Xboard 4.6.X Installer for Mac OSX

[schlucke]

You can find the binaries for 4.4.2 here http://www.leakyheap.de/macchess/.

Building xboard on MacOS X is easy and described perfectly in the INSTALL file!

Holger

[imai]

Schlucke,
Thanks for the binaries, it is a good starting point to familiarize with xboard. I still intend to learn how to compile new Xboard sourcefiles.
Teun

[imai]

What is wrong???

When I try to run Xboard ( downloaded from http://www.leakyheap.de/macchess/.) with stockfish on my MacBookPro I get error messages : xboard: Failed to start first chess program polyglot ./polyglot_1st.ini on localhost: polyglot: No such file or directory

xboard: Error writing to first chess program: Broken pipe

The startcode I use for Xboard is : ./xboard -fcp "../engines/stockfish" -fUCI -size 80,1,12,0,12,1 -coords -movesound -highlight -usePolyglotBook true -polyglotBook "../books/performance.bin" -polyglotDir "../polyglot" -fNoOwnBookUCI -defaultPathEGTB "../bases/Nalimov/" -defaultHashSize 512

Xboard creates a polyglot_1st.ini in the bin directory where xboard resides and that's it

I also tried to start Xboard with stockfish in the polyglot directory with : ./xboard -fd "/chess/xboard/polyglot" -fcp "polyglot stockfish.ini"

The same result

Under directory chess/xborard I have the directories bin (with xboard), polyglot (with polyglot stockfish and stockfish.ini), engines (with stockfish), books (with performance.bin), bases (with Nalimov) and share

Can anyone tell me what is wrong?

Thanks Teun

[H.G.Muller]

I think we hd this problem before, and it could be traced to the WinBoard code for invoking Polyglot did not work with the settings used in XBoard for the install directory when -polyglotDir is not equal to ".". I have addressed this in the development version of XBoard, doing away with the polyglot_1st.ini files altogether, but this is such a radical change in the way things work that we did not dare to include this new code in the stabe 4.4.x version.

Currently the only soluton is not use the -polyglotDir option in XBoard. This requires the Polyglot executable to be inside the xboard directory (where the polyglot_1st.ini is made), or in a directory in the PATH, like /usr/games, where it would normally be installed (just as xboard) in Debian systems.

[imai]

Yes, that is it. I moved the polyglot files into the xboard directory and it works with this code :

./xboard -fcp "./polyglot stockfish.ini" -size 80,1,12,0,12,1 -coords -movesound -highlight -clock -xponder -thinking -smpCores 2 -defaultHashSize 512 -fNoOwnBookUCI -defaultPathEGTB "../bases/Nalimov/" -usePolyglotBook true -polyglotBook "../books/performance.bin"

For all Winboard Forum friends : a happy new year to all of you !!!

[H.G.Muller]

Well, when you explicitly invoke Polyglot, it does not really matter where you put it, provided that the executable pathname and polyglot.ini path name are consistent with the dirctory specified with -fd. The restriction on the location of Polyglot only applies when using the -fUCI argument.

[Josh Pettus]

Should we stick 4.2.2 binary on the main distribution thread?

[H.G.Muller]

Not if you want to have a Seek Graph!

It all depends on your priorities. 4.4.2 aims at maximum reliability. The development version has all the new features, with the accompanying risk that adding those broke something that worked before.

Of course I would prefer that everyone used the development version, and act as testers that way. But some people might not like to be guinea pigs...

[Josh Pettus]

True, and your new version, I read, has the ability to save in a config file, which would be very useful.
Still it would be nice to have a volunteer compile the main bin, the latest polyglot and a couple chess engines into a package for mac users; just for the main distribution thread as we do for Linux.

A mac version of time-seal is on the FICS download page
And supposedly there is a mac bin of timestamp on the ICC ftp site (haven't tried it to see if it works)
And there is a copy of fruit 2.2.1 for mac here, and 2.3.1 here

If someone, who can and has the time, doesn't mind throwing all that together, that would be nice. Believe me, I would but I really don't know how to compile programs very well much-less anything for mac.
Perhaps if someone with the patience could also point me to a few tutorials meant for the non-programmer, that would be great too. (if there is such a thing)

Thanks-you

[Josh Pettus]

HAHA, I did it! I am now officially useful!

I redownloaded the xcodetools package off the apple website and got gcc for mac with it. With the help of the install file, I learned how and managed to compile the latest test version of xboard from H.G.M's git-repository under the heading hgm3. There was a crazy error that took me a while to solve having to do with some file called "malloc.h" which I had to move from "/usr/include/sys/" back a folder.

Building on my success I then compiled the latest polyglot.

I then included the help files from the shlucke's 4.4.2 compilation (I assume they would be the same)
added timestamp and timeseal, a few polyglot opening books (default_book, performance, book_small) And a few engines

Crafty 23.0 - I couldn't figure out how to compile 23.1; wouldn't compile with an x86 64 system. I guess there is a setting somewhere, but I couldn't find it so I used an old one I found somewhere a long time ago.

Fruit 2.2.1

Fruit 2.3.1

and stockfish 1.6.2 courtesy of shlucke and his website.

Download link
(have a new one up in a few hours)

[Josh Pettus]

Before I turn in, here are a couple of more engines that I compiled for mac intel

-FairyMax

-GNUChess5.07.9b

Fairymax and I guess the other engines belong in the \usr\games folder and fairy max's data folders belong in \usr\share\games\fairymax\
The usr folder is hidden so I recommend a tool like Tinkertool to get at it. Simply check "show hidden and system files" in the finder menu and relaunch finder.

Download LInk
http://www.mediafire.com/file/ozckbgytk ... 09-mac.zip

Which reminds me the etc folder is also hidden in the private folder. I deleted the hidden alias in the main root and moved the real folder into the root so xboard could get at it for saving the config file.

Personally, I think it would be nice if everything xboard needed could be gotten in the home directory, (which is automatically visible and you have rights to it) or better yet, contained in a single directory like winboard, but I know that would be a huge change. Ah well, I guess I just have to accept that linux people are weird.

[H.G.Muller]

A binary package for XBoard normally comes with a file xboard.conf, wich will be instaled in the directory /etc/xboard/. This is the counterpart of the winboard.ini file of WinBoard. But because it is in a place that is normally inaccessible to ordinary users, this default settings file redirects the saving and loading of settings to a file in the users directory, by inclucing the settings:

-saveSettingsFile ~/.xboardrc
-settingsFile ~/.xboardrc

The ~ is Unix lingo for the user's home directory. Because -settingsFile is the last options specified in the xboard.conf file, first all other options in it are read, and then the reading continues at the ~/.xboardrc fle, so that what the user specifies can overrule the system defaults in xboard.conf. The -saveSettingsFile option causes the settings to be saved there if the file did not exist yet. (Normally saving is on the last -settingsFile that was succesfully read, if any, and otherwise in xboard.conf.)

So you meed to have admin rights (i.e. be superuser, in Unix lingo) in order to install XBoard, but once you have done that, every user will get the settings saved in a file .xboardrc in his own home directory. But you have to make sure that the 'master' settings file contains the two option settings above to acheive that. Usually people Linux people install through the command

sudo make install

which should also place the xboard.conf file included in the source tar ball in the proper place, although I am not sure this works for the version we are using. (I dont do the automake stuff myself, and we had some confusion and mismatch how to do it at some point.)

[Josh Pettus]

Thanks a lot for the information, I'll use those commands to direct the config file in the home directory like you suggest.

I would have used 'sudo make install', but a mac user has to install xcodetools developer's kit before they can use gcc and make. Hardly a means for major distribution with mac users as you have to register with apple as a developer to be able to download and install the 1 gig file. Snow leopard, on the other hand, automatically comes with x11 preinstalled so average users can already run the compiled unix apps, just can't compile it themselves. In short, make install, as much as it would work for me, won't work for the average person. Someone is going to have to come up with an actual installer package, which I haven't a clue in the slightest how to do or the resources currently. But I'll look into it.

[Edit}I'm in luck! there is a package maker that comes with xcodetools!

[Josh Pettus]

Ok I'm playing with the install package maker and seems relatively easy. I think I'll make one of the stable release first.

xboard goes in /usr/local/bin/xboard
xboard.info + xboard.man goes in usr/local/share/info
xboard.conf goes in /etc/xboard
fairymax goes in /usr/games/ (as any other engine)
firymax.ini files goes in /usr/share/games/fairymax

several installation questions...
polyglot goes where?
timeseal and timestamp goes where?
polyglot default_book.bin goes where?
Anything else I should include?
How about about putting the xboard unix binary somewhere a mac user would expect to find it, like /Applications/xboard/, must it go in the bin folder? GIMP needs X11 but it goes in the applications folder as well so couldn't xboard act the same? It's a simple copy paste to give it an icon, and would be a great place to put subsidiary programs like polyglot and timeseal.
What are the options in the main config such as -bitmapDirectory -pixmapDirctory Isn't that stuff compiled into xboard?

I know that is a lot of questions, sry in advance for the poor soul who is going to answer them.

(Edit)
I stuck fairymax in the /usr/games folder but xboard would still not find it. Fairymax found it's .ini file where it was suppose to so idk. Automake doesn't exist for mac or at least isn't included so I got tired and simply stuck the engine in a folder for engines and had the config file point to that.

[Josh Pettus]

Well I finally figured out how to create an installer package for xboard-mac
I decided against making it with the stable version as any version without the ability to save in a conf file's usefulness is severely limited, it think, and also one can contribute to the testing of new features
Instead I used the latest source from H.G. Muller's git repository. 20101002

It installs the master xboard.conf in the /etc/xboard folder
Put's the help files in /usr/local/share/info
and the fairymax ini's where they are suppose to be in /usr/share/games/fairymax

The main questionable thing is I put the xboard binary in the Applications/xboard/ folder with a folder for polyglot and a folder for Engines. Mostly because A) this is where a mac user would expect to find them. b) I tried installing the fairymax engine in the default location but xboard still wouldn't find it anyway and C) a normal mac user really wouldn't be able to get at that folder to see what engines are installed, what are their exact names and install more. So I decided this was simpler and made the master config point to fairymax's new location.

Includes polyglot several books, fairymax, gnuchess5.07.9b, crafty 23.0, fruit 2.2.1, fruit 3.2.1 and stockfish 1.6.2

Enjoy!
(have a new one up in a few hours)

[H.G.Muller]

I am afraid I cannot be uch help for most of your quetions, as I have no acces to a Mac. XBoard is in general designed so that it expect things to be located in a place where the OS would automatically search for them. So when you type

xboard -ncp

from the command line it would know where to look for the xboard binary. If on a Mac that is Applications/xboard, that would be fine.

But this extends to the meaning of the parameters. If you type

xboard -fcp fairymax

or plain

xboard

(as -fcp fairymax is default), it should be able to find the Fairy-Max binary in the standard location. So my guess that would be /Applications/fairymax then. On Linux, you never have to bother with -fd or -sd commands to specify the engine directory unles the engine is non-compliant.

The same holds for Polyglot. On Linux it installs as /usr/games/polyglot. XBoard expects to be able to call Polyglot by a single command

polyglot <arguments>

without havig to prefix any pathnames or changing to another directory. Otherwise the method

xboard -fcp fruit -fUCI

would not work.

One other thing: I discovered a very serious bug in the seek graph version. Actually the bug was there before, but the seek graph -autoRefresh exposes it more painfully. When you suppress something from being printed in the ICS window (as I do for al the seek ads, but also for autoKibitz and tells that go to a Chat Box), you have to flush messages before it that came with the same internet packet, or they would not be printed either. I did not know this. Apparenty I was lucky that kibitz messages almost always come as only item in a packet. But (especially for long output such as finger or help commands) the chance that a seek ad is suffixed to a message is quite large, and then the message just disappears. So many commands you give while the -autoRefresh is on seem not to work at all; you type them, and nothing happens, and you have to try a few times before it works. Other output (like game-result messages) can also randomly disappear.

This is very bad, and the 4.20100211 version that I have posted now fixes it. I hope you can incorporate that in the package in stead.

[Josh Pettus]

Yah that is mostly is what I figured would be the case. I don't know why the couple of programs that I had in the /usr/games/ folder xboard ignored. Might have been permissions. I guess one possible option later down the road would be to preset it all in config files so it really doesn't matter where xbaord initially wants it. You mentioned awhile ago how you eventually wanted to make an option for the user to select engines and ics in a in menu option. Of course we have plenty of stuff to test and debug, as it is, for a while.

Right now I just type -firstchessprogram (drop a program into the window) -fUCI and I'm off. Already have polygot's and fairymax's location preset in the master config file so it will work off the bat after installation.

Good find with that bug fix. I'll try to get another package up soon. It will be later in the day before I can get it so, In the mean time, I'll take the current files down.

I'm now thinking, since I have xboard set the way I do, It might be a good idea to have xboard build the second config file directly into the xboard folder so people can edit it as they do winboard. Also make it not hidden because viewing hidden files and folder's is a lot more of a pain on mac than it is on Ubuntu where all you have to do is press cmd-h

[Josh Pettus]

Ok here is the package. Same as above only it contains HGM's 4.20100214 build with the bugfix for the seekgraph.
enjoy!

Any major problems let me or HGM know, although chances are it is my fault.

*Link on first post*

[Josh Pettus]

I think I'll take a leaf from HGM's book and just put out a link to the latest xboard binary to make it faster as I compile them from HGM's git repository and put them up. Just replace binary with the one in the install package. Naturally this is all alpha builds. In the event that something major comes up, like a major bug fix, I'll rebuild the entire installer package.

On first post

[Josh Pettus]

Well I took another whack at the installer thing, and now I believe I know what I'm doing. Everything should work just fine upon installing including permissions set reasonably.
I spent many hours trying to find a way to have sounds play because the "aplay" program included with most linux distributions wasn't going to cut it for mac. I finally settled on a little command-line program called mpg123 that plays mp3s. It wound up working very well after I converted the sound waves files to mp3. The installer will set up everything for the user automatically so sounds will play when finished. That is unless the user chooses to opt out of sounds, so I added a flag to remove mpg123 and all related files from the installation. While I was at it, I figured It would also be nice to be able to uninstall the program. Seeing as macs don't have an official uninstall program, I added a flag that would remove Xboard and all files installed by the installer with a built-in bash script. This all has been tested on mine and my roommate's computer and works as it all should. Download link for the new package is on the first post.
Also has the latest xboard alpha for today.