An unofficial mailing list was created this week for A9home owners to discuss their new computers. Users had hoped to chat amongst themselves about any problems and issues with the ARM9-powered computer, and to swap ideas and hints'n'tips. Vince Hudd decided to create the mailing list from his new website, and has invited all users to join in - the archives of the forum are open for all to browse through.During the beta testing phase of the A9home, users were asked not to discuss their problems and bug reports openly, although this requirement was lifted after the product went on general sale on Saturday.
Vince said: "The unofficial mailing list has been created as a mutual support and discussion mailing list for users of the A9Home computer, from Advantage 6 and CJE Micros, as well as for those people who are interested in the machine."
The ground rules for the list include keeping on-topic, being polite and keeping messages to 10K or less. Topics discussed so far include the unwillingness for the A9home to preserve a copy of the 'CMOS configuration settings' when the unit is switched off or rebooted. Although the hardware has suitable non-volatile memory built in, and we're told the operating system can support it, the issue is quite a tricky one for AdvantageSix to solve due to the hardware abstraction involved. The CMOS settings store information that is critical during boot up and a mis-configuration could result in a dead system.
• Some owners have run into problems with the 32bit AIF checking on the 32bit RISC OS Adjust running on the A9home. Although most software works, or the checking can be temporarily disabled by users, some products have run aground - including Photodesk, sold now by CJE Micros. A patch handed out for the software doesn't solve the problem of it attempting to load a newer CallASWI module which reportedly isn't correctly marked as being 32bit compatible. Fiddling with the !Run file to disable the check will trigger the graphics package's anti-tamper copy protection system.
Update at 07:09 18/5/2006
And as if by magic, an official mailing list has been setup by AdvantageSix.
Links
A9home mailing list
Unofficial software compatibility website