SMB Server for BeagleBoard

Sep 262012
 

And a potted history that wouldn’t be out of place on a TV soap, if only there was one about computer software.

Thomas Milius has updated the RISC OS Samba server, smbserver version 0.08, to work on BeagleBoard-xM based systems. His previous update to version 0.08, back in 2009 according to the announcement from Herbert zur Nedden, was to make it run on the IYONIX pc, and that version remains available to download from the same location – the new version being incompatible with that machine – along with a version for the A9home.

SMB, or Server Message Block, is a protocol that originated at IBM in the 1980s, and further developed by Microsoft (as CIFS – Common Internet File System) and others, that allows different computers to share files, printers and more over a network, with one machine acting as a server (on which the resources are held) and the other(s) connecting to it as clients. Continue reading »

Aemulor arrives on BeagleBoard and PandaBoard

Sep 082012
 

Make your 32-bit computer do an Impression (ho-ho) of a 26-bit one!

When Castle Technology Ltd launched the IYONIX pc, back in 2002, there was a significant question users needed an answer to before upgrading to the new computer: Would their old software run on the new hardware?

The problem was that for all the previous RISC OS computers, the ARM CPUs worked in (or supported in the case of StrongARM) an addressing mode we refer to as ’26-bit’, in which the program counter and processor status flags are contained in a single register; six bits are used for the status flags, and 26 bits for the program counter – the pointer to where in memory instructions are read for execution. With instructions always being word-aligned, rather than byte-aligned, the 26-bit program counter actually provides a 28-bit address range, representing bits 2 to 27 in the actual address – the lower two bits pointing to the instruction to be read are always zero. Continue reading »

CPUClock 1.00 released

Sep 022012
 

Monitor those megahertz!

Chris Johnson has released version 1.00 of CPUClock (also available here), a small application for BeagleBoard-based systems running RISC OS, that presents the user with a small status window displaying the configured fast and slow speeds of the CPU, as well as the speed at which it is currently operating. Continue reading »

BBFlash updated to version 0.03

Jun 022012
 

…after version 0.02 proves itself too indecent to be allowed out in public.

Dave Higton has released a new version of BBFlash, his application that allows BeagleBoard or BeagleBoard-xM owners to reflash SD/SDHC/MMC cards, from which their devices boot RISC OS, with all of the standard files while the card remains in situ in the card slot from which it boots the device.

The update addresses a serious bug in the previous version, whereby if a file was overwritten by one that was smaller, any unused clusters on the card were not being returned to the free pool. Due to the nature of this bug, Dave says “I would most strongly recommend all users of BBFlash to upgrade to the new version, 0.03, immediately.”

 

EasyFont Pro updated

May 122012
 

Font front furthered.

A big weakness of the RISC OS font manager lies in the way in which it handles and organises lots of fonts from the user’s perspective – which is to say, it doesn’t, not in a meaningful or sensible way*. Normally, the fonts installed on the computer are presented with only rudimentary grouping – for example, under Homerton there is medium and bold, with an oblique variant of each – and when lots of fonts are installed, the user normally sees them in applications as a very long menu.

Originally supplied by Fabis Computing, and subsequently taken over by iSV Products, who improved and updated it, EasyFont Pro was designed to address this issue. Continue reading »

BBFlash updated

May 122012
 

BBFlash… Aa-aah… It saved every ROM image!

BBFlash is an application designed to write all of the files needed to boot a BeagleBoard or BeagleBoard-xM to a suitable memory card – a micro SD, micro SDSC, SD, SDHC or MMC. It allows you to use a FAT formatted card, with no need to reformat it or reduce its capacity, as well as to rewrite the files – for instance when there is an update – with no need to remove the card from the slot on the board. Continue reading »

Snippets – 24th March 2012

Mar 242012
 

It’s been a busy month again here, which means there have been no posts to RISCOSitory for a while – so here’s a quick round-up of recent goings on in the world of RISC OS.

RISC OS 5.18

RISC OS 5 has seen its latest ‘stable’ release in the form of RISC OS 5.18, which features some 340 improvements since the last such release (version 5.16). The full list of improvements can be found on the RISC OS Open website, but this list isn’t written in ‘typical user-speak’. In response to requests for a more user friendly list, Rob Sprowson posted one to usenet, which Steve Revill has since posted on the RISC OS open forum. Continue reading »

Snippets – 19th November 2011

Nov 192011
 

Following on from the news that Pipedream is now free to download, Gerald Fitton has announced that Fireworkz for RISC OS is also now free to download. Fireworkz is an integrated word processor and spreadsheet package, with some very powerful and useful facilities, which works in a fundamentally different way to PipeDream. Both are very powerful and useful pieces of software and, if you haven’t used them before, they come highly recommended. A mailing list has also been set up for the software on Google Groups by Stuart Swales, the programmer responsible for updating the software. Continue reading »