Ionyx 5.08 flashed to 5.14

I flashed my Ionyx ROM from 5.08 to 5.14 last night. The system now refuses to run the boot sequence saying the ifthere file does not exist. There doesn’t appear to be an ifthere command in ROM anymore so the OS thinks the ifthere is a file and not a command. I’ve tried help ifthere which would normally bring back help information which it isn’t doing now. The error appears pre-desktop so I’m not sure if there should be a module to soft load? I think the flash may have failed. But, there were no error messages during the flash of ROM and the program said it had completed okay and if I type *desktop I get the desktop with help saying 5.14 risoc-os but the !boot hasn’t been loaded. Double-clicking !boot produces the same error message.

Do I need a newer boot sequence with a module containing ifthere command, as I had a fairly old version of OS and backup CD? I can’t role back to 5.08 because the program needs the ifthere command to run and am not sure if it’d run anyway if the rom got completely messed up. Please help.

Thanks, Andrew.

One possibility is that due to a change of order of modules, the BootCommands module has become unplugged.

Type

*Unplug

*RMInsert BootCommands

That’s great thanks I hadn’t thought that the bootcommands had become unplugged and was mistakenly wondering if something had been removed from Rom or flash had failed. That sounds much better than what I came up with today, which was downloading a universal boot sequence and taking the ifthere program out of library and putting into my library and seeing if !boot would run then. I’ll give your suggestion a go tonight.

Thanks, Andrew.

It’s always been a good idea with RISC OS, when changing from one version to another, to do a Delete-power on. One of the main reasons for that is that it reinserts any modules that have been unplugged.

To elaborate on Ben’s comment, things like the unplugged state of ROM modules and even the configured ‘language’ (e.g. that the system boots into the desktop) are simply notes against particular positions in the ROM module chain (e.g. module number 35 is unplugged).

When you upgrade the ROM image in your machine, there may be changes in the order of modules – new ones added, old ones removed, etc. – and that will mean these stored unplug and language settings (in your CMOS) may be pointing to the wrong place.

So a delete-power on is the fix, although that’s a bit tedious when you end up having to reconfigure various settings. :( It’s worth making a note of stuff like that by typing *Status and *Unplug in a task window before the reset so you have a record of your old configuration.

It’d probably be a good idea to update the ROM flasher to remind people of the steps they need to take to (re)configure their machine after the new ROM is flashed.

Or, change the ROM flasher to shuffle the ROM frugal bits since it knows which version you started with and what version it ends with, therefore it could be given a table of what moved where.

Thanks James, the commands module was unplugged and my system is up and running again.

I have an Ionyx Panther so the power down delete doesn’t work due to it not having any ps2 ports. Anything that would help users in future sounds great, thanks.

I purchased my Ionyx back in April 2005, since then I’ve had one crash when I was messing around with some demos/funnies which was my fault, I panicked and it took me 20 minutes to remember how to get out of the crashed program! I’ve had some problems with usb sticks which seem better now rom has been flashed apart from that it’s been the best money I’ve ever spent. With that in mind it’s difficult for someone like me (a general user) who purchased the machine because I couldn’t risk machine crashing or having the constant headache of reformating it every 12 months to actually remember how to fix things or remember how the system works under the hood.

I’m going to try to make a small donation for all your help.

Thanks again, Andrew.

Many thanks! We’re glad you’re happy with your system. =)