Installing & Running Boinc on Linux

Post by **Megacruncher** » Sun Feb 18, 2007 11:40 pm

I've been making yet another bollocks of trying to get Boinc running on Linux.

I Managed to get the Boinc Manager Installed. I even found the client to go with it. Then it all wen't wrong. Missing dependencies & broken packages all over the shop.

Could anyone write a simple guide that A. I could use (this will be the test of it's simplicity) & B. I can add to the FAQ page to help other poor sods.

MacDitch · Post by **MacDitch** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 9:36 am

I've been making yet another bollocks of trying to get Boinc running on Linux.

I Managed to get the Boinc Manager Installed. I even found the client to go with it. Then it all wen't wrong. Missing dependencies & broken packages all over the shop.

Could anyone write a simple guide that A. I could use (this will be the test of it's simplicity) & B. I can add to the FAQ page to help other poor sods.

Sorry, never done a Linux install so don't have any help on this. I take it you've looked at the new and improved FAQ over on he Boinc Site...

abjm · Post by **abjm** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 10:15 am

don't know what distro you are running but I got it all done in no time on debian using apt-get.

Malachin · Post by **Malachin** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 9:38 pm

I use Kanotix (Debian-Base). At the beginning I had also troubles with the Boinc-Manager. After installing KBoincSpy it was no problem to get work and to check the results. Since that time (August 2006) Boinc runs without any interruptions.

Post by **Megacruncher** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 9:07 am

I got it working - in Ubuntu.

After no luck with the GUI Package Managers and following the Boinc links to incomprehensible (and unsucessful) stuff like

mkdir -p ~/src/boinc
cd !$
apt-get build-dep boinc
apt-get source boinc
cd boinc-X.Y.Z/
dpkg-buildpackage -rfakeroot -us -uc
cd ~/src/boinc
dpkg -i boinc-client_X.Y.Z-R_ARCH.deb boinc-manager_X.Y.Z-R_ARCH.deb

finally someone on the Ubuntu forum suggested:

sudo apt-get install boinc-manager boinc-client

This worked a treat. And it's the same GUI I've come to know and love. Predictor & Pirates here I come! :)

MacDitch · Post by **MacDitch** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 9:31 am

Glad you got there in the end, and now we know the answer for the future.

Post by **Megacruncher** » Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:53 pm

It might not work for other flavours of linux but it does the trick for Ubuntu. :)

Nightlord · Post by **Nightlord** » Tue Sep 11, 2007 9:31 pm

/get-out clause mode on/

I'm not a Linux guru, but here goes

/get-out clause mode off/

So, you want to run Boinc under Linux eh? Well, first there are two things you need to think about:

Do you want to run Linux as the host operating system, or do you want to continue to run Windows, but have a guest operating system running as a virtual OS?

If you plump for running Linux as a host OS, you then need to think about whether you still want to run Windows on that box as a dual boot, i.e. do you want the choice to boot into Windows or Linux.

So to option 1, and most basic - a clean installation of Linux. Which Linux I hear you cry? Well there are loads to choose from. Linux gurus will tell you that Suse is really the DB's and maybe it is, but I have never run that distro. I have installed several flavours of Fedora and Ubuntu, so that's what I'll concentrate on.

First thing then is to get yourself a Fedora or Ubuntu distro. Go to http://fedoraproject.org/get-fedora.htm or http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download. Before you click on any of the download links, consider that the downloads are large (>600MB each), so a fast broadband and patience is needed. Next, before you download, think about whether you want (and your hardware can support) 64bit Linux. If you have a modern AMD CPU it will support 64 bit. All Core-2 CPU's that I'm aware of will also support 64 bit. There may may be some hardware compatibility issues on 64 bit, which can generally be overcome anyway. If you can install 64 bit I recommend it, especially for Boinc based crunchers for reasons I'll come to later.

OK, download your distro, make a cup of tea while you wait....you may be in need of it later. Burn onto CD(s) using your favourite CD burning software. Remember to burn ISO files. There are help files on the download pages for that. If you don't have a program that can burn ISO files, I recommend Burn4Free if you don't mind embedded adverts it does what it says on the tin.

Make sure you label your CD's with a marker pen otherwise you will have just wasted a lot of bandwidth making coffee coasters.

For Ubuntu, load the CD at boot. It comes as a "live" distro which means you can play about with Linux without making any changes to you existing OS. This is a Good Thing(TM) On Fedora (actually my favourite over Ubuntu, you go straight into the installer package). You have the option to check the media (the CD's), this is also a Good Thing(TM).

If you choose Ubuntu, once the live package has loaded into memory, you will see the an install icon. If you want to install to you target PC, go ahead and click it. Otherwise play around a bit and have fun.

In either case follow on screen instructions during the installation. It's all fairly painless and if you have installed Windows before, it's no worse. For a completely clean install choose "use all the hard disk" for installation when asked. If you want to keep any Windows OS choose guided partitioning using all free space, assuming you have unpartitioned space on the disk.

During installation you will be asked for a username and password. Write your password down, or chose something you will remember. You will be needing them many times in the future. Forgetting you username and password is Not A Good Thing(TM)

After install and reboot, you should be greeted with a blank screen with Applications...Places...System and a few internet icons. Both packages come with a whole host of Really Useful Programs (TM). But that's another story.....you want to crunch Boinc yeah?

So let get to it.

Open Firefox fro the top menu bar (next to System). Go to the Berkeley site and download Boinc. It will detect that you are running Linux. Default download location is to your desktop.....ok, maybe not ideal and you can change it in Firefox, but it will do for now. Minimise both the download box and Firefox

Copy the installation file to somewhere useful like /home/Boinc (click on Places/Home folder and create a new folder called Boinc) to copy into. Now you need to run the installer script. Open a terminal window via: Applications>Accessories>Terminal. If you have never used Linux, don't worry it doesn't bite that much! CD to your new location (CD Boinc should do it!). Type "ls" (no quotes) to check what is in the directory. You should see the boinc installer! Yes?....proceed with anticipation! No?....go back 3 spaces and check where you put the installer package.

OK, in the terminal window type "sh " With the space, but without the quotes. Then right click on the full file name of the installer package in the line you typed ls (clever eh?), copy and paste down to the line you typed "sh ". Then hit enter. You should be greeted by a Really Helpful Reply(TM) something like "now use runmanager to run boinc manager or runclient to use the command line."

If you left you new Boinc Folder open you should see next to the installer icon a new folder BOINC (note the capitals). Explore that folder and you should see several files, including boinc, runmanager and runclient.

Now, a slight complication if you are using Ubuntu. You may need to install some extra libraries. Go to System>Administration>Synaptic Package Manager (big word for software installer). Enter your admin password that you chose during installation (you do remember them don't you?) Use the search facility to look for ia-32libs or similar. Install the 32bit libraries and you should be ok. Fedorea has never asked me for this, which is one reason I prefer it.

Use the runmanager script to launch your new Boinc installation. You could make a link on your desktop panel to runmanager and user the png graphic to make it look pretty, useful if you intend to be re-booting a lot.

Now, a little trick.....

64 bit Boinc clients are available for 64 bit Operating Systems.....you did install the 64bit version didn't you? Take a copy of your Boinc directory. Backups are a Good Thing (TM). Go to boinc_5.8.17_x86_64-pc-linux-gnu.tgz and download the latest stable 64 bit Boinc client. Open using the archive manager and extract to a folder of your choice. Stop and close your new Boinc installation (before your connect to any project) and follow the instruction in the readme file you have just extracted. Use cut and paste to do the renames - it's safer. Re-start Boinc and hey presto you have a fully functioning 64bit Boinc client.

Now all you need is a 64 bit science app to match and your in business. If you make a mess of it or if you try to connect to a project that does not support 64 bit boinc clients you may get into trouble. I did several times, simply delete the jumbled pile of kak and restore your backed up Boinc folder.....you did take a copy now didn't you?

Got all that? Good, you are now a fully fledged Linux cruncher. If not, don't panic, panicking is Not a Good Thing(TM). Re-trace your steps and try again. Good thing about Linux is that you are not burning licence keys and the installation is free.

Next instalment....running Linux as a guest OS under VMWare from a Windows based system.......

JavaJoe · Post by **JavaJoe** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 2:19 am

I can vouch for using linux and freebsd to host boinc, since I use both (and a little Mac PowerBook G4!). Your instructions could be compacted quite substantially if the OS selected were kubuntu rather than ubuntu. Kubuntu puts a nice front end on the package manager, which handles all of the dependencies in a single download. Kubuntu is just ubuntu with KDE as the X-windows desktop bloatware. In any event, I can get boinc loaded and running in all of 2 or 3 minutes (assuming a highspeed connection, of course).

For windows users who really can do without windows, KDE is a relatively painless transition. KDE even offers a M'Soft desktop look-a-like for XP.

Getting boinc to run on freebsd can be tricky, but so far I have managed a half-dozen installs with the last two going just fine albeit consuming an hour or so for the server/client pair to build from scratch. Getting the client to run in X under freebsd is also straightforward, but not for the novice.

Looking forward to your next installment.

HTH

Charles aka JavaJoe

Post by **Snowdog** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 12:32 pm

Possibly something to try at the weekend I think.

Nightlord · Post by **Nightlord** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 8:58 pm

Yup, it's maybe not something to launch into late on a Friday night. Take your time and it should work out.

I've not used Kubuntu, but with the KDE front end it should install fairly similar and run pretty much the same.

It is possible to install Boinc by downloading via the package manager, but if you want to go 64 bit then you need to install that manually.
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So to running Linux as a guest operating system under your native Windows installation. How does this work I hear you ask.....simple really, you install a piece of software that gives you a Virtual environment. Into that environment you install you favourite Linux distro just as normal.

You need to download the Linux software exactly as for a clean installation above. Go ahead and do that now. A good time for coffee. Burn onto CD's as before.

So what Virtual Environment software? Well there's Virtual PC from Microsoft. I've never used that, but I gather it limits to one CPU core and will only install on XP Pro, Vista Business or Premium (willing to be proved wrong though!). Alternatively you can install VMWare Server on XP Home, Vista etc. This is a free product and will let you install a dual core (unfortunately not quad) guest OS such as Linux and run that guest OS exactly as if it were your host OS.

Go to the link above and read the installation notes first. You will need a fair amount of Ram and a responsive system. Your CPU must also support virtualisation. For example Intel E6300's are ok, but E4300's are not.

If you have a compatible OS, go ahead to download. You will be asked to register for a key. This is free and painless. I personally have never been spammed from giving my details to VMWare. Once you get your key, download the VMWare Server product.

Installation is fairly straightforward. When the installation is complete you will be filled with anticipation, but a slightly disappointed feeling. There is no fanfare, no jingles, no flashy lights, just a Finished button. This is becasue all you have just done is install an environment, not your guest OS or anything sexy.

Open the VMWare installation. Click connect to Local Host (your own PC). Then select install new Guest OS. From the pull down list, select one of the predetermined OS's. Ubuntu, Red Hat, Fedora etc. Have your Linux installation CD at the ready. I have found the software normally recommends about 10GB for the virtual disk. Make it bigger if you want to do anything real, otherwise leave it alone. Setting up the virtual disk can take quite a while - another coffee moment perhaps?

Leave the memory settings alone if this is the first time you have played with VMWare. Set your CPU count to 2 if you have an HT enabled or dual core system. Select bridged networking when asked. This will install an virtual network inside your PC and share your broadband connection. Within Windows, clicking on Windows Network Connections will show an additional network port bridged to your existing network connection. The software will ask you for a name for the Guest OS, choose one to suit.

When the system is ready, select start the OS. The window will flash a couple of times and go blank as if you are rebooting the PC. Most likely if you are following these notes, you haven't put the Linux Boot CD in yet. If so you will get a message something like "No Boot disk". Pop your Linux boot disk in and re-start the OS (or do that first time round if you have read ahead!). Linux will now load into your guest OS exactly as a clean installation would.

You can click between environments at any time. Your Linux environment is running in a window from within your Windows environment. Click the mouse in the Linux environment to make that active. Use ctrl and alt to switch back to your Windows environment. Remember that Windows is running all the time that your Linux install is too. Anything happening in Windows will still happen as normal. You can minimise the Linux window and do everything you would normally.

If you want to close the Linux environment, use the shutdown method from within Linux otherwise your installation may be left in a bit of a state. You can take snapshots of your Linux installation and restore them later. Anything that you have written to you Linux VMware disk will still be there next time you boot the Linux install. Shutdown can take quite a while and use a lot of disk access, so be patient. If you are intending to re-boot the PC, wait until all disk access has ceased when closing the VMware software.

For maximum responsiveness in use, I have found it best to maximise the guest OS window, otherwise the mouse tends to jump a bit.

Install Boinc in the same way as a full OS. You can even install a 64 bit Linux (if your CPU and hardware supports it) on a 32bit Win XP host OS.

The real beauty of using VMware (or any other virtualisation technique) is that you do not destroy your Windows installation, you do not have to do any fancy partitioning to generate space for Linux and if it all goes pear shaped, just uninstall VMware and delete the VMWare disk (the hoooge big folder in you root directory).

Enjoy!

Post by **Megacruncher** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 10:01 pm

Wow, Nightlord, this is awesome. 8) Thanks. I'll get some beers in and see if it works.

If it does I'll get some 64 bit ABC and see if I can stop you getting ahead of me!

Post by **Snowdog** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 3:04 pm

Talk about being totally bamboozled! Tried Ubuntu, Kubuntu both times got lost although got further on Ubuntu. Have downloaded Fedora but cant burn the damn bloody thing cause it is too big for disk!

Nightlord · Post by **Nightlord** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 5:43 pm

Looks like the fedora link is now pointing to a DVD iso file. You'll have to burn it onto a DVD rather than a bunch of CD's.

What was the problem with Ubuntu? Was it a clean install or under VMware? Maybe the first thing to do if you have never installed Linux before is to let the CD boot a live version rather than install, then have a play with that.

Post by **Snowdog** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 6:04 pm

Ubuntu was a clean install on to a hard disk i had spare. (So still managed to keep Windoze) Followed your instructions but could not get to the installer package after i copied and pasted within the terminal window.

Will have a try again at somepoint with Fedora and see if that is any easier.

JavaJoe · Post by **JavaJoe** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 12:50 am

Again, snowdog, be sure to give kubuntu a try. There is a decent graphical front end to apt-get which makes getting, installing and configuring BOINC fairly simple.

HTH

Cheers--
Charles aka JavaJoe

Post by **Snowdog** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 7:15 am

Hi Joe, I did give Kubuntu a try but just as lost there as i was with ubuntu. I will possibly try again at the weekend any and all advice appreciated.

Post by **Snowdog** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 5:09 pm

Dont know what i done but Ubuntu is running boinc on one of my AMD 3800 X2 :wav:

Nightlord · Post by **Nightlord** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 11:05 pm

Welcome to the club!

I see you have a new Linux machine connected on ABC. Is that running 64 bit or 32 bit OS. If 64 bit OS, you can upgrade to 64 bit Boinc and on that project crunch twice as fast (abc has a native 64 bit application). From the benchmarks it looks like a 32 bit client.

Be careful though, on other projects 64bit boinc may cause an error or loose a cache full of work.

Post by **Snowdog** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 11:16 pm

I'm sure it is 64bit the version i am running is x86_64-pc-linux-gnu works out that i get 35cr/hour per workunit compared to 20-22cr/hour on windoze.

Is there some other way i can check i'm running 64 apps?

Nightlord · Post by **Nightlord** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 11:29 pm

OK that looks good, maybe you haven't run benchmarks after installing the 64bit Boinc.

If you look at the processes in system monitor you'll see the science app loading up the cpu. If that's 64 bit then you're good to go.

Another way is to open a terminal window, and type uname -m. this will tell you "x86_64" if you are running 64 bit OS. Then, navigate to you Boinc/Projects directory and check you have the 64 bit abc-finder_1.02_x86_64-pc-linux-gnu app downloaded.

I get 50pts/hr per core on overclocked e6700's and around 45 on o/c'd e4300's, so depending on any overclock, 35/hr might be just about right.

Post by **Snowdog** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 11:35 pm

Abc-finder_1.02_x86_64-pc-linux-gnu is running in system monitor. Running on 3800 X2 not o/c so would seem right.

BTW Thanks for your helpful posts! Will run this machine on Linux to get used to it before i switch the other over too

Nightlord · Post by **Nightlord** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 11:43 pm

Cool runnings.... 8)

Post by **Megacruncher** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 1:09 am

I've got 64bit Ubuntu running on 4400+. I even got Boinc going as well. :)
However on my Q6600 Vista I installed it and could get nothing to run because I got a GRUB Error 21. Eventually I just restored the mbr and am back on Windoze again. Any suggestions?

Nightlord · Post by **Nightlord** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 7:08 am

Aha, competition!

Grub error 21 means "missing disk" or something like that. Do you have any special disk configuration on that quad?

Post by **Snowdog** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 12:31 pm

Could this mean an influx of people crunchin for ABC?

Post by **Megacruncher** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 9:21 pm

Aha, competition!

That's the idea!

Grub error 21 means "missing disk" or something like that. Do you have any special disk configuration on that quad?

Not a sausage although I think my partition table might have been a little squiffy for a while.

I must say I'm pleasantly surprised by 64 bit ABC. Even without any giant 1000 credit workunits the 4400+ has clocked up 780 credits in 22 hours with 200 credits pending. As the granted credit is at least 3 times the pending credit this will probably translate into something like 1500/24 hrs.

Post by **Snowdog** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 10:16 pm

I must say I'm pleasantly surprised by 64 bit ABC. Even without any giant 1000 credit workunits the 4400+ has clocked up 780 credits in 22 hours with 200 credits pending. As the granted credit is at least 3 times the pending credit this will probably translate into something like 1500/24 hrs.

Think it will be more than that to be honest. My first 24hours with a 3800+ was nearing 1650cr/24hours excluding the larger 1000cr workunits. Have noticed that there dont to be as many 1000cr workunits for linux thus far.

Nightlord · Post by **Nightlord** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 10:58 pm

I think my partition table might have been a little squiffy for a while.

That might cause the problem. TBH I've never encountered that error, so I don't have first hand experience. Perhaps try a 3rd party tool like Partition Magic to sort out the partitions and boot sector, then try a re-install on the clean partition.

will probably translate into something like 1500/24 hrs. Very Happy

That's probably about right, it will take a wee while for the pending credit to ramp up. Overclock the beast and watch your RAC climb

Have noticed that there dont to be as many 1000cr workunits for linux thus far.

One problem is that you are crunching so fast, your pending credit climbs through the roof and takes a long while to deliver a stable return. You may notice the odd little easter egg here and there in a few days.

JavaJoe · Post by **JavaJoe** » Sun Nov 04, 2007 10:25 pm

Well, I installed ubuntu 7.10 "gutsy gibbon" server edition on one of my slower boxes. Just checking out what the impact of the x-server is on boinc. Besides, the box is just my mail server and my wife and I don't get a lot of mail, so having it run boinc most of the time seems cool. Getting the client installed with

sudo apt-get install boinc-client

worked just fine. I did have to

sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list

and uncomment the sources which had been commented out.

I then used boinc_cmd to get my authentication token, then attached to setiathome and everything just worked. If anyone is at all interested, I can post a little help file.

I realize this may not be exactly the right place to ask, but this spring I will be shifting one or maybe two boxes to motherboards that support the intel quads. Does anyone have suggestions, comments, mb's to avoid? I am neither a game player nor an over-clocker; I just need a mb that ubuntu-64 bit will support.

Suggestions?

Cheers--
Charles aka Javajoe

Post by **Snowdog** » Sun Nov 04, 2007 10:40 pm

Joe you could try a Abit fatality quad core motherboard they seem to be getting good write ups at the moment.

Nightlord · Post by **Nightlord** » Sun Nov 04, 2007 11:05 pm

using vi!....showing your vintage their Joe!

On the otherhand, I would be interested in your findings using the command line version version. It should give you a pretty lean installation without X.

On the mobo front, I use Gigabyte 965 DS3's for my dual and quad cores. They are solid as a rock designed for high end stability with overclocking oozing from their pores. However, if you want to try something more plain vanilla, you could go for an ASRock board: They've been just fine when I've run them with Ubuntu in the past.

Post by **John McLean** » Mon Nov 05, 2007 10:59 am

For those interested in running without X or simply automatically I've an init script for BOINC.

Found the file somewhere (can't remember) but uses the standard format for starting via rc.d and includes simple logging. So easy to setup as part of the standard power up; or on command.

I'll mail it out to anyone who wants it or if there is an upload area anywhere I'll post it there.

John

JavaJoe · Post by **JavaJoe** » Tue Nov 06, 2007 3:23 pm

Thanks all for the MB recommendations. They have been squirreled away for reference in the spring.

As for running the command line version of boinc-client on ubuntu server edition (i.e., without X running) that seems to have increased my recent average credit by roughly 300. I usually run around 1300-1500 depending on the vagaries of the networks and machines involved as well as a type of work units. Another data point of interest.

Cheers--
Charles aka JavaJoe

JavaJoe · Post by **JavaJoe** » Sun Nov 11, 2007 12:23 am

I can now report that my local mail server (internally winifred.abbey.cxm) running a GenuineIntel Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.26GHz [Family 15 Model 2 Stepping 4] with ubuntu linux kernel 2.6.22-14-server is substantially faster than the same box running kubuntu or freeBSD 6.10. It has added an additional 500 work units to my RAC.

The mail server runs postfix, dovecot, fetchmail, spamassassin, and procmail to do all the fetching and e-mail processing. I use the daemon version of spamassassin (spamd), and have procmail call spamc for each piece of mail. Without seti running, uptime shows 0.00 0.00 0.00, and with seti running I get 1.00 1.00 1.00. The system is barely registering.

All in all, I am very happy with this setup.

Cheers--
Charles aka JavaJoe

PS: yes, I have been using vi for a *very* long time!

JavaJoe · Post by **JavaJoe** » Tue Nov 27, 2007 1:00 am

I can now officially say that this is a great platform for running command-line boinc. It is essentially 30% faster than running the gui version.

Cheers--
Charles aka JavaJoe

Post by **Megacruncher** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 1:47 am

30% faster - wow!
So, how do you run command line boinc, & how do you make sure it is still running? That's the great thing about a well designed GUI - you alway know what is happening!

JavaJoe · Post by **JavaJoe** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 2:57 am

I'll put together a blessedly short howto and description, and post that over the week-end.

However, you can monitor any running client on a remote machine from your local machine running the gui version: click on "Advanced" on the menu, choose "Select a Computer", supply the IP address (or the host name if you are using a host file or have a local DNS), and assuming you have not password protected the remote boinc-client, your local gui will now show the remote client. That's how I monitor my e-mail server which runs upstairs in the house. Since it fetches mail only every 10 minutes, there are lots of "spare" cycles.

Cheers--
Charles aka JavaJoe

Nightlord · Post by **Nightlord** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 7:11 am

Have to admit I'm surprised at the difference. I would not have expected that the graphical environment would take so many clock cycles. Nonetheless, I'm running down my cache on one box in anticipation to switch.......

On a different tack, another way to monitor and control a farm of remote machines (running command line or otherwise) is to use boincview?

Post by **John McLean** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 10:35 am

Nightlord it is straightforwards to use BoincView to monitor your Linux boxes from a windows machine - keeps all your monitoring in one place !!!!

I think the monitoring system is the same as using a BOINC client on one machine to monitor another.

Simply create a file called remote_hosts.cfg in your BOINC directory and put either the IP address or the name of the machine that you will be monitoring from. Then call the machine up from boincview and it should just work !!!

I did not really see any improvement from going from a GUI to text mode (run level 5 to run level 3) possibly the improvements are down to the kernel changes. I only had my machine on GUI for a few days though since I run it headless now that it is up and working.

If you are looking to monitor it directly - you can always use VNC or NX which have a lower burden than X if only used occasionally

But these new quad core machines are soooo fast 1 new machine has just about doubled my output. And since it is so fast it spends less time doing work and more doing BOINC

Nightlord · Post by **Nightlord** » Wed Nov 28, 2007 8:42 pm

Nightlord it is straightforwards to use BoincView to monitor your Linux boxes from a windows machine - keeps all your monitoring in one place !!!!

sorry, it was kind a early in the morning and my typing was not good. I added a question mark at the end of my opening sentence but my grammar was cr?p. I already use Boinview across the farm here.....8 machines running a mixture of Linux and XP all controlled from one station. Simple, easy and reliable.

Many moons ago, I ran Linux at runlevel 3 on a couple of old boxes, but at that time, I was uncomfortable with the command line, so decided to switch to running in the gui. Time has passed, so much more comfortable now and I'll be interested to see Java Joes' installation notes: perhaps with some optimisations a real performance gain can be achieved - maybe even enough to keep Willie from knocking on the door for a few more weeks

Post by **Megacruncher** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 12:53 am

I'll be interested to see Java Joes' installation notes: perhaps with some optimisations a real performance gain can be achieved - maybe even enough to keep Willie from knocking on the door for a few more weeks

I'll be reading the same notes!

JavaJoe · Post by **JavaJoe** » Thu Nov 29, 2007 3:14 am

Nightlord wrote:Have to admit I'm surprised at the difference. I would not have expected that the graphical environment would take so many clock cycles.

Nor I. But I have done nothing except switch one box to ubuntu server --no other changes-- and you can see what happened to my RAC. The switch happened on 11/4 in the late afternnon.

It is certainly possible that the maintainer for boinc in the X environment (actually with KDE) does not try to make his/her code as efficient as possible, whereas the command line version can be tuned in ways a KDE app can't or isn't. The gain for me has been dramatic. Your mileage may vary.

HTH

Cheers--
Charles aka JavaJoe

Post by **Snowdog** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 6:41 am

Now that i've been running the linux client for a while i was wondering if anyone knows what the latest boinc client is for amd64? I'm currently running along very stable on 5.4.11 but am curious to find out if there is a later version?

Temujin · Post by **Temujin** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 12:48 pm

I'm currently running along very stable on 5.4.11 but am curious to find out if there is a later version?

I run 5.8.11 on all my linux machines and even that is a long way from current. No AMDs in there though.
I'm sure there are newer stable versions but I just haven't got round to upgrading yet

Nightlord · Post by **Nightlord** » Sat Dec 01, 2007 5:23 pm

OK Joe, on the basis of Willie going to overtake me in less than 3 weeks, I figure I have nothing to loose but try the Linux command line version on a Server edition install. If it doesn't work out, he will be through me a day or two earlier. If it does run ok, I could look at switching the remainder of the Linux boxes to keep the heat off a while longer

So, I've installed Ubuntu 7.10 server on one box. It installed real easy, no problems, actually quicker and easier than the desktop edition.

Installed and configured Boinc from the command line and it seems to be running. It even recognised the 64bit OS and downloaded the correct 64bit Boinc client. 8)

After a bit of messing about with file permissions and sudo vi blah blah blah I have control over the client via BoincView and Boinc Manager, both running on a Windows box.

A slight annoyance, which I'm still looking into...I get a GUI RPC Bind fail :98 message when I run boinc-client. The core client is still running as I can still remote control it through BoincMgr and BoinView as described above. TOP shows two CPU's loaded with ABCfinder_1.03. Mind you, I don't sit in front on the Boinc interface much....far easier to use BoincView.

So, let's see how hard this little box can run

/edit

Benchmarks.....

this host 2428/11167 with command line
this host 2559/7287 with GUI

Same box, same o/c, same specs. So assuming the command line client has no optimisations this could be a gold mine

/edit #2

Hmmmm....

first credit granted works out to be just shy of 45 credits per hour per cpu. Exactly the same as the previous installation

Perhaps the benchmarking routines are a bit more generous on the command line client, or maybe the GUI drains cpu cycles during benchmark? Or maybe I just had a lean installation previously.

Either way, I'll let it run for a day or two to see what the range of credit/hr turns out to be.

Post by **FlyingfocRS** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 12:00 pm

Hello from the latest Ubuntu recruit.

Post by **Snowdog** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 6:15 pm

Welcome to the Ubuntu brigade Mike

Post by **utopia-i** » Wed Apr 16, 2008 3:30 pm

So I'm a Mac person but have access to a cluster that runs linux .... scientific linux 5, was Redhat I think

Code: Select all

./run_client -attach_project http://dist2.ist.tugraz.at/sudoku <key>
2008-04-16 17:34:37 [---] Starting BOINC client version 5.8.16 for i686-pc-linux-gnu

Code: Select all

2008-04-16 17:34:51 [sudoku] Successfully attached to sudoku
2008-04-16 17:34:51 [---] Running CPU benchmarks
2008-04-16 17:34:51 [---] Suspending computation - running CPU benchmarks
2008-04-16 17:34:53 [sudoku] [file_xfer] Started download of file sudoku_5.39_i686-pc-linux-gnu
2008-04-16 17:34:53 [sudoku] [file_xfer] Started download of file cube.png
2008-04-16 17:34:57 [sudoku] [file_xfer] Finished download of file cube.png
2008-04-16 17:34:57 [sudoku] [file_xfer] Throughput 7503 bytes/sec
2008-04-16 17:34:57 [sudoku] [file_xfer] Started download of file stat_icon_01.png
2008-04-16 17:34:58 [sudoku] [file_xfer] Finished download of file sudoku_5.39_i686-pc-linux-gnu
2008-04-16 17:34:58 [sudoku] [file_xfer] Throughput 330269 bytes/sec
2008-04-16 17:34:58 [sudoku] [file_xfer] Finished download of file stat_icon_01.png
2008-04-16 17:34:58 [sudoku] [file_xfer] Throughput 71029 bytes/sec
2008-04-16 17:35:02 [sudoku] Sending scheduler request: To fetch work
2008-04-16 17:35:02 [sudoku] Requesting 1 seconds of new work
2008-04-16 17:35:07 [sudoku] Scheduler request failed: HTTP file not found
2008-04-16 17:35:07 [sudoku] Sending scheduler request: To fetch work
2008-04-16 17:35:07 [sudoku] Requesting 1 seconds of new work
2008-04-16 17:35:12 [sudoku] Scheduler RPC succeeded [server version 511]
2008-04-16 17:35:12 [sudoku] Deferring communication for 7 sec
2008-04-16 17:35:12 [sudoku] Reason: requested by project

has to interrupt as this is on a headnode - need to submit on a worker node - so almost ready to rock? or ....