BootVar: Wrong setting ofBoot$ReadOnly

Hi,

as far as I realized it the new BootVar utility dated 22/Dec/2011 should set Boot$ReadOnly accordingly to the abillity to write to the boot device or not.

It seems it does this wrong, as my boot pendrive is certainly not write protected. So I ended up with Choices:, scrap in a RAMdisc loosing most of the configure settings after reboot (unless I copy I back by hand to Boot:RO510Hook)

There’s some natter in 22nd Dec Disc build issues, in case you missed it.

Detlef, I have uploaded a harddisc image here – http://www.robheaton.co.uk/riscos/harddisc.zip
It contains a working !Boot file.
(The image was built the day before !Boot was modified to support read only filesystems)

Hi guys. Anyone who’s had trouble with this should try a newer build (which I will upload tonight) and let me know if it still causes issues. I found a couple of bugs in the changes we’ve been making to get the “Live RISC OS” ROM image working and sadly these did affect people booting conventionally.

Hi Steve

I have merged the 13th Jan !Boot with my Beagleboard !Boot and can confirm that it does not break the !Boot sequence like the 22nd Dec one.

Thanks for sorting this

Doug

OK. The HardDisc4 image is still a beta with people (us mainly!) messing about with it so things will break now and then. What I hope to do is have a ‘stable’ and ‘development’ version, in much the same way we do with the ROMs.

Steve

Just to update you in that the 15th Jan !Boot image breaks the Iyonix !Boot sequence.

Basically it stops at the * prompt stating that it can’t find System.Modules.CLib.

This is when trying to boot into 5.16 on initial switch on of the machine.

The only Clib I can find is a non 32bit version as it is not found in the self extracting HardDisc4 images and the version in the PlingSystem image on the ROOL website is non 32bit.

Looking at the !System structure in the HardDisc4 image it does seem to have a lot of modules missing.

The same HardDisc4 image, 15th Jan12 , does however work on the Beagleboard so perhaps the ROM has CLib built in where as the Iyonix 5.16 ROM does not?

Doug

5.16 does have CLib in ROM, but it’s possible you’ve unplugged it for some reason (or perhaps something else has unplugged it for you). Try ‘*RMInsert SharedCLibrary’ and see if that fixes it.

Looking at the !System structure in the HardDisc4 image it does seem to have a lot of modules missing.

Any modules in particular? I think there are a couple missing when compared to the official disc image, but there are certainly enough to boot the system (I’ve succesfully used a ROOL !Boot on my Iyonix in the past)

Perhaps it’s because 5.16 has version 5.56 of SharedCLibrary, and System.Run is checking for version 5.66.

Perhaps it’s because 5.16 has version 5.56 of SharedCLibrary

You make a good point. I’d bumped up the RMEnsure because the 64 bit file extent C library functions got added and apps may well wish to make use of them.

There are 3 options

1. wait for 5.18 which includes the newer one anyway
2. manually change the RMEnsure
3. ask nicely to get a softloading SharedCLibrary for 5.00 up

Ah, beaten to the post by Sprow. But I’ll put forward an option 4 (unless Sprow is planning on doing it) – I’ll add the missing modules to the disc image.

By (3) I meant to add SharedCLibrary to the HardDisc4 distribution in the ‘500.Modules’ directory, which is your (4) I think.

Go for it!

Go for it!

Aye, I’m testing a build now. For the moment I’ll only be adding a RISC OS 5 compatible version of SharedCLibrary – that’ll be enough to make sure the boot sequence works on OS 5 again. For people attempting to use it on OS 3.5/4 (or even 3.1) I think I’m right in assuming that the recommended course of action would be to merge it with the new pre-OS 5 !System archive (aka ‘PlingSystem’) available on this page. That way the extra modules won’t clog up the hard discs of the people who are only interested in using the boot sequence on their 32bit-only machines.

For the moment I’ll only be adding a RISC OS 5 compatible version of SharedCLibrary […] For people attempting to use it on OS 3.5/4 (or even 3.1) I think I’m right in assuming that the recommeded course of action would be to merge it with the new pre-OS 5 !System archive (aka ‘PlingSystem’) available on this page.

The intent of the newly available !System is for pre RISC OS 5 users to have a set of the crucial bits and bobs updated. RISC OS 5 users can just use the HardDics4 ones which contain virtually nothing in !System since it’s all in ROM.

In theory a universal !Boot should still be possible to create from the sources, and hence a universal disc image, but that’s more work than my fingers could bear over Christmas.

I’ve added an OS 5 compatible version of CLib to the disc image, so the next time ROOL update the downloads page everything should be OK again.

The new HardDisc4 build is up now.

Note: I’ve fixed CreateSEC so it shouldn’t result in the self-extracting archives sometimes generating a “Memory cannot be moved” error. The new version is up on our site and the HardDisc4 self-extracting version uses the new code.

Jeffrey

I have now tried the latest HardDisc4 image that Steve has put up and it works on the Iyonix so thanks for the changes.

Using 5.16 and development ROM 5.17 (21 Nov 11) I get no errors at all with the new hard disc build.

I have also tried the 5.19 development ROM and got some issues.

1 – I got an error message from SetSound “Suitable softload driver not present for CD Drive 0” This was cured by using Joe Taylor’s excellent Toolbox app woth switch back to the Iyonix Toolbox modules rather than ROL’s versions. So something does not like ROL’s Toolbox modules.

2 – EasyFontPro v5.11 aborts on start up with “Internal Abort on Data Transfer at &20B6A460 – Internal code 63505”. The actual address using *Where states not in module and the address does change each time you try to start EasyFontPro but *Where always states it is not in module. The error code 63505 is always constant.

1 – I got an error message from SetSound “Suitable softload driver not present for CD Drive 0” This was cured by using Joe Taylor’s excellent Toolbox app woth switch back to the Iyonix Toolbox modules rather than ROL’s versions. So something does not like ROL’s Toolbox modules.

Were your toolbox modules unplugged in 5.16? The extra modules I added to the Iyonix ROM image recently will have caused the toolbox modules to change position, so chances are your CD drivers have been unplugged by accident.

It’s possible that unplugged modules are the cause of your second issue as well; I’d check *ROMModules to see if anything is unplugged which shouldn’t be.

Once 5.18 is out and you’ve flashed it to ROM chances are you should be safe to unplug ROOL’s toolbox modules and go back to using ROL’s ones.

Jeffery

I have done a *ROMModules listing for 5.16 and 5.19 and the only differences are:

5.16 – 5.56 SharedCLib is dormant but not in 5.19 for obvious reasons.

5.19 – SharedSound 1.09 as I have ROL’s SharedSound 1.11. I have tried it without SharedSound 1.11 but still get the SetSound error in 5.19 but not 5.16 if I have ROL’s Toolbox active.

Also some changes to ROM module numbers between the versions.

The other thing is that I have CDROMFS not CDFS running so in both the CDFSFiler is dormant.

*Unplug states no modules unplugges in either 5.16 or 5.19.

5.19 Dormant Modules are:

*rommodules
No. Position Module Name Version Status
1 System ROM UtilityModule 5.19 Active

109 System ROM RTCAdjust 0.10 Dormant
110 System ROM SharedSound 1.09 Dormant

112 System ROM Toolbox 1.53 Dormant
113 System ROM Window 1.72 Dormant
114 System ROM ToolAction 0.32 Active
115 System ROM Menu 0.36 Dormant
116 System ROM Iconbar 1.20 Dormant
117 System ROM ColourDbox 0.19 Dormant
118 System ROM ColourMenu 0.21 Dormant
119 System ROM DCS 1.12 Dormant
120 System ROM FileInfo 0.19 Dormant
121 System ROM FontDbox 0.18 Dormant
122 System ROM FontMenu 0.24 Dormant
123 System ROM PrintDbox 0.16 Dormant
124 System ROM ProgInfo 0.18 Dormant
125 System ROM SaveAs 0.19 Dormant
126 System ROM Scale 0.15 Dormant
127 System ROM TextGadgets 0.34 Dormant

132 System ROM CDFSFiler 2.47 Dormant
*unplug
No modules are unplugged
*help sharedsound
==> Help on keyword SharedSound
Module is: Shared Sound 1.11 (05 Feb 2007)
*help CDROMFS
==> Help on keyword CDROMFS
*CDROMFS selects CDROMFS as the current filing system

==> Help on keyword CDROMFS
Module is: CDROMFS 1.87 (06 May 2004) [UDF, 32bit]

Anyway not a big issue as disabling ROL’s Toolbox stops the Setsound error.

The main issue would be if EasyFontPro continued not to work post 5.17/5.18.

I’ll wait to see what happens in the official 5.18 and then report back any issues.

Doug