RISC OS on the Raspberry Pi Zero - is it possible?

Hi there – I used to write games and PD on my A3010 back in the day so it’s wonderful to see that RISC OS is still supported. I’d like to have another go with the old OS, but its proving rather difficult.

I picked up a raspberry pi zero on the front of a magazine about a year ago and would like to know if it can support RISC OS. In a different forum I was told that the pi zero won’t run the latest version of RISC OS (2015-02-17-RC14.img) because it predates the hardware. I did manage to get the pi to at least see it as an option in NOOBS on boot, after a bit of wangling, but it wouldn’t install – “size of recovery partition too large”. That’s as close as I’ve managed to get to an install. Just putting the img file on an sd card using Win32DiskImager didn’t work – the pi didn’t even see it, the screen remained blank (with two different SD cards).

So… RISC OS and Pi Zero – is there a way?

Many thanks,

Robin.

Buy a ready-made card (£10) from the link in the panel to the right of your posting. It doesn’t specifically say it will work on the Zero, but I’m sure it will. I make my own cards using a product called SystemDisc from Piccolo Systems but I have multiple machines.

I’m sure someone will be along soon to confirm or deny it will work. I’ve had RISC OS running on a Zero!

You could try this page as a starting point. It’s not impossible to create the disc without a working RISC OS Pi, but you will need to burn the RC14 image and then change the firmware and ROM using a card reader on a different machine.

Unless you can find a 2gb card though, this will waste quite a bit of your card as RC14 only uses 2gb. SystemDisc gets round this limit but you need some sort of working RISC OS system with card reader to get around this.

Or buy a ready made one, as John suggests! Much easier! But you may still need to make the adjustments on the page linked above.

Delete post forever. Wish it worked.

The RC14 SD card image includes both ROM and firmware. These both predate the Pi Zero and so do not work with it. If you use the RC14 SD card image to prepare an SD card (using the Windows Disk Imager) you will find that it appears to Windows (once the nearly 2Gbyte image file has been written to the SD card) as a FAT formatted drive of about 50Mbytes containing files such as START.ELF and RISCOS.IMG. From here if you select ‘October 2016 firmware, low vector’ you will download a file ‘Update5L.zip’ in which you will find a zip archive with about half a dozen or so files. Copy these over the ones that came with the RC14 SD card image and the SD card should then work on the Zero.

Buy a ready-made card (£10) from the link in the panel to the right of your posting. It doesn’t specifically say it will work on the Zero, but I’m sure it will.

I’m 90% sure that it’s the same as the downloadable image and therefore won’t work.

In an indirect way I have done exactly that and have today booted a Pi Zero on the October firmware without any issues whatsoever…actually it was pretty nippy and stable!

More in-depth testing will have to wait until I get a new soldering iron to attach some things to the GPIO…

Ah – so you’re suggesting it should do something if I went by the “it should be the way to go” link you posted. Nothing but a black screen – on two different cards. I’ll try formatting and have another go. If that doesn’t work I may have to simply accept defeat and buy a Pi B. It does look, from your link, as if anything that runs or at least boots on the normal Pi should also work on the zero. Unless anybody knows of any significant hardware differences?

I’ve just replied to a post that has disappeared!

Thanks for the info Chris – I’ll try your suggestion

I’ve had RISC OS running on a Zero!

But, in the light of subsequent posts, it was RC15 beta!

I’ve just replied to a post that has disappeared!

Sorry. I had assumed that as the Pi Zero has the same processor as the Mk1 Model B that RC14 would work with it. From subsequent posts that turns out not to be so. It’s all here, see Pi ZERO in the Hardware section.

Well that didn’t work. Overwriting the files was a failure – possibly a bad SD card. In the end I tried using http://riscos.openpandora.org/Projekte/PiZero/riscos-2016-01-03-RC14_DSI_Zero.zip and this worked. Hopefully anybody else having the same problem as I was will find this post and use that link. I’ll retry your method Chris – it may just have been a bad SD card – I’ve been using several.

Risc OS boots to the desktop – now I just need to start reading the forums in the hope of understanding how to add a hard drive of some sort.

Many thanks

Robin.

Upps, I forget this upload complete. ;-)
Any remarks:
-The riscos.img inside is a “own build” zpp-free (low processor vector build) one.
-If you update to the latest you need to install the zeropain in PreDesk like Chris describe.

Not sure, looks like you try to update the ROM and the firmware on the “FAT-partition” in WIN. (M)any times it failed (have try on my business Laptop). WIN is not a friend of this partition (or the virus scan) ;-).
Better you use a (second) RISC OS computer with a cardreader and change the content of the Loader-folder inside !Boot (for the first changes). For the “now working system” you can do this directly and after reboot all should work.

Western Digital sell a ready to go PI Zero with a 314GB drive already bolted on ! Only available in the USA though I think :-(

http://wdlabs.wd.com/products/pidrive-node-zero/

Seems to also bring the small USB connectors out to ‘normal’ USB connectors, so presumably also contains a(n) USB hub.

Ralph

Interesting – it seems that WD also sells a “PiDrive Enclosure” that can fit both a Pi and a hard drive. I’ve been looking for something like this!

It looks like delivery to NZ is going to cost more than the price of the case though :(

Now that is an interesting prospect for a backup or web server…time to get up to speed with WebJames…?

It is a rather strange capacity though…

now I just need to start reading the forums in the hope of understanding how to add a hard drive of some sort.

Easy :) Connect it to the Pi.

It looks like delivery to NZ is going to cost more than the price of the case though :(

Ask Western Digital from New Zealand to reference it.
WD people is really friendly, but in many countries they simply don’t know WDLabs exists.

It is a rather strange capacity though…

It’s 100π GB :)

Ask Western Digital from New Zealand to reference it.

Even finding NZ contact details is proving trickier than expected. It’s not the end of the world to order from the US site though; I import stuff often enough.

Sorry. I had assumed that as the Pi Zero has the same processor as the Mk1 Model B that RC14 would work with it. From subsequent posts that turns out not to be so.

Eh? It’s a BCM2835 like in the Pi1, only clocking 1GHz.

That said, there are other factors which may prevent the older OS from successfully booting. Could be as simple as a different memory type? Or a newer firmware sets up stuff in an “unexpected” way?

At any rate, I do think the “official” SD image should be updated with a later version of RISC OS (the one in RC14 is nearly two years old!) to make booting on newer devices a lot less hassle than it would be if it involved with the “write RC14 to SD card, find newer RISC OS ROM, mount FAT partition and copy in newer ROM, attempt to boot but you might need newer firmware too…” situation.

Now that is an interesting prospect for a backup or web server…time to get up to speed with WebJames…?

WebJames isn’t that hard. And with a little bit of code to read from my weather station and build a webpage… http://heyrick.ddns.net/
Live weather where I am. ;-)

The Pi is efficient enough that I can just leave it running.

It’s not the end of the world to order from the US site though; I import stuff often enough.

I ended up buying the 6" PiDrive Enclosure, listed as compatible with “any” USB 2.5" drive. Guess whose drive doesn’t fit…

In case any other Kiwis stumble upon this, it ended up being circa NZ$45 via Youshop.

WebJames isn’t that hard. And with a little bit of code to read from my weather station and build a webpage…

13.2C Rick? Thats about what its been inside my house lately! I really need to get some better insulation…although finishing the radiators would probably help too!

Back on topic: Did anyone manage to get hold of the drive from Western Digital and test it with RISC OS and the Pi Zero?

13.2C Rick? Thats about what its been inside my house lately!

That what it is inside after the heater has been on awhile. I have a photo of the little thermometer in the kitchen a few weeks back. It read 3C. Good point, didn’t matter if I forgot to put the milk inn the fridge!

Another good point… It’s 13 and sunny today. It’s like a heatwave for us! Voici, le printemps arrive. やった！

Robin I tried the download that you suggested and as you say it works fine on the pi zero

Only issue is that the mouse pointer goes out of alignment as you move further away from the centre of the screen.

I tied both the Beeb and ArcMe Emulators and both work fine. The Mouse on ArcMe was actually in alignment and Elite worked fine. So I can now play all those old BBC games for a £5

Any help with aligning my mouse appreciated.

Found the solution in the following post

https://www.riscosopen.org/forum/forums/5/topics/2167

You need to add “disable_overscan=1” to CONFIG/TXT in $.!Boot.Loader

The map to the $.!Boot.Loader can be seen here https://www.riscosopen.org/forum/forums/1/topics/3858

Added the extra config line and the black boards disappeared on a reboot and the pointer and screen image aligned.

I hope this is usful to any that are following me and getting a BBC Micro up and running on a Pi Zero.