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

The shortcut of !Laser and many be some other application (I can’t remember the name) vanished from the tray.

This means that the file $.!Boot.Choices.Boot.Tasks.Pinboard is not being run.

Also the default resolution of the PC changed to a low resolution. I was getting the recommended resolution alert while rebooting

This means that the monitor configure in
$.!Boot.Choices.Boot.PreDesk.Configure is not being run. The actual message you are seeing is coming from the monitor and not from the OS. You are presumably in a 640×480 mode.

Generally it means that your boot sequence is broken and a number of system configuration utilities are not being run. The question is – what has happened to break it.

Everything were very much Ok and suddenly a morning this problem started.

Assuming the machine is switched off at night something must have happened the previous day, while it was running to upset the boot sequence. This wouldn’t be noticed until the machine was rebooted or restarted.
Because the monitor configuration is not being run, it must be something in the $.!Boot.Choices.Boot.PreDesk directory. What files do you have in there? A jpeg of the filer display would do.

We may have to resort to downloading and using !Reporter to try to track what is going on.

Screenshot of $.!Boot.Choices.Boot.PreDesk directory
http://i.imgur.com/3j5fS.jpg
Downloaded Reporter from here
http://www.avisoft.force9.co.uk/Reporter.htm [http://www.avisoft.force9.co.uk/downloads/Report266d.zip]
Moved that to Iyonix drive and extracted !Reporter it to !Boot .
Downloaded Confix from the following link
http://www.xat.nl/en/riscos/sw/confix/ [http://www.xat.nl/riscos/sw/confix/confix.zip]
Extracted !ConfiX to !Boot.Resources .
Now followed the instructions here.
http://www.wrocc.org.uk/howto/article.php?id=bootlog
After configuring !Reporter, (I also enabled Logging option in Boot) clicked Save and this Window opened
http://i.imgur.com/Trpcb.jpg
and after a boot, got expected dialogue of !Reporter and found that it marked a few things as red.
http://i.imgur.com/8XnFp.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ZhY92.jpg
and the following error
http://i.imgur.com/SVPiM.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/WfoZe.jpg
(The last two screens are for the same errors, just too long to be captured by a single click.)

Please advice, if I did right, or, has to do something else.

Glad to see you are getting to grips with the OS now.

Configure !Reporter to make sure the Boot/BootLog is given 500 KB for the text size – this should keep all the reports during boot. Reboot. Once boot is finished, save the output to a text file (Reporter menu ‘Save’). This will save it in the configured save file path. If you are using RAMFS, make sure the RAM disc is large enough. Once you have the file – zip it up and send to me. I will have a browse through it to see if anything stands out.

Thanks Chris :-)
here you go
http://www.datafilehost.com/download-f0b160e5.html

OK – got that. It will take a wee while to go through properly. First impressions are that there are problems with the Printing dir contents with (perhaps) incorrect filetypes. Might be better for me to get back to you privately if I find anything significant. What state is the machine currently in after booting – eg. display, pinboard, apps booted (or not)?

Hello Chris,
Please view the video concerning your question.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6hhLdD0998

It’s not 100% clear what is preventing the computer to boot successfully. The !Laser application requires AemulorPro to be running but for some reason the boot setup has changed, possibly the desktop boot file has been ‘reset’. We have been in contact with Sujay and are keen to get him up and running again. My first immediate suggestion would be to try placing a copy of the AemulorPro module sitting in $.Utilities.Aemulor currently to $.!Boot.Choices.Boot.PreDesk. It had previously been ran from a desktop boot file.

Perhaps it’s best to troubleshoot this via email.

Kind regards,

James Carey, Support Group Coordinator @ Applied Photophysics

Hi James – welcome to the forum.

but for some reason the boot setup has changed

That seemed to be where we were heading.

The !Laser application requires AemulorPro to be running

That could well explain the 26-bit warnings. I think it best that, for the time being, we leave it to yourself to try to sort the problem. However, if you have any queries you think we might help with do ask.

Hello James,
Thanks for your attention. Peter Lachmann from your company have contacted me recently by viewing this topic here and gave me some instructions for troubleshooting the issue :-)
Anyway, I used your suggestion and copied _Aemulor _ directory from $.Utilities to $.!Boot.Choices.Boot.PreDesk. But after a reboot screen resolution changed to 640X480. So, I moved back to previous configuration.

And to fix the error pop-up, I deleted the modified Printing directory and copied back the original one and the error pop-up have stooped showing. But the problems with !Laser remained; it still tells that Printer module is not 32 bit.

Suggest you put all your known 26bit programs in one Directory – along with Aemulor.
And only run Aemulor when you must.
PS – what program is !Laser?

Hi guys,
Peter sits next to me at work so we’ve been discussing your problem. I was brought up using RISCOS machines so thought I’d jump in.

Without knowing exactly what is the cause of the problem in the boot sequence, I feel providing a working discimage for you is probably the best cause of action.

!Laser is a program that we supplied as part of a Laser Flash Photolysis scientific instrument. I have another idea regarding the !Laser error but want to check with a colleague before suggesting it.

I have now had a look through the Reporter log that Sujay posted, and tried where possible to compare it with a log from my Iyonix.

A more recent post has said the older !Printers was reinstated and the error has gone away, thus I will ignore the errors related to running !Printers and the printing directory.

There is one thing that looks odd.

Compared to my output it appears !Resource in the Choices>Boot.PreDesk directory is not being found and run. There is a lot of stuff relating to !Resource that is missing.

The output in the log is:

11:59:25.70 [Appl/] IfThere <BootResources$Dir>.!Resource Then /<BootResources$Dir>.!Resource

11:59:25.70 [Appl/] If 0 Then /<BootResources$Dir>.!+Resource

11:59:25.71 [Appl/] Echo <11><23><8><5><6><0><0><0><0><0><0><11>

In my log the resource is found, the next line is If 1 Then, and there then follows a lot of lines relating to running the !Boot etc in !+Resource.

Not sure if that is any help.

[The pluses in the above are treated as ctrl chars and turn on and off green text :(]

@James,
That’s so nice of you. I really appreciate it. Yes, getting an working discimage is always a good idea since I am running out of time in my current PhD project.
I am love to fix computer related issue so it is a great pleasure to know more about RISC OS while dealing with this issue. I would, therefore, be really happy if the problem can be solved via troubleshooting.
@Collin,
I am not sure if I indeed have 26 bit applications in my PC. I will try it anyway in the next week day.
@Chris,
Thanks for taking time to compare the log. So, can it be the cause of display problems?

Dear Everyone,
I want to let you know that, with the help of James and Peter of Applied Aphotophysics, I am able to restore our system to stable condition. I needed to use the the system image they sent to me.

What are your impressions of using the operating system, please? And how aware are Applied Aphotophysics of recent developments to the OS w.r.t. new ARM hardware? Thanks.

Hello Trevor,
Sorry for the delay in replying.
When I didn’t understand RISC OS, it was like an Alien to me. But thanks to this forum and helpful members like you, I became aware of it. And frankly speaking I have started liking it. But I still have to explore it more. Since we don’t have an internet connection and speaker, I am not sure, what experience those could bring.
Regarding Applied Photophysics, they are sure very helpful but I am not sure how aware they are recent developments to the OS w.r.t. new ARM hardware.

Thanks, Sujay.

On the off chance that someone/people may feel like working on some new RISC OS marketing material in the future, how would you feel about being quoted on any of the above?

I hope you have fun continuing to explore RISC OS!

post deleted

^{^} Spam! It’s for Windows.

And… Free trial? You know you can drop to the command line, DIR /X for the 8.3 names, and use those? Sheesh… ’doze users… :-P