Has anyone set up asteroids@home for Oracle VM VirtualBox?

It sounds like you want help installing VirtualBox on your Windows machine and creating a Linux VM so you can crunch this project on your Windows machine. If that's what you want then I can help.

Yes, please. I would appreciate all the help I can get.

I already have virtual box installed

You'll need a CD or DVD burner, ISO burning software, MD5 checksum software and an ISO image of Linux. The paragraphs below provide the necessary details for obtaining and using all that stuff.

Go to this page and see the links for 2 different burner softwares for Windows XP (Infra Recorder and ISO Recorder). I don't know which one is easier/better so pick one and install it. Just install it for now, we'll use it later.

Next you need an ISO image to burn onto the CD/DVD. An ISO image is just a type of file. You download it, save it to disk then burn it onto your CD/DVD. You have a choice of several different Linux distros but rather than getting bogged down in the pros and cons of each distro I suggest installing Xubuntu. It's Ubuntu with the XFCE desktop which is a smaller, lighter desktop that's fast and easy to learn because it doesn't have a ton of useless bells and whistles. I've found it works well inside a VM. If you want a more elaborate desktop later on, you can easily switch to the KDE or Gnome desktop.

Now let's download the ISO image. Your profile here on Asteroids says you're in the USA so go the USA mirror and click the link that says xubuntu-12.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso if your Pentium D is a 64 bit processor. If it's a 32 bit processor then click the link that says xubuntu-12.04.1-desktop-i386.iso . Save the file to disk and make a note of which directory you save it to. You can also use torrents to download but I don't know anything about torrents so you're on your own if you want to download that way.

Now you should have the ISO image downloaded and saved. Before you burn the ISO image to CD/DVD you are strongly encouraged to check the integrity of the file to make sure it downloaded correctly. Don't skip this step. If the image did not download correctly the OS that installs from it will be corrupt and that will give you all sorts of weird problems. Go to this page scroll down to the section titled MD5SUM on Windows download and install the winMD5Sum software from the link in step 1 and follow the instructions in steps 2, 3 and 4. For step 5 go to this page instead of the page linked in step 5 and use the long alpha-numeric string to the left of the asterisk on the line corresponding to the ISO image you downloaded above.

If the MD5sums matched you're ready to burn the ISO image. Return to this page and follow the instructions for burning the ISO image to disk. After it's burned you should do the second integrity check described on the pages I've linked you to in order to verify that the ISO burned to disk correctly. If the second integrity check passes then you now have a CD/DVD that will boot Xubuntu for you if you have your BIOS setup to boot from CD/DVD. When you boot it you will be given the option to just boot Xubuntu or to install Xubuntu alongside Win XP. Experiment with either of those options if you want though your real objective is to install Xubuntu in a VM. Neither of the options will erase your Windows installation.

That should keep you busy for a while. Once you've worked through all that we'll move on to creating the VM, installing Xubuntu in the VM and installing BOINC on Xubuntu.

Are you still with me on this, Dad? Ready to move on to creating the VM?

Anybody else following this and ready for the next step?

I have Linux Mint 13 (32 bit) setup in a Vbox on my lappy. Is it worth the effort to bring it across to one of my crunchers and then install BOINC in it?

I figure by the time I get that done they will have a windows app out :-) I don't have much experience with Linux so the scary part is installing BOINC in it (command prompt and permissions stuff). I suppose I could get it from the Repro but understood the version they had was incorrect and may need to get it directly from Berkeley.

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BOINC blog

You're the only one who can decide if it's worth the effort. The BOINC version available from repo did have an "error" but that was several months ago. I am pretty sure that problem has been fixed.

The only problem with installing from repo is that the T4T project won't work with such an installation but if you have no plans to run T4T you'll be OK. I figure you must already have a Mint install disk which means you're half way there already. Just ask if you need help.

Well I installed Mint 13 and got BOINC 7.0.24 from the repo. I have attached to the project and when it got a work unit it promptly got a computation error. Probably needs some library or something installed.

Link to the failed task is here

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BOINC blog

7.0.24 from the repo causes errors. You will need a newer version. Here is a link to a BoincStats thread that contains some more info:

http://boincstats.com/en/forum/9/7346,1

http://asteroidsathome.net/boinc/forum_thread.php?id=18

;-)

Okay well followed the final post from Ex over at Seti@home. That ended up with it getting BOINC 7.0.34 installed. Its now picked up one task and its off and running (usually they fail straight away).

Now how to get some BOINC project apps running on the Raspberry Pi...

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BOINC blog

The app must be compiled for the Raspberry Pi architecture of there must be vmboxwrapper for the architecture.

The app must be compiled for the Raspberry Pi architecture of there must be vmboxwrapper for the architecture.

I was aware that would be the case. It means i'd have to get the source so I could compile it on the Pi for the ARM processor. They do provide GCC 4.6 as part of the Debian 6 that it comes with.

As far as I am aware Virtual Box doesn't run on ARM processors its for x86 or x86_64 processors only.

There is a working BOINC 7.0.27 in the repo for the Raspberry Pi. You need to do sudo apt-get update before telling it to get BOINC, otherwise it brings down a broken 7.0.24

Looking at the 1st task that I ran via Vbox (on an i7 running Win7) it would seem you need around 120Mb of free memory. The Pi typically only has 70Mb free if one runs BOINC and the manager. Probably a bit more if you don't run the manager, so I don't think its going to be able to run the A@H apps.

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BOINC blog

You could free up more RAM by booting to runlevel 3 which does not start the X server which is the basis for all graphics on Linux. Then you have a CLI rather than a GUI and desktop. You would manage BOINC client with the boinccmd tool or connect to it via BOINC manager running on some other machine on the LAN. I'mnot sure how much RAM would be saved by not starting X, might be enough, might not.

Yipie works for me :) *Started crunching* ^^

Okay, first: Happy Thanksgiving to everyone... may the abundance of Earth feed and satiate all of you, wherever you may be, on this 22 Nov.

Now: what are you all talking about? lol... sounds like you want to piggyback 2 systems or parts of systems through this device or that and edit this bit of code or that to make multiple progs or languages sympatico...

I have a good mind. I'm a software bmf; give me the program, and I'll run it for you. However, hardware isn't my cup of tea. Still too may wires, transistors, and diodes in there for this user-end schmo :p All I want for Christmas is a Windows or Windows-compatible WU stream that I can run on here...

Or Mairead Nesbitt, the violinist for Celtic Woman. Wait, she's married. I'll take Taylor Swift instead. Anyhow, I want to crunch for Asteroids... I have Windows, not the penguin, and not a virtual penguin...

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The babydoll in my avatar is Hayley Westenra, the finest soprano on the face of this planet or any other...

I found it really to setup. Just read the thread, follow the instructions and you can have one of those coffee bean asteroid badges for Xmas.

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