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
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