The recommended way to install BOINC on a Linux system is as a package. Get instructions using this form:

To install the stable version of BOINC on Ubuntu 24.04:

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv 40254C9B29853EA6
sudo apt-add-repository deb https://boinc.berkeley.edu/dl/linux/stable/noble noble main
sudo apt update
sudo apt install boinc-client boinc-manager

On headless systems, omit 'boinc-manager'. On such systems, the BOINC client can be controlled either using boinccmd, or using a remote GUI.

Details on the installer are here.

GPU computing

If the system has a GPU, it may be usable by BOINC projects that have GPU-enabled apps. On some systems you may need to install GPU drivers that support this.

Check the BOINC client's output on startup. It should detect your GPU (NVIDIA, AMD, or Intel) using OpenCL, and NVIDIA GPUs should also be detected using CUDA. If not, check whether updated drivers are available for your GPU type and Linux distro. In general, vendor-supplied drivers may be preferable to open-source drivers.

Configuration

You must tell BOINC which science projects to compute for. The recommended way is to use Science United, where you choose science areas rather than individual projects.

• Create an account on Science United.
• Attach this computer to the Science United account.

You can configure BOINC to limit its computing, memory usage, and disk usage. Do this using the BOINC Manager (Options / Computing Preferences) or the Computing Preferences form on the Science United website.

Uninstall

To remove BOINC:

sudo apt remove boinc-client boinc-manager