[XBoard-devel] xboard and Xvfb

[maildest]

Hi!

  I am using xboard in "zippy" mode (using the -zp flag) to play automatically 
(as duckbreath) on the ICC.  I use Xvfb to give xboard a sandbox to play in 
even 
when X is not running on the machine.  This has been working great for years, 
but I am replacing my aging SUN running Solaris with a new linux box, and the 
current xboard and Xvfb in linux Fedora Core 2 are not playing together nicely.

  To see the problem I am having, the commands

Xvfb :1
export DISPLAY=:1
xboard

give me the error

  No copyPlane proc registered for depth 4

(of course the commands are more complex when I am using crafty, zippy, etc.).  
Substituting xterm, gimp, or display for xboard gives no error.  I tried some 
flags.  For example, specifying screen 0 parameters such as -screen 0 
1600x1200x4 or 1600x1200x32 or whatever only changes the number at the end of 
the error message.  Also, -pixdepths 4 changes nothing.  I am running Fedora 
core 2 on x86_64 but I have the same errors on an older laptop running RedHat 
7.3 on i386.

  Does anybody have any idea why Xvfb and xboard are not playing nice together?
An alternative solution would be to add a flag to xboard to turn off all 
interaction with X.  This may seem strange for a display program, but it does 
make sense for zippy mode.

-- Phil

PS  The manual page makes no mention of zippy mode.  Is this intentional?  The 
-zp flag still works in the current version, interactively in X.  (Neither 
zippy 
mode nor the default move works in Xvfb.)