Delete me: Raspberry Pi 4 port status (Rev #30)
Overview
The Raspberry Pi 4 was launched in June 2019, and work on porting RISC OS to the Raspberry Pi 4 is still in its early stages. Many features are not working: it is not in any shape for even an alpha release just yet.
As a result there are no prebuilt ROM images available. If you wish to work on the port of RISC OS to the Pi 4, you will have to compile the ROM from source (see “Further information” below).
RISC OS builds for all previous versions of the Raspberry Pi (Pi 1, Pi 2, Pi 3, Pi Zero etc.) are still available from the Downloads page.
Current status
Major components not working:
| Item | Comments |
|---|---|
| Ethernet port | Ethernet is now “direct-attach” rather than “via USB” so a new driver needs to be written. |
| USB ports | The Pi 4 has a USB3 controller, which RISC OS does not yet support. |
| LPAE | Ethernet and USB now live above the 4GiB boundary in the memory map: RISC OS will need “address extension” code added to be able to access them. |
| GICv3 | New interrupt controller requires new code (other hardware targets use GICv1 or GICv2, not GICv3). |
At present, input is only possible via the serial port: this means that the desktop is not currently usable.
Further information
- ROOL announcement (02 July 2019)
- Discussion thread in the General forum
- Discussion thread in the Porting RISC OS forum
- Ben Avison’s Work In Progress page on GitLab gives a run-down on how to get RISC OS loaded on the Pi 4 (hint: it involves compiling the ROM from source, so You Really Need To Know What You Are Doing).
For more general information on using RISC OS on the Raspberry Pi, see the Raspberry Pi port page.
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