RC2 - heading towards the finish line

It’s good to see RISC OS 5.30 reach another milestone- Release Candidate 2 :)

For anyone looking to test, it currently only contains the ROMs with a green status.

It’s good to see RISC OS 5.30 reach another milestone- Release Candidate 2 :)
For anyone looking to test, it currently only contains the ROMs with a green status.

Sadly for IMX6 owners it’s mostly a tale of red lights.

It’s good to see RISC OS 5.30 reach another milestone- Release Candidate 2 :)

And you even guilted me into updating the wiki page :-)

And does it include an IPv6 stack, by any chance?

<stir><stir> ;)

I’m also hoping it’s included in this release, then we might see the level of trust go back up.

@John re: imx6, it appears from the text behind the status indicator that it’ll be dealt with.

I have just noticed that RC2 includes roms for the Titanium and some obsolete machines (Beagleboard, Pandaboard and Iyonix) as well as the HardDisc. No rom yet for the Raspberry Pi, nor Pinebook Pro so can’t do any testing at the moment. Will wait for Rob to provide an update before trying it on the Titanium. The harddisc RC2 seems to work on my CM4 and Pi4B, using the ROD stack and the daily rom.

I hope we are not spending extra time on the obsolete machines – it might be better to cease support for Iyonix, Beagleboard and Pandaboard to force their users to buy new machines and support the platform.

It might seem like a practical argument, and certainly, would improve things for some people. Yet those systems are still in use and some people have upgraded to the latest versions of RISC OS. Anyway, perhaps a new topic for another thread.

;) If you throw a large sum of money at ROOL I suspect someone could take a week or two off work, and deliver the RPi image earlier.

The Pinebook Pro I suspect may be handled the same way as the imx6.

Yes, RC1 didn’t contain any ROM images, and RC2 contains four for testing.

@stuart ;) sorry, I did that, but I appreciate you’ve updated the wiki, thank you. :)

To also help get the release across the finishing line, as we know, giving what’s there a spin will assist, including user guide feedback.

force their users to buy new machines

The beatings will continue until morale improves.

RC2 InSituBootUpdate has been applied to an OS5.29 RPCEmu instance without any noticeable issues. The ROM reports itself as 5.31 (26-Jan-23), as expected.

There is one minor proviso in that the IOMD !Boot is setup for a softload environment which RPCEmu does not support. The ROM was manually installed into RPCEmu’s ‘roms’ folder and !Boot.Choices.Boot.PreDesk.Configure.!Run updated probably entirely unnecessarily.

A bit later ChangeFSI is missing!

Force the Users – bit like forcing people onto
Pre payment electric meters for their own good.

Why electric is dearer paying in advance than after you have used it -I don’t know!

to force their users

Because forcing things always works well.

I hope we are not spending extra time on the obsolete machines

I would imagine the biggest impediment is the RiscPC, but since that’s what the emulator is…

That being said, isn’t there a logic that these older machines ought to be sufficiently mature that there really shouldn’t be that much architecture specific stuff to do?

and certainly, would improve things for some people

[citation needed]

Why electric is dearer paying in advance than after you have used it -I don’t know!

The same reason why electricity price goes through the roof when the price of gas goes up (and has come down, but has electricity?).

I won’t say any more, it would not be polite, suffice to say that CEOs should be the first against the wall…

older machines ought to be sufficiently mature

You could argue that, but as RO5 has not yet caught up with even the 2004 RISC OS API, I can understand why some would like all infidel unbelievers to drink the communal kool-aid and stop asking for awkward things like compatibility with published interfaces and a SWI mechanism that doesn’t corrupt R0.

Maybe that’s just my unforced thinking though.

Why electric is dearer paying in advance than after you have used it -I don’t know!

My electricity (Economy 7) is 54p/unit day time plus 59p per day standing charge. Prepayment charges should be no more than about 60p per unit (to allow for the standing charge) – if they are any more than this it is a rip off!

I would imagine the biggest impediment is the RiscPC, but since that’s what the emulator is…

Yes both emulators (RPCEmu and VRPC) are based on the Risc PC – I presume that is something we can’t change. At least Impression will work on RPCEmu without the need for Aemulor. ROOL are not very happy about emulators but can’t really do anyhting about it.

Pre-payment tariffs includes the costs of paying off existing arrears, debt recovery charges, and the price of the meter itself, (they also factor in how likely it is to be bypassed to the nearest lamp post). For all those not paying their bills who manage to avoid getting a pre-payment meter, the costs are passed on to those of use paying our bills in full.

I am keen¹ to see an emulator that does not emulate any hardware at all, but is merely a Tube-like virtual machine inside its Host OS.

¹ Not so keen as to actually make one though

a softload environment which RPCEmu does not support.

Are you sure about that? I have done a lot of testing using Softload on RPCEmu recently, and most combinations seem to work. Softloading 5.29 over 5.28 certainly works.

Are you sure about that?

I have to say that I was convinced that softloading is not supported on RPCEmu. So I had a deeper look.

This in !Boot.Resources.SoftLoad.!Run is not going to get very far if OS5.29 is in use :-

| Check OS version and run user prompt...
RMEnsure UtilityModule 5.29 Run <SoftLoad$Dir>.Prompt

Updating the RMEnsure to 5.30 runs the softload. Pressing ‘y’ shows the softload diagnostic but there os no restart, the boot just continues to OS5.29.

Stopping the boot immediately after the softload shows :-

Yes - softloading

Internal error: abort on data transfer at &0000C1EC

Better News Updating the Softload App to 1.22 fixed it. Softload 5.29 to 5.31 works.

P.S. Softload 1.22 was built locally from git.

if they are any more than this it is a rip off!

Holy crap. Mines half that, in € not £.
You were saying?

but can’t really do anyhting about it.

Oh, I dunno, they could maybe try a bounty for a system inspecific emulation like I mentioned years ago and nemo just said above? Might be more useful than reinventing a wheel that’s already been invented… <stir><stir>

Pre-payment tariffs includes the costs of paying off existing arrears, debt recovery charges, and the price of the meter itself

That’s what they tell you. I know a guy down in Somerset on a prepay meter. It was there when he got the place. His tariff is quite a bit more than the standard, but he likes the meter because it means he doesn’t need to worry about big bills turning up. He’s going through about £1,800 a year. Can’t help but think the “convenience” of not having to worry about bills means he’s coughing up far more than he should have to.

it is a rip off!

This is always the case with energy companies. Ask yourself why, with smart meters that can record and report your exact consumption, do the suppliers dip into your direct debits with fictitious amounts when they feel like it. Somebody else I know is having problems because the supplier doubled the direct debit “to anticipate the rise in energy costs” (or some bollocks like that) while the meter is actually reporting the exact opposite because they’ve cut back on heating. It really ought to be made illegal for an energy company, with a client using a smart meter, to debit one single penny more than the bill justifies.
But, alas, we live in a would where it was considered okay to break into people’s homes to change the meter in a time when energy prices have gone completely gonzo.

the costs are passed on to those of use paying our bills in full

And there’s another thing. If I understood the news at the time correctly, you’re all going to be paying more because bulb (or something like that) went bust.
Why?
What the hell does their crap business management have to do with you? Strip assets from the directors and board, consider the rest a write-off. The failure of an energy supplier should never be the problem of people who weren’t even involved with them.
But, alas, you’re the swine from which the urine is extracted, and that’s more or less how company directors and the government see you.

Anything else on this topic probably ought to go to Aldershot…

Is there an intention to add the roms for Titanium and Raspberry Pi to RC2 – they are both showing yellow on the readiness chart but the three issues have been around for a while and are only shown as ‘desirable’?

This in Run is not going to get very far if OS5.29 is in use :-

| Check OS version and run user prompt…
RMEnsure UtilityModule 5.29 Run <SoftLoad$Dir>.Prompt

Updating the RMEnsure to 5.30 runs the softload.

Just a thought sparked by reading this – is this an opportunity to extend the boot selection?
Perhaps a softloader setup that allows the user to select between a number of releases, like say 5.28, 5.29, 5.30, 5.31.

Probably of more use to a developer testing on a range of OS revisions than a general user.

Perhaps a softloader setup

Watch this space! Or if you want to help test such a setup, please contact me directly.

select between a number of releases

I swapped in the IOMD 5.29 rom to my RPCEmu without problems today.
To multiselect roms from linux perhaps creating a redirecting symlink as needed, before running the emulator command.
This could be done by using multiple launcher menu items, or running a script prompting for rom version, retaining the link until the script is run again.
For softloading RISC OS, prompting can’t be done by Obey, I guess BASIC can be run pre-desktop though.
Edit: I think passing arguments to the initial supervisor would be done with the selected drive’s Plink Boot file or directory.

I’d be more than happy to try the new OS image on my mini.m but unfortunately the iMX6 image on ROOL website might be good for ARMX6 but for mini.m with no mouse and keyboard the usability is slightly limited.

Perhaps you care to offer that image pre-compiled for both variants – I did try to figure out how compile but the learning curve…

I’d be more than happy to try the new OS image on my mini.m but unfortunately the iMX6 image on ROOL website might be good for ARMX6 but for mini.m with no mouse and keyboard the usability is slightly limited.
Perhaps you care to offer that image pre-compiled for both variants

As far as I can tell from a brief (< 5 minute) check, the ROOL hosted sources don’t have all the bits to support the mini.m – notably there are various CuBox switches in the sources but nothing ever sets that switch, so it’s iMX6 only for now.

Even ignoring that, it’s a little odd to require two different ROMs for what is essentially the same platform with the same CPU and mostly the same peripherals. The HAL could presumably auto detect at runtime like it does on the Risc PC (spanning 2 architectures and 3+ board variants) and Raspberry Pi (spanning 3 architectures and 12+ board variants) and the various OMAP variants. That’d cut down on support headaches and the need to test everything twice too.

Is there an intention to add the roms for Titanium and Raspberry Pi to RC2 – they are both showing yellow on the readiness chart but the three issues have been around for a while and are only shown as ‘desirable’?

Clearly not – RC3 is now (today) available for download and still no roms for Pi or Titanium. Shall we have to wait for RC4? RC5?