Pi/GEOS Alpha!

    Es ist vollbracht - ich habe eine erste Version von Pi/GEOS in ein Image gepackt. Wer es einmal ausprobieren möchte, kann es einfach mit dem offiziellen Raspberry Pi Imager (Auswahl: "Eigenes Image") auf eine Micro-SD-Karte schreiben und seinen RasPi 3/4 davon booten. Vor dem eigentlichen Schreiben empfiehlt es sich, die Wifi/WLan-Konfiguration in den erweiterten Einstellungen (Zahnrad-Symbol) auf dem Image zu hinterlegen.

    Nach dem obligatorischen Vergrößern der Partition sollte Euch pigeos-config begrüßen:

    Jetzt sind noch einige wenige aber notwendige Einstellungen zu tätigen bevor es losgehen kann:

    • Aktivierung und Konfiguration des WLANs (falls nicht bereits im RPI-Imager geschehen),
    • Herunterladen einer GEOS-Testversion,
    • Aktivierung selbiger als Boot-Laufwerk.

    Wenn Ihr den Pi nicht via Kabel ans Netz bringen wollt, hangelt Ihr Euch zuerst im SETUP-Menü bis zu den WLAN/Wifi-Einstellungen: System > Networking Options > Wireless LAN Dort sind die Region, SSID (WLAN-Name) und Euer WLAN-Kennwort einzugeben:

    Mit ESCape wechselt Ihr danach wieder bis ins Hauptmenü und von dort nach Hard Disk > Download image. Hier wählt Ihr die von Euch bevorzugte GEOS:

    Mit der BBX Ensemble Demo ist auch das Internet "nutzbar". Mit NDO läßt sich dagegen gut arbeiten. Das/die heruntergelandene(n) Image(s) müssen nun noch aktiviert, d.h. einem DOS-Laufwerk zugewiesen werden. Dazu bitte mit ESC wieder zurück ins Hauptmenü und dann ins Basic-Menü wechseln. Der Hard Disk C: müßt ein GEOS-Image zuweisen, damit es automatisch über die enthaltene autoexec.bat geladen wird:

    Am Ende ist im Hauptmenü nur noch die Auswahl mit Write zu sichern, worauf das System klassisch rebootet wird. Hat alles geklappt, dann muß im Splashscreen Eure Laufwerkszuweisung sichtbar sein:

    Möchtet Ihr Änderungen an der Systemkonfiguration vornehmen, so könnt Ihr die DOSBox jederzeit mit Ctrl+F9 (nachdem Ihr Eure Arbeit gespeichert habt ;) beenden und landet sodann im Pi/GEOS SETUP-Menü. Bitte nicht mit Ctrl+Alt+F2 die Linuxkonsole wechseln während DOSBox/GEOS läuft, da dies zum Systemabsturz (genau genommen Maus+Keyboard) führt.

    Tipp 1: Wer das zu Grunde liegende Linux erkunden will, kann dies bequem via GeoComm/NewComm erledigen. Über COM2 sind das RasberryPi OS und GEOS mit 57600 Baud verbunden.

    Tipp 2: USB Laufwerke mit FAT32 Format werden automatisch eingebunden, ggf. muß man aber Ctrl+F4 drücken, wenn GEOS bereits läuft. Daten können so einfach aus und in ein Image kopiert werden. Zum sicheren Entfernen den Pi herunterfahren oder in GeoComm pumount usb eingeben und danach mit Ctrl+F4 das DOS-Laufwerk aktualisieren.

    hans: The Swedish keyboard schould work quite well on top of a German bases system (de_DE.UTF-8) as the required DOSBox mapper config will be verry similar. So I think you just need to change language setting in the Basic menue and in GEOS to Swedish.

    Gruß Thomas

    Edited 2 times, last by t.hass: rpi-imager statt Balena Etcher (October 19, 2022 at 9:23 PM).

    Hi Thomas,

    I have downloaded the file, I get an Attention dialog in BalenaEtcher it states "Something went wrong. If it is a compressed image, please check that the archive is not corrupted. Data is corrupt".


    The same thing happens when I try to flash directly from the link above ?(

    BR,
    Hans

    Hi Hans

    Förlåt! The file I uploaded was broken (and it allready was on my build system ?( ). I creatd a new image, uploaded it and wrote it to a SD card to verify it will work.
    Please note that printing is not working in this version as there is a bug in the included DOSBox version. I got it fiexed but haven't build a new deb package so far.

    Thomas

    Quote from t.hass

    Hi Hans

    Förlåt! The file I uploaded was broken (and it allready was on my build system ?( ). I creatd a new image, uploaded it and wrote it to a SD card to verify it will work.
    Please note that printing is not working in this version as there is a bug in the included DOSBox version. I got it fiexed but haven't build a new deb package so far.

    Thomas

    Hi Thomas,
    You don't have to say förlåt, these things easily happen. Thanks, for your quick response. I have downloaded the file and tranfered the image with Balena Etcher. It works fine. Later on I will install the sdcard to my Raspberry Pi.

    Br
    Hans

    Now I am up and running, with the Alpha-demo, om my 7 inch raspberry pi (official 7 inch in 800x480). I am not used to use a disk image. I have used just the mounted folder in dosbox, so i feel a bit lost, but maybe I have to learn. We can take the issues one by one. I have changed the resolution in Geos to 800x480 and it works!! However, it does not fill the screenI have a black frame around the screen image. Would be cool to make it fill the entire surface of the screen. I guess I need to change the scaling of the image in DOSBox.conf?

    BR,
    HAns

    Hi Hans,

    DOSBox-setting (aspect=false) only matters, if the application doesn't provide the native display resolution (e.g. command.com or many games running at 320/640x200/400). As you already set GEOS to 800x480 and still see black borders the Raspberry Pi video mode needs to be modified. I used 1024x786 as default for the Pi/GEOS framebuffer as more advanced displays (e.g. PC monitor, tv sets) can handle this resolution well. Unfortunately these small displays don't have a build-in scaler and so you have to modify /boot/config.txt on the host system to provide the right resolution. If you got the Ensemble Demo up and running, you can do this via GeoComm using a Linux editor like vi or nano. Use the protocol settings shown below:

    Code
    LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 sudo nano /boot/config.txt

    will open the file in the nano editor (in English). Then adjust the framebuffer resolution first and reboot:

    Code
    framebuffer_width=800
framebuffer_height=480

    If this doesn't solve the problem, please try to add a custom video mode for the Pi display. Edit the file again and put the following lines below the framebauffer settings:

    Code
    hdmi_cvt=800 480 60 6
hdmi_group=2
hdmi_mode=87
hdmi_drive=2

    The result should look like this:

    If this works, I will make some small changes to pigeos-config and pigeos-splash to support this resolution.

    Thomas

    Edited 2 times, last by t.hass: missing line breaks in code snipplets (December 23, 2020 at 10:34 AM).

    Hi Thomas,

    Your first suggestion solved the problem, I changed the framebuffer width and height to 800x480, and that solved the problem. The only thing is that the splash screen with pigeos is too big. Otherwise, Geos looks very nice on my screen. The time is weird, but maybe it depends in internet connection. I have a real time clock as hardware connected to the bus in the Pi. I will look into that later on.

    BR,
    Hans

    Hi again, Thomas,

    I made the realtime clock from adafruit work! Now my Raspberry Pi works as a full fledged Geos computer. However, even if the 800x480 works quite OK, I think the 1024x600 would be a better resolution, as Geos were optimized for 800x600, as the height (600) will be the same in the 800x600 as in 1024x600. John Howards card game SpiderSolitare needs 800x600, and will not work in 800x480. I have a version in which John removed the resolution check, but the game looks a bit weird as the screen image is cut-off. I really like that I can browse the internet from Geos, via the wifi in the Raspberry Pi. Still, it is an Alfa, but a nice Alfa. Thanks, Thomas!

    Fröhliche Weihnachten!

    Hans

    Hi Thomas,

    I have a sad thing to tell. My GeosPi have gone corrupted. I have probably made some mistake, but can not recall what I did. I can't start Breadbox Ensemble anymore. Raspberry Pi boots into Dosbox, the Breadbox splash shows, then I get the Geos reset screen with the two buttons. I press reset, get a black screen with a mouse pointer I can move. The only way to exit is to press ctrl-alt-del, I get the screen from Geos " Reboot requested -qutting now". It seems that the Geos disk image got corrupted someway?

    BR,
    Hans

    Hi Hans,

    nice to hear that you are playing with the system! The issue you reported unfortunately happened also on my system two times or so. The GEOS state files got corrupted in my case. Fortunately this can be solved easily: Just press Ctr+F9 when the GEOS splash screen comes up. This will kill DOSBox and put you into the pigeos-config menu. Here you have two option:
    1. if you stored all your documents on an USB device (Z:) or data image (D:) you can just go to the hard disk menu and reload the GEOS image from the Web or import a saved copy from an attached USB pen drive,
    2. try to fix the system image by creating a new empty image (hard disk menu) and assign it to drive C: and map the broken GEOS image as drive C: (basic menu). Then write the new config and reboot the system into a DOS prompt. Change to drive D: and delete all state files and check the content of GEOS.INI. If all is fine exit DOSbox and restore the original drive mapping (basic menu)

    BR
    Thomas

    Hi Thomas,

    I used alternativ 2. I did also make an addition to your autoexec.bat at the C-drive. It looks like this now:

    @echo off
    c:
    cd ensemble
    if not exist geos_act.ive goto bootGeos
    call reset.bat
    :bootGeos
    go.bat

    It is a bit brutal as it does not check for any file corruption, but it is an Alpha! :)

    BR,
    Hans

    Quote from hanslse

    wifi in Geos, how did you do that?

    The Raspi acts as a dial-in server (and router). Using the modem emulation build in into DOSBox GEOS can connect to the PPPd running on the host. All network will than be routed to the WIFI interface with network address translation (NAT) enabled. The setup used for Pi/GEOS is similar to the one detailed in this posting.

    I will update the Ensemble launch batch file with the next version to make it more robust. I think only GEOS state files are effected as haven't seen any further file corruption (e.g. documents) so far.

    Thomas

    Hallo Johannes,

    ich nutze auf meinem Linux-Server dd um ein 1:1 Abbild zu erstellen, dann ein Skript namens pishrink um das Dateisystem zu "schrumpfen" (damit es auf einer SD-Karte beliebiger Größe wiederhergestellt werden kann) und schließlich XZ um das Abbild für die Weitergabe noch maximal zu komprimieren:

    Code
    dd bs=4M if=/dev/sdb of=2020-12-18_pigeos.img
pishrink -v -r -s 2020-12-18_pigeos.img
xz --verbose -T4 -9 -C crc32 2020-12-18_pigeos.img

    /dev/sdb ist bei mir die Gerätedatei für den SDCard-Reader und kann bei Dir anders sein. Damit das Abbild beim ersten Systemstart vergrößert wird, mußt Du vor der ganzen Prozedur im laufen Pi/GEOS via GeoComm noch folgenden Befehl ausführen:

    Code
    pigeos-setup config_imgprep


    [size=10]Gruß Thomas[/size]

    Quote from Johannes Möller

    Wie funktioniert dann das "obligatorische Vergrößern der Partition"?

    sie wird durch folgenden Eintrag in der Datei /boot/cmdline.txt angestoßen:

    Code
    init=/usr/lib/raspi-config/init_resize.sh

    welchen pigeos-setup config_imgprep setzt. Das kannst Du natürlich auch händisch im Linux machen, das System herunterfahren und wie oben beschrieben ein Abbild der SD-Karte zu Weitergabe erstellen.

    Ich habe übrigens bewust darauf verzeichtet, ein lauffähiges GEOS mit ins Abbild zu packen, da der Nutzer so erstmal im "BIOS" landet, wo er i.d.R. einige grundlegende Einstellungen z.B. WLAN-Settings machen muß. Ist das zu kompliziert für Otto Normalanwender?

    Gruß Thomas

    Hi,

    I have experimented a bit with a Pi Zero with wifi. I have installed the Raspberry Pi OS Lite on the zero, with DOSBox and both Geoworks Ensemble 2.01 and Breadbox Ensemble. 4.13. Geoworks Ensemble runs slighly faster than Breadbox Ensemble, but the BBX speed is quite okay. It seems that the full Raspberry Pi OS weighs down the performance, compared to the Lite OS. I have also noticed that DOSBox uses the old way to set up the keyboard in DOSBox, and I understand now why it does not work, because there is no UTF for the Swedish keyboard in the old setup. DOSBox needs to be updated to support the new way Raspberry Pi implements the keyboard.
    I have also discovered that the speed of the microSD card is important, therefore I have bought a new class 10 card to see if the speed is improved.

    I have a question for you Thomas, do you think it is possible to implement Pi/Geos for the Pi Zero?

    BR,
    Hans