PopStar and ZeroPain

The latest available version of POPstar seems to be v2.05 (8-Feb-2003).
Is anyone else running it having ZeroPain logs with R1=0 and R15=8bf8 every time it starts?

If so, I think I have found a simple solution, as it seems to be caused by the lack of a token for ‘_TaskName’ in the Messages file.

If you add a line to that file containing
_TaskName:POPstar
then it seems to cure it for me.

I will notify the author when I am convinced it works!

There is a later version of POPstar, but it falls over immediately on a BBxM (haven’t tried it on anything else) with a postmortem complaining of an instruction at an address whose last digit is 6.

I have 2.06-ds.5 (19-Jun-2005) and with the _TaskName token added it is fetching and sending on my Raspberry Pi running OS5.23 (03-Jan-16) with no ZeroPain module.

This is particularly good news as Hermes is in terminal pain. Many thanks indeed.

POPstar 2.06-ds.5 is at :-

I’ve just fetched 2.06-ds.5 and installed it on my BBxM:

Internal error: undefined instruction at &0000B566

Any instruction on a non-word-aligned boundary would, of course, be undefined.

So why does it work on some platforms and not others? Is it an incompatible shared C library? Is it the decompression code that’s failing rather than the main executable?

A useful bit of information would be whether David’s using a Raspberry Pi 1 or 2, because there are some significant differences between ARMv6 and ARMv7, e.g. whether MOV pc,lr is an interworking branch

A useful bit of information would be whether David’s using a Raspberry Pi 1 or 2,

I was using a Mk2 Raspberry Pi above.

I have now tried 2.06-ds.5 on the Mk1 Pi and it still works in both ARMv7 and ARMv5 modes.

I’ve just fetched 2.06-ds.5 and installed it on my BBxM:
Internal error: undefined instruction at &0000B566

There’s a recompiled replacement !RunImage for POPstar available from here. It may fix the problem you are having.

There’s a recompiled replacement !RunImage for POPstar available from here. It may fix the problem you are having.

Indeed it does, thank you, Chris.

For the benefit of others, it’s a pity that the working parts are in two different places, but perhaps distribution rights interfere with integration.

The licence in the zip file on Joseph Heenan’s website says:

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

I won’t quote the conditions – they’re easy enough to dig out for yourself. It looks more or less like one of the BSD licences.

Vince Hudd is quite correct; there’s no issue at all with redistribution.

I would prefer, if possible, that we keep the situation of having a central location for the latest and best version. I am quite happy to give anyone who is well enough known in the community full access to the source repos on https://sourceforge.net/projects/riscosnet/ and I’d suggest that’s also a reasonable place to make new versions available from.
[If anyone particularly cared I’d be quite happy to migrate it to github, sf doesn’t have a great reputation these days I believe.]

github, sf doesn’t have a great reputation these days I believe.

I’m not surprised with a name like that!

I’m not surprised with a name like that!

Er, it’s SourceForge that doesn’t have a great reputation these days, not GitHub.

Since it’s using CVS on SourceForge (and I’m far more familiar with SVN), I’ve no strong views either way: CVS is messy to use, but so is Git (but Git is much more capable and powerful).

I’ve got some updates to POPstar somewhere, which were sent to me because I have commit access to the repository. Unfortunately I never did anything with them, as I’d put work on both to one side following a series of abusive emails about NewsHound’s use of Choices from a well known London-based developer and “character” of the RISC OS scene. Since the individual in question seems to have gone quiet of late, time permitting – and assuming that my SourceForce login can be rescued – I’ll see if I can get the changes fed back in sometime.

I’m not surprised with a name like that!

Trivia: The developer of Git also made Linux. One of those is derived from his name, and the other from his behaviour – by his own admission! :)

As a matter of interest – does PopStar do anything unusual?

It takes out RedSquirrel (RO 5.23) in a instant.

PopStar tries to connect – puff – emulator gone.

!NewHound – !NetSurf – !Sargasso – !TapirMail -!Otter seem to work ok.