No memory to start BASIC

For about 3 weeks now everytime my Iyonix starts up it gives me an error saying ‘Not Enough Application Memory To start Basic’ and then waits for me to acknowledge this before finishing of the boot sequence. The machine doesnt fail the boot up and performs without any other issues. I can even drop into command line and start BASIC and also from the task window. Im not unduly concerned just puzzled as to why this has started happening. No upgrades or installations of any kind that i am aware of have been done.

Any ideas anyone ?

Might be off track here im not sure but it sounds like you may of added an additional app to your pre desktop sequence that might require slightly larger chunk of memory allocating to run properly. Perhaps the wimpslot for this app needs few more k etc???

Thanks for the idea Aiden but have taken a look and cant see anything that is out of the ordinary. Ive even removed apps from auto running and still the issue prevails. Like I say, my experience with my machine is totally unhindered its just puzzling. Thanks again

Use Reporter to identify exactly where in the boot sequence the error occurs – that should pin it down to a specific command.

Installed Reporter. Now my Iyonix just displays the “Loaded Reporter” message and hangs. Ive now got one unuseable Iyonix. Well thats another fine mess ive got myself into. Anybody know how to get out of this one.

Sorry, I should have mentioned that you must take a backup of !Boot before installing !Reporter.

Dont mean to come across ignorant but i dont understand how taking a copy of !Boot would help if i cant access my machine to restore it from said copy ? I am considering taking my hard drive from an old 3.7 RiscPC and swapping my iyonix hdd with it. Then putting Iyonix hdd back in as a second drive. Reboot and tell !Reporter not to run

You’d only need to get to the supervisor prompt (boot with SHIFT held down , press Escape), then rename !Boot to Boothide and BootBkUp to !Boot.

Ah i understand. Thanks very much. So, assuming now, if i get to supervisor prompt and rename !Boot to something else then I can reboot and the Iyonix should boot to desktop with a basic system which should allow me to turn !Reporter off. Then rename back to !boot and reboot and all should be ok

Any ideas anyone?

Since you’re having problems with Reporter but might want to look at the boot sequence you might find this useful.

I had the same sort of problems with Reporter as you did. Apparently I was doing it wrong.

Thanks Steve. Might yet come in usefull. Had a few beers now so best leave things till tomorrow

Couldnt resist. Holding shift and booting seemed too easy. Nope. !Reporter still takes control and locks me out. Looks like it will have to be the hdd swap tomorrow

If you can get to the supervisor prompt by holding down SHIFT, you can them simply type *DESKTOP and then edit things.

I had an even more cunning plan with my Iyonix – set up the HDD to be shared – that way I can read and write it from the network even if it is busy doing something else.

Holding down SHIFT may not work on the Iyonix, so try repeatedly pressing ESCAPE as soon as you switch on (just hit the key as often as you can) until you hopefully get a desktop with an error message. At this point, you can clear the error and hopefully access the HDD to make your changes.

You may of misunderstood. SHIFT booting doesnt work, Reporter gets in first and wont let go. Its locked me out. The keyboard works as i can toggle the leds but that is it. Reporter has my machine in a strangle hold. As i see it the only way is to boot with a different primary hdd with my current drive as slave thus avoiding !Reporter entirely. Disengage Reporter, put the drives back and reboot. My only query is whether an Iyonix will actually boot up with an old RiscPC hdd running RISC OS 3.7

Will give it a go Andrew. Dont have much faith but thanks

Andrew my friend. You are a genius :-). I have my machine back. This is why I love the RISC OS world. Really friendly people who want to help. Awesome. Thanks to everybody again

As far as I understand it, as the keyboard is USB, it has no effect until the USB gubbins kicks in to initialise it, which is well past the pre-USB checking for the Shift key.

Hence the need to use repeated ’Escape’s until, once the keyboard starts to work, an interruptable process occurs in Boot at the same time. As such processes happen very quickly, to catch one in progress you need to tap the Escape key repeatedly very fast.

Too slow and you miss the ‘bon moment’!

As I understand it, and if no-one else corrects me!

I made up this utility some time ago for my Iyonix- it reads the shift key (alt key used for testing) – stops the Run file if shift is pressed.
It is called from ‘Run’ file.
************
:
DIM Code% 120:RightKey%=&6 :LeftKey%=&3

:REM R Shift – &6 Left Shift &3
:REM R Alt – &8 Left Alt &5

PRINT “Assembling :”
FOR Pass% = 4 TO 6 STEP 2
O%=Code%:P%=&00000000
[OPT Pass%
.base% B skip%
EQUD &79766748
EQUD &216C6776
EQUD end%-base%
EQUD &00000000
EQUD &00000020
.skip%
mov r0,#&79
mov r1,#LeftKey% EOR &80
SWI “OS_Byte”
teq r1,#&FF
movne r1,#RightKey% EOR &80
SWINE “OS_Byte”
teq r1,#&FF
movne pc,r14
adr r0,Str_Ptr%
SWI “OS_CLI”
mov pc,r14
;End of Code

.Str_Ptr%
equs “Error 0 Boot Stopped”
:EQUB 0
:ALIGN

equs “ShiftBoot ver 0.01”
:EQUB 0
ALIGN

.end%
]:PRINT "Pass “;Pass%;” successful…"
NEXT Pass%
SYS “OS_File”,10,“Mem:ShiftBt”,&FFC,,Code%,O%

Excellent idea, your ShiftBt utility. I called it from the start of !Boot.Utils.BootRun which is called from Run and which seemed better, as that is not called in a Desktop boot.

This is on the RPi, where it works fine. You are left in the small command window, from which a Desktop command takes you to the normal desktop, and from where you can use the Display Manager to set your normal screen mode.

Perhaps it ought to be in the standard Boot? Such a simple idea to trap the Shift at the first opportunity!

I wonder if there’s a better place to put it further on in the BootRun file than at the start, after system paths have been set-up? Even the start of Choices:Boot.Desktop perhaps?

It is called from ‘Run’ file.

Which run file?

 
I'm presuming that it is: $.!Boot.!Run
 

I think it is a brilliant idea!

A check for shift could be included in the official disk image or could the OS have in ROM a check at say when the the boot disc’s OPT setting is read? (If it is known that the USB stck will be working at that point)

Sometimes I have to abort the normal startup because the WiFi thingy hasn’t connected to the Livebox (both it and the Pi power up at the same time). In order to do this, I just hammer on ESC while the boot is starting. Get in there before !Boot is started, I can leave it sitting at the “Boot failed” “Abort, Retry Ignore” prompt until I see the network come on.

Correction: “I just hammer on ESC while shouting at the computer”.
:)

Correction: “I just hammer on ESC while shouting at the computer”.

If it’s a Pi… uh… it has no audio input… so it kinda can’t hear you.

(^_^)

If it’s a Pi… uh… it has no audio input… so it kinda can’t hear you.

I bet you’re the kind of person that believes that Windows has no (malign) personality as well.