Problems with CMOS values, monitor sleep-mode, ROM upgrades

There seem to be three simple main ways one can manage the “discs” on the RPi:

One can put it all on one SD card – this was intimidating early-on when the affordable cards were very much smaller!

One can put the main contents of the “HD” on an SD card, but choose to put the auxilliary apps and data on a separate memory stick, perhaps formatted under Fat32fs for DOS file interchangeability with other OSs. This was where I started.

One can put the RPi Boot stuff on SD card, but make this boot RISC OS itself from a memory stick formatted as SCSIFS. Thus only the “Linux boot level” stuff is on the card, and the RISC OS stuff, including Boot, is all on the stick.

All these methods work fine, but I am writing to highlight a “gotcha” I experienced with the first method: That is, having it all on one SD card!

Earlier I went through the “doing my RPi Boot” stuff on a second machine – until I discovered that it was possible managing it on a single machine as long as it was still working!

I have an Obey file SDFS::RISCOSpi_8.$.!OpenLoader which says:

| Open FAT partition
Filer_OpenDir <Boot$Dir>.Loader

which gives me easy access to my Loader file contents, reading the image file under DOSFS (or Fat32fs).

This is where my problems arose:

I made a back-up of my Loader file (directory/imagefile) on the same disc – actually in a Transient file. Big mistake!

Somehow – and I’m not sure of the mechanics of this – this became my Loader image, and any changes I made to the existing one in Boot made no difference.

The first thing I noticed was that my CMOS settings didn’t seem to persist; Then, trying to update to the current Beta ROM stopped working – it was always reported as a previous ROM I had used.

Eventually, prompted by advice from David Pitt that I may have a duplicate Loader file/image, I searched my card – but only to find later that the app SystemDisc could not only find a misplaced Loader file (image), but even replace it with the current one. This brought me back to normality!

So, my conclusion is that the single-card model could possibly give rise to such a set of symptoms, and, if experiencing such strange things, one should run SystemDisc and follow its advice to restore the status quo. I am continuing to use the single-card system now, but aware of the above potential problem!

It’s probably best to store back-ups of your Loader file/image on a separate disc under another filing system!

I hope this might help someone else as foolish as I was! If in doubt, use SystemDisc to reassure!

If anything is not clear, please chip-in to clarify, as I’m posting this to help any others who may make the same mistake!

I made a back-up of my Loader file (directory/imagefile) on the same disc – actually in a Transient file. Big mistake!

Copy the stuff within Loader, but never touch, move, or copy Loader itself.

Why? Because while Loader looks and feels like a file, the one you can see within RISC OS is cleverly positioned so that it encompasses and protects important information at the start of the device, so the ADFS device looks like a valid FAT partition to the bootloaders. It is applied magic, and if the Loader file is messed with, the entire disc structure needs to be recreated.
As such, there is utterly no point in copying Loader itself, it is impossible to restore it in the correct place. Just copy the files within.