RISC OS live cd

Would a live CD be a sensible possibility? (For Iyonix and IOMD)

I’m thinking of it containing a complete !Boot, so you would run the loader and it would load the entire system from CDROM, so that it would not require changes to the local !boot.

The aim would be for new users testing compatibility with their hardware, and demonstrations on club machines.

The boot sequence might need a bit of tweaking to avoid trying to write to the CD, and you’d need custom ROM images which are set to boot from CDFS (and maybe with CMOS writes disabled?), but there’s no technical reason why a live CD couldn’t be made.

To be really useful, I think it would need to be built automatically from the latest sources, this would probably help with the number of testers. Would that be a big job?

No bigger than any of the other things which we want to be built automatically.

Following on from this excellent idea, is there also the possibility of producing a live CD to run using RPCEmu? This is a suggestion which came up at one of our almost-a-user-group meetings in Bristol. Such a CD could then be offered to mainstream mags for consideration as a cover disk (or whatever the current terminology is).

Yes, that could be done as well.

There is however one problem with live CDs – we could really do with some kind of EDID support so that whoever’s using it doesn’t have to mess around loading the right MDF on startup. Although that would be a bit tricky for RiscPC’s where the hardware doesn’t support reading the EDID data :(

is there also the possibility of producing a live CD to run using RPCEmu?

Couldn’t if be the same CD? (A linux system booting into a an emulator that uses the same ROM image and !Boot)

we could really do with some kind of EDID support so that whoever’s using it doesn’t have to mess around loading the right MDF on startup.

In the absence of EDID couldn’t it have a single MDF with all the VESA standard modes, and come up in 800 × 600 @ 60Hz (in fact I’d be surprised if many monitors didn’t support 1024 × 768)

be the same CD?

Even better!

In the absence of EDID couldn’t it have a single MDF with all the VESA standard modes, and come up in 800 × 600 @ 60Hz (in fact I’d be surprised if many monitors didn’t support 1024 × 768)

Yeah, that would probably be the best way to handle it.

And to be on the safe side, if an emulator is being run on a smaller screen, make sure that it is the bottom right corner that appears on screen. (Emulator setting).

The boot sequence might need a bit of tweaking to avoid trying to write to the CD

M emphis with its scrap feature (or similar) and a choices app that can be run from any writable medium, (and perhaps a similar scrap app for when there is too little RAM)

a single MDF with all the VESA standard modes

On further thought, perhaps a sensible MDF for each monitor type, and automatically use the relevant one, starting in the most compatible mode.

The boot sequence might need a bit of tweaking to avoid trying to write to the CD

Is ArmBoot relevant here? "ArmBoot can’t contain Scrap, since the Boot URD it resides in is world read-only."