This way of running BOINC requires 3 things: A CD burner, a USB flash drive (recommend 512MB), and a little knowledge of Linux and/or the patience to learn basic manipulation of files in Linux. The greatest thing about this is that it leaves the hard drive/OS on any computer completely untouched!
SLAX is a 'mini' version of Linux that gives you the capability to boot a computer using only a CD-ROM and a USB flash drive. This means that you can boot up and use a computer that doesn't even have a hard drive! There are many other 'mini' live boot options out there, but SLAX takes care of all the hard stuff for you. The version of SLAX that was current at the time of this FAQ was 5.1.8.
Here's the steps to put this into action...
A) You will need to burn 2 CDs-- (the .iso images for these are available here)
A.1) SLAX Boot CD v 5.1.8 (lets you boot from a 'live' USB flash drive even without BIOS USB boot option!)
A.2) SLAX Popcorn Edition v 5.1.8 (very minimal Linux GUI front end)
B) Next, prep the USB flash drive and boot up...
B.1) Copy -all- (you may need to show hidden files) files from CD (A.2) to the USB flash drive.
B.2) Insert CD (A.1) and USB flash drive into PC
B.3) boot the computer
B.3.a) login (default user is root, default password is toor)
B.3.b) run xconf to get graphics right (only needed if xstart gives you nothing but a black screen)
B.3.c) run xstart to startup GUI
C) Next, you -may- need to tell it how to talk over your network/router: (note that if the computer is on a DHCP network, this entire step is unnecessary)
C.1) open a shell and type in the following, line for line: (x's used to protect the intercent =)
ifconfig eth0 down
ifconfig eth0 192.168.xxx.xxx netmask 255.255.255.0
route add default gateway 192.168.xxx.xxx
echo "nameserver x.x.x.x" >> /etc/resolv.conf
D) Use Firefox as usual for the rest of the online part...
D.1) (download distributed computing program to USB flash drive)
E) Open a shell, navigate to correct directory, and run the distributed computing program!
All in all, very simple, and you can theoretically use the (CD A.1/USB flash drive combo) to run distributed computing on any computer with access to the internet!!
And a final note: do NOT set up a swap/VM partition/file on a USB flash drive! It's a very bad idea!
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by Kylemaul  edited by KeysCapt
last modified: 2008-07-04 18:50:41 |
