Out of date version of RISCOS in the NOOBS

Just downloaded the NOOBS OS from the raspberry Pi site and on running it, it provides RISC OS 5.19. rather then 5.20 or 5.21. is this being fixed or is there a newer version of NOOBS somewhere alse

I think both. There is a NOOBS V1.2.1 (27 Jun 2013) in the wings here but this contains RC10 (17 Jun 2013) which just updates the firmware. No doubt a later NOOBS is being worked on with RISC OS 5.21 and RC11.

Thanks for the information.

I just think keeping this NOOBS OS upto date since it now supplied as part of the Pi bundles in many cases and therefore is a good way to get RISCOS out to a wider range of people.

There is a NOOBS V1.2.1 (27 Jun 2013) in the wings here

raspberrypi.org has reorganised the download directory structure

http://downloads.raspberrypi.org/NOOBS/images/

http://downloads.raspberrypi.org/riscos/images/

A brief heads up – NOOBS v1.3 beta

This has an old RISC OS distro, OS5.19 (19 Mar 2013).

A 4GB SDHC card is just too small to install RISC OS. Had to rush out to Maplins!

It offers a multiple boot, I have installed both Raspbian and RISC OS on a 8GB card.

As well as getting the latest RISC OS release into NOOBS, would it be possible to have the BootLinux program that I’ve seen on some pinboards included?

Might encourage people to set RISC OS as the default OS, because it boots quickly, knowing that they can easily switch to Linux from there.

Eeek, tried out the latest NOOBS at London Raspberry Pint this evening, and the version of RISC OS on there is more out of date than I expected. It’s the version with the software mouse pointer and corresponding redraw issues :-(

It’s the version with the software mouse pointer and corresponding redraw issues :-(

I have just posted a little something to the NOOBS 1.3 beta forum

Having said that I am not sure what the order of business is, do developers need to submit both a NOOBS version and a Raw Image or is only one submission required and the RPi people put that in the right places in the right formats.

I have updated the NOOBS 1.3 beta offering to 09 Sep 2013 ROM and !Boot and it’s good.

I’ve downloaded the NOOBS 1.3 and installed RiscOS from that and I also get these software mousepointer and redraw issues – any ideas how to change this (perhaps even by myself ?). Actually pretty bad situation fro RiscOS, because this NOOBS is a superb idea.

Looking at the json files from NOOBS I would interpret it that it is the RC11 version …

I was hoping that ROOL had their act together.

RC11 was July 2013 and I saw that it had just missed the boat for NOOBS 1.2.1 (27 Jun 2013) which still had the RC8 (March 2013) RISC OS version with the firmware update which took it to RC10. I was hoping therefore that the next version of NOOBS (1.3, 27 Sep 2013) would have RC11.

There seems no good reason why it does not.

I guess the current NOOBS state is probably due to a shortage of developers, ROOL is a voluntary job and they’ve got day jobs.

Time for some DIY perhaps. To make a custom NOOBS partition see here – I say “see” but so far it is all a bit opaque on this Mac.

(NOOBS works better for me, it always boots up which is more than can be said for RISC OS RAW downloads. A number of cards and PSUs have been tried but to no effect.)

If they will take a submision from someone outside of the development of RISC OS :)

I was hoping therefore that the next version of NOOBS (1.3, 27 Sep 2013) would have RC11.

ROOL is a voluntary job and they’ve got day jobs.

Maybe if someone put the correct stuff together and others offered to test it, ROOL guys might be able to devote some time to giving it a once over and submitting it to the RPi Foundation (on the basis that whoever’s put it together/tested it is trusted not to have put any embarrassing Easter eggs in there).

Yes unfortunately that guide is kind of useless for providing a RISC OS image for NOOBS

Using Ubuntu I can now see the contents of the RISC_OS_Boot.tar.gz, it should be possible to create a more up to date version. The RISC_OS.gz file is a bit odd, the documentation states a tar.gz for the root, but this one isn’t, the archive does not appear to contain a tarball, SparkFS complains of an unidentified header and renaming the file RISC_OS.tar.gz produced a similar error on Ubuntu.

In NOOBS version 1.3 RISC OS 5.19 (Mar 2013) seems to have regressed to the older version that does not have VCHIQ and thus uses a software pointer, leaving trails of bits of mouse pointer behind it on the screen.

This looks terrible – is there a reason for this regression please?

I have tried some of the suggestions found in the forums:
Changed to RISC OS 5.21 from 7 dec 2013:
still mouse trailing and display blocks damaged in some way; and still not possible to move the mouse to the bottom or the sides of the screen.
changed the !Boot to newer version 9 nov 2013:
no effect on mouse and display problems
used NOOBS: version 1.3.2

I also did *help vchiQ and got

==> Help on keyword VCHIQModule is: VCHIQ 0.05 (03 Mar 2013)

I don’t know how to test if a ‘software mouse’ is in use?

Hi Rien.
How have you changed to RISC OS 5.21 ?
To be certain that you are actually running 5.21, click the middle mouse button (the wheel on modern mice)on the ‘switcher’ icon (far right of the icon bar)and click on the info text. A window should pop up and this will tell you what version of RISC OS you are running. Judging by your version of VCHIQ it looks like you’re running the RC8 (old) 5.19 version with the softloading VCHIQ.

FWIW, I’m running RO 5.21 (08-July-2013) here, no mouse problems and everything works smoothly.
*Help VCHIQ shows the same version and date string as Rien.

I’m wondering if NOOBS problems are Pi firmware related. If it doesn’t work out of the box, what happens if you try up/down grading the firmware? To the version used on the standalone RC8 or RC11 image for example?

(FWIW, I’m running RO 5.21 (08-July-2013) here, no mouse problems and everything works smoothly.
*Help VCHIQ shows the same version and date string as Rien.)

I have RISC OS 5.21 with VCHIQ version 0.05 and still have mouse trails; what did I do wrong, or, what did Neil Fazakerley do to get a mouse without trails?

I have no problems with RISC OS 5.21 with a single boot SD card; only when I use a NOOBS multiboot card wih RISC OS choosen, I get this mouse trails.

We’re working with the RPi guys to update RISC OS in NOOBS. Something broke between us giving them an image that worked and them adding more OSes into that image – I presume they updated the firmware or something without realising that it would probably break RISC OS. If we can, we’ll bring it more up-to-date.

The question is how up-to-date. There seems to be a lot of high risk development going on in the OS so do those of you who are using the RO dev builds on the RPi have a view as to which ROM and Disc build (by date) results in a sufficiently stable combo?

The question is how up-to-date. There seems to be a lot of high risk development going on in the OS so do those of you who are using the RO dev builds on the RPi have a view as to which ROM and Disc build (by date) results in a sufficiently stable combo?

How about RC11, since that’s the version you’re making available to download as a card image on it’s own, that way both individual card and NOOBS card would be the same version, making support perhaps easier.

RC11 I think is the only single version that has been well tested by more than a handful of users. So it gets my vote!

Rien, I gave up using NOOBS and just made up a card using the RC11 (5.21) download from the ROOL software page.

I find it very stable and reliable, so it would get my vote too for a NOOBS update.

Cool. We’ve gone with RC11, thanks all.

I just had a look at the download site for NOOBS; the latest one is 1.3.3 the docuemnts don’t explain yet what the difference between that one is compared to the version 1.3.2. I started a downlad to find out if this mightbe a version that fixed the mouse trailproblem..