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World Community Grid: Team Ubuntu

World Community Grid is a project that uses distributed computing to take on various projects that benefit humanity. Distributed computing is where a project will use spare cpu cycles (or idle time) to run the project. Since it only uses spare cycles, and it has the lowest priority on your system, it will not slow down a computer in any way.

1. How to Install (easiest and preferred method)
2. How to Install Manually (not recommended)
3. How to check your Stats and Edit Device Profiles
4. How to switch your team to Team Ubuntu
5. Other Things
6. See Also (links)

Easiest and Preferred Method

(thanks to Warbo for informing me of this method)

The easiest way to install the BOINC client is simply open up Synaptic or whatever program manager you might use (for KDE and Xfce ). Once open, simply search for "boinc" and then click to install "boinc-client" and "boinc-manager". (boinc manager is the GUI frontend to boinc-client). You need to have the "universe" repository enabled or else it wont show up. Then, if you want to create a desktop or other launcher for the BOINC Manager, simply create a new launcher, select the BOINC icon that was automatically installed in /usr/share/pixmaps, and then put "/usr/bin/boincmgr" in the "command" portion.

This method is preferred because then boinc automatically starts up on system startup and automatically stops when you restart/shut down your system. BOINC also creates a new user, boinc and runs the boinc-client under that username. Another benefit to this installation method is that you do not need the gui (boinc-manager) running 24/7, if you want to just check the statistics of your work unit progress, simply launch the manager, check or edit what you want, and when you're done, simply close the manager and it will close the gui, but the client will still be running in the backround. Nifty.

Configuration

Once you installed the BOINC client and manager using Synaptic or whatever other program manager you use, its time to get started crunching.

To start, you need to create an account. Go to THIS page, click on "download linux" and then create an account, and dont forget to click on "select" on the very bottom of the registration form and search for and select "Ubuntu Linux" so you can crunch for Team Ubuntu! When you are finished creating an account, and activating that account if necessary, then you do not need to download the client as you already have it. You can close out of your browser as you are done with that site for now.

Next, fire up the BOINC Manager if you haven't already. (if you havent or dont want to create a launcher, the command to open it is "/usr/bin/boincmgr") Go to "tools" and then click on "attach to project". It will ask you for the project URL. In this box, paste "www.worldcommunitygrid.org".

Next it will ask you for your user information. In the boxes, type in the user name and password for the account that you just created.

If all goes well, then when you click the "projects" tab on the main window, it should show "World Community Grid" listed there. The BOINC client will then start to download work units and start to compute them.

If everything works, dont forget to check out how to check your stats and some other general things

If you ever want to stop or restart the boinc client, the commands to type in the terminal is this:

sudo /etc/init.d/boinc-client start|stop|restart

Manual Method (not recommended)

Download

To download World Community Grid, go to this page and click on Linux (x86). If you do not have an account, you will be prompted to create an account (or login if you already have an account) before you can continue. After you created an account, a new window will open where you can download the BOINC client. Also note that in the original window, is information that you will need to complete the configuration of BOINC. Be sure to download the BOINC client to the place where you want to run it from. (your home folder is a good place, BOINC does not need to be run as root.)

Installation

After you have downloaded the BOINC client to the location that you want to run it from (like your home folder), simply open up the terminal and type:

cd (directory where you downloaded the file)
sh boinc_5.4.9_i686-pc-linux-gnu.sh

the name of the file that you downloaded might be different from the one listed here. If it is different, simply substitute boinc_5.4.9_i686-pc-linux-gnu.sh for the name of the file that you downloaded.

Doing this will create a folder called "BOINC" containing the following files:

boinc
    The BOINC core client 
boincmgr
    The BOINC manager 
run_client
    A script that cd's into the BOINC directory and runs the core client. 
run_manager
    A script that cd's into the BOINC directory and runs the manager.

Configuration

If you are unsure on which method to use, follow the GUI method, its easier.

Command line

Refer to the page that you came to right after you clicked "download the BOINC Linux agent here" and scroll down for instructions. the URL should of been http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/ms/viewThankYouBoinc.do.

GUI

Open up the terminal and type this command in:

cd (directory where the BOINC folder is)
./boincmgr

This should bring up the BOINC client. Go to "tools" and then click on "attach to project". It will ask you for the project URL. In this box, paste "www.worldcommunitygrid.org".

Next it will ask you for your user information. In the boxes, type in the user name and password for the account that you created right before you downloaded the BOINC client.

If all goes well, then when you click the "projects" tab on the main window, it should show "World Community Grid" listed there. The BOINC client will then start to download work units and start to compute them.

Starting BOINC on Startup

There are a couple different methods for doing this:

If you prefer the command line client (daemon)

You can create a desktop launcher, with the command to run

(directory where BOINC is)/BOINC/run_client

Or you can edit the programs that startup when you login into your account, for GNOME users its located in System > Preferences > Sessions > Startup programs > Add, then put in the above command (with the directory correctly filled in) into the box.

If you prefer the GUI client

Same thing as if you were running the command line client, you can create a desktop launcher with the command:

(directory where the BOINC folder is)/BOINC/run_manager

or you can edit what programs start up when you login into your account. for GNOME users its located in System > Preferences > Sessions > Startup programs > Add, then put in the above command (with the directory correctly filled in) into the box.

Viewing your stats and editing device profiles

To view your stats, how many work units you have completed, how many points you have acquired, and view other various stats and graphs, just go to the World Community Grid site, and on the tabs on the top, click "my grid" on the far right.

Your device profiles is where you can set how the BOINC client behaves. As in how much disk space to take up, to set it to run during a certain time of day, whether it will run while your computer is on batteries, etc.

You can edit your device profiles by again going to the World Community Grid site and clicking on the "my grid tab" and clicking on "device manager" on the left hand menu. If you make any changes to your device profiles, the BOINC client will not follow it until it updates with the server automatically or you hit the "update" button on the "projects" tab of the GUI client.

Team Ubuntu

If you already have the BOINC client running, but want a new team, why not crunch for Team Ubuntu?

To join Team Ubuntu, go to the World Community Grid site and login to your account.

Then go to this link: http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/team/viewTeamInfo.do?teamId=69P91PFQP1. On this page should be a link to "join this team". Click on this link and then you will be added to Team Ubuntu! The BOINC client will not show you as part of Team Ubuntu until the BOINC client updates with the server automatically or you hit "update" on the "project tab" of the GUI client.

Other Things

If you notice on the GUI client, there are a bunch of buttons on the side. These buttons do exactly what they say they do. "no new work" means that after you finish the current work unit, the BOINC manager will not get any new work until you hit "allow new work". Suspend means that the BOINC client will pause working on the current work unit. Update forces the BOINC client to update with the server, which makes it send any finished work, download any new configurations and team information that you have made on the website.

For more information, you can always take a look at the World Community Grid site to find answers to any questions you may have.

See Also (links)

World Community Grid
Team Ubuntu
BOINC


WorldCommunityGridTeamUbuntu (last edited 2010-07-25 00:22:43 by oh-71-48-77-63)