Pi4B 8GB - Supported?

Is the Pi4B 8GB supposed to be supported by the RISCOS images?

I have a Pi3B up and running and was testing something so thought I’d try on a 4B 8GB and it doesn’t boot. As a matter of interest, nor does an older version of Raspian on the 4B 8GB.

It looks like the boot code has changed.

Anybody confirm or otherwise?

The Pi itself is fine and boots a current Raspian off sdcard or usb.

I’m using riscos on a pi4b 8gb:

# rpi-eeprom-update
BOOTLOADER: up to date
   CURRENT: Thu May 11 06:26:03 AM UTC 2023 (1683786363)
    LATEST: Thu May 11 06:26:03 AM UTC 2023 (1683786363)
   RELEASE: stable (/lib/firmware/raspberrypi/bootloader-2711/stable)
            Use raspi-config to change the release.

  VL805_FW: Using bootloader EEPROM
     VL805: up to date
   CURRENT: 000138c0
    LATEST: 000138c0

Are you using some fancy software to copy the image to the sd card? Have you tryed with
old school dd?

Uhm, the BOOTLOADER here is older

# rpi-eeprom-update
BOOTLOADER: up to date
CURRENT: Wed 11 Jan 17:40:52 UTC 2023 (1673458852)
LATEST: Wed 11 Jan 17:40:52 UTC 2023 (1673458852)
RELEASE: default (/lib/firmware/raspberrypi/bootloader-2711/default)
Use raspi-config to change the release.
VL805_FW: Using bootloader EEPROM
VL805: up to date
CURRENT: 000138c0
LATEST: 000138c0

I did use dd. I just used the card from the Pi3b for this test.

Updated bootloader but the results are the same. Very strange. I get;

start4.elf is not compatible
This board requires newer software

Odd!

I did use dd. I just used the card from the Pi3b for this test.

https://www.riscosopen.org/wiki/documentation/show/Raspberry%20Pi:%20RISC%20OS%20boot-up%20issues

I don’t remember if I updated the eeprom after switching to a sd card created with !PartMgr. You can install it with packman after enabling the jaspp sources in your pi3 and create
a bootable image with the last firmware (and using all the sd card space!).

start4.elf is not compatible
This board requires newer software

Yes, that’s a common outcome with new hardware revisions of the Pi 4B. The fix is to download the latest start4.elf and fixup4.dat from the Pi firmware download site.

My 8GB Pi 4B boots RISC OS fine with the January 2023 EEPROM image and October 2023 start4.elf/fixup4.dat.

I did copy over the start4.elf and fixup4.dat files from the raspberry site but I think the image I was using is new enough to already have them anyway.

It’s no big deal. I’ll download and write the latest image again onto a new card at some point.

Just tried to boot a Pi4B 8GB to RISCOS, had downloaded the current image and copied start4.elf and fixup4.dat files to the old SD card I use, after making a backup of the boot section, it then wanted to download and install an OS when RISCOS was already there. So I disconnected it quickly as I didn’t want my development SD card overwritten. Swapped the SD card back to my Pi3B and everything was still ok. The ROM image I’m using is 5.28 as in the current download. Interesting though the SD card I had installed RISCOS via the installer on alaptop did the same thing, this time I let the install download and complete, booted RISCOS fine. So I’m not sure about using my development SD card in the Pi4B.

Any clues?

What I’ve just done is written the RISCOS image to a 2GB sdcard, using the Pi Imager software. I then downloaded the fixup4.dat & start4.elf files from the Pi firmware page and copied those to the fat partion on the card,

That booted fine. I had previously failed to get things working but that was due to corrupted star4.elf file.

Wanting to download an OS suggest it’s not seeing the RISCOS kernel. If you remove the ethernet cable whilst trying it won’t be able to download anything.

I did copy over the start4.elf and fixup4.dat files from the raspberry site but I think the image I was using is new enough to already have them anyway.

Just to say that the boot files in the RISCOS image are indeed too old for the newer 4B 8GB.

Thanks.

I looked at the file dates and they looked similar, I didn’t examine them all in detail, certainly the two files which I did copy were newer.

I’ll have another go later.

Depending on your setup, you may find Partition Manager (PM) a good alternative, located here. If you chose this path, the feedback thread is here.

It has worked well for my (8GB) Pi 4 and 3B. One of PM’s benefits is it uses the whole SD card. In other words, more Free space!

Ok. Copied over the RISCOS.IMG file, was the only thing which seemed to have a different date despite what I thought was the current .IMG file. It booted and complained about Aemulator being incompatible then got stuck on the DHCP configuration and didn’t time out, unless I didn’t wait long enough. Moved the SD card back to the Pi3B and everything was still ok, booted fine. I’m assuming there are updated modules in !System in the current download which work with the Pi4B.

You cannot swop an SD card between Pi3 and Pi4.

got stuck on the DHCP configuration and didn’t time out

RPi4’s and RPi400’s use Broadcom GENET for networking whereas earlier Pi’s use ‘Ethernet over USB’. The configuration needs changing on a card move between systems.

The cards must have a full set of firmware to accommodate both, bootcode/bin, fixup/dat, fixup4/dat, start/elf and start4/elf.

This setting must be present at the end of config/txt, or followed by an [all] conditional.

[pi4]
enable_gic=1

Any overclocking needs to be conditional.

Aemulor is not run by default here.

The configured RAM disc must not be larger than the entire RPi3.

Otherwise there are no issues here moving between 3’s and 4’s

Thank you, interesting, I think I’ll make a full image backup and restore onto another 16GB SD card at some point and see what happens after making changes. At the moment other things are uppermost in the list of things to do so my investigations may be delayed for a short while.