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I have a "RISCOS Pi" image from the RISCOS webpage as linked on the official Raspberry Pi download page and the RISCOS official download page. I've downloaded the newest version as of this writing, and it boots fine on a Raspberry Pi 1B (512 MB RAM).

But the very same image, even on the same SD card (a 64 GB Transcend microSDXC Class 10 UHS-1) doesn't boot on the Raspberry Pi 3. I only get a square with gradients between (clockwise, starting from top left) red via yellow and cyan to blue with the same square much smaller in the top right corner of the screen again.

The used screen is an AOC i2269VWM connected via HDMI.

Any idea what could have gone wrong? Is it possible that the image itself isn't suitable for the Raspberry Pi 3 at all due to its age? It has been released about one year before the Raspberry Pi 3 was released.

Unfortunately I currently don't have a Raspberry Pi 2 to check if its a Pi-3-only issue or if the image only works on Raspberry Pi Ones at all.

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4 Answers 4

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I know that i'm late but, since the recently released RC15, RISC OS now supports Rpi3.

Models supported

The Raspberry Pi Foundation have been busy creating new models at an astonishing rate, so the list of different Pi boards supported has grown too. RC15 now supports:

  • Pi Zero (new)
  • Pi 1 models A, A+, B, B+
  • Pi 2 with BCM2836 processor
  • Pi 2 with BCM2837 processor (new)
  • Pi 3 (new)
  • Compute Module
  • Compute Module 3 (new)

Sources:

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  • Sometimes late is perfect. :-) Thanks for that information! I really like it when seeing questions being answered again when a proper or totally new (i.e. not existing back then) solution arose.
    – Axel Beckert
    Apr 26, 2017 at 23:12
  • Yea. I'm also thinkering with lots of OSs on my RPi3, and coincidentally while reading the distrowatch news, i have found that support for RISC OS has arrived. Seems that now i will have to buy another microSD card to avoid erasing the ones i'm already using :) - I was following this answer and thought that this info could be turned into and answer :)
    – user66172
    Apr 27, 2017 at 12:18
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It works fine for me. I copied the boot files from the Debian NOOBS release - basically the ones with the same filenames that are already there (except, of course, config.txt). Also you need the Beta RPi Rom (5.23 nightly build). 5.23 will also require the ZeroPain module to be installed in !Boot.Choices.Boot.Predesk.

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    Thanks. So far I haven't stumbled over any ROM updates for the Raspi nor have I ever heard of ZeroPain. It would be nice if your add some more links to your answer, not only for me. (I guess I'll find that stuff you mentioned somehow. :-)
    – Axel Beckert
    Apr 25, 2016 at 12:58
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    Everything that you need for the Riscos side is on the page that you linked to above: riscosopen.org/content/downloads/raspberry-pi The Zeropain module is inside the Beta RPi ROM zip file
    – Jeff
    Apr 25, 2016 at 13:54
  • Thanks, I just looked at the SD Card Release as I'm not aware what I need to do with pure ROM files. I'll try to figure out.
    – Axel Beckert
    Apr 25, 2016 at 18:34
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The three generations of Raspberry Pi all use a different SOC. While the newer CPUs are backwards compatible, your image will still need the newer firmware to run. Since that image is so old, it doesn't contain the required firmware for the 3, and I'm betting it's also lacking support for the 2.

Since that firmware is proprietary, I don't think it's possible for you to make it work on an RPi 3 given the tools at your disposal.

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  • Hrm, shouldn't there be a chance to copy over the firmware blobs from a current Raspbian image?
    – Axel Beckert
    Mar 25, 2016 at 23:40
  • @AxelBeckert: At least some of that deals with the OS kernel. So, probably not. It is admittedly, a little outside my normal scope. Hopefully someone will correct me if I am wrong.
    – Jacobm001
    Mar 25, 2016 at 23:42
  • I tried at least to copy all start*.elf, fixup*.dat, bcm*.dtb and bootcode.bin from a recent Raspbian 8 Jessie image (which runs on the Raspberry Pi 3), but the behaviour didn't change and I still only see that colorful gradient square.
    – Axel Beckert
    Mar 26, 2016 at 16:08
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There is a way to do it.

What you will need is the RPi Image, the Beta Rom, and the latest firmware found on the RPi Foundation's GitHub.

Write the RPi RiscOS image to a disc and extract the Beta Rom. Copy riscos to your Boot partition and replace RISCOS.img with it. Then, extract the start.elf, bootcode.bin, and fixup.dat from the firmware folder from the RPi Foundation's GitHub and replace the files on your SD Card. Plug the card into your Pi and boot it up for some glorious British Operating System fun.

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