RPCEmu updated to run RISC OS 6 | Drobe.co.uk archives

RPCEmu updated to run RISC OS 6

Published: 3rd Dec 2006, 22:47:18 | Permalink | Printable

ROS 6 meets Linux desktop

Following the release of RISC OS 6 Preview, the open source RiscPC emulator RPCEmu has been updated to run the new OS. Several bug fixes and updates were submitted by John-Mark Bell to the emulator project in order to boot RISCOS Ltd's latest operating system offering. Iyonix owner John-Mark said the work was done out of curiosity - allowing him to explore the various hardware abstractions in RISC OS 6 - and also to help debug programs such as the gnash Flash 7 player port. Earlier builds of the emulator were unable to boot RISC OS 6, or display the desktop properly.

ROS 6 Preview was released last month for StrongARM RiscPC-class machines, and VirtualAcorn's commercial emulator software VirtualRiscPC-SA, but can now run inside the freely available RPCEmu. Originally developed by Tom Walker for Windows, RPCEmu was later ported to a PocketPC PDA, the Linux platform, and Mac OS X.

As well as John-Mark's RISC OS 6-related work, a number of other enhancements have been committed into the emulator's source code vault by Tom: these include A7500 video emulation fixes, working albeit "buggy" FPA emulation, various optimisations and speed ups, fixed cursor support, improved support for running ARM Linux and ARM NetBSD, a rewritten timing system, and more.

Screenshots

Click on a thumbnail for the larger image. The screenshots show RPCEmu running on Linux

Links

RPCEmu website and sources on riscos.info RISC OS Six website

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Discussion

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I thought RISC OS 6 wouldn't work on Virtual RPC? Please which is it?

Anyone, Dave C.

DaveC on 3/12/06 11:11PM
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RPCEmu != Virtual RPC

jms on 4/12/06 8:47AM
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jms: but the article states "ROS 6 Preview was released last month for [...] VirtualAcorn's commercial emulator software VirtualRiscPC-SA", which I too thought was untrue. I believe a few people may have got it working by modding the !Boot in VRPC to softload the newer OS, but AAUI it's not currently working in the same Out-of-box manner as genuine Risc PCs.

jymbob on 4/12/06 9:51AM
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jymbob: What are you basing your statement on? As far as I am aware, RO6-preview runs fine on VRPC-SA as stated in the article, and it works in the same out-of-the-box manner as on other platforms. It does not yet run on VRPC-SE and VRPC-Adjust but that was not claimed above.

wuerthne on 4/12/06 10:09AM
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RISC OS 6 and the mythical Select 4 probably aren't going to work on VRPC SE or Adjust, you'll have to upgrade to the SA version. I'm sure Aaron (wearing his Virtual Acorn rather than director of RISCOS Ltd hat), will be along in a minute to provide details of upgrade pricing.

druck on 4/12/06 10:29AM
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There seems to be some confusion here, with regard to VRPC, as the article correctly says, RISC OS 6 currently works on VRPC-SA and VirtualRPC-AdjustSA. It's not currently supported on VRPC-SE or VRPC-Adjust.

In reply to Druck: Thanks for the plug :-)

VirtualAcorn on 4/12/06 12:44PM
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No worries Aaron. Any other conflicts of interest you'd like highlighted?

druck on 4/12/06 1:38PM
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Thanks for clearing that up druck and Aaron.

Yes I have VRPC-SE not the SA vesion - my mistake.

Cheers, Dave C.

DaveC on 4/12/06 2:05PM
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druck: I've been trying to work out what that remark means. Perhaps you'd care to enlighten us all since I expect I'm not alone in being unable to decipher it.

apdl on 4/12/06 3:22PM
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apdl:

<[link]

SCNR ;-)

scl4c0rn on 4/12/06 10:34PM
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My understanding is that the RISC OS 6 Preview works just fine on earlier versions of VirtualRiscPC, just as long as you don't use the installer, and install it manually by decompressing the contents of the Zip files within it into the right place. I have not personally tested it, but I've heard of at least two others who have had success by doing this.

rjek on 5/12/06 12:42AM
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scl4c0rn: I underastand the meaning of all the individual words, it's the meaning of the sentence that escapes me.

apdl on 5/12/06 10:37AM
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In reply to rjek: RISC OS 6 may work on some earlier versions of VRPC-SE and VRPC-Adjust, but it will only be some versions not all. As such it was decided to say that the preview version doesn't work on non StrongARM VirtualAcorns until the issue can be resolved. Note that the installer has nothing to do with it.

In reply to Druck: What on earth are you blithering on about?

VirtualAcorn on 5/12/06 1:16PM
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I think that druck means that it is strange that the preview version doesn't work on earlier VRPC versions (while it does work on real ARM7 machines). So that people will have to upgrade to VRPC SA.

highlandcattle on 5/12/06 5:02PM
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highlandcattle: "So that people will have to upgrade to VRPC SA."

Well the only person who seems to have decided that is druck. When did Aaron say that people wiil have to upgrade to the SA versions of VRPC to get RO6 to work?

Conspiracy theories, don't you just love them

apdl on 5/12/06 6:00PM
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druck: You definitely went over the top. Aaron had no idea that RO6-preview would not work on VRPC-Adjust until I was given a beta copy of RO6-preview to test and could not get it to boot. It was certainly not by design as you seem to imply.

Besides, as far as I know Aaron has never stated that users of earlier versions of VRPC would need to upgrade. Personally, I would either expect a fix for the affected versions of VRPC or for RO6 as soon as the reason for the incompatibility is known.

wuerthne on 5/12/06 7:47PM
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Pardon the cheeky image and off topic nature, but I could not resist sharing this gif iamge with you all here.....

[link]

The site is for foreign teachers (of English) in Thailand. Ajarn means teacher in Thai.

Suggestion? We could use this gif image to show punters where to go at the next RISC OS show?

Steve.

--

Sawadee on 9/12/06 10:52AM
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What is wrong with Druck's statement? Seems reasonable enough to me. Aaron clearly has a conflict of interest. Whether it has any affect on his various business decisions is a separate matter.

arenaman on 9/12/06 4:49PM
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In reply to arenaman: I'll tell you what's wrong with the Druckwits statement. He tries to imply "something", but doesn't actually have the bottle to really say anything. In the meantime upgrades for VirtualRPC-SE and VirtualRPC-Adjust that support RISC OS 6 are now available from the VirtualAcorn website.

VirtualAcorn on 12/12/06 11:14AM
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Job done.

druck on 12/12/06 7:11PM
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In reply to Druck: Yes indeed job done. I feel that I ought to send out my thanks to the testers who have been running RISC OS 6 on VirtualRPC-SE and VirtualRPC-Adjust this over the last couple of weeks and apologise for the delay in fixing the shutdown problem that held up the release of these free upgrades (my fault and my fault alone).

VirtualAcorn on 12/12/06 7:50PM
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