Is Picochess 0.83 image likely to work on Raspberry Pi Zero W?

[Walter]

I see the diminuitive Raspberry Pi Zero now comes in a wireless+bluetooth version.

Pi Zero W has an ARMv6 chip, 512MB RAM.

Since 0.83 runs on the original Raspberry Pi (albeit one engine only), I'm hoping it will run on the Zero W, too.  Any reason it shouldn't?

The smaller size of the Pi Zero W appeals to me, as does the lower power usage = longer battery life.  Reduced engine strength would be a bonus :)

If the answer is "should work", but we haven't tested it yet", I'll order one and give it a try.

I don't consider myself proficient enough to perform a manual install.  Starting with existing 0.83 disk image is something I can easily do.

~Walter

[Al]

Hi Walter,

Mine arrived today. It does work but only has 1 processor and uses armv6l which currently only has 1 engine.
I've been working all afternoon testing 6 old engines, 5 of which have just been passed to Jürgen.
These should be added to PicoChess shortly.

Incidentally PicoChess v0.84 is now out.


Cheers,

Al.

[Walter]

Great -  I'll order one today.  Thank you!

[Al]

Hi Walter,

There are now 6 engines for use with the RPi Zero W.

You will need to update to use these.

One last thing, I'm assuming you have a working image on a micro SD card. This will need updating via

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Also note there is no Ethernet connection so you will have to connect to the internet on another RPi first and add your ssid and password to '/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf' plus ssh has been disabled so you need to set up a blank file named ssh in the /boot directory

Then the RPi Zero will boot and you can note it's IP address by logging into your router.

Any problems give me a shout

Cheers,

Al.

[Walter]

Al,

Fantastic, and thank you!

~Walter

 

[Walter]

My Pi Zero W arrived today and I've now got it running 0.85.  

I don't know how to get my Zero to run any other engines.  It plays OK with whatever engine it boots to, but if I try changing the engine at the start of a new game by placing the extra black queen somewhere on the 6th rank, it crashes.  I presume because the Zero is trying to load an ARMv7 engine that it can't run?

Other 1: I ran apt-get update and apt-get upgrade as suggested.  I didn't set up a blank file called ssh in /boot.  Will I need that file to exist in order to connect to my Zero remotely, e.g., with Putty?

Other 2: Logging onto my router?  Eeek - that may take some digging.  Do I also need the Zero's IP address to connect to it remotely?

With my Pi1/2/3, I've always edited directly, never remotely.  I realize that is not an option here - unless I buy a mini HDMI adapter. 

[Al]

Hi Walter,

Yes your new Zero W is trying to use the armv7l engines as there is a reference to these in the picochess.ini file.

Put the SD Card back in your other working RPi.

Create the blank ssh file in the /boot directory

Edit the /opt/picochess/picochess.ini file and remove the 2 lines at the bottom that select the engine and engine level.

Remove the SD Card and put it back into your Zero W.

You should now be able to select the different engines.

You should also be able to access the webserver by typing picochess.local on a new browser page.

However, to connect via putty or whatever you're using, you will need the new Zero W IP address. I did this by logging into my router
Via 192.168.1.1 and typing my I'd and password (usually admin admin unless changed) yours might be different. I then scrolled down to see the connected devices, and could see raspberrry Pi and its IP address. You will need this to be able to login remotely to make any further changes without haveing to keep swapping the SD Card.

Cheers,

Al.

[Shivkumar Shivaji]

To get IP address, you can also download angry up scanner which will return all ips on your wifi network.

I recall clock button used to return IP address. Is that not the case anymore?

Regards, Shiv

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "PicoChess" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to picochess+...@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.

[Al]

Hi Shiv,

He's trying the new Raspberry Pi Zero W, no clock or Ethernet connection and an armv6 processor. It also has ssh disabled by default.

I managed to get it to work hence Jürgen adding some more armv6 engines ...

Yes there's a few Apps around that he could use to get the IP address, good point.


Cheers,

Al

[Jürgen Précour]

Another way would be to take a look at the title of the webserver window (as long its displayed - for example with a firefox).
It saying "webserver picochess <version> <extIP> <intIP>" ,

Jürgen

[Walter]

Al at al,

The additional instructions did the trick - thank you!  I can now run multiple engines on my pi zero W.

(i.e. adding a blank file named ssh to the /boot directory, and deleting references to the ARMv7 engines in picochess.ini).

Photo below (if it loads) shows my setup.  I'm still impressed with how small the pi zero board is.

An unexpected bonus is that the "official" pi zero case, red with a white cover (cover removed in the photo, so you can see the board inside) is a reasonably good match for the color scheme of the DGT 3000 clock (red base, white buttons on top).  Color match is better than the photo suggests.

The pi zero W is so small I might just use a piece of gum to stick it to the underside of my table, to keep it out of the way :)

~Walter

[Al]

Hi Walter,

I'm glad you're up and running, I didn't realise you had a DGT3000 clock too, you'll find the menus on there far easier to use than the queens.

Assuming you added your router I'd and password as per instructions on March 16th you can get your IP address from the clock.

Press the right arrow, then press the + key until you see System, press the right arrow, press the + key until you see IP adr, then hit the right arrow again.

It will display your IP address over 2 screens, something like 192,168,1,35

You can then log into your RPi Zero W using PuTTY or similar, I use the iPads Termius App.


Cheers,

Al.


p.s. I'm thinking of buying a 2nd hand DGT3000 clock and fitting a RPi Zero W inside, similar to my DGT Pi, I'm sure it'll work 😄

[Shivkumar Shivaji]

The clock is still connected via Bluetooth right? Would not going to system and IP directly on the clock work to get IP address?

Shiv

[Al]

Hi Shiv,

Yes, that's what I was trying to help Walter do, use the clock menu. He was used to using the Queens to select everything (I think) not the clock menu.

Cheers,

Al.

[Walter]

Al and Shiv,

Yes - I can find my IP address from the clock.  I just did.

What is not obvious to me - why is it useful to know it?  (The manual references a webserver, but doesn't provide details.  Future update?)

My primary two activities with picochess are a) playing and b) having a simple, unobtrusive way of analyzing a position (i.e.,  best move or evaluation appearing on a clock and NOT on a computer monitor or tablet screen).

On a different topic - I really like using extra queens to choose engines, time controls and levels.  If I don't have to scroll through a menu - great! :)

I've played with various versions of picochess over the last 4.5 years, starting in the pre-python era.  I still play against 0.06 and the Piface versions occasionally.  (I'd play a lot more if my work allowed it...)  The sophistication and stability of the latest versions, and the ability to choose among many engines, is stunning - so much progress since the early days.  Jean-Francois, Shiv, Al, Jurgen, and probably more - I can't thank you enough for what you've done.

One small vestige of the old picochess days I noticed in the current manual - a reference to waiting for the "blue light" to turn off after system shutdown or system reboot.  I assume the blue light refers to the Rikomagic MK802 that picochess first ran on.  None of my raspberry pi's have blue lights.  Just red and green, or in the case of the Pi Zero W, just green.

If there are specific usability issues you'd like me to investigate, let me know.  I'm of no use when it comes to helping with python, but I can plug things in, move pieces, push clock buttons, and report back on what does or doesn't happen.  

~Walter

[Jürgen Precour]

Hi Walter,

The IPs are mainly for use for the WEBSERVER. And this "future" is there for >50 versions. When i began to dev for picochess, around 0.27-0.30 something, there been such webserver already. So, im not as long a member of picochess as y are.

But y right, the docu has some white spots (like the webserver).
But its now no longer with a "blue light" - at least not on MY master (=>soon online).
Thanks.

Placing queens is alot quicker .. but you cant fine adjust the topics. Its just a quick&easy way to go ahead.


If y want to help us, you can test picochess! That would be great.
You can report things here, or even better (errors) at github.
And since y are with picochess so long, let me say: "please dont use the stable branch". What was called "stable" is now "jromang/master".
It should be without any errors whereas "stable branch" isnt updated at all anymore.

Just enjoy playing with picochess.

Jürgen

[Manfred]

To all folks, who bought the new raspberry pi zero w,

these are my steps for a safe installation with picochess V0.85 into a raspberry pi zero w:

• Don't start from an funcional image, which contains a boot partition formatted with fat16, thats my bitter experience. Zero W won't boot from this! The original image V0.83 contains a fat32 boot partition - please, take this image
  
• Take the original image from the picochess site with V0.83
• Make a micro sd card with the official v0.83 via win32diskmanager
• Put this version into a funktional raspberry pi x with LAN adapter and start yout dgt board with dgt 3000
• Wait for automatic dgt detection via bluetooth
• Get the LAN ip adress for example via fritzbox
• Connect via x-terminal to the rasperry pi via LAN
• Install the tool WPA with "sudo apt-get install wpagui"
• Call WPA_GUI in line mode of the x-terminal, wait a few seconds and scroll to the graphical pseudo GUI with the tool WPA: here you can determine automatical via WPS function (raspberry and router for example fritzbosx) the WLAN IP adress, ssid etc. and store the WLAN parameters
• Make an personal update to v0.85 (3 steps: software, requirements, engines)
• Copy the former saved content of a functional picochess.ini into the actual file picochess.ini
• Redirect the engines-parameter from arm7 to arm6vl for example the zurifr engine or make this lines to comments within the actual picochess.ini
• Reboot the functional raspberry
• Connect via WLAN ssh to your x-terminal
• Make an general software update with apt-get update and apt-get upgrade 
• Make a empty ssh file at /boot with "sudo touch ssh"
• Shutdown the functional raspberry
• Remove the sd micro sd card from the funktional rasperry
• And bring it into the zero w card slot
• When the zero w is booting, you can see a green led nearby the power slot
• You have won, if you can detect an new WLAN ip adress for example with fritzbox
• Connect the new zero w  via WLAN ssh with your x-terninal
• Finish with all other things like soundcard installation etc.

The Raspberry Pi Zero W is a really funny little thing with the mighty picochess program. Excellent!

Manfred

[Al]

Hi Manfred,

That's sounds good, thanks.
I found that after I'd created the blank ssh file it booted in both my RPi 3 and Zero W.

Interestingly Jürgen has suggested I try placing up a wpa_supplicant.conf file in /boot with the ssid and password details completed and this should load on the initial boot. I haven't tried this yet.


Cheers,

Al.

[Jeronimo]

Hi everybody,

I've got picochess 0.98c running on a RPi2 that I want to use for a different project  so I got a RPi Zero due to the built-in wifi and reduced size (the reduced strength bacause of the samller processor doesn't bother me, it will beat me anyway...).

Any idea on the relative strengths of the engines available for the Pi Zero and some aprox. ELO? My ELO is around 2000 and I would like to play against something around 2100 so it gives me a good game.

I hope to be able to configure it properly. If I understood correctly, the main points compared to the installation on a RPi2 (with WIFI dongle) are:

- Start the installation from scratch so I don't have problems with fat16 partitions (so not use the working image on the RPi2)

- No need to configure wifi using /etc/network/interfaces. I only need to modify/configure /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

- Run update and upgrade and also allow ssh

- i can use the picochess.ini running on the RPi2 but deleting the references to armv7l engines at the bottom.

Is this correct?

Thanks a lot.