Risc OS - Questions

[Lamaman1971]

Hi Folks,

I recently dropped a SD card based HDD solution into my A3010. Works great, but I got to thinking about loading a few applications on boot up to make life easier and ran across the requirement edit a !BOOT file.

Which I cant find. Nor can I see a !SYSTEM directory either.

Does this mean my HDD is not set up correctly, therefore I am still booting from the ROM's? or have I got the wrong end of the stick?

Still learning - and enjoying - this wonderful micro - so any help, as always, is appreciated.

[wiggy]

These machines always boot the OS from ROM - the HDD only contributing updates and patches and so on. ("softloading" a whole OS as on some of the RiscPC's isn't practical on the earlier machines due to the lack of RAM).

A contemporary machine would (and should!) have !System, !Fonts, and !Scrap in the root of the Hard Drive - without which little (other than maybe some older games) will work. You might then have a Desktop boot file (rather than the !boot application) to start a few apps.

(Actually, I'm surprised you are getting away without a visible !system - even in the floppy-only days that normally had to be on the first disc after startup. Hit F12 to get a star prompt and type "show system*" - if nothing happens then you are indeed systemless, otherwise you should be able to see where it's hiding.)

Subsequently, the "Uniboot" structure was produced, at which point all of these moved underneath the !Boot application. On an A3010 it's debatable which approach is the "right" one - If you have an ethernet card you almost certainly want the full Uniboot. Liekwise, if you need a lot of the newer !system modules you are liekly to need the rest of the !uniboot stuff as well (some newer apps need the Choices: structure, for example).

On a fully contemporary system (with contemporary software) you'll probably be fine with the separate applications (and load less surplus stuff during startup).

[Lamaman1971]

Thanks Wiggy, Ill go check this when I get back from work - but Im pretty certain the folders you mention are absent from my 3010.

Is there somewhere I can learn about the boot up files and so on for the Archie? Id like to learn more but am struggling to find the correct resources.

[wiggy]

...that took more finding than I'd like. It's been a while...

It turns out that AppNote 251 (see Chris' Acorns or one of the Acorn FTP-site archives) gives the details of how the "uniboot" structure works, although it is RiscPC-based and says it doesn't work on RO 3.1x (which is what you have - and basically are stuck with - on an A3010). However, the point of the actual uniboot (which was released a little later than the appnote) is that it actually does work on everything (hence "Universal Boot Sequence").

The bit that isn't very well explained is how it gets there in the first place. On 3.1x (from memory) it defaults to not boot, so you need to know a bit more. RiscOs's boot process inherits from the BBC Master series, and is controlled by the *Configure settings (stored in the clock chip, and kept there by the leaky battery....). The relevant ones ( do *status to see the lot) are:

Code: Select all

*configure boot - enables booting from filesystem at startup (the opposite is "noboot")
*configure filesystem adfs - will need to be changed to the filesystem that drives your "HDD"
*configure drive 4 - sets HDD rather than Floppy for ADFS, but you'll likely need a different option your your FS instead

And then you have to set the filesystem to be bootable, which is less obvious. You have to be "in" the correct filesystem first - check with *CAT (but note that you can abbreviate commands with a full-stop, and CAT is first up, so just *. works - nobody's ever typed that one in full! Now you know why the forum is named...). If you don't see the top of the HDD, switch to it (*ADFS or *IDEFS or whatever) and try again. Once you are where you need to be, check the top line of the listing: this might say "Option 02 (Run)" - in which case you are in business - but probably says "Option 00 (Off)". This is changed using *OPT 4,2

Now, next time you boot the machine, it will look for the disc, then look for "!Boot" on the disc, and run whatever it is. Typically it's one of:
- The "!Boot" application (which is just a directory with an "!" on the front - hold down Shift and double click to see inside - with an !Run file in it)
- An "Obey" file (which is essentially a script file of "star" commands)
- A file of type "Desktop" (which is much the same, but causes the desktop environment to be kicked off first)

The last is the simplest - The task manager will try to generate one for you from the "Desktop Boot" option on its Iconbar menu - just start the programs you want and then drag the file to the root of your HDD, then edit (Again, shift-double-click) it to check it got everything.

However, this doesn't allow to to load updated versions of anything the desktop needs in advance - for which you'll need one of the other options, preferably the full uniboot. Depending on what software you are running, you might want to start with the old Acorn FTP site version, or one of the updated variants from elsewhere. (see, for example, viewtopic.php?t=4037 )

Note that mostly there is builtin help, so for example *help filesystem give the help for *configure filesystem, and *help ADFS gives not just the help for the *ADFS command, but lists the commands and configuration options that the ADFS module provides. Alternatively, the "definitive" answers are in the Programmers Reference Manuals... but you need to have an idea what to look for first.


Hopefully that's enough to get you started, or at least to give you a start into the other documentation...

[wmd]

Be warned that using uniboot on the older machines significantly increases boot times, even when using a minimal uniboot. If you play games then this is a huge negative as many games don't gracefully exit back to desktop when you quit them, meaning a full reboot.

[jgharston]

The simplest Boot structure is a single file. The next simplest is a stripped-down !Boot directory. See: here.
I use the BootDir structure on my A5000, and the BootFile structure on one of my A4000s that doesn't have much disk space.

[Lamaman1971]

Hi Folks - still playing around with this but I am getting there. Long story short, my A3010 has an "iffy" floppy drive so I've been using a GoTech. The boot files I found aren't in ADF format (of course!) so thought Id use a Parallel ZIP drive. Hooked it up, didn't work. Repaired a few traces.....

Got the ZIP drive working - transferred the files and away it went. I still need to play around but at least I have the requisite folders and files now!

Thanks for everyone's help and assistance with this.

Mark