Pandaboard ROM of 18th February and firmware

I have upgraded my Pandaboard ROM to the Beta OMAP 4 ROM, OS version 5.23, dated 2017-02-18. !Store now crashes when it attempts to contact the server at the beginning. Also !UnitConv and !Thump both crash, but didn’t before. The previous version of the ROM was 5.23 dated 2015-07-05.

I notice that the latest Pandboard firmware on Chris Gransden’s website has an extra file, preEnv/txt. I haven’t copied that into Loader. What does it do?

The previous version of the ROM was 5.23 dated 2015-07-05.

That was the last version before the zero page protection changes IIRC, it’s a bit of a big leap forward in ROM revisions you’ve done

1. Have you made sure to add the ZeroPain module to your HardDisc install?
2. If so what logs does it generate when the application crashes occur?

I assume you are using v. 2.35 of UnitConv. I thought that was ok under ZPP ROMs. Could you let me have (privately) zeropain logs (email address should be in the help file). If it is not a zeropain problem, then the error message and any other info woulod be useful.

The previous version is a zero page protection ROM and nothing was generated in the zero page log. !!ZeroPain module is in Choices.BootPreDesk. !Store, !UnitConv and Thump, amongst others, have generated zero page errors before, but not this time: they just crashed out.
According to !UnitConv.Docs.index/txt it is version 2.20, although when I run !Help it says it’s version 2.35! It has the same date, 28/11/2012, as the current one on your website. It didn’t generate anything in the ZeroPain log.

!UnitConv and Thump, amongst others, have generated zero page errors before, but not this time: they just crashed out.

Could you contact me privately with the details, in particular what action you were undertaking when UnitConv ‘crashed out’.

!!ZeroPain module is in Choices.BootPreDesk.

Did you install the new !!ZeroPain application folder from within the ROM archive, to replace the old !!ZeroPain module? The original 2015-vintage ZeroPain won’t work with modern OSs unless you’ve patched it; the new one, in the application folder, will.

I will update my PandaBoard ES tomorrow with the latest ROM and check the operation of UnitConv.

Ahhhh, Steve (Fryatt) you are so right! Naughty me, I always ignore !SDCreate, InstallHD4, etc. in the ROM archive and just go for the ROM, as I just copy it in and forget the rest. I will not offend again! After updating the ZeroPain module and double-clicking on it, everything was back to normal with !Messenger (RComp), !Store (RComp), !Thump, !UnitConv throwing up their usual zeropage errors, especially !Messenger. Before I read your reply, I thought there might be something wrong with the Zeropage logging as I was getting no entries from the usual suspects.
I didn’t see any warning about needing to update !!ZeroPage. I wonder how many others have made the same mistake?
I would still like to know what preEnv/txt does as that’s another file I have ignored – it’s only 29 bytes, but may be it does something important.

Just want to add, thanks for replies from both Steves and Chris so soon.

everything was back to normal with !Messenger (RComp), !Store (RComp), !Thump, !UnitConv throwing up their usual zeropage errors, especially !Messenger

Not apps I use myself, but they’re not listed in the known buggy list. Have you reported them to the respective authors (!UnitConv yes) ?

everything was back to normal with !Messenger (RComp), !Store (RComp), !Thump, !UnitConv throwing up their usual zeropage errors, especially !Messenger.

Messenger & maybe Store using SSL which has a zero page issue?

Yes, I have reported all of them except !Store and !Thump. I rarely use !Thump and neither of these two throw up many errors. !Messenger matters a lot to me, because it rapidly fills up a ZeroPain log file which I then have to delete or rename. On the plus side, RComp did update Hermes, but told me that updating Messenger would be a much bigger job and they couldn’t justify correcting it at the moment. See the subforums SecureSockets, SecureSockets/SSL and SecureSockets Bounty in the General and Bounties forums, respectively, for the underlying problem.
As for !UnitConv version 2.35, the latest date of the files of !UnitConv is November 2012, some time before issues of Zero Page blew up. I reported the zero page errors in this thread.
Related to all this is that I have asked in the Pandaboard “FileCore in use” subforum of Community Support where one can get a ‘low vector’ version of a recent ROM for the Pandaboard (as one can for the Raspberry-Pi), but not had a reply yet. I have meticulously saved out ZeroPage logs of all the applications and utlities that I use and reported the errors for most of them; but., whereas some authors, e.g., Martin Avison, updated their software to comply with Zero Page protection (well done Martin), others have not. There is precious little I can do more in the way of logging and reporting these errors, I feel I have done my bit, and so now want ‘low vectors’ versions of the ROMs for all my computers, Raspberry-Pis (B, B+, 2 and 3), Pandaboard, Beaglebaord, ARMX6 and, not to be forgotten, my Iyonix and RiscPC. I can get the ‘low vectors’ versions for some of these computers, but not yet for the Pandaboard.

As for !UnitConv version 2.35, the latest date of the files of !UnitConv is November 2012, some time before issues of Zero Page blew up. I reported the zero page errors in this thread.

UnitConv is maintained by Chris Johnson and he’s pretty responsive to error reports.

Mind you it does say it uses the ROL toolbox so the actual problem may lie there and be beyond his sphere of influence.

See the subforums SecureSockets, SecureSockets/SSL and SecureSockets Bounty in the General and Bounties forums, respectively, for the underlying problem.

Time to chip some dollars into the replace-crusty-SSL-module bounty which just opened, hopefully RComp will be stumping up some cash too if it’s a key component of Messenger as well.

Everyone should be proactively nagging authors of -NULL pointer bugs-applications as you have, it’s no good hoping they’ll go away or just seeking out a low vector OS, the bugs are still there. If an odd black patch appeared on your foot, just covering it up with socks and hoping it’ll get better isn’t going to stop your toes rotting off!

If an odd black patch appeared on your foot, just covering it up with socks and hoping it’ll get better isn’t going to stop your toes rotting off!

Amputate. I’m not going to specify the medical or ROL code distinction :)

Seeing as UnitConv is getting an airing here, I think I better ‘fess up’. I fixed a ‘zero pain’ occurrence a while back, but the updated !RunImage doesn’t seem to have made it into the release versions. I know I sent out fixed versions at the time to the two people who reported problem. The version I have on my hard drive here doesn’t give any pain that I have found, but as it has had a few features added, I had better test it some more before making it in to an official release. If anyone would like a preview let me know.

Thanks for putting the new version of UnitConv, V2.36, on your website. I have tried it with a few conversions, and it hasn’t thrown up any zero page errors. That’s another piece of software I can remove from my list of failures. Good.

Thanks for putting the new version of UnitConv, V2.36, on your website. I have tried it with a few conversions, and it hasn’t thrown up any zero page errors. That’s another piece of software I can remove from my list of failures.

Good to hear it is ok. Haven’t actually announced it yet, although it is now available also via !Packman and !Store.