With the launch of their 4té computer in the latter part of last year, R-Comp developed a set of tools to run on the system, neatly wrapped up in an application called 4téTools. This provided features over and above the easily accessible configuration options provided in RISC OS itself, and covered areas such as the display, keyboard and mouse, networking, and much more.
With the Raspberry Pi being already in widespread use amongst RISC OS users, R-Comp have spun PiTools out of 4téTools to provide a similar set features to those many other users – and although it’s primarily aimed at the Pi 4 and 400, it is designed to run on (and therefore provide its feature set for) any model of Pi.
The full suite includes a range of features, such as:
- Monitor handling, with support for ultra-high definition screens at 60Hz.
- Scaling support to help keep old games playing.
- Support for headless operation, if the computer is to be used over a network and doesn’t need its own screen.
- Keyboard and mouse handling and adjustments – especially useful on the Pi 400, but also useful for others.
- Automatic network configuration, so the network can be brought up and/or changed at any time.
- Auto-config of ShareFS and drives.
- Automatic (but configurable if this isn’t needed) remote access.
The suite also includes recovery tools and system protection, added security via R-Comp’s LockScreen application, online software updates, CMOS handling, and so much more. The current firmware and version of RISC OS as found on the 4té (at the time the zip was put together) is even included, and for systems that don’t boot from Boot:Loader (a special partition hidden in !Boot), such as the Compute modules and systems that boot from non-SDFS drives, version 1.12 will automatically detect the firmware location as necessary.
PiTools is available now from !Store priced at £34.99.
