Remote engine in WinBoard GUI

[ulver]

I'd like to realize the following idea
Let's say I have a microwined Rybka on my remote Linux box and Winboard GUI as analyzing tool and ability to use my test polyglot book.
chain will be Linux: rybka -ssh Client: netRybka-polyglot-polyglotbook-WinBoard.
The main goal is to use stronger engine on remote + ability to use polyglot book and lightweight GUI such as winboard. I never use winboard before.Remote
engine planned to be single engine in winboard. Also is there a winboard package (not gold pack) just a GUI. Probably rshd good idea for this task? Any help appreciated.

[H.G.Muller]

I never tried running remote engines, but I think WinBoard hast the option /firstHost and /secondHost to specify remote machines on whch the first and second engine then would run. You would have to look in the help file to see how exactly to use it. This would lead to a different chain than the one you propose, as in that case Polyglot would have to run on the remote machine.

I think the download post on this forum also offers a (zipped) bare winboard.exe. You would not have the help file(s) then, though. I would recommend using the Gold Pack, select the minimal install, and install it in some temporary folder like C:/WinBoard. Then you just get a few tiny files (such s Fairy-Max and Polyglot) next to the winoard.exe and help files, and you could always delete those if they annoy you. But it seems that the way you want to do it would actually require you to have Polyglot on the local machine, so the Gold Pack minimal install would be ideal. You could just type

netRybka /fd="WHEREVERYOUHAVENETRYBKA" /fUCI /firstXBook

in the startup dialog for first engine, and it should run. (To use your own book, make sure to select it in the Options -> Global Settings dialog in stead of the default book.)

[ulver]

getting error
Error: first chess program (polyglot C:\PROGRAM~2\WINBOA~1.1\WinBoard\\polyglot_1st.ini) exited unexpectedly
i have netRybka on C:\
netRybka /fd="C:\netRybka.exe" /fUCI

[Michel]

Polyglot does not have to run on the remote machine.

I just did

xboard -fcp "ssh remote_user@remote_machine ./toga2" -fUCI

xboard asked for a password (ssh actually) which I typed. Then I could play against
the remote toga.

I played a match of 20 games between fairymax and toga2 and nothing unexpected
happened.

EDIT: Maybe this does not work on windows. Polyglot on windows does line input (rather than select
which does not exist).
Since the password prompt does not end with a newline it will probably not be relayed
to the user. Typing the password blind might work.

It is also not difficult to set up a password less ssh login (you have to mess with
the authorized_keys file on the server).

An alternative would be a Cygwin Polyglot which should behave identically under Linux
and Windows.

[ulver]

Winboard is in windows client machine, remote engine is on linux box, I think you tried linux-linux connection?

[Michel]

Winboard is in windows client machine, remote engine is on linux box, I think you tried linux-linux connection?

True but even in Windows you can use Cygwin. So at least ssh should work the same.

[H.G.Muller]

getting error
Error: first chess program (polyglot C:\PROGRAM~2\WINBOA~1.1\WinBoard\\polyglot_1st.ini) exited unexpectedly
i have netRybka on C:\
netRybka /fd="C:\netRybka.exe" /fUCI

You have to write /fd="C:\", because that is where you have netRyba.exe. /fd (= /firstDirectory) is only for specifying the directory where the engine would look for its own files (like the engine book, or a config file). The first 'word' on the line is the name of the executable that should be used to start up the engine after changing to the mentioned directory.

[ulver]

netRybka.exe mentioned above is already an engineclient to remote one, it is loaded by plink.exe remote_login@remote_comp -ssh -pw pasw_there /home/Rybak3-linux , so if i click on netRybka.exe on client i have a promt shell with remote engine loaded.The idea is to point polyglot+book to this netRybka and use it in WinBoard. I doing this many monthes but in FritzGUI (and Shredder). Example: polyglot1.4.56b.exe, polyglot.ini and netRybka, i choosed polyglot as an UCI engine in Fritz GUI and it works.
WinBoard is much more lightweight for tests i would like to run.