Is it possible to include xboard 4.4.0 in Ubuntu?

[rigao]

Is it possible to include xboard 4.4.0 in the yet to be released ubuntu 9.10? I mean, atm you can add xboard, but it is a crappy version of it. What do you need to do for canonical to change that obsolete version to the new one? Would be xboard finished around the release date (october i think)?

I would love to have it included by default, instead of this crappy gnuchess, it will increase dramatically the popularity of xboard and atract new developers, but i guess this would be very very difficult to achieve, as they will ask for a team of developers or something more official than Muller working as he pleases.... but just have it in the repositories so you just select it and it installs everything... Right now it is kind of difficult to have it run as you want from zero.

[H.G.Muller]

Not to worry, this is in the pipe line! The "official team" ( http://www.gnu.org/software/xboard/ ) now endorses my version, but at the moment it is still listed as an "unstable" beta version (4.4.0beta2), while 4.2.7b is still designated as the stable version. But we will declare 4.4.0 stable likely this weekend. (We seem to get no more bug reports on the beta2.)

The next step on the road to Ubuntu is to get into Debian. They watch us closely, and 4.4.0beta1 is already there ( http://packages.debian.org/sid/xboard ). Beta2 was released by us just a week ago.

Ubuntu take their packages from Debian. 4.4.0beta1 is already in "karmic" there ( http://packages.ubuntu.com/karmic/xboard ).

Unfortuntely Debian patches our sources to make the "crappy gnuchess" again the default engine. We should just hope they get enough complaints about this to someday abandon that policy.

[NaltaP312]

Hello,

is it so possible to have a mac osx compiled version ?
I like this interface and i dont' want install a vmware or windows partition.

Thanks
Regards
NaltaP

[faerrleah]

Yes, it is possible in Ubuntu. XBoard project is a X and Windows graphical chessboard. XBoard is a graphical chessboard for X that can serve as a user interface for GNU Chess, Crafty, other chess engines, and the Internet Chess Servers. I have downloaded XBoard 4.4.3 and it works very well.

[Josh Pettus]

Yes for mac as well
viewtopic.php?f=19&t=50428&start=0

[H.G.Muller]

In fact it has already been done. The default XBoard version for the Ubunto Karmac release is 4.4.0-beta1, for Ubuntu Lucid it is 4.4.2.

[Tuvoc]

I'd like to run XBoard on my Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid) x64 box, but in the synaptic repository on that all there is is a very old XBoard 4.2.7. If you could give a clue as to how to get 4.4.3 or even 4.4.4 installed under this distro, that would be great, thanks

[H.G.Muller]

On the Debian website you can find binary packages for all architectures. They currently provide 4.4.3 in their 'squeeze' (testing) and 'sid' (unstable) suites, and 4.20100118 in 'experimental'. You can download those, and tell the archiver to install them when it asks you if you want to do this. The GNU Savannah website might also offer binary Debian packages of released versions, I am not sure.

A more versatile way would be to install from source. Then you can really use the latest and best sources, obtained from the git repositories on GNU Savannah or hgm.nubati.net. E.g. from the latter, follow the source-repository link from the home page, select xboard.git, then hgm5 from the listed branches at the bottom of the page. Then download the source by clicking 'snapshot' for the most recent (= uppermost) commit. After having unpacked the download somewhere on your system, go to that directory with a terminal window, and type:

./autogen.sh
./configure
make
sudo make install

and you will have the latest XBoard on your system. Make sure to also install fairymax, (also available from Debian), to not run into the XBoard complaint that it cannot find its default engine...

[Tuvoc]

thanks HG, I will check out those options

[Tuvoc]

Downlaoding the latest snapshot, when I type
./autogen.sh

all I get is a message "aclocal: not found"

However I do see a file called autogen.sh

I've found 4.4.3 in their 'squeeze' (testing) packages list, maybe that is the best option for me unless there is a simple fix to the above problem - EDIT: Installed automake and now I think it works

[Tuvoc]

Unfortunately even 4.4.3 fails to install, with a missing dependencies message. This distribution may just be too old.

On the first option, after installing a few missing libraries etc, the first two steps seem error-free, but the "make" gives dozens of errors and fails

[H.G.Muller]

That is weird. I do not use 8.10 myself, but the even older 8.04 (Hardy), and there it works. But I guess it depends more on what packages you have installed than on the version.

Can you tell us what errors you get from the 'make' exactly? It could be that you lack the software to make the documentation (man and info files). Isn't this the package 'texinfo'?

Some Ubuntu expert, please help!

[Tuvoc]

texinfo was missing initially but I installed that

actually CONFIGURE is not OK
ray@QX6700:~/xboard-80a24a1$ ./configure
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking for a thread-safe mkdir -p... /bin/mkdir -p
checking for gawk... no
checking for mawk... mawk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking for gcc... gcc
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of executables...
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... none needed
checking for style of include used by make... GNU
checking dependency style of gcc... gcc3
checking whether gcc and cc understand -c and -o together... yes
checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E
checking for library containing strerror... none required
checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking for flex... no
checking for lex... no
checking for remsh... no
checking for rsh... rsh
checking for makeinfo... makeinfo
checking for nroff... nroff -man
checking for awk... /usr/bin/awk
checking for perl... /usr/bin/perl
checking for grep that handles long lines and -e... /bin/grep
checking for egrep... /bin/grep -E
checking for ANSI C header files... yes
checking whether time.h and sys/time.h may both be included... yes
checking for sys/wait.h that is POSIX.1 compatible... yes
checking for dirent.h that defines DIR... yes
checking for library containing opendir... none required
checking return type of signal handlers... void
checking for sys/types.h... yes
checking for sys/stat.h... yes
checking for stdlib.h... yes
checking for string.h... yes
checking for memory.h... yes
checking for strings.h... yes
checking for inttypes.h... yes
checking for stdint.h... yes
checking for unistd.h... yes
checking stropts.h usability... yes
checking stropts.h presence... yes
checking for stropts.h... yes
checking sys/time.h usability... yes
checking sys/time.h presence... yes
checking for sys/time.h... yes
checking for string.h... (cached) yes
checking for unistd.h... (cached) yes
checking sys/systeminfo.h usability... no
checking sys/systeminfo.h presence... no
checking for sys/systeminfo.h... no
checking malloc.h usability... yes
checking malloc.h presence... yes
checking for malloc.h... yes
checking fcntl.h usability... yes
checking fcntl.h presence... yes
checking for fcntl.h... yes
checking sys/socket.h usability... yes
checking sys/socket.h presence... yes
checking for sys/socket.h... yes
checking stddef.h usability... yes
checking stddef.h presence... yes
checking for stddef.h... yes
checking for _getpty... no
checking for grantpt... yes
checking for setitimer... yes
checking for usleep... yes
checking for gettimeofday... yes
checking for random... yes
checking for gethostname... yes
checking for setlocale... yes
checking for getpseudotty in -lseq... no
checking for X... libraries , headers
checking for gethostbyname... yes
checking for connect... yes
checking for remove... yes
checking for shmat... yes
checking for IceConnectionNumber in -lICE... yes
checking X11/Intrinsic.h usability... yes
checking X11/Intrinsic.h presence... yes
checking for X11/Intrinsic.h... yes
checking build system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking host system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking X11/xpm.h usability... yes
checking X11/xpm.h presence... yes
checking for X11/xpm.h... yes
checking for XpmReadFileToPixmap in -lXpm... yes
checking whether ptys or pipes should be used... pipes
configure: creating ./config.status
config.status: creating Makefile
config.status: creating cmail
config.status: creating config.h
config.status: config.h is unchanged
config.status: executing depfiles commands
config.status: executing test-stamp-h commands
config.status: executing chmod-cmail commands

Configurations summary:

prefix: /usr/local
datarootdir: ${prefix}/share
datadir: ${datarootdir} (icons will go in $datadir\icons\hicolor\...)
infodir: ${datarootdir}/info (info files will go here)
sysconfdir: ${prefix}/etc (xboard.conf will go here)

Xaw3d: no

xpm: yes
ptys: pipes
zippy: yes
sigint: yes

[Tuvoc]

ray@QX6700:~/xboard-80a24a1$ make
make all-am
make[1]: Entering directory `/home/ray/xboard-80a24a1'
depbase=`echo xboard.o | sed 's|[^/]*$|.deps/&|;s|\.o$||'`;\
gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -DINFODIR='"/usr/local/share/info"' -DSYSCONFDIR='"/usr/local/etc"' -MT xboard.o -MD -MP -MF $depbase.Tpo -c -o xboard.o xboard.c &&\
mv -f $depbase.Tpo $depbase.Po
In file included from xboard.c:1347:
args.h: In function ‘ParseArgs’:
args.h:999: warning: cast from pointer to integer of different size
args.h:1013: warning: cast from pointer to integer of different size
args.h: In function ‘SetDefaultsFromList’:
args.h:1109: warning: cast from pointer to integer of different size
args.h:1115: warning: cast from pointer to integer of different size
args.h:1123: warning: cast from pointer to integer of different size
args.h:1126: warning: cast from pointer to integer of different size
xboard.c: In function ‘SaveFontArg’:
xboard.c:1454: warning: cast from pointer to integer of different size
xboard.c: In function ‘SaveAttribsArg’:
xboard.c:1486: warning: cast from pointer to integer of different size
xboard.c: In function ‘SaveColor’:
xboard.c:1492: warning: cast from pointer to integer of different size
xboard.c:1493: warning: cast from pointer to integer of different size
depbase=`echo xedittags.o | sed 's|[^/]*$|.deps/&|;s|\.o$||'`;\
gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -DINFODIR='"/usr/local/share/info"' -DSYSCONFDIR='"/usr/local/etc"' -MT xedittags.o -MD -MP -MF $depbase.Tpo -c -o xedittags.o xedittags.c &&\
mv -f $depbase.Tpo $depbase.Po
depbase=`echo engineoutput.o | sed 's|[^/]*$|.deps/&|;s|\.o$||'`;\
gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -DINFODIR='"/usr/local/share/info"' -DSYSCONFDIR='"/usr/local/etc"' -MT engineoutput.o -MD -MP -MF $depbase.Tpo -c -o engineoutput.o engineoutput.c &&\
mv -f $depbase.Tpo $depbase.Po
depbase=`echo xengineoutput.o | sed 's|[^/]*$|.deps/&|;s|\.o$||'`;\
gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -DINFODIR='"/usr/local/share/info"' -DSYSCONFDIR='"/usr/local/etc"' -MT xengineoutput.o -MD -MP -MF $depbase.Tpo -c -o xengineoutput.o xengineoutput.c &&\
mv -f $depbase.Tpo $depbase.Po
depbase=`echo evalgraph.o | sed 's|[^/]*$|.deps/&|;s|\.o$||'`;\
gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -DINFODIR='"/usr/local/share/info"' -DSYSCONFDIR='"/usr/local/etc"' -MT evalgraph.o -MD -MP -MF $depbase.Tpo -c -o evalgraph.o evalgraph.c &&\
mv -f $depbase.Tpo $depbase.Po
depbase=`echo xevalgraph.o | sed 's|[^/]*$|.deps/&|;s|\.o$||'`;\
gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -DINFODIR='"/usr/local/share/info"' -DSYSCONFDIR='"/usr/local/etc"' -MT xevalgraph.o -MD -MP -MF $depbase.Tpo -c -o xevalgraph.o xevalgraph.c &&\
mv -f $depbase.Tpo $depbase.Po
depbase=`echo xgamelist.o | sed 's|[^/]*$|.deps/&|;s|\.o$||'`;\
gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -DINFODIR='"/usr/local/share/info"' -DSYSCONFDIR='"/usr/local/etc"' -MT xgamelist.o -MD -MP -MF $depbase.Tpo -c -o xgamelist.o xgamelist.c &&\
mv -f $depbase.Tpo $depbase.Po
depbase=`echo xhistory.o | sed 's|[^/]*$|.deps/&|;s|\.o$||'`;\
gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -DINFODIR='"/usr/local/share/info"' -DSYSCONFDIR='"/usr/local/etc"' -MT xhistory.o -MD -MP -MF $depbase.Tpo -c -o xhistory.o xhistory.c &&\
mv -f $depbase.Tpo $depbase.Po
depbase=`echo xoptions.o | sed 's|[^/]*$|.deps/&|;s|\.o$||'`;\
gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -DINFODIR='"/usr/local/share/info"' -DSYSCONFDIR='"/usr/local/etc"' -MT xoptions.o -MD -MP -MF $depbase.Tpo -c -o xoptions.o xoptions.c &&\
mv -f $depbase.Tpo $depbase.Po
depbase=`echo filebrowser/selfile.o | sed 's|[^/]*$|.deps/&|;s|\.o$||'`;\
gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -DINFODIR='"/usr/local/share/info"' -DSYSCONFDIR='"/usr/local/etc"' -MT filebrowser/selfile.o -MD -MP -MF $depbase.Tpo -c -o filebrowser/selfile.o filebrowser/selfile.c &&\
mv -f $depbase.Tpo $depbase.Po
filebrowser/selfile.c: In function ‘SFcreateWidgets’:
filebrowser/selfile.c:421: warning: cast to pointer from integer of different size
filebrowser/selfile.c:423: warning: cast to pointer from integer of different size
filebrowser/selfile.c:438: warning: cast to pointer from integer of different size
filebrowser/selfile.c:440: warning: cast to pointer from integer of different size
filebrowser/selfile.c:499: warning: cast to pointer from integer of different size
filebrowser/selfile.c:501: warning: cast to pointer from integer of different size
filebrowser/selfile.c:503: warning: cast to pointer from integer of different size
filebrowser/selfile.c:505: warning: cast to pointer from integer of different size
filebrowser/selfile.c:507: warning: cast to pointer from integer of different size
filebrowser/selfile.c:509: warning: cast to pointer from integer of different size
depbase=`echo filebrowser/draw.o | sed 's|[^/]*$|.deps/&|;s|\.o$||'`;\
gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -DINFODIR='"/usr/local/share/info"' -DSYSCONFDIR='"/usr/local/etc"' -MT filebrowser/draw.o -MD -MP -MF $depbase.Tpo -c -o filebrowser/draw.o filebrowser/draw.c &&\
mv -f $depbase.Tpo $depbase.Po
filebrowser/draw.c: In function ‘SFscrollTimer’:
filebrowser/draw.c:503: warning: cast from pointer to integer of different size
filebrowser/draw.c:533: warning: cast to pointer from integer of different size
filebrowser/draw.c: In function ‘SFnewInvertEntry’:
filebrowser/draw.c:574: warning: cast to pointer from integer of different size
depbase=`echo filebrowser/path.o | sed 's|[^/]*$|.deps/&|;s|\.o$||'`;\
gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -DINFODIR='"/usr/local/share/info"' -DSYSCONFDIR='"/usr/local/etc"' -MT filebrowser/path.o -MD -MP -MF $depbase.Tpo -c -o filebrowser/path.o filebrowser/path.c &&\
mv -f $depbase.Tpo $depbase.Po
filebrowser/path.c:684: warning: conflicting types for ‘SFsetText’
filebrowser/path.c:193: warning: previous implicit declaration of ‘SFsetText’ was here
depbase=`echo filebrowser/dir.o | sed 's|[^/]*$|.deps/&|;s|\.o$||'`;\
gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -DINFODIR='"/usr/local/share/info"' -DSYSCONFDIR='"/usr/local/etc"' -MT filebrowser/dir.o -MD -MP -MF $depbase.Tpo -c -o filebrowser/dir.o filebrowser/dir.c &&\
mv -f $depbase.Tpo $depbase.Po
depbase=`echo zippy.o | sed 's|[^/]*$|.deps/&|;s|\.o$||'`;\
gcc -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -I. -DINFODIR='"/usr/local/share/info"' -DSYSCONFDIR='"/usr/local/etc"' -MT zippy.o -MD -MP -MF $depbase.Tpo -c -o zippy.o zippy.c &&\
mv -f $depbase.Tpo $depbase.Po
gcc -o xboard backend.o book.o childio.o gamelist.o lists.o moves.o parser.o pgntags.o uci.o xboard.o xedittags.o engineoutput.o xengineoutput.o evalgraph.o xevalgraph.o xgamelist.o xhistory.o xoptions.o filebrowser/selfile.o filebrowser/draw.o filebrowser/path.o filebrowser/dir.o zippy.o -lm -lXaw -lXpm -lSM -lICE -lXmu -lX11 -lXt
./texi2man ./xboard.texi > xboard.man || (rm -f xboard.man ; false)
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/ray/xboard-80a24a1'
ray@QX6700:~/xboard-80a24a1$

[Tuvoc]

However, I think Xboard is actually running, it has certainly fired up and logged on to HG's server

EDIT: Yes it is working ! The last set of development libraries I installed did the trick
My machine was a standard desktop install, and was missing a whole lot of programming related stuff....

[H.G.Muller]

Indeed, the configure did look OK. (I am not sure what made you conclude it was not OK.)

You sure get a hell of a lot more warnings than I do (which is none...) during 'make'. But I guess this must be because you are making a 64-bit version, which has other sizes for some data types. Especialy bigger pointers. So I guess everywhere where XBoard stores a pointer in an integer variable, data loss of the high-order 32 bits will occur.

That does actually sound very bad. If WB would ever use such a pointer again, most likely a crash (segfault) would result.

The danger areas seems to be the new file-browser dialog (selfile.c and draw.c), and the defaults for string options (args.h). Apparently the latter does not kill you immediately, probably because you use an already existing settingsfile to overrule the compiled-in defaults.

XBoard / WinBoard is not really 64-bit software. Unless someone would make the source x64-compatible, I guess we should change the compiler flags in the Makefile so that it is compiled to 32-bit binary (whch should run without problems on 64-bit systems).

[Tuvoc]

Thanks for your help, I've played a number of games now and all is well !
I do miss the functionality in Windows where you can use the up-arrow key to cycle through previously typed commands. All I get under Xboard is ^[[A when I do that. Oh well, in other respects it is great. A huge plus that it is cross-platform.

[H.G.Muller]

You can ask (in the menu) for an 'ICS input box'. This offers the functionality you are looking for.

[Tuvoc]

You can ask (in the menu) for an 'ICS input box'. This offers the functionality you are looking for.

Yes that is perfect, thanks