Dummies guide for putting Linux in a box

[FindersKeepers]

Hi - thinking maybe refreshing an old topic and making life simpler for people like me who want to try Linux in a box and need a "How to" guide. I have run out of windoze licenses and want to try putting Linux on a xeon box to run Boinc. Linux 4.9 or 4.11 I have seen on others crunching POGS.

Does anyone have any quick tips or a dummies guide to talk penguin that might get me up and running quickly with a boot Linux O/S? The bare xeon box I have has a CDRom so can install a Linux O/S from an ISO.

Appreciate any assistance. Thanks.

[kashi]

Well often people recommend Ubuntu or one of its variants for those inexperienced with Linux. However for some unknown reason, I had repeated trouble installing it so have been using Linux Mint for a few years now without any trouble.

I use the Xfce desktop environment variant as that one is supposed to be "lighter" in terms of the amount of resources it uses. Whether there is actually that much difference in resource use between the different Mint desktop environments I don't know. Seeing as I use it only for BOINC then lighter is better for my needs. Others who use Linux as their main operating system prefer one of the more fully featured "heavier" front ends.

Although Mint is a separate distribution, it is still based on the "guts" of Ubuntu. This is good because it downloads many of its updates from the same software servers (repositories) as Ubuntu. I have had no trouble with regular Mint updates and even updated from Version 17 to Version 18 easily.

There is also a Debian based Mint LMDE but being quite sudophobic I haven't tried it. I probably should because it is reported to be faster and more responsive than Ubuntu based versions. However it also requires more Linux fu and Debian package fu and is said to be a bit rough around the edges. So that scared me off. Struggling with Linux command line peregrinations in Tartarus  is definitely not my cup of tea.

Some of the Linux distributions have what is called a live version which can be booted directly from a USB stick. It means you can test out a few different distros and see if you like how they look and feel. Then you can install from that USB to your HDD or SSD if you think that distro is acceptable.

Years ago I used a stripped down Linux called Dotsch UX. It was fast for BOINC. However it stopped getting updated and the old Linux libraries it contained meant it became incompatible with more and more BOINC projects. So I had to reluctantly stop using it. I haven' t looked recently but previously had been unable to find a similar stripped down Linux suitable for BOINC. I tried a server version once that had no GUI but administering it proved beyond my capabilities without risking Linux induced mania.

[Dataman]

Here is what I used for Ubuntu
https://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/install-ubuntu-desktop
I used Rufus to put a boot copy on a thumb drive and it installed in about 15 minutes.

[FindersKeepers]

Thanks for the responses JN and DM - will get onto this today. Downloading ISO's now ...

[tazzduke]

Greetings FindersKeepers

Just another one to try is Linux Mint 18.1 cinnamon desktop.  Easiest one I have found to use especially on older equipment.

Regards

[FindersKeepers]

In my defense Dingo - I did actually search for Linux and saw only thread comments. Did not notice this header. Apologies. 

[FindersKeepers]

Ok so the xeon box I intend to install Linux on supports a full set of drivers for either of RHEL ver4.x or SUSE Linux Enterprise Server ver12.
Is it stretching the friendship to see if anyone has a DVD box set of either for loan?

Am out of my league to understand if linux drivers are supported across different flavours of Linux ....

[FindersKeepers]

Am closer to getting RHEL v7 onto a xeon box with OEM driver support .... baby steps for me.
Has anyone on the forum used Scientific Linux? https://www.scientificlinux.org/

Am going to give it a try also as it appears to be a re-authored RHEL ... wondering if anyone has experience.

[Dataman]

Sorry, I have only used Raspian and Ubuntu and have yet to successfully install a nVidia driver on Ubuntu. You are blazing new ground here. 

My Ubuntu machines are outperforming Win10 on POGS.

[FindersKeepers]

DM .. if by blazing you mean burning up a crudload of time better spent fishing, then yes.
NVidia x64 driver for Linux x64 http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/118290/en-us ?? No good to you?
Have found 2 GTX driver flavours 375.66 and 367.44 for my 1050's and 1060's ... will burn that bridge if and when I get to it.

[Dataman]

DM .. if by blazing you mean burning up a crudload of time better spent fishing, then yes.
NVidia x64 driver for Linux x64 http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/118290/en-us ?? No good to you?
Have found 2 GTX driver flavours 375.66 and 367.44 for my 1050's and 1060's ... will burn that bridge if and when I get to it.

Oh, I downloaded the driver and did the install via a terminal window but BOINC still sees no usable GPU. Has not been a problem as 2 of them have only 1 GTX 460 and one a 570 and are no good for crunching anyway. I'll figure it out someday. Probably fat fingered something.

[FindersKeepers]

I am really hoping I get to have as much fun when the time comes. 

Sounds like it might be a kernel issue .. as per this ...
http://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/367.44/README/

Refer section 4: http://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/367.44/README/installdriver.html
I am comfortable with the thought Windoze is an overloaded bucket of shyte, Linux offers known performance benefits ... as long as the sanity holds out long enough to get things up and running.

[FindersKeepers]

Slowly piecing together a dummies guide to wasting time ... anyone curious on the heritage of their specific Linux flavour? More than 100 distros to choose from.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Linux_Distribution_Timeline.svg

[tazzduke]

Greetings FindersKeepers

I have two machines running Linux, but they are not setup as servers though, but I gotta dig out my guide that has gotten me up and crunching BOINC CPU & GPU (NVIDIA) within a short period of time.

Will get back to you shortly with what I used.

Regards.

[tazzduke]

Greetings All

This is the guide I came up with from about this time last year, that got me crunching GPU on SETI, remember this is for Linux Mint 18.1 which is Ubuntu based.

Clean install of Linux MINT Cinnamon on HDD
Once in desktop, do the Software Updates

Restart computer if it asks to, otherwise open up a web browser and navigate to the following websites to add the PPAs to your software resources list via the command line.

https://launchpad.net/~graphics-drivers/+archive/ubuntu/ppa

https://launchpad.net/~costamagnagianfranco/+archive/ubuntu/boinc


Open up Driver Manager (Menu - Administration - Driver Manager)
Select the latest one (381.22, well that one was the version when I did my last computer) from the list. Once complete it will ask to restart.

Upon restart and back in desktop,

Open up the following link in your web browser and download the DEB package. 

http://www.ubuntuupdates.org/package/core/xenial/multiverse/base/nvidia-modprobe

use GDEBI to install NVIDIA-MODPROBE.

Or you can add it via your package manager.

use Synaptic Software Manager to install BOINC (select BOINC only). It will advise of the dependancies it will download to complete installation.

Restart and once back in desktop, run BOINC, then jump to event log to see your outcome, hopefully it will be the same as mine below.

Tue 26 Apr 2016 18:32:55 AWST | | Starting BOINC client version 7.6.2 for x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
Tue 26 Apr 2016 18:32:55 AWST | | log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task
Tue 26 Apr 2016 18:32:55 AWST | | Libraries: libcurl/7.35.0 OpenSSL/1.0.1f zlib/1.2.8 libidn/1.28 librtmp/2.3
Tue 26 Apr 2016 18:32:55 AWST | | Data directory: /var/lib/boinc-client
Tue 26 Apr 2016 18:32:55 AWST | | CUDA: NVIDIA GPU 0: GeForce GTX 670 (driver version 361.42, CUDA version 8.0, compute capability 3.0, 2047MB, 2006MB available, 2634 GFLOPS peak)
Tue 26 Apr 2016 18:32:55 AWST | | OpenCL: NVIDIA GPU 0: GeForce GTX 670 (driver version 361.42, device version OpenCL 1.2 CUDA, 2047MB, 2006MB available, 2634 GFLOPS peak)
Tue 26 Apr 2016 18:32:55 AWST | | Host name: ducati85mille-System-Product-Name
Tue 26 Apr 2016 18:32:55 AWST | | Processor: 4 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q9400 @ 2.66GHz [Family 6 Model 23 Stepping 10]
Tue 26 Apr 2016 18:32:55 AWST | | 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 syscall nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm sse4_1 xsave lahf_lm dtherm tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority
Tue 26 Apr 2016 18:32:55 AWST | | OS: Linux: 3.19.0-32-generic
Tue 26 Apr 2016 18:32:55 AWST | | Memory: 7.80 GB physical, 8.00 GB virtual
Tue 26 Apr 2016 18:32:55 AWST | | Disk: 450.45 GB total, 421.87 GB free
Tue 26 Apr 2016 18:32:55 AWST | | Local time is UTC +8 hours

This is the output from my log from last year, but you still get the point.

I used this same guide get 2 of my machines up and running SETI on GPUs using the Petri Special App, but your experience may vary due to Distribution or System requirements.

I have played around with Red Hat (long time ago), Mandriva (long time ago), Debian, Mint KDE, Mint Mate, Mint Cinnamon, Unbuntu, Xubuntu and Mint XFCE.  I just found a liking for MINT Cinnamon.

Dont forget about Coolbits if you are using NVIDIA cards, I used option 5 to enable manual fan control.

Regards
Mark