Winboard Forum

Hello,
I am trying to have Xboard 4.5.3 and Timeseal (the one provided with Ubuntu 12..04)

Running from a consol this 2 commands works well :
./timeseal 69.36.243.188 5000 -p 5500 &
xboard -ics -icshost localhost -size medium -icsport 5500

But if I use this script, I get an error message "Got end of file from keyboard"
#!/bin/bash
./timeseal 69.36.243.188 5000 -p 5500 &
xboard -ics -icshost localhost -size medium -icsport 5500

What's wrong ?
Thank you.

The problem might come from starting XBoard through a script. I am not really Linux-savvy, but I think this would also then expect whatever you want to type to the ICS from that script in stead of the keyboard (and quickly reach the end of the script file in attempting that).

Note that in XBoard 4.7 it is possible to simply start with the command

xboard fics

if timeseal is in a folder inside your path. If you want to use timeseal from the current directory you would have to edit the file ~/.xboardrc, and replace 'timeseal' in the -icsNames option's line for "fics" to './timeseal' .

It should also be possible to create a FICS.desktop file for starting XBoard in fics mode, if you rather start it from the GUI as through a command. This should contain something like (completely untested):

Code: Select all

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Xboard
Comment=Connect to FICS
GenericName=X-windows chess board
Type=Application
Categories=Game;BoardGame;
Exec=xboard -ics -icshost freechess.org -icshelper timeseal -size medium
Icon=xboard
NoDisplay=false
Terminal=true


I am also starting xboard from a script (fics.sh) which contains the following line:

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#!/bin/sh
xboard -size medium -ics -sgf ~/my_fics_login_name.pgn -icshost freechess.org -icshelper openseal

I have both the script and openseal located in a folder which is in my $PATH so from whatever location I type in the name of the script it gets executes and so does openseal.

In case you don't know about this $PATH thing say you have both the script and openseal located in /home/user/bin/ then open your .bashrc file and at the end of the file add the following line:

Code: Select all

PATH="$PATH:/home/user/bin"

Save the file and logout and in again.

Needles to say that both the scrpt and openseal need to be executable

I had exactly the same error message and I think H.G.Muller provided the answer... namely in the line

Code: Select all

Terminal=true

. This makes all the difference and it should fix your problem.