Medley is frozen - bit of help please!

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pixel...@gmail.com

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Nov 4, 2025, 8:28:53 PM (6 days ago) Nov 4
to Medley Interlisp core
Well, it's a bit embarrassing, but I seem to have gotten medley frozen such that the screen is not refreshing. I've usually managed to "Control D" to break out of an infinite loop and get back to the Exec.

I've got two or three functions edited and not saved to disk at this point so I would like to preserve my work if possible.

Is there another key command I can try? Looking at my CPU, it's not a memory leak or anything Medley is just not repainting and Control D didn't get me there...


Arun Welch

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Nov 4, 2025, 8:53:10 PM (6 days ago) Nov 4
to pixel...@gmail.com, Medley Interlisp core
Has it perhaps dropped into URAID? Check the shell from which you have started Medley and see what the prompt is. Commands for URAID can be found on page 41 here: https://interlisp.org/documentation/SunUserGuide.pdf

Dropping into RAID is generally a bad thing, so if you can capture the stack to report what happened that would be handy. You *may* be able to get back to Medley via a “q” command, in which case it’s a good idea to save everything possible and start a fresh sysout.

…arun
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pixel...@gmail.com

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Nov 4, 2025, 9:05:09 PM (6 days ago) Nov 4
to Medley Interlisp core
Hello Arun,

I first tried "q" in with no luck.
Generally, I start medley from a desktop shortcut so I don't have a terminal window behind it to fall back in to.
I'm on Linux if it gives any insight. 

The Medley window is pure white (I tried minimising and maximising it to see if it'd jar a redisplay - no dice).

pixel...@gmail.com

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Nov 4, 2025, 9:09:39 PM (6 days ago) Nov 4
to Medley Interlisp core
Oh, I should mention though that the cursor is still visible and movable if that makes any difference. So it appears to NOT quite be frozen.

Nick Briggs

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Nov 4, 2025, 9:13:37 PM (6 days ago) Nov 4
to pixel...@gmail.com, Lisp Core
You could type ctrl-B and then (SAVEVM) and see (outside) if it creates ~/lisp.virtualmem  --  after a ctrl-B the keyboard focus will be in the Lisp window where you'd be able to type that even if you can't see it.



pixel...@gmail.com

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Nov 4, 2025, 9:25:28 PM (6 days ago) Nov 4
to Medley Interlisp core
Gave it a try, but I didn't see a lisp.virtualmem created in home nor ~/il/vmem/
It's not the end of the world, maybe 15 minutes lost.

Is it relatively safe to just close Medley?
That may be best so I can continue on with the Game Jam...

Nick Briggs

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Nov 4, 2025, 9:31:46 PM (6 days ago) Nov 4
to pixel...@gmail.com, Lisp Core
Yes, you can close the window.  If it doesn't terminate the lde and ldex processes (assuming you're using X11 not SDL for the display subsystem) kill them off, and then it's safe to start again.

It is possible to attach gdb (or lldb) to the ldex process, and then
print vmem_save("/tmp/lisp.virtualmem")
which should save the state -- but while we might be able to figure out what it was doing, it's not a quick process and it won't be easy to retrieve your code from there (I don't think the vmem it saves is bootable - though I don't know the reason behind that)

-- Nick


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