PicoChess v4 Trixie Images [ 19 Oct 2025 ]

[RandyR]

Hi Everyone.

I have updated the v4 images to use the latest Raspberry Pi 'Trixie' OS. The latest version of Johan's PicoChess v4 is also included. 

A reminder: the first time you update PicoChess via the menu it could take up to 9 minutes (depending on your hardware) as the backup of the /opt/picochess folder is created. Once the update is finished, the PicoChess will start. Just be patient.

Please read the enclosed document(s) for info about the images. If you see any functionality issues while testing and would like to let Johan know, either open a topic on this forum or, if you have a (free) GitHub account, you can open an Issue on Johan's repo  (if not already opened) or start/join a Discussion.

Enjoy.

Randy

Here are the links to the images:

PicoChess v4 DGTPi Image (3.2 GB)

PicoChess v4 Desktop Image (4.9 GB)

[Johan Sjöblom]

Thanks Randy

I downloaded both images.

I tested the desktop image on a Pi 4B with 2G ram with a high resolution monitor attached, and took a game against LC0 dev Mean Girl. The only thing I really had to do was to turn on bluetooth on the upper right on the desktop to get my DGT to connect. For some reason bluetooth was not activated, maybe thats normal for a new image.

I also tested the DGT image on my DGT Pi. Unfortunately the lc0 weights file have the wrong reference so I could not play Mean Girl without updating the uci file and remove the /aarch64 from WeightsFile = path. maia3.uci is also affected but not the maia_weights files.

[Randy Reade]

Thanks, Johan. I think that might be related to Trixie. I've seen it myself that Bluetooth gets soft blocked. One thing I do is delete the /var/lib/bluetooth contents before I finalize the image. Perhaps it's related to that. It would mean that the images wouldn't work directly 'out of the box'. I'll see what I can find out.

Regarding the wrong weights file path, I'll fix those and upload a new Lite image.

Randy

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[RandyR]

I just reflashed my SD card with the Desktop image and Bluetooth is still enabled. Not sure what causes it to disable itself - maybe changing hardware? Running 'rfkill list' via ssh is another way to see if it is turned OFF. It will show 'Soft blocked: yes'. Then just run 'rfkill unblock x' where x is the device number (0 for hci0: Bluetooth, usually) or you can run 'rfkill unblock all' (might need sudo).

I have fixed the DGTPi Lite image for the lc0_weights path. If you don't want to download it again, the 4 files in the attached Zip file need to be placed in the /opt/picochess/engines/aarch64/ folder.

Or, login via ssh (or in a terminal on the Pi) and enter the following command (one line):

grep --include=\*.{py,txt,ini,uci} -RIl '/opt/picochess/engines/aarch64/lc0_weights' -r /opt/picochess  | xargs sed -i 's/\/opt\/picochess\/engines\/aarch64\/lc0_weights/\/opt\/picochess\/engines\/lc0_weights/g'

Randy

[Oswaldo Monteiro]

Hi Randy

 

I imagine there are a lot of details for a layman to process. If I wanted a version 4, I’d have to understand a lot about this language. Perhaps a ready-made package for us laymen would be more appealing — of course, without taking away any of the credit from you for programming this beautiful piece of PicoChess.

Oswald

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[Randy Reade]

The developers deserve all the credit - Dirk, Johan, Ghislain, Gerhard, and so many more before them. I just share ready-made images. :^)

If you want to try v4, just download the latest image. Links are in the first post.

Randy

[Johan Sjöblom]

On the Desktop image it was easy enough. Just point your mouse on the Bluetooth icon in the top right corner to check that its on, if not, just click.

On the DGT image Bluetooth and the DGT board worked immediately on my DGT 3000. But I assume we get a new DGT lite image later with correct LC0 personalities.

No need to run any special commands. Open a browser and type ”localhost” in the web address field.

I can retest writing the Desktop image. Maybe it was something I did when I flashed (wrote) the SD card from the image…

Johan