From AlwaysInnovating

Jump to: navigation, search

This page describes how to carry out the initial setup of RISC OS on the Touch Book. The procedure is considered to require only minimal technical knowledge and ability. For assistance with any difficulties you may encounter, please ask in AI's Other OS forum or in the ROOL forum.

Note: the current procedure does not accommodate the multi-OS system. Assistance in this area would be greatly appreciated.

Requirements

The following are required:

Blank SD card
SD card reader
USB mouse (RISC OS needs a third Menu button in addition to buttons for Select and Adjust)
USB storage device for the boot sequence (e.g. flash drive, preferably a slim one for internal connection)
Touch Book
Note: at present, RISC OS is not known to have been installed on the newer Smart Book.
Assistance/testing in this area would be greatly appreciated.

SD card preparation

Generating a card image containing the necessary files is a convenient way to prepare a working card, with the files correctly presented for successful booting.

The RISC OS ROM image (4 MiB in size) is needed. The Touch Book also needs x-loader and U-Boot. (Additionally, the mkimage tool may be needed.)

RISC OS ROM image
- A generally recent build of the ROM is available from ROOL's ROM release downloads (Beagle ROM, listed under ROMs – miscellaneous).
x-loader and U-Boot
- These can either be copied off the Linux SD card that came with the machine, or the latest versions can be used.

Using RISC OS

The SDCreate application is included within the Beagle ROM zipfile. Its use is well documented but should be self-explanatory.

SDCreate can also write the image. If the hardware is not present to do this, the image can be written using another OS.

Using other OSes

In the absence of a specific tool or instructions, manual creation will be necessary. If you have successfully done this, please update this page to help others.

In the mean time, you can check out the forum for help obtaining an SD card image file.

The image can be written using any number of Windows/Linux/Mac utilities:

Windows
- Win32DiskImager
- Ensure the file has a .img extension for Win32DiskImager to find it
Linux
- UNetbootin
- (Or if you’re feeling adventurous, just use dd)
Mac
- Installing MeeGo on your netbook
- (The above instructions for writing a MeeGo Linux disc image onto a USB drive can easily be adapted for writing the SD card images created by SDCreate. If you are aware of any user-friendly utilities to do this on a Mac OS X machine, please update this page.)

USB boot device preparation

Prepare a FAT formatted USB storage device which is formatted to under 2GiB in size.
Note: This can be the same device that you'll extract the boot sequence to, but it doesn't have to be. If you're using two different USB devices, ensure that they don't have the same name, e.g. name the one with the self-extracting archive on it 'INSTALLHD4'. In the case of a flash drive for internal connection, it should be of slim design.
Copy the self-extracting HardDisc4.util to the device (HardDisc4, listed under Ancillary downloads).
Copy the InstallHD4 script to the device. (This should also be included within the Beagle ROM zipfile, or you can download the latest version.)

Boot installation procedure

Remove and open the top part
Remove and safely store the supplied SD card and replace with the newly prepared one
Mouse and USB boot device preparation:
- Determine whether both can be connected externally, dependent on their dimensions
- While doing the initial setup, it may be convenient for the USB boot device to be connected somewhere easily accessible
- Ultimately, it's more convenient for it to be internally connected
- Connect the USB mouse
Note: a USB dongle may need removing and storing safely, in order to leave a vacant port
Reassemble the Touch Book (with an internally connected mouse, its lead needn't prevent attaching the top part cover)
Turn on the Touch Book and arrive at the RISC OS * Supervisor prompt
Enter desktop

Supervisor prompt

After a short wait, the splash screen is displayed

Splash screen

This is followed by the desktop
Note: a "Message from Desktop" error stating "Machine startup has not completed successfully: 'The disc drive is empty'" can be ignored by Selecting Cancel

Desktop

If help is required for familiarisation with RISC OS, this can be accessed by Selecting the Apps icon and executing !Help by double-clicking on it with Select
Selecting the disc icon opens its directory viewer, where its contents are visible, i.e. the HardDisc4/util archive, the InstallHD4 script and any other files/directories which are on the device

Directory viewer

Clicking Menu over the InstallHD4 script and navigating to File 'InstallHD4'->Set type allows entering (in place of whatever is shown) fd6 or taskexec

Changing the filetype

If the HardDisc4 archive isn't named HardDisc4/util then it must be renamed: clicking Menu over the file and navigating to File '...'->Rename allows entering (in place of whatever is shown) HardDisc4/util
The InstallHD4 script is executed by double-clicking on it with Select
Note: an Error message stating "No Boot application has been run on startup. Some facilities may not be available or set up correctly." can be ignored by Selecting Cancel
If everything went OK, the desktop should now show:
- a window containing some instructions to follow;
- a shortcut to the !SCSIForm disc formatter on the pinboard in the bottom-left corner of the screen; and
- directory viewers showing the contents of the RAM disc (including the boot sequence and other files/directories)

Results of executing the InstallHD4 script

Connecting the new USB boot device to format reveals its drive number on the icon bar
Note: the same device can be reused if wished. If a different device is being used, the FAT formatted device used to get to this point can be safely disconnected, if desired
(Re)formatting of the device is undertaken by the single-tasking !SCSIForm, executed by double-clicking on it with Select
When prompted about adding entries to the defect list, A (no more changes) is required. Otherwise, the default settings should work just fine.

SCSIForm

When formatting is complete (or aborted by pressing Escape), the system will return to the desktop
Selecting all files in the RAM::RamDisc0.$.HardDisc4 directory viewer is done by clicking Menu Select all within the viewer

Select all

The extracted contents are copied to the USB boot device by Selecting one of the highlighted files and dragging the selection onto the iconbar drive icon for the newly formatted device