RISC OS Direct for Pi 5

RISC OS Direct logo

The Raspberry Pi 5 and Compute Module 5 are a little different to earlier Pi models in that they cannot run entirely in 32bit mode, as required by RISC OS. Because of this, Direct for Pi 5 is a little different to the traditional version, and runs *on top of* your existing Raspberry Pi OS (or other Linux) OS.

This version of RISC OS may well run on other ARM-based Linux systems, but has only been tested on Pi5 and CM5 running Raspberry Pi OS.

Most of RISC OS runs natively on your CPU for maximum performance (benchmarks show Direct for Pi 5 to be up to twice as fast as Pi 4) but emulation is used transparently for the moments where it is not possible to run natively.

Networking is achieved using the available network (wired or wireless) established under Linux prior to starting RISC OS. Files are stored in a standard Linux folder inside your Home folder.

This means that you can try RISC OS Direct for Pi 5 without needing to flash a new SD card - it simply unpacks to your existing Home folder ready for use

Instructions

Start by DOWNLOADING the DirectPi5.tbz archive from here. Once done, follow the instructions below:

RISC OS Direct for Pi 5

RISC OS user running Iris browser? Right click to download

  1. Place DirectPi5.tbz into user home folder (eg. /home/pi )
  2. Open Terminal
  3. Type (or copy/paste):

    4. tar --xattrs -jxvf ~/DirectPi5.tbz

    This will unpack the software - it takes a while

  4. Type (or copy/paste):

    5. sudo nano /boot/firmware/config.txt

  5. Make sure that the file contains the line:

    6. kernel=kernel8.img

    If not, add it under [pi5] or [cm5] as appropriate

  6. Save and exit (Ctrl-X)
  7. If you had to add the line to config.txt, reboot
  8. In Home folder, find RISC_OS_Direct and inside you'll see

    9. "Enter RISC OS". Double click it to run. You can also copy it
    to the desktop.

  9. Once everything is working, you can delete DirectPi5.tbz

To uninstall, simply delete the RISC_OS_Direct folder from your Home folder.

Limitations

There are two main limitations in this release. Firstly, there is no audio, which prevents some games working. Secondly, there's no support for VFP/NEON instructions, so ARMv7-exclusive programs like the Iris web browser and some movie-players won't work. These tasks are usually handled by the host Linux OS anyway, so we hope you won't be inconvenienced.