How to install Seti on Linux - A newbie approach
27 November 2006How to install Seti on Linux - A newbie approach
First you need to have a Boinc account such as:
* Seti@home
* Einstein@home
* ClimatePrediction.net
* LHC@home
In our case I will consider a Seti@home user.
1 - Download the last Boinc Client Sofware for Linux. The latest version as of 23.10.2005 is: boinc_5.2.4_i686-pc-linux-gnu.sh and it can be found here: Boinc Client
2 - After saving the Boinc client to your machine copy it to a folder of your choice. I will follow the original document and use the /opt folder. You can adapt the instructions if you wish to install it to a different location. Just remember to also change the script file if you do so.
Open the Shell Prompt where you downloaded your Boinc Client to and type the following:
$ su
Password: xxxxxx
mv boinc_5.2.4_i686-pc-linux-gnu.sh /opt/
cd /opt
3 - Since the last command above was “cd /opt” you should be sitting inside the /opt folder. Now we will change the archive permission as an executable and delete the original Boinc Client by using the following commands:
$ chmod x boinc_5.2.4_i686-pc-linux-gnu.sh
$ ./boinc_5.2.4_i686-pc-linux-gnu.sh
$ rm boinc_5.2.4_i686-pc-linux-gnu.sh
4 - The first execution of Boinc will be done manually and during this process we’ll configure our Boinc Client.
Type the following:
$ cd BOINC/
$ ./boinc -attach_project http://setiathome.berkeley.edu xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Where xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx is your alpha-numeric Seti@home account key.
Wait for the Boinc Client to complete the process of attaching to your account and when you notice that it’s processing a Seti Unit cancel the program by hitting Ctrl C, so we can proceed with the next step of the setup.
5 - Now its time to create the script. As mentioned before this process is suitable to a Debian based Linux. Using Kate, Gedit or any other text editor we’ll create an archive named boinc in /etc/init.d: by typing the following command:
$ kate /etc/init.d/boinc
then copy the following script into the text editor window:
#!/bin/sh
# /etc/init.d/boinc
# Start/stop/restart
boinc_start() {
if [ -x /opt/BOINC/run_client ]; then
echo “Starting BOINC.”
/opt/BOINC/run_client > boinc.log &
fi
}
boinc_stop() {
echo “Stopping BOINC.”
sudo killall boinc
}
boinc_restart() {
boinc_stop
sleep 2
boinc_start
}
case “$1? in
’start’)
boinc_start
;;
’stop’)
boinc_stop
;;
‘restart’)
boinc_restart
;;
*)
boinc_start
esac
Note that the script points to a file labelled boinc.log which will be saved inside /opt/BOINC. If we want to revise this file we just need to use the following command:
$ less /opt/BOINC/boinc.log
At this point, after we have saved the script above, we’ll make the script an executable and run it to make sure it works by typing the commands below:
$ chmod x /etc/init.d/boinc
$ /etc/init.d/boinc start
$ ps -A
The last command above “ps -A” will show a list of all the processes running on your Linux box. Look for two processes labelled “setiathome_4.02″ and “boinc” in the list. If you see them it means that you are now running Seti in your box.
The next step is creating a symbolic link by typing the following command:
$ ln -s /etc/init.d/boinc /etc/rc2.d/S99boinc
Done that we can now reboot the machine and Seti at home will start automatically. If you are in doubt just use the “ps -A” command and check the list again.
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