RISC OS Open: Forum: HForm

Jan 22, 2011 12:27pm

Having a need to fit a replacement HD to one of my RiscPC’s, I sorted out another machine to prepare it on, along with the floppy (yes really) with !HForm on.

This is where I ran into a snag (no, the disc is ok), it contained then 2 different versions.

v2.51 !Runimage 22K dated 5 Aug 1999 (with ROS4 upgrade)
v2.56 !Runimage 57K dated 25 Nov 2002 (from ROS Ltd site I think, can’t check since it 403’s)

When I had an issue with both of these (not relevant here), I copied the version from my Iyonix.

v2.54 !Runimage 23K dated 14 May 2003

When this didn’t solve my problem, I downloaded the !HForm archive from the ROOL site, this gives me

v2.56 !Runimage 24K dated 02 Oct 2009

While I haven’t tried this one yet (it was time for bed), I felt it was appropriate to draw this to people’s attention, with a hope that a sensible resolution could be found.

Jan 22, 2011 1:34pm

Dave Lawton (309) 87 posts

Just tried the ROOL version, it announces itself, on running as

v2.54 21 Jan 2003 This is the same version string as the Iyonix version above, however it fails with
‘HFORM failed: SWI name not known at line 210’

where as the Iyonix version fails with

‘Cannot read disc identity: disc error &21’
‘HFORM failed: Unknown or missing variable at line 490’

(sigh)

Jan 22, 2011 1:47pm

Jess Hampshire (158) 865 posts

This will only be of help if you have a USB to IDE adaptor.

I used SCSIform to format a drive for a riscpc using my Iyonix and a USB adaptor.

Jan 22, 2011 3:47pm

Dave Lawton (309) 87 posts

Thanks Jess, I do have several of those :)

For completeness’s sake Using SA RPC 4.39, booting to desktop, & then using a floppy to format a 40GB Seagate (which I suspect is faulty, since it fails the initial interrogation). on the internal interface,

v2.51 !Runimage 22K dated 5 Aug 1999 version string v2.51 05 Aug 2003
‘Cannot read disc identity: disc error &21’
‘HFORM failed: Unknown or missing variable at line 490’

v2.54 !Runimage 23K dated 14 May 2003 version string v2.54 21 Jan 2003
‘Cannot read disc identity: disc error &21’
‘HFORM failed: Unknown or missing variable at line 490’

v2.56 !Runimage 57K dated 25 Nov 2002 version string v2.56 12 Apr 2002
‘Cannot read disc identity: disc error &21’
‘HFORM failed: Unknown or missing variable at line 278’

v2.56 !Runimage 24K dated 02 Oct 2009 version string v2.54 21 Jan 2003
‘HFORM failed: SWI name not known at line 210’

My concern here is the inconsistent naming, and also the inconsistent behaviour between versions :(

Jan 22, 2011 5:31pm

Jeffrey Lee (213) 6048 posts

Thanks for reporting this – it looks like there are a couple of issues with the ROOL version of HForm (including the SCSI version sometimes being installed where the ADFS version should go when building the harddisc image!). I’ll try and get a fixed version sorted out sometime soon (although judging by the disc errors you’re getting I doubt it’ll help you with your disc).

Feb 12, 2011 9:51pm

Jeffrey Lee (213) 6048 posts

I’ve now checked in a fix for the ‘SWI name not known’ error in HForm. I’ve also fixed both HForm and SCSIForm to report the correct version number instead of using ones hard-coded in the messages files (although from a user’s perspective it’ll look pretty much the same since the version number gets inserted into the messages file during the build process).

Feb 12, 2011 11:09pm

Dave Lawton (309) 87 posts

Jeffrey, Thanks very much for taking the time out to rectify this. You’re a grand fellow.

HForm

Reply

Search forums

Social

ROOL Store

Donate! Why?

RISC OS IPR

Description

Voices

Options

Jan 22, 2011 12:27pm Dave Lawton (309) 87 posts	Having a need to fit a replacement HD to one of my RiscPC’s, I sorted out another machine to prepare it on, along with the floppy (yes really) with !HForm on. This is where I ran into a snag (no, the disc is ok), it contained then 2 different versions. v2.51 !Runimage 22K dated 5 Aug 1999 (with ROS4 upgrade) v2.56 !Runimage 57K dated 25 Nov 2002 (from ROS Ltd site I think, can’t check since it 403’s) When I had an issue with both of these (not relevant here), I copied the version from my Iyonix. v2.54 !Runimage 23K dated 14 May 2003 When this didn’t solve my problem, I downloaded the !HForm archive from the ROOL site, this gives me v2.56 !Runimage 24K dated 02 Oct 2009 While I haven’t tried this one yet (it was time for bed), I felt it was appropriate to draw this to people’s attention, with a hope that a sensible resolution could be found.

Jan 22, 2011 1:34pm Dave Lawton (309) 87 posts	Just tried the ROOL version, it announces itself, on running as v2.54 21 Jan 2003 This is the same version string as the Iyonix version above, however it fails with ‘HFORM failed: SWI name not known at line 210’ where as the Iyonix version fails with ‘Cannot read disc identity: disc error &21’ ‘HFORM failed: Unknown or missing variable at line 490’ (sigh)

Jan 22, 2011 1:47pm Jess Hampshire (158) 865 posts	This will only be of help if you have a USB to IDE adaptor. I used SCSIform to format a drive for a riscpc using my Iyonix and a USB adaptor.

Jan 22, 2011 3:47pm Dave Lawton (309) 87 posts	Thanks Jess, I do have several of those :) For completeness’s sake Using SA RPC 4.39, booting to desktop, & then using a floppy to format a 40GB Seagate (which I suspect is faulty, since it fails the initial interrogation). on the internal interface, v2.51 !Runimage 22K dated 5 Aug 1999 version string v2.51 05 Aug 2003 ‘Cannot read disc identity: disc error &21’ ‘HFORM failed: Unknown or missing variable at line 490’ v2.54 !Runimage 23K dated 14 May 2003 version string v2.54 21 Jan 2003 ‘Cannot read disc identity: disc error &21’ ‘HFORM failed: Unknown or missing variable at line 490’ v2.56 !Runimage 57K dated 25 Nov 2002 version string v2.56 12 Apr 2002 ‘Cannot read disc identity: disc error &21’ ‘HFORM failed: Unknown or missing variable at line 278’ v2.56 !Runimage 24K dated 02 Oct 2009 version string v2.54 21 Jan 2003 ‘HFORM failed: SWI name not known at line 210’ My concern here is the inconsistent naming, and also the inconsistent behaviour between versions :(

Jan 22, 2011 5:31pm Jeffrey Lee (213) 6048 posts	Thanks for reporting this – it looks like there are a couple of issues with the ROOL version of HForm (including the SCSI version sometimes being installed where the ADFS version should go when building the harddisc image!). I’ll try and get a fixed version sorted out sometime soon (although judging by the disc errors you’re getting I doubt it’ll help you with your disc).

Feb 12, 2011 9:51pm Jeffrey Lee (213) 6048 posts	I’ve now checked in a fix for the ‘SWI name not known’ error in HForm. I’ve also fixed both HForm and SCSIForm to report the correct version number instead of using ones hard-coded in the messages files (although from a user’s perspective it’ll look pretty much the same since the version number gets inserted into the messages file during the build process).

Feb 12, 2011 11:09pm Dave Lawton (309) 87 posts	Jeffrey, Thanks very much for taking the time out to rectify this. You’re a grand fellow.