CCT Logon

[michiguel]

I sent a logon file to everyone registered in CCT 13 this morning.

This should make things much easier for everyone involved and provides the least operator intervention.

If you didn't get it, please email me or PM me via this board.

Peter

For the record, ascii text (.txt) file would be nicer. Not all of us use windows.

Didn't I send a .txt file? It was called fics.txt. There was no special formatting at all in it.

Peter

Yes, in fact I read it in Linux.

Miguel

[Peter Skinner]

Which XBoard version?

Good question

I have a dual boot and I was testing it in 64 bit, which I do not use often. I had version 4.4.3. I thought I had a much newer version there...
In 32 bits, I have
xboard version master-20101020
And there is no problem with it. So, I will install the newer version in 64 bits and that should solve it.

Miguel

I keep having problems in 64 bit. I installed two different versions and both display the same problem. I tried 4.4.4 and the last dev version xboard-master-20101211

I see this

Code: Select all

xboard -zp -fcp ./gaviota -ics -icshost 69.36.243.188 -icshelper ./timeseal -icslogon logonscript -size 45,0 -xalarm -autoflag -xmovesound -ponder -xexit -thinking -hideThinkingFromHuman false -sgf cctgames.pgn -smpCores 2 -defaultHashSize 512 -defaultCacheSizeEGTB 64 -defaultPathEGTB /media/MIGUEL2/gtb4/ -egtFormats "gaviota:/media/MIGUEL2/gtb4/" -zippyGameStart "say I am Gaviota, an amateur program playing automatically (author and account operator: FM Miguel A. Ballicora)" -zippyGameEnd "say handshake"

             _       __     __                             __      
            | |     / /__  / /________  ____ ___  ___     / /_____ 
            | | /| / / _ \/ / ___/ __ \/ __ `__ \/ _ \   / __/ __ \
            | |/ |/ /  __/ / /__/ /_/ / / / / / /  __/  / /_/ /_/ /
            |__/|__/\___/_/\___/\____/_/ /_/ /_/\___/   \__/\____/ 
       ^^__                  _____________________                 _  _  _ 
      /  - \_               / ____/  _/ ____/ ___/   _            | || || |
    <|    __<              / /_   / // /    \__ \   (_)           |_______|
    <|    \               / __/ _/ // /___ ___/ /  _              \__ ___ /
    <|     \             /_/   /___/\____//____/  (_)              |___|_|
    <|______\                                                      |_|___|
     _|____|_        ======================================        |___|_|
    (________)         freechess.org  ----  69.36.243.188         (_______)
    /________\       ======================================       /_______\ 
                       (Login screen designed by Alefith)

   ****** Welcome to the Free Internet Chess Server at freechess.org ******

Webpage: http://www.freechess.org
Head admin : Chessty   Complaints to : complaints@freechess.org
Server location: freechess.org   Server version : 1.25.17

      If you are not a registered player, enter guest or a unique ID.
             (If your return key does not work, use cntrl-J)

login: 
"Gaviota" is a registered name.  If it is yours, type the password.
If not, just hit return to try another name.

password: 

**** Starting FICS session as Gaviota(C) ****
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                         *** Message Of The Day ***


Today's Scheduled Events:
    0430: The Daily 5 0
    0900: Friday's scheduled 3 0 crazyhouse
    1400: Friday Blitz
    1900: The Nightly 5 0
    2000: Friday Night Standard 20 5


To join a scheduled tournament, join channel 49 (+channel 49)
And be there for the scheduled start.

For a complete tournament schedule, type "td help schedule"
Regular tournaments are run all day, "td set tourneyinfo on" to see them.

All times are server times.
To check the current server time, use "date".
==============================================================================
FICS web page: http://www.freechess.org   - add a link to FICS from your page
==============================================================================

Index of new news items:
1414 (Mon, Jun  7) RFFISCHER
1416 (Sun, Jun 27) Open call for admin applications
1419 (Thu, Jul  8) ParrotHead: RIP 07/06/10
1428 (Mon, Nov 22) LightKnight(*)
1429 (Mon, Nov 22) blkmagic(*) and outAtime(*)
1430 (Tue, Nov 23) jaberwock(*)
1431 (Tue, Nov 23) cytrus (*)
1438 (Sat, Jan  1) Happy new year!

Once in a while, it connects, but most of the time it gets stuck at this point.

Maybe it is not xboard problem and it is FICS? maybe it is a problem only in 64 bits?

Miguel

Are you compiling Xboard yourself? Did you remember to enable zippy?

You could also try adding -icsport 5000.

Do you have any software firewall enabled?

Peter

[michiguel]

Which XBoard version?

Good question

I have a dual boot and I was testing it in 64 bit, which I do not use often. I had version 4.4.3. I thought I had a much newer version there...
In 32 bits, I have
xboard version master-20101020
And there is no problem with it. So, I will install the newer version in 64 bits and that should solve it.

Miguel

I keep having problems in 64 bit. I installed two different versions and both display the same problem. I tried 4.4.4 and the last dev version xboard-master-20101211

I see this

Code: Select all

xboard -zp -fcp ./gaviota -ics -icshost 69.36.243.188 -icshelper ./timeseal -icslogon logonscript -size 45,0 -xalarm -autoflag -xmovesound -ponder -xexit -thinking -hideThinkingFromHuman false -sgf cctgames.pgn -smpCores 2 -defaultHashSize 512 -defaultCacheSizeEGTB 64 -defaultPathEGTB /media/MIGUEL2/gtb4/ -egtFormats "gaviota:/media/MIGUEL2/gtb4/" -zippyGameStart "say I am Gaviota, an amateur program playing automatically (author and account operator: FM Miguel A. Ballicora)" -zippyGameEnd "say handshake"

             _       __     __                             __      
            | |     / /__  / /________  ____ ___  ___     / /_____ 
            | | /| / / _ \/ / ___/ __ \/ __ `__ \/ _ \   / __/ __ \
            | |/ |/ /  __/ / /__/ /_/ / / / / / /  __/  / /_/ /_/ /
            |__/|__/\___/_/\___/\____/_/ /_/ /_/\___/   \__/\____/ 
       ^^__                  _____________________                 _  _  _ 
      /  - \_               / ____/  _/ ____/ ___/   _            | || || |
    <|    __<              / /_   / // /    \__ \   (_)           |_______|
    <|    \               / __/ _/ // /___ ___/ /  _              \__ ___ /
    <|     \             /_/   /___/\____//____/  (_)              |___|_|
    <|______\                                                      |_|___|
     _|____|_        ======================================        |___|_|
    (________)         freechess.org  ----  69.36.243.188         (_______)
    /________\       ======================================       /_______\ 
                       (Login screen designed by Alefith)

   ****** Welcome to the Free Internet Chess Server at freechess.org ******

Webpage: http://www.freechess.org
Head admin : Chessty   Complaints to : complaints@freechess.org
Server location: freechess.org   Server version : 1.25.17

      If you are not a registered player, enter guest or a unique ID.
             (If your return key does not work, use cntrl-J)

login: 
"Gaviota" is a registered name.  If it is yours, type the password.
If not, just hit return to try another name.

password: 

**** Starting FICS session as Gaviota(C) ****
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                         *** Message Of The Day ***


Today's Scheduled Events:
    0430: The Daily 5 0
    0900: Friday's scheduled 3 0 crazyhouse
    1400: Friday Blitz
    1900: The Nightly 5 0
    2000: Friday Night Standard 20 5


To join a scheduled tournament, join channel 49 (+channel 49)
And be there for the scheduled start.

For a complete tournament schedule, type "td help schedule"
Regular tournaments are run all day, "td set tourneyinfo on" to see them.

All times are server times.
To check the current server time, use "date".
==============================================================================
FICS web page: http://www.freechess.org   - add a link to FICS from your page
==============================================================================

Index of new news items:
1414 (Mon, Jun  7) RFFISCHER
1416 (Sun, Jun 27) Open call for admin applications
1419 (Thu, Jul  8) ParrotHead: RIP 07/06/10
1428 (Mon, Nov 22) LightKnight(*)
1429 (Mon, Nov 22) blkmagic(*) and outAtime(*)
1430 (Tue, Nov 23) jaberwock(*)
1431 (Tue, Nov 23) cytrus (*)
1438 (Sat, Jan  1) Happy new year!

Once in a while, it connects, but most of the time it gets stuck at this point.

Maybe it is not xboard problem and it is FICS? maybe it is a problem only in 64 bits?

Miguel

Are you compiling Xboard yourself? Did you remember to enable zippy?

I do not know what you mean. I followed the instructions ./configure and make, sudo make install. Sometimes it connects, so it cannot be a compilation problem.

You could also try adding -icsport 5000.

Do you have any software firewall enabled?

Peter

I will check that. I am now in 32 bits and it works fine. I will try a 32 bits xboard in a 64 bits OS. Maybe that will do it...

Miguel

[michiguel]

Which XBoard version?

Good question

I have a dual boot and I was testing it in 64 bit, which I do not use often. I had version 4.4.3. I thought I had a much newer version there...
In 32 bits, I have
xboard version master-20101020
And there is no problem with it. So, I will install the newer version in 64 bits and that should solve it.

Miguel

I keep having problems in 64 bit. I installed two different versions and both display the same problem. I tried 4.4.4 and the last dev version xboard-master-20101211

I see this

Code: Select all

xboard -zp -fcp ./gaviota -ics -icshost 69.36.243.188 -icshelper ./timeseal -icslogon logonscript -size 45,0 -xalarm -autoflag -xmovesound -ponder -xexit -thinking -hideThinkingFromHuman false -sgf cctgames.pgn -smpCores 2 -defaultHashSize 512 -defaultCacheSizeEGTB 64 -defaultPathEGTB /media/MIGUEL2/gtb4/ -egtFormats "gaviota:/media/MIGUEL2/gtb4/" -zippyGameStart "say I am Gaviota, an amateur program playing automatically (author and account operator: FM Miguel A. Ballicora)" -zippyGameEnd "say handshake"

             _       __     __                             __      
            | |     / /__  / /________  ____ ___  ___     / /_____ 
            | | /| / / _ \/ / ___/ __ \/ __ `__ \/ _ \   / __/ __ \
            | |/ |/ /  __/ / /__/ /_/ / / / / / /  __/  / /_/ /_/ /
            |__/|__/\___/_/\___/\____/_/ /_/ /_/\___/   \__/\____/ 
       ^^__                  _____________________                 _  _  _ 
      /  - \_               / ____/  _/ ____/ ___/   _            | || || |
    <|    __<              / /_   / // /    \__ \   (_)           |_______|
    <|    \               / __/ _/ // /___ ___/ /  _              \__ ___ /
    <|     \             /_/   /___/\____//____/  (_)              |___|_|
    <|______\                                                      |_|___|
     _|____|_        ======================================        |___|_|
    (________)         freechess.org  ----  69.36.243.188         (_______)
    /________\       ======================================       /_______\ 
                       (Login screen designed by Alefith)

   ****** Welcome to the Free Internet Chess Server at freechess.org ******

Webpage: http://www.freechess.org
Head admin : Chessty   Complaints to : complaints@freechess.org
Server location: freechess.org   Server version : 1.25.17

      If you are not a registered player, enter guest or a unique ID.
             (If your return key does not work, use cntrl-J)

login: 
"Gaviota" is a registered name.  If it is yours, type the password.
If not, just hit return to try another name.

password: 

**** Starting FICS session as Gaviota(C) ****
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                         *** Message Of The Day ***


Today's Scheduled Events:
    0430: The Daily 5 0
    0900: Friday's scheduled 3 0 crazyhouse
    1400: Friday Blitz
    1900: The Nightly 5 0
    2000: Friday Night Standard 20 5


To join a scheduled tournament, join channel 49 (+channel 49)
And be there for the scheduled start.

For a complete tournament schedule, type "td help schedule"
Regular tournaments are run all day, "td set tourneyinfo on" to see them.

All times are server times.
To check the current server time, use "date".
==============================================================================
FICS web page: http://www.freechess.org   - add a link to FICS from your page
==============================================================================

Index of new news items:
1414 (Mon, Jun  7) RFFISCHER
1416 (Sun, Jun 27) Open call for admin applications
1419 (Thu, Jul  8) ParrotHead: RIP 07/06/10
1428 (Mon, Nov 22) LightKnight(*)
1429 (Mon, Nov 22) blkmagic(*) and outAtime(*)
1430 (Tue, Nov 23) jaberwock(*)
1431 (Tue, Nov 23) cytrus (*)
1438 (Sat, Jan  1) Happy new year!

Once in a while, it connects, but most of the time it gets stuck at this point.

Maybe it is not xboard problem and it is FICS? maybe it is a problem only in 64 bits?

Miguel

Are you compiling Xboard yourself? Did you remember to enable zippy?

I do not know what you mean. I followed the instructions ./configure and make, sudo make install. Sometimes it connects, so it cannot be a compilation problem.

You could also try adding -icsport 5000.

Do you have any software firewall enabled?

Peter

I will check that. I am now in 32 bits and it works fine. I will try a 32 bits xboard in a 64 bits OS. Maybe that will do it...

Miguel

Using a 32 bit xboard in 64 bits does not help and -icsport 5000 does not help either.

It has to do with timeseal.

If I do not use any helper, it works fine with any xboard version, 32 or 64 bit. So, it looks like timeseal may have some issues in 64 bits.

That explain why I have no problems with ICC (uses timestamp). However, I really wonder why I did not see this before (I wonder whether ubuntu screwed something in an update).

Miguel
I did not need this the night before the tournament (and I started yesterday!)

[michiguel]

Which XBoard version?

Good question

I have a dual boot and I was testing it in 64 bit, which I do not use often. I had version 4.4.3. I thought I had a much newer version there...
In 32 bits, I have
xboard version master-20101020
And there is no problem with it. So, I will install the newer version in 64 bits and that should solve it.

Miguel

I keep having problems in 64 bit. I installed two different versions and both display the same problem. I tried 4.4.4 and the last dev version xboard-master-20101211

I see this

Code: Select all

xboard -zp -fcp ./gaviota -ics -icshost 69.36.243.188 -icshelper ./timeseal -icslogon logonscript -size 45,0 -xalarm -autoflag -xmovesound -ponder -xexit -thinking -hideThinkingFromHuman false -sgf cctgames.pgn -smpCores 2 -defaultHashSize 512 -defaultCacheSizeEGTB 64 -defaultPathEGTB /media/MIGUEL2/gtb4/ -egtFormats "gaviota:/media/MIGUEL2/gtb4/" -zippyGameStart "say I am Gaviota, an amateur program playing automatically (author and account operator: FM Miguel A. Ballicora)" -zippyGameEnd "say handshake"

             _       __     __                             __      
            | |     / /__  / /________  ____ ___  ___     / /_____ 
            | | /| / / _ \/ / ___/ __ \/ __ `__ \/ _ \   / __/ __ \
            | |/ |/ /  __/ / /__/ /_/ / / / / / /  __/  / /_/ /_/ /
            |__/|__/\___/_/\___/\____/_/ /_/ /_/\___/   \__/\____/ 
       ^^__                  _____________________                 _  _  _ 
      /  - \_               / ____/  _/ ____/ ___/   _            | || || |
    <|    __<              / /_   / // /    \__ \   (_)           |_______|
    <|    \               / __/ _/ // /___ ___/ /  _              \__ ___ /
    <|     \             /_/   /___/\____//____/  (_)              |___|_|
    <|______\                                                      |_|___|
     _|____|_        ======================================        |___|_|
    (________)         freechess.org  ----  69.36.243.188         (_______)
    /________\       ======================================       /_______\ 
                       (Login screen designed by Alefith)

   ****** Welcome to the Free Internet Chess Server at freechess.org ******

Webpage: http://www.freechess.org
Head admin : Chessty   Complaints to : complaints@freechess.org
Server location: freechess.org   Server version : 1.25.17

      If you are not a registered player, enter guest or a unique ID.
             (If your return key does not work, use cntrl-J)

login: 
"Gaviota" is a registered name.  If it is yours, type the password.
If not, just hit return to try another name.

password: 

**** Starting FICS session as Gaviota(C) ****
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                         *** Message Of The Day ***


Today's Scheduled Events:
    0430: The Daily 5 0
    0900: Friday's scheduled 3 0 crazyhouse
    1400: Friday Blitz
    1900: The Nightly 5 0
    2000: Friday Night Standard 20 5


To join a scheduled tournament, join channel 49 (+channel 49)
And be there for the scheduled start.

For a complete tournament schedule, type "td help schedule"
Regular tournaments are run all day, "td set tourneyinfo on" to see them.

All times are server times.
To check the current server time, use "date".
==============================================================================
FICS web page: http://www.freechess.org   - add a link to FICS from your page
==============================================================================

Index of new news items:
1414 (Mon, Jun  7) RFFISCHER
1416 (Sun, Jun 27) Open call for admin applications
1419 (Thu, Jul  8) ParrotHead: RIP 07/06/10
1428 (Mon, Nov 22) LightKnight(*)
1429 (Mon, Nov 22) blkmagic(*) and outAtime(*)
1430 (Tue, Nov 23) jaberwock(*)
1431 (Tue, Nov 23) cytrus (*)
1438 (Sat, Jan  1) Happy new year!

Once in a while, it connects, but most of the time it gets stuck at this point.

Maybe it is not xboard problem and it is FICS? maybe it is a problem only in 64 bits?

Miguel

Are you compiling Xboard yourself? Did you remember to enable zippy?

I do not know what you mean. I followed the instructions ./configure and make, sudo make install. Sometimes it connects, so it cannot be a compilation problem.

You could also try adding -icsport 5000.

Do you have any software firewall enabled?

Peter

I will check that. I am now in 32 bits and it works fine. I will try a 32 bits xboard in a 64 bits OS. Maybe that will do it...

Miguel

Using a 32 bit xboard in 64 bits does not help and -icsport 5000 does not help either.

It has to do with timeseal.

If I do not use any helper, it works fine with any xboard version, 32 or 64 bit. So, it looks like timeseal may have some issues in 64 bits.

That explain why I have no problems with ICC (uses timestamp). However, I really wonder why I did not see this before (I wonder whether ubuntu screwed something in an update).

Miguel
I did not need this the night before the tournament (and I started yesterday!)

I was having today random problems, in which the connection froze. i.e. xboard was not receiving commands or moves from FICS. I thought it was timeseal. I removed it from the command line, but I kept having problems. I needed to disconnect and reconnect one or twice a game.

No idea what the problem could be.

Miguel

[bob]

I believe the new version of xboard has some sort of loop that never ends. I had hangs in every game today, and lost one because of it. I noticed that the zippy password could not be used to tell xboard to send the command "tell hyatt hi" to the server. It was apparently locked up. I will try to catch it happening again and see if the process goes into a tight loop, but in any case, something is certainly wrong. Seems to work OK with ICC. I have reverted to 4.2.6 and am playing test games on FICS now to see if that old version also has the problem or not...

[bob]

I sent a logon file to everyone registered in CCT 13 this morning.

This should make things much easier for everyone involved and provides the least operator intervention.

If you didn't get it, please email me or PM me via this board.

Peter

For the record, ascii text (.txt) file would be nicer. Not all of us use windows.

Didn't I send a .txt file? It was called fics.txt. There was no special formatting at all in it.

Peter

Yes, in fact I read it in Linux.

Miguel

Came in my email as a .dat file that was some sort of binary data with lots of odd characters in it... Think the filename of the attachment was "winmail.dat".

[bob]

I believe the new version of xboard has some sort of loop that never ends. I had hangs in every game today, and lost one because of it. I noticed that the zippy password could not be used to tell xboard to send the command "tell hyatt hi" to the server. It was apparently locked up. I will try to catch it happening again and see if the process goes into a tight loop, but in any case, something is certainly wrong. Seems to work OK with ICC. I have reverted to 4.2.6 and am playing test games on FICS now to see if that old version also has the problem or not...

Crafty has now played 3 games at 50 3 with no problems after reverting to 4.2.6... I have not seen this issue on ICC, so there appears to be an issue. I am using timeseal with both so that is not the problem as it works flawlessly with 4.2.6...

Will use that tomorrow and see how it goes...

Today was certainly a disaster for a bunch of us with programs hanging right and left...

[hgm]

As this problem now seems to be XBoard rather than timeseal, as was first thought, can you give me some pointers?

Note that I hardly ever use XBoard myself, (only WinBoard), and that I do not have any 64-bit systems, so I certainly never tested 64-bit compiles of XBoard. WB and XB share the same back-end, though, and all ICS code is in the back-end. I have been using 4.4.x versions of WinBoard for years in on-line play, and I never where any problems (with 32-bit versions). Also other people never reported any problems until today. v4.4.x was around during the previous CCT already, and we never changed much in the 4.4.x branch, other than simple bug fixes. (All development was done in another branch.)

Note that Xaw3d is suspect: people report crashes when doing things that the X-server does (like enlarging the engine-output window). These problems go away when you compile with plain Xaw. This applies to the 32-bit version, however. Nevertheless, be sure to build with plain Xaw.

[bob]

As this problem now seems to be XBoard rather than timeseal, as was first thought, can you give me some pointers?

Not yet. What I will try to do later tomorrow after CCT is to run with debugging on and edit the thing to just include the game where the hang occurs. What we are seeing, however, is that a move is made on the server, and all the observers see it just fine, but xboard is never relaying it to the engine... But only on FICS as I have been using the latest xboard on ICC for a few months (since you added the smpCores and such) with zero problems. Got to be some sort of extra or missing characters that causes xboard to either not recognize the move, or something. I can not tell whether xboard updates but does not inform the engine, since it runs on my office box. I will have to wait until monday to do that, or else try to run some tests on my laptop.

Note that I hardly ever use XBoard myself, (only WinBoard), and that I do not have any 64-bit systems, so I certainly never tested 64-bit compiles of XBoard. WB and XB share the same back-end, though, and all ICS code is in the back-end. I have been using 4.4.x versions of WinBoard for years in on-line play, and I never where any problems (with 32-bit versions). Also other people never reported any problems until today. v4.4.x was around during the previous CCT already, and we never changed much in the 4.4.x branch, other than simple bug fixes. (All development was done in another branch.)

Note that Xaw3d is suspect: people report crashes when doing things that the X-server does (like enlarging the engine-output window). These problems go away when you compile with plain Xaw. This applies to the 32-bit version, however. Nevertheless, be sure to build with plain Xaw.

I'll try to help out by first capturing a failed game (debug) and then look at the fics-to-xboard communication at the point of failure. I still suspect some sort of data screw-up from FICS... since I have not seen this at all on ICC. And we were seeing several people have trouble, and it did not seem to be only 64 bit systems, but I am not certain about that...