Booting PandaBoard

Hola!

able to boot into a prompt with just the memory card?

Correct. You then type desktop. No need for a boot sequence to get the GUI up, although to do anything useful you will need it. Have you seen the Generic OMAP port setup information?

Anyway, I expect that with Raik’s offer of assistance you’ll soon be sorted.

@Trevor & Raik: I GOT IT!!! I’ve booted to the desktop. Probably got it in the first place but I was using the inner HDMI connector… silly errors like this are the worst!

And man the OS deserves every effort!! It’s FAST and responsive as hell!! No, really, I was an Amiga user all my life so it’s not my first “sane and light” OS and this thing is awesome. Ever had the sensation that you kinda “fell in love” with an OS the first time you see it? :D

I see a long way to go into the RISC OS world now…
Time to try setting up the Hardisc4 files now from withing ROS itselft I suppose. No excuses now that I have a Risc OS machine! I will ask for help if I don’t succeed, you can bet :D

Well: I have a fully working system now, booting into desktop after following the rest of the instructions. It was dead easy after all… sorry for my previous complains.
I also like the commandline interface in this system, seems pretty friendly.

Further investigation starts now.
¿Internet connection? ¿Programming languages & tools? ¿Cool late 80’s and first 90’s games? So much to investigate…

Very nice. The problem with the HDMI port, I also had the first try. Ubuntu ran, RISCOS not. Repositioned by a premonition, works. Then cursed with Willi, because he gave me many tips but did not say that;-)
If you have any further problems or questions, my offer still exists.

Thanks, Raik. I believe asking here is a better idea as it keeps the answers public, thus helping Risc OS to spread and grow among other people who could pass on it after the initial problems.

So, I have some questions:

1) Regarding ZIP (I got the Arm-v7 safe version from Trevor’s page): What does “set a Wimpslot of at least 700k in order to run” and where’s <Boot$Path>Library? Is there a console inerface to copy or move over files, etc?
Unzip is giving me an error regarding memory address not available…

2) How can I save the system settings? Whenever I rebot my Pandaboard, ROS goes back to 800×600@8bpp.

3) What network device drivers should I use so the network configuration can detect the ethernet interface on the Panda? Is it EtherUSB?

1) Regarding ZIP (I got the Arm-v7 safe version from Trevor’s page): What does “set a Wimpslot of at least 700k in order to run” and where’s <Boot$Path>Library? Is there a console inerface to copy or move over files, etc?

Assuming you’re running it from the command line, then: click the icon in the bottom-right of the screen to bring up the Task Manager, find the red bar labeled “Next”, and drag it to the right until the display reads more than 700KB. Then press Ctrl-F12 to open a TaskWindow, which will have the amount of memory specified in the Next slot automatically allocated to it. If you then run Zip from within that TaskWindow, then it should have all the memory it requires.

Whenever you see <Boot$Path>, or a path beginning with Boot: (as in Boot:Library), mentally replace it with the !Boot application in the root of your hard disc image. “Library” is a directory inside the !Boot application (you’ll remember that under RISC OS applications are just a special kind of directory). To open the directory rather than run the application, hold down Shift while double-clicking on it, and one of the directory icons you’ll see will be Library.

The purpose of the Library directory is that any file inside it can be executed at the command line simply by typing its leafname (e.g. “unzip”), rather than having to include the full pathname (as in “SCSI::HardDisc0.$.!Boot.Library.unzip”).

If you haven’t installed the HardDisc4 image yet then you’ll have to type the full pathname anyway as you won’t have a !Boot directory to install Unzip into, so you can ignore that section of the instructions.

Protip: To save typing, opening a directory display containing a file, holding down Shift and dragging it into a TaskWindow will automatically insert the full filename of that file at the cursor.

I’m not sure why you want “a console interface to copy or move over files”, since they can be copied and moved quite easily by dragging (to copy) or Shift-dragging (to move) between filer windows, but the commands “copy” and “rename” may be of interest. To access RISC OS’s built-in command line documentation, type “help command”, as in “help copy”.

“No writable memory at this address” is the charming little way many programs (particularly ported programs) have of telling you that their WimpSlots aren’t big enough.

2) How can I save the system settings? Whenever I rebot my Pandaboard, ROS goes back to 800×600@8bpp.

Ah, now that’s rather the question, isn’t it? The short answer is, you used to be able to, but ROOL arbitrarily disabled the code so they could sell proprietary hardware add-ons that perform the exact same function instead. Not a good look, is it? Until the SD card driver gets into CVS (which was supposed to be the reason the code was removed) there’s not really any hope of being able to do this.

3) What network device drivers should I use so the network configuration can detect the ethernet interface on the Panda? Is it EtherUSB?

Can’t really help you with this one, except to say probably, and warn you that network configuration on RISC OS can be a black art at the best of times.

Thanks, Martin! I’ll invest some time to read your answers carefully.

Is that !BBFlash utility suited for the Pandaboard too? All I need is to store the screen settings once and even if I have to save them manually, it’s still ok.

As for ROOL selling hardware, I’d prefer donating to ROS development instead (wich I’m serioursly considering since I seem to like it a lot!)

!BBFlash don’t work with the Panda. To save the screen settings (and other) you don’t need this. Doubleclick !Boot and you became the configure-screen.

To read zip-files use SparkFS from the Harddisc4-Image (thirt party).

EtherUSB read the readme or the Beagle (CortexA8) Docs on this site. The way is the same.

Per mail I can send you any helpful tools… sory my english is a catastrophe :-( not useful in a forum ;-)

got the Arm-v7 safe version from Trevor’s page

I assume you’re referring to the wiki page which I’ve contributed to. The ARMv7-safe Unzip is by Jeffrey and from his website, of course.

How can I save the system settings? Whenever I rebot my Pandaboard, ROS goes back to 800×600@8bpp.

Ah, now that’s rather the question, isn’t it?

Isn’t there some way of specifying this in a PreDesk file or something? (Maybe the obvious answer to that question will be “no”!)

network device drivers

ISTR that EtherUSB is now included (in the disk image?). Configuring Networking should be of some help.

@Trevor: the network configuration, if I activate the “Enable TCP/IP Protocol Suite” and click on “Interfaces”, I get the error: “No network interfaces where detected”.
I believe it means I’m missing something…

@Raik: I’m going out for a week. There are some utils I’m looking for, so I’ll get in touch when I get back. Thanks for you kind offer for help! :)

BTW, every SDL-based game/port has crackling sound in my Pandaboard ES. There are no problems with non-sdl games, but every SDL port sounds very bad, even with the latest drenderer release. Is this a know issue? I was thinking about opening a new thread for this issue, but I don’t know if it only affects the Pandaboard (ES).

Get EtherUSB from http://effarig.co.uk/riscos/
EtherUSB goes in (pling)Boot.Resources.!System.500.Modules.Network

How can I save the system settings? Whenever I rebot my Pandaboard, ROS goes back to 800×600@8bpp.

Isn’t there some way of specifying this in a PreDesk file or something?

Yes – the monitor definition file and (subsequently) the screen mode are both loaded in the boot sequence. From Manuel’s earlier posts it sounds like the boot sequence is not yet in place, when it is, the screen setup plugin in !Configure does the business.

Suggest copying the self extracting “Harddisc4.util” from a FAT formatted memory stick to a RAM disc, expanding it, formatting a FileCore format memory stick with !HForm, then copying everything from the RAM disc to the stick.

EtherUSB is now included (in the disk image?).

Its now in the ROM image for the OMAP3 ROM. As I don’t have a PandaBoard to test on I held off putting it in that ROM until Willi Theiss has time to check it.

Suggest copying the self extracting “Harddisc4.util” from a FAT formatted memory stick to a RAM disc, expanding it, formatting a FileCore format memory stick with !HForm, then copying everything from the RAM disc to the stick.

To clarify: You can create a RAM disc from the same Task Manager window I mentioned previously, by increasing the red bar marked “RAM disc” right down near the bottom. (I believe it’s set to 0 by default.) I suggest dragging it right up to the maximum – 131072KB. When it’s non-zero, a “RAM” icon will appear near the disc icons at the bottom-left, and can be accessed just like a disc.

Think of RAM discs as kind of the opposite of virtual memory – instead of using your file storage space to provide the illusion of extra memory, you’re using your memory to provide the illusion of file storage space.

Hi again,

thanks all for your help! I’m feeling very comfortable here with so much support to begin.

@Wouter Rademaker: Thanks! I have network interface now.

@Sprow & Martin: I did that already, yes, so I have a boot sequence, I believe :)

Some new questions:

-Sparksfs (in ThirdParty folder) doesn’t work: it gives an error when trying to run it. I suppose I need to do something before I run it, but I don’t know what.

-How (where) can I make the Wimpslot setting permanent in order to get a default Winpslot of 700K so I don’t have to set it every time I want t decompress a zip?

-How can I disable the network icon on the lower-left part of my desktop? I have unchecked every network option but it won’t go away. When I click on it, it opens a window called “Network servers” and it has a LanManager icon inside.
Same goes with Writter! At some poin, it began auto-launching when I boot, and I don’t know how to avoid it.

Ok, answering myself to some of the questions here for future reference:

-The wimpslot setting can be modified in the desktop boot file (under !Boot).

-The same goes for auto-launchig apps.

But I still can’t get SparkFS to work. It says “Internal Error: abort on data transfer at &00021E4C”