BOINC for TC

[AmatCoder]

However manager does not work, isn't? boincmgr from "Berkeley installer" needs an standard wxgtk (with separate libraries) and TCL has a monolithic build...

I was able to build a new BOINC (7.0.28 version)... I can send you for testing and to send it to repository if it is working fine.

[thane]

I'm not a 100% sure my BOINC setup is completely working. I downloaded the libraries TCL doesn't have (mostly wxwidget ones as you say) and stored them in a directory on USB. On boot I copy these into /usr/lib. It's a hack but it looks as though it lets BOINC run, and I don't think does any damage because they're libraries TCL doesn't use.

Compiling a BOINC extension is a much more elegant solution (and beyond my current skill). Not sure how you'd send it to me but I'm certainly willing to test it. BOINC would be a great addition to TCL.

edit: I should note that I'm running TCL in RAM and saving to a USB stick. I save BOINC on shutdown and copy it back to home/tc on boot separately from the regular TCL backup/restore. Probably a hard drive/persistent home setup would be better. I still want to try it though.

[AmatCoder]

Compiling a BOINC extension is a much more elegant solution (and beyond my current skill). Not sure how you'd send it to me but I'm certainly willing to test it. BOINC would be a great addition to TCL.

Well, I can upload to mediafire and I send a PM to you with the link...

edit: I should note that I'm running TCL in RAM and saving to a USB stick. I save BOINC on shutdown and copy it back to home/tc on boot separately from the regular TCL backup/restore. Probably a hard drive/persistent home setup would be better. I still want to try it though.

I do not know how BOINC works, sorry...That's why I need someone to test it  .

[thane]

"Well, I can upload to mediafire and I send a PM to you with the link..."

Sounds good.

"I do not know how BOINC works..."

At least in my current setup BOINC is installed in a directory under home/tc. All the data files it processes are stored there too. Depending on the projects it's running these files can be quite large. Also various file updates seem to be done fairly often. This leads me to think that persistent home on a hard drive is the best setup. My all RAM setup is less than ideal but it works well enough!

[AmatCoder]

"Well, I can upload to mediafire and I send a PM to you with the link..."

Sounds good.

Done. (mediafile not available...depositfiles instead...sorry for captchas )

[thane]

Got it. Thanks. Will let you know how it works.

[thane]

OK, took a first shot at running a BOINC extension on TCL.

Untarred the BOINC extension files and moved them into /tce/optional OK. After that:

Initially ran tce-load -i boinc in a default terminal (home/tc). This created several files in the home/tc folder. Then ran boinc_client. Client appeared to initialize correctly, however it says no projects assigned to BOINC. This is to be expected. Client message said to go the BOINC website for instructions on attaching projects.

In the past I've used boincmgr, so I terminated the client (CTRL-C) and tried boincmgr. boincmgr started but terminal showed messages "execvp(/home/tc/boinc, --redirectio, --launched_by_manager) failed with error 13!". Manager panel showed "Unable to connect to core client".

Thought there might be a folder issue, so created a boinc directory under home/tc and moved BOINC files there. Re-ran boincmgr and got the same results.

I'll do some research and see if I can resolve this. I think the extension is probably OK but there's something wrong with how I'm trying to run it.

[AmatCoder]

As far I understand, boinc_client and boincmgr must be run sequentially...Open a terminal and type:

Code: [Select]

tc@box:~$ boinc_client
Do not close. Open another terminal and type:

Code: [Select]

tc@box:~$ boincmgr
Then you can see that it connect to client and it works...

[thane]

I was just going to post that when I saw yours. Yup, had to start the client first and then the manager in a separate terminal. Onward!

edit: Was able to connect to my seti@home account and add it to BOINC as a project. The project info is stored in a subdirectory from where you run the boinc_client and boincmgr (in my case under home/tc/boinc/). Since I'm not running persistent home and would rather not have all the BOINC stuff in the mydata.tgz I'll try backing the boinc directory up separately like I was before. Will let it run for a while first though.

edit #2: Getting error message in the client terminal 'Xlib: extension "MIT-SCREEN-SAVER" missing on display ":0.0".'. Other users in various Linux distros have reported this too. It looks like data is being processed anyway though.

[AmatCoder]

Getting error message in the client terminal 'Xlib: extension "MIT-SCREEN-SAVER" missing on display ":0.0".'. Other users in various Linux distros have reported this too. It looks like data is being processed anyway though.

Are you running Xvesa? Because this would need Xorg running... (and presumably xscreensaver-base.tcz as well)

Anyway that's just to run a screensaver which displays BOINC's general information, status, etc...
As stated here: http://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/BOINC_screensaver:

NOTE: BOINC runs even if you don't use the screensaver.

[thane]

Yes, the error messages are more of an annoyance than anything else. As other users noted they fill the terminal window and keep you from seeing messages that are more important, but they don't appear to interfere with data processing. I'm running xvesa and don't have any screen saver extensions downloaded.

[thane]

The BOINC extension appears to be working correctly, at least with the seti@home project.

I created a boinc directory under home/tc and executed the tce-load -i boinc command there, as well as the boinc-client command. The boincmgr directory should be run as needed in a separate terminal (set to the same directory the BOINC client is running in). I exclude the boinc directory from the regular TCL backup and copy the contents to directory /mnt/sda1/tce/mydownloads/boinc on shutdown and back to home/tc/boinc on boot. Actually using the regular TCL backup is probably OK for seti@home, but some other projects have huge data files that users might not want to mix with TCL. For users with hard drives using persistent home would get around these problems.

I suggest going ahead and putting the BOINC extension in the repository so it can get a more thorough test.

[Rich]

Hi thane

I exclude the boinc directory from the regular TCL backup and copy the contents to directory /mnt/sda1/tce/mydownloads/boinc on shutdown and back to home/tc/boinc on boot.

Rather than copying the contents, you could:

Code: [Select]

ln -s /mnt/sda1/tce/mydownloads/boinc home/tc/boincon startup.

[curaga]

No need to even create on startup, the symlink will be saved in backup/persistent home.

[thane]

The data files for BOINC projects are not part of the extension code but are downloaded from the web, processed, and returned to the project servers. They're stored under the same working directory that the BOINC client is running in (in my case home/tc/boinc). I'm booting off USB and running exclusively in RAM (no hard drive), so I have to somehow backup the modified files in the boinc directory. There's no doubt ways to distinguish these from the unmodified files but I just backup the whole directory. That's why I think a setup with a hard drive and persistent home would be a better environment, and why I suggest someone running that setup do further testing.