Re: Pd-0.56-2 on IRIX

IOhannes m zmölnig via Pd-list <[email protected]> Fri, 16 Jan 2026 09:23:08 +0100
Newsgroups	gmane.comp.multimedia.puredata.general
Message-ID	<[email protected]>
TL;DR: try these
- start the core from the GUI (`wish tcl/pd-gui.tcl`)
- disable MIDI


On 16/01/2026 00:00, Wolfgang Gaggl wrote:
> IRIS 53% ./bin/pd -d 1
> Pd>> ::dialog_path::set_paths {} {} {{./extra} } ;
> Pd>> ::dialog_startup::set_libraries {} ;
> Pd>> set_escaped ::sys_verbose 0
> Pd>> set_escaped ::sys_use_stdpath 1
> Pd>> set_escaped ::sys_defeatrt 0
> Pd>> set_escaped ::sys_zoom_open 0
> Pd>> ::dialog_startup::set_flags {} ;
> Pd>> pdtk_pd_startup 0 56 2 {} {} {} {Speedo} normal
> Pd>> ::deken::set_platform {Irix6} {mips} 32 32 ;
> Pd>> set pd_whichapi 6
> Pd>> pdtk_pd_dsp {OFF} ;
> Pd>> set pd_whichmidiapi 0 ;
> X Error of failed request:  BadLength (poly request too large or internal Xlib length error)
>    Major opcode of failed request:  18 (X_ChangeProperty)
>    Serial number of failed request:  44
>    Current serial number in output stream:  46
> Pd>> set pd_whichmidiapi 0 ;
> Pd read from GUI socket: No such file or directory; stopping
> Pd gui socket 4 -
> Pd closing audio...
> Pd closing MIDI...
> Pd ... done.
thanks, i don't see anything weird here.
(except that I do not know where the the "Speedo" font comes from, 
presumably from some .pdsettings file that you imported.

here's about mine (this is run via a non X-forwarding ssh connection on 
a very remote machine, where I cannot actually start the GUI, so I just 
used `netcat` to fake a GUI.


```
root@IRIX: /> pd -stderr -verbose -verbose -d 1
Pd-0.56.2 ("") compiled 11:03:10 Jan 14 2026
float precision = 32 bits
 >> ::dialog_path::set_paths {{/Pd/externals} } {} 
{{/usr/local/lib/pd/extra} } ;
 >> ::dialog_startup::set_libraries {} ;
 >> set_escaped ::sys_verbose 2
 >> set_escaped ::sys_use_stdpath 1
 >> set_escaped ::sys_defeatrt 0
 >> set_escaped ::sys_zoom_open 0
 >> ::dialog_startup::set_flags {} ;
 >> pdtk_pd_startup 0 56 2 {} {} {} {DejaVu Sans Mono} bold
 >> ::deken::set_platform {Irix6} {mips} 32 32 ;
 >> set pd_whichapi 6
 >> pdtk_pd_dsp {OFF} ;
 >> set pd_whichmidiapi 0 ;
input channels = 2, output channels = 2
no serial ports are configured for MIDI;
if you want to use MIDI, try exiting Pd, typing
'startmidi -d /dev/ttyd2' to a shell, and restarting Pd.
 >> set pd_whichmidiapi 0 ;
Pd: signal 2
gui socket 3 -
closing audio...
closing MIDI...
... done.
```

(sidenote: i see that the ">>" prefix for messages sent to the Pd-GUI 
show up like quotes in the MUA, and therefore you tried to cleanup the 
output (in your 2nd mail) to strip away the prefix. I think it is better 
to leave them alone for now)


what i find slightly strange is, that the X Error is *surrounded* by 
calls to `set pd_whichmidiapi` (so it's being called twice; it usually 
is only called once).
what happens if you completely disable MIDI for now? (-nomidi)
(I don't really think it might change anything, but right now I have run 
out of ideas so anything might be worth trying)

... on re-testing on my linux box i get the double call to `set 
pd_whichmidiapi` as well, so it probably isn't so strange after all.
i guess this means that the MIDI subsystem is initialized twice (which 
probably should be fixed anyhow).
and it *might* just be that this initialization triggers a race 
condition on your system, so starting without MIDI might indeed change 
something here.

another thing I remembered is, that when I had the X Error problem, one 
thing I tried was starting Pd via the GUI (rather than starting the GUI 
via Pd).

```
wish8.6 tcl/pd-gui.tcl
```

or (with more debugging)

```
wish8.6 tcl/pd-gui.tcl -stderr -pdarg "-stderr -verbose -verbose -d 3"
```

by changing the startup order, the GUI might just get enough breath that 
it can properly initialize.
this wouldn't explain why I can start the GUI from the core; esp. since 
my CPU is much slower anyhow (100MHz) and it's emulated as well, so it's 
even below that nominal clock speed and probably  with a lot of jitter 
(I get kernel panics every now and then when accessing data over NFS 
which I think is somewhat related to slow speed and timing; but I disgress).
unless of course TclTk does some JIT and caches the byte-compiled 
objects, which would speed up the entire startup process considerably, 
after it succeeded once. but I somehow doubt this.


gfmadsr
IOhannes

---
[email protected] - the Pure Data mailinglist
https://lists.iem.at/hyperkitty/list/[email protected]/message/JDN5TN5OL5QH3WOBWCM4NTNDC35C3WND/

To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] mailing list
UNSUBSCRIBE and account-management -> https://lists.iem.at/
OpenPGP_signature.asc (application/pgp-signature, 840 B)