent.

Version 0.75 indeed works excellently on the Pinebook Pro. Congratulations to all involved. Now, if somebody could do something similar with ArcEm…

Version 0.75 indeed works excellently on the Pinebook Pro. Congratulations to all involved. Now, if somebody could do something similar with ArcEm…

Agree wholeheartedly. And 6502em would be good too

Now, if somebody could do something similar with ArcEm…

It’s possible to run ArcEm on a Pinebook by modifying the !Run file to add “—display std” to the command line parameters. Note that it currently has graphical issues with the mouse cursor, but as far as I can tell it’s an issue with how software cursor emulation is handled in RISC OS rather than an issue with ArcEm.

I don’t think it’s practical to add support for arbitrary screen resolutions to every single game or emulator that runs in full screen, though. It’s probably better to focus on fleshing out the PineVideo driver to expose more hardware functionality and providing either external compatibility layers or built-in upscaling in the kernel

It’s probably better to focus on fleshing out the PineVideo driver to expose more hardware functionality and providing either external compatibility layers or built-in upscaling in the kernel

On this point, I’m awaiting delivery of a Pinebook Pro so I can look at the GraphicsV driver. From the documentation I’ve seen, I believe its capable of mirroring VIDC20 and supports up to 6 overlays so a hardware pointer should be possible. It also has a hardware upscaler and supports down to 1 bpp so legacy modes should in theory be supported natively.

The caveat however is that as we’ve found out with the Pi video driver, if you try to use “advanced” features, you invariably find out there’s some major flaws and/or timing issues that make them unusable in reality.

EDIT: The above applies to the RK3288, not the RK3399 used in the Pinebook Pro

Apologies, it appears I was sent the wrong documentation. The RK3399 TRM shows support for 8bpp, RGB888, ARGB888 and RGB565 video modes, 6 overlays, a hardware upscaler and an 8bpp hardware cursor.

So, to correct myself. The Pinebook Pro is near identical to the Pi’s capabilities, so will require software emulation for legacy bpp modes.

From the documentation I’ve seen, I believe its capable of mirroring VIDC20 and supports up to 8 overlays so a hardware pointer should be possible. It also has a hardware upscaler and supports down to 1 bpp so legacy modes should in theory be supported natively.

Sounds nice! It’s a shame that the Allwinner A64 doesn’t seem to be as capable when it comes to pixel formats, but at least it claims to be capable of up to 4 overlays, so hardware upscaling and hardware pointers should be viable on the original Pinebook as well.

I don’t think it’s practical to add support for arbitrary screen resolutions to every single game or emulator that runs in full screen, though.

I probably ought to add that that there are plenty of cases where it is supporting arbitrary modes such as games that use vector graphics or outline fonts, or where sprites can be pre-converted to the screen format at load time. My point was more intended to highlight that it’s not always faster or practical to do this, so having improved OS support is often preferable.

It’s possible to run ArcEm on a Pinebook by modifying the !Run file to add “—display std” to the command line parameters. Note that it currently has graphical issues with the mouse cursor, but as far as I can tell it’s an issue with how software cursor emulation is handled in RISC OS rather than an issue with ArcEm.

Not on a Pinebook Pro, I’m afraid. You get an error message “parameter std not supported”. This is with the version of AcornMode (ArcEm) installed on the machine as purchased. !Help suggests 16bpp instead but that isn’t accepted either.

The version of ArcEm independently available does have std, but when I run it the mouse cursor disappears and the machine stops responding — middle click on desktop doesn’t produce a result, nor do any relevant keyboard shortcuts. Not just a display issue, therefore.

Not on a Pinebook Pro, I’m afraid. You get an error message “parameter std not supported”. This is with the version of AcornMode (ArcEm) installed on the machine as purchased. !Help suggests 16bpp instead but that isn’t accepted either.

What version of ArcEm is AcornMode based on? “—display std” was introduced in version 1.50 alpha 2 from 2012, so it should exist in any version since then.

The version of ArcEm independently available does have std, but when I run it the mouse cursor disappears and the machine stops responding — middle click on desktop doesn’t produce a result, nor do any relevant keyboard shortcuts. Not just a display issue, therefore.

Is this something that happens with other full screen applications, or is it just ArcEm? I haven’t encountered this issue with the original Pinebook, so I’m not sure what might be happening here.

Not on a Pinebook Pro, I’m afraid. You get an error message “parameter std not supported”. This is with the version of AcornMode (ArcEm) installed on the machine as purchased. !Help suggests 16bpp instead but that isn’t accepted either.

Just tried it on my PineBookPro and it works with the supplied version of AcornMode and also works with ArcEm standard supply as well.

Altered line in !Run is:

RMLoad <ArcEm$Dir>.ArcEmKey
<ArcEm$Dir>.arcem —rom <ArcEm$Dir>.ROM —display std —hostfsdir <AcornDrive$Dir>.hostfs —extnromdir /<ArcEm$Dir>/extnrom —memory 16M 2>null:

I’ve tried this exact command line on my machine, running the 21 Feb 2022 AcornMode on RISC OS 5.29, 20-Nov-22, and the computer hangs straight away (the previous time I tried it the display option was in a different place.

I haven’t installed any of the Beta upgrades.

Hi David,

I am running 5.29 20-Nov-23 ROM on the PBPro.

Not sure how to tell what version of AcornMode I’m running but it does work, at least here.