<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>
XBoard and WinBoard: Frequently Asked Questions</TITLE></HEAD>
<BODY>
<H1>XBoard and WinBoard: Frequently Asked Questions</H1>
This document answers some frequently asked questions about the
graphical chess interfaces XBoard and WinBoard.
A hyperlinked version of this FAQ is available on
the Web through the page
<A HREF=
"http://www.tim-mann.org/chess.html"
>http://www.tim-mann.org/chess.html</A>.
<i>This FAQ is in need of revision. Please contact us if you'd like
to help update it.</i>
<HR>
<H2>Outline</H2>
<UL>
<LI><A HREF="#[A0]">[A] Introduction and hot topics</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#[B0]">[B] XBoard and WinBoard</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#[C0]">[C] XBoard and WinBoard, bugs and problems</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#[D0]">[D] Crafty and other topics</A></LI>
</UL>
<HR>
<H2>Detailed contents</H2>
<UL>
<LI><A NAME="[A0]" HREF="#[A]">[A] Introduction and hot topics</A></LI>
<UL>
<LI><a href="#[A.1]">[A.1] What are XBoard and WinBoard?</a></li>
<LI><A HREF="#[A.2]">[A.2] Where can I get chess information and chess
software?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#[A.3]">[A.3] What are the current version numbers for
XBoard and WinBoard?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#[A.4]">[A.4] Who is working on this project?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#[A.5]">[A.5] How do I report bugs, offer help, etc.?</A></LI>
<LI><a href="#[A.6]">[A.6] What are the future plans for XBoard and
WinBoard?</A></LI>
</UL>
<LI><A NAME="[B0]" HREF="#[B]">[B] XBoard and WinBoard</A></LI>
<UL>
<LI><A HREF="#[B.1]">[B.1] What is XBoard?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#[B.2]">[B.2] Is there an XBoard for Microsoft Windows? What is
WinBoard? How do I install WinBoard?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#[B.3]">[B.3] Is there an XBoard for the Amiga? What is
AmyBoard?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#[B.4]">[B.4] Is there an XBoard for the Macintosh?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#[B.5]">[B.5] Does XBoard run on VMS?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#[B.6]">[B.6] What is cmail?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#[B.7]">[B.7] How do I build XBoard? Do I have to have
gcc?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#[B.8]">[B.8] Can I use XBoard or WinBoard to play a game
of chess with another human?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#[B.9]">[B.9] Will WinBoard run on Windows 3.1?
How about Windows CE (also known as Pocket PC)?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#[B.10]">[B.10] How do I use XBoard or WinBoard as an external
viewer for PGN files with my Web browser?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#[B.11]">[B.11] How do I use WinBoard as an external viewer for
PGN files with the MS Windows File Manager or Explorer?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#[B.12]">[B.12] How do I use ICC timestamp or FICS timeseal
with XBoard?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#[B.13]">[B.13] How do I use ICC timestamp or FICS timeseal
with WinBoard?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#[B.14]">[B.14] How do I play bughouse with XBoard or WinBoard?
</A></LI>
<li><a href="#[B.16]">[B.16]
What is Zippy? How can I interface a chess program to the Internet
Chess Servers?</a></li>
<li><a href="#[B.17]">[B.17]
How can I interface my own chess program to XBoard or WinBoard?</a></li>
<li><a href="#[B.18]">[B.18]
How can I recompile WinBoard from source?</a></li>
<li><a href="#[B.19]">[B.19]
How can I use XBoard or WinBoard to talk
to an Internet Chess Server through a firewall or proxy?</a></li>
<li><a href="#[B.20]">[B.20]
How can I use XBoard or WinBoard on chess.net with accuclock?</a></li>
<li><a href="#[B.21]">[B.21]
Can I get Zippy to do one or more ICS commands automatically at the
start or end of each game?</a></li>
<li><a href="#[B.22]">[B.22]
How do I print from WinBoard?</a></li>
<li><a href="#[B.23]">[B.23]
Can I get Zippy to automatically reconnect to ICS when its connection
breaks?</a></li>
<li><a href="#[B.24]">[B.24]
The chess engines are too strong and always beat me. How can I adjust
the difficulty level to make them weaker?</a></li>
<li><a href="#[B.25]">[B.25]
May I use the piece bitmaps from XBoard/WinBoard in my own program?</a></li>
</UL>
<LI><A NAME="[C0]" HREF="#[C]">[C] XBoard and WinBoard, bugs and
problems</A></LI>
<UL>
<LI><A HREF="#[C.1]">[C.1] I can't build XBoard because the
X11/Xaw/... include files are not found.</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#[C.2]">[C.2] Configuring or building XBoard fails due to
missing header files, missing libraries, or undefined symbols.</a></li>
<LI><A HREF="#[C.3]">[C.3] I have problems using WinBoard on ICS with a modem.
I'm not running SLIP or PPP, but just dialing in to an ordinary login account
("shell account").</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#[C.4]">[C.4]
I have problems using WinBoard on ICS with Windows 95 and SLIP
or PPP. When trying to start up, it gets the error "Address family
not supported by protocol family" (or some equally strange message).
</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#[C.5]">[C.5] When I try to run WinBoard, I get the message
"Failed to start chess program gnuchess on localhost: NO LANGFILE (file
gnuchess.lan not found)".</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#[C.6]">[C.6] I want to use XBoard or WinBoard as an Internet
Chess Server interface, but the ICS Client option is grayed out on the
menu.</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#[C.7]">[C.7] How do I give command-line options to
a Windows program like WinBoard?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#[C.9]">[C.9]
When I exit from WinBoard after using it to play against a chess
program on my machine, the chess program keeps running in the background.
</A></LI>
<li><a href="#[C.12]">[C.12]
Why do my ICS
opponents often get extra time after they make their moves?
Why do I sometimes lose time off my clock after I make my move?
</a></li>
<li><a href="#[C.13]">[C.13]
I can't run WinBoard unless I delete the WinBoard.ini file each time!
</a></li>
<li><a href="#[C.15]">[C.15]
I get errors compiling XBoard's parser.c.
</a></li>
<li><a href="#[C.16]">[C.16]
I get an error building WinBoard from source because "flex" is not found.
</a></li>
<li><a href="#[C.17]">[C.17]
XBoard hangs shortly after connecting to an ICS when used with dxterm,
cmdtool, dtterm, kterm, konsole, or other substitutes for xterm.
</a></li>
<li><a href="#[C.18]">[C.18]
The WinBoard pieces show up in the wrong colors, appear distorted,
or are not visible at all.
</a></li>
<LI><A HREF="#[C.19]">[C.19] XBoard or WinBoard tells me
"Error: first chess program (...) exited unexpectedly".</A></LI>
<li><a href="#[C.20]">[C.20]
XBoard tells me "Warning: Cannot allocate colormap entry", or
"too few colors available; trying monochrome mode", or
"XPM pieces cannot be used in monochrome mode".
</a></li>
<li><a href="#[C.21]">[C.21]
When I log in to freechess.org, the Enter key doesn't work, and I
have to use Ctrl+J instead. But when I use WinBoard, Ctrl+J doesn't
work either, so I'm stuck.
</a></li>
<li><a href="#[C.22]">[C.22]
XBoard says, "Failed to start first chess program gnuchessx
on localhost: gnuchessx: No such file or directory."
</a></li>
</UL>
<LI><A NAME="[D0]" HREF="#[D]">[D] Crafty and other topics</A></LI>
<UL>
<LI><A HREF="#[D.1]">[D.1] What is XChess?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#[D.2]">[D.2] What is Winsock Chess?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#[D.3]">[D.3] What is Crafty?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#[D.4]">[D.4] How do I use Crafty with XBoard?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#[D.5]">[D.5] How do I use Crafty with WinBoard?</A></LI>
<LI><A HREF="#[D.6]">[D.6] How do I use GNU Chess 5 with XBoard?</A></LI>
</UL>
</UL>
<HR>
<H2><A NAME="[A]">[A] Introduction and hot topics</A></H2>
<HR>
<H3><A NAME="[A.1]">[A.1] What are XBoard and WinBoard?</A></H3>
XBoard and WinBoard are graphical user interfaces for chess.
XBoard runs with the X Window System on Unix systems (including
GNU/Linux); see topic
<A HREF="#[B.1]">[B.1]</A>.
WinBoard runs on true 32-bit Microsoft Windows operating
systems, such as Windows 95, 98, NT,
2000, ME, XP, and should continue to work
on future 32-bit Windows systems. It does
not work on Windows CE (also known as Pocket PC), nor does it work on
16-bit Windows systems such as Windows 3.1. See topic
<A HREF="#[B.2]">[B.2]</A>.
<HR>
<H3><A NAME="[A.2]">[A.2] Where can I get chess information and chess
software?</A></H3>
As a shortcut to most things mentioned in this FAQ, try Tim Mann's
Chess Web page, <A HREF= "http://www.tim-mann.org/chess.html"
>http://www.tim-mann.org/chess.html</A>. This page page is a good
place to get the latest released versions of XBoard and WinBoard and
the most up-to-date version of this FAQ. Also see our Savannah
project pages at <a href="https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/xboard/"
>https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/xboard/</a>.
<p>If you have other questions about XBoard/WinBoard that aren't answered
in this FAQ, you can try Aaron Tay's WinBoard and Chess Engines FAQ, at
<a href="http://www.aarontay.per.sg/Winboard/"
>http://www.aarontay.per.sg/Winboard/</a>.
<P>For general news and information about chess, try the newsgroup hierarchy
rec.games.chess.*, especially the groups rec.games.chess.misc and
rec.games.chess.computer. Both of the latter groups have very informative
FAQs maintained by Steve Pribut; look for them on the newsgroups or at
<A HREF=
"http://www.clark.net/pub/pribut/chess.html"
>http://www.clark.net/pub/pribut/chess.html</A>.
<P>Like other GNU software, you can get XBoard, and
WinBoard by anonymous FTP from
<A HREF=
"ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/"
>ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/</A>
and its many mirror sites. Look in the subdirectories xboard, and winboard.
The .tar.gz suffix on the files there indicates they were packed with tar
and compressed with gzip. The .exe or .zip suffixes indicate files that
were packed and compressed with zip.
<P>For other chess software, try the Internet Chess Library. Use anonymous FTP
to connect to ftp.freechess.org, or go to the Web page
<A HREF=
"http://www.freechess.org/"
>http://www.freechess.org/</A>.
You can get chess software, game
collections, the FAQ file for rec.games.chess, and other chess-related
material there, in the directory pub/chess. The FTP server can
automatically decompress files for you as you download them, useful if you
don't have gzip.
<P>Here is a sample anonymous ftp session. Some of the ftp server's responses
are abbreviated, but all the commands you must type are included.
<p><PRE>
% ftp ftp.gnu.org
Connected to ftp.gnu.org
Name: anonymous
Password: your-email-address@your-site
ftp> binary
200 Type set to I.
ftp> cd /pub/gnu/xboard
ftp> dir
-rw-r--r-- 1 14910 wheel 1057625 May 20 00:25 xboard-4.2.7.tar.gz
ftp> get xboard-4.2.7.tar.gz
150 BINARY connection for xboard-4.2.7.tar.gz (1057625 bytes).
226 Transfer complete.
ftp> quit
</PRE>
<HR>
<H3><A NAME="[A.3]">[A.3] What are the current version numbers for
XBoard and WinBoard?</A></H3>
At this writing, the current version numbers are:
<UL>
<LI>XBoard 4.2.7</LI>
<LI>WinBoard 4.2.7</LI>
</UL>
<HR>
<H3><A NAME="[A.4]">[A.4] Who is working on this project?</A></H3>
Please see our Savannah project pages at <a
href="https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/xboard/"
>https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/xboard/</a> for a list of active
developers. Many others occasionally contribute suggestions and
snippets of code, for which we are grateful.
<HR>
<H3><A NAME="[A.5]">[A.5] How do I report bugs, offer help, etc.?</A></H3>
<P>Bug reports, suggestions, and offers to help on XBoard
or WinBoard should be sent to
bug-xboard<a name="nospam">@</a>gnu.org. <i>(Note: as of 4 Nov 2003,
this mailing list is temporarily broken. You can send mail to
bug-xboard<a name="nospam">@</a>tim-mann.org instead until it is fixed.)</i>
<p>Beginner questions and discussion about the program may get faster
answers on the WinBoard Forum at <a
href="http://f11.parsimony.net/forum16635/"
>http://f11.parsimony.net/forum16635/</a>.
<p>If you are developing a
chess engine that works with XBoard or WinBoard (or an alternative
GUI that works with such engines), see the Chess Engines mailing
list, hosted at
<a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chess-engines"
>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chess-engines</a>.
<P>Any time you want to report a possible bug in XBoard or WinBoard,
we need to know exactly what you did, and exactly what error (or
other) messages you got.
<P>If you are using Unix, run the "script" program, run XBoard with
the -debug flag (if you get as far as running it), do whatever is
necessary to reproduce the problem, type "exit" to the shell, and mail
us the resulting typescript file. We also need to know what
hardware/operating system combination you are using. The command
"uname -a" will usually tell you this; include its output in your
typescript.
<P>If you are using MS Windows, run WinBoard with the -debug flag, and
send us a copy of the WinBoard.debug file. If you aren't sure how to
add command-line flags to WinBoard, you can hit Ctrl+Alt+F12 to create
a WinBoard.debug file after WinBoard starts, but that is not as good,
because a few messages that would have been printed at the start are
lost.
<p>Either way, please send us the exact text of the commands you typed
and the output you got, not just your recollection of approximately
what they were. The messages may seem meaningless to you, but they
are very meaningful to us and essential for diagnosing problems.
<hr>
<h3><a name="[A.6]">[A.6] What are the future plans for XBoard and
WinBoard?</a></h3>
<p>Our plans are always in flux. As with most free software projects,
the next release will happen when it happens -- or it may never
happen. This has always been the policy for XBoard/WinBoard.
Releases have never been promised in specific time frames.
<p>Starting in November 2003, several new developers have joined the
project, and work is now hosted at <a
href="https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/xboard/"
>https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/xboard/</a>. Lots of work is just
getting underway, but nothing is far along yet.
<p>Here is a partial list of items that have a nonzero probability of
happening in finite time.
<ul>
<li>Small bug fixes. Occasionally someone sends us a fix, or reports
a small bug very clearly so that we're able to fix it in a few minutes
work.<p>
<li>Protocol version 3. The members of the chess engine authors'
mailing list discussed a set of proposed features for the next version
of the XBoard/WinBoard chess engine communication protocol.
Unfortunately, this project has gotten only as far as that discussion
took it; no revisions of the protocol spec or coding have been done
yet. A few simple features are very clearly needed, though, and will
probably appear in time.<p>
<li>Contributed features. Several people have mailed me code to add
various features. Most of this code is available on the
XBoard/WinBoard extensions page at <a
href="http://www.tim-mann.org/extensions.html"
>http://www.tim-mann.org/extensions.html</a>, but it is not in any
official releases yet. We are in the process of getting folks to
formally assign the copyrights on their contributions to the Free
Software Foundation so that we can include it in official releases in
the future.<p>
<li>Internationalization. Several people have expressed interest in
internationalizing XBoard/WinBoard, and so hopefully this project will
go forward. Once the internationalization support is in, we will need
more translators. Watch for news on the xboard-devel mailing list on
our Savannah pages.
</ul>
<HR>
<H2><A NAME="[B]">[B] XBoard and WinBoard</A></H2>
<HR>
<H3><A NAME="[B.1]">[B.1] What is XBoard?</A></H3>
XBoard is a graphical user interface for chess. It displays a
chessboard on the screen, accepts moves made with the mouse, and loads
and saves games in Portable Game Notation (PGN). XBoard is free software.
It serves as a front-end for many different chess services, including:
<p><strong>Chess engines</strong> that will run on your machine and
play a game against you or help you analyze, such as GNU Chess and
Crafty (topic <A HREF="#[D.3]">[D.3]</A> below).
<p><strong>Chess servers</strong> on the Internet, where you can
connect to play chess with people from all over the world, watch other
users play, or just hang out and chat.
<p><strong>Correspondence chess</strong> played by electronic
mail. The cmail program (topic <A HREF="#[B.6]">[B.6]</A> below)
automates the tasks of parsing email from your opponent, playing his
moves out on your board, and mailing your reply move after you've
chosen it.
<p><strong>The Web</strong> and your own saved games. You can use
XBoard as a helper application to view PGN games in your
Web browser, or to load and save your own PGN files.
<P>XBoard runs under Unix or Unix-compatible systems. It requires the
X Window System, version X11R4 or later. There are also ports of
XBoard to 32-bit Microsoft Windows and to
the Amiga. See topics <A HREF="#[B.2]">[B.2]</A> and <A
HREF="#[B.3]">[B.3]</A> respectively.
<HR>
<H3><A NAME="[B.2]">[B.2] Is there an XBoard for Microsoft Windows? What is WinBoard? How do I install WinBoard?</A></H3>
WinBoard is a port of XBoard to 32-bit Microsoft Windows systems, such
as Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000, ME, and XP. It uses the same back end
chess code as XBoard, but the front end graphics code is a complete
rewrite. WinBoard is free software.
<P>The WinBoard distribution includes a port of GNU Chess to Win32.
The GNU Chess port is distributed in executable form, with instructions for
rebuilding it from the standard GNU Chess sources (available separately). You
should have at least 16 to 24 MB of memory to run GNU Chess with WinBoard.
<P>The WinBoard distribution also includes the ICC timestamp and FICS
timeseal programs (topic <A HREF="#[B.12]">[B.12]</A>).
<P>cmail (topic <A HREF="#[B.6]">[B.6]</A>) has not been ported to
Windows. All the other XBoard functions are included in WinBoard.
The International Email Chess Group web site at <a
href="http://www.iecg.org/" >http://www.iecg.org/</a> recommends
ECTool (<a href="http://www.ectool.nu/" >http://www.ectool.nu/</a>)
for playing correspondence chess under Windows.
<p>You install WinBoard as follows. Download the WinBoard package to
your PC (see topic <A HREF="#[A.2]">[A.2]</A>). It will be a file
with a name like winboard-4_0_0.exe. Double-click on this file
in the Explorer or File Manager to run it. Follow the on-screen
prompts.
<HR>
<H3><A NAME="[B.3]">[B.3] Is there an XBoard for the Amiga? What is AmyBoard?</A></H3>
AmyBoard is a port of XBoard to the Amiga, by Jochen Wiedmann.
The distribution includes a port of GNU Chess.
AmyBoard is free software.
<p>The current version of AmyBoard is 330.5 (based on XBoard 3.3.0).
No one is currently maintaining it.
<P>System requirements:
<UL>
<LI>An Amiga (obviously :-), running OS 2.04 or later, 2Mb RAM or more.</LI>
<LI>MUI 2.0 or later.</LI>
<LI>Workbench or another screen with no less than 640x400 pixels (adjustable
with the MUI-Prefs); this restriction is just because we don't have
bitmaps with less than 40x40 pixels per square. If someone contributes
bitmaps with 20x20 or 20x25, they will work with any Hires mode.</LI>
</UL>
<P>
If you would like to use an ICS, you need an Internet connection via either
<UL>
<LI>a telnet-like program, or</LI>
<LI>a terminal program reading from stdin and writing to stdout.</LI>
</UL>
<P>
AmyBoard is available in the Internet Chess Library (topic <A HREF="#[A.2]">[A.2]</A>).
<HR>
<H3><A NAME="[B.4]">[B.4] Is there an XBoard for the Macintosh?</A></H3>
Because MacOS X has a Unix base, XBoard will compile and run on it.
You do need an X11 (X Window System) server and client libraries.
These do not come with Mac OS, but both free and commercial versions
are available. Once you install the X11 package, XBoard is reported
to compile and run without changes. I am not a Mac user and have not
tried this myself, so I cannot answer questions about it.
Version 4.2.6 and earlier of XBoard come with an old copy of the
config.sub utility that does not recognize Mac OS X, so to build
XBoard, you'll have to tell the configure program what OS you are
running. Follow the instructions in topic <A HREF="#[B.7]">[B.7]</A>
of this FAQ, but add the argument <tt>--host=powerpc-apple-bsd</tt> to
the end of the "configure" command line.
There is no version of XBoard or WinBoard that runs with the native
(non-X11) Mac graphical interface, and none that runs on MacOS 9 or
earlier.
<HR>
<H3><A NAME="[B.5]">[B.5] Does XBoard run on VMS?</A></H3>
No. This port would probably be a lot easier than the Win32 and Amiga
ports were, because VMS has the X Window system (under the name
DECwindows) and is now POSIX compliant. However, I don't know enough
about VMS to do the port myself, and I don't have time. If you do,
give it a try! Send mail to me,
tim<a name="nospam2">@</a>tim-mann.org (Tim Mann), if you're
working on this.
<HR>
<H3><A NAME="[B.6]">[B.6] What is cmail?</A></H3>
cmail is a program that helps you play and keep track of electronic mail
correspondence chess games using XBoard. It is distributed with XBoard and
has its own manual page. cmail is free software. It was written by
Even Welsh. cmail has not been ported to Windows; sorry.
<HR>
<H3><A NAME="[B.7]">[B.7] How do I build XBoard? Do I need gcc?</A></H3>
The first step to building XBoard is to get the distribution file. See topic
<A HREF="#[A.2]">[A.2]</A> for places you can ftp the software from.
<P>Next, decide what directory tree you are going to install XBoard
in. The default is /usr/local, but you probably don't have write
access to that directory unless you are a system administrator. If
you do, type the following to install it there:
<p><PRE>
gzip -cd xboard-*.tar.gz | tar -xvf -
cd xboard-*/
./configure
make
su
make install
</PRE>
If you want to install xboard in your personal home directory ($HOME/bin),
type this:
<p><PRE>
gzip -cd xboard-*.tar.gz | tar -xvf -
cd xboard-*/
./configure --prefix=$HOME
make
make install
</PRE>
<P>If the first step above fails because you don't have gzip, see
topic <A HREF="#[A.2]">[A.2]</A>, and ask a local Unix expert if you
need more help. If you have any problems with the last two steps,
read the READ_ME and INSTALL files in the xboard-*/ directory. You
will also find this FAQ there.
<P>You don't need to have gcc to build XBoard. Almost any Unix C
compiler should do.
<HR>
<H3><A NAME="[B.8]">[B.8] Can I use XBoard or WinBoard to play a game
of chess with another human?</A></H3>
The only way for two humans on different machines to play chess in
real time using XBoard/WinBoard is to use an Internet Chess Server
as an intermediary. That is, each player runs his own copy of XBoard
or WinBoard, both of them log into an ICS, and they play a game there.
Two copies of XBoard/WinBoard cannot communicate with each other
directly.
<P>Instructions on how to get started with Internet chess are included
with the XBoard and WinBoard distributions. The network addresses
included in the distribution may not always be current. The oldest
and largest ICS is the Internet Chess Club at chessclub.com, which now
has a fee for registered use, but still allows free unregistered use.
There are also many newer sites with no fees, using the Free Internet
Chess Server implementation (FICS). The most active FICS site is
freechess.org. On these and most other chess servers,
the port number to use is 5000.
<P>If you don't have network connectivity to any ICS site, you
can run your own server using a version of the FICS code, but this
is not easy. See <a href="http://www.tim-mann.org/ics.html#ownics"
>http://www.tim-mann.org/ics.html#ownics</a> for advice and pointers.
<P>The cmail program included with XBoard lets you play email postal games with
another human; see topic <A HREF="#[B.6]">[B.6]</A>.
<P>Two humans can play chess on the same machine using one copy of
XBoard/WinBoard in
Edit Game mode, but the clocks don't run in this mode, so it's of limited
usefulness.
<P>See also topic <A HREF="#[D.2]">[D.2]</A>, Winsock Chess.
<HR>
<H3><A NAME="[B.9]">[B.9] Will WinBoard run on Windows 3.1?
How about Windows CE (also known as Pocket PC)?
</A></H3>
WinBoard does not run on Windows 3.1, Windows for Workgroups 3.11, etc.,
not even with the Win32s compatibility package. The main problem is
that Win32s does not have threads or real concurrent processes. A
port of WinBoard to Windows 3.1 is possible in theory, but it would be
difficult and messy, and no one is going to do it.
<p>WinBoard does not run on Windows CE (also
known as Pocket PC). I don't know what would be required to port it.
<P>WinBoard does run well on full 32-bit versions of Windows, such as
Windows 95, 98, NT, 2000, ME, and XP, and should continue to work
on future 32-bit Windows systems.
<HR>
<H3><A NAME="[B.10]">[B.10] How do I use XBoard or WinBoard as an external viewer for PGN files
with my Web browser?</A></H3>
1) On Unix systems:
<P>
- Add the following line to the file .mime.types in your home directory.
(Create the file if it doesn't exist already.)
<PRE>
application/x-chess-pgn pgn
</PRE>
<P>
- Add the following line to the file .mailcap in your home directory.
(Create the file if it doesn't exist already.)
<PRE>
application/x-chess-pgn; xboard -ncp -lgf %s
</PRE>
<P>
- Exit from your Web browser and restart it.
<P>2) On MS Windows systems:
<P>The exact procedure depends on which Web browser you are using.
The current version of WinBoard automatically configures itself as
your PGN viewer for local files, Netscape 4.x and later, and Internet
Explorer. This automatic setup probably works for all other current Web
browsers, too.
<HR>
<H3><A NAME="[B.11]">[B.11] How do I use WinBoard as an external viewer
for PGN files with the MS Windows File Manager or Explorer?</A></H3>
WinBoard sets this up automatically when you install it, except on old
versions of Windows NT (prior to 4.0). On Windows NT 3.51 or earlier,
go to the File Manager, click on the File menu, select Associate,
enter "pgn" as the extension, and use the Browse button to find your
copy of WinBoard and set up the association.
<HR>
<H3><A NAME="[B.12]">[B.12] How do I use ICC timestamp or FICS timeseal
with XBoard?</A></H3>
First, get the appropriate version of timestamp or timeseal for your
machine from ftp.chessclub.com or ftp.freechess.org.
Second, be sure that you can connect using XBoard <I>without</I>
timestamp/timeseal. Third, be sure that you can connect using
timestamp/timeseal without XBoard. See the help files on ICC and FICS
or ask people online if you have problems.
<P>If you are in a completely ordinary situation, where your machine
is directly on the Internet and you can connect to ICC or FICS
without timestamp/timeseal using
just the command "xboard -ics" or "xboard -ics -icshost freechess.org",
change that command to one of the following:
<p><PRE>
xboard -ics -icshost 204.178.125.65 -icshelper timestamp
xboard -ics -icshost 164.58.253.13 -icshelper timeseal
</PRE>
<p>If you have a firewall between your machine and the ICS, see topic
<A HREF="#[B.19]">[B.19]</A>.
<P>If you normally have to use the "/icscomm" command line option on
xboard to log into a second machine, and then telnet to ICC or FICS
from there, you are going to have to run the Unix version of timestamp
or timeseal on the second machine. (If the second machine is not
running Unix, you are out of luck.) Get the appropriate version of
timestamp or timeseal onto the shell machine via FTP; see the help
files on ICC and FICS for instructions. Then simply run it when you
would normally run telnet. In this configuration you are not
protected against lag between your PC and the shell machine, or for
lag caused by heavy load on the shell machine itself from other users.
<P>For further information on timestamp and timeseal, see the help
files on ICC and FICS.
<HR>
<H3><A NAME="[B.13]">[B.13] How do I use ICC timestamp or FICS timeseal
with WinBoard?</A></H3>
<P>If you select an ICS from either the WinBoard Startup dialog or the
Windows Start submenu that WinBoard installs, WinBoard automatically
runs timestamp or timeseal if the ICS you chose is known to support it.
<P>If you are constructing a WinBoard command line by hand, add the
option "/icshelper timestamp" or "/icshelper timeseal" to the WinBoard
command line to use timestamp or timeseal. Both timestamp.exe and
timeseal.exe are included in the WinBoard distribution. They both
function identically to the Unix versions, as documented in "help
timestamp" on ICC and "help timeseal" on FICS.
<p>If you have a firewall between your machine and the ICS, see topic
<A HREF="#[B.19]">[B.19]</A>.
<P>If you normally have to use the "/icscomm" command line option on
WinBoard to log into a shell account, and then telnet to ICC or FICS
from there, you are going to have to run the Unix version of timestamp
or timeseal on the shell machine. (If the shell account is not on a
Unix machine, you are out of luck.) Get the appropriate version of
timestamp or timeseal onto the shell machine via FTP; see the help
files on ICC and FICS for instructions. Then simply run it when you
would normally run telnet. In this configuration you are not protected
against lag between your PC and the shell machine, or for lag caused by
heavy load on the shell machine itself from other users.
<P>For further information on timestamp and timeseal, see the help
files on ICC and FICS.
<HR>
<H3><A NAME="[B.14]">[B.14] How do I play bughouse with XBoard or WinBoard?
</A></H3>
XBoard and WinBoard have simple but effective bughouse support.
Offboard piece holdings are shown in the board window's banner, and
you drop offboard pieces using the right mouse button. Press it over
the destination square to pop up a menu of pieces.
<P>XBoard and WinBoard can display only one board at a time, but you
can observe your partner's game by running a second copy of the
program and logging in as a guest. (Unfortunately, this is not
possible if you are using the /icscomm option.) To observe your
partner's games automatically, use the "follow" or "pfollow" ICS
command; see the ICS online help for details.
<HR>
<h3><a name="[B.16]">[B.16] What is Zippy? How can I interface a
chess program to the Internet Chess Servers?</a></h3>
Zippy is an interface that lets a compatible chess engine (such as GNU
Chess or Crafty) act as a computer
player on an Internet Chess Server. Zippy is included in both the
XBoard and WinBoard distributions. It is implemented as a small
amount of additional code within XBoard or WinBoard.
For documentation, see the file
zippy.README, included in both distributions or available
from my chess Web page,
<A HREF=
"http://www.tim-mann.org/chess.html"
>http://www.tim-mann/chess.html</A>.
The version of zippy.README on my Web page is often more up-to-date
than those in the XBoard/WinBoard distributions.
You'll also find a "biography" of Zippy and pointers to the original
Zippy the Pinhead comic strips on my Web page.
Please read zippy.README carefully before you ask me any questions about Zippy.
<p>Using a computer to choose your moves on a chess server is
considered cheating unless your account is on the computer (C) list.
Read "help computer" on your favorite server for details on their
policy. Most of the servers have plenty of computers running now, so they
will not be excited about having you run a new one unless you have
written your own chess engine. They don't really need yet another
Crafty or GNU Chess clone.
<HR>
<h3><a name="[B.17]">[B.17] How can I interface my own chess program
to XBoard or WinBoard?</a></h3>
This is a non-trivial task. XBoard and WinBoard were not designed
with a clean interface for talking to chess programs; they were
written to work with an existing version of GNU Chess that expects to
be talking to a person. Your program has to emulate GNU Chess's
rather idiosyncratic command structure to work with XBoard and
WinBoard. We are gradually cleaning up, improving, and documenting
the interface as newer versions of XBoard and WinBoard come out,
however.
<p>For documentation, see the file engine-intf.html, included in both
distributions or available from my chess Web page, <A HREF=
"http://www.tim-mann.org/chess.html"
>http://www.tim-mann.org/chess.html</A>.
The version of engine-intf.html on my Web page is often more up-to-date
than those in the XBoard/WinBoard distributions.
<HR>
<h3><a name="[B.18]">[B.18] How can I recompile WinBoard from source?</a></h3>
The source code for WinBoard is available from the author's Web page,
<A HREF=
"http://www.tim-mann.org/chess.html"
>http://www.tim-mann.org/chess.html</A>.
<p>WinBoard is currently developed using Microsoft Visual C++ 5.0.
You can build the program from the MSVC++ GUI by opening the project
file (winboard.dsp) and telling MSVC++ to build the project. You can
also build it from the the command line by using the nmake program
supplied with MSVC++.
<p>To build WinBoard with the free Cygwin tools, available from <a
href= "http://www.cygwin.com/" >http://www.cygwin.com/</a>), use the
command "make -f cygwin.mak". WinBoard 4.2.5 was successfully
compiled with the net release of Cygwin as downloaded on 20-March-2001
(cygwin1.dll 1.1.8, gcc 2.95.2-6, binutils 20001221-1, flex 2.5.4-1),
but exhibits a command-line parsing bug; see item 511 in the ToDo file
that comes with WinBoard. WinBoard 4.1.0 does not compile with
Cygwin. WinBoard 4.0.7 is known to compile with Cygwin BL20.1.
<p>To build WinBoard with Borland C++ 4.5, use "borland.mak", supplied
with the WinBoard sources, as the Makefile. Support for Borland C++
was contributed by Don Fong and has not been tested by the author of WinBoard.
<p>WinBoard is a Win32 application, so you definitely need a compiler
and tool set that supports Win32. In particular, older versions of
DJGPP can build only 32-bit MSDOS programs; that is, programs that use
a DOS extender to get a 32-bit address space and do not make any
Windows calls. The latest versions of DJGPP are said to be able to
build Win32 programs when used with the proper extension package(s),
but this is not known to work with WinBoard. Use Cygwin instead.
<p>See also topic <A HREF="#[C.16]">[C.16]</A>.
<HR>
<H3><A NAME="[B.19]">[B.19]
How can I use XBoard or WinBoard to talk
to an Internet Chess Server through a firewall or proxy?
</A></H3>
<p>There is no single answer to this question, because there are many
different kinds of firewalls in use. They work in various different
ways and have various different security policies. This answer can
only provide hints.
<p>Note that you can't access Internet Chess Servers through a Web proxy,
because they are not a Web service. You talk to them through a raw
TCP connection, not an HTTP connection. If you can only access the
Web through a proxy, there may be a firewall that stops you from
making direct TCP connections, but there may also be a way through it.
Read on for hints, and contact your local system administrator if you
need more information about your local configuration.
<p>A helpful user mailed me the following explanation of how to use
WinBoard with WinGate:
<blockquote>
"I have managed to setup WinBoard though my WinGate proxy. I have the
Office version. What I needed to do was to setup the TCP/IP
connection to add the User/Host name and my provider service name for
the DNS, but I had to leave the HOST IP address blank. I have not
played with all the variations, so it may be just that I have the DNS
lookup enabled."
</blockquote>
I hope this helps, though I don't find it very clear. I don't have
a copy of WinGate myself and can't help if you have questions about it.
<p>If you are using some other non-SOCKS firewall, read the FIREWALLS section
in your XBoard or WinBoard documentation (man page, info document, or
Help file). If you can telnet to a chess server in some way, then you
can almost certainly connect to it with xboard/WinBoard, though in
some cases you may not be able to run timestamp or timeseal. The
timestamp and timeseal protocols require a clean, 8-bit wide TCP
connection from your machine to the ICS, which some firewalls do not
provide.
<p>If you have a SOCKS firewall and are using <strong>XBoard</strong>,
you should be able to SOCKSify xboard and use it. See <a
href="http://www.socks.nec.com/">http://www.socks.nec.com/</a> for
information about SOCKS and socksification. However, if you do this,
you can't use timestamp or timeseal; what you really need is a
socksified version of timestamp or timeseal. This is hard because the
source code for timestamp and timeseal is proprietary; the folks
running the chess servers don't give it out because that would make it
too easy to cheat. On some versions of Unix, you may be able to
socksify a program that you don't have the source code to by running
it with an appropriate dynamic library; see <a
href="http://www.socks.nec.com/">http://www.socks.nec.com/</a>. For
others, you might be able to get a pre-built socksified version from
the chess server administrators. For timeseal versions, see <a
href="ftp://ftp.freechess.org/pub/chess/timeseal/"
>ftp://ftp.freechess.org/pub/chess/timeseal/</a>. For timestamp
versions, the directory would be <a
href="ftp://ftp.chessclub.com/pub/icc/timestamp/"
>ftp://ftp.chessclub.com/pub/icc/timestamp/</a>, but at this writing
there don't seem to be any socksified timestamps there. Once you have
a socksified timestamp or timeseal, simply run it with a normal,
non-socksified xboard in place of the standard timestamp or timeseal.
<p>If you have a SOCKS firewall and you are using
<strong>WinBoard</strong>, we now know how to make this configuration
work, complete with timestamp or timeseal!
<p>Start by getting SocksCap32. This software is freely available
from <a href="http://www.socks.nec.com/">http://www.socks.nec.com/</a>.
Install it on your machine, read the documentation, and learn to use
it. You may find it useful with many other programs besides WinBoard.
<p>Next, <strong>don't</strong> socksify WinBoard. Socksifying
WinBoard itself doesn't let you use it with timestamp or timeseal.
For some reason I don't understand -- something strange that
SocksCap32 does -- the socksified WinBoard runs but does nothing, and
timestamp/timeseal runs all by itself in its own window.
<p>Instead, use the following workaround. Follow the instructions
exactly; don't try to skip steps or simplify things.
<p>First, make SocksCap32 application profiles for timestamp and
timeseal. Use the following command lines in the SocksCap32
profiles. Name the first profile "timestamp" and the second
"timeseal".
<p><pre>
"c:\program files\winboard\timestamp.exe" chessclub.com 5000 -p 5000
"c:\program files\winboard\timeseal.exe" freechess.org 5000 -p 5000
</pre>
<p>Second, run timestamp or timeseal by itself, socksified, using its
profile. This will open an unneeded, black window that will not
respond to typing. Minimize it to the task bar and ignore it. It will
go away when you exit from WinBoard.
<p>Next, run WinBoard using the following command line. Make a shortcut
or type this command into an MS-DOS Prompt box. Don't run WinBoard
itself socksified, just run it directly.
<p><pre>
"c:\program files\winboard.exe" /ics /icshost=localhost /icsport=5000
</pre>
<p>After you get this working, you can try getting the timestamp window to
auto-minimize by starting it from a shortcut instead of from the
SocksCap32 control window. As it says in the SocksCap32 help file, put
the following in the Target field of a shortcut's Properties page:
<p><pre>
"c:\program files\sockscap32\sc32.exe" timestamp
</pre>
Then select "Run: Minimized" on the same page. Do the same for timeseal.
<p>Another method that can work is to use a .bat file to start both
timestamp and WinBoard. It would look something like this:
<p><pre>
REM --
REM -- icc.bat
REM -- Start timestamp under SocksCap32 and use WinBoard to connect to it.
REM -- The string "timestamp" refers to a SocksCap32 profile for timestamp.
REM -- Do not change it to the filename of the timestamp program!
REM --
start /minimized "c:\program files\sockscap32\sc32.exe" timestamp
cd "c:\program files\winboard"
winboard /ics /icshost=localhost /icsport=5000
</pre>
<p>This workaround has a problem if you want to run two copies of
WinBoard at once, talking to the same chess server twice (for
bughouse) or to two different chess servers. If you need to do that,
you will need to run a separate copy of timestamp with <i>a different
port number</i> for each connection. You'll need to make a second set of
profile entries with a different value after the -p flag (say, 5001)
and you'll need to change the WinBoard command line /icsport=5000 for
the second WinBoard to match.
<HR>
<H3><A NAME="[B.20]">[B.20]
How can I use XBoard or WinBoard on chess.net with accuclock?
</A></H3>
<p>I believe chess.net provides a Win32 command-line version of
accuclock that will work with WinBoard. Please see the documentation
on the chess.net server itself; don't ask the author of WinBoard.
<p>I don't know whether chess.net provides versions of accuclock for
Unix at this time. Ask them.
<hr>
<h3><a name="[B.21]">[B.21]
Can I get Zippy to do one or more ICS commands automatically at the
start or end of each game?</a></h3>
<p>By default, Zippy automatically sends the command "gameend" to ICS
at the end of each game. You can alias this command (using the ICS
"alias" feature) to anything you want. On ICC, you can use the
"multi" feature to alias gameend to several commands, but other
servers don't have that feature. Zippy doesn't send anything at the
start of the game by default.
<p>You can get Zippy to send one or more commands of your choosing, at
the start and/or end of each game, by using the -zippyGameStart and
-zippyGameEnd command line options, newly added in version 4.0.3.
Both xboard and WinBoard have (somewhat obscure) ways of getting
newlines into this option to send several commands. Here is an
example of one way to do it for each.
<p><pre>
xboard -ics -zp -xrm '*zippyGameStart: say hi\nsay prepare to die\n'
WinBoard /ics /zp /zippyGameEnd='say thanks\nseek 5 0\nseek 2 12\n'
</pre>
<hr>
<h3><a name="[B.22]">[B.22]
How do I print from WinBoard?
</a></h3>
WinBoard does not have built-in printing functionality.
If you want to print a picture of the board, press Alt+PrintScrn, run the
standard Windows application Paintbrush, select Paste, and print from there.
If you want to print a list of moves, save your game as a PGN file,
then open the PGN file with Notepad or any other plain text editor and
print it from there.
<hr>
<h3><a name="[B.23]">[B.23]
Can I get Zippy to automatically reconnect to ICS when its connection
breaks?</a></h3>
<p>There isn't a perfect solution to this problem yet, but a pretty
good one is to write a shell script (for xboard) or .bat script (for
WinBoard) that automatically restarts the program whenever it exits.
Use the -xexit flag so that you don't get a popup dialog that must be
dismissed with the OK button before the program will exit. The gap in
this solution is that your connection to ICS can sometimes get into a
state where the program does not notice that the connection is broken
until the next time it tries to send a command. Perhaps some future
version of xboard/WinBoard will have an option to send a harmless
command every five minutes or so.
<p>Anyway, here is a sample Windows .bat file that restarts WinBoard each
time it exits. Thanks to Jason Williamson. It assumes that you have put
your computer account's name and password in a file named logon.ini.
<pre>
REM --
REM -- wbrecon.bat
REM -- Start WinBoard in Zippy mode, and restart it each time it exits.
REM -- Add or change parameters as needed for your application.
REM --
:loop
start /w winboard /zp /ics /icslogon logon.ini /xexit /xautoraise
REM -- The next line is to have a short delay setup for 139 seconds.
REM -- Leave it out if it doesn't work on the version of Windows you use.
TYPE NUL | CHOICE.COM /N /CY /TY,99 >NUL
goto loop
</pre>
<p>Here is a Unix shell script to do the same thing for xboard.
It's a bit more elaborate. It is based on the script I use for the
original Zippy. It logs all ICS output to a file named zippy.out,
and it lets you type commands to Zippy by running "cat > zippy.fifo".
<pre>
#! /bin/sh
host="204.178.125.65 -icsport 5000 -telnet -telnetProgram timestamp"
#host="164.58.253.13 -icsport 5000 -telnet -telnetProgram timeseal"
out=zippy.out
fifo=zippy.fifo
ZIPPYPASSWORD='something'
export ZIPPYPASSWORD
ZIPPYPASSWORD2='orother'
export ZIPPYPASSWORD2
ZIPPYLINES=`pwd`/all.lines
export ZIPPYLINES
ZIPPYGAMEEND='say Yow, that was FUN!
gameend'
export ZIPPYGAMEEND
zippylogon=`pwd`/logon.ini
DISPLAY=`hostname`:0.0
export DISPLAY
mv -f $out ${out}.old
rm -f $fifo
mkfifo $fifo
pid=$$
( while [ true ] ; do cat -u $fifo ; done ) | \
( while [ true ] ; do
xboard -iconic -ics -icshost $host \
-zt -zp -xbell -xanimate \
-xautosave -xquiet -fcp "gnuchessx -h" \
-icslogon $zippylogon -xexit -autoflag -xautoraise $*
sleep 600
done ) > $out 2>&1 &
</pre>
<hr>
<h3><a name="[B.24]">[B.24]
The chess engines are too strong and always beat me. How can I adjust
the difficulty level to make them weaker?</a></h3>
<p>The simplest way to get that effect is to make sure the
XBoard/WinBoard Auto Flag option is off, set a very fast time control
so that the chess engine can't think for long, but take as much time
over your own moves as you want. Also feel free to use Retract Move if
you make a blunder.
<p>Many chess coaches will let you switch sides after
they get a stronger position so that you can get experience playing
positions where you are winning. You can try this with XBoard/WinBoard
by using the Machine White or Machine Black menu command to make the
machine take over your position.
<p>The -depth command-line option to XBoard/WinBoard can also be used to
weaken the engine (see the man page or Help file). It's a bit of a
nuisance to set command line options in Windows, but see topic <A
HREF="#[C.7]">[C.7]</A> for instructions.
<p>Other ways of weakening engines are engine-specific. Many of them
let you adjust various parameters, and if you choose bad settings, the
engine will play more poorly. Consult whatever documentation came with
the engine you are using.
<hr>
<h3><a name="[B.25]">[B.25]
May I use the piece bitmaps from XBoard/WinBoard in my own program?</a></h3>
<p>The piece bitmaps used in XBoard and WinBoard were designed by
Elmar Bartel. He released them under the <a
href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GNU General Public
License</a>. This means that if your program is also free software
distributed under the GPL, you can use them freely. If your program
is distributed under some other license, including commercial,
shareware, or non-GPL freeware, then you cannot use the bitmaps unless
you obtain special permission from Elmar. See the file README.bitmaps
that comes with the XBoard and WinBoard source code for more
information and an email address you can write to.
<HR><H2><A NAME="[C]">[C] XBoard and WinBoard, bugs and problems</A></H2>
<HR><H3><A NAME="[C.1]">[C.1] I can't build XBoard
because the X11/Xaw/... include files are not found.</A></H3>
These are the header files for the Athena Widgets library, which XBoard uses
heavily. Some versions of Unix don't supply these files, but they are part of
the standard X distribution, freely available from MIT.
<P>For general information on getting missing X sources, see the FAQ on
comp.windows.x. Note that you may be missing only the header files, or you
may be missing the libraries themselves too.
<P>HP-UX users are missing only the header files. You can get them by
anonymous FTP as follows. (But first check with your system
administrator to see if someone else at your site has already done
this.) Get the archive file /hpux9/X11R5/Core/Xaw-5.00.tar.gz (Xaw
header files) via anonymous FTP from the site hpux.csc.liv.ac.uk
(138.253.42.172), or one of the other official sites---Germany:
hpux.ask.uni-karlsruhe.de (129.13.200.57), US: hpux.cae.wisc.edu
(144.92.4.15), France: hpux.cict.fr (192.70.79.53) or Netherlands:
hpux.ced.tudelft.nl (130.161.140.100). Unpack the archive using gzip
and follow the instructions in its README and/or HPUX.Install files.
Thanks to Richard Lloyd for this information.
<P>If you have the Xaw header files installed in a different place
than the other X11 headers, you may need to configure XBoard with an
extra flag to help it find them. For example, if yours are in
/foo/bar/X11/Xaw, try this:
<p><PRE>
rm config.cache
(setenv CFLAGS -I/foo/bar ; configure)
</PRE>
<P>
Also see topic <A HREF="#[C.2]">[C.2]</A>.
<HR>
<H3><A NAME="[C.2]">[C.2] Configuring or building XBoard fails due to
missing header files, missing libraries, or undefined symbols.
</A></H3>
Perhaps you have the X server and client programs installed on your
machine, but not the X header files and link-time libraries. If so,
you can run existing X programs, but you cannot compile a new X
program from source code. In this case the XBoard configure script
will fail and will tell you to look at this question in the FAQ. Many
GNU/Linux distributions put the headers and libraries in a separate
package, which you might not have installed. If you are using RedHat,
install the XFree86-devel package. If you are using some other
kind of Unix, ask your system administrator where to find the X header
files and link-time libraries. If this is not your problem, read on.
<p>The configure script for XBoard looks for X libraries and header
files in some common places. Sometimes it fails: If yours are
installed in an odd place, it may not find them at all. If you have
more than one version of X installed on your system, it may find the
"wrong" one, or occasionally it may find libraries from one version
and incompatible header files from another. You can work around these
problems by telling the configure script where the files are. For
example:
<p><PRE>
configure --x-includes=/odd/place/include \
--x-libraries=/odd/place/lib
</PRE>
<P>The directory named in the argument to --x-includes must have a
subdirectory "X11" that contains the actual .h files. That is, if
your X.h file has full pathname /odd/place/X11R6/include/X11/X.h, then
you must give the argument --x-includes=/odd/place/X11R6/include.
<P>Some linkers have bugs that cause bogus error messages when you try
to link X programs. The configure script includes a workaround for a
bug of this kind that exists in some SunOS 4.x.x installations. See
the FAQ on comp.windows.x for more information about problems of this
kind.
<P>If all else fails, check whether anyone else at your site has been able to
compile any X programs on your system. Your X installation might be buggy.
If so, the system administrator at your site might know how to fix or work
around the problem.
<P>Also see topic <A HREF="#[C.1]">[C.1]</A>.
<HR><H3><A NAME="[C.3]">[C.3] I have problems using WinBoard on ICS
with a modem. I'm not running SLIP or PPP, but just dialing in to an
ordinary login account ("shell account").</A></H3>
Here are solutions to some common problems in this area.
<P>Some people want to connect to ICS through HyperTerminal or some other
terminal program first, then run WinBoard. This is not how it works.
WinBoard wants to talk directly with your modem, acting as a terminal program
itself. Start out with the modem "on hook" (not making a call).
<P>Run WinBoard with a command line like this (adding more options if desired):
<p><PRE>
WinBoard /ics /icscom com1
</PRE>
Use com2, com3, or com4 in place of com1 if your modem is connected to one of
those ports.
<P>After you start WinBoard, you may need to change some of the options in the
Communications dialog (on the Options menu). The dialog has the usual options
for talking to modems: bits per second, bits per byte, parity, number of stop
bits. You will probably want to use Save Settings Now when you're done.
<P>Next, type dialing commands to your modem in the text window that WinBoard
creates. You may need to turn off Local Line Editing on the Options menu
while you are typing commands to your modem. Turn it back on when you're
done. See the WinBoard Help file for instructions if you see your typing
echoed an extra time after you hit Enter.
<HR>
<H3><A NAME="[C.4]">[C.4]
I have problems using WinBoard on ICS with Windows 95 and SLIP
or PPP. When trying to start up, it gets the error "Address family
not supported by protocol family" (or some equally strange message).
</A></H3>
WinBoard is a 32-bit application, but some Winsock (TCP/IP) implementations
support only 16-bit applications. You get a strange looking error message
if you try to use a 32-bit application because
there is no standard Winsock error code number
for "32-bit application not supported."
<P>Microsoft TCP/IP works with both 16-bit and
32-bit applications, supports SLIP, PPP, Ethernet, etc., and is included
with Windows 95 and later Windows systems.
If possible, I recommend that you uninstall
whatever Winsock you are using and install Microsoft TCP/IP instead.
For more information, see
<A HREF=
"http://walden.mo.net/~rymabry/95winfaq.html"
>http://walden.mo.net/~rymabry/95winfaq.html (the Win95-L FAQ)</A>.
<P>Trumpet Winsock 2.1 (and earlier) supports only 16-bit
applications, and hence does not work with WinBoard. But there is a
beta-test release available that does support 32-bit applications.
I have not tried it with WinBoard, but it
should work. See Trumpet's Web page
<A HREF=
"http://www.trumpet.com.au/wsk/winsock.htm"
>http://www.trumpet.com.au/wsk/winsock.htm</A>
for more information.
<P>The 16-bit versions of America On-Line's software do not support
32-bit Winsock applications. Get the 32-bit version. At one time the
32-bit version was called "AOL for Windows 95," but I imagine that has
changed. Hopefully the current versions are all 32-bit.
<P>A few versions of Winsock may have bugs that prevent
Windows timestamp/timeseal from working with them. I'm not sure if
such bugs exist in any versions that actually have 32-bit support,
so this point might be moot. Again, Microsoft TCP/IP is known to work.
<HR><H3><A NAME="[C.5]">[C.5] When I try to run WinBoard, I get the
message "Failed to start chess program gnuchess on localhost: NO
LANGFILE (file gnuchess.lan not found)".</A></H3>
<p>This message means that WinBoard is trying to run GNU Chess, but
GNU Chess cannot find a file that it needs, named gnuchess.lan.
If you see it, you've probably customized WinBoard's /fcp, /fd, /scp,
and/or /sd options and made a mistake in the process. Review what
you did, and see the WinBoard help file.
<HR>
<H3><A NAME="[C.6]">[C.6] I want to use XBoard or WinBoard as an Internet
Chess Server interface, but the ICS Client option is grayed out on the
menu.</A></H3>
XBoard and WinBoard have three major modes that can't be changed from the
menus: local chess engine mode,
ICS mode, and standalone mode.
<p>With XBoard, you have to set the mode using command-line options.
Local chess engine mode is the default, -ics selects ICS mode, and
-ncp ("no chess program") selects standalone mode.
<p>With WinBoard, if you don't set the mode using command-line
options, you get a dialog box asking which mode you want. To bypass
the dialog box, use -cp ("chess program") for local chess engine mode,
or -ics or -ncp as with XBoard. Also see topic <A HREF="#[C.7]">[C.7]</A>.
<HR>
<H3><A NAME="[C.7]">[C.7] How do I give command-line options to
a Windows program like WinBoard?</A></H3>
<P>There are many ways; pick your favorite:
<P><UL>
<LI>Type the command line into an MS-DOS Prompt box. Example:
"WinBoard -ics".
<LI>Make a Windows shortcut for WinBoard. You can do this by
right-dragging WinBoard.exe to the desktop and selecting "Create
Shortcut(s) Here" from the menu that appears. Right-click on the
shortcut, select Properties, and click the Shortcut tab. The
command-line text box is labelled "Target" instead of "Command line"
just to confuse you. Edit the text in this box, adding the command
line options to the end.</LI>
<LI>Choose Run from the Start menu, or File / Run from the Program
Manager or File Manager, and type the command line into the dialog you
get. You may have to give WinBoard's full drivespec and filename if
it is not in a directory on your search path.</LI>
<LI>Make a Program Manager icon for WinBoard. You can do this by
dragging WinBoard.exe from the File Manager into the Program Manager,
or by using File / New in the Program Manager. Select the icon and
choose File / Properties. Edit the Command Line text box to add the
command-line options to the end.</LI>
</UL>
<HR>
<H3><A NAME="[C.9]">[C.9]
When I exit from WinBoard after using it to play against a chess
program on my machine, the chess program keeps running in the background.
</A></H3>
<p>Be sure you have the current versions of WinBoard and the chess
engine you are using. WinBoard 3.4.1 and earlier had a bug that
caused this problem to occur with all chess engines. A buggy chess
engine that does not respond to the "quit" command will also cause
this.
<p>If you still see this problem, you can stop the rogue chess engine
by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del, selecting the chess engine process from the
menu, and pressing the End Task button.
<hr>
<h3><a name="[C.12]">[C.12]
Why do my ICS
opponents often get extra time after they make their moves?
Why do I sometimes lose time off my clock after I make my move?
</a></h3>
If you are playing with the ICS incremental clock, both you and your
opponent get a set amount of extra time after each move.
<p>If your or your opponent has netlag, your opponent might appear to
get extra time, especially if your opponent is using timestamp or
timeseal. The ICS charges each player who is using timestamp or
timeseal only for the time between when the player received his
opponent's move and the time he sent his own move. Thus delays in
network transmission do not count against either player. But WinBoard
counts down the display of your opponent's clock on your screen under
the assumption that there is no netlag. When his move comes in, if
there was netlag, the ICS may not have really charged him for that
much time, and WinBoard corrects the clock to what the ICS says it
should read.
<p>If you are not using timestamp or timeseal, you may appear to lose
time off your clock at some point after you make your move. In this
case, the ICS charges you for the time between when it sent you your
opponent's move and the time it received your move. Thus delays in
network transmission count against you. WinBoard stops counting down
the display of your clock on your screen (and starts your opponent's)
when you make your move. When the ICS echoes your move back to you, it
may have charged you for more time than that, and WinBoard corrects
the clocks to what the ICS says they should read.
<p>See "help lag" and "help timestamp" or "help timeseal" on your ICS for
more detailed information.
<hr>
<h3><a name="[C.13]">[C.13]
I can't run WinBoard unless I delete the WinBoard.ini file each time!
</a></h3>
<p>Most people don't have this problem, but two or three people using
Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 3 or 4 have reported it. I have no
idea what causes this problem. Contrary to what was reported in a
previous version of this FAQ, reinstalling the service pack after
installing WinBoard does not seem to solve the problem.
<hr>
<h3><a name="[C.15]">[C.15]
I get errors compiling XBoard's parser.c.
</a></h3>
<p>The file parser.c is automatically generated from parser.l. The
copy included with XBoard 4.0.2 was generated by lex on Tru64 Unix and
has problems compiling and linking on current GNU/Linux versions. The
copy included with XBoard 4.0.3 was generated by flex on a GNU/Linux
machine, but it too won't necessarily work on other versions of Unix.
If you have this problem, you can fix it by deleting parser.c and
letting the Makefile re-create it from parser.l. This will work if
you have either lex or flex on your system. Flex is available in all
GNU/Linux distributions and can be obtained at no charge from the Free
Software Foundation, www.fsf.org.
<hr>
<h3><a name="[C.16]">[C.16]
I get an error building WinBoard from source because "flex" is not found.
</a></h3>
<p>The file parser.c is automatically generated from parser.l. The
Makefile included with the WinBoard source kit has a rule for
generating parser.c using the program "flex", which will fail if you
don't have flex. However, the source kit also includes a ready-made
copy of parser.c, so you don't really need flex unless you have made
changes to parser.l. Check that you still have a copy of parser.c; if
you don't, unpack the WinBoard source zip file again to get one.
Either set the last-modified time of parser.c to be later than that of
parser.l, delete parser.l, or comment out the Makefile rule for
building parser.c from parser.l, and then try building WinBoard again.
<p>If you do want to change parser.l and rebuild parser.c, you can get
flex as part of the free Cygwin kit from
<a href="http://sourceware.cygnus.com/cygwin/"
>http://sourceware.cygnus.com/cygwin/</a>. You can
probably also get flex for Windows by itself from various other places
around the Internet. It is free software distributed by the Free
Software Foundation, www.fsf.org.
<hr>
<h3><a name="[C.17]">[C.17]
XBoard hangs shortly after connecting to an ICS when used with dxterm,
cmdtool, dtterm, kterm, konsole, or other substitutes for xterm.
</a></h3>
<p>After connecting to a chess server, XBoard 4.0.2 and later sends an
escape sequence to its terminal that is meant to display your handle
and the ICS host name (for example, "user@chessclub.com") in the
terminal's banner and icon. It seems that several of the alternative
X terminal programs have a bug that makes them hang when sent this
escape sequence.
<p>You can work
around the problem by using xterm, nxterm, rxvt, aterm, xiterm, or
gnome-terminal, all of which seem to work fine. In fact, current
versions of kterm and konsole seem to work fine too, so if you are
having problems with one of them, be sure you are not running an
outdated version.
<p>Alternatively, you can disable this feature by commenting out the
body of DisplayIcsInteractionTitle in xboard.c and recompling xboard.
<hr>
<h3><a name="[C.18]">[C.18]
The WinBoard pieces show up in the wrong colors, appear distorted,
or are not visible at all.
</a></h3>
<p>This can happen if you have a bug in your Windows display driver.
Check with the manufacturer of your display card, the manufacturer of
your computer, or Microsoft to see if there is an updated driver
available. You can usually download updated drivers from the Web.
<p>If you can't find an updated driver, you can try running Windows
using a different number of colors and/or disabling some of the
hardware acceleration features on your display card. To change the
number of colors, go to Windows Start / Settings / Control Panel /
Display / Settings / Color Palette. To disable hardware acceleration
features, go to Windows Start / Settings / Control Panel / Display /
Settings / Advanced Properties / Performance / Hardware Acceleration.
<p>It's also possible that Windows has the right driver for your
hardware already but you are not using it. It may help to reinstall
your driver. Go to Windows Start / Settings / Control Panel / System
and delete your display card (maybe even your monitor too), then
reboot. Windows should automatically re-detect your card and monitor
and re-install the drivers; if it doesn't, run Start / Settings /
Control Panel / Add New Hardware to force it to.
<p>If all else fails, try Monochrome mode. On WinBoard's menus, go
to Options / Color and check Monochrome. WinBoard will display in black
and white.
<HR>
<H3><A NAME="[C.19]">[C.19] XBoard or WinBoard tells me "Error: first chess
program (...) exited unexpectedly".</A></H3>
<p>This message means that your chess engine crashed, probably due to
a bug in the engine, or because you have it configured incorrectly.
You can try running XBoard or WinBoard again with the "-debug" flag on
the command line. This will print out all the messages received from
the chess engine. (With WinBoard, the messages go into a file called
WinBoard.debug; with XBoard, they go to the xterm that you started
XBoard from.)
<P>If you are using GNU Chess and you see this problem as soon as it
starts up, most likely GNU Chess is exiting with an error message. If
you see the message "NO LANGFILE", it means that you did not install
GNU Chess correctly, and it is unable to find the file gnuchess.lang.
Make sure that you defined LIBDIR in the gnuchess Makefile, and that
gnuchess.lang is in that directory. If gnuchess.lang is not there,
you probably didn't type "make install" in the gnuchess src directory;
you must do this to install gnuchess.lang (and the gnuchess book). If
you defined LIBDIR to something that is not an absolute pathname (that
is, to something that does not start with a "/"), GNU Chess will work
only if you run it from the GNU Chess "src" directory where you built
it.
<hr><h3><a name="[C.20]">[C.20]
XBoard tells me "Warning: Cannot allocate colormap entry", or
"too few colors available; trying monochrome mode", or
"XPM pieces cannot be used in monochrome mode".
</a></h3>
<p>You are running your X server with 8-bit color depth, and you are running
some program that has used up all 256 of your colors. Netscape tends
to do this, or maybe you have a background image that uses up all of
your colors.
<p>If you have a modern machine, you probably have enough display
memory to run your X server with 16-, 24-, or 32-bit color depth. If
you're using "startx" to start the X server, try giving the command as
"<tt>startx -- -bpp 24</tt>" (or 16, or 32). On newer X servers you
may have to use -depth instead of -bpp. Further details on
configuring your X server are beyond the scope of this FAQ.
<p>If you must run in 8-bit mode, try the following:
Avoid background images that use up all your colors. If you
run Netscape, try starting it up with the <tt>-install</tt> command-line
option; this gives Netscape its own private colormap that X will
switch to when Netscape has the keyboard focus.
<P>If all else fails, another possibility is to run xboard in
monochrome (black and white) mode by giving it the <tt>-mono</tt>
command-line option. XBoard will try this by itself in some cases.
Monochrome mode works only with bitmap pieces, not pixmap pieces, so
trying to use it may give you the error "XPM pieces cannot be used in
monochrome mode". To get around this, either use the -bitmapDirectory
command line option to point XBoard to the directory containing the
bitmap pieces included with the XBoard source code, or rebuild XBoard
with pixmap support disabled, using "./configure --disable-xpm ; make
clean ; make".
<hr><h3><a name="[C.21]">[C.21]
When I log in to freechess.org, the Enter key doesn't work, and I
have to use Ctrl+J instead. But when I use WinBoard, Ctrl+J doesn't
work either, so I'm stuck.
</a></h3>
<p>This is a pretty rare problem. It should only arise if you have to
reach freechess.org by telnetting (or connecting with WinBoard
/icsport=23) from a Windows PC to a Unix box, and then telnetting from
there to freechess.org. The Enter key should always work when
connecting directly from your PC to freechess.org.
<p>The best way to get around the problem is to run timeseal on the
intermediate Unix box instead of telnet. Get the appropriate version
of timeseal for your box from ftp.freechess.org and follow the
directions in the help files on FICS.
<p>If you can't run timeseal for some reason, there are some things
you can do to make telnet stay in line mode instead of going to
character mode. Then the Enter key will work. First, try "telnet
freechess.org 5000" instead of "telnet freechess.org."
If that still doesn't work, then when the Enter key stops working,
type the following. Here <tt><</tt> and <tt>></tt> surround the
names of keys.
<p><pre>
<Ctrl+S><Ctrl+]>mode line<Enter>
</pre>
<hr><h3><a name="[C.22]">[C.22]
XBoard says, "Failed to start first chess program gnuchessx
on localhost: gnuchessx: No such file or directory."
</a></h3>
<p>XBoard is looking for GNU Chess 4.0. If you didn't want to use
XBoard with GNU Chess, please see topic <A HREF="#[C.6]">[C.6]</A>.
If you did want to use GNU Chess 4.0, be sure you have it installed and
that it is on your $PATH. If you wanted to use GNU Chess 5 instead,
see topic <A HREF="#[D.6]">[D.6]</A>.
<HR>
<H2><A NAME="[D]">[D] Crafty and other topics</A></H2>
<HR>
<H3><A NAME="[D.1]">[D.1] What is XChess?</A></H3>
XChess is an older chessboard program that is no longer supported. XChess was
written for X version 10, and you may or may not be able to build and run it
on an X11 system.
<P>XChess has only one significant feature that is not present in XBoard: Two
humans can play chess using XChess on different machines, without using the
Internet Chess Server as an intermediary. This feature is of interest only if
you don't have network connectivity to the Internet Chess Server.
<P>Note: There actually have been several different programs called "XChess" in
circulation at various times. The above describes one that was associated
with GNU Chess.
<HR>
<H3><A NAME="[D.2]">[D.2] What is Winsock Chess?</A></H3>
Winsock Chess is a program that lets two people play chess across a
network. It runs only under Microsoft Windows. Some of the code in
Winsock Chess is derived from GNU Chess, but it is not maintained by
the GNU Chess team. You can get a copy from the Internet Chess
Library; see topic <A HREF="#[A.2]">[A.2]</A>. For more information,
contact its author, Donald Munro, ccahdm@beluga.upe.ac.za.
<HR>
<H3><A NAME="[D.3]">[D.3] What is Crafty?</A></H3>
Crafty is a freely-available chess program written by Bob Hyatt.
Bob is the main author of the well-known chess program Cray
Blitz. Crafty is a very strong program, its code is available, commented
and fairly readable, and its author is actively working on improvements.
<p>You can download Crafty from <a
href="ftp://ftp.cis.uab.edu/pub/hyatt/"
>ftp://ftp.cis.uab.edu/pub/hyatt/</a>. Start by getting the <a
href="ftp://ftp.cis.uab.edu/pub/hyatt/read.me" >read.me</a> file and
reading it. Among other things, this file contains instructions on
how to install Crafty as a command-line application on your machine.
<p>There is a Crafty mailing list.
To subscribe, send email to majordomo@cis.uab.edu, with
"subscribe crafty-list" in the body.
<HR>
<H3><A NAME="[D.4]">[D.4] How do I use Crafty with XBoard?</A></H3>
<p>First, you need to get Crafty and install it as a command-line
application on your machine. See topic <A HREF="#[D.3]">[D.3]</A>.
<p>To use Crafty with XBoard, give the -fcp
parameter like this:
<p><PRE>
xboard -fcp "./crafty" -fd <I>crafty_directory</I>
</PRE>
Here <I>crafty_directory</I> is the directory where you installed Crafty.
You can add more xboard options at the end of the command line.
<p>Crafty 15.14 or later is required to work properly with XBoard
4.0.0 or later. We generally recommend using the latest versions of
both XBoard and Crafty.
<HR>
<H3><A NAME="[D.5]">[D.5] How do I use Crafty with WinBoard?</A></H3>
<p>First, you need to get Crafty and install it as a command-line
application on your machine. See topic <A HREF="#[D.3]">[D.3]</A>.
It is best to use the latest version of Crafty with the latest version
of WinBoard to make sure all features are compatible and function
correctly. You can install Crafty in any directory you like.
<p>You also need to get WinBoard and install it in the normal way
using its built-in installer. You can do that either before or after
you install Crafty.
<p>After both Crafty and WinBoard are installed separately, follow the
directions in the WinBoard Help file (included with WinBoard) for
connecting new chess engines to WinBoard.
<p>If you want to have Crafty act as an automated computer player on a
chess server, see topic <A HREF="#[B.16]">[B.16]</A>. Before you try
to get that working, be sure you can play against Crafty locally,
first without WinBoard, then with it. Also be sure you can use
WinBoard to play on the chess server yourself, without having Crafty
connected to it. You have to crawl before you can walk!
<HR>
<H3><A NAME="[D.6]">[D.6] How do I use GNU Chess 5 with XBoard?</A></H3>
<p>By default, XBoard still tries to use GNU Chess 4 by running the
command "gnuchessx". That's why if you don't have GNU Chess 4, you
get the error message "Failed to start first chess program gnuchessx
on localhost: gnuchessx: No such file or directory."
<p>If you have GNU Chess 5, the command should be "gnuchess xboard"
instead. To make XBoard use this command, give the -fcp parameter
like this:
<p><PRE>
xboard -fd <I>gnuchess_directory</I> -fcp "./gnuchess xboard"
</PRE>
Here <I>gnuchess_directory</I> is the directory where you installed
GNU Chess 5 and its book. You can add more xboard options at the
end of the command line.
<p><HR>
$Id: FAQ.html,v 2.2 2003/11/28 09:35:21 mann Exp $<br>
** End of XBoard/WinBoard FAQ **
</BODY></HTML>
