Beginners FAQ:Hardware Support (Rev #9, changes)

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Q: Which file systems does RISC OS support support?
A: RISC OS supports FAT16 and FAT32 as well as its own (FileCore) FileCore file system. system, as well as some non native formats such asFAT (FAT12 or FAT16 or FAT32).

Q: How do I remove my thumb disc drive safely?
A: Click MENU (middle mouse button) on the drive icon and select ‘Dismount’. ‘Dismount’, If the drive was FAT32 you will notice that its name changes from ‘FAT32_0’ to ‘:0’. Now it is now safe to unplug remove it. the disc.

Q:If the drive was using the FAT32FS module you may notice that its name changes from ‘FAT32_0’ to ‘:0’ also. How can I format my thumb drive, so that RISC OS is able to read it from within RISC OS?
A: RISC OS currently only formats drives with its own (FileCore) format. If you plan exchanging data you should go for FAT32 on Windows/Linux/MacOS. To use the RISC OS file system see: using HForm.

Q: How can I have format a my spare disc so thatUSB hard disk. How do I use this on the RISC OS box? is able to read it?
A: You an use it with FAT32 or theRISC OS native currently file only system formats (FileCore). drives See with its own FileCore format using the using HForm utility . If you plan on exchanging data with other systems you should go for FAT32 on Windows/Linux/MacOS.

Q: What I are have the a size spare limitations of the FileCore format?USB hard disc. How do I use this?
A: FileCore Plug supports the up drive to into 2 a spare²⁹USB sectors, port, a it sector will is be commonly handled 512 by bytes, giving 256GB as the upper limit. Note that the controller used on the Iyonix motherboard can only use fast UDMA SCSIFS access as to a the mass first storage 128GB device. of the drive, the upper 128GB will use slowerPIO accesses.

FileCore 3.61 and later allow for the maximum size of any individual file to be 0xFFFFFFFF bytes (4GB minus 1), earlier versions were limited to 0×7FFFFFFF bytes (2GB minus 1).

Q:FileCore 3.63 and later support sector sizes of 2kB and 4kB within the same 2 How can I enlarge the ²⁹RISC sector limit as before. Therefore the maximum drive size it supports is 2TB, though this does require the underlying filing system to talk to 4kB supporting hardware. OS Pi SD card image to use the full SD card?
A: SystemDisc is part of the DiscTools suite, and is a general-purpose tool for managing the system software on modern RISC OS systems. SystemDisc allows you, easily and quickly, to initialise new SD cards for booting your RISC OS system, entirely from within RISC OS. It creates a two-partition SD card which can use all of the available space on your SD card. See this forum thread for a solution that adds a third FAT32fs partition on the original 2G SD card image where there is still free space on the SD card.

Q: Can I have an icon on my iconbar for my Fat32 filesystem?
A: Use ‘AddTinyDir’ to add an icon to your iconbar. Something like this should do the trick:

  fat32fs:mount FAT32FS:mount -p2 :16 { > null: } addtinydir AddTinyDir Fat32fs::fat32_16.$ FAT32FS::fat32_16.$

Assuming that your fat32fs FAT32FS module is loaded in predesk (which is the default place to put it) you can pop the above commands in an obey file and either run it manually, or add it to the boot sequence to add the folder to your iconbar.

Q: Can I cache have filesystems a in temporaryRAM ? file system?
A1: A: Yes. Yes, !Memphis is aRAM based file system that auto-sizes to provide a cache for commonly used files. An option is available to automatically cache the !Scrap directories, which can lead to an improvement in performance for applications like !NetSurf which make a lot of use of this area.
A2: RISC OS provides RAMFS, which can be controlled from the !Configure utility.

Q:Alternatively, the 3rd party add on !Memphis is a The Risc PC has CMOS RAM and based file system that auto-sizes to provide a real-time cache clock. for These commonly were used interrogated files. when An option is available to automatically cache the !Scrap directories, which can lead to an improvement in performance for applications like !NetSurf which make a lot of use of this area.RISC OS first started to establish the boot filing system and drive number as well as the current time and date. How is this done on the new platforms?
A: When RISC OS first starts up then the USB system is fired up in a minimalist way so that the keyboard can be recognised. If the delete KEY is held down then the ‘factory default’ settings for the CMOS are established (these are stored separately within the ROM image). If not then the memory above the rom is examined to see if a properly checksum’d CMOS settings file has been loaded there. If so, then that is used. If not then a particular area of the rom is similarly examined and, again, if that is properly checksum’d that is used. If the module ‘SDCMOS’ is present, then a file ‘cmos’ is examined in the same place (the SD card) that the rom was loaded from and that is used. Finally the IIC bus is examined to see if there is a hardware cmos widget presentand, if so, that is used. All of the available methods were used to save changed settings. From June 2013 this approach was found to give performance issues and the SDCMOS module was silently omitted from OMAP ROM builds. Although the bug was fixed in July 2013 (making the SDCMOS module inactive where a hardware cmos widget was fitted), the SDCMOS module was not reinstated until April 2014.

The user can influence this bahaviour by unplugging the Q:SDCMOS The Risc PC stores configuration settings in battery backed module, by adding a cmos widget (the recommended approach) or by adding a ‘fatload cmos’ command to the boot script.CMOS RAM much like a PC BIOS does, how is this done on the newer platforms?
A: When RISC OS first starts up the hardware abstraction layer (HAL) attempts to detect the presence of a hardware CMOS widget . This addon fulfils the same function as the chip in a Risc PC, but doesn’t need a battery backup.

Holding If down the SHIFT CMOS (if widget the boot option is set) not will found leave then the computer in supervisor mode rather than the desktop. Otherwise the boot process will decide from the configuration settings in the boot filesystem how to set the time: from a hardware region real of time memory clock, above from a network-connected time server or, failing those, from the stored time and date when the computer was last shutdown.ROM is examined to see if a properly checksum’d CMOS settings file has been loaded there by a ‘fatload cmos’ command in the script run by the OS loader.

Overall The this gives users with or without a cmos widget the ability to retain settings after shutdown. Except for those without a cmos widget between June 2013 and April 2014 rom builds that is.USB system is fired up in a minimalist way so that the keyboard can be recognised. If the delete KEY is held down then the factory default settings for the CMOS are established.