wine-compatible engines

[cyberfish]

I am trying to find engines that I can use to test my engine against, with the main constraint being that they have to run on Linux. Windows is not an option because I don't have a dedicated computer for testing, and so I always run tests in background while I use the computer for other things, and I don't want to be stuck with Windows.

Native Linux engines are few and far between, especially ones that are similar to mine's level, so I thought I would run Windows engines under wine.

The first one I tried was ZCT, and it was perfect. The NPS is similar to what I get on Windows, too. Since it's open source... I guess there is a chance that a native Linux build can be made, but I haven't looked into that, yet.

No such luck since then -

EveAnn kind of runs, but it terribly slow for some reason (takes a few seconds to reach ply 3)

Atak crashes

Neurosis crashes after the first move

Brutus freezes after the first move

Buzz was good (the Buzz_UNIX_x86 version segfaults for some reason, maybe he really meant UNIX not Linux )

(I got excited by Buzz's success, and thought Dirty might work, too, but it's nowhere to be found online...)

Deuterium seems to be fine, but is very weak at my testing time control (10 seconds / 40 moves)

Any other suggestions? (engines of similar strength, and must support some kind of board setup, since I'm using Bob's openings.epd)

Thanks

[cyberfish]

Actually, not sure what happened, but Deuterium is fine now (at its normal strength).

[ilari]

Are you using a 32-bit or 64-bit Linux? And which wine version?

I haven't tried the other engines you mentioned, but Atak runs fine here. Actually every Windows engine that I've tried has worked.

If you use Xboard there's a small problem: if you put "wine engine_executable.exe" as the -fcp or -scp parameter, the pipe to the engine often breaks after a couple of moves. I don't know why.

So what I do is I create a one-liner startup script for each Windows engine. For example, my Atak startup script just contains "wine Atak32.exe". Then I can use that script in Xboard's -fcp or -scp option, and it works.

[bhlangonijr]

I run Rybka free using a modified version of wine (microwine) on my Fedora 64 bits.
http://storage.sesse.net/microwine-0.5.tar.gz

I execute a "cat" on linux to create a single binary file with microwine-0.5+rybkaxxx.exe (to rybka-xxx-linux) and then run it using polyglot and xboard.

It works pretty well.

Regards,

[bhlangonijr]

Are you using a 32-bit or 64-bit Linux? And which wine version?

I haven't tried the other engines you mentioned, but Atak runs fine here. Actually every Windows engine that I've tried has worked.

If you use Xboard there's a small problem: if you put "wine engine_executable.exe" as the -fcp or -scp parameter, the pipe to the engine often breaks after a couple of moves. I don't know why.

So what I do is I create a one-liner startup script for each Windows engine. For example, my Atak startup script just contains "wine Atak32.exe". Then I can use that script in Xboard's -fcp or -scp option, and it works.

As I mentioned you can "cat" both to a single binary file: cat file1 file2 > single-file. It avoids creating the script for each engine.

[F. Bluemers]

I am trying to find engines that I can use to test my engine against, with the main constraint being that they have to run on Linux. Windows is not an option because I don't have a dedicated computer for testing, and so I always run tests in background while I use the computer for other things, and I don't want to be stuck with Windows.

Native Linux engines are few and far between, especially ones that are similar to mine's level, so I thought I would run Windows engines under wine.

The first one I tried was ZCT, and it was perfect. The NPS is similar to what I get on Windows, too. Since it's open source... I guess there is a chance that a native Linux build can be made, but I haven't looked into that, yet.

No such luck since then -

EveAnn kind of runs, but it terribly slow for some reason (takes a few seconds to reach ply 3)

Atak crashes

Neurosis crashes after the first move

Brutus freezes after the first move

Buzz was good (the Buzz_UNIX_x86 version segfaults for some reason, maybe he really meant UNIX not Linux )

(I got excited by Buzz's success, and thought Dirty might work, too, but it's nowhere to be found online...)

Deuterium seems to be fine, but is very weak at my testing time control (10 seconds / 40 moves)

Any other suggestions? (engines of similar strength, and must support some kind of board setup, since I'm using Bob's openings.epd)

Thanks

no idea if it runs under wine,but here is the dirty site: http://webs.ono.com/a.valverde/dirty.htm

[Pradu]

Buzz was good (the Buzz_UNIX_x86 version segfaults for some reason, maybe he really meant UNIX not Linux )

(I got excited by Buzz's success, and thought Dirty might work, too, but it's nowhere to be found online...)

Actually this is a known bug on my part and I honestly no idea why it seg faults. On some Linux systems it works just fine and plays chess, on others it segfaults for apparently no reason when the search thread terminates.

[krazyken]

ZCT works well enough as a linux native.
in that strength area and linux capable I have Phalanx, resp, gnuchess, Witz, Mediocre, RattateChess, Olithink, Bikjump, Diablo, Amundsen, natwarlal. Many more.
Some Java engines that should work under linux with java: Flux, Alf.
Engines that I run via wine:
Gibbon, Joker, romi.
Most win32 engines should work with wine.
That covers most of the engines I use that are near ZCT in strength. If you want me to go higher or lower on the list I can do that.

[michiguel]

ZCT works well enough as a linux native.
in that strength area and linux capable I have Phalanx, resp, gnuchess, Witz, Mediocre, RattateChess, Olithink, Bikjump, Diablo, Amundsen, natwarlal. Many more.

Thanks for the list, I will explore some of these I did not know.

Do not forget Gaviota!

Also: Beowulf, Prophet, Scidlet, Exchess, (very solid and stable engines)
Phalanx and Rattatechess had a bug that did not allow them to play fast games efficiently. I fixed them and they work great now.

Natwarlal crashed a couple of times on me and for that reason I took it out of my gaunlet. Same thing with AICE.

I am using Fruit 1.0 with null move disabled (easily done through some UCI parameters).

I did not know that using engines with WINE was a stable approach. I will start trying that because the more engines to test, the better. I am using 8 partners and that is way too little to have reliably independent results. The more the merrier.

Miguel

Some Java engines that should work under linux with java: Flux, Alf.
Engines that I run via wine:
Gibbon, Joker, romi.
Most win32 engines should work with wine.
That covers most of the engines I use that are near ZCT in strength. If you want me to go higher or lower on the list I can do that.

[cyberfish]

I am using 64-bit Linux, but only 32-bit wine (is there a 64-bit wine?) with 32-bit (versions of) engines.

My wine is from Ubuntu apt repository - wine-1.0.1

I will give Atak another try... maybe it's my time control? (10 seconds per 40 moves)

If you use Xboard there's a small problem: if you put "wine engine_executable.exe" as the -fcp or -scp parameter, the pipe to the engine often breaks after a couple of moves. I don't know why.

That's what I am doing and it works quite well for me... I've played a few thousand games last night already.