Runtime Control script for Red Hat / Fedora Core::

Intro

I am pleased to be able to offer a Red Hat / Fedora Core Linux based runtime-control script for running BOINC. The script is free to download and modify for your own system needs. If you make improvements, please feel free to email the changes back to me.

Please note: This script has been designed to operate on a single CPU system as 'root' and does not generate screen saver graphics.

1: Download BOINC binary

This script assumes a single use system where you can run the BOINC binary from a directory in /root/BOINC/. Download the latest BOINC binary and save it to /root/ (or save it elsewhere, then move it as super-user). Run the dowloaded binary, in this case ./boinc_5.8.16_i686-pc-linux-gnu.sh (current version at time of writing). The script will expand and copy out the necessary binaries into /root/BOINC/. You may need to run chown root:root * to reset the permissions after unpacking the binary executables.

2: Download Runtime script

The script is available in gzip format from my FTP server. After downloading the file, remember to gzip -d boinc.gz to decompress the file. A text version of the script is also available for reference, printing, etc.

3: Install Runtime script

Copy the expanded file into your /etc/init.d/ directory; check the permissions are 755 (chmod 755 boinc); and the user:group rights are both set to 'root' (chown root:root boinc); then run the following command:

/sbin/chkconfig --add boinc

The 'chkconfig' program creates the symlinks in the rc0.d, rc1.d,... rc6.d directories.

4: Syslog

In order to rotate the logs BOINC creates, you must create a file called boinc in /etc/logrotate.d/. The file should contain the following:

/var/log/BOINC/*_log {
    missingok
    sharedscripts
    postrotate
       /etc/init.d/boinc condrestart >/dev/null 2>&1 || true
    endscript
    }

Permissions and user:group rights should be set the same as the other files in the /etc/logrotate.d/ directory.

5: First run

If you have never run BOINC on any other platform before, I recommend running the command line to create the account defaults on the system performing the analysis. Change to the BOINC directory (cd /root/BOINC/) and run the following command:

./boinc -attach_project

You will be prompted to enter the URL of the project, followed by your unique ID. Leave BOINC to download the files it needs for anaylsis, then once it stars to show its analysis, press Ctrl + C to terminate.

You may now operate BOINC (as root) via the commands:

service boinc start
service boinc stop
service boinc status
service boinc restart
service boinc condrestart

6: Monitor

You can monitor BOINC activity with the following command: tail -f /var/log/BOINC/boinc_log. You may need to be Super-User to view the logs. Type Ctrl + C to stop the tail process.

7: Cheat

If you have run BOINC on another platform before, and you wish to run the same projects, copy the file(s) starting with account_ and ending in .xml to your BOINC running directory (in this case /root/BOINC/). For example: account_climateprediction.net.xml, account_einstein.phys.uwm.edu.xml, account_setiathome.berkeley.edu.xml. BOINC will download the required files when you issue the service boinc start command.

External Links

BOINC