Drobe logo
Beta! | About us | Contact | Submit news | RSS | Twitter Webspace | Tech docs | Downloads | BBC Micro | Gallery | Wallpaper

RPCEmu updated to run RISC OS 6

Published: 3rd Dec 2006, 22:47:18.

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

Discussion

Viewing threaded comments | View comments unthreaded, listed by date | Skip to the end

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

Anyone, Dave C.

is a RISC OS UserDaveC on 3/12/06 11:11PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

RPCEmu != Virtual RPC

is a RISC OS Userjms on 4/12/06 8:47AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

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.

is a RISC OS Userjymbob on 4/12/06 9:51AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

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.

is a RISC OS Userwuerthne on 4/12/06 10:09AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

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.

is a RISC OS Userdruck on 4/12/06 10:29AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

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 :-)

is a RISC OS UserVirtualAcorn on 4/12/06 12:44PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

No worries Aaron. Any other conflicts of interest you'd like highlighted?

is a RISC OS Userdruck on 4/12/06 1:38PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Thanks for clearing that up druck and Aaron.

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

Cheers, Dave C.

is a RISC OS UserDaveC on 4/12/06 2:05PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

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.

is a RISC OS Userapdl on 4/12/06 3:22PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

apdl:

<[link]

SCNR ;-)

is a RISC OS Userscl4c0rn on 4/12/06 10:34PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

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.

is a RISC OS Userrjek on 5/12/06 12:42AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

scl4c0rn: I underastand the meaning of all the individual words, it's the meaning of the sentence that escapes me.

is a RISC OS Userapdl on 5/12/06 10:37AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

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?

is a RISC OS UserVirtualAcorn on 5/12/06 1:16PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

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.

is a RISC OS Userhighlandcattle on 5/12/06 5:02PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

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 :)

is a RISC OS Userapdl on 5/12/06 6:00PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

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.

is a RISC OS Userwuerthne on 5/12/06 7:47PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

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.

--

is a RISC OS UserSawadee on 9/12/06 10:52AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

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.

is a RISC OS Userarenaman on 9/12/06 4:49PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

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.

is a RISC OS UserVirtualAcorn on 12/12/06 11:14AM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Job done.

is a RISC OS Userdruck on 12/12/06 7:11PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

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).

is a RISC OS UserVirtualAcorn on 12/12/06 7:50PM [ Reply | Permalink | Report ]

Please login before posting a comment. Use the form on the right to do so or create a free account.

Login

Username

Password

Create a new account
Forgot your password?

Search this website

This week's poll

Recent developments have left me feeling...
Assured ROS will appear on new hardware Assured ROS will appear on new hardwareAssured ROS will appear on new hardware 55%
Pleased OS desktop features are being developed Pleased OS desktop features are being developedPleased OS desktop features are being developed 10%
ROL and ROOL will eventually kiss and make up ROL and ROOL will eventually kiss and make upROL and ROOL will eventually kiss and make up 5%
App developments are critical App developments are critical App developments are critical 10%
Dave Holden sleeps easy at night Dave Holden sleeps easy at nightDave Holden sleeps easy at night 19%
Discuss this | Archives

Featured articles

  • Wakefield 2009 wrap-up, photos and video
    The weekend's RISC OS event has been and gone and we've got the rest of our lives to look forward to. Here's a round-up of extra news and Drobe's show-related coverage and some photos taken from Wakefield 2009 - plus a video from the show floor.
     16 comments, latest by AW on 29/4/09 7:41PM. Published: 27 Apr 2009

  • RISC OS 5 pictured running on ARM Cortex-A8 kit
    Picture exclusive - This grainy photograph shows a port of RISC OS 5, sourced from the RISC OS Open project, running on a Beagleboard - a device powered by a 600MHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor with a built-in graphics chip. The port, developed by Jeffrey Lee with help from Uwe Kall and ROOL staff, is seen as a major breakthrough for the shared-source project as it proves the OS can be ported to new hardware without the need for a large team of engineers.
     75 comments, latest by rjek on 30/4/09 3:15PM. Published: 25 Apr 2009

  • Open documents from Windows-using pals with handy online tool
    It can be a pain when someone sends you a file that can only be opened on Windows, Mac OS X or Linux - but with the help of a free-to-use website and NetSurf, Paul Stewart reveals how these documents can be viewed on RISC OS.
     6 comments, latest by AW on 8/5/09 12:12AM. Published: 19 Apr 2009

    • Useful links

    News and media:
    Iconbar • MyRISCOS • ArcSite • RISCOScode • ANS • C.S.A.Announce • Archive • Qercus • RiscWorld • GAG-News

    Top developers:
    RISCOS Ltd • RISC OS Open • MW Software • R-Comp • Advantage Six • VirtualAcorn

    Dealers:
    CJE Micros • APDL • Castle • a4 • X-Ample • Liquid Silicon • Webmonster

    Usergroups:
    WROCC • RONE • NKACC • IRUG • SASAUG • ROUGOL • RONWUG • MUG • GAG • RISCOS.be

    Useful:
    RISCOS.org • RISCOS.info • Filebase • NetSurf

    Non-RISC OS:
    The Register • The Inquirer • Apple Insider • BBC News • Sky News • Google News • xkcd • diodesign

    Recently logged in: martin is a RISC OS User martin • daveward is a RISC OS User daveward • NickyDeB is a RISC OS User NickyDeB • Mac9 is a RISC OS User Mac9 • Footie is a RISC OS User Footie • gazza_fp is a RISC OS User gazza_fp • steyan is a RISC OS User steyan • sa110 is a RISC OS User sa110 • Archie is a RISC OS User Archie • tduell is a RISC OS User tduell •  Stats
    © 1999-2009 The Drobe Team. Some rights reserved, click here for more information | Powered by MiniDrobeCMS, based on J4U
    "If the main journalist on a RISC OS news site isn't interested [in RISC OS news] then things are pretty black"
    Page generated in 0.1187 seconds.