Startup

System initialisation

During system initialisation the OS goes through a number of phases. During these phases there may be indications of the progress for diagnostic purposes. The sequence of colours displayed on VIDC systems for Kernel 9.70 is given below. Other systems may produce different colours and, due to continuous development, colours may be changed in future versions.

System initialisation:

   Black           System has not initialised at all - or display is not
                   connected.
   Cyan            Memory detection is in progress
   Green           Memory detection complete, about to enable MMU
   Light green     MMU enabled, about to enter RISC OS

RISC OS:
   White           Debug environment initialising (not usually seen in
                   production OS versions)
   Dark grey       Hardware vectors being initialised
   Dark blue       Early system memory initialisation
   Light blue      OS page table initialising
   Light pink      OS page table initialisation successful
   Light magenta   Dynamic area, abstraction layer, and system memory area
                   initialisation.
   Mid grey        Main OS initialisation -
                      NVRAM reset check, and verification
                      Software vector table initialisation
                      IRQ handlers initialisation
                      Environment handlers initialisation
                      VDU subsystem initialisation
                      High level environment initialisation
                      Kernel keyboard dispatcher
                      PBTS structure initialisation
                      Page table initialisation
                      Module initialisation
   Red             Only occurs within the above sequence if a NVRAM reset is
                   detected.
   Black           VideoHW for the system has initialised, this is usually
                   accompanied by a flashing cursor. If the cursor stops
                   flashing, this indicates that a ROM, or expansion card,
                   component has either failed or is taking a long time
                   to initialise.
   <beep>          Operating system has initialised successfully and is
                   about to begin boot from disc, or through boot menu.
                   This is followed immediately by the display of the
                   RISC OS banner.

The positioning of the colour indicators within the system initialisation has been selected to identify the most common failure points. A correctly functioning system should not display any of the above colour indicators for more than a second. Any system failure during start up may indicate hardware failure. This may range from poorly fitted components (eg. memory or expansion cards) to damaged or missing components. Check all user accessible components before contacting your supplier.

This documentation is copyright 3QD Developments Ltd 2013 and may not be reproduced or published in any form without the copyright holders permission. RISC OS is subject to continuous development and improvement as such all information is reproduced by 3QD Developments Ltd in good faith and is believed to be correct at the time of publication E&OE. 3QD Developments Ltd cannot accept any liability for any loss or damage arising from the use of any information provided as part of the RISC OS Documentation.

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