Ubuntu 64

[vaughan]

I need some help from our Linux gurus please. Today I took the plunge and downloaded and installed Ubuntu 64 to a brand new 320GB Western Digital SATA2 drive. I d/l and installed all 78 updates! This took many times longer than the original installation including the partitioning.

Next I tried to install BOINC.

Silly me googled BOINC and d/l the Linux version it offered (it was 32bit but this didn't dawn on me). I installed it and then realised I didn't have the 64 bit version. So I d/l the 64bit BOINC for Linux and installed that over the top of the other BOINC. Was this a mistake?

Next I tried to run BOINC and here is the dilemma. From vaughan@C2D-6400:~/Desktop/BOINC$
I typed ls to see the contents of the directory. It looked OK to me, familiar structure to the Xubuntu 32bit I have on my Windows PC. Next I typed from a Terminal sudo ./run_client and pressed Enter. It asked for my password which I typed in. A whole bunch of text appeared including
Starting BOINC client version 5.10.8 for x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
log flags: task, file_xfer, sched_ops
Libraries: libcurl/7.15.5 OpenSSL/0.9.8c zlib/1.2.3 libidn/0.6.5
Data directory: /home/vaughan/Desktop/BOINC
Processor: blah blah
Processor features: etcetera
Memory: blah
Disk: stuff
No general preference found - using BOINC defaults
and the fact that
This computer is not attached to any projects.
It ends with Visit http://boinc/berkeley.edu for instructions
which I did and that was a waste of time.

Next I opened another Terminal and typed sudo ./run_manager, then Enter and put in my password. However, instead of the BOINC Manager opening that I expected it just sat there doing nothing.

What do I need to do to correct this?

[AMDave]

Yep. Got the T-shirt. ;)
For some reason the boinc manager does not run in Ubuntu 64.
Berkeley are aware of it (have been for several months now).

What you will find is that the boinc client runs ok, but the manager does not. However, you can install the Ubuntu 64 supported boinc manager and that will work for you.

I created 1 script to start the 5.10.x boinc client that we installed from the x64 boinc install with the rpc command and the parameters to make it run in the background.

Then install the Ubuntu supported boinc-manager package

$ sudo apt-get install boinc-manager

Now, we also know that the boinc manager objects if it is not run from the same directory, so I created another script to "cd" into the same directory and then execute

$ boincmgr

from there which will start the boincmgr installed in /usr/bin/ by Ubuntu.

You may run into a password / authorization issue.
Close the manager and the client. *** see below
Modify the password in your "gui_rpc_auth.cfg" file
restart the client and then the manager and try again.

I chucked both scripts in my $HOME/bin directory and chmod'd them appropriately to be executable.

Start the client from the command line.
Then start the boinc manager from the command line.
or don't even bother - I manage my linux BOINC client(s) from BOINCview on my main workstation
I have written about that previously.

***
if you run the client from the command line to operate in the background you can display it's process ID like so

$ ps -ef|grep boinc|grep -v grep
yourusername 18859 1 0 Sep09 pts/1 00:04:18 ./boinc -allow_remote_gui_rpc
$

Here's what we are doing:
{ps -ef} requests a full process list but it contains a lot of stuff to sift through
{|} pipes it to the next command
{grep boinc} says filter on the text "boinc"
that cuts down to the process we want to see and the command itself (because it also includes the text "boinc"
{|} pipe to the next command
{grep -v grep} tells it to filter out lines with the text "grep"
That cuts it down to the last line that we want.

This tells us that the client process is tagged as process ID # 18859 (on my machine at this moment - it will change every time it is started and will definitely be different so double check yours and put in the right number below)
We can stop it like this

$ kill -9 18859

If the os objects, use sudo infront of the command

$ sudo kill -9 18859

to tell it you really mean business, but you really do want to make sure you type in the right ID otherwise you may kill off a critical OS process.

[drezha]

Yeah I just downloaded BOINC through the Synaptic Package manager. Not the lastest version but it worked. Not sure if it was 64 bit mind.

[vaughan]

OK I did the sudo apt-get install boinc-manager
Then I got lost ... sudo ./run_client worked but not sudo ./run_manager



I don't need to hide anything, this is a pure cruncher dedicated to 64 bit apps.
From a Terminal how do I attach to the BOINC projects that have 64 bit clients? eg abcathome and RieselSieve.

[AMDave]

ok. edit your "run_manager" file to change it from

cd "/home/yourusername/dc/BOINC" && exec ./boincmgr $@

to

cd "/home/yourusername/dc/BOINC" && exec boincmgr $@

You see, the "./" tells the OS to look specifically for the following file in the current folder. By removing the "./", the OS will parse the "boincmgr" command, and look for it first in the /usr/bin/ folder. (substitute "yourusername" with - you guessed it - your own user name)

alternatively, if you are happy using the command line, you can use the boinc_cmd tool to manage your client
http://boinc.berkeley.edu/boinc_cmd.php

Check on Augustine's list before trying to attach so you know that you can and also whether there is work in the queue, so you will know whether it succeded or not.

[vaughan]

How do I get the permission to use gedit on gui_rpc_auth.cfg

[AMDave]

I suspect that you installed your 64-bit boinc using "sudo" otherwise you'd have permission.

just use sudo infront of gedit
or
re-install your 64-bit version without using sudo

[vaughan]

Woot! Its working. Thanks AMDave.