Running SparkFS from PiEconetBridge

[PaulH2]

As reported here viewtopic.php?p=418710#p418710, I now have my A3000 up and running, complete with one of Ken Lowe's great min-Econet modules, hooked up to a PiEconetBridge, itself sharing to Windows via SAMBA.

All of that is working great, however, right now I have no floppies (all long gone ) and no internal storage (that will be next). In the short term, I'd like to run software from the Econet folder, however I have a conundrum: how to extract files from zip archives with correct Acorn file attributes. To do that, I need SparkFS, and use it to extract the files, however that brings up the conundrum - how do I extract and run SparkFS from Econet in the first place?

I've been following Ken's old thread here viewtopic.php?p=376773#p376773, which has some clues, but I have two problems:

1. It seems the easiset way would be to extract the files into the Econet folder on the PC, then use "Set Type" from the filer menu from within RISC OS. I've tried that, but I'm obviously doing something wrong as I'm still getting "Code runs too low" errors.
2. Ken mentioned manually setting the load and exec addresses from the command line, I can try that but haven't been able to find any examples of how to do it

Any suggestions on how to proceed please? I'm very slowly remembering RISC OS again, but its been a long time and I'm getting into stuff I rarely had to mess with...

Thanks all!

[james]

Try the self-extracting SparkPlug to see if that gets you going https://www.davidpilling.com/wiki/index.php/SparkFS

[PaulH2]

Try the self-extracting SparkPlug to see if that gets you going https://www.davidpilling.com/wiki/index.php/SparkFS

Well, one step forward, perhaps. I was able to get SparkPlug to self-extract, fixed the "System resources cannot be found" error, but when I try to run SparkPlug, or when I change a file type to DDC (Archive), the hourglass pops up, counts to 99%, disappears and then nothing, the system stops responding.

[sirbod]

Try the self-extracting version of SparkFS?

[PaulH2]

Try the self-extracting version of SparkFS?

It looks like SparkFS is expecting to be installed with other things on internal storage. I initially get the error message "System resources cannot be found". If I comment that check out in the !Run file, I then get "Filing system or path System: not present".

[paintings]

Well, one step forward, perhaps. I was able to get SparkPlug to self-extract, fixed the "System resources cannot be found" error, but when I try to run SparkPlug, or when I change a file type to DDC (Archive), the hourglass pops up, counts to 99%, disappears and then nothing, the system stops responding.

SparkPlug can misbehave if the currently-selected directory (CSD) doesn't point to a valid destination. As you don't have any local storage, try entering *NET at the command line before running SparkPlug.

There's an alternative method (run SparkPlug from RAMDisc) but your A3000 may not have enough RAM to make that worthwhile.

[PaulH2]

Well, one step forward, perhaps. I was able to get SparkPlug to self-extract, fixed the "System resources cannot be found" error, but when I try to run SparkPlug, or when I change a file type to DDC (Archive), the hourglass pops up, counts to 99%, disappears and then nothing, the system stops responding.

SparkPlug can misbehave if the currently-selected directory (CSD) doesn't point to a valid destination. As you don't have any local storage, try entering *NET at the command line before running SparkPlug.

There's an alternative method (run SparkPlug from RAMDisc) but your A3000 may not have enough RAM to make that worthwhile.

Interesting, I'll give that a try, thanks.

[PaulH2]

Well, one step forward, perhaps. I was able to get SparkPlug to self-extract, fixed the "System resources cannot be found" error, but when I try to run SparkPlug, or when I change a file type to DDC (Archive), the hourglass pops up, counts to 99%, disappears and then nothing, the system stops responding.

SparkPlug can misbehave if the currently-selected directory (CSD) doesn't point to a valid destination. As you don't have any local storage, try entering *NET at the command line before running SparkPlug.

There's an alternative method (run SparkPlug from RAMDisc) but your A3000 may not have enough RAM to make that worthwhile.

Unfortunately neither of those workarounds worked, I get the same errors.

[IanS]

Have you tried this version - viewtopic.php?f=29&t=20480

[PaulH2]

Have you tried this version - viewtopic.php?f=29&t=20480

That version worked perfectly, thanks Ian!