Hello all, I have been interested in freebsd for a long time. Well I finaly took the plunge instaled;7.0 on one of my machines. I would very much love to be able to participate in Seti@home using freebsd

I have tried reading forums but everything I have founds is outdated.

Can someone maybe post a step by step instructions on how to get seti/boinc up and runing on my freebsd machine?

The installation of the BOINC client and the SETI application depends on which BOINC client and SETI application you are installing. Binaries are avialable from two sources : boinc.berkeley.edu/download_other.php - Both maintainers has detailed install howos included.


The attachment to the SETI project is quite simliar like on other OS and the older howtos you have found in the forums or at the BOINC Wikis...
A howtos which describes the BOINC and SETI instalation generaly in detail :
http://www.boinc-wiki.info/Installing_the_BOINC_Client_Software_And_Participating_In_A_BOINC_Powered_Project

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Thanks for the reply. I can get attached to the Seti project, and on an anonymous platform (as is needed with freebsd), but when I try to run it I get and error stating "no url for file transfer"

Thanks for the reply. I can get attached to the Seti project, and on an anonymous platform (as is needed with freebsd), but when I try to run it I get and error stating "no url for file transfer"

Which binaries do you use ? - Or have you compiled your own version ? - Have you created your own app_info.xml ?
Could you please post the messages from a startup of the BOINC client.

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well I have given up on BSD for now as I have installed Mepis Linux on the box that used to run freebsd. I am currently building another box that will run freebsd. I will post the error message I get at that time.

Sorry you gave up before I got into the posting habit. When you decide to try again, here's my cliff's notes for SETI on FreeBSD. After you install the OS, you'll need to do a portsnap fetch and portsnap extract to get the latest ports tree before you begin any installs. Then just follow the list below. Happy trails.

BOINC Client and SETI@HOME

If you’re feeling adventurous and want to donate your unused CPU cycles to Berkeley to run various scientific research including assisting with SETI, you should install the BOINC client as listed below. Detailed instructions are online at http://people.freebsd.org/~pav/boinc.html for you.

269. Issue the command cd /usr/ports/net/boinc-client.

270. Issue the command make config.

271. Uncheck the download linux apps option. This will prevent a hang-up bug in BOINC from occurring.

272. Issue the command make install.

273. Add the line boinc_enable=”YES” to /etc/rc.conf.

274. Issue the command cd /usr/local/etc/rc.d.

275. Edit the newly installed startup script boinc and remove the substring idprio 31 where it occurs in the startup command. This parm causes everything to hang up when running in the background as a service on FreeBSD.

276. Issue the command cd /usr/ports/astro/boinc-setiathome-enhanced.

277. Issue the command make install.

278. Issue the command shutdown –r now to activate everything.

279. Visit http://setiathome.berkeley.edu and sign up to get an account and a pass certificate to participate.

280. Issue the command boinc_cmd –lookup_account <project URL> <email> <password>. This command will return your pass certificate.

281. Issue the command boinc_cmd –project_attach <project URL> <pass certificate>. The project URL is setiathome.berkeley.edu.

282. SETI is taken offline every Tuesday, and the knights who say ni at Berkeley take it offline occasionally to fix problems, so once you get your box running smoothly, you might want to set your preferences to cache at least three days of work to keep busy.

Have fun.

Thanks for the "Cliff's Notes" version of startup. This information is virtually impossible to find elsewhere. I had, after some time, tumbled to all of this stuff after finally figuring out that the boinc-client port failed to install the rc.d startup script ...

I've created an account and got an "account key" and a "weak account key", but saw nothing anywhere called a "pass certificate". So, after firing up the client, I issued the "boinc_cmd -lookup_account ..." as you describe. Despite the fact that I am using the correct email address and password (double, triple, quadruple, and quintuple-checked), the lookup_account returns *instantly* with "Authorization failure: -155".

Could you toss a hint or two in my direction?

Thanks.

Terry (astrotrf)

Sorry... My bad choice of language... Pass Certificate = Account Key... Should be about 32 characters of hex code...