RISC OS Upgrade

About this document

This is a brief guide to the steps that you should probably go through when upgrading from one stable release of RISC OS to the next. It does not include instructions for system-specific issues (such as flash programming a new ROM) but covers the generic steps to get your disc image and at least a softload installed and working.

It assumes some level of prior RISC OS knowledge, notably how to open directories and applications in the Filer, how to move and copy things around the file system, how to extract the contents of zipfiles and so on. You may also need to understand how to edit files (such as Obey files) in order to fix issues that might crop up.

The process is not very streamlined. Some steps are being made to improve the situation by using PackMan to manage updates, but currently only the applications outside of !Boot are packaged.

Procedure to upgrade from RISC OS 5.28 or later

The procedure given here is suitable for upgrading from RISC OS 5.28 or 5.29. If you are upgrading from an older release of RISC OS 5, see below.

• Download the stable HardDisc4 zipfile from the ROOL downloads page
• Open the archive and double click on the obey file called InSituBootUpdate – this will apply all the changes from the previous stable release.
  • Once InSituBootUpdate has finished, try rebooting – find out what’s broken and fix it.
  • If you are trying to upgrade from too old a version of RISC OS, InSituBootUpdate won’t work: in that case you will have to follow the procedure to upgrade from RISC OS 5.26 or earlier instead.
• The remainder of the contents of the HardDisc4 zipfile are ordinary applications. Simply delete the old ones you have of the same name and replace them – this is safe because none of them store any settings inside themselves, that’s all in !Boot.Choices.

That should leave you with a fully up to date !Boot on your current OS. Once that’s been shown to work for a week or so, you can progress to upgrade the OS ROM – see below.

Procedure to upgrade from older versions of RISC OS 5

If you are not upgrading from the previous stable release of RISC OS but are starting from an older version, it is safer to start from the new !Boot and import any modifications you made from your old !Boot.

Rebuilding !Boot

The process described in this section will ask you to reboot at frequent intervals. After each reboot, you may be confronted with issues that will actually be fixed later in the process.¹

• Download the stable HardDisc4 zipfile from the ROOL downloads page
• Unpack the HardDisc4 zipfile into a directory called “NewHD4”
• Create another directory called “Old!Boot”
• Shift-doubleclick on !Boot and move its contents – except Loader, if present – to Old!Boot
  • Loader – if present – must be left inside !Boot.
  • If you didn’t have a Loader file inside !Boot, !Boot should now be empty.
• Shift-doubleclick on the !Boot directory inside NewHD4 and copy its contents to !Boot
• Reboot – this will populate a default set of choices which correspond to your OS version (this only happens once)
• Added any additional modules to your old !System?
  • Merge this with the new one by running !Configure and opening the System plug-in, then drag your old !System on top
  • Try rebooting – find out what’s broken and fix it
• Added any additional fonts to your old !Fonts?
  • Merge this with the new one by running !Configure and opening the Fonts plug-in, click Install fonts…, then drag your old !Fonts on top
  • Try rebooting – find out what’s broken and fix it
• Added any custom stuff to !Boot.Library?
  • Move these across from your old !Boot, taking care not to overwrite any newer versions
  • Try rebooting – find out what’s broken and fix it
• Added any custom stuff in !Boot.Resources?
  • This could include things like !SysLog, !ConfiX, !Packages, !UnixHome, etc. It could also include monitor definition files in !Boot.Resources.Configure.Monitors
  • Move these across from your old !Boot, many will have been updated so it’s worth getting newer versions rather than copying
  • Try rebooting – find out what’s broken and fix it
• Move across everything from your old !Boot.Choices except !Boot.Choices.Boot
  • Moving Choices.Boot will break things; it’s best to forget about it!
  • Try rebooting – find out what’s broken and fix it
• Personalise your set up (pinboard, backdrop, other things you had set up at boot time) using !Configure
• The remainder of the contents of the NewHD4 directory are ordinary applications
  • Simply delete the old ones you have of the same name and replace them – this is safe because none of them store any settings inside themselves, that’s all in !Boot.Choices

That should leave you with a fully up to date !Boot on your current OS. Once that’s been shown to work for a week or two, you can progress to upgrade the OS ROM as described below.

¹ For example, applications that rely on custom additions you made to to !Boot.Library obviously won’t work until after you have reinstated those files.

Upgrading the RISC OS ROM

Visit the Downloads page and choose the stable RISC OS 5 ROM or softload for your computer. If you are upgrading RPCEmu or a Raspberry Pi, installation instructions can be found at RISC OS Upgrade: Upgrading the ROM. For other hardware targets, you should follow the instructions supplied with the download.

After booting on RISC OS 5.30, take a fresh copy of your CMOS RAM settings. For example, you might use
*SaveCMOS $.CMOS-copy
Note that any CMOS files you saved on older RISC OS versions will no longer work at RISC OS 5.30.

There is a possibility that your first boot on the new ROM may not go smoothly, especially if you were upgrading from RISC OS 5.26 or earlier. Please see the Common problems page if you are experiencing difficulties.

If you were upgrading from RISC OS 5.26 or earlier, you will still have the “Old!Boot” and “NewHD4” directories. These can be deleted when you are happy that the upgrade has worked (we suggest you hang on to the Old!Boot directory for a while, in case there are any components you forgot to transfer).