My chessnut air works with bluetooth

[jed33]

Hi,
First of all, a big thank you for this fork. It's great! I managed to get the Chessnut Air working with scidCommunity on Fedora Linux, just like in Scidvspc. You simply define a udev rule (see Graham O'Neil's linuxUCI drivers) and make sure to install hidapi-devel, dbus-devel, qt6pas, and qt5pas, just as you would for Scidvspc. That's it.

[whelanh]

@jed33 : Thanks very much for reporting your success. I don't have a Chestnut board myself, but I've heard from other users who do and are very interested in connecting their boards. Pasted below is an attempt at a guide to help people connect their boards on Linux, but I don't know if it's correct. It's written from an Ubuntu perspective, but I included the comment for Fedora (I use Fedora myself!). Would you mind taking a look at it and correcting it based on the steps you took to successfully connect your board?

1. Install Ubuntu/Kubuntu Package Equivalents

Run the following command to install the required development headers and Free Pascal interface libraries:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install libhidapi-dev libdbus-1-dev libqt5pas1 libqt6pas6

• If you are on Fedora, install hidapi-devel, dbus-devel, qt5pas and qt6pas [1, 4]

2. Install Graham O'Neill's drivers

1. When downloading the LinuxUCI.tar.gz archive from [Graham O'Neill's Chess Page](https://goneill.co.nz/chess.php), ensure you locate the Qt6 specific engine executable inside (usually appended with 6 or specified in the package documentation). Ensure you keep the libqt6pas6 library installed on your Kubuntu system as mapped earlier so the driver can map its graphical controls properly.

3. Grant Bluetooth & Serial Permissions

Unlike Windows, Linux requires your user account to explicitly belong to the system groups handling physical hardware connections. [1]

1. Add your user account to the necessary hardware access groups:

   sudo usermod -aG dialout,plugdev,bluetooth $USER
   

2. Important: Log out of your desktop session completely and log back in (or reboot) for these group permission changes to activate.

4. Initialize Bluetooth Pairing

1. Turn on your Chessnut eboard.
2. Tap the power button briefly so that the blue light flashes, indicating it is in Bluetooth LE pairing mode.
3. Open the System Settings application in Kubuntu and navigate to Bluetooth.
4. Scan for devices, select the Chessnut eboard, and complete the pairing process. [5, 6, 7]

5. Configure scidCommunity

Once the libraries are present and the system recognizes the board via Bluetooth, the driver file (NUT_eng) can be executed by scidCommunity normally: [8]

1. In scidCommunity, go to Tools > Configure Engines.
2. Click New, type a name, and change the protocol type to UCI.
3. Browse to your NUT_eng file in the Command section and save it.
4. Launch the engine. The Chessnut Control window should pop up over Bluetooth automatically. [9, 10]

[1] [https://goneill.co.nz](https://goneill.co.nz/pdfs/ReadMe (Millennium).pdf?v=250820)

[2] [https://www.chess.com](https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/linux-how-to-pair-lucas-chess-with-chessnut-air)

[3] [https://talkchess.com](https://talkchess.com/viewtopic.php?t=77783)

[4] [https://goneill.co.nz](https://goneill.co.nz/pdfs/ReadMe (DGT).pdf?v=250926)

[5] [https://goneill.co.nz](https://goneill.co.nz/pdfs/ReadMe (Chessnut).pdf?v=250820)

[6] [https://www.reddit.com](https://www.reddit.com/r/Chessnuteboard/comments/1imjk1q/how_to_play_on_pc/)

[7] [https://forums.developer.nvidia.com](https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/agx-orin-jetpack-5-1-3-no-bluetooth-found-but-wifi-works-fine/293344)

[8] [https://lichess.org](https://lichess.org/forum/general-chess-discussion/chessnut-pro-and-scidvspc-under-linux)

[9] [https://www.reddit.com](https://www.reddit.com/r/Chessnuteboard/comments/1l7xm0f/chessnut_go_bluetooth_pairing_issues/)

[10] [https://www.chess.com](https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/scid-vs-pc-eboard-support)

[jed33]

Hi,You should not pair it via the operating system menu for Bluetooth. You simple need to verify that the device appears when you search for it. This step is crucial. Subsequently, it will likely be paires within the softwares once you sélect the « nut » driver from the list of engines in Scid after you created it in the tools/configure engine. The rest is correct, and the dependencies which o’neil refers dépend on the specific Linux distro.Best regardsEnvoyé de mon iPhoneLe 23 juin 2026 à 12:09, Hugh Whelan ***@***.***> a écrit : @jed33 : Thanks very much for reporting your success. I don't have a Chestnut board myself, but I've heard from other users who do and are very interested in connecting their boards. Pasted below is an attempt at a guide to help people connect their boards on Linux, but I don't know if it's correct. It's written from an Ubuntu perspective, but I included the comment for Fedora (I use Fedora myself!). Would you mind taking a look at it and correcting it based on the steps you took to successfully connect your board? 1. Install Ubuntu/Kubuntu Package Equivalents Run the following command to install the required development headers and Free Pascal interface libraries: sudo apt update sudo apt install libhidapi-dev libdbus-1-dev libqt5pas1 libqt6pas6 If you are on Fedora, install hidapi-devel, dbus-devel, qt5pas and qt6pas [1, 4] 2. Install Graham O'Neill's drivers When downloading the LinuxUCI.tar.gz archive from [Graham O'Neill's Chess Page](https://goneill.co.nz/chess.php), ensure you locate the Qt6 specific engine executable inside (usually appended with 6 or specified in the package documentation). Ensure you keep the libqt6pas6 library installed on your Kubuntu system as mapped earlier so the driver can map its graphical controls properly. 3. Grant Bluetooth & Serial Permissions Unlike Windows, Linux requires your user account to explicitly belong to the system groups handling physical hardware connections. [1] Add your user account to the necessary hardware access groups: sudo usermod -aG dialout,plugdev,bluetooth $USER Important: Log out of your desktop session completely and log back in (or reboot) for these group permission changes to activate. 4. Initialize Bluetooth Pairing Turn on your Chessnut eboard. Tap the power button briefly so that the blue light flashes, indicating it is in Bluetooth LE pairing mode. Open the System Settings application in Kubuntu and navigate to Bluetooth. Scan for devices, select the Chessnut eboard, and complete the pairing process. [5, 6, 7] 5. Configure scidCommunity Once the libraries are present and the system recognizes the board via Bluetooth, the driver file (NUT_eng) can be executed by scidCommunity normally: [8] In scidCommunity, go to Tools > Configure Engines. Click New, type a name, and change the protocol type to UCI. Browse to your NUT_eng file in the Command section and save it. Launch the engine. The Chessnut Control window should pop up over Bluetooth automatically. [9, 10] [1] [https://goneill.co.nz](https://goneill.co.nz/pdfs/ReadMe (Millennium).pdf?v=250820) [2] [https://www.chess.com](https://www.chess.com/forum/view/chess-equipment/linux-how-to-pair-lucas-chess-with-chessnut-air) [3] [https://talkchess.com](https://talkchess.com/viewtopic.php?t=77783) [4] [https://goneill.co.nz](https://goneill.co.nz/pdfs/ReadMe (DGT).pdf?v=250926) [5] [https://goneill.co.nz](https://goneill.co.nz/pdfs/ReadMe (Chessnut).pdf?v=250820) [6] [https://www.reddit.com](https://www.reddit.com/r/Chessnuteboard/comments/1imjk1q/how_to_play_on_pc/) [7] [https://forums.developer.nvidia.com](https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/agx-orin-jetpack-5-1-3-no-bluetooth-found-but-wifi-works-fine/293344) [8] [https://lichess.org](https://lichess.org/forum/general-chess-discussion/chessnut-pro-and-scidvspc-under-linux) [9] [https://www.reddit.com](https://www.reddit.com/r/Chessnuteboard/comments/1l7xm0f/chessnut_go_bluetooth_pairing_issues/) [10] [https://www.chess.com](https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/scid-vs-pc-eboard-support) —Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe.Triage notifications, keep track of coding agent tasks and review pull requests on the go with GitHub Mobile for iOS and Android. Download it today! You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[whelanh]

Thank you very much for the correction. Very much appreciated it. The guide now lives here: https://github.com/whelanh/scidCommunity/wiki/Connect-with-a-Chestnut-eboard-on-Linux