Raspberry Pi: RISC OS boot-up issues (Rev #4, changes)
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Introduction
This page details some of the problems you may experience when trying to boot-up RISC OS for the first time on a Raspberry Pi.
The suggestions given here assume that a recent “RISC OS Pi” image is being used, either downloaded from this site or installed via Raspberry Pi Imager.
Blank screen (or Pi “rainbow” screen)
On older models of Raspberry Pi (Pi Zero, Pi 1, Pi 2, Pi 3) boot-up can get stuck at a completely blank screen, or at a “rainbow” screen with no text.
The Activity LED may be flashing a distinct pattern (a number of short flashes followed by a number of long flashes). For what these mean, see LED warning flash codes.
- The most likely problem is the SD card itself. Check it is seated correctly, check that the contacts in the card slot aren’t damaged in any way, clean it all up, and try again.
- If the LED warning flash code indicates a problem with a firmware file (and cleaning the contacts on the SD card/slot hasn’t worked) you can try updating the firmware as
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You should not see the “rainbow” screen on a Pi 4B or Pi 400: you should instead see the boot diagnostics screen (see next below). item).
Pi 4 “boot diagnostics” screen appears
On a Raspberry Pi 4B, boot-up may stop at the Raspberry Pi boot diagnostics screen, with a text message similar showing to the reason for the failure.“Boot loader software is too old – upgrade boot loader”.
This Sample is failure because messages: the versions ofstart4.elf and fixup4.dat originally distributed with RISC OS Pi1 are too old for the latest hardware revisions of the Raspberry Pi 4B.
The fix is to download and install the latest versions of start4.elf and fixup4.dat – see detailed instructions below.
- “Kernel image not found”
This would usually indicate that the “riscos.img” file is missing from the bootloader partition, but it can also point to a problem with the “config.txt” file also in that partition. For further information, see config.txt (Raspberry Pi). - “Boot loader software is too old – upgrade boot loader”
This indicates that you need to install newer firmware, as described here.
1 The February 2022 version of RISC OS Pi – available from the Downloads page – contains updated firmware.
Boot-up stops at “Contacting DHCP server”
Pi Zero / Pi A+ / Pi 3A+
Aside: DHCP on RISC OS is fairly slow – it can take upwards of 20 seconds to acquire an IP address. You only need to take action if boot-up stops at that message for over 60 seconds.
These The models two do most not likely have reasons an are: Ethernet interface, andRISC OS does not yet support WiFi.
- The Pi Zero, Pi A+ and Pi 3A+ do not have a built-in Ethernet interface. RISC OS can (erroneously) conclude that a USB-to-Ethernet adapter is present, even when it isn’t.
- It can also happen if you have moved a boot SD from one type of Raspberry Pi (e.g. a Pi 3) to a different type of Raspberry Pi (e.g. a Pi 4). In this case, RISC OS will be looking for the “wrong” Ethernet interface.
You can still boot into RISC OS by disabling networking:
- Press ESC to reach the desktop (click Cancel on the dialogue box that appears).
- Now click the middle mouse button on the Task Manager icon (the Raspberry Pi icon at the bottom right corner of the screen) and choose “Configure…” from the menu.
- In the Configuration window, click on “Network” followed by “Internet”.
- Untick the box labelled “Enable TCP/IP Protocol Suite”.
- Close the Internet configuration window and click “Save” on the Network configuration window. You will be prompted to reboot: this should boot to the desktop with networking disabled.
Pi 4B / Pi 400
If your Raspberry Pi does have an Ethernet interface, proceed as follows:
RISC OS does not yet support the latest hardware revisions of the Pi 4B and Pi 400. The Ethernet chip on these devices will not function, and RISC OS does not yet support WiFi.
- Go to “Configure > Network > Internet” as described above.
- On the “Interfaces” page, select the appropriate Ethernet interface (e.g. “Broadcom GENET”). Ignore the “PPP” entry.
- Click on the “Configure” button and choose “Use DHCP” in the “Obtain IP address” section.
- Click on “Set”. You will be prompted to reboot.
You can still boot into RISC OS by disabling networking, as described for the Pi Zero above.
Boot-up issues not mentioned here
If you encounter a boot-up issue not listed here, your first port of call should be the Community support forum.
Downloading new firmware
Some of the fixes require the Raspberry Pi firmware to be updated.
The recommended download procedure for a Pi 4B or Pi 400 is:
- Go to the Raspberry Pi firmware download site on GitHub
- Click on “boot”.
- Click on “fixup4.dat”
- Click on the Download button.
- Click on your browser’s BACK button.
- Click on “start4.elf”.
- Click on the Download button.
The recommended download procedure for a Pi Zero, Pi 1, Pi 2 or Pi 3 is:
- Go to the Raspberry Pi firmware download site on GitHub
- Click on “boot”.
- Click on “bootcode.bin”
- Click on the Download button.
- Click on your browser’s BACK button.
- Click on “fixup.dat”
- Click on the Download button.
- Click on your browser’s BACK button.
- Click on “start.elf”.
- Click on the Download button.
To install the new firmware:
- Insert the RISC OS SD card into a SD card reader connected to another machine (Windows/Mac/Linux).
- Open a window on the first (or only) partition on the card. This is usually labelled “Boot” and will contain files with names such as config.txt, fixup.dat, fixup4.dat, riscos.img, start.elf and start4.elf.
- For a Pi 4B or Pi 400, delete the files “fixup4.dat” and “start4.elf”, replacing them with the new versions you downloaded above.
- For a Pi Zero, Pi 1, Pi 2 or Pi 3, delete the files “bootcode.bin”, “fixup.dat” and “start.elf”, replacing them with the new versions you downloaded above.
- Dismount the card (on macOS this option is labelled “Eject”) and wait for its icon to disappear. You may instead get a message of the form “It is now safe to disconnect the device”.
- Unplug the SD card from the card reader and reinsert the SD card into the Pi.
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