Rebuilding Software for BeagleBoard

I have had a reply from James Aylett, and he said, as a first step, to put the changed source and binaries on my website. Just go to http://www.tankstage.co.uk/Software . The previous links are now dead.

...I just tried the latest !Netsurf but can’t get it to work on the beagleboard using the latest SVN ROM build. My beagleboard is slowly becoming my main RISC OS workhorse and I would love to see more apps becoming compatible with this new platform.

Does NetSurf need rebuilding for ARMv7 in order to fully work on the BB?

I’m trying the latest test build (currently r10549) with the 2010-05-05 ROM. When trying to log in to the ROOL site (https:) I get a certificate verification query (Warning from NetSurf “error setting certificate verify locations:”) Note, it seems to work fine apart from this issue. I’m running with alignment exceptions turned off.

Edit: "It’s far more likely to be a configuration problem."

I think NetSurf has been fully ARMv7-safe for the past few months. The software compatability list suggests that it’s been OK since at least November; if the official 2.5 release seems OK with alignment exceptions on then the list should probably be updated to just list 2.5 instead of “test” (since 2.5 was the first official ARMv7-safe release)

...if the official 2.5 release seems OK with alignment exceptions on then the list should probably be updated to just list 2.5 instead of “test”…

Getting NetSurf to work consistently without the certificate verification error appears to be unpredictable. I’ll file logs at sourceforge.net if they’re related to this certificate business. In the mean time, I’m reluctant to update the compatibility list with a claim I’m not confident of.

I have had a reply from James Aylett, and he said, as a first step, to put the changed source and binaries on my website.

Thanks very much Tank for your work in getting Zap running on the Cortex-A8 port. Goodbye Edit!

Re: Zap

I’m aware this isn’t the place for third party bug reports and that Zap may no longer be being officially maintained . The following may be down to ZapRedraw – I don’t know.

Click and hold with Select. Drag to top and/or left of screen. Bands of (mostly) non-video memory visible in line with the pointer. Apologies if this has been reported elsewhere, but I don’t recall reading about it.

Obviously, it doesn’t significantly affect the use of what is a great piece of software. Just one for the record, really.

Edit: Already reported elsewhere.

Re: NetSurf

“It’s far more likely to be a configuration problem.”

• Delete Boot:Choices.WWW.Netsurf
• Load NetSurf
• Under Configuration, click ’Set’ on any setting (in fact, I’ve not tried them all but am now satisfied that it’s not just a case of, e.g. changing the cache size, as I found at first).
• Quit and reload

Mailing list post with link to bug tracker

I’m aware this isn’t the place for third party bug reports and that Zap may no longer be being officially maintained . The following may be down to ZapRedraw – I don’t know.

Click and hold with Select. Drag to top and/or left of screen. Bands of (mostly) non-video memory visible in line with the pointer. Apologies if this has been reported elsewhere, but I don’t recall reading about it.

You should find the same thing happens even dragging like this from a filer window, say. It’s a video driver problem. I reported it to Jeffrey a while ago and this recent CVS commit should have fixed it. I haven’t done a recent build to confirm yet, though.

Thanks WPB. Sorry – I should’ve done more extensive testing and known where to check recent revisions before posting. I guess ZapRedraw only affects the window anyway.

Re: Nettle

I’ve put a beta version up at http://nettle.sourceforge.net/ which should run OK on the Beagleboard

Right, I’ve got SocketWatch and have been trying to test Nettle. After reading the help file, I still don’t know quite what I should be testing!

Telnet (vt100) to host irc.freenode.net 6667 times out but at least seems to find the host:

Nettle: Looking up host irc.freenode.net...
Nettle: Connecting to 208.71.169.36...
Nettle: Connected to 208.71.169.36...
:anthony.freenode.net NOTICE * :*** Looking up your hostname...
:anthony.freenode.net NOTICE * :*** Checking Ident
:anthony.freenode.net NOTICE * :*** Found your hostname
:anthony.freenode.net NOTICE * :*** No Ident response
ERROR :Closing Link: 127.0.0.1 (Connection timed out)

Nettle: Remote has closed the connection
Nettle: Disconnected

If anyone here can suggest an easy test, then I’ll try it.

I have tested Nettle on my LAN (log into a BASH prompt on a TiVo). It works fine doing that.

I have found the cause of the error from !Prophet, Some assembler in the program uses LDMFD {}^. Changing these then lets the program work fine (as most of the program is Basic anyway). Warning, you cannot just edit the !RunImage, as it stores its user information at the end of the Basic file. If anyone wants to know how to do this, please email me webmaster@tankstage.co.uk and I will explain the method.

Old thread revived !!

I believe I have found the Menu left on screen when changing the zap mode problem. I have also changed the bug introduced by my mods that would not allow the use of CTRL+numeric key pad (thanks to Christopher Martin for finding and fixing !!). The updated module has been added to the archives on my site (including the updated source)

Nice one – that’s great news!

A quick scan through the source, and I have made safe a few other of my changes….
Uploaded changed archives to the above site…
The latest version has tnk-4 in the Info’s version string.

Thanks for the !Zap update. For anyone trying to instal zap for the first time, the zap.zip downoaded from the link near the top of the page refenced above by Tank, doesn’t contain a copy of !ZapUtils (I meant to write !ZapUser) so wont run. I’ve just found a copy of !ZapUtils (this should be !ZapUser), that after a quick play is working on the BeagleBoard, which is contained in the Aug-2005 zap.zip on this page http://zap.tartarus.org/downloads/1.47/latest/
Is this the correct version?

Do you mean !ZapUtil from the !Zap.Modules directory ?
If so, it is in the zap.zip archive as linked ! along with the other working modules.
The module version is 0.13 and is the same as the one you seem to have got.

Sorry I was confused! (Old age and being interrupted by a -—— doorstep energy salesman) I should have said !ZapUser not !ZapUtils isn’t in that zap.zip from:
http://www.tankstage.co.uk/Software/Zap.zip
and needs to be downloaded in the older zap.zip I linked to above and put in !Boot.Choices.
Hope this now makes sense.

Great stuff, Tank. Cheers! Does anyone else find that double-clicking on a text file without !Zap loaded to the iconbar first causes a data abort? And that trying to load a Messages file causes an unrecoverable error? I’m not in front of a RISC OS box at the mo, so I can’t give more details, sorry…

Tank: thank you! Zap is my editor of choice, and I really appreciate all efforts to maintain it. Really.

May I echo Dave Higton. Until this evening I hadn’t got Zap working (I must have got lost in previous attempts to download the right bits) but I just had another go and it’s working! This will make such a difference: we were still doing all the development work on the Iyonix and RiscPC because StrongED just doesn’t come naturally after years of Zap.

One problem, however, when we have C source code loaded in Zap’s C mode, or BASIC loaded in BASIC mode, then Alt-double-click on the name of a SWI fails to open the StrongHelp manual for that SWI. Instead we get “Zap may have gone wrong. Click continue to try to resume… etc.”. Clicking Continue allows Zap to continue but causes an area of the file to become selected. Clicking “Describe” gives “Internal error: branch through zero”.

We’re running with alignment exceptions on.

W.P, Yes, I mention that double click problem in my readme.
I have a possible fix for this, please download the ZapLatest and replace ObeySpt and ZapRunFile in !Zap.Code with the ones contained in the archive, and please let me know.

Do you have the !Messages module included in your !Zap.Modules directory ?
If so, then that is your problem as only the modules in my zap.zip archive work on the OMAP with exceptions on.

Matthew, when this error occurs, “where” shows the address as a mapped out page…
When you the try a second time, “where” does show as in the zap module.

I’ll have a play around today to see if I can find anything.

Matthew, If you press control “H” on the call/word, it seems to work…

My BB seems to be unimpressed by both Tank’s Zap and the Zap User file.
I do get the Iconbar icon but then: Internal error – abort on data transfer at & 201CFC18?

W.P, Yes, I mention that double click problem in my readme. I have a possible fix for this, please download the ZapLatest and replace ObeySpt and ZapRunFile in !Zap.Code with the ones contained in the archive, and please let me know.

Tank, thanks a lot for addressing this. I can’t get back to you for a good few days – hopefully I’ll have some feedback in the middle of next week. Cheers!