System requirements
Your computer must satisfy the following requirements to run BOINC. BOINC-based projects may have additional requirements.
Windows
- Operating system
- Windows Vista or later
- NOTE: Older versions of Windows works but require older builds of BOINC. Please see https://boinc.berkeley.edu/download_all.php for details.
- Hardware
- Pentium 233 MHz (Recommended: Pentium 500 MHz or greater)
- 64 MB RAM (Recommended: 128 MB RAM or greater)
- 20 MB disk space
- Permissions
- You must have administrator privileges to install BOINC.
- Nvidia Support
- You must have driver version 185.85 or better installed in order to use your GPU.
- AMD Support
- You must have driver version 8.12 or better installed in order to use your GPU.
Mac
- Operating system
- Mac OS X 10.4.0 and later
- Hardware
- Macintosh computer with an Intel x86 or PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 processor
- 128 MB RAM (Recommended: 256 MB RAM or greater)
- 200 MB disk space
- NOTE: Some older hardware or older versions of MacOS require older builds of BOINC. Please see https://boinc.berkeley.edu/download_all.php for details.
Linux
- Operating system
- Linux kernel 2.2.14 or higher
- glibc 2.3.2 or higher
- BOINC uses file locking. If you run BOINC in an NFS-mounted directory, make sure the NFS lock daemon is working.
- For BOINC Manager:
- XFree86-3.3.6 or higher
- gtk+2.0 or higher
- For application graphics:
- Accelerated OpenGL support in your X server (version of OpenGL and graphics hardware required depends on the project).
- Hardware
- Pentium 500 MHz or greater
- 64 MB RAM
- 50 MB disk space
Bi-arch (32+64) distro notes
If you attach to a project with only 32-bit Linux applications, BOINC will try to run them.
For application graphics to work, you may need to install the 32-bit libglut library (or copy from elsewhere) into the 32-bit library directory, usually /usr/lib
, but depending on distribution may also be /usr/lib32
.
If the applications still get errors, find the executable in the projects directory and run ldd on it to see which libraries are missing.
openSUSE
Each 32-bit library is in its own package. Installing glibc-32bit will probably suffice for (non-graphical) programs. For programs with graphical output with or without GLUT, install freeglut-32bit; necessary GL and X.org dependencies will be pulled in by the package manager, altogether satisfying the program's dependencies. Run ldd on the program for details about missing libraries and post-install them.