ViewFinder installation notes
=============================

Affected components:
  Certain ViewFinder cards in conjunction with Select 2 ROM images.
Note:
  Boot sequence installation is NOT affected by this issue.
  (Select 2 boot sequence may be installed on all systems without
  issue)

Summary
-------
Certain versions of the ViewFinder podule fail to function with 
the ROM image supplied with RISC OS Select 2. The symptoms of such
failure are that after softloading the ROM image the machine will
reboot and display an 'abort' message on the standard video output.
Subsequent reboots (eg Ctrl-Break) will not recover from this.
It is necessary to turn the machine off and on, or press the reset
button to restore ViewFinder to a functioning state.


Possible solution
-----------------
Many testers have found that version 1.42 of the ViewFinder firmware
works correctly with Select 2. Please be aware that downgrading
firmware may cause previously addressed problems with ViewFinder
to reappear and should be done with caution.


Recovery procedure
------------------
If your machine exhibits this fault, the recovery procedure is as
follows :

  1. Turn machine off.
  2. Wait a few seconds to ensure that all hardware has powered
     down.
  3. Turn machine on.
  4. Hold down the 'Z' key until the desktop appears.
     This prevents a softload taking place and will leave the
     system in 'No softload' mode. From here it is possible to use
     the machine as normal, or change softload ROM image.
  5. Run Configure and select the 'Softload' tool.
  6. Select an earlier ROM image.
  7. Click 'Set and reboot'.


Technical information
---------------------
During the machine startup, modules provided on podule cards are
initialised. During ViewFinder module initialisation, an abort
occurs. This abort appears to occur within the IRQ dispatch
routines and seems to be due to a stack overflow. This abort
occurs whilst ViewFinder has the AGP cards memory mapped
into its podule space and terminates the module initialisation.
Consequently, on rebooting the ViewFinder podule is not visible
because the module's failure to initialise due to the abort means
it cannot remap the podule space to be that expected by the
system.


Conclusion
----------
John Kortink has been informed of the problem and we are hopeful
that he will be able to provide some feedback. We hope to have
this issue corrected before the final issue of Select 2 and
apologise for the inconvenience caused in the meantime.
