Raspberry Pi 4

’d rather make the instructions a little bit daunting at present.

I can see clear logic in steering people with a less technical spirit away from any problems to avoid them forming a negative mentality about the system.

Go with that.

I’d rather make the instructions a little bit daunting at present.

ROOL have described some of my wiki pages as “overly complex” so you may get your wish :-)

Anyway, the wiki pages are all online now.

One new page:

• Installing RISC OS on the Raspberry Pi 4

and several updated pages:

• config.txt
• Software information: Raspberry Pi: Firmware
• Raspberry Pi 4 port status
• Software information: RaspberryPi: Beta RPi ROM
• Raspberry Pi questions and answers

Comments welcome.

Thanks to Chris and AndyM I have RISC OS on my Pi4 and Task Manager reporting 4GB of memory. It was straight forward to create the SD card and power the Pi4 using the Ace4U hub as recommended by AndyM. Only issue was having to wait 3 weeks for the Ace4U hub to arrive in Australia.

Obviously the potential for ‘Fuster Cluckery’ when following these instructions is high. Follow them at your own risk.

It’s possible to update to the latest RPi4 boot loader and USB firmware using RISC OS and also update the boot loader config.

These instructions assume you are using a USB SD card adapter. It’s safer that way.

First create a FAT32 formatted SD using ‘fat32format’. Fat32Fs and Fat32Format are available from https://sites.google.com/site/jeffreyadoggett/.

Copy the fat32format command to the RAM disc. That way you can remove the OS SD card
so there no danger of formating the wrong card. As an extra precaution unplug all other drives.

The micro SD card slot on my SD card adapter appears as :3.

RAM::RamDisc0.$.fat32format -v  -f32 :3

Raw media size: 0 KB - 0 sectors
Available size: 952 MB - 1949696 sectors
WARNING: INCONSISTENT SIZES!
512 Bytes Per Sector, Cluster size 2048 Bytes (4 sectors)
Volume ID is 1104:0F16
32 Reserved Sectors, 3794 Sectors per FAT, 2 fats
485519 Total clusters - FAT32
Partition offset is 0x800 sectors
FAT 1 is at sector 0x020
FAT 2 is at sector 0x0EF2
Root directory is at sector 0x01DC4 which is aligned to a cluster boundary
Warning ALL data on drive '3' will be lost irretrievably, are you sure
(y/n) :y
Formatting drive :3 ...
Clearing out 7624 sectors for Reserved sectors, fats and root cluster...
Initialising reserved sectors and FATs...
Format complete

Download the latest firmware using wget from http://www.riscos.info/packages/arm/Network/wget_1.19.4-2.zip.
These are the latest beta versions. The latest release versions are in a different location.

To be able to update the firmware a signature file for each firmware file is required.

sha256sum pieeprom.bin >pieeprom.sig1
cut -d ' ' -f 1 pieeprom.sig1 >pieeprom.sig
sha256sum recovery.bin >recovery.sig1
cut -d ' ' -f 1 recovery.sig1 >recovery.sig
sha256sum vl805.bin >vl805.sig1
cut -d ' ' -f 1 vl805.sig1 >vl805.sig

The ‘sha256sum’ and ‘cut’ commands are available from riscos.info. http://www.riscos.info/packages/arm/Utilities/coreutils_8.23-2.zip
You may need to use PatchSWP to get them to run on a Pi4.

Copy all the required files onto the fat32 formatted SD card.

*ex
Dir. Fat32fs::Fat32_3.$ Option 00 (Off) 
CSD  Fat32fs::Fat32_3.$
Lib. Fat32fs:"Unset"
URD  Fat32fs:"Unset"
pieeprom/bin WR/WR   Text      08:47:12 22-Mar-2020  512 kbytes
pieeprom/sig WR/WR   Text      08:47:12 22-Mar-2020   65  bytes
recovery/bin WR/WR   Text      08:47:12 22-Mar-2020   86 kbytes
recovery/sig WR/WR   Text      08:47:12 22-Mar-2020   65  bytes
vl805/bin    WR/WR   Text      08:47:12 22-Mar-2020   97 kbytes
vl805/sig    WR/WR   Text      08:47:12 22-Mar-2020   65  bytes
*

Remove the fat32 formatted SD card and place it in the RPi4 SD card slot and reboot. While the
firmware is updating the green led briefly flickers slowly then flickers very fast continously when finished.
Place the OS SD card back into the RPi4 SD card slot and reboot again.

After successfully booting into RISC OS the firmware version can be checked.

*vcgencmd bootloader_version

Mar 19 2020 14:27:25
version 940f978d13e45be9baef77f3f4a13b76a832f7b4 (release)
timestamp 1584628045

The boot loader config can also be updated from RISC OS. Luckily the command on Raspbian is a pure python script.
Just grab the rpi-eeprom-config file from ‘/usr/bin’.

*vcgencmd bootloader_config
[all]
BOOT_UART=0
WAKE_ON_GPIO=1
POWER_OFF_ON_HALT=0
DHCP_TIMEOUT=45000
DHCP_REQ_TIMEOUT=4000
TFTP_FILE_TIMEOUT=30000
TFTP_IP=
TFTP_PREFIX=0
BOOT_ORDER=0x1
SD_BOOT_MAX_RETRIES=3
NET_BOOT_MAX_RETRIES=5
[none]
FREEZE_VERSION=0

To extract the current bootloader config,

python27 rpi-eeprom-config pieeprom.bin > bootconf.txt

Edit the bootconf/txt file and update it to your required changes. In this case enable the UART.

[all]
BOOT_UART=1
WAKE_ON_GPIO=1
POWER_OFF_ON_HALT=0
DHCP_TIMEOUT=45000
DHCP_REQ_TIMEOUT=4000
TFTP_FILE_TIMEOUT=30000
TFTP_IP=
TFTP_PREFIX=0
BOOT_ORDER=0x1
SD_BOOT_MAX_RETRIES=3
NET_BOOT_MAX_RETRIES=5
[none]
FREEZE_VERSION=0

To create a new bootloader with the updated config,

python27 rpi-eeprom-config --out pieeprom-new.bin --config bootconf.txt pieeprom.bin
sha256sum pieeprom-new.bin >pieeprom-new.sig1
cut -d ' ' -f 1 pieeprom-new.sig1 >pieeprom.sig
rename pieeprom/bin pieeprom-old/bin
rename pieeprom-new/bin pieeprom/bin

Copy the pieeprom/bin and pieeprom/sig to your FAT32 formatted SD card created above.
Follow the same procedure above to update the firmware.

Once rebooted back into RISC OS check the boot loader config has updated.

*vcgencmd bootloader_config

Just some findings after playing with the RPi4 for a week:
- as proposed here I also chose the Ace4U-Hub solution (powered by USB plug 5V/3A). It works flawless (even if advertised only for RPi3 by the shop).
- for cooling I put a Noctua NF-A4x20 5V on the top case plate and let it blow down to the cpu, see pic below
- at first I was running that fan from the GPIO’s 5V full speed, which is a bit noisy. Then I switched from the 5V pin to the 3,3V, what works fine. It’s kind a out of spec of the fan, but even Noctua says undervolting is okay.
- even constantly overclocked to the max at 2147 MHz the temperature doesn’t exceed around 45°C (3,3V fan), or 40 °C (5V fan) according to !CPUclock
- from my benchmarks I see that the major benefit of the RPi4 compared to the RPi3 is not the IPC (instructions per cycle), it’s more the ability to clock that high and the memory speed (more than double) that drives performance.

even constantly overclocked to the max at 2147 MHz the temperature doesn’t exceed around 45°C (3,3V fan), or 40 °C (5V fan) according to !CPUclock

That’s remarkably low: my (uncooled, but not overclocked) Pi3 in an open case is currently recording 62.7 deg.C and seldom drops below 52 deg.C.

it’s more the ability to clock that high and the memory speed (more than double) that drives performance.

Have you run ROmark? Any chance of some benchmark data?

@George: Did a run on ROmark now. Results here for ROmark6, weirdly ROmark4/5 report higher memory speed (rest is the same more or less):

RISCOSmark 2.06 (29-Mar-2016) by Richard Spencer 2003
Test                                                   Benchmark
Fast speed selected - 2147MHz.
Processor - Looped instructions (cache)                  5335441    2999%
Memory - Multiple register transfer                        65093   40180%
Rectangle Copy - Graphics acceleration test                 1352     558%
Icon Plotting - 16 colour sprite with mask                 56039    2801%
Draw Path - Stroke narrow line                             17112    1096%
Draw Fill - Plot filled shape                               3244     222%
Draw Render - Render draw file                              6493     716%
HD Read - Block load 8MB file                              23630     792%
HD Write - Block save 8MB file                              9581     315%
FS Read - Byte stream file in                                985     475%
FS Write - Byte stream file out                              175      91%

RISCOSmark 2.04 (30-Dec-2015) by Richard Spencer 2003

Memory – Multiple register transfer                        82531   50945%

I also compiled some of my own benchmarks results and some others here. Okay, the averaging in the last line is a bit ‘unscientific’ ;-) …but I was surprised that the pure CPU speed clock by clock wasn’t that much better than the RPi3 in general…in that respect I would have expected a bit more from the RPi4…or it just shows how good and efficient that Cortex M-53 still is. One day I’d love to see RiscOS on one of those Apple SOC’s, they should outperform anything else by far. Much better IPC than anything similar in the SOC market. Some of the benchmarks are not published yet in the latest version as I had to adjust the amount of cycles to gain more stable results.

@ Kuemmel: “Ask and ye shall receive”! Thanks for the comprehensive info. Pretty impressive improvement on previous Pis.

92.9MB/s

Colour me impressed.

Raspberry Pi’s talking to a router USB memory stick via LanManFS over gigabit LAN.

RPi3B+

*LanManSpeed
Running...
Saves MB/s 13.5135135
Loads MB/s 17.8571429

RPi4 – locally built EtherGENET – default clock.

*LanManSpeed
Running...
Saves MB/s 18.5185185
Loads MB/s 41.6666667

…interesting ! Just for me to understand those results: Is that with the local Ethernet port of the RPi4 or with the Ethernet by a USB2.0 connection ? So the local port works now on the Pi4 ?

Just for me to understand those results: Is that with the local Ethernet port of the RPi4 or with the Ethernet by a USB2.0 connection ?

It is the port on the RPi4.

So the local port works now on the Pi4 ?

The EtherGENET module is waiting to be merged. It is looking good so far.

Colour me impressed.

The same test in the other direction.

I’ve been using the Pi4 on the LAN today, has anyone else noticed that VNC is almost unusable? Seems really slow, but switching back to the WiFiHat VNC is fine.

Connecting to the Pi4 from a windows pc, the screen redraws in blocks when connected to the LAN.
(Using VNC Server v0.20)

@Chris: Do you download to / upload from RAMDisc or what kind of device on den RPi4 ?

I’ve been using the Pi4 on the LAN today, has anyone else noticed that VNC is almost unusable? Seems really slow, but switching back to the WiFiHat VNC is fine.

Same here. Trying it from a Chromebook and it does the authentication, and then just sits at ‘preparing desktop’ – I don’t get to see the desktop at any point. Well, not inside five minutes, because that’s the point I gave up waiting.

VNC seems to be working OK for me. However, one thing that did catch me out is that EtherGENET stores its configuration settings in CMOS, and the initial values were wrong – so I was initially connected at 10Mb/s half-duplex.

*Configure EGELink 0 Auto
*Configure EGEAdvertise 0 10 Half Full 100 Half Full 1000
*Configure EGEFlowControl 0 Full

Thanks Jeffrey, that sorted the problem!

Is there any development on USB?

Is the Ethernet on the USB system like the earlier pis? Or was it not there either and I’ve just mis-remembered things?

It used to be on the USB system, up to 3B+, but on the Pi 4, it’s separate.

Is there any development on USB?

Some. For the USB A ports the XHCIDriver module is now in the Pi ROM but effectively only as a placeholder with no Pi4 compatible driver at the moment. Verma shows it as dormant.

As far as I can tell, the new thing waiting to be merged is a driver for the onboard Ethernet (not a plug in USB one). What I find amazing is that it was only very recently added to NetBSD. Full marks to Sprow for noticing and implementing it so quickly!

Does anyone have a link to download a pre-compiled EtherGENET module? I missed the 1-2 day download window for DDE29, so I have the updates, but not the DDE itself (for now)! I am running on the 3B+ but with the latest RISC OS beta ROM, but can’t compile so can’t add the module.

(If there was a link to a pre-compiled RISC OS from the latest or recent betas, with the EtherGENET module present, that would be awesome; I am not using this on a ‘work’ system, but I can boot on the RPi4, just can’t connect up my Ethernet for VNC)

EDIT : I see there is an EtherGENET module within the latest beta ROM… It is only 5.6K in size, but the source code for EtherGENET (latest beta source) is also 1/10 the size of the EtherUSB source code. Doing ‘*RMReinit EtherGENET’ returns ‘unsupported hardware configuration’ (from the Rpi3B+).

The !Boot.Choices.Internet.Startup Obey file contains the setup for EtherUSB; I don’t have a back-feed USB-C power supply; is anyone able to post their .Startup Obey file (and / or the parts relevant to EtherGENET)? As that would be very useful in my attempt to make an SD card that boots on 3B+ and 4, without a keyboard or mouse on the 4 (just VNC)! :)

THank you!