Error Message on RPI Boot

Hi,

With the help of Malcolm and Andrew, I finally got my Pandaboard ES going which is very exciting however this morning I woke up to a new error message on my RPI. Whenever it boots up, I get the error message “Not enough memory” with the option to cancel. When I hit “Cancel” it boots into the desktop and I have no more problems. Is there a way to get rid of this message? I did a quick search but didn’t come up with a definitive answer to help me. I am quite new to RISC and very, very, very ignorant about how the OS works compared to Linux, BSD, OSX, or Windows.

Many thanks in advance for any help!

Assuming you haven’t added any programs to start up at boot that are causing the problem.

Try this:

1) open !boot folder/app (shift doubleclick)
2) open utils folder
3) open the BootRun file in edit (shift doubleclick) and near the bottom after

AppSize 512000

add

AddToRMA 256K

on the next line and save.

If that doesn’t work try

AddToRMA 2560K

If it still doesn’t work remove the line you added. Thats not the problem.

Hi Colin,

Thank for the suggestion. I tried both 256K and 2560K and neither solved the problem. Any other ideas?

Have you had it working?

Have you added any programs recently?

Yes it was a clean install from a day or two ago. I have installed the newest bleeding edge version of Netsurf, Messenger Pro, NetFetch, and WeatherUK. I don’t have anything really on here so I might wipe the SD card and see if I can replicate it later this evening installing each one of those apps and then rebooting.

It’s likely that you have made a program start up when you switch on the pi and thats causing the problem.

Yes, that’s not a big problem…

I am quite new to RISC and very, very, very ignorant about how the OS works compared to Linux, BSD, OSX, or Windows.

I use Windows, I respect Linux, I like OS X, but I really love RISC OS. So funny… so closed to the hardware… so much BASIC :)

It’s likely that you have made a program start up when you switch on the pi and thats causing the problem.

and

I have installed the newest bleeding edge version of Netsurf […]

It’s not the problem with !Cache is it? It seems to error in this way for some people, and not for others. I don’t think any of the RISC OS-using developers can see the problem (certainly I can’t reproduce it), so if anyone here can shed any light we’d like to fix it.

The culprit ladies and gentlemen is NetFetch. I did a fresh install of RISCOS as I did a few days ago and one by one installed each app making sure to reboot after each install. I had no problems until I install NetFetch and now I have the “Not enough memory” error again.

If I delete NetFetch, the error message goes away.

Any ideas??

What (if any) other tasks have you set NetFetch to launch when first run?

All I had done with NetFetch was copy it over to my Apps Dir then I rebooted. Didn’t even start it.

Mmmhhhh, something is wrong in the NetFetch !Boot file…

I just reinstalled NetFetch and it gives me the error again. This is what my NetFetch !Boot file is…

IconSprites <Obey$Dir>.!Sprites
|
Set NetFetch$Dir <Obey$Dir>
|
If “<File$Type_AAC>” = "" Then Set File$Type_AAC DialUp
If “<Alias$@RunType_AAC>” = "" Then Set Alias$RunType_AAC Run <NetFetch$Dir>.!Run %%*0 If "<File$Type_AAB>" = "" Then Set File$Type_AAB DialAcc If "<Alias$RunType_AAB>" = "" Then Set Alias$@RunType_AAB Run <NetFetch$Dir>.!Run %%*0
|
Repeat Filer_Boot <NetFetch$dir>.Apps -Applications -Tasks
If “<SysLog$Dir>”="" Then Filer_Run <NetFetch$dir>.Apps.Boot

If netfetch (Or any app that is suspect) has a directory within choices then you need to remove it before trying a reinstall. It could be a setting saved in there that is the culprit!

NetFetch is designed to have very few external dependancies, the idea being that users can “nuke and reinstall” if things don’t work. However, I must admit I’ve never come across such a problem with it in all its years (12?). Doesn’t mean there isn’t a first though!

If you feel like experimenting, put a vertical bar (comment) character in front of the line that begins “Repeat Filer_Boot”. This may well stop the problem, but prevents things like Hermes being “seen”, which is not so good.

Alternatively, if you don’t have NetFetch in Apps, but rather a folder called Internet, does the error occur when you enter that folder? Gut feeling – I wouldn’t encourage NetFetch in Apps, but that’s only because it sort-of makes more sense to me to have it in Internet or Networking. I tend to load it at startup (Boot → Run) rather than it being in apps. Pinboard is also good place for it.

However, I’d prefer to do back’n’forth support via email in private, please – you know the address :)

Of course. I will start with your suggestions and we can continue this via email.

Yep, it’s something inside <NetFetch$dir>.Apps that cause the problem.

Your version of NetFetch is probably a bit old. Old versions of NetFetch did have problems with recent versions of RISC OS…

After a similar report recently, I have been looking into this today in detail.

It turns out that the error is not from NetFetch, but rather triggered by !Cache (from NetSurf) in !Boot.Resources which fails to properly allocate wimpslot before running anything.

I’m not sure who to report bugs to for !Cache – it’s part of NetSurf I guess? Anyone from the NetSurf crew around (Rob?)

Basically, the error occurs if Syslog has been seen before !Cache. !Cache will proceed to run and execute things without any wimpslot commands. I’ll see what I can do from my end, but running things without wimpslot commands seems, erm, “optimistic”.

To the Cache author. I’m not sure its still maintained though.

Last time I looked the official Cache distribution included some of the author’s own cache. That was removed from the version we ship with NetSurf:

http://source.netsurf-browser.org/netsurf.git/commit/riscos/distribution?id=f2ba35133be84e0ec24a2dc756a5719623674f1a

OK, well, if you’re putting out another version, can I suggest an addition of a wimpslot -min 128k -max 128k before the

Run <Cache$Dir>.!RunImage

line. ie.:

wimpslot -min 128k -max 128k
Run <Cache$Dir>.!RunImage

Note that 128k may be too much – I haven’t experimented.

The problem stems from this trying to interact with SysLog, and running out of resources. NetFetch triggers the problem only in the sense that NetFetch contains a copy of SysLog, therefore if NetFetch is seen before !Cache, it’ll try to use Syslog.

I have created a (REALLY UGLY) solution by adding a wimpslot -min 640k line on the end of the !SysLog !run file. Since that’s the usual RISC OS Next slot, I think it’s a reasonable “unspecified” value to give whatever called !Syslog (in this case !Cache). However, I really don’t like it as a long-term solution, and any better suggestions are welcomed.

any better suggestions are welcomed

Suggest to the NetSurf support people that updating the Run file to include the wimpslot line would be a good idea (which you’ve already done)

Post on c.s.a that anyone using a current NetSurf which uses !Cache should edit the Run file themselves and give the reason for the change.

Mail known NetFetch users with the same information.

Keep a file with the text of the solution handy for when people complain.

As you say adding things to the end of the NetFetch instance of SysLog is ugly, and wouldn’t do a thing to a machine like my RPC or Iyonix where SysLog is started in the boot.
On that basis the NetFetch copy is ignored and therefore what you might do to alter the Sylog copy issued with NetFetch would have no effect whatsoever.
That’s the problem with trying to do work arounds for other peoples mistakes…