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How to install Seti on Linux - A newbie approach - Part 2
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jfjunior Send message Joined: 9 Oct 99 Posts: 9 Credit: 17,838,129 RAC: 10 |
Hi everyone, In Oct 2005 I started a thread on this forum entitled "How to install Seti on Linux - A newbie approach", well two years later I can say I've learned a thing or two about Linux and I found out that there are easier ways to install and configure Seti on Linux. The intention of this thread is to help NEWBIES, or people with little or no knowledge of Linux, especially the ones trying to break free from Windows. ************************ The instructions below were performed on Ubuntu 7.10. 1 - Download Boinc for Linux from this url - http://boinc.berkeley.edu/download.php - and save it. Firefox will usually save the files you download to your desktop by default. 2 - Copy the file you just downloaded from your desktop to your home folder. You can accomplish this by opening your home folder - click on Places and then Home Folder. Next right click the file you have just downloaded to the desktop, select Copy and then paste it to your Home Folder. If you have already downloaded the file to your Home Folder you can obviously skip this step. 3 - Next click on applications / accessories / terminal to open a terminal prompt. 4 - From inside the terminal prompt you can confirm if the boinc file is there by typing ls and hitting enter. You should see a list of files, including the boinc_5.10.21.i686-pc-linux-gnu.sh file. Note that the boinc file may have a different name, such as boinc_different_version_number.sh. 4 - Still inside the terminal prompt type sh boinc_5.10.21.i686-pc-linux-gnu.sh and hit enter. This command will create a BOINC folder and you will see the following message after it completes successfully: use /home/yourname/Desktop/BOINC/run manager to start BOINC 5 - Next type cd BOINC and hit enter. This command will place the cursor inside the BOINC folder. 6 - From inside your BOINC folder, type ./boincmgr and hit enter. 7 - At this point you will see the Boinc Manager, click Next, enter your project URL - a list of projects will appear where you can select the URL which belongs to your then click Next again. On the next screen select if you are a New or Existing User and enter the requested email and password accordingly. Lastly click on Finish. 8 - Allow the Boinc manager to download the first set of data. This may take a while, please be patient. Once all the data has been downloaded and the manager starts to process the data file, quit it by closing the Boinc Manager window. Next Step: Creating a cronjob to automatically start or keep your seti running: 1 - From a terminal prompt type: crontab -e and hit enter. 2 - The nano text editor will open and at the very top you will see the following line: # m h dom mon dow command This line is just a syntax example of a crontab command. The # at the beggining of the line indicates that this line is a comment. I strongly suggest to keep this line intact and start to enter your crontab commands on the next line. Here are the two commands you will need to enter in your crontab file: @reboot cd /home/YOURNAME_HERE/BOINC; ./boinc 1>>./boinclog 2>>./boincerr */60 * * * * cd /home/YOURNAME_HERE/BOINC; ./boinc 1>>./boinclog 2>>./boincerr After entering these commands in the Crontab, hit Ctrl+0 to exit, then hit Enter followed by ctrl+x. This will exit the nano editor and save the crontab file. To confirm your crontab file has been saved correctly type the following commnand in the terminal prompt: crontab -l and hit enter. This will list the contents of your actual crontab. If you want to know more about this command, type crontab alone to get a list of switches you can use with it. Explanation of the commands in the Crontab: The first line will start your Boinc everytime your pc reboots. The second line will attempt to start your seti every hour. This line is useful in case your seti stops for any reason. If boinc is already running this line won't stop it. Note: If you think attempting to start Boinc every 60 minutes is overkill, just change the 60 - 60 minutes - into whatever you feel comfortable with. For 2 hours use 120, for 24 hours use 1440 and so and so forth. Both lines will log the crontab actions to a text file named boinclog and crontab errors to a text file named boincerr. Both these files will be saved in the same folder as Boinc. You can view these files by using the Gedit Text Editor using the following command from the Boinc terminal prompt: gedit boincerr or gedit boinclog. Obviously you can also read these files by open Gedit or any other text editor and navigating to the Boinc folder and selecting any of these two files. If you open the boincerr file you must likely will see the following line at regular intervals: Another instance of BOINC is running Do not panic, this is ok. It only means that Crontab cannot start Boinc again as its already running, which is great. Last but not least: Make sure the command lines in the crontab reflect the correct path where your Boinc folder is located. IE.: @reboot cd /home/johndoe/BOINC; ./boinc 1>>./boinclog 2>>./boincerr Where JohnDoe is the home folder name. Also do not forget that the path is case sensitive. So if your BOINC folder is in fact named boinc - with lower case - you have to enter it exactly like that. I hope this tutorial is easier than my 2 years old post. One mistake on my old post - which was in fact a Spanish translation - is that it instructs the user to run Boinc as root, which is a big no no. Happy crunching and welcome to the wonderful world of Linux. cheers. |
Toby Send message Joined: 26 Oct 00 Posts: 1005 Credit: 6,366,949 RAC: 0 |
Very detailed explanation and good guide... but are you not aware that boinc is in the ubuntu repos? All that can be condensed down to: sudo apt-get install boinc-client boinc-manager This takes care of starting it on boot and it even puts an entry in your Applications menu for the manager. After installation you open the manager from the menu and attach with the wizard as explained. It may not always be up to date with the latest version of boinc but it is usually reasonably close with the stable release. That should work on any debian based distro. I know Gentoo also has a package for boinc (sci-misc/boinc) and I'm sure there are RPMs for redhat based distros as well. A member of The Knights Who Say NI! For rankings, history graphs and more, check out: My BOINC stats site |
run1206 Send message Joined: 10 Nov 05 Posts: 1 Credit: 13,842 RAC: 0 |
thanks jfjunior, it's running in 5.10.21, though it looks like if i'm using Wine to run it, still... i hope Ubuntu works on the 5.10.21 version, the repos is still in 5.10.8 :-\\ |
jfjunior Send message Joined: 9 Oct 99 Posts: 9 Credit: 17,838,129 RAC: 10 |
Hi Toby, Yes I knew I could use apt-get to install Boinc in Ubuntu. However I wanted the instructions to be used by newbies everywhere and not only Ubuntu users. Hopefully this will do! :) Regards and thanks for your comments! |
KA7O Send message Joined: 14 May 99 Posts: 2 Credit: 178,307 RAC: 0 |
Good info there junior on getting the thing installed - thanks! Now, blend what you've got there with I put up here (or something similar): http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=44503&nowrap=true#697264 and I think we've about covered the basics. What I've got there is step by step on how to find such minutia as your "account key" and how to "attach to a project" so that install will actually *do* something. |
Slim Send message Joined: 14 Oct 00 Posts: 55 Credit: 72,370 RAC: 0 |
Hi everyone, I can get this far only. I get this result: mike@mike:~$ sh boinc_5.10.21.i686-pc-linux-gnu.sh sh: Can't open boinc_5.10.21.i686-pc-linux-gnu.sh Man, I am just having one of those days... I have version .28.. |
Slim Send message Joined: 14 Oct 00 Posts: 55 Credit: 72,370 RAC: 0 |
I am in trouble at this point. I am already inside the boinc folder to start, but I am missing files I think. When I get to this point, I get this: use /home/mike/BOINC/run_client to start BOINC That command works from the GUI to open a bunch more files: mike@mike:~/BOINC$ ls all_projects_list.xml boinc_cmd client_state.xml run_client binstall.sh ca-bundle.crt gui_rpc_auth.cfg time_stats_log boinc client_state_prev.xml lockfile Now I am lost, I can't find a boincmgr file. (Edit) I get this also: mike@mike:~/BOINC$ locate boincmgr /usr/share/app-install/icons/boincmgr-32.xpm mike@mike:~/BOINC$ sudo updatedb mike@mike:~/BOINC$ locate boincmgr /home/mike/.Trash/boincmgr /usr/share/app-install/icons/boincmgr-32.xpm mike@mike:~/BOINC$ Any help would be appreciated. Mike |
thomas Send message Joined: 9 Dec 07 Posts: 2 Credit: 1,619,934 RAC: 0 |
You are not the only one I'm stuck at exactly the same point :( some kind soul help us pleeeze... Tom |
thomas Send message Joined: 9 Dec 07 Posts: 2 Credit: 1,619,934 RAC: 0 |
(Edit) I get this also: mike@mike:~/BOINC$ locate boincmgr /usr/share/app-install/icons/boincmgr-32.xpm mike@mike:~/BOINC$ sudo updatedb mike@mike:~/BOINC$ locate boincmgr /home/mike/.Trash/boincmgr /usr/share/app-install/icons/boincmgr-32.xpm mike@mike:~/BOINC$ Any help would be appreciated. Mike[/quote] Mike, I went out of the terminal and used the GUI at this point GUI>Applications>Add/Remove found the boinc manager sitting in the list had Add/remove do its' thing and the program loaded and I'm running it fine thru the GUI. Hope this works for you. tom |
Slim Send message Joined: 14 Oct 00 Posts: 55 Credit: 72,370 RAC: 0 |
Mike, I went out of the terminal and used the GUI at this point GUI>Applications>Add/Remove found the boinc manager sitting in the list had Add/remove do its' thing and the program loaded and I'm running it fine thru the GUI. Hope this works for you. tom [/quote] Yes, I 'can' get an old version of Boincmgr, 5.10.8 but that version is broken 'apparently' so it will not use it's preferences and unlatch the CPU when 'I' want to use my machine which freezes my computer up all the time. I was instructed in another thread to get the updated version, not the 'broken' Ubuntu version. I obviously am not having much luck with all the broken programs here... The folks here need programming help in a big way it would seem. Why oh why did they Kill Seti@home Classic! |
Das Goat Send message Joined: 24 Feb 08 Posts: 3 Credit: 951,807 RAC: 0 |
For reasons I will not go into, I am running this on a Fedora 8 server. The instructions work perfectly until I get to the part about saving the crontab file. basically, no combination of :q :!q :w will save the file. The error I get is: "/tmp/crontab.XXXXFtH5PH":2: bad minute errors in crontab file, can't install. Do you want to retry the same edit? bad syntax? Is there a syntax difference from ubunt to Fedora? |
Das Goat Send message Joined: 24 Feb 08 Posts: 3 Credit: 951,807 RAC: 0 |
And, opps, on a client PC I installed it as root. How do I uninstall / fix this? Or do I just need to reload the client? There really isn't anything on the client right now so rebuilding only means time, not much effort. Also, long term, I am moving my small business to a pure Fedora system (I want Ubuntu, but for other complex reasons I can't do that). I would like for all of the workstations and servers to run BOINC projects in the off hours and when they are otherwise idle, so where i would like to go is to run BOINC as a "service" like under (gasp) Windows. Is there a way to do this? |
Das Goat Send message Joined: 24 Feb 08 Posts: 3 Credit: 951,807 RAC: 0 |
Two last things, I know it is not really important, but under the old "classic" SETI @ Home you could have SETI as the screen saver and watch the computations "work" on the screen. I wouldn't want the computer to "slow down" it's computations just to show me a "pretty" of what am doing, but it was a lot more impressive and easier to explain to lay people what the computers were doing when they could "see" the computations, rather than just say "it is looking for aliens". Is there a way to get this back? And lastly, way back in the 1990's I did for a few years crunch through a bunch of packets. It is vanity I know, but I sure wish I could get those "credits" for the work my PCs did in the past. But it has been about 10 years since then, and I have no idea what email address I had at the time except that it ended in .tampa.rr.com. Is there some way to get my history back? Vanity, yes, but I sure wish I could get those statisitcs back. Truly, I am just happy to get BOINC working finally, and if it is just a boring web-like page that I can get, I will live it it. |
Skip Da Shu Send message Joined: 28 Jun 04 Posts: 233 Credit: 431,047 RAC: 0 |
For Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Debian folks... you can use the sudo apt-get boinc-client boinc-manageras noted in an earlier post. You can also just select "Synaptic Package Manger" from the System menu and do a search on "boinc", select boinc-client and boinc-manager for install and Apply. POOF! You now have a running functioning v5.10.8 that will start at boot. I'd attach to your projects or manager account now, get that how you want it and then... If you "need" v5.10.28, take the v5.10.28 download and extract it out as detailed in the very 1st post (or TRY to follow it in my .doc file). Once that's done you can rename the the executable core client "boinc" to "boinc_client". Stop boinc either from the gui Advanced menu or with: sudo /etc/init.d/boinc-client stop Now copy boinc_client, boinc_cmd and boincmgr from the boinc folder you created into /usr/bin replacing the existing executables and all should be fine (again see .doc file for details on this). Restart boinc sudo /etc/init.d/boinc-client start and you're now running v5.10.28 Here's a link to a .doc (probably way to detailed and I should clean up) that I wrote while doing this on a 2nd or 3rd machine. I probably wrote this when I had a whole 3 or 4 weeks of Linux under my belt so keep that in mind. As opposed to the vast 3 or 4 months I now have... LOL boinc_v5_10_28_upgrade.doc PS: Do NOT set the "--daemon" option in your /etc/default/boinc-client startup config file as it causes stored pid numbers to be off and these will not work: sudo /etc/init.d/boinc-client stop sudo /etc/init.d/boinc-client status sudo /etc/init.d/boinc-client restart - da shu @ HeliOS, "A child's exposure to technology should never be predicated on an ability to afford it." |
jems Send message Joined: 19 May 99 Posts: 3 Credit: 232 RAC: 0 |
I've been with Seti@HOME since May 1999. I stopped participating when it got assimilated by BOINC. But every once in a while I get an email from SETI@home asking me to come back. Every time I get one of those emails, I try to make it go for about an hour, then give up. I'm using Suse 10.3, so there doesn't seem to be a nice pretty/easy/standard client. But, I'm used to command line and would be happy with that. However, I still can never get it to work (at least I don't think it's working; nothing is telling me that it's NOT working, but nothing is telling me it IS working, so I really don't know). Is there a relatively simple document describing how to make this work? I recently downloaded the client which made the most sense for my distribution from: http://boinc.berkeley.edu/download_all.php "Older Linux x86 and x64 For older Linux versions, both x86 and x64; command-line interface only" There is a 'run-client' binary. From what I can tell, I need to "attach to a project", so I do that. It wanted a "key", so I provided that as well. But when I run it, it just hangs. If I run top, I don't see it. So, I suspect it's not really doing anything. Any help would be great. Otherwise, I'll try again next year.. |
Dotsch Send message Joined: 9 Jun 99 Posts: 2422 Credit: 919,393 RAC: 0 |
However, I still can never get it to work (at least I don't think it's working; nothing is telling me that it's NOT working, but nothing is telling me it IS working, so I really don't know). Your computers shows a attached Linux system, but it did not get any WUs. Could you please start the BOINC client with "./boinc -update_prefs http://setiathome.berkeley.edu" or "./boinc_cmd --project http://setiathome.berkeley.edu update" - both commands must issues from the directory where the BOINC client is installed. Now, there should be some messages that the client updates the preferences from the SETI servers and download new work. If this not work, could you please post the messages from the BOINC client here. Is there a relatively simple document describing how to make this work? jfjunior's howto describes all steps. There are also Installation Howos at the unoffical BOINC wiki (boinc-wiki.info) available. |
jems Send message Joined: 19 May 99 Posts: 3 Credit: 232 RAC: 0 |
Ok, here's the output: jesp@tycho:~/boinc/BOINC> ./boinc -update_prefs http://setiathome.berkeley.edu 04-Apr-2008 08:35:50 [---] Starting BOINC client version 5.10.45 for i686-pc-linux-gnu 04-Apr-2008 08:35:50 [---] log flags: task, file_xfer, sched_ops 04-Apr-2008 08:35:50 [---] Libraries: libcurl/7.18.0 OpenSSL/0.9.8g zlib/1.2.3 c-ares/1.5.1 04-Apr-2008 08:35:50 [---] Data directory: /home/jesp/boinc/BOINC 04-Apr-2008 08:35:50 [---] Processor: 1 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz [Family 15 Model 2 Stepping 9] 04-Apr-2008 08:35:50 [---] Processor features: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe up cid xtpr 04-Apr-2008 08:35:50 [---] OS: Linux: 2.6.22.17-0.1-default 04-Apr-2008 08:35:50 [---] Memory: 2.48 GB physical, 2.01 GB virtual 04-Apr-2008 08:35:50 [---] Disk: 72.50 GB total, 22.41 GB free 04-Apr-2008 08:35:50 [---] Local time is UTC -7 hours 04-Apr-2008 08:35:50 [SETI@home] URL: http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/; Computer ID: not assigned yet; location: (none); project prefs: default 04-Apr-2008 08:35:50 [---] No general preferences found - using BOINC defaults 04-Apr-2008 08:35:50 [---] Preferences limit memory usage when active to 1267.58MB 04-Apr-2008 08:35:50 [---] Preferences limit memory usage when idle to 2281.65MB 04-Apr-2008 08:35:50 [---] Preferences limit disk usage to 9.31GB |
DJStarfox Send message Joined: 23 May 01 Posts: 1066 Credit: 1,226,053 RAC: 2 |
Ok, here's the output: First of all, if you can't get that version to work, go back to 5.8.16. http://boincdl.ssl.berkeley.edu/dl/boinc_5.8.16_i686-pc-linux-gnu.sh This is what I use until the developers fix all the crap they broke with 5.10.x. I'd say you need to detach and then re-attach to the project. The easiest way is to start the boinc client first, then start the boincmgr. In an Xterm, run these from your BOINC directory: ./boinc --allow_remote_gui_rpc --daemon ./boincmgr Inside the manager, either click "advanced view" (if you are not already there), and then goto the Projects tab and detach from SETI. Then, on the Tools menu bar at the top, select attach to project and follow the wizard. Then it should keep running when you exit the manager. That way you can startup the manager anytime you want to check the status. |
TonyMan Send message Joined: 2 May 01 Posts: 1 Credit: 3,755,527 RAC: 3 |
Hi, Sorry but I just don't get it. What obviously is the first thing that I will want to do when I have installed BOINC on my new ubuntu 8.04 server. Well obviously I want to add my BOINC username and password so that this program recognizes that I am the swell guy that have all these credits on SETI... Well guess what? There is NO menu choice to do that. There is NO information anywhere in any documentation that I have found. Tools/Attach to project gives error and says that I am not connected to a client. But this program IS the client right? And if I select localhost as a computer it says that it failed. How can anyone fail to connect to localhost? What am I missing here - except for understandable menu choices? BR, Tony For Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Debian folks... you can use thesudo apt-get boinc-client boinc-manageras noted in an earlier post. |
dan Send message Joined: 14 Aug 05 Posts: 10 Credit: 128,769 RAC: 0 |
I bought a server specifically to run BOINC/SETI. I need some help setting it up. I've tried installing Fedora i386 and come up with an error during reboot. Any suggesions on a server os that is good for this server? These are the server specs. Server Board: Intel Server Board SE7501WV2 -Video: ATI Rage* XL Video Controller with 8 MB of memory -Slots: 2-PCI I/O riser slot capable of supporting 1 full length & 1 low profile PCI add-in cards -Network: Dual-channel Intel® 10/100/1000 82546EB Gigabit Ethernet Controller -SCSI Controller: Dual-channel SCSI with Zero Channel RAID (ZCR) and host RAID support -External Ports: 2 USB, 1 Serial, 1 NIC, 1 SCSI -CPU: 2 x Xeon 2.66GHz SL6VM (2666DP/512/533/1.50V) -Memory: 4 x 1GB (Corsair/Samsung)(up to 12GB of DDR266 PC2100 ECC) -Hard Drive: Fujitsu 4 x 36GB SCSI 15000 RPM -RAID Controller: None -Power: 350 watts, DC 12V, 100-240V -Dimensions (H x W x D): 3.47†x 17.6†x 15.5†-Chassis Profile: 2U standard depth Can you help me with this? |
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