Working PiDP-10 not loading TOPS-10, or ITS

[Layton Graye]

I have had the PiDP-10 working fine by manually running the PiDP-test program, until it times out.

I have checked out all of the switches, all seems to reflect correctly when toggled up and down.

YET, when the PiDP is started, or restarted it NEVER boots up into blinky.

Restarting with switch 35 up accomplishes nothing

Restarting with switch 34 up accomplishes nothing

I find NO SWITCHES affect the boot process.

SO, when the Raspberry OS starts, I have to enter a terminal window, and THEN and only then can I get the TEST blinky program to work.

Not my biggest issue, though.  I can NOT get the TOPS-10, nor the ITS to start either with switches, or with the direct pdpcontrol start 1, ...or with the pdpcontrol start 2.  Nor can i find any other way to start these OS.

The ONLY way I get any lights on the PiDP-10 is by starting the test program through the terminal.

I'm getting no value out of this system.  I wanted to be able to get into the COBOL program in TOPS-10, but I can't even get the OS to load.

After months of trying, reading,  et'all nothing has changed.  I've had no hickups building, installing and using the Raspberry OS.  I only see lights with the direct run of the test program.  And, I cannot get TOPS-10, or ITS to load.  The switches do not load the blinky test automatically either.  Again, when using the test program, it DOES register the on of of all the switches.

I'm at a loss.

Layton

[Layton Graye]

NOTE:  I have also been able to get into the PiDP-10 with various SSH terminal connections, but I cannot get beyond the above problem by using the pdpcontrol start x features.

[Francis King]

YET, when the PiDP is started, or restarted it NEVER boots up into blinky.

There are probably many reasons for failure. Two are:

1. When you ran the install program you said 'no' to the question - should PiDP 10 start at boot?
2. The PiDP-10 is not compatible with the version of Raspberry Pi OS

The fact that you cannot get it to work at all suggests #2.

So, which version of Raspberry Pi OS do you have? Bookworm or Trixie?

Story continues here: https://groups.google.com/g/pidp-10/c/ClNrTuAk1SY, https://groups.google.com/g/pidp-10/c/tu6xtY9cQf8

[Layton Graye]

Francis,

 

Thank you for responding, and so quickly at that.

 

ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTION:  “I have Bookworm”

 

 

 

I have had the PiDP for a year now and have never gotten past the current state.  That said, though, the versions available back then would likely be more limited than today, so I suspect I have whatever was current at the time.

 

I know I am running 64-bit, but that’s all I know at the moment.  Your pseudo-names “Bookworm” or “Trixie” would be new to me, and I can’t readily relate to the versions of these either.  So, I did some basic research, and you would be correct that there ARE various iterations of the Raspberry Operating Systems.

 

I’ll list my basic AI research response here, then try to narrow things down to see if I will be leaning to your option 2, in which case I would have to RELOAD SOMETHING – kind of like starting all over.  I would think something THIS IMPORTANT would have been indicated UP FRONT IN THE DOCUMENTATION, I can’t imagine I’m alone in this.

 

 

Debian 13 "Trixie" (launched Aug 2025) is the modern, cutting-edge successor to ..

 

…Debian 12 "Bookworm" (released June 2023),

 

…offering a newer Linux 6.12 kernel, thousands of updated packages, and improved performance.

 

Trixie is ideal for newer hardware and users wanting the latest software, while Bookworm remains the stable, long-term support choice. 

 

 

Key Differences: Trixie vs. Bookworm

Performance & Kernel: Trixie features Linux kernel 6.12, providing better hardware support and lower latency, including optimizations for multi-core CPUs.

 

·         Software & Desktop: Trixie includes more recent software, such as KDE Plasma 6.3.5, whereas Bookworm uses older, highly stable packages.

·         Support Life: Bookworm is the current "stable" version (EOL 2026), while Trixie is the "testing" branch transitioning to stable, making it better for modern, updated software.

·         Virtualization: Users on Trixie with newer kernels may require adjustments, such as disabling KVM for optimal VirtualBox performance, which was not necessary in Bookworm. 

 

 

I FOLLOWED THESE INSTRUCTIONS FROM ANOTHER INQUIRY:

 

Open a terminal window and run cat /etc/os-release or hostnamectl. The output will provide the operating system name, version number, and code name (e.g., Bookworm, Bullseye, Buster). 

 

 

 

USING:  cat /etc/os-release

 

admin@raspberrypi:~ $ cat /etc/os-release

PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)"

NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"

VERSION_ID="12"

VERSION="12 (bookworm)"

VERSION_CODENAME=bookworm

ID=debian

HOME_URL="https://www.debian.org/"

SUPPORT_URL="https://www.debian.org/support"

BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.debian.org/"

admin@raspberrypi:~ $

 

 

 

USING:  hostnamect1

command not found

[Malcolm Ray]

Layton,

First, let's look into why the emulation isn't starting when the pidp-10 is booted.

The install script has gone through several iterations of how to do a 'pdpcontrol start' on boot. And I have rather an old installation, so I don't have the latest iteration of this. But I believe all the iterations depended on you configuring the Raspberry Pi to autologin (using raspi-config). So, that's the first thing to check. Reboot the pi, login via ssh, then type this:

loginctl list-sessions

What do you see?

Next, we need to check whether the pidp-10 install script has made the necessary addition to start the software if and when the autologin happens. So, check the following files:

Look for the string 'pdpcontrol' in the following files:

~/.config/wayfire.ini

~/.profile

~/.bash_profile

~/.config/labwc/autostart

Also look for 'autostart.sh' in ~/.profile and ~/.bash_profile.

Show us what you find.

Once we've sorted out the autostarting, we can move onto why you can't start TOPS-10.

Regards,

Malcolm

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[Layton Graye]

Thanks Malcom

As regards the pi config, it is set to auto login, and your suggested command lists 3 sessions:

1 1000 admin seat0

3 1000 admin seat0 tty1

4 1000 admin ——— pts/0

AS PER THE FILES TO CHECK

They are HIDDEN FILES.  I am able to see them under the HOME folder, then my username folder.

The auto start IS at the tail end of PROFILE.  So, that part may be OK.

The CONFIG/LABWC does not have an AUTOSTART file to check.

There is NO BASH_PROFILE file to check.

There is NO CONFIG/WAYFIRE.INI to check

For what it’s worth, I can run pdp10-ka.2024 and the lights will run.  Also pdp10-is.2024

I’m surprised this should be a technical matter, we’re dealing with the result of a basic install here.  Nothing outside of the instructions has been done.  Hmm.  Thanks for your efforts so far .

[Malcolm Ray]

Layton,

Ok, we've established that autologin is happening, with the username 'admin', and that apparently the software should be started from your .profile file.

So now we need to check whether your .profile is actually being run. I have a few questions, and I'd like you to paste the output into your reply:

1. Is your shell /bin/bash? Almost certainly yes, unless you've done something unusual, but we need to be sure. So, after logging in via ssh, do this:

echo $SHELL

2. Do you have a .bash_login file? Almost certainly no, but, again, we need to be sure, because if .bash_login exists, .profile won't be used. So do this:

cat .bash_login

3. When you login via ssh, what do you see before the prompt? For comparison, here's what I see:

Linux pidp-10 6.6.28+rpt-rpi-2712 #1 SMP PREEMPT Debian 1:6.6.28-1+rpt1 (2024-04-22) aarch64

The programs included with the Debian GNU/Linux system are free software;

the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the

individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright.

Debian GNU/Linux comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent

permitted by applicable law.

Last login: Fri Jan 30 15:46:51 2026 from 192.168.100.15

The versions are likely to be different for you. The important thing here is that the above shows no error message from the .profile.

4. Finally, we need to see what's actually in that file. So, assuming you have nothing privacy-sensitive in there, please type this:

cat .profile

With this information, we should be a step closer to solving your problem.

[Steven A. Falco]

On 1/30/26 11:04 AM, Malcolm Ray wrote:
> 2. Do you have a .bash_login file? Almost certainly no, but, again, we need to be sure, because if .bash_login exists, .profile won't be used. So do this:
>
> cat .bash_login

Just curious - do you also want to check for the existence of .bash_profile? I think it would override .profile too.

Steve

[Malcolm Ray]

Layton already confirmed he doesn't have a .bash_profile.
(Well, he said BASH_PROFILE, but I let that slide).

[Layton Graye]

I CAPITALIZED words you had an interest to speed up your review, I know these things are case sensitive.

I have very little re to bash, maybe a history file.  I'm driving down to San Diego at the moment, presuming I survive the highway alive I'll SSH in and check out your inquiry. 

Thanks, I see there are disk images when I was searching last night.  TOPS-10, TOPS-20 and ITS.  Kind of suggest things were loading.  Only the KS and KA programs ending in .2024 reflect their running status in the lights.  The test program runs for its short duration just fine.  The pdpcontrol start does reflect the 0, 1 or 2 in the terminal, yet nothing visibly runs.

Again, I'll need some time to get a session started to perform your request.

THANK YOU, reminds me of the old days when wr had to help each other out.  Much appreciated.

[Malcolm Ray]

I don't know how much I'll be able to help right now. Checking things out on my PiDP-10, I've suddenly discovered that the NVME drive is dying. I'll need to find time to reinstall everything to an SD card.

Sigh. NVME prices are crazy right now.

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[Malcolm Ray]

Layton,

As mentioned privately last night:

After my NVME died, I reinstalled to an SD card. I went with Bookworm... and had problems very similar to what you are seeing.

It turns out that the current build installed from github.com/obsolescence/pidp10 installs binaries built on Trixie, which won't run on Bookworm.

To verify this, use ldd to check the library dependencies of the binaries in /opt/pidp10/bin, and look for "not found" errors. For example:

ldd /opt/pidp10/bin/pdp10-ka

/opt/pidp10/bin/pdp10-ka: /lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.38' not found (required by /opt/pidp10/bin/pdp10-ka)

(and many more lines)

The fix is simple: rebuild the binaries from source. Assuming you answered yes to the install.sh questions about installing source and its build dependencies, /opt/pidp10/src/compiling-pdp10-readme.txt explains what to do.

One more thing, for a fresh Bookworm install: if you use the .2024 binaries in /opt/pidp10/bin, those depend on libpcre3, which the install script no longer installs (I think it's gone in Trixie), so:

sudo apt install libpcre3

I don't think you personally need to do this, since you said pdp10-ka.2024 was working for you, meaning you already have libpcre3 installed.

I'm probably going to reinstall *again*, this time with Trixie.

On Fri, 2026-01-30 at 12:20 -0800, Layton Graye wrote:

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[Layton Graye]

NOW RUNNING TRIXIE, boot switches, lights and commands are working.

Thanks Sheepless, your comments led me to think there would be potentially more issues in the future if I didn’t just redo everything from scratch using Debian 13/TRIXIE.  Time consuming but I am technically current.  As of Feb 2026 we know a clean install 64-bit TRIXIE works with programs, lights and switches.

[Layton Graye]

Able to load TOPS-10, and ITS.

Now ...to figure out how to get something out of those systems.  Time to read something!