Installing picochess in pc x64

[Alvaro Fieira]

Hello, everyone.

I've been trying to install Picochess on a x64 pc on Debian wormbook but I can't make it work.
I followed the installation instructions that are in the doc folder but in step 5 (constructing config files) with the engines.py command makes me mistake that you do not find the module called "uci" in line 19.

I would be very grateful if you could give me updated installation instructions.

[Randy Reade]

Hi, Alvaro.

The basic procedure I use is to copy the /opt/picochess folder from the latest Desktop image (preserving permissions) to the /opt folder on your x86-64 Linux system. Then, rename the /opt/picochess/engines/aarch64 folder to x86_64. Search and replace any instances of the 'aarch64' text with 'x86_64' in the /opt/picochess folder (in .py, .ini, .txt or .uci files):

grep --include=\*.{py,txt,ini,uci} -RIl 'aarch64' -r /opt/picochess  | xargs sed -i 's/aarch64/x86_64/g'

Install prerequisite apt packages.

Compile any aarch64 programs (e.g. engines, mess, obooksrv, tcscid) for x86_64, replacing the aarch64 ones and keeping the same names (easier).

Install a python 3.9.2 virtual environment. With the virtual env running, install the python modules for PicoChess.

Install/create services to start PicoChess and the games database and opening book server automatically at boot.

I think that's basically it. I would suggest following the steps in the text file I attached in this post for details. It's alot of work but just start with one engine (edit the engines.ini file to remove ones not compiled for x86_64 (or comment them out with semicolons ';').

Good luck.

Randy

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[Alvaro Fieira]

Thanks, Randy, I've made it work.
I got the steps from the post you mentioned. I have already compiled most of the engines to the version of X86_64, there are some engines that do not find the code or I cannot compile them as for example MCBrain (the source code no longer exists) or Rodent IV and Rodent III (there are no compiling instructions and I cannot compile it on my own). 

To use the retro engines and windows binaries, I guess it will work with just installing MAME and WINE without extra steps, right?

[Randy Reade]

Yes, compile mame and change the executable name to mess (or edit the scripts and change them all to mame). And you should only need Wine for any Windows engines, but there may already be Linux compiles available. I've attached the 3 engines you mentioned. Hopefully they work for you.

Randy

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/picochess/84036ab6-c3b9-47aa-af3d-16f80fb63d97n%40googlegroups.com.