I would like to run BOINC as a service on my (ageing) Ubuntu 12.04 (32) computer.

I am running SETI@Home and we are without Work Units for the time being so it seemed like a good time to change to the latest available BOINC manager and client. So I uninstalled my 7.0.27 (the Canonical server has 7.0.65 as well) and d/l BOINC from Berkeley (7.2.42).

I got it running, but it isn't running as a service, so if I log out it goes away. I would like to log out when I'm not using my computer.

{I would also like to run it as a service in my Windows 7 computer, but that's a topic for another day.}

Here is a capture of the startup of BOINC:

Thu 20 Nov 2014 11:21:25 AM PST | | cc_config.xml not found - using defaults
Thu 20 Nov 2014 11:21:25 AM PST | | Starting BOINC client version 7.2.42 for i686-pc-linux-gnu
Thu 20 Nov 2014 11:21:25 AM PST | | log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task
Thu 20 Nov 2014 11:21:25 AM PST | | Libraries: libcurl/7.22.0 OpenSSL/1.0.1 zlib/1.2.3.4 libidn/1.23 librtmp/2.3
Thu 20 Nov 2014 11:21:25 AM PST | | Data directory: /home/ross/Downloads/BOINC
Thu 20 Nov 2014 11:21:25 AM PST | | No usable GPUs found
Thu 20 Nov 2014 11:21:25 AM PST | | Host name: HP
Thu 20 Nov 2014 11:21:25 AM PST | | Processor: 2 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 3.40GHz [Family 15 Model 6 Stepping 5]
Thu 20 Nov 2014 11:21:25 AM PST | | Processor features: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx lm constant_tsc pebs bts pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl est cid cx16 xtpr pdcm lahf_lm
Thu 20 Nov 2014 11:21:25 AM PST | | OS: Linux: 3.2.0-70-generic-pae
Thu 20 Nov 2014 11:21:25 AM PST | | Memory: 1.94 GB physical, 1.97 GB virtual
Thu 20 Nov 2014 11:21:25 AM PST | | Disk: 71.41 GB total, 20.68 GB free
Thu 20 Nov 2014 11:21:25 AM PST | | Local time is UTC -8 hours
Thu 20 Nov 2014 11:21:25 AM PST | SETI@home | URL http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/; Computer ID 6837361; resource share 50
Thu 20 Nov 2014 11:21:25 AM PST | SETI@home | General prefs: from SETI@home (last modified 19-Jul-2010 13:08:08)
Thu 20 Nov 2014 11:21:25 AM PST | SETI@home | Computer location: home
Thu 20 Nov 2014 11:21:25 AM PST | SETI@home | General prefs: no separate prefs for home; using your defaults
Thu 20 Nov 2014 11:21:25 AM PST | | Preferences:
Thu 20 Nov 2014 11:21:25 AM PST | | max memory usage when active: 994.57MB
Thu 20 Nov 2014 11:21:25 AM PST | | max memory usage when idle: 1790.22MB
Thu 20 Nov 2014 11:21:25 AM PST | | max disk usage: 20.58GB
Thu 20 Nov 2014 11:21:25 AM PST | | don't use GPU while active
Thu 20 Nov 2014 11:21:25 AM PST | | (to change preferences, visit a project web site or select Preferences in the Manager)
Thu 20 Nov 2014 11:21:25 AM PST | | Not using a proxy
Thu 20 Nov 2014 11:21:25 AM PST | SETI@home | Sending scheduler request: To fetch work.
Thu 20 Nov 2014 11:21:25 AM PST | SETI@home | Requesting new tasks for CPU
Thu 20 Nov 2014 11:21:27 AM PST | SETI@home | Scheduler request completed: got 0 new tasks
Thu 20 Nov 2014 11:21:27 AM PST | SETI@home | Project has no tasks available

Would I be better off going back to 7.0.27 or 7.0.65, or should I stick with the current version. I was able to run 7.0.27 as a service.

Also, I had a log in here as Ross and left a message in this forum on 24 Aug 2013. Apparently that ID# (29911) expired, so now I'm Ross Parlette (same e-mail address) with ID# 39786. Not sure if that matters at all.

Thank you for your help.

Ross (Parlette)

BOINC from Berkeley installs under rights of the user, running in normal mode. To change it to a daemon, best check http://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Stop_or_start_BOINC_daemon_after_boot.

BOINC from repository installs and runs by default as a daemon.

---

If Ubuntu is similar enough to Debian that's easy.

1. Install your distribution's BOINC. It should run "as a service" out of the box.
2. Additionally put the Berkeley binaries in a separate directory. /usr/local/bin is a good place.
3. Edit /etc/default/boinc-client to point the startup script to the binary.

You'd better make sure to run the new manager instead of the old one but how to achieve that depends on how you start it. If it's in /usr/local/bin it might as well just work.

Add Loctus Of Borg's ppa and you can get it via your package manager.

Currently he has 7.4.27 for Ubuntu on there. See LoctusOfBorg for detail on adding his ppa and what packages he has.

---

MarkJ

I went to the referenced site for the info and then did:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:user/ppa-nameppa:costamagnagianfranco/locutusofborg-ppa

in a terminal.

After giving the password, I received:

Cannot access PPA (https://launchpad.net/api/1.0/~user/+archive/ppa-nameppa) to get PPA information, please check your internet connection.

as the new PPA failed to be added. I also tried:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:costamagnagianfranco/locutusofborg-ppa/ubuntu

and that got:

Cannot access PPA (https://launchpad.net/api/1.0/~costamagnagianfranco/+archive/locutusofborg-ppa/ubuntu) to get PPA information, please check your internet connection.


I think I'm misunderstanding what part to use. Any suggestions?

Ross

How about just (as (Read about installing) shows):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:costamagnagianfranco/locutusofborg-ppa

Step 2: Open a terminal and enter:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:user/ppa-name

Replace ppa:user/ppa-name with the PPA's location that you noted above.

Claggy