RPiOS 'Trixie' Released

[RandyR]

Just a short note to say that PicoChess v3.4 seems to be working on the Raspberry Pi OS Desktop image with only minor changes required.

Randy

[Dirk]

Thats good to know, Randy.

Hopefully it is Laos possible to convert an existing image to the new OS without too many trouble!?

[Johan Sjöblom]

I am now going to try a clean install of V4 on a stock image based on Trixie.

There are no engines in the repository any more, but instead there are resource files that we could think "represents an image". I have just made some initial example files to see if everything install correctly. The resource files are to be the content of the engines/aarch64 folder. This way we can update the engines independently of the code.

The install-engines should only run on initial install.. Lets see how much trouble I get into now when I try Trixie on a spare 4B 2G with display/keyboard. Will I be playing chess still this evening or will it be next week, lets see...

BR, Johan

[Johan Sjöblom]

As expected, the first time failed as my instruction is to download only the install-picochess and not the install-engines. Well, I will add the fetching of the install-engines to the install-picochess and try again.

[RandyR]

Doesn't this code do it? It comes after the git pull.

# install engines as user pi if there is no engines architectre folder
if [ -f install-engines.sh ]; then
    chmod +x install-engines.sh 2>/dev/null
    sudo -u pi ./install-engines.sh
else
    echo "install-engines.sh missing — cannot install engines."
fi

[RandyR]

Sorry, I meant git clone.

[Johan Sjöblom]

Yes it does !! Bad testing on my behalf. The install-engines did run and fetched the resource files as intended.

Now the Picochess does not want to start as its missing some pyaudioop, need to find out what that is.

[Randy Reade]

Did you switch to X and pulseaudio?

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[Randy Reade]

Or perhaps something occurred when pip tried to install the modules in requirements.txt. I did get an error when I initially ran it for v3.4 but I re-ran it and it passed (or possibly pip just thought it was already installed (I think it was tornado that had the issue).

On Sat, Oct 4, 2025 at 12:02 PM Johan Sjöblom <messi...@gmail.com> wrote:

--

[Johan Sjöblom]

I think I know what is wrong. Trixie comes with the latest Python 3.13 and there seems to actually be a mistake in Python 3.13 that it 
The pyaudioop error is not a missing package , it’s a Python 3.13 compatibility issue... Ironically the Python pydub.py file error is that its trying to be backward compatible with Python2 !!

Picochess would probably work with Python 3.12... And V3 could work as it might not have the AudioSegment code that I started to add in V4 to get rid of system calls for audio sounds.

I will need to give up for today, the easiest would be to install Python 3.12 first, and then run picochess-install which creates a venv for it. That _should_ work.

Or we can just wait for Python 3.13 to be fixed... I guess its my new audio code that causes this need.  ... This probably means it will be fixed, but it would be more stable if we would continue with Python 3.12, or even 3.11.2.

BR Johan

[Randy Reade]

Yes. That explains why v3. 4 works. It's using Python 3.9.2 and some old modules.

[Johan Sjöblom]

Its not easy to automate the installation of Python 3.12 on Trixie... Trixies packages only contain Python 3.13... So in order to make an image one would need to download python 3.12 sources and build a python 3.12... How do you do to get the even older Python in 3.4 images?

Anyway, I have to do this the harder way then and fix the AudioSegment usage so that it works with Python 3.13.... That would fix the installation.

[Johan Sjöblom]

Ok, I commented out the AudioSegment and pydub use in V4, it was not in use yet anyway as I earlier reverted back to the same sound systemcall as V3.

So now picochess V4 runs on Trixie and the installer works on a stock pi image.

I still need to switch to pulseaudio and X... and test some...

[Johan Sjöblom]

OK, Trixie seems to work now on V4 with its latest Python 3.13. You do have to change to PulseAudio using raspi-config, but X11 already seem to be default on a desktop image.

[Aldo Bleeker]

I've installed 4.1.4 on Trixie, but I had to make some minor changes to run PicoChess successfully.

setcap for bluepy-helper wasn't successful, because the path referred to python3.11, while Trixie has 3.13. After changing install-picochess.sh to point to python3.13, it ran without error messages.

Then, starting picochess.service ran into a problem because pyaudioop wasn't available. Apparently it has been deprecated and replaced with package audioop-lts. Installing this package in the virtual environment, allowed picochess.service to run.

[Johan Sjöblom]

Good testing and good catch!

Yesterday I fixed the V4 master branch so that it is no longer depending on audioop. I think I can remove pydub from the requirements.txt as the next step.

Really good catch to spot the setcap problem. I need to fix a way so that setcap always refer to the venv python3... This happens on all new installs, as it creates the venv virtual environment based on whatever the Python version was...

BR Johan

[Johan Sjöblom]

Setcaps fixed in master branch. Thanks to Aldos testing! It also prints debugs on what the setcap is doing so that you can see the paths.

A few thoughts about making a Trixie V4 image and what to do about the special PGN Replay pgn_engine.py, these are just thoughts and a minor warning on what to do with the pgn_engine

- the engine folder is now empty in the repo, except for pgn_engine folder which has "always" been there. I placed the repository version of the Python pgn_engine.py in there. It seemed logical as the pgn_games are in that directory also. And as the other script engines they are not really architecture dependent.

- the pgn_engine.py is special as engines are not supposed to be in the repo any more, but its special because its part of the functionality of pico. Anyone who makes engine setups for an image or just for themselfes could place a copy (or symlink) of the pgn_engine.py in an engine folder like engines/aarch64/extra just like before. The repository version in pgn_engine folder is just there as a reference to the latest repo version. Say we bug fix the pgn_engine later, then this repository version will be updated for all users at next pico update, but we do not want the engines to be affected by system updates. Therefore we should now have 2 copies of the pgn_engine, one repository that is basically not being directly used, and one copy inside the engines/aarch64/extra. Of course the engines/aarch64/extra/pgn_engine.py _could_ be a symbolic link if we want.... 

- how does the pgn_engine in V4 repo differ from the pgn_engine in V3? the V3 version was using the old chess library to produce analysis information. That part has simply been cut out because the new library works quite differently. Instead V4 code uses the tutor engine to produce the hintmove and analysis while playing the pgn_engine. Its of course possible to build an image using the original pgn_engine.py, one just have to wrap that engine inside a virtual python environment and include the old chess library... 

BR, Johan

[Antonio]

I have done a clean installation from scratch in Trixie and everything initially went well, but there is no way to connect with Chessnut...

I will continue testing

[Randy Reade]

Check if it's blocked:

rfkill list

If soft or hard blocked:

sudo rfkill unblock all

Randy

On Wed, Oct 8, 2025, 11:42 a.m. Antonio <antonio.z...@gmail.com> wrote:

I have done a clean installation from scratch in Trixie and everything initially went well, but there is no way to connect with Chessnut...

I will continue testing

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[Andrea Gatti]

Hi all, 

today I've completed the fresh install of the Trixie Desktop version and I need to report  the following:

1) Audio doesn't work. On 3.4 bookworm, audio has worked since 1st install. I have an enclosure with a 7" LCD display that connects via HDMI.

Based on:

pi@picochess:~/first-run $ aplay -l
**** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
card 0: vc4hdmi0 [vc4-hdmi-0], device 0: MAI PCM i2s-hifi-0 [MAI PCM i2s-hifi-0]
  Subdevices: 0/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: vc4hdmi1 [vc4-hdmi-1], device 0: MAI PCM i2s-hifi-0 [MAI PCM i2s-hifi-0]
  Subdevices: 1/1
  Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 2: Headphones [bcm2835 Headphones], device 0: bcm2835 Headphones [bcm2835 Headphones]

I've tried:

defaults.pcm.card 0 (I tried also 1)
defaults.ctl.card 0 (I tried also 1)

but no luck, audio doesn't work.

2) I'm able to stop PicoChessWeb using my stoppico script, but restarting it doesn't work. My startpico executes, it doesn't return any error, but on the display nothing happens.

Contents of my startpico:
pi@picochess:~ $ cat '/home/pi/Scripts/startpico.sh'
#!/bin/bash
echo "Starting PicoChessWeb Services now:"
echo "Starting picochess service..."
sudo service picochess start
echo "Done."
echo "Starting GamesDB service..."
sudo service gamesdb start
echo "Done."
echo "Starting Openings Book Service..."
sudo service obooksrv start
echo "Done..."
echo "PicoChessWeb started."
echo ""
sleep 5
/home/pi/Scripts/kiosk.sh &>/dev/null &

Hopefully these are trivial for you and you can help me fix my install.

Thanks!

Andrea

[Randy Reade]

Hi Andrea, 

I only tested using a Pi5 connected to an external HDMI monitor. I'll try to test my enclosure today but sound should be easy to fix. What happens when you try to play a sound (e.g.):

play /opt/picohess/talker/voices/en/verygoodmove.ogg

(I think that's a valid path, better check)

Can you right-click the speaker icon and select your correct audio device? Or use sudo raspi-config?

For PicoChess not starting, try:

systemctl status picochess.service

Is it just the browser that isn't opening? Note that chromium is no longer named chromium-browser, just chromium.

Randy

[Andrea Gatti]

Hello Randy,

many thanks for your immediate help!

Using your great advice, I was able to restore the audio. It was a matter of right-clicking on the speaker and selecting HDMI. My bad I did not think about it.

As far as restating picochess, looks like the issue was in the kiosk script, where I still had the chromium-browser, as you mentioned. Changing it to just "chromium" seems to partally work. What I mean is that a new window now appears saying "Choose password for new keyring", saying that an application wants to create a new keyring, (what is it??) and I need to select a password. If I click "Cancel", then PicoChessWeb appears..

I suspect it is due to kiosh.sh which currently is:

#!/bin/bash

xset s noblank
xset s off
xset -dpms

unclutter -idle 0.5 -root &

if [ -d "/home/$USER/.config/chromium/Default" ]
then
    sed -i 's/"exited_cleanly":false/"exited_cleanly":true/' /home/$USER/.config/chromium/Default/Preferences
    sed -i 's/"exit_type":"Crashed"/"exit_type":"Normal"/' /home/$USER/.config/chromium/Default/Preferences
fi

/bin/sleep 5
/usr/bin/chromium --enable-features=OverlayScrollbar --display=:0 --noerrdialogs --disable-infobars --kiosk http://127.0.0.1 &

#  This setion will enable a refresh by chromium every 'sleep xx' seconds.
#
#while true; do
#   xdotool keydown ctrl+r; xdotool keyup ctrl+r;
#   sleep 20
#done

Thanks!!!

Andrea.

[RandyR]

You don't appear to be using my Trixie image. Did you upgrade a Bookworm system?

[Andrea Gatti]

Absolutely not.

I downloaded and flashed your Trixie image:

pi@picochess:~ $ sudo tune2fs -l $(df / | tail -1 | awk '{print $1}') | grep 'Filesystem created:'
Filesystem created:       Sun Oct  5 20:30:23 2025

But: I have an automatic script that copies my own "Scripts" folder from my previous 3.4 version, to the new one. 

Maybe this is making me use some "older" commands/scripts?

[Randy Reade]

Ah, yes. That would explain it.

I'm not sure what caused the keyring issue. I've never seen that myself. Did you change the password of the pi user? If so, it's probably another program (like chromium?) that can no longer access the default keyring. But I'm really just guessing here. Maybe start over with a clean image?

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[Andrea Gatti]

Hi Randy, you're right: I guess I want to go off and start from scratch. Something probably did happen, which has ruined my install. Will do it again in a few hours, and report back.

Thanks!

Andrea

[Andrea Gatti]

Hi

just wanted to confirm that, with a fresh install, everything seems to work perfectly, so something must have happened with the previous install.

Thank-you Randy for the immediate help, and congrats for another successful release (as always).

Andrea

[Andrea Gatti]

Randy, sorry, one last question: how is the browser launched automatically, once the Rpi has finished booting?

I seem to be able to launch and stop the chromium using my startpico and stoppico aliases with no issues at all, but the first time after every reboot, chromium doesn't start by itself. I always need to start it manually.

Thanks..

Andrea.

[Randy Reade]

Hi Andrea, 

There is an entry in /etc/xdg/lxsession/rpd-x/autostart that starts the kiosk.sh script. The script waits until the picochess service starts before launching chromium.

Randy

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[Andrea Gatti]

Thank-you Randy.

This is interesting: once I booted the Rpi for the first time (and chromium did appear), the Rpi prompted me that a number of updates were available (by means of the "update icon" that pop-up on the taskbar.

I selected to install them, and I guess from that moment on, chromium is not automatically starting anymore.

So there must be something, in those updates, that breaks picochess/chromium.

It could be the graphics environment, maybe a change between LXDE/X11 (which I think is what we have at first boot) and Wayland/Wayfire which probably gets installed and used by default after the update.

I'm saying so, since after the update, I noticed a very small change in the taskbar appearance, which I initially did not notice.

I'm reflecting on the best approach here:

Do I have to revert back to the previous LXDE/X11, or shall I simply fix the autostart, to make sure that it gest executed also under the new environment? If the Rpi from now on, makes use of "newer" components, like Wayland/Wayfire, maybe the right approach is to adapt the auto-start.

Have you encountered such situation, and if yes, what was your approach?

Andrea

[Andrea Gatti]

While I was waiting for your reply, I actually created an autostart for Wayland, so picochess now automatically starts!

[Randy Reade]

The 'problem' with using Wayland is that PicoChess relies on a program called xdotool that only works in X11. It is used to manipulate windows when using MAME artwork. Until we switch over to an equivalent solution in Wayland you should probably switch back to X11. Or, continue to test and see if there is anything else that doesn't work in Wayland. One thing will be the kiosk.sh script as it also has some statements related to X11.

Randy

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[RandyR]

As Andrea noticed, if you update the Trixie OS it will switch you back to Wayland. Among other things, it will cause the kiosk.sh script (which starts the web browser on the Desktop image) to fail. The fix is to switch back to X11 using raspi-config (under Advanced Options/A7 Wayland). Hopefully this isn't going to happen with each update of the OS.

Randy

[Andrea Gatti]

Hi Randy, I confirm that I now re-configured my Rpi to always run X11, so everything now seems to work as expected.

Thanks!

Andrea.