PicoV3DGTPiDesktop Image

[RandyR]

I figured I better stop hijacking Dirk's thread. :^)

I have updated my Desktop DGTPi image. It was built from the Lite version of RPiOS (02 Dec 2020 Release), taking inspiration from Marcel's beta v10, adding the Raspberry Pi Desktop, RealVNC server, Samba server, SSH and SFTP enabled, Midnight Commander terminal editor/file manager, rpi-clone, Synaptic package manager, Chromium browser and GParted.

Username: pi

Password: picochess

Hostname: picochess

Webserver can be reached by typing the ip address of the DGTPi into your web browser (port 80).

Al's script: Rod4Elo.sh (in the pi home folder) can be used to set the elo of the Rodent IV personalities.

Samba is set up for the pi home folder and the picochess folder. You can access it from Windows using the Map Network Drive option (enter \\picochess\ then browse). If you enable the root account on the pi (sudo passwd root) and then add root to the samba shares (smbpasswd -a root), you can then make changes to the picochess folder if you log in with root/<password> credentials. I did not enable this due to security concerns, but it's fairly easy to do via SSH.

The RealVNC server is accessible using any(?) VNC viewer (I'm using Vinagre in linux). Use the ip address of the (DGT)Pi. If you are running without a monitor attached, the VNC display may be improved by right-clicking on the RPi Desktop, selecting Desktop Preferences/Defaults and select Set Defaults for Small Screens. There's probably other ways to get a higher resolution by editing the X11 config files, but that's beyond the scope of this post.

Midnight Commander can be run from the terminal (local or via SSH) by typing mc at the prompt. You can use a mouse in the terminal window to make selections. For more info, just do a Google search for Midnight Commander.

rpi-clone allows you to make an image backup of (and from) a running RPi. For usage info, see https://github.com/billw2/rpi-clone.

It's really best if connected with a monitor/keyboard and mouse. It is built for a desktop after all. Otherwise it's probably preferable to use the Lite image.

It will fit on an 8GB SD card and have about 500 MB free, but I would suggest a 16GB card for future software additions. The image will expand on first boot so be patient.

If you run into any issues, let me know. As engines/code are updated, I will try to keep these images updated.

Don't forget to make your wpa_supplicant.conf file in the /boot partition before inserting the SD card into the Pi, if you are using wifi. And run raspi-config to set your locale and timezone, etc.

Links:

Desktop (3.3 GB)

Lite (3.3 GB)

Randy

[Tom Emmelot]

Hi Randy.

you give me something to do tomorrow ;)

Thanks again, i hit the zak in a few moments ;)

Kind regards,

Tom

Op maandag 28 december 2020 om 20:58:36 UTC+1 schreef RandyR:

[RandyR]

I have updated my images to include the new MESS compile from Al. See the first post for the links.

Randy

[Etienne]

Hi Randy,

First I was happy to see some mame that were not working being fixed (Vancouver, London.....that were working in 2.01 but not in previous v3): I assupe that the mess upgrade did something....Then I was stuck with freezes when navigating in the dgt3000 clock menu (I have a PI4 connected to the clock through GPIO)

The log seems to tell there is a communication error btwn the pi and the clock:

2020-12-31 07:04:22.730 WARNING         pi - _process_incoming_clock_forever: GetButtonMessage returned error -6

2020-12-31 07:04:22.788 WARNING         pi - _display_on_dgt_pi: SetText() returned error -6, running configure

2020-12-31 07:04:22.832 WARNING         pi - _run_configure: Configure() also failed -6, resetting the dgtpi clock

2020-12-31 07:04:22.892 WARNING         pi - _display_on_dgt_pi: finally failed -6

2020-12-31 07:04:22.892 WARNING         pi - _process_incoming_clock_forever: GetButtonMessage returned error -6

2020-12-31 07:04:22.892 WARNING      iface - _create_task: DgtApi command DGT_DISPLAY_TEXT failed result: False

2020-12-31 07:04:22.993 WARNING         pi - _process_incoming_clock_forever: GetButtonMessage returned error -6

I have noticed that the core_freq and min core_freq were set up at 250mhz. However whith v2.01 it was working ok without this freq setting with the appropriate files from Lucas (dgtpicom and dgtpicom.so). I tried to replace those files but it failed.

Any idea would be welcome? 

Regards,

Etienne

[Charles Declercq]

Hello everyone.

I downloaded last night the last image for DGT3000 PI, tested today and everything is OK.

Thank you very much.

I have a question (from newbie?): this image is 7.13 GB.

The one I was using was 15.5 GB (and worked very well).

What's the difference between the new image and the old one?

And already all my wishes for the entry in 2021.

Charles

[RandyR]

Hi Etienne. Thanks for the feedback on the wired Pi4.

Yes, the image was (initially) made just for the DGTPi so the entries in config.txt for core_freq and min_core_freq were added accordingly. I overlooked those entries later when I changed the image from Marcel's v10 base so you should be able to fix it by adding the following lines to the [pi4] section:

[pi4]

# Enable DRM VC4 V3D driver on top of the dispmanx display stack

dtoverlay=vc4-fkms-v3d

max_framebuffers=2

core_freq=500

core_freq_min=500

Just remember that if there is an [all] section below it, with different settings, it will override the [pi4] section. On the RPi4, I would just comment out the core_freq=250 and core_freq_min=250 lines for the DGTPi.

Let me know if this helps.

It's interesting that I get the same errors using RPiOS64 in the DGTPi...

Oh, and try using the web browser clock buttons instead of directly on the DGT3000. I suspect that will work better if the above issue is still present.

Randy

[RandyR]

Hi Charles,

The images I provided (Lite and Desktop) have the root partition shrunk and will expand on first boot to fill the SD card. I think the 15.5 GB image was the first one provided by Dirk (un-shrunk).

Randy

[Charles Declercq]

Thank you Randy. Now I understand why the first start took longer. Thanks again.

[Etienne]

Thanks Randy,

It seems to have fixed the issue but I will need to do more testing.

Have a good new year eve!

All the best, Etienne

[RandyR]

Sounds good, Etienne.

And Happy New Year to you and everyone else in our community. I hope 2021 brings good health and happiness to all.

Randy

[RandyR]

I have created a new Desktop image which should work better on standalone RPi's. I had to change the VNC server back to TightVNC due to some issues with sound. The logon address is now <ip address of your Pi>:1.  The image is based on the minimal version of Raspberry Pi OS Desktop. It is currently set for the DGTPi so for standalone Pi's, comment out (#) the DGTPi = true line in picochess.ini.

I have been unsuccessful getting a higher resolution in the VNC screen. If someone can solve that, I'd be happy to hear the solution.

Let me know if you run into issues. See the first post for more info. Most is still relevant.

Happy New Year!

Randy

[Henri]

Hi there Randy,

First of all HAPPY NEW YEAR, may it be full of pleasant Picochess surprises!

I've tried out your latest image headless on both DGT-Pi and Pi4 standalone, and VNC and sound work well (though a bit soft). But now I'm having trouble with my windows remote desktop through xrdp. I can't use sudo in the graphical remote desktop X11 environment at all, programs like synaptic and gparted show a working mouse cursor for some seconds and then it stops without opening the program. When I try to start gparted with sudo through the command line I get a '(gpartedbin:1903): Gtk-WARNING **: 07:25:11.930: cannot open display: :10.0' error.'

I looked around on the internet and tried some stuff, but to no avail. Strange thing is that everything works well with VNC, so it has to do with the remote graphical shell of X11 under windows.

I do not urge you to get into this problem yourself, but maybe another windows user has the same problems and knows a way out. In any case I'll stick with your last 2020 image for now, because that one worked well in the rdp respect.

Henri

Op vrijdag 1 januari 2021 om 00:34:37 UTC+1 schreef RandyR:

[Henri]

Hi there Randy,

There is a way out though, removing the tightvncserver makes the windows remote desktop work well again....

I guess it's a matter of choice, either VNC or RDP! ;)

Henri

Op vrijdag 1 januari 2021 om 14:52:42 UTC+1 schreef Henri:

[Tom Emmelot]

Hi ALL,

All the best wisches for 2021, and stay well and keep up good spirrit!

Kind regards,

Tom

Op vrijdag 1 januari 2021 om 16:30:43 UTC+1 schreef Henri:

[RandyR]

Hi Henri,

Thanks for letting me know. Yes, I suspect it has something to do with TightVNC using Display:1.  I'm not an expert by any stretch but I think RealVNC used Display:0 when headless. I could be wrong, though. I'll play around with it to see if there's a way to get XRDP to work with TightVNC headless.

I would have liked to stay with RealVNC (only because it is what comes with RPiOS and is integrated into the interfaces menu) but changing the resolution via raspi-config for some reason blocked the audio in PicoChess when started automatically (manually worked).

The other issue was that Bluetooth wasn't working on the standalone RPi4. Not sure why but this time I made the image on the RPi4 so hopefully it works. Maybe Dirk can test it and let me know.

If you removed TightVNC, run sudo crontab -e and remove the bottom line (which started the TightVNC server on boot).

Randy

[Dirk]

Happy new year to all,

yes: bluetooth is working fine with your latest image on a (stand alone) PI, Randy!

I also would have loved to keep RealVNC instead of TigerVNC because now I can connect via TigerVNC  from my Mac but I have not found any client for my iPad that would work with the TigerVNS Server :-(

Furthermore mame will give errors when starting in normal mode with GUI output: So no GUI opens when. starting mame :-(

I think RealVNC would be better to be used when the working resolution would be a little bit higher...

Dirk

[Dirk]

I meant bluetooth is working fine on a standalone PI4 (and Pi3).

[Dirk]

That is the error I get when trying to strait mame manually:

[RandyR]

Hi Dirk,

Thanks for confirming the Bluetooth.

Those errors are probably because TightVNC is not using Display:0.

Yes, TightVNC, not TigerVNC. :^)

RealVNC can work by setting the resolution in raspi-config, but you need to start picochess manually (or restart it) after connecting via your VNC viewer to get the sound back.

I'm leaning toward going back to RealVNC...

Randy

[Dirk]

Funny: My Mac client really is TigerVNC Client that works with the TightVNCSever and I was not aware of the name difference ;-) 

Regarding RealVNC: A pity that Marcel is not active in this forum at the moment - he could probable give some information why he choose the TightVNC instead of RealBVNC!?

When I started mame directly ,mamnually with GUI support on you image before the last one I had such a low resolution that I could not choose any engine/machine in the mame frontend. But maybe the GUI of the chess engine when starting via the modified batch script looked all right and you would have been able to operate the chess computer?

Thanks

Dirk

[RandyR]

Dirk,

What resolution did you pick in raspi-config? Also, do you mean it was too low on your iPad, or both Mac and iPad? Also, is it an iPad mini or the regular size?

Yes, Marcel could provide some insight. There are other VNC servers out there we could test.

Randy

[Dirk]

I kept the default one because of the  missing sound when choosing any other.

And the default one (I no longer have the image, I think it was something with 720 x ?)

If the gui of the engine itself looks fine and could be operated this way would be enough I think (although it really looks no good with such a resolution.

I habe an iPadPro and the on my Mac the current TightVNC resolution looks fine but I could not test on my iPad because of a missing client (but I always searched for ToigerVNC in the AppStore - I will try tightVNC again)

Dirk

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[RandyR]

The sound issue is indeed a puzzler. I think Henri is right - it's probably related to pulse-audio. I just don't understand why it can work at the default resolution (720x480).

I notice that when you use a different resolution and log in via ssh without using a VNC viewer, and run PicoChess manually, there is no sound. If you play a sound from the command line using play or aplay, it plays, but if you try playing it as root (either via sudo, or sudo su) you don't hear anything, even though the sound is being played 'somewhere'. 

I've tried a few things but have had no luck.

One thing I came across to increase the VNC resolution was to comment out (#) the dtoverlay=vc4-fkms-v3d line in the pi4 section. Then you can see whatever resolution you set via raspi-config.

Maybe the trick is to find where the 'default' resolution is held and change it there. :^)

Randy

[RandyR]

Success!

I'll upload a new Desktop image tomorrow (Saturday).

Randy

[Henri]

Nice Randy, can't wait!

I have been in contact with Marcel Vanthoor today through email, most probably he will be back in this group tomorrow. Maybe (hopefully) he can shed some light on a few details of his 1.0 image.

Henri

Op zaterdag 2 januari 2021 om 02:22:36 UTC+1 schreef RandyR:

[Etienne]

Hi Randy,

Actually, setting up the frequency and min frequency to 5OO didn't help on my Rasp4.

I tried to connect to the board instead of I2R and seems ok but got an issue with changing engine.

So I have set up a 3B in place of my Rasp4 (via I2r) to see if it makes a difference with the PicoV3DGTPiDesktop image

Everything seems to work fine untill I update picochess.ini with email, player...

Then I get stuck when changing the engine/level. As everything is frozen and I need to remove the power. It doesn't work at next start up: impossible to change engine.

The log says: 2021-01-02 08:45:50.998 WARNING         pi - _process_incoming_clock_forever: GetButtonMessage returned error -8

I have been flashing a few time the image a few time and I onlt noticed that changing the picochess.ini is the start of the problems.

Any idea?

Best R,

Etienne

[RandyR]

Hi Etienne,

I'm almost finished compressing the new Desktop image and will upload shortly. How are you making the changes to the picochess.ini file? Are you using SSH or VNC, editing them on another linux computer?

Randy

[Etienne]

Hi Randy, I am using SSH

It doesn't make sense that changing picochess.ini would generate communication issues btwn the PI and the clock, right?

Now I am back with a 3B connected to the board on a 2.01 image: it seems to work....but I will need to try again with your new Picochess 3 image.

Alos I didn't get the difference between regular and desktop image.

Etienne 

[RandyR]

Hi Etienne,

No, it shouldn't make any difference as long as the dgtpi line is set correctly. The Lite version does not have the desktop software installed so if you connected a monitor you would only get the commandline interface. Also, no VNC or anything that requires a graphical interface. You should try the Lite version (which is already uploaded).

Randy

[RandyR]

I have updated the Dessktop and Lite versions of my PicoChess V3 images (see first post for links), with the updated MESS build from Al (stripped). I have reverted back to RealVNC and am now using the virtual vncserver, which is set to operate on a virtual display :1. The benefit of this is that you can change the resolution of the virtual vnc server to whatever you like. It is currently set to 1920x1080, but you can permanently change it by editing (as root) the file /usr/lib/systemd/system/vncserver-pi.service and changing the following line:

ExecStart=/usr/bin/vncserver -geometry 1920x1080 :1

and altering the resolution values. This allows us to keep the unattached display:0 resolution at default (720x480) which ensures the sound still works. This should only be an issue when running headless (no monitor attached). 

To make a non-permanent change (i.e. create another vnc server instance that won't survive reboot) just enter the following command via SSH:

vncserver -geometry <width x height> (e.g. vncserver -geometry 1024x768) and note the new server address (e.g. 192.168.0.30:2, or picochess:2) and use that to login via VNC. (To use the hostname, enter e.g. picochess.local:2 for the server address, it should work - otherwise use the ip address). Sudo is not required as you are creating the server for the current user (pi).

This does create a problem if using VNC to do certain tasks that would normally require root privileges (GParted, Synaptic). In this case, you should create a root instance of the virtual server. Via SSH:

sudo su     <--- this will switch you from pi to a root shell

vncserver

Take note of the new server address <ip address>:x which is what you will connect to using your VNC Viewer (I would suggest using RealVNC if you can, but the password is set to a VNC password (picochess) so any client should work.) Use root as the username in this case.

To exit the root shell above, just type exit. The server will continue to run until reboot or you kill it (e.g. vncserver -kill :2)

Just a reminder, it is configured for the DGTPi (or wired Pi/DGT3000) so make the appropriate changes if using a standalone Pi. Don't forget to add your wpa_supplicant.conf file to the boot partition before inserting into the Pi (if you use wifi). First boot will be longer - be patient.

Please test and provide feedback with any issues you run into. Or if the instructions above are confusing (sorry).

Randy

[Dirk]

Thanks, Randy.

Will try the images in the next days...

Dirk

[Dirk]

Hi Randy,

both images work on a stand alone PI3 with bluetooth (PI4 will be tested next).

Regarding the DesktopOS and mame gui output (the only reason for the DesktopOS for me):

Unfortunately it only works when we call mame from the (X11?) window not from SSH terminal or when picochess starts a Mame ENGINE (cause it is a started in a non X11 environment I guess and not from the Desktop GUI.

Really a pity.

Starting mame from Desktop: fine

Starting mame from pure SSH terminal: segmentation fault

Starting a mame engine from picochess when picochess runs as a service:  segmentation fault

I guess we can't call a gui application with gui output from picochess running as a service like we do at the moment....

Dirk

RandyR schrieb am Samstag, 2. Januar 2021 um 21:01:04 UTC+1:

[RandyR]

Thanks for the test, Dirk.

I’ll see if I can find a way to make it work. There might be a way to redirect the output but you are probably correct - when picochess starts up, there is no display running when you are headless.

Randy

[Etienne]

Hi Randy,

After further testing, I think I had two issues:

A my jack extension was faulty and a shorter connection seems to stabilize the I2C connection

B when setting manualy my location in picochess.ini I get frozen in the engine level set up at following start up ?!

 Will continue testing....

Best R,

Etienne

[Henri]

Hi Randy,

Tested it for short on my Pi4, same problem: https://groups.google.com/g/picochess/c/Ca593LxTBfw/m/a6Y0sfhLCQAJ

Only, after removing VNC the problem remained this time. Shame.

Henri

Op zondag 3 januari 2021 om 08:17:10 UTC+1 schreef Etienne:

[Kiko Gomez]

Hi Dirk & Randy

If you want to have MAME front end with picochess just modify picochess.service in /etc/systemd/system as below:

[Unit]

Description=PicoChess stand alone chess computer based on DGT board

[Service]

Environment="DISPLAY=:0"

Environment="XAUTHORITY=/home/pi/.Xauthority"

Type=simple

ExecStart=/usr/bin/python3 /opt/picochess/picochess.py

ExecStop=/usr/bin/pkill -f picochess.py

WorkingDirectory=/opt/picochess/

[Install]

WantedBy=graphical.target

This will work on Display:0 that will be a screen attached to HDMI or default VNC SERVER that you active from raspi-config.

Just be sure that you configure the Raspberry to start with GUI in raspi-config

Best Regards

Kiko

[Kiko Gomez]

... And sound is working tested with 1920x1080 FHD resolution ;)

[Kiko Gomez]

To avoid problems with sound in Rpi4 just remember use legacy openGL driver from raspi-config, by default is using openGL Desktop Driver.

That's all

(by now) ;)

[RandyR]

Kiko, that is wonderful! I was hoping someone with a better understanding of Linux would have the answer. I don’t know how long I would have spent trying to figure it out given my lack of knowledge, if I ever would. I hope it’s what Dirk is looking for.

Thanks for sharing.

Randy

[RandyR]

Etienne, a couple questions - are you using any special characters in the location (e.g. accents) and did you change the localization options for locale (character set, keyboard)?

Randy

[RandyR]

Hi Henri. Sorry xrdp isn’t working for you. I’ll have a look at it today and see if I can figure it out. I wonder if it has anything to do with me disabling lxpolkit in /etc/xdg/lxsession/LXDE-pi/desktop.conf in order to prevent an error popping up when connecting via VNC.

Randy

[Dirk]

Incredible - that was exactly what I was looking for - thank you Kiko and Randy for the image!

But I have a problem when I  use the modified picochess.service with DISPLAY=:0  I wont see the Mame gui on my VNC Screen.

When I connect via RealVNC Client to picochess I have to use the IP also with :1, with :0 it won't connect.

And that is with the original otherwise unchanged image.

So you could connect via VNC with :0?

So I set DISPLAY=:1 in the picochess.service and it worked!

Starting a Mame ENGINE via picochess will bring ump the GUI- great!

But now I have no sound (probably because of using 1 instead of 0 which will tunnel the sound to somewhere else??!?

So I read your remark regarding the OpenGL driver which could create sound issues on the PI4 (but Im testing on a PI3 at the moment).

I only see the following options and choose the first one (hopefully that is correct for the PI3 or do we have to use the fake ones?):

Do you know how to be able to use display :=0 instead of 1?

Thanks

Dirk

[RandyR]

We’re so close. 😊

Dirk, where are you expecting sound? Through the speaker attached to the Pi? Did you try forcing it to the audio jack using raspi-config?

Randy

[Dirk]

Yeah I am sure we will get this thing working...

Correct it is set to the audio jack and I heard the sound before I had changed the display to :1.

But with display 0 I only have sound but no GUI output from picochess and with 1 I see the GUI but hear no sound. That is really tricky...

Dirk

Von meinem iPad gesendet

Am 03.01.2021 um 13:28 schrieb RandyR <randy...@gmail.com>:

We’re so close. 😊

Dirk, where are you expecting sound? Through the speaker attached to the Pi? Did you try forcing it to the audio jack using raspi-config?

Randy

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[Kiko Gomez]

Hi Dirk,

I have sound on display:0 with Rpi 3 & 4, only thing I did before change the picochess service was disabling second VNC Server, for that:

sudo service stop vncserver-pi

sudo systemctl disable vncserver-pi.service

I do the conecction without :0, just the ip address. Are you sure you enable vnc server from raspi-config?

So my steps was, from last Randy image:

1.- open ssh

2.- disable second vnc server(sudo service stop vncserver-pi; sudo systemctl disable vncserver-pi.service)

3.- enable legacy openGL driver (raspi-config)

4.- Restart

5.- enable vnc server (raspi-config)

6.- restart

7.- Change picochess.service

8.- restart

After that I can change resolution from rasperry pi Desktop in Vnc viewer and sound keep working. 

But there are a small issue, I was testing my roms and some of them have a warning message that need pulse any key to continue, and dont finish the loading of engine until any key is pulse, I was googling that and looks like only solution is recompile mess to be able to load the engines without warning messaging, and that is too much for me.

-Kiko

[Dirk]

Hi Kiko,

I wasn't aware that you changed the VNC server - that might change it back to display 0 and then sound might be working (but as I said there is no option "enable legally opengl driver for my PI3s" - I will try it anyway.

regarding the warnings: Yes that's the disadvantage when using mame with frontend (without these popups cant pop up ;-) and yes we would have to modify the mame frontend part for this (I did this years back so my code will most probably have changed in the meantime and I don't know if I can still find this modification :-(

Dirk

[RandyR]

Having sound working when using display :0 with RealVNC enabled in Interfaces (vice the virtual vncserver) at a higher resolution than (720x480) in a headless setup would be awesome. 

Randy

[Kiko Gomez]

Hi Dirk,

legacy OpenGl is the G1 option in the screen capture that you sent, that is from a Rpi3. Also you can comment dtoverlay=vc4-fkms-v3d in /boot/config.txt

You can be sure that you are using legacy driver if you are able to change screen resolution from raspberry pi config in desktop, and you dont have independent screen resolution program in menu.

Kiko

[Dirk]

Perfect Kiko - it works with above your instructions!!!!!

Switching to display 0 this way allows us to change resolution in raspi-config and hear the sound and see the mame gui output!!!

With RealVNC Viewer I can now see and operate the engines via my iPad (ether is even a touch option that you can just touch the screen and don't have to simulate the mouse movements - great.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fyv3dquqhy2b50b/pico_mame_v3_gui.MOV?dl=0

So for a perfect experience there is only a nice fullscreen mode missing (I could not find one only enhancing the window) and we must get rid off the warning pop ups...

Thanks to all!

@Randy: Don't know if it makes sense to create another image with all these changes because I don't know how many people would be interested in these kind of nerdy things ;-)

Anyway really cool!

Thanks 

Dirk

[Dirk]

Changed my mind: Because of the warning pop ups it is not a good idea to put these changes (at least picochess service running in a X11 environment) into an image unless we have fixed this because people without a VNC connection would no longer be able to play these engines.

Dirk

[RandyR]

So, if I understand correctly, when the video is enabled in the engine script, the engine won't work in picochess without a GUI actually running? If so, maybe there's a software script that could be designed to detect the environment in use. At any rate, I think we've made great progress. I will definitely update the image(s) if we get to point where it works for everyone.

As it stands now, I think anyone wanting these features is probably fairly conversant in making changes in Linux files via SSH.

Perhaps it's time to get a dedictated small touchscreen for the Pi. :^)

Thanks everyone.

Randy

[Kiko Gomez]

warning issue solved: just run sudo ./mess from /opt/picochess/engines/mame_emulation and turn off warnings from configuration. ;)

[RandyR]

Of course!

Thanks, Kiko!

Randy

[Kiko Gomez]

Another update, to use it in full screen mode while we are using MESS add -nowindow to the MESS files in /opt/picochess/engines/armv7l/mame

That's all now lets go play some vintage chess ;)

[Dirk]

Yes Randy, you are right: As long as nobody changes the "no video" option in the engine scripts it should work for all men from X11.

Dirk 

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[Dirk]

I will check th wearing option (I was sure that some warnings nevertheless pop used in the past because the mame team wanted them to be noticed in every case so that the modification was necessary. But that might have changed in the meantime...

I will check this out together with the fullscreen option.

Thanks, Kiko!

Dirk

[RandyR]

Henri,

You might want to use the Lite version and follow the steps here to get xrdp working. I'll still see if I can use it on the Desktop version...

Randy

[Henri]

Randy,

Ok, will do, thanks!

Henri

Op zondag 3 januari 2021 om 17:29:51 UTC+1 schreef RandyR:

[RandyR]

Henri,

There is a workaround for the Desktop image.

First disable the virtual VNC server and reboot:

sudo systemctl disable vncserver-pi

sudo reboot

Then install xrdp:

sudo apt install xrdp

systemctl show -p SubState --value xrdp      <----- should show 'Running'

sudo adduser xrdp ssl-cert

Login via RDP as pi. Open a terminal and type:

xhost si:localuser:root

This will allow you to launch gparted and synaptic from the terminal with sudo. You can remove root with:

xhost -si:localuser:root

It seemed slower than VNC to me. Maybe it was because it was in my DGTPi rather than the Pi4b which I tested with VNC.

Randy

[Henri]

Hi there Randy,

I've downloaded the lite version and installed xrdp afterwards, just like you suggested. As seems to work well, and I won't install a VNC server version. Good enough for me!

Thanks,

Henri

[Randy Reade]

That's great Henri. Much easier route, and you can still install the software you need/want. :^)

Randy

[Dirk]

Regarding mame and the warning pop up:

Unfortunately my assumption was right: Although we can se a (for me new!?) option to suppress such warnings (skip imperfect emulation warnings) I still get them with some engines.

Hmm I guess for these engines we still need the modification....

Dirk

[Randy Reade]

You mean the mod to the engine script?

Randy

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[Dirk]

Another observation:

With the desktop Image and GUI output enabled the emulation of the chess computers seems to be way slower than the headless version with the lite image and no gui output (I don't think it is the DesktopOS version per se but more the GUI output of mame. That is also the reason that for retro gaming on a PI special compiled mame version are used and not the default one we use for picochess.

At the moment I have this DesktopOS only in my development PI3 and not the PI4 so maybe on the PI4 it is not sich an performance issue but on a PI3 I wouldn't recommend such a solution at the moment. 

Don't know if it is only my system but for the moment I think I wont use the DesktopOS with mame gui as my main playing system...
Dirk 

[Dirk]

No Randy,  it is a main config option of mess  (see the scree capture above)- Don't know if this is also a command line option for mame.

[Randy Reade]

Ok.

I suspect you are right about the performance issue on the Pi3. I'm definitely not seeing 100% speed (<70 on mm4 using xrdp).

Randy

[Dirk]

Yes and it is getting worse if you choose an engine with lots of graphics calculated by the engine like an additional lcd output display (my chess champion super system iii runs almost in slow motion with the additional lcd display :-(

Von meinem iPad gesendet

Am 04.01.2021 um 18:58 schrieb Randy Reade <randy...@gmail.com>:



Ok.

I suspect you are right about the performance issue on the Pi3. I'm definitely not seeing 100% speed (<70 on mm4 using xrdp).

Randy

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[Kiko Gomez]

Hi Dirk,

changing "Skip imperfect emulation warnings" to ON, at least in my system, the warning appear only first time that you run each machine, after that no warnings, I dont feel performance lost but Im using RPi4 overclocked to 2.3Ghz, I will check that with more care tomorrow.

BR

[Kiko Gomez]

Also Im not using realistic artworks, just the default ones and with -nowindow options, may be this also have influence.

BR

Kiko

[Dirk]

Hi Kiko,

Yes I’m using realistic artworks (that is the fun part fir me) but I think as they are static it won’t be the issue .

Regarding the warning:  ok I just checked once so I will check again.

Yes on a pi4 it will definitely be better at least all very old chess computers with 8 bit processor should run fine.

But of course my v3 also needs more performance power especially with tutor and coach on.

Dirk

Von meinem iPad gesendet

Am 04.01.2021 um 20:14 schrieb Kiko Gomez <kinam...@gmail.com>:

Also Im not using realistic artworks, just the default ones and with -nowindow options, may be this also have influence.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/picochess/3b1a5978-c0f7-4141-bfc9-12a41abc1c9cn%40googlegroups.com.

[Kiko Gomez]

Hi Dirk,

just for curiosity, this is my performance with system III and Tasc R30 with PicoTutor active.

CPU load is always less than 60% may be changing resolutions in realistic artworks can have some impact in performance .... I will try to do some experiments tomorrow.

BR 

Kiko

[Scally]

Hi all,

This playing MAME engines and opening the corresponding graphical interface has had my full interest of late. Especially yesterday when Randy told Henri about trying XRDP instead of VNC. All my Picochess systems have been built on Lite versions of Raspbian so I was particularly motivated to avoid a full desktop version with VNC. So today I emailed Henri, Dirk and Randy after getting the graphical versions working on XRDP but having problems integrating it into Picochess. With a great deal of assistance from Randy we now have it fully working.

A big thank you is also due to Kiko who announced the VNC method on here yesterday. The procedure is very similar, I’ll knock up what we did to get it all working tomorrow. In the mean time I have a script to write to make the necessary alterations to my MAME engines rather than doing them all manually.

Here’s a link to very rough, rushed video to wet your appetites:

2021-01-04 20.48.49.mov

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1s0ukiz7hvd5nyi/2021-01-04%2020.48.49.mov?dl=0

(After I loading the video I noticed the similarity between the 2 boards, sorry...)

Cheers,

Al. 

[Kiko Gomez]

Hi, 

just for curiosity, what is the reason or adventage to use Xrdp instead of Realvnc?

Kiko

[Scally]

Hi Kiko,

I doubt there is any difference between the 2 methods for using MAME with Picochess.

As I said earlier all my previous systems were Based on Raspbian Lite I had no need for a full desktop system. Also my Picochess system is heavily personalised. I doubt if there’s any visible difference to the end user, but I just didn’t want to start again with a new image and add everything back in. Randy’s XRDP suggestion offered me a quick and easy solution. Yes I could have installed a full desktop over my existing system and used VNC, I just wanted to try alternatives before I took the plunge. I’m aware I now have a small Pixel desktop environment, but I won’t be using any other features except for the graphical MAME link.

I thank you once again for helping us make this wonderful dream a reality.

Cheers,

Al.

[Kiko Gomez]

clear Al, 

and Im who must be grateful for the big job that you, Dirk, Henri, Randy and all the people that spend his time and share his job to bring this to us, if my small contributions can help to yours job Im very happy for do it.

BR

Kiko

[Dirk]

Hi Al,

Great you got it working for as well.

So what is the max. resolution you get on that “small Pixel desktop”?

Could you please post a screenshot?

Furthermore it would be cool if we should check some of the intensive chess engines which we own for the performance loss on a desktop or the xrdp environment - then people could decide if they are really willing to pay that in order to have graphical output.

I checked with the desktop image I can really switch the real VNC client to a touch like interfpface so that I can really operate the machines with just one click/touch like in the real world (on windows I alway had to do double touches) - maybe there is also such an option for the xrdp client for iPad?

Dirk

[Scally]

Hi Dirk,

I’m not really a “desktop” person. I don’t like windows pc’s or tablets either, I only use the damn things to do the very basics like load or save an image.

Whilst messing about on the limited Pixel desktop I think I changed the screen resolution, that’s probably when the Picochess voice stopped working, I could get the mame engine “beeps” but nothing more out of my speaker connected to the DGT Pi. Luckily for me, Randy was on the ball again and suggested I change the resolution in the  raspi-config  menu to 720x480 , this fixed my voice issue.

I had to use double clicks to use the menus,  I’ll have a quick play to see what resolutions I can get & wether I could use a single click, but it’s not really my thing, I have no use for a desktop environment, that’s where the VNC option on a full desktop is probably better, but it’s not for me.

I have knocked up a script that changes all MAME engines to work in the graphical environment, rather than change them all manually. I’ll include it in my instructions later.

Cheers,

Al.

[RandyR]

Hi Dirk,

I finally was able to sleep in and missed all of this conversation. :^)

As I understand it, xrdp creates its own X server display environment separate from the one that would launch at startup if you had a monitor attached to the pi. When you adjust the resolution using raspi-config, you are only adjusting the display for the normal X server, which won't start unless it detects a monitor attached. I suspect we are losing audio because the (normal) X server isn't running when picochess starts up. I found that you could stop the picochess service and then start picochess manually and the sound would be OK (when we were fooling around with VNC before Kiko helped us out). Since xrdp is creating its own virtual X server environment, you can run it at any resolution you want. I was running at 1920x1080 on my laptop (in Linux Mint using Vinagre's RDP mode) with raspi-config at 720x480. 

You can install Microsoft Remote Desktop on Mac and iPad from the App Store. Also Android if you have an Android tablet. And, as you found, the tough interface works, too. :^)

Kiko,

I'm not sure what the advantages of RDP are over VNC, but Henri was using it and was having problems when VNC was enabled on the Desktop image. It may just be a personal preference. I think you can have sound over RDP. Can you do that with VNC?

One thing that is different with xrdp is that you are using the Xorg Desktop Environment rather than Pixel so there are some differences in what you can see and do, from a desktop perspective. But, for just providing a GUI for mame, I think it will appeal to the minimalist users. I am not an expert at xrdp so it may be more capable than first glance.

Randy

[Henri]

Hi all,

Xrdp auto-adjusts to the resolution of the monitor that is involved, which I think is rather nice. As far as I know RDP does not support sound.

Henri

Op dinsdag 5 januari 2021 om 16:50:03 UTC+1 schreef RandyR:

[Dirk]

Yes, it looks there is no sound vis the xrdp standard protocol but even worse as Randy assumed it looks like the mame sound via the attached pi speaker is missing as well as you can hear (or better not hear) in Als video which for me would be a dealbreaker and I would go for the desktop solution if performance on a PI4 is still powerful enough to run all of my engines with 100%

Hmmm...

Von meinem iPad gesendet

Am 05.01.2021 um 17:05 schrieb Henri <hwspij...@gmail.com>:



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[Scally]

Hi Henri,

Now you tell us there’s no sound ..... argh 😄

I’ve been pulling my hair out (none left 🤣) and told Dirk & Randy I was having problems with voices from Chester & Voice Challenger.

Randy and me have been trying to troubleshoot this, albeit not for that long ... that’s a deal breaker unfortunately.

Al.

[Henri Spijkerman]

Hi Al,

 

I do not understand. I have a speaker attached (audio jack) and get perfect normal sound and mame sound. So what’s the problem?

 

Henri

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[Henri]

Hi Dirk,

I have 'normal' and MAME-sound with my Pi4 and DGT-pi with a speaker attached via audio-jack. Am I missing something? ;)

Henri

Op dinsdag 5 januari 2021 om 17:25:20 UTC+1 schreef Dirk:

[Dirk]

No you are not missing something, Henry but obviously As as he only gets picochess sound but no mane sound via the speaker.

If Al has not switched it off accidentally in the scripts it is an issue with his setup...

Dirk 

Von meinem iPad gesendet

Am 05.01.2021 um 17:40 schrieb Henri <hwspij...@gmail.com>:



To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/picochess/9e1c982a-e1ef-4006-b0cd-0ab1b2365f44n%40googlegroups.com.

[Scally]

Hang on guys,

Now I’m confused, it was Henri who said RDP doesn’t support sound, but now his system is working?

Henri, when we spoke yesterday you didn’t have a working XRDP system which was one of the reasons I was looking into it.

Is your working system XRDP or VNC?

Randy has built a system from scratch from Raspbian Lite and is also having the same sound problems as me.

Very strange,

Al.

[Dirk]

I think Henry meant that the xrdp protocol itself is not supporting sound so that you can’t hear it over your iPad when having a xrdp connection.

But xrdp shouldn’t normally conflicts with the sound attached to the pi I would assume.

But obviously it does like the desktop is at the beginning when changing the resolution...

Dirk 

Von meinem iPad gesendet

Am 05.01.2021 um 18:14 schrieb Scally <scall...@gmail.com>:

Hang on guys,

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/picochess/ecf71272-340a-441c-8044-ce15729c4639n%40googlegroups.com.

[Kiko Gomez]

Hi all,

I start to be confused also, in my system with standard VNC I have sound at any resolution that I choose. It is standalone RPi4 and I have disabled DGTPi.service, because I dont needed. If you are having problems with sound on DGTPi, could the problem came from DGTPi service?

Kiko

[RandyR]

Kiko,

Thanks for the assistance. Can you confirm that you have the 'digital tones' when running a mame engine (e.g. MM IV) and also the picochess sound (with the Tuto enabled) in normal raspi-config enabled VNC at a higher resolution than default?

Randy

[Kiko Gomez]

Are you trying to get the sound through remote client or through headphone jack in the pi?

BR

[Kiko Gomez]

Yes, I can send my image to you, if you want to test, I cannot put it here because the roms.

[RandyR]

Hi Kiko,

Through the jack. But I think sound through RDP is possible, from what I've read. Could be wrong though. Something for a later date...

The issue I was having with RealVNC (Display :0) was that if I changed the display resolution on the pi (with no monitor attached) there would be no sound from picochess. I didn't even get to trying the MAME engines for sound. I haven't gone back since playing with xrdp so I suspect the edits you have in the picochess.service along with the config.txt does work.

Which image did you use as a starting point (I suspect the Desktop one)?

Randy

[Kiko Gomez]

Hi Randy,

I use your last Desktop image, so modifications tha i did was:

1.- Change picochess.ini to comment DGTPi, as I told you my system is standalone.

2.- Disable dgtpi.service

3.- Disable vncserver_pi.service the one that is creating the :1 instance.

4.- Disable openGL driver, change to legacy through raspi-config

5- Enable VNC in raspi-config this will create the :0 instance that will be same than attached screen.

6.- Change picochess.service to run on desktop:0 instrucction in my message from day 3.1.2021.

After this Im able to change resolution from "RaspBerry Pi configuration" in Preferences menu inside desktop and all sounds are working MAME and Picochess through speaker attached to Rpi.

BR

Kiko

[RandyR]

Kiko,

Can you post your config.txt?

The dgtpi.service just prints DGT P| on the clock so wouldn't affect sound. But, I always disable it when running standalone on my Pi4b.

I have xrdp working now with mame sounds (without the picochess.service modification) but it requires running picochess manually. Using the service I think picochess starts before the xrdp service is up and running. I'll have to investigate more.

Randy

[RandyR]

Also, starting without a connected RDP session and trying to run a MAME engine configured for video (on Display :10) will crash picochess. Probably no different from VNC.

Randy

[RandyR]

I think the my current best solution for xrdp (if anyone wants to test) is to disable the picochess.service (to prevent picochess from starting automatically), connect via your RDP client (I'm using Vinagre in Linux Mint) and launching picochess in the XTerm terminal via

cd /opt/picochess

DISPLAY=:10 XAUTHORITY=/home/pi/.Xauthority sudo python3 picochess.py

You will then have all the sounds working from your jack-connected speaker. This requires the removal of SDL_VIDEODRIVER=dummy and -video none from the mame engine script of the engine you want to use (in /opt/picochess/engines/armv7l/mame).

There is probably a way to add a menu item on the xrdp desktop to do this automatically. :^)

Randy