" Filing system or path Zapuser:not present " error in Iyonix RISC OS 5

Hello,

We are having a computer with Iyonix RISC OS 5 installed for running Laser Flash Photolysis instrument.

http://www.iyonix.com/32bit/overview.shtml

We are getting an error while booting up the computer. The error shows like

Filing system or path Zapuser:not present

http://s8.postimage.org/fg43m1zz9/error.jpg

http://s18.postimage.org/6jxlaxyqx/error_1.jpg

And after pressing Cancel, the desktop become Low Resolution with many features disabled (Much like Safe Mode / Diagnostic Mode in Windows). We have no prior experience with this operating system and we are experienced with Windows and Linux only. So, all this seems very weird to us. So, please assist me considering as a totally inexperienced user.

Thank you.

P.S: The support personnel of the instrument is also not getting the problem properly.

Maybe a half removed installation of Zap http://zap.tartarus.org/ ? Try completely removing zap or reinstalling it.

We are getting an error while booting up the computer. The error shows like
Filing system or path Zapuser:not present

If Zap is installed, then its settings are stored in a directory (aka folder) !ZapUser which is inside (or should be) !Boot.Choices. (I assume from the jpgs that you are using an Iyonix). Something (presumably Zap) is looking for this directory during boot but not finding it because the filer path has not been set. It should be set by either the file ZapUser.!Boot or ZapUser.!Run.

The raising of the error is interrupting the boot process, and some features are then missing from the desktop, because they have not been setup.

You say you are inexperienced with RISC OS – how inexperienced?

A directory whose name starts with a ! is normally treated as an application and will be run (launched) when double clicked. However, if the SHIFT key is held down while double clicking it will open as a normal directory. You could try looking to see if !ZapUser is in !Boot.Choices.

Depending on your familiarity with RISC OS, we may need to take this one small step at a time.

Laser Flash Photolysis

Have you tried contacting Applied Photophysics? It might also be worth telling them that RISC OS now runs on some modern ARM hardware.

• "With the old RISC OS based Acorn computer now obsolete […]"
• Ligand Binding to Truncated Hemoglobin N from
  Mycobacterium tuberculosis Is Strongly Modulated by the
  Interplay between the Distal Heme Pocket Residues and
  Internal Water

Two other queries.

1. What version of RISC OS is currently being run?

2. Have any changes been made to the system recently, particularly boot? The system was presumably fine until recently.

Sujay – if you don’t mind (low cost) paid-for support, we (R-Comp) provide telephone tech support for RISC OS problems and should be able to solve this quite rapidly for you. It sounds like something is going wrong in the early !Boot stages, but it is quite difficult to diagnose from your posting. Our phone number is 01925 755043.

Sorry for the late reply. I haven’t expected such a quick reply actually :-) Thank you all.
@Wouter:
Can you please advice the steps to uninstall programs on RISC OS?
@Chris:
Thanks for your input. We are inexperienced means, we are not good enough to troubleshooting a problem, like installing, uninstalling, running a commands in this OS.
Thanks for letting me know about treating !directory as an application and a folder. So, are you wanting me to see if !ZapUser ‘folder’ is in !Boot.Choices?
The system was running fine until day before yesterday. Problem started while starting the computer yesterday.
And as I can see in the information in the system, it’s RISC OS 5.
@Trevor:
yup, we contacted Applied Photophysics. their on-phone instructions was not enough to fix the problem. Support personnel will be vising our institute in the coming week. But I am unsure if he will be experienced enough to fix RISC OS related problems because most moder setups of Laser Flash Photolysis runs on Windows (according to them).
@Andrew:
Thanks for your offer. We may take up the offer when everything fails. Thanks for the understanding.

Ok, I did something.
I went to http://zap.tartarus.org/download and downloaded v1.45 of Core [http://zap.tartarus.org/downloads/1.45/latest/zap.zip].
Extracted the files in a folder and copied it in the Iyonix PC.
I read the guide for Core Setup [http://zap.tartarus.org/documentation/manual/Chapter2.html#2.2.1] and tried both methods
1. Copied !ZapUser to Iyonix>!Boot>Choices [for RISC PC-style boot structure]
2. Copied !ZapUser to Iyonix>Apps>!Zap [not for RISC PC-style boot structure]
But executing !ZapUser in those directories gave the same error
“An application that loads a file of this type has not been found by the filer. Open a directory display containing the required application and try again.”
http://s7.postimage.org/56m4wjta3/Photo_0044.jpg
I am also getting the above error now while booting the computer. The previous error “Filing system or path Zapuser:not present” has gone.
Although I have very little experience with RISC OS, I am getting an impression that, the system has found ZapUser but can’t use it since it has not been installed. I also tried to copy all contents of Zap folder [!Boot, !Install, !Zap, !ZapFonts, !ZapUser and DDEU-Patch] into the said directories and tried doing the same thing, also executing !Install, with the same error screen.

@Chris: A screenshot of the OS version.
http://s14.postimage.org/ewilxnwtd/Photo_0043.jpg

Is Zap configured in the boot sequence? (That’s specifically for RO4 but should be generally applicable.)

Did you do the extraction from the zip on the Iyonix or on an other machine? If not, do the extraction on the Iyonix.
RISC OS uses metadata to distinguish file formats, the metadata gets lost when you do the extraction on an other OS.

@Wouter: Does Risc OS have any default Zip Manager? I guess InfoZip works on it, but I cannot find the download link.
@Trevor: I am going through the manual. Thanks for the link.

Does Risc OS have any default Zip Manager?

• SparkFS
• Infozip

You are running RISC OS 5.16, which while not the latest version, is sufficiently recent not to have too many problems. It is also very probable you have a normal RISC OS 5 !Boot installation. What we have to try to determine is where in the boot sequence things are going awry.

downloaded v1.45 of (Zap) Core

V. 1.48 is the latest version. I could send you a zip of that if you wish (would need a valid email address). The directory !ZapUser should be in !Boot.Choices and the directory !ZapFonts should be in !Boot.Resources. !Zap itself can be stored on the hard drive anywhere suitable.

The error message “An application that loads a file of this type has not been found by the filer. Open a directory display containing the required application and try again.” simply means that the OS doesn’t know what to do with that type of file, normally because an application that would deal with it has not yet been ‘seen’ by the OS.

Install/uninstall on RISC OS is generally rather simple – i.e. the application can usually just be copied to any suitable location, and uninstalled by deleting it. What is probably more relevant is running applications automatically at boot.

If you click on the Iyonix drive on the iconbar, the root directory should open. If you double click on !Boot you should get the configuration tool open. You should see an icon ‘Boot’. Click on this. In the new window that opens, there should be an icon ‘Run’. Click this. You should see a list of all apps that are run at boot. Is Zap one of them? If so, you can stop it being run at boot by selecting it and the clicking on remove (this will not uninstall the app, simply stop it being run at boot, you could still run it manually). We are assuming at the moment that Zap is the cause of the original problem – may not be.

The alternative is ‘Look at’. This list all items that will be ‘booted’ eg all their sys variables set etc but will not be actually run. Much of this list will be greyed and these items cannot be changed, but anything in black has been added by the user and can be removed if necessary. Does Zap appear in this list?

Another check you could do is the following. After booting, press CTRL-F12. This should open a taskwindow, which will allow you to execute commands from the command line.

Enter *Show zap * and press return. The trailing * (without a space before it – which appears to be needed to stop it turning the text bold rather than being displayed) is a wildcard character and so any system variable starting zap will be matched. You may see a whole lot of output, or none at all depending on how far Zap got in being launched. A normally run zap may well set 50 or more different variables.

Entering *show by itself will list all the system variables that have been set, including any set by Zap.

When you have finished with the taskwindow you can simply close it using the close icon in its titlebar.

Where is Zap actually located on the hard drive?

When there is a problem during boot it can be difficult to pin down, because the error may cause the later part of the boot sequence to be skipped. We need to find where the boot sequence is failing, trying the easier things first.

First put the zip on the Iyonix, second change the file type to “archive” or “DDC”, third double-click on the zip. If there is already a programme that can open zip files than your zip file will be opened in a file window. From there you can copy it to the right place.

Setting a file’s type
Every file has a file type, which determines what happens when you double-click on a file icon. For example, files of the type Text are loaded into Edit, files of the type Obey are interpreted as lists of commands to be carried out, etc.
To change a file’s type:
1 Select the file whose type you want to change.
2 Press Menu and go to the Filer/File/Set type writable icon.
3 Enter the file type, in normal text or as a hexadecimal number.

Sorry for the late reply. It was weekend as you can understand.

@Trevor:
Thanks for the info :-)

@Chris:
I can find is the v 1.47 of (Zap) Core. You can send me the latest version sujay.ghosh[at]saha.ac.in

If you click on the Iyonix drive on the iconbar, the root directory should open. If you double click on !Boot you should get the configuration tool open. You should see an icon ‘Boot’. Click on this. In the new window that opens, there should be an icon ‘Run’. Click this. You should see a list of all apps that are run at boot. Is Zap one of them? If so, you can stop it being run at boot by selecting it and the clicking on remove (this will not uninstall the app, simply stop it being run at boot, you could still run it manually). We are assuming at the moment that Zap is the cause of the original problem – may not be.

Zap is not one of them
http://i.imgur.com/lZf4M.jpg

The alternative is ‘Look at’. This list all items that will be ‘booted’ eg all their sys variables set etc but will not be actually run. Much of this list will be greyed and these items cannot be changed, but anything in black has been added by the user and can be removed if necessary. Does Zap appear in this list?

All are grayed out.

Another check you could do is the following. After booting, press CTRL-F12. This should open a taskwindow, which will allow you to execute commands from the command line.

Enter *Show zap * and press return. The trailing * (without a space before it – which appears to be needed to stop it turning the text bold rather than being displayed) is a wildcard character and so any system variable starting zap will be matched. You may see a whole lot of output, or none at all depending on how far Zap got in being launched. A normally run zap may well set 50 or more different variables.

Entering *show by itself will list all the system variables that have been set, including any set by Zap.

Show zap gave the following
http://i.imgur.com/o8M6C.jpg
*Show gave many things like you said and in the last part gave info about Zap.

@Wouter:
Thanks for the info. I did that by chaning the file type to DDC and copied !ZapUser in ZapFonts in !Boot.Resources. !Zap in Iyonix directory.
Surprisingly after doing that the error after boot is not being shown. But I faced some other problems. While executing !Zap, pressing Ctrl + F12, executing !Laser (our flash photolysis application), I am getting same error Window as the following
http://i.imgur.com/peyXj.jpg
Clicking on describe gave the problem details:
For !Zap
http://i.imgur.com/L40ml.jpg
For Ctrl + F12
http://i.imgur.com/mpDJJ.jpg
For !Laser
http://i.imgur.com/ySu3F.jpg

Show zap gave the following
http://i.imgur.com/o8M6C.jpg

The output shows that you are still using Zap 1.45 which is unsuited for the Iyonix (it’s not 32-bit compatible). You’ll need at least Zap 1.46, so please upgrade first then report back here if you still have problems.

Blimey, I can’t believe I’m giving advice on Zap now. I’ll just redeem myself by saying:

Ahh, that’s better. ;-)

Zap is not one of them
http://i.imgur.com/lZf4M.jpg

OK, so nothing has been added to run at boot.

Show zap gave the following
http://i.imgur.com/o8M6C.jpg

It looks as if Zap has been installed in $.!Boot.Apps. That means it will appear in the Apps available from the iconbar.

For Ctrl + F12
http://i.imgur.com/mpDJJ.jpg

You have installed an old version of Zap that is not 32-bit compatible and will not run on the Iyonix. I have sent a zip of the latest Zap with some simple notes on installation to your ac.in address.

For !Laser
http://i.imgur.com/ySu3F.jpg

You also have an old 26-bit version of !Printers, which the !Laser control program is trying to load – not sure how this happened, the Iyonix would have had a 32-bit version preinstalled. The latest version of !Printers for the Iyonix is available on this site under ‘Software’, but I think you have to download the complete HardDrive4 archive as a bz2/tar archive. I could send you just the !Printers application.

@Fred : Thanks for your help :-)
@Chris: I did what you suggested. Removed old copies completely, and copied v 1.48. Problem seems to have almost solved since I can run Zap and also Ctrl + F12 perfectly without any error.
I also downloaded !Laser in HardDisc4.tar.bz2. But I was not able to delete the existing copies in the Iyonix. It was telling that some files are locked. So, does it have some files running? If, so, how to stop those and delete.

I also downloaded !Laser in HardDisc4.tar.bz2. But I was not able to delete the existing copies in the Iyonix. It was telling that some files are locked. So, does it have some files running? If, so, how to stop those and delete.

I hope that is a typo above, and you meant !Printers. When you get that error message, it means files have been locked against deletion (for safety).

If you have a filer display open – it should be $.Printing open, showing the app !Printers – then you can delete locked files by doing the following:

Click MENU (middle mouse button) over the app (in this case) !Printers (make sure nothing is previously selected in the display). Follow the menu
App !Printers>Access>Access details and tick the appropriate settings ie locked should be No, owner read/write Yes and Recurse ticked. When you click OK that directory and all files/dirs in it will be set to not locked and can then be deleted in the normal way.

The alternative (which is probably much safer initially) is to Rename the $.Printing directory to something else, eg ZPrinting, so it will not be found by the OS, and then copy the whole of the Printing directory out of the downloaded Harddrive4 image onto your harddrive in the root $ directory. Ensure !Printers is not running before you do this. This will now become your Printing directory with the !Printers application etc. You may then have to install again the printer definition file as appropriate for your printer or printers after rebooting and running this new version. If other printer drivers have been added to the original Printing directory, then they can be recovered later if required before the renamed ZPrinting is finally deleted.

much safer initially

It’s worth noting that there’s currently no built-in facility for undeleting files.

@Chris: Yup, that was a typo :-)
Ok, I renamed the existing Printing directory and copied the Printing directory from HardDisc4. Now while executing !Laser I am getting the same error
http://i.imgur.com/ySu3F.jpg
And while executing !Printers I am getting the following error
http://i.imgur.com/nRLuc.jpg
To trace the error, that is why !Run is not there I analyzed those files in Windows and found that the Printing directory in HardDisc4 has files with different name, i.e. " !Run has the name !Run,feb " and many other files have similar name. I also analyzed the original files copied from Iyonix. Those do not have such names, i.e. !Run is !Run . For solving that problem I renamed all those files in HardDisc4 like !Run,feb to !Run , !Sprites,ff9 to !Sprites . But while copying those renamed files folder to Iyonix and tried to execute, I got the following error
http://i.imgur.com/wXQV9.jpg
This means that Iyonix is not able to recognize those files anymore.

!Run,feb

That’s the filetype. They’re lost if not unzipped under RISC OS.

Yes. As has been mentioned previously in this thread, if archives are extracted on a non-RISC OS machine, then the filetype information is lost.

RISC OS does not use file extensions such as .txt, but stores the filetype as part of the file attributes in the disc catalogue. These are lost on other filesystems such as fat or ext. Some RISC OS networking software tries to get over this limitation by adding the hexadecimal value of the filetype to the filename when storing it on a non-filecore formatted medium, and when the file is accessed from RISC OS the filename and filetype is translated back to the RISC OS form. In your case, the ,feb extension is the hex value for an obey file.

I am still puzzled how you come to have 26-bit only modules on an Iyonix. Check that there are not any 26-bit printer dumper modules in $.!Boot.Choices.Printers.

How to get around the filetype problem?

1. Always transfer the archive file to RISC OS and then unpack it using RISC OS software. There is a bz2/tar unpacking tool on the software download page of this site which is self unpacking so you do not need anything else to unpack the tool in the first place. You just need to set the filetype of the downloaded file.

2. Go through the tedious process of not only having to rename each file, but setting its filetype as well (menu over the file in the filer display and follow the menu file>set type and enter the hex value of the filetype for that file).

3. I downloaded the harddrive4 image a couple of weeks ago, so the easiest may be for me to extract the Printing dir and zip it up and send you. It will still have to be unzipped on RISC OS to preserve the filetypes.

Thanks Chris and Trevor for the information :-)
and thanks Chris for the archive. $Root directory is the Iyonix directory i guess. I will do that and will inform you.

I too have no idea how all software suddenly changed to 26 bit. Everything were very much Ok and suddenly a morning this problem started.

Hello Chris,
I downloaded the print.zip from your mail and copied that to RISC OS in my thumb drive and placed it to Iyonix Drive. Then I changed the file type of print.zip to archive and opened it by double left click and dragged the printing directory from there to Iyonix Directory. I also placed the printers folder (containing all the printers information) in the printing directory. Still I am getting the same error.
http://i.imgur.com/lPzct.jpg
I also rebooted and tried to same thing without success, even on the boot I am getting the error.

One thing I forgot to mention is that after the problem started in the first place, some things changed.
1. The shortcut of !Laser and many be some other application (I can’t remember the name) vanished from the tray.
2. Also the default resolution of the PC changed to a low resolution. I was getting the recommended resolution alert while rebooting
http://i.imgur.com/0OiSc.jpg
I tried to set PC to that resolution, but it was not listed under 60 Hz.
May be this has some relation with the problem.