BOINC for TC

[meo]

Hi Jason!

I just want to ask if there is a boinc extension coming for TC? Cern has come to mind since the 4:th of July. I think it would be a very good extension to have in the repository.

Have fun in all the work you are putting in for the TC community,
meo

[Jason W]

This was actually one of the first scms that I put together, but it installs into /opt and requires some linking to make it work in /apps, so I scrapped it.   Now, all it's dependencies needed for a source build   have build scripts, so it should not be too much to put a build together.  I may aim for it in the coming days.

[meo]

Hi Jason!

Sounds nice. Looking forward to try the extension. Thanks a lot for the swift and positive reply!

Have fun continuing with your good work for the TC community,
meo

[thane]

I'm running an older version of BOINC since with more recent ones I had a lot of problems with missing libraries -- I haven't tried the latest version though. A BOINC extension would be very helpful.

Depending on the project, the data files for BOINC can be huge compared to the app itself. Even if it's available as an extension I'd suggest having a separate backup for the data and other files that are updated during processing (my solution), or else using persistent home.

[thane]

I tried downloading the latest version of BOINC for Linux. As before when I ran the run_manager I got an error message about a missing library.

Googling how Linux handles shared libraries it looks like I should download the missing library (and any others I may encounter) to usr/local/lib and  run ipconfig against the directory. Presumably this will make the library(s) available to the BOINC run_manager. I guess after that I'd have to add usr/lib/local to the backup.

Does this approach seem right for TCL? Thanks.

[Rich]

Hi thane

I guess after that I'd have to add usr/lib/local to the backup.

Aside from the typo, don't do that, you'll backup the entire subdirectory. Backup only the libs you added:

Code: [Select]

usr/local/lib/libname
usr/local/lib/anotherlibname

[thane]

Thanks Rich. I haven't looked at usr/local/lib [?] so I have no clue what else might be there.

[thane]

I'm trying a hack to let TCL run the current version of BOINC (basically adding missing libraries to usr/lib). However I've encountered a library conflict with an existing library (/lib/libc.so.6). BOINC requires version 'GLIBC_2.15' while the TCL version appears to be EGLIBC 2.13. Googling suggests this is a very basic library so I'm hesitant to just try slapping in a 2.15 version and seeing what happens. Any suggestions? I hope I'm not completely misunderstanding the problem here. Thanks.

[Juanito]

changing libc in tinycore would require major surgery - basically replacing the libs at the heart of the system.

Since the tinycore toolchain was not built with that version of libc, you'd risk instability thereafter.

[curaga]

Unless they require something in a libc that new, it's bad form to depend on so new libs. That means BOINC won't run on Debian, Red Hat, CentOS, etc etc either.

[thane]

I think some of the distros curaga mentioned do provide BOINC, but they compiled their own packages. I'm starting with the "Berkeley installer" one from the BOINC project which is supposed to be generic. An old version of it did work on TCL but recent ones require libraries that aren't readily available. I was hoping that I could just add the missing libraries and was making some progress there, but the requirement for a different version of an existing library is a bit of a showstopper. Hmmph.

[Rich]

Hi thane
I think this pretty much answers the question:
http://boinc.berkeley.edu/dev/forum_thread.php?id=7703

[thane]

Oops. I did look at the BOINC message boards but somehow overlooked the most relevant thread! Unfortunately it pretty much says what we already figured.

I guess my next step is to see if there's an older version of BOINC that I can get working. If not I'll live without it.

Thanks to everyone for your help!

Thane

[AmatCoder]

BOINC building process fails if you use the "Berkeley installer". That contains already-compiled files (not compatible with TC - possibly compiled on Ubuntu 12.04) which require libc > 2.14.
And you can not simply replace libc...That could break which was compiled against former libc (means: the whole system)

But BOINC works if you build it from sources...All dependencies are in repository.
See: http://boinc.berkeley.edu/trac/wiki/SoftwarePrereqsUnix (Note that 'server' build is not needed...)

[thane]

OK, it looks like an older version of BOINC for Linux (6.12.34) does work with the /lib/libc.so.6 library version that TCL has. I had to download some additional TCL extensions (and other libraries TCL doesn't provide) to get the libraries BOINC needs, but it seems to be running. It's late here, will give a list of the extensions and libraries tomorrow.