Trouble installing RISCOS on Pi3

[jubdad]

Hi,
I'm brand new to the world of Pi and have hit a wall trying to load RISCOS onto my Pi3. I've tried burning the RC14 image to an SD card using PiBaker and dd but with the same result. I get the rainbow screen plus the rainbow icon which I understand normally indicates undervoltage but there's a healthy 5 volts on the GPIO connector.

I wonder if I'm wasting my time and the latest RISCOS release isn't compatible with the Pi3 but I bought the thing on the (mis?)understanding that it was compatible with Pi2 software.

Help and TIA.

[fruitoftheloom]

Hi,
I'm brand new to the world of Pi and have hit a wall trying to load RISCOS onto my Pi3. I've tried burning the RC14 image to an SD card using PiBaker and dd but with the same result. I get the rainbow screen plus the rainbow icon which I understand normally indicates undervoltage but there's a healthy 5 volts on the GPIO connector.

I wonder if I'm wasting my time and the latest RISCOS release isn't compatible with the Pi3 but I bought the thing on the (mis?)understanding that it was compatible with Pi2 software.

Help and TIA.

Try using a better quality PSU which can deliver a steady 5v2A+

http://uk.farnell.com/stontronics/t5875 ... dp/2520785

[josvisser]

Same problem here. Glad it's not just me :-) I tried to replace the bootcode.bin, fixup.dat, and start.elf from the latest firmware release (on Github), but that does not work either.

What I am suspecting is that the new Pi3 Cortex-A53 CPU is 64-bit whereas the old (Pi2) Cortex-A7 is a 32-bit core. I am not sure what mode the Pi3 boots in. The config.txt documentation at https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentati ... fig-txt.md does not give any information about this, so I am wondering about this. I'll continue studying the documentation and will update this thread when I learn something.

[drgeoff]

I wonder if I'm wasting my time and the latest RISCOS release isn't compatible with the Pi3 but I bought the thing on the (mis?)understanding that it was compatible with Pi2 software.

The RPi3 is compatible with RPi2 software (OS and packages) but not with previous "firmware" which may have been fine on a RPi2.

Put either NOOBS or Raspbian Jessie on a/the card and get that working. Then when you know the hardware is all OK, you can scrub the card and try RISCOS.

[rpdom]

What I am suspecting is that the new Pi3 Cortex-A53 CPU is 64-bit whereas the old (Pi2) Cortex-A7 is a 32-bit core. I am not sure what mode the Pi3 boots in.

It boots in 32-bit ARMv7 compatibility mode. You need to set a magic option in config.txt to make it use 64-bit ARMv8 mode.

[jubdad]

Thanks for the responses it's much appreciated.

I'm using that very PSU and the measured voltage on the gpio looks good.

I'm glad it's not just me too.

I've had it running Raspbian both via NOOBS and direct off a card. I've also done the updates.

I have no idea what a magic option is.

Has anyone actually got it working on a Pi3?

[rpdom]

I have no idea what a magic option is.

A quick google "site;raspberrypi.org 64 bit boot" showed this as the first hit:
viewtopic.php?f=72&t=137963&p=918270#p915771

[Taxicletter]

Same here... Installing Raspbarian (with Noobs and Noobs lite) and OSMC works fine.
The RiscOS image only gives the rainbow-screen, big and small.

I use the Raspberry adaptor, ampère is not the issue here.

[GavinW]

My belief is that ROOL are still working on a version of RISC OS appropriate for the Rpi3. Furthermore there are as yet no RISC OS drivers for WiFi or Bluetooth.

[jubdad]

I think that must be the case because I just tried the ready burned microSD from ROOL and it doesn't work either. It's a shame that this isn't made more public so I've now ordered a Pi2B just to get RISCOS working.

[grannyg]

You need to upgrade to the latest Beta RPi rom as well as the latest firmware. You can download it from https://www.riscosopen.org/content/down ... spberry-pi.

To run at full speed add the following to config.txt

avoid_warnings=2
force_turbo=1
arm_freq=1200
core_freq=450
sdram_freq=450

[Taxicletter]

How to I do this? In the info it says "Once written to the SD card all you have to do is turn on the Raspberry Pi and it will start up in RISC OS with a lot of preloaded software."

But nothing happens when you start up with that RC14 image. I'm new to firmware-updating stuff...

How can I use this firmware?

[grannyg]

Assuming you've got to the stage of successfully burning the RC 14 SD image to an SD card,

The SD card contains a small boot partition in FAT format that is accessible on a PC. The partition should show up as 'PiBoot'. Once opened you should see a directory containing the following,

BOOTCODE.BIN
FIXUP.DAT
START.ELF
RISCOS.IMG
CONFIG.TXT

The first three are the Raspberry Pi firmware files that need to be updated to the latest version. They can be downloaded from https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware ... aster/boot.
The file RISCOS.IMG is the RISC OS rom. To update this download the 'Beta RPI ROM' from https://www.riscosopen.org/zipfiles/pla ... v.5.23.zip. Inside the zip file is a file 'riscos'. Rename to 'RISCOS.IMG' and overwrite the existing file.
Next update the 'CONFIG.TXT' file. It should contain the following once updated,

fake_vsync_isr=1
framebuffer_swap=0
gpu_mem=64
init_emmc_clock=100000000
kernel=RISCOS.IMG
avoid_warnings=2
force_turbo=1
arm_freq=1200
core_freq=450
sdram_freq=450

With all this done you should be able to boot into RISC OS. The RC 14 image has dhcp turned on by default so if you're not connected to a network you may get a boot failure message once in the RISC OS desktop.
The RPI 3 support is still fairly new so expect problems. Due to the processor now being ARMv8 a lot of software no longer runs.
A fix is imminent/in testing. It may take a while to update all the affected programs. You'll either get a lock up or nothing will happen.
The first thing the RC 14 image does once it's booted up is try to display a help page in the NetSurf web browser. This causes the Raspberry Pi to appear to freeze. Just hold down the 'alt' key and press 'pause/break'. Then click on stop.
You should now have a usable RISC OS desktop.

[jubdad]

Thanks for that. Progress. It boots into RISCOS but complains about missing "File" and "!BOOT". The only software available is Alarm, Paint, Draw, Edit and Chars.

[dfeugey]

If you have a RISC OS partition on the SD card, these commands should help:
<type F12 then...>
*configure filesystem sdfs
*configure drive 0
*configure boot

If you don't have a RISC OS partition on the SD, you must write the SD image on the card, then you'll upgrade the boot files inside the FAT partition.

[Taxicletter]

I guess the RiscOS image will be updated to address the problems?

I'll wait for that to happen, and then try it.

(I want to try RiscOs since Raspbian seems too slow, although nobody really comments on that. I expect RiscOS has less software available, so even if it's faster, I'm afraid I won't find all programs I want to use. Which is why I 'm not in a hurry to try RiscOS )

[dfeugey]

I guess the RiscOS image will be updated to address the problems?

In fact, with the standard RC14 image, there is no real problem...
You put the image on a SD, then you update the firmware with the latest (Pi3 compliant) version.

[Taxicletter]

I'm not sure how to do this. I put the image on a SD card, I start my Raspberry and it stops at the rainbow screen. How can I update anything from there?

EDIT: Ah, I have to do the update on my Mac before I use the card. Sorry. And I copied the content of PiBoot to my SD card, I should leave the image as it is and put the directory above it on the SD card...

EDIT again: it didn't work.

[dfeugey]

Ah, I have to do the update on my Mac before I use the card.

Exact.

And I copied the content of PiBoot to my SD card

You don't have to. If you wrote the RC14 image on the SD card, you have already a PiBoot FAT partition. You need to update some files with the latest version of the firmware. These files:
BOOTCODE.BIN
FIXUP.DAT
START.ELF
CONFIG.TXT

Then you need to update the ROM image with the latest one for the Pi. This file:
RISCOS.IMG

If you don't have these files on the card at step 1, then you did not write the RC14 image file the right way.

[Taxicletter]

You don't have to. If you wrote the RC14 image on the SD card, you have already a PiBoot FAT partition. You need to update some files with the latest version of the firmware. These files:
BOOTCODE.BIN
FIXUP.DAT
START.ELF
CONFIG.TXT

Then you need to update the ROM image with the latest one for the Pi. This file:
RISCOS.IMG

If you don't have these files on the card at step 1, then you did not write the RC14 image file the right way.

This is the content of the downloaded image:

RC12-14_changes.txt
ReadMe.txt
riscos-2015-02-17-RC14.img

To replace the files you say (which I tried yesterday) I have to open riscos-2015-02-17-RC14.img. I don't know a way to change the content of an IMG file without mounting it. When I mount it, it is the PiBoot disk you're talking about, the name tells me that it's the file to put on an SD card to start up. Replacing the RISCOS.IMG I couldn't do, the link: https://www.riscosopen.org/zipfiles/pla ... v.5.23.zip has no IMG file and renaming the riscos file to RISCOS.IMG, doesn't give me a working IMG file (I get an error if I try to open it). So maybe there has to be another place to download the RISCOS.IMG?

[dfeugey]

You make a confusion between a disk image and a ROM image.

riscos-2015-02-17-RC14.img is a SD card image file. To be written with Win32DiskImager or dd.
1st step: dd it to SD card and the card will be a ready to run RISC OS system (not compatible with Pi3).

In BCM2835Dev.5.23.zip, riscos is not an image file, but a new ROM of RISC OS.
2nd step: rename riscos to riscos.img, then replace the riscos.img file present in the FAT partition (created 1st step) with this file.

The BOOTCODE.BIN, FIXUP.DAT, START.ELF need to be updated too.
3rd step: replace these files with these ones https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware ... aster/boot

Summary: you create the SD card, then you update all the files on the FAT partition with new ones. Don't try to modify the content of the big IMG file. It will not work.

[microbits]

here are some simple steps to writing a PI Risc OS SD card

Step one
go to https://www.riscosopen.org/content/down ... spberry-pi and download the RC14 SD image the first one in the list you cannot miss it. This is a zip file so will need to be unzipped.
Step Two
Unzip the file to a place on your hard drive it will unpack to give you three files (Readme.txt, RC12 to 14 changes.txt And the important one riscos-02-17-RC14.img
Step Three
download and install https://sourceforge.net/projects/piwriter/ to your mac then use this to make a SD card for Risc OS please bar in mind that the SD card needs to be 2GB or bigger this it what you will end up with.
Click link https://www.riscosopen.org/wiki/documen ... SD%20image
do not try to run this in your Pi yet you are not done yet.
Step four
Download http://www.svrsig.org/software/update4.zip to your hard drive
(This will convert a RC14 SD card image to the latest suitable ROM, to include 29-Mar-2016 firmware and ROM, with no overclocking commands required, suitable for all models of Pi but, ideally, you should add a kludged ZeroPain module in place of the unkludged one, instructions provided. (Warning) This update is not yet stable on the Pi model 3 as some of the applications provided with RC14 do not run on ARMv8 and will need recompiling.)
Step Five
mount the RC14 sc card image on your mac it will only see the fat32 part of the image list the files.
You will see these files keep this open
BOOTCODE/BIN WR/ DOS 17:25:24 02-Feb-2015 17 kbytes
.CONFIG/TXT WR/ Text 00:42:18 23-Feb-2015 96 bytes
.FIXUP/DAT WR/ DOS 17:04:26 18-Feb-2015 6 kbytes
.LICENCE/BROADCOM WR/ DOS 13:47:06 10-May-2012 1447 bytes
.RISCOS/IMG WR/ DOS 00:00:00 01-Jan-1980 5 Mbytes
.START/ELF WR/ DOS 17:04:26 18-Feb-2015 2582 kbytes
Step six
unzip update4.zip to your hard drive you will see these files
!Boot
Diversions
Contents
Licence_v1_1.pdf
Readme.txt
open the folder !Boot inside you will find choices & loader open loader you will see the same files as above
copy these files to your mounted SD card and overwrite the current files above, this will give you a bootable sdcard to use in your PI
Before you close the mounted.sd image check that the files have been copied from Update4.zip and place a copy of the file update4.zip (yes the whole file) for later use.
Step 7
you are now ready to place the sdcard into your PI and boot for the first time, you are not done yet.
Step 8
Connect the cables and boot your Pi it might fail to boot because of zero pain issues so make sure you have read step 4 and follow the instruction to the letter.
step 9
Hope this helps and is not too hard to follow. when you get to the desktop post a message and we will move to the next lesson.

[jayArr]

Microbits

I followed your instructions to the letter.

Good news: My Pi3 now boots with RISCOS desktop !
Bad news: stuck with perpetually filling hourglass.

Please help/advise.

Do I need ZeroPain module?
If so please point me at source & instructions.

Thank you.

postscript:
By Hitting ESCAPE key on booting I've managed to bypass the perpetual hourglass & regular RISCOS backdrop for a plain grey and now have functioning RISCOS! Missing the Hard disc icon in bottom left hand corner tho' all I can see is SD icon & Apps

[dfeugey]

Yes you probably need it. It's inside the archive http://www.svrsig.org/software/update4.zip
And you probably need a more modern !Boot (or not). https://www.riscosopen.org/zipfiles/pla ... Disc4.util

Missing the Hard disc icon in bottom left hand corner tho' all I can see is SD icon & Apps

Normal, since there is no hard disc on your configuration

[microbits]

So you said in your last post that Bad news: stuck with perpetually filling hourglass.
This is caused by the Zero page build of the OS that you are using and you will need to retrieve the image4.zip that I ask you to save at step Six in the loader folder inside !Boot on the SD card.

So let us begin
Step one
After you have booted to the desktop and you get to the perpetually filling hourglass, you need to press the ALT and the break key together to terminate the error this will give you a dialog box with the message “Press Stop to terminate unknown” below this message you will see three buttons click with the left mouse button select on stop the button on the right, this will clear the error and allow you to get to the desktop.

Step Two

open the SD card with a left click(select) this is on the bar at the bottom of the screen (called the iconbar) on the left hand side labeled :0 blue icon second one in.
This will open a filer window inside you will see folder icons blue in colour. With a Yellow one called !Boot
So up to now we have only used the left mouse button(select) to do things now we will learn how to use all of the three button move the mouse pointer over the filer window that you just opened and press the middle button or scroll wheel on a normal mouse this will open a context menu with Filer at the top and a list of actions below some with submenus's to the right.
Practice pressing the menu button on all of the icons you see on the left and right side of the iconbar to get used to using it. You will find some very useful menu's items when you click on the rapsberry pi icon on the right. And you will notice that some have keyboard equivalents to.

Step Three
Enough playing lets get down to some real work now, so move the pointer over the folder called !Boot in the filer window, now hold the shift key down and double click with select over the top of the !Boot icon this will open a second filer window with more folders , locate the folder call Loader and double click to open this folder.
This is the folder that you saved a copy of image4.zip into at step six in the last post, now we want to copy image4.zip to the root directory on the SD card this sounds hard but is realty very easy.
Click on the file image4.zip with select but do not release the button the icon will go dark now move the mouse this will drag a copy of the icon with it all the way to the sd card icon on the iconbar then release the select button, this will copy the file to the root directory, the main window will pop forward when it has copied the file.
Step 4
you need to open image4.zip so double click with select on image4.zip to open it the system should load spark and open a filer window on the desktop with the files !Boot and diversions copy these files the same way as above by clickling and draging on to the SD card icon on the iconbar below this will add the required files to the !Boot folder then when this is done you can reboot the system try using menu over the Raspberry Pi Icon on the right remember, the systen should reboot with out the error this time.
post if you have any problems if not we will move on to the next lesson.