Softloadable Ursula Distribution: Installation Instructions and Notes
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Standard Disclaimer
-------------------
The software supplied in this hierarchy is supplied for example and testing
purposes only.  Any part of the software supplied on this server MUST NOT be
distributed without prior permission from Acorn Computers Ltd.

Any example source may be used for development purposes or inclusion in
distributed products unless the source is indicated to be the property of
Acorn Computers Limited (ie: (c) Acorn Computers Ltd).


The software is provided "as is"; Acorn Computers Limited ("Acorn") makes no
warranty, express or implied, of the merchantability of this software or its
fitness for any particular purpose. In no circumstances shall Acorn be
liable for any damage, loss of profits, or any indirect or consequential
loss arising out of the use of this software or inability to use this
software, even if Acorn has been advised of the possibility of such loss.


Circulation Restrictions and Threats of Dire Retribution
--------------------------------------------------------
The circulation of this distribution (which comprises this readme.txt
document, the knownbugs.txt document and the softload.arc and skeleton.arc
archives) is restricted to registered Acorn developers, and is for their use
only in developing software for Phoebe and performing limited testing of
their existing software for Phoebe compatibility. A developer must not
propagate copies of this distribution outside the list of staff permanently
employed by their registered developership, nor is it permissible for
knowledge of the existence of this distribution to be passed to individuals
or organisations not directly and permanently employed by a registered
developership.

In short, if this distribution leaks, and I find out who leaked it, the
perpetrator of the leak is history.

A reasonable time after Phoebe machines become available, an order will be
issued to all registered developers to destroy all copies of this
distribution. Please comply within 14 days of receipt of the order.

Installation
------------
This distribution will only work on a Risc PC fitted with an ARM610 or ARM710
and >10Mb RAM; it will not work on a StrongARM. If you specifically need to
test your software on Ursula running on a StrongARM (eg if you have software
which has a critical dependency on some feature of the StrongARM architecture
such as the extended multiply), contact Developer Support.

The distribution works by softloading a 4Mb image of the new ROM, and
remapping it into the area of memory usually mapped by the existing ROM. A
reboot is then performed in the boot sequence to cause the machine to start
executing from the softloaded image rather than the silicon.

Move the softload.arc archive into a new directory on your hard disc, and
decompress it.

Move your existing !Boot into a new directory on your hard disc, where it
will not be operated on by *Filer_* at boot time.

If you are using a softloaded !Printers (as opposed to the ROM-based one in
RISC OS 3.7), move it from its current location into a directory whose
contents are not operated on with *Filer_* at boot time (the directory in
which you have put your old boot sequence is sensible).

Copy the new !Boot into your root directory, and the new !Printers into the
place where your old !Printers was.

Shut down, and power back up with Delete held down. Be aware that you should
keep Delete pressed until the machine boots for the *second* time (ie the
reboot which happens *after* the "Softloading ROM image..." message appears).

If all has gone well, you should briefly see a scrolling list showing the
presence of each softload-sourced module as it initialises; you will then be
presented with a display similar to that presented by a normal Risc PC
predesk-phase boot sequence (except that your machine's memory capacity will
be reported as being 4Mb less than it actually is; this "missing" 4Mb is the
space occupied by the softloaded ROM image).

Patching
--------
Some bugs exist in the distribution as it stands which are related to the
!Boot hierarchy rather than the ROM image. Download the patch1.arc archive,
and once you have followed all the instructions above (including the shutdown
and reboot), decompress the patch1 archive and copy its contents (with the
"Force" option set on your filer) onto your new !Boot.

Notes
-----
This softload OS version reports itself as RISC OS 3.80. This will change to
4.00 for the release version, therefore you should be aware that any reference
to or filename containing "380" in the boot sequence
(!Boot.Resources.!System.380, !Boot.RO380Hook) will be changed to "400" in
the final release build.
---
If at any time you need to briefly move back to using your ROM-based OS, you
can use the following shortcut without reinstating your original !Boot:

* Locate the file !Boot.Softload.4MEG ; rename it to something else.

* Perform a delete-power on (failing to do this will result in a very strange
  machine configuration when the machine restarts owing to CMOS
  reallocations; seeing 6 CD ROM drive icons on the icon bar is a common
  symptom).
  
To return to using the softload, rename the appropriate file back to
!Boot.Softload.4MEG and perform an extended delete-power on as above.
---
If you wish to test software for compliance with long filenames, we advise
that you add a second hard disc to your machine; once you are running the
softloaded Ursula, HForm 2.50 (available as
http://www.art.acorn.co.uk/SALES/DEVELOPERS/resource/updates/hform250.arc )
will allow you to format the second drive such that it is able to use the new
extended-directory scheme. *DO NOT* format the drive containing !Boot to the
new format; if you do so, then the machine will not be able to locate the
softloadable ROM image during its boot phase!

Finally...
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Should you find any bugs in this distribution, please check the file
http://www.art.acorn.co.uk/SALES/DEVELOPERS/resource/reference/ro4/distrib/knownbugs.txt 
; if symptoms of the bug you have found are not listed, please send
a report based on the template located at
http://www.art.acorn.co.uk/SALES/DEVELOPERS/resource/reference/faults/template.txt 
to ursulabugs@acorn.co.uk .

This distribution has had limited testing, and is known to work on a number
of machines when the installation instructions above are followed. If the
software does not install correctly (ie crashes occur during booting of an
out-of-the-box distribution), please contact Developer Support rather than
flagging the ursulabugs alias.
