RISCOS on a 4Gb SD card

Quick question for the experienced RISCOSsers here. The official RISCOS download seems to be designed for a 2GB SD card, but I didn't have a spare one when I downloaded it, so I copied it to a 4GB card. Is there a way to use the extra 2GB?

Currently, when I look at the space used by the RISCOSpi file system, I see 281M used and 1595M free [1] and I was wondering if I could get at that extra 2M. I tried mounting the SD card under Linux and using gparted, but it didn't recognise the partition format to enable me to do anything. Are there any tools available to RISCOS to allow me to do this natively? Or is 2GB the maximum filesystem size I can use for an SD card?

[1] So it's not as if I actually *need* the extra 2GB yet

Ta,

there will be an update to fat32fs soon that will allow you to use the rest of the card.

Quick question for the experienced RISCOSsers here. The official RISCOS download seems to be designed for a 2GB SD card, but I didn't have a spare one when I downloaded it, so I copied it to a 4GB card. Is there a way to use the extra 2GB?

There is a way but it's a bit of an involved process. Here's a summary of what you need to do.

First create a fat32 partition in the empty space on the card.

Go to https://sites.google.com/site/jeffreyadoggett/ and download and install the Fat32Fs module. Instructions are included in the zip file. It's the first link in the list.

Then create two obey files. One to mount the partition and one to dismount it.

The dismount one contains,

fat32fs:dismount -p2 :16 { > null: }

The mount one,

fat32fs:mount -fp2 :16 { > null: }

I can fill in the gaps if you need more information.

Thanks very much for the help - that seems to work nicely. I haven't currently set anything up to automate the process at boot time, but I can now access the extra 2Gb using the Fat32Fs filing system.

I have absolutely no idea what I'm actually going to do with that space, but, well, it's nice to know how to get at it

Ta,

I am like the USS Enterprise as far as RISCOS is concerned, I am boldly going where I have never been before.
Please could you fill in some gaps for me?
Am I right in making the following assumptions:
a) this is all done on the Raspberry running RISCOS
b) the FAT32FS module actually does the creating of the new partition
c)the mount command has to be done once, even if the Raspberry is rebooted, and only has to be redone if the dismount command is issued
If c) is not true then is there a way of automatically mounting the new partition on start up?

I am like the USS Enterprise as far as RISCOS is concerned, I am boldly going where I have never been before.

Same here - but I'll have a go at answering your questions based on what I learned

a) this is all done on the Raspberry running RISCOS

No. The creation of the partition was done using gparted on a Raspbian box with dosfstools (I think...) and mtools installed. If you find that gparted doesn't give you the option of creating a fat32 partition, try installing these two.

b) the FAT32FS module actually does the creating of the new partition

Nope. See above. Note to self: read the whole message before replying

c)the mount command has to be done once, even if the Raspberry is rebooted, and only has to be redone if the dismount command is issued

No - if I reboot RISC OS, the module needs to be reloaded and the mount command executed again.

If c) is not true then is there a way of automatically mounting the new partition on start up?

I'm sure there is - in the documentation for the module there's some information, but I've not looked into this yet. It'll be possible, no doubt.

Good luck - and if you work out how to mount the partition automagically at boot time, please let me know. Also, while I'm here and wittering on, the fat32fs:free command is a useful one. It'd be nice to have the fat32 filesystem appear on the iconbar in the way the SD file system and others do, but I don't know if the fat32fs module provides that option.

Bit of a faff isnt it? I hope that the next RISCOS image will provide a friendly way to acheive this - (Deb/Raspb)ian used to be faffy but then went friendly - life is too short.

To make it mount at startup:

Create a directory !Boot.Choices.Boot.Predesk.FAT32FS (hold down shift to get into !Boot)
Put the FAT32FS module inside
Run !Edit from Apps and, on the iconbar menu, say you want to create an Obey file
Put this in it:

RMEnsure FAT32FS 0.00 RMLoad Choices:Boot.PreDesk.FAT32FS.FAT32FS
<the FAT32 mount commands you used earlier>

Save the file as !Boot.Choices.Boot.Predesk.FAT32FS.!Run and you should be good to go. Note that you'll have to extract the FAT32FS module out of a zip if you have it in one - the OS won't be able to read zips at that stage in the boot process.

I have created two partitions on the 16 GB SD card using EaseUs, the first one is 2 GB and now contains RISCOS. It successfully boots.
I have downloaded the zip file containing fat32fs.
There is already a fat32fs in the !Boot file structure, I have copied the downloaded fat32fs module from the zip file into the same directory as the original (having renamed it of course) using the utility provided in the zip file.

I have tried the fat32fs:mount -fp<n> :<d> command from the command line as suggested in the README file.
where n = 2 and d =0 or 16
it reports an error saying that it cannot open the partition.

I have tried the fat32fs:mount -fp<n> :<d> command from the command line as suggested in the README file.
where n = 2 and d =0 or 16
it reports an error saying that it cannot open the partition.

Check that version 1.41 is loaded. Press 'shift f12' to bring up a task window and type 'help fat32fs'.

When you create the partition it also needs to be initialised as fat32.