Dummies guide for putting Linux in a box

[FindersKeepers]

Am going to open a thread with speed/results/performance separately now that numbers are coming in.

Impressed with the results from Manjaro with the i5 - a clear improvement and rock solid CPU output with running at 3.2GHz. I did hope this would happen from my pogs data spreadsheet which started the whole learning to speak penguin route. Have switched H/T on the x5690's running at 100% and need to put up with fans running at full noise. The thermal management is noisier than windoze with H/T on so will check if I have the same bois config - happy to be doing this in winter. CPU only projects at the moment as this is baby steps for me ... I think it is a legitimate concern that Linux would stress performance more than windoze by pushing things closer to the edge without the same level of programmatic interface to bios/motherboards as windoze might have. I say this as I put headphones on to listen to music with H/T switched on for the x5690's. Thankfully it is a quieter gen7, if it were a gen8 there would be some unhappy campers. Will post Linux boinc performance numbers on a new thread.

[Sean]

Sean - that Dotsch UX version by Lars goes a long way to answering your question. It can run live from USB - what else do you need?

Thanks I'll check it out when I get some time, got an old dual AMD box here I want to put Linux on. 

[FindersKeepers]

Comedic relief document on playing with Linux rev C https://www.dropbox.com/s/wtvlcxavkk47fvn/IDIOTS%20GUIDE%20TO%20INSTALLING%20LINUX%20-%20revC.pdf

I like either of Manjaro or Mint as a play toy. Manjaro edges out Mint as I like simple uncluttered interfaces with a focus on using CPU's to do stuff, not make it look pretty. Either is simple to work with - have only just started playing with Mint today to be fair. All systems I am playing with are x64 bit.

[Dingo]

Looking good 

[FindersKeepers]

Somebody should one day snap one of these up for $400 and play with Linux on it. Would be a hoot!!!

http://www.graysonline.com/lot/0002-2165107/computers-and-it-equipment/hp-proliant-dl580-g7-rack-mount-chassis-server
4x X7550 in a G7 - would be fairly quiet also.

[FindersKeepers]

Now that I am understanding a little bit how to talk penguin - this package link might be usefull for others trying to get Boinc to work properly on Linux - using a recent version 7.6.33.

This is the arch Linux package that installs with pacman using manjaro - but you need to update your repositories.
using $> pacman-mirrors -g

https://pkgs.org/download/boinc     <= link to various other packages; this is not an endorsement as these are community repositories
Arch Linux Community x86_64
boinc-7.6.33-4-x86_64.pkg.tar.xz  <= this is the package I use on Manjaro with Xorg support via Xfce; it is not listed on the arch AUR
(I am running x64 versions of Linux in all my trials)

On manjaro I enable ufw (firewall) after the initial Linux installation before I connect to the internet - for what little it is worth at least to stop stray ports during testing while I learn to talk penguin.
Easy firewall setup for Manjaro Linux
http://www.clausconrad.com/blog/easy-firewall-setup-for-manjaro-linux

[FindersKeepers]

I am maintaining this document and will issue an update for beginners (like me) who are new to Linux. My defence philosophy is simple - implement protection from the lowest part of the tree to the top (i.e. the low hanging fruit).

Stopping simple scripts and drive-by script kiddies from playing with your junk is easy. You won't be able to stop everything, but at least you can make it harder. This applies to windoze as well as Linux.

[chooka03]

I'm going to use this thread I guess to ask a question.

I have Linux installed on a VM running Ubuntu (can't remember what version. 20.4 or something)
When I add Einstein@Home to the project list, my system doesn't fetch Einstein work?
The point of this is I want to see if running E@H on Linux in a VM is faster or slower than Windows.

Is there something I'm missing?
Should just work?

Thx.

[Abruraspingi]

While E@H runs faster in Linux, VM's have extra overhead compared to Bare Metal so I would expect it to be slower. Do some tests yourself and find out. Unsure why you aren't getting tasks, has it downloaded all the project files?

There was a thread on E@H talking about it
https://einsteinathome.org/content/linux-vs-windows-performance#:~:text=The%20problem%20is%20your%20boinc,each%20others%2C%20but%20not%20yours.

[chooka03]

Hi Abruraspingi,

Oh I have no doubt that a "bare metal" install of Linux would be faster. ALL of the top pc's for Einstein now run Linux.
I'm not a Linux person so I'll stick with the VM that I painfully installed Linux on :)
I'm just not sure why it doesn't download work. I've left it overnight and no tasks downloaded. I might try another project with GPU work and see if it downloads tasks.
Maybe I needed to change a setting in the VM around the video section? No idea.
I'll try another project now.

[chooka03]

Ok, so no projects will fetch GPU work. Not even Primegrid.
I'm not sure why?

Edit - ChatGPT tells me why.

"Short answer: the VM can't see your GPU.
That's why BOINC only downloads CPU tasks.

When you run Oracle VM VirtualBox with Ubuntu inside it, the virtual machine does not get direct access to the physical GPU. VirtualBox only exposes a basic virtual graphics adapter meant for desktop display acceleration, not for CUDA/OpenCL compute that BOINC projects use."

Oh well, I guess that's the end of that :)

[Abruraspingi]

Ah you didn't state that you were trying for GPU tasks but I should have assumed. No GPU Passthrough in Virtual Box but you can with HyperV

Why aren't you just using WSL and para-virtualisation? I assume that you are using Windows as the host OS?
https://boincsynergy.ca/download/Guida.en.pdf

Further reading
https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/10294

[chooka03]

Ah you didn't state that you were trying for GPU tasks but I should have assumed. No GPU Passthrough in Virtual Box but you can with HyperV

Why aren't you just using WSL and para-virtualisation? I assume that you are using Windows as the host OS?
https://boincsynergy.ca/download/Guida.en.pdf

Further reading
https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/10294

Hi,
I've never heard of WSL. I'm a complete novice when it comes to pc's, especially software. I was born & raised on Windows so Linux was/is a nightmare for me to work out. I simply put it in the too hard basket.
It was quite the mission to get it setup in the VM... I can tell you!!

That walkthrough looks pretty good. A bit heavy but I might actually be able to follow that as it doesn't sound like it will mess up my Windows machine.
I might test it on one of my rigs... not my main driver in case it stuffs up.
It would be very interesting to see if there are any improvements running projects this way.

Thank you for sharing.
Not sure when I'll get time to play with that :)

Do you have to pay for WSL?

https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9nws9k95nmjb?hl=en-US&gl=AU

[Abruraspingi]

Dingo did a really good write up here for WSL

https://forum.boinc-australia.net/index.php?topic=3027.msg76728#msg76728

WSL is free and comes as part of Windows but you have to install it. I love Linux as I get sick of using the mouse, it's a weird thing but I don't actually enjoy how Microsoft forces the use of a mouse. Ever since Windows got rid of DOS I haven't truly been happy with the OS. Linux on the other hand has quite the learning curve and some flavours are much easier to use than others. Happy computing and hopefully you pick up some new skills