Linux

[UBT - Mikee]

Hi

The other day I had a look at Linux again and tried to find 'dummies' type installation utilities. A little investigation took me to a useful site which directed me to try to install from disc Ubuntu Mint Debian(?). Took 2 goes to get the ISO disc to start but it did. I got so far as to download BOINC Manager, install and access the Sztaki project - but no work available (for a change!).

Suppose the next stage is to dual boot the PC. Bit of a basic newbie question here...

Is Linux really faster for BOINC stuff? If so, anyone know which would be the best projects to have a play with? Not in a hurry so take your time

Mike

[Woodles]

Hi Mike,

It all depends on the project, the code written for it and the 'flavour' or Linux. At the end of the day it's the same processor running the same set of instructions so there shouldn't be any real advantage to either.

Windows has more of an overhead for system calls so any project that uses lots of Windows resources will be slower ... but it also generally has a larger variety of them so an OS function that can be completed in one call on Windows may take two or more on Linux making Linux slower.

If the application loads itself completely into memory and is self contained then it makes no difference what operating system you use. If the project code is written by Linux experts and simply converted to Windows by compiler flags then the Linux version should be better. The opposite also applies where Windows only has a few, closely related variants so can be pretty tightly coded but to cater for all the Linux variants needs more general code.

A fairly large, well supported project should have the resources and users to create and test fairly good applications for both OS so pick one and try it. Einstein had decent applications for both last time I tried it.

Regards,

Mark

[UBT - Timbo]

Hi

The other day I had a look at Linux again and tried to find 'dummies' type installation utilities. A little investigation took me to a useful site which directed me to try to install from disc Ubuntu Mint Debian(?). Took 2 goes to get the ISO disc to start but it did. I got so far as to download BOINC Manager, install and access the Sztaki project - but no work available (for a change!).

Hi Mike

Like you I'm a "newb" on Linux - I tried so many times with various boot CD's, going back to the 1990's, at which point I was a "DOS" aficionado and could almost command a PC to make the tea. I still have some of these "boot CDs" in my library of software...some of which aren't updated now - Slackware, Fedora and Caldera anyone ?

You actually mentioned 3 "flavours" of Linux - Ubuntu, Mint and Debian...Ubuntu is the "latest" version of Debian and is based upon it. Mint likewise is based on Ubuntu.

Nowadays it should be a bit easier...PCs are more adaptable and since the demise of the floppy disc, you can boot and install from a "LiveCD" or you can make a bootable USB stick...something I'm trying on a spare PC that needs some attention.

If you can and the PC is recent, then install the x64 version as that should be a tiny bit faster on newer CPU's.

Suppose the next stage is to dual boot the PC. Bit of a basic newbie question here...

Is Linux really faster for BOINC stuff? If so, anyone know which would be the best projects to have a play with? Not in a hurry so take your time

Mike

As far as BOINC goes, as Mark said, there are some projects that support both Windows and Linux, but given that both of these OSs have graphical interfaces (which consumes some "CPU processing power") plus the fact that most projects applications are created from the (more or less) same source code, means that (in general) whether it's Windows or Linux, the CPU will do the same work and will probably take the same amount of time and earn the same amount of credit.

However, there are some optimised applications (both project based or third-party) where some gains can be made in terms of reduced time to completion and these tend to be restricted to one specific OS.

There is also the fact that, unlike most other projects, Wanless (aka WEP-M+2) only supports two OSs - Linux and Mac, so you can add that project and see what happens.

Code: Select all

http://bearnol.is-a-geek.com/wanless2/

I'm sorry to say that I had a bad experience a while back trying to "dual boot" a PC with Windows and Linux. Apparently, one has to install WIndows first and then Linux after that...and I assume when Linux is installed it recognises Windows and installs a "Boot Manager" to allow you to select which OS to run, whenever you boot up.

Personally, Windows is a lot more polished as an OS than any Linux version I've seen...and Linux is far more tricky to "configure", due to the way it commandeers all the files under it's control. I tried (unsuccessfully) to get a Raspberry Pi (which also uses a version of Linux) to run BOINC in order to control a BU ASIC...but the OS made it difficult for me to find the right files to edit and when I did find them, the built in text editor wouldn't let me save the updated file (as I was logged in a "root" but BOINC assigns the user "boinc" to be the owner of it's own files)...so you can't change them !!

So, good luck with it - if you persevere, you will learn how it works...and I'm sure you can adapt to how it makes you work...but it might be a tricky ride !!

regards
Tim

[wkdwill]

Hi all,

Just got into running Boinc on my Raspberry Pi3 and run into the same problem with file permissions,
I did a little looking around and found that you can open the file for editing as another user via terminal, I haven't tried it yet so this might not work,
easiest way I have found to open files is to "cd" into the directory that houses the file you wish to edit ie, "cd ~/var/lib/boinc-client/projects/" then "dir" for list of files in directory, I do this so I don't get any spelling errors typing the commands,
then open the file as username "boinc" "runuser -l boinc -c ./filenamehere"
As Tim said, the trouble with Boinc on Linux is that the files are spread out across various folder directories, so finding them is a royal pain in the a**

Without any playing with configuration files, I have 4 tasks running of Goofyxgrid, 3 Asteroids, 1 WUProp and 1 yoyo, the number of credits generated aren't anything special but I'm happy with them especially considering the machine cost £35, stats are here http://boincstats.com/en/stats/-5/host/detail/341853860

Will

edit: You can also change user to boinc in terminal then open the file from there "$ su - boinc" only problem is I haven't found the boinc user password to use this command

[UBT - Timbo]

Hi Will

For Linux, I found a simple solution (after the event) which is Krusader - a twin panel file manager, which is a bit like XTree (if you go back that far !!). (You can find this in the Ubuntu Software Centre app).

Within the menu is a text editor...but there is also an "enhanced" text editor within the program, that gives you better control of how you edit any config files. It's also easier to search for various filenames too, making it easier to track down anything that you know is there, but cannot find.

With this simple program, it's much easier to get things working the way you want and hence I would recommend it to anyone using Linux PCs.

regards
Tim

[wkdwill]

Hi Tim,

Thanks for name of the file manager, I have it installing now I'll give it a go after work tomorrow.

Cheers,

Will

[Woodles]

Hi All,

A couple of observations:

You can set up a machine as dual boot if you've already installed Windows but it's a lot more difficult as Microsoft assumes Windows will be the only OS you'll ever need so simply overwrites the boot information regardless of what was already there. On a Linux machine that's having Windows added, you need to save the boot sector information, install Windows then combine the new boot sector data with the original. Not straightforward and not obvious. Instructions are on the web and I've done it once but it was such a hassle I always install Windows first these days. Linux installs are much more co-operative with existing OS's and simply add their bits to what's already there without overwriting it then add a boot manager that runs on startup.

I don't know if it's an Ubuntu thing but opening a terminal and navigating to the file then entering "sudo gedit filename" always allows me read/write access to any file.

Alternatively, Linux files have permissions (directories are also files on Linux) for 'user', 'group' and 'owner'. "chmod" is used to change these. Open a terminal, navigate to the file you're interested in, log in as su (or preface the command with "sudo") then set them how you'd like.

ie "sudo chmod u=r,g=rw,o=rwx" filename
'u' is user privileges, 'g' is group privileges, 'o' is owner privileges, 'r' is read access, 'w' is write access and 'x' is execute access. The file owner now has read, write and execute privileges, other members of the group you're currently a part of have read and write privileges and you only have read privileges.

You can use '+' or '-' to add or remove privileges to a file instead of explicitly assigning them. '-R' applies the changes recursively so "cd ~/var/lib/boinc-client/" then "sudo chmod -R u=rwx,g=rwx,o=rwx projects/" will give everyone read, write and execute privileges for all the project files. The slot directories are recreated each time so the privileges for them will revert to the original when a new workunit is started in them.

Also, on Ubuntu, entering the first couple of characters of a filename then hitting 'TAB' will fill in the remaining characters if it's unique. If not, type a few more

The boinc users password is stored in the "/var/lib/boinc/gui_rpc_auth.cfg" file

Nice going with your Raspberry Pi Will

Regards,

Mark