Tektronix on the standard PiDP11 2.11BSD distribution

[Andrew Barron]

Hi, here is another dumb question. I'm stuck again! I am obviously missing a vital and easy stage.

1. My PiDP11 has a Tektronix icon on the GUI, but it refuses to start. It just flashes up and disappears. I usually run the operator's console screen via SSH. I understand that will not display the Tek images, but I cant get the Tek display to stand up.

2. I found a logon called tektronix and from there I found many plt files and some compiled C files  in the /home/tektronix subfolders. Now I know that they are there I can also get to them via root. 

3. I have checked out the excellent docs listed below, but they seem to be mostly about installing the software on Linus, Mac or Windows, systems directly or via Telnet etc. As far as I know everything is already installed on my PiDP11 system, but it does not accept tek4010 as a command and the Tek screen will not open.

https://github.com/rricharz/pidp11-2.11bsd/blob/master/Tek.pdf

https://github.com/rricharz/pidp11-2.11bsd/blob/master/Tek.odt

 Tek4010 terminal emulator for Linux/X: https://github.com/rricharz/Tek4010

 Other useful tools and guides for 2.11BSD: https://github.com/rricharz/pidp11-2.11bsd

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2026-01-08 09:02, Andrew Barron wrote:
> Hi, here is another dumb question. I'm stuck again! I am obviously
> missing a vital and easy stage.
>
> 1. My PiDP11 has a Tektronix icon on the GUI, but it refuses to start.
> It just flashes up and disappears. I usually run the operator's console
> screen via SSH. I understand that will not display the Tek images, but I
> cant get the Tek display to stand up.

You might very well be able to display graphics using the operators
console. It all depends on what terminal emulator you are using.
With Xterm, it contains both a VT100 and a Tek4014 emulator, and you
actually have two windows. So you can do Tek stuff just fine.
With other terminal emulators you'll have to investigate if they can.
But you have to remember that all graphics on a Tek are just done
through a serial line in the end. There is no other fancy hardware involved.

As for why your Tektronix program/icon behaves they way it does - I have
no idea. Never used any of the RPi GUI stuff.

Johnny

--
Johnny Billquist || "I'm on a bus
|| on a psychedelic trip
email: b...@softjar.se || Reading murder books
pdp is alive! || tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol

[terri-...@glaver.org]

The terminal emulators were not re-coded to deal with the change from invoking the PiDP-11 startup directly vs. attaching to an existing session via 'screen'. In particular, the Tek emulator does not act as a controlling terminal by default.

If you open another (Raspberry Pi) terminal window and enter the following horrible hack exactly as shown, you'll get something that kinda sorta works:

/opt/pidp11/bin/tek4010 -fast script > /dev/null

and then (in the Tek window) type:

screen -d -r

Your console will now be on the Tek (which will rapidly turn into a collection of illuminated pixels which you can't make sense of). You can do:

/opt/pidp11/bin/tek4010 -autoClear -fast script > /dev/null

and then repeat (in the Tek window):

screen -d -r

which will at least clear the Tek screen when you try to scroll off the page.

 I will be looking at these at some future point after the new installer and new options are finished and working.

[Andrew Barron]

Thanks Terri & Johnny. 

The horrible hack does start a 4010 window, but it wont display vector graphics. I just get blocks of text so I guess it is not going into graphics mode. I tried running the C files, cat on the plt files and running demo.sh

I had no luck with xterm, it comes up with font errors if I start it with xterm- t.  I guess it needs changes to the config.

I will wait until the issues have been sorted out and try again then.

cheers'

AndrewB

[terri-...@glaver.org]

On Friday, January 9, 2026 at 5:21:11 PM UTC-5 zl...@outlook.co.nz wrote:

Thanks Terri & Johnny. 

The horrible hack does start a 4010 window, but it wont display vector graphics. I just get blocks of text so I guess it is not going into graphics mode. I tried running the C files, cat on the plt files and running demo.sh

I didn't think the Unix console was 8-bit-clean, which may well be a requirement.

Grab some of the .plt files, do the hack to gt the Tek to come up. but instead of

using screen to attach it to the PiDP-11, just cat the files from the Raspberry Pi

OS and see if they display.

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2026-01-10 02:20, terri-...@glaver.org wrote:
> On Friday, January 9, 2026 at 5:21:11 PM UTC-5 zl...@outlook.co.nz wrote:
>
> Thanks Terri & Johnny.
> The horrible hack does start a 4010 window, but it wont display
> vector graphics. I just get blocks of text so I guess it is not
> going into graphics mode. I tried running the C files, cat on the
> plt files and running demo.sh
>
>
> I didn't think the Unix console was 8-bit-clean, which may well be a
> requirement.

If they are on a reasonably updated 2.11BSD, the console can be 8-bit
clean. But you do need to do "stty pass8".