I want to take on taper_mike's challenge, and for the occasion opted for downloading GNU, but with a brandnew system and the warning “There is no warranty on these packages. If your system crashes, your monitor explodes or your last dissertation goes to nirvana ... don't blame me¨, i changed my mind. (Nonetheless , i recommend ubuntu, because it is far superior to windows).
Several Linux branches are mentioned, but not ubuntu. Has anyone experience in this?

Solved. I googled, found that there is a gnu in ubuntu software centrum, and got it. Ofcourse i checked my solution, and it was right by 0.001. Pure luck ofcourse. Moderator could remove this topic as far as i am concerned.

Now that you have GnuBg, you are ready to amp up its skill.

Out of the box, it plays a weak 1-ply game. Change these three settings to get a stronger 2-ply result:

Settings > Analysis... > Analysis Level: supremo
Settings > Players... > GNU Backgammon: supremo
Settings > Rollouts... > Play Settings > First Play Both: supremo

These settings give you a strong opponent, yet run very quickly on most machines.

Thanks again for your effort in the first place. Having said that, i used to know a man who did have contributed to the gnu backgammon application, and he told me that the difference between expert and worldclass is negligible, noticable after thousands of games. Did he pull my leg?

Don’t take my word for it. Listen to backgammon giant Neil Kazaross. He wrote recently about the different plies in XG. What he said is equally valid for GnuBg, except that the plies are off by 1. XG 3-ply = GnuBg 2-ply, etc.

http://www.bgonline.org/forums/webbb...es;read=127655

Xavier Dufaure de Citres, the creator of XG, has posted a comparison of GnuBg vs. XG (and others). He reports the difference between GnuBg 2-ply, 3-ply and 4-ply that was found in the study by Michael Depreli.

http://www.extremegammon.com/studies.aspx

One other thing: I did not have to wait thousands of games. I noticed a difference on the very first position you analyzed.

you know i didn't do a rollout, eh?

i've set it to supremo. Sometimes i start with the setup 6 on 18, 6 on 17, 3 on 6, creating weird situations, and gnu supremo, which should be worldclass+, is bungling.

Supremo is not all that different from World Class. Both use GnuBg 2-ply. The only difference in the size of the move filter. Supremo looks at 16 plays within 0.320, instead of 8 plays within 0.160.

I am not surprised it cannot handle your unusual setup. One of the areas where all the bots have trouble is building an outside prime, say, after a massive backgame, and then rolling it forward.

By chance, I played a such a game against GnuBg supremo yesterday, and when I analyzed it in XG (XGR++, Gigantic), it assigned GnuBg a PR over 5! Me? Mine was closer to 15.

I hate to send this message, because i am a big fan of ubuntu.

When the game or match has been analysed, and you click on a faulty move, the application freezes, and you can only end the application.

There is no money incentive to work on this, but the problem is not in windows, while gnu has an alliance with Linux.

Is there any hope for the idealist backgammon player?

What's tangible benefits have you gotten from playing with this starting position? Be specific.

As i have already mentioned, the present setup, dating from 3 centuries ago, leads more or less to the same types of games, often lacking creative potential. I have been experimenting with some setups, and this one may lead to more interesting plays. The only thing is that i have no good player at the moment to try out, and the bot is even worse. So my request is if viewers here are willing to go for some adventure. In two weeks or so i will present it as a topic, and maybe i will gather some harvest.

With a lot of luck i have solved the freezing problem. When you press F11 you get fullscreen display. Next press ESC to get in the normal screen again, and you can continue happily with the match.

Glad you found a way to prevent the crash. It sounds like the bug may still be there, but you know a way to work around it.

In GnuBg, you can click "Help, About gnubg, Report Bug" and file a bug report with the developers. Alternatively, you can send a message to bug-gnubg mailing list:

bug-gnubg@gnu.org

Good luck.

Well, there is bad luck, and i don't think it is necessary to inform gnu, though i did so. Proud of having solved one problem, another problem pops up, namely a really bad evaluation. Gnubg can be downloaded from the ubuntu software center for free, though there are also commercial applications. Rather let them charge 10 dollars for a product that works.

I'm posting a response to this older message because this bug has been reported for the better part of 3 years. It was probably the most widely reported bug, as we have a lot of Ubuntu users. Ubuntu introduced overlay scrollbars in 11.04, and that feature caused this freeze issue. The issue has been resolved for sometime but Debian based distributions have a longer turn around time between things going into testing and appearing for release.

The problem is resolved if one updates Ubuntu 12.04, 12.10, and 13.04 to the latest versions of GNUBG. Preferably you want to make sure you are using GNUBG 0.90+20120429-1 or later which are available in the Universe repository.

Ubuntu 13.10 now uses GNUBG 1.01.003-1 which is based upon the stronger neural network found in the MS Windows 1.02.000 release.

Building from latest source code should yield a product that won't freeze.

Good news. But why is the update not simply in the ubuntu software centre?

What version is the latest in the software centre? Our downstream maintainers (like Debian /Ubuntu) have their own release cycles, and release mechanisms. Unfortunately, I have no control over their distribution, so really can't answer.

Version GNU Backgammon 0.90.0 May 1 2011
Improve also the evaluation and make it commercial.

What version of Ubuntu do you use? GNUBG from May 1, 2011 is definitely is older and pre-dates the freeze bug fix. Accessing the Universe repository can be done with the help on this page: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Repositories/Ubuntu

The neural network has been improved as of release 1.0x, but at this time only Ubuntu 13.10 uses a 1.0x release as part of their normal release mechanism. One can build from the latest source code reasonably easily on Ubuntu. On the GNUBG mailing list I put some basic instructions on the process http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/bu.../msg00005.html. The mailing list web interface has replaced some of the text to hide what it thinks are email addresses. The line:

Is actually suppose to be:

GNUBG could become commercial if we chose but the code would remain open source under the GPL license. There really is nothing to be gained by us by being commercial, and a lot more to lose. GNUBG being open source under the GPL shows that we are willing to bring Backgammon and a strong AI to those who prefer to choose non proprietary software.

Most likely you are using Ubuntu 11.04 or 11.10. The May 1, 2011 build is actually gnubg 0.90+20091206 variant. I pulled out an older 11.10 environment I had laying around. If I knew what version of Ubuntu you are actually using I could produce a 1.02.000 release for you.

I'd also need to know whether you are using 32bit or 64bit. If you don't know you can issue this command and and post the output

As a matter of fact, one year ago I started with ubuntu 12.04 which will have been upgraded meanwhile by all those updates.

This might be a political statement. If at this moment someone would argue that a communist system is inferior to a capitalist system, I would throw in the towel.

If you are running 12.04 and your version is built in May 2011, that is actually a 2009 release which is not up to date at all. The freeze problem was fixed in the first quarter of 2012.

To know exactly what version of the source GNUBG was built against you can open a command prompt and issue this command:

If the date comes back 0.90+20091206-4.1 it is quite old and likely what you have. I just discovered that the updates to prevent freezing isn't available until 12.10. I was previously mistaken when I said 12.04 was updated.

Do you use 64 bit or 32 bit 12.04? Knowing 32/64 bit would allow me to create you a 1.02.000 release with the newest neural network so that it works with 12.04 which also includes the freeze fix.

Not everyone in the world has the motivation to profit from software. I don't make money from GNUBG itself, but I do make money on some of the derivatives associated with being a part of such a project.

GNUBG was originally developed at a time when Snowie was king and some people weren't interested in seeing people have to pay $380 dollars for a reasonable analysis tool. It was also believed that such a tool and its source code would be a benefit to society so the code was licensed under a GPL license.