Re: Gnu Backgammon Compiling for Windows

[Superfly Jon]

I've checked in a small change to the autoconf system, which has simplified a couple of the steps (hopefully not breaking anything).

The simplified instructions to build gnubg on windows are below.  I just ran through them and it took me 15 minutes to get a build working from scratch.

========================================================================================================

Install MSYS2
=============
Download and install the latest version of MSYS2 from https://www.msys2.org/ e.g. msys2-x86_64-20210725.exe.
Start a MSYS2 terminal with mingw 32-bit (not 64bit!) and type the commands below that are marked with a '$'.

Get the required packages
=========================
$ pacman -Syu
If anything is installed, close the terminal and redo this step until everything is up to date (might be 2 or 3 times).
$ pacman -S automake autoconf libtool pkg-config flex bison make cvs mingw-w64-i686-toolchain mingw-w64-i686-gtk2 mingw-w64-i686-gtkglext
Just hit enter on any prompts to install everything.

Check out the latest code
=========================
$ cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.savannah.gnu.org:/sources/gnubg co gnubg

Build the code
===============
$ cd gnubg
$ ./autogen.sh && ./configure
$ make && make install

Run gnubg
=========
$ gnubg

========================================================================================================

Jon

On Mon, 27 Sept 2021 at 16:46, Dariusz Stachowski <d.stachowski@virgin.net> wrote:

Ian,

Thanks very much. The information is useful. I will try it later.

In the meantime I have another query to ask of you. It is this: where
can I go to download Windows versions of GnuBG that came before
1_06_002-20180802? By searching online I was able to find
gnubg-setup-gtk13-20050302.exe ( which works, but is old ) and also
gnu-backgammon-20100816.exe ( which would not install for me ). The
GnuBG web pages only show the recent 1_06_002-20180802 release. Is there
some place that holds all the previous releases?

Why do I need an old version? It is because GunBG 1_06_002-2018080 won't
run on one of my old laptops that still has XP. It highlights an
incompatibility with KERNEL.dll. I was hoping to find a previous version
would run okay under XP.

Best wishes,

Dariusz






Ian Shaw wrote:
> If all you want to do is install the gnubg software and use it, it can be downloaded here https://gnu-backgammon.en.softonic.com/
>
> If you want to experiment with the code, then you'll need Jon's instructions.
>
> * Ian
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bug-gnubg [mailto:bug-gnubg-bounces+ian.shaw=riverauto.co.uk@gnu.org] On Behalf Of Dariusz Stachowski
> Sent: 23 September 2021 16:34
> To: bug-gnubg@gnu.org
> Subject: Gnu Backgammon Compiling for Windows
>
> Hello,
>
> I am curious how I may compile GnuBG for Windows 7. In particular I would like to be able to do so for the console version of the program ( gnubg-cli.exe ).
>
> I have downloaded the source
>
> gnubg-release-1.06.002-sources.tar.gz
>
> but I cannot see any instructions for compiling on Windows. The documentation on your web site tells me that I will find the instructions at
>
> http://www.gnubg.org/index.php?itemid=50
>
> but this page gives me a 404 error code. I found another page on your web site which says I need batch files gnubg3D.bat and/or gnubgOld.bat.
> But I cannot see these in the downloaded source, or any other BAT file.
> So I am puzzled. I would be grateful if you could fix the broken link and let me ( and others ) know how to compile GnuBG.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Dariusz Stachowski
>
>