BOINC core client for Debian ============================ This README file discusses some topics that are specific to Debian's default configuration of the BOINC core client. Additional information is available on the Debian Wiki: http://wiki.debian.org/BOINC Contents: 1. Configuring the BOINC core client 2. Installing and configuring BOINC application packages 3. Moving a BOINC data directory to /var/lib/boinc-client 4. Mass deployment of boinc-client that automatically attach to an Account Manager 1. Configuring the BOINC core client ------------------------------------ On Debian systems the BOINC core client is started by default after boot by the '/etc/init.d/boinc-client' init script. In the default configuration the BOINC core client uses '/var/lib/boinc-client' as BOINC data directory. For security reasons it is executed as the system user 'boinc' which only has write access to the BOINC data directory. Edit the file '/etc/default/boinc-client' to configure the init script, to change the BOINC data directory or the user used to execute the core client or to disable the automatic start of the BOINC core client at boot time. The further behaviour of the client, e.g. the debug level of log files, is specified in files collected in '/etc/boinc-client/'. To configure a running core client (e.g. attaching a project to it) the 'boinccmd' console program or the graphical BOINC Manager ('boincmgr') should be used. Have a look at the man pages of both for more information. If the project you are joining only offers 32 bit binaries but you are on amd64 then also install the ia32-libs package. This is more likely for the graphics to be required than for the core computations, so don't worry to much, just be aware of it. 2. Installing and configuring BOINC application packages -------------------------------------------------------- Normally the BOINC core client downloads project's applications itself if they are available for the platform (e.g. i686-pc-linux-gnu) the client was build for. If this is not the case, one can install Debian packages of these applications. These packages are called 'boinc-app-' where is an abbreviation of the project name, e.g. 'boinc-app-seti' or 'boinc-app-einstein'. To get a list of all available application packages run: % apt-cache search boinc-app-* If you are using the default BOINC data directory '/var/lib/boinc-client' just installing 'boinc-app-' packages is enough. If you are not using the default data directory you have to create some symbolic links manually. E.g if your BOINC data directory is '/home/john/boinc' just run % update-boinc-applinks --create --data-dir=/home/john/boinc after the installation of the 'boinc-app-' package and restart your BOINC core client. 3. Moving a BOINC data directory to /var/lib/boinc-client --------------------------------------------------------- To move an existing BOINC data directory to Debian's default directory follow these instructions: 1. Stop the BOINC core client: % /etc/init.d/boinc-client stop 2. Copy the entire content of your old BOINC data directory to '/var/lib/boinc-client'. 3. Make all files in that directory writable by the user and group boinc: % chown -R boinc:boinc /var/lib/boinc-client 4. Move configuration files to '/etc/boinc-client/' and create symlinks for the core client: % mv -f /var/lib/boinc-client/gui_rpc_auth.cfg /etc/boinc-client/ % ln -s /etc/boinc-client/gui_rpc_auth.cfg /var/lib/boinc-client/gui_rpc_auth.cfg Repeat the last step for the following configuration files if they exist in your old BOINC data directory: 'cc_config.xml', 'global_prefs_override.xml' and 'remote_hosts.cfg' 5. Start the BOINC core client again: % /etc/init.d/boinc-client start 4. Mass deployment of boinc-client that automatically attach to an ------------------------------------------------------------------ Account Manager --------------- With small modifications to the boinc-client package it is possible to make it automatically attach to an Account Manager. This features supports the mass deployment of the BOINC client throughout a larger network of hosts. For specific instructions consult this message and the attached cookdiff.patch: http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-boinc-devel/2007-March/000553.html