RISC iX - Cloned!

[dangardner]

Dan, can you write up exactly how you configured it so I can try to reproduce what you've done? For example, at the moment, I'm unsure which configuration of machine you're emulating.

I have it configured as an ARM3 (33MHz) w/FPA, 16Mb RAM, RISC OS 3 (old FDC). Make sure you have the latest Arculator code (with the backplane IRQ stuff) and the latest disk image (there have been 3).

[davidb]

Is the RISC OS 3 (old FDC) rom_set 2 or 3?

I'll do a clean build and try again. I should really upload my patches so that others can try and get it running on Linux, too.

[dangardner]

Is the RISC OS 3 (old FDC) rom_set 2 or 3?

Here is my arc.cfg:

Code: Select all

no_borders = 1
stereo = 1
rom_set = 2
fdc_type = 0
fast_disc = 1
hardware_blit = 1
double_scan = 1
first_fullscreen = 1
full_borders = 0
hires = 0
fpa = 1
cpu_type = 7
mem_size = 16384
sound_enable = 1
limit_speed = 1

[davidb]

Thanks for the arc.cfg file. No luck yet, but still trying. Once again, I get to the screen I posted before.

Just to check, does your archive of the disk image have this MD5 sum?

Code: Select all

520734dbf9edb63e16e31c30c4dff9d1  riscix121chdimage.zip

[dangardner]

Just to check, does your archive of the disk image have this MD5 sum?

Code: Select all

520734dbf9edb63e16e31c30c4dff9d1  riscix121chdimage.zip

Yes it does. Sorry I can't be any more help than that.

[davidb]

Thanks, Dan. You've been a great deal of help so far in any case.

Tom, if you're still following this: do you want to give my changes a go on Linux? Maybe you'll have better luck than me and can tell me what I did wrong.

[SarahWalker]

Sorry, didn't realise you were running on Linux. Have you ported the podule system?

[davidb]

Yes, I used libdl to handle the shared library for the podules/src/aka31 code. I guess it must work to some extent if RISC OS can see the ROM and access the disk, so you could say it has been ported. However, I should really make sure it's more robust in terms of handling problems like a missing podules directory.

[SarahWalker]

Stupid question, but have you tested that the SCSI drive works in RISC OS, beyond just loading RISC iX?

[davidb]

Yes, I can open the RISC OS partition on the disk and access the files. I can also open the RISX iX partition with the filer, once I've configured the RISCiXFS module.

[SarahWalker]

Hmm. Is this on a 64-bit system? If so it might be worth building for 32-bit if possible to see if there are any issues relating to that.

Could you also try reformatting the drive as purely RISC OS and trying to copy and run RISC OS stuff on it?

[davidb]

Yes, it's 64-bit. I'll try a 32-bit build next, then a more intensive RISC OS test.

[davidb]

My 32-bit attempt didn't produce anything that worked differently to the 64-bit version.

This weekend's task looks like it's going to be soak testing the SCSI handling.

[davidb]

To make it easier to get my changes, I've temporarily hosted my clone of the repository at Bitbucket. You can see the commits I've made in a branch and decide if you like the look of them.

[dangardner]

Unlike my A410/1, my A5000 does actually seem to like the taste of UNIX! This makes me very happy!

However, my AKF53 monitor doesn't like it so much and has trouble syncing to the video mode used by the RISC iX bootloader, which makes me very sad.

I can see some boot messages so it's getting much further than the A410/1 but I've played with various *Co. MonitorType/Mode/WimpMode etc. and/or quitting the desktop and every time it switches to a video mode my monitor can't handle properly. I'm going to try and track down my VGA to SCART cable and try some alternative LCD TV/monitor combos but I was hoping somebody might have the answer to my video mode problem with the AKF53.

[dangardner]

However, my AKF53 monitor doesn't like it so much and has trouble syncing to the video mode used by the RISC iX bootloader, which makes me very sad.

After a power-on holding down "T", the monitor now likes the resolution. And with a little tweak to /etc/rc.net (telling it to use ea0 rather than en0), it also recognised my Ether3 podule, so I now have a fully working RISC iX system. It evens runs twm and an xterm on a 4Mb A5000.

I've wanted one of these to play with ever since I was about 13 at the first Acorn User Show when Acorn were showing off the R260 and tried unsuccessfully to guess the root password on it while a mate kept the Acorn man talking. I can't remember if it was that Acorn User Show or another where we managed to swipe the newly released Level 4 fileserver software from them too. Raiding the Acorn stand was definitely always one of our objectives

[flibble]

This is pretty incredible news, I'd never heard of RISC iX working on the A5000k era of machines (with the superIO combo chips on), I'm very suprised it works, but it might give even more people the chance to have a go

Also it worked with Ether 3 is slightly boggleworthy too, this is way 'off spec' for what risc ix docs claim

[steve3000]

As said above, this is very interesting!

But it is quite possible that the SuperIO chip is just being ignored, because presumably you're running this from a SCSI hdd on an Acorn card?

So the big question...does the floppy drive work from RISCiX?

[dangardner]

As said above, this is very interesting!

But it is quite possible that the SuperIO chip is just being ignored, because presumably you're running this from a SCSI hdd on an Acorn card?

So the big question...does the floppy drive work from RISCiX?

Yes, I'm running it off an external SCSI disk connected via an AKA31 (ex-AKA32) podule. I haven't tried the floppy drive yet. I'll report back when I do.

This seems to explain the Ether3 aspect a little: http://www.programd.com/24_a4c964b3b7ae5d75_1.htm

This also supports the idea that you can run RISC iX on A5000 and other machines: http://qubeserver.com/qube/qubeftp.php? ... C%20iX.htm

[davidb]

Thanks to Tom's input, I'm now able to boot into RISC iX successfully in Arculator, though we had to disable mouse support to get that to work. This means that I can't use the desktop GUI to reconfigure the system, load the !RISCiX application and boot that way, so here's the recipe I use to do it after I press F12 to get the * prompt:

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configure scsifsdiscs 1
rmreinit scsifs
scsi
!riscix.riscixfs
configure device sd0
rmreinit riscixfs
scsi
boot

My next goal is to either mount two disks for use within RISC iX or to resize the existing disk image to the upper limit for disks on that hardware - isn't that 500MB or so?

[dangardner]

Great news! I also spotted http://www.drobe.co.uk/archives/index.p ... au/RISCiX/ recently, which I don't think I've seen before. It contains riscosbits.zip which has a SecureBoot module ("Acorn Secure RISCiX filing system") which looks interesting.

[davidb]

Yes, that looks intriguing. Thanks. For anyone else interested in looking at those files, the RISCiX.tar and RISCiX.tar.gz files appear to contain the same files, though I haven't checked the contents to see if they really are the same.

[piemmm]

Using flibbles guide I've got RISCiX working on my 16M A540...


The R140 should arrive in a couple of days, which will be dedicated to it.........

[davidb]

Excellent news, piemmm!

[Zarchos]

I don't know if it's available somewhere on the Net, so if it still had to be preserved, I've got a copy of this :

[davidb]

It's mentioned on Chris's Acorns but there's no scan. I did a wider search of the Centre for Computing History site and didn't find anything. I did, however, find this intriguing item: Box 312 - Acorn R140 Disks - RISC iX.

[Zarchos]

It's mentioned on Chris's Acorns but there's no scan. I did a wider search of the Centre for Computing History site and didn't find anything. I did, however, find this intriguing item: Box 312 - Acorn R140 Disks - RISC iX.

Great find !
It would be great to get copies.

[flibble]

That box is on my list to raid, but last time I was up there we couldn't find it in the pile It's in a big pile that's being sorted onto shelves.

I still have a few disc images from the last time I was up there to post on 4corn, pcem, twin and advance.

[davidb]

I wondered if you'd already been alerted to its presence. It'll be interesting to see what comes out of it.

[dangardner]

I think I spotted that box last time I was visiting because it intrigued me. If I remember correctly, it was under the tables in the main hall, near the ICL PERQ. That was over a year ago, so it may have moved since then.