HOWTO Install BOINC for Distributed Computing on the Apple TV

LiquidIce_ATV · 05-08-2007, 11:09 AM

So I have my Apple TV sitting here running Quartz Composer Screens 24/7 and it gets really warm. I checked the CPU usage and it's really not doing much. So I decided it was time to give it a reason to be warm, by running the CPU at 100%. Surprisingly it has been working nonstop for a while without any problems.

I wanted to make sure that the computer would be doing something useful so I decided to use BOINC. From their website:

Quote:

Use the idle time on your computer (Windows, Mac, or Linux) to cure diseases, study global warming, discover pulsars, and do many other types of scientific research. It's safe, secure, and easy

The BOINC client does a pretty good job at giving CPU time back to Finder to allow it to play movies and run screensavers without stuttering.

So without further adieu:

HOWTO Install BOINC for Distributed Computing on the Apple TV

Before you even start you will have some work to do to get SSH installed and working on your Apple TV. The best instructions can be found at AwkwardTV: http://wiki.awkwardtv.org/wiki/Install_SSH

Once you are logged in to the SSH terminal of the Apple TV follow the instructions below.

-Download the BOINC command line client for MAC OSX:
http://boinc.berkeley.edu/dl/boinc_5...ple-darwin.zip
or visit here for the latest:
http://boinc.berkeley.edu/download_all.php

-copy the zip to your apple tv, I used the command lines wget and unzip but your Apple TV may not have these installed:

Code:

wget http://boinc.berkeley.edu/dl/boinc_5.9.9_universal-apple-darwin.zip
unzip boinc_5.9.9_universal-apple-darwin.zip

-Below is the series of commands I run to create a new account on the rosetta project. There is a list of distributed computing projects on the BOINC homepage (http://boinc.berkeley.edu/projects.php) that you can also run, just replace the rosetta url below with the project you want to run.

Run these commands at the SSH terminal of your apple TV.

Code:

cd boinc_5.9.9_universal-apple-darwin
cd move_to_boinc_dir
./boinc -allow_remote_gui_rpc -insecure -redirectio &

If you suspect problems run it without the -redirectio & so you can see what's going on. Press CTRL-C to exit out.

Now that it is running lets create an account. You can skip this part if you already have an account ID from another machine running BOINC:

[[REPLACE the info below with your own email address and password, the syntax is: --create_account URL email password name ]]

Code:

./boinc_cmd --create_account http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta [[your@emailaddress.com]] [password]] [[name]]

After this command you will get a response back from the server with an account key, use this key in the next command:

Code:

./boinc_cmd --project_attach http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta [[account key]]

Now your ATV will connect to the server and get to work. To see the status and make sure there were no errors, you can run this command in the BOINC directory:
tail -n 100 stdoutdae.txt

Now that you have BOINC installed and running a project, you can also set this to launch on startup. Just edit the /etc/rc.local file (if it does not exist, create it). In the rc.local put this line:

Code:

/Users/frontrow/boinc_5.8.17_universal-apple-darwin/move_to_boinc_dir/boinc -allow_remote_gui_rpc -insecure -redirectio &

BTW, the easiest way to edit the rc.local file is to use a program called nano. It's similar to pico. There is a binary of it hosted on awkwardtv. Just place it in your /usr/bin/
Once nano is installed installed you can run: sudo nano /etc/rc.local
to edit startup commands on your ATV.

The next step for this would be to create a plugin that can talk to the BOINC RPC server and show status and visuals on the TV screen. Anyone want to take on this project? My XCode skills are not up to the task.

boske · 05-08-2007, 12:21 PM

Looks good, I'm glad you found a useful tool to use while your Apple TV is idle. Why did you choose to run this program instead of others?

LiquidIce_ATV · 05-10-2007, 10:32 PM

I choose Rosetta instead of the other projects because Rosetta has had recent developments and it sounds like a much better short term use of my CPU cycles.

There is also an Apple TV Distributed Computing Team. If you get this working on your ATV join up:
http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/te...hp?teamid=5724

rfsmason · 08-01-2007, 01:07 PM

Hey, I'm a noob to the world of Mac. But since getting my AppleTV I'm fast becomming a convert.

Anyhow, can you let me know how to setup my appleTV in order to unzip files directly on it as I don't have another Mac (as of yet

) and it's posing a few problems when trying to install ome plugins.

Many thanks in advance,
Rob.

05-10-2007, 10:32 PM	#3 (permalink)
LiquidIce_ATV Junior Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 26	I choose Rosetta instead of the other projects because Rosetta has had recent developments and it sounds like a much better short term use of my CPU cycles. There is also an Apple TV Distributed Computing Team. If you get this working on your ATV join up: http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/te...hp?teamid=5724 __________________ -LiquidIce LiquidIce's Apple TV Hacks http://appletvhacks.blogspot.com Last edited by LiquidIce_ATV : 05-10-2007 at 11:19 PM.

08-01-2007, 01:07 PM	#4 (permalink)
rfsmason Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 1	Installing zip/unzip on AppleTV Hey, I'm a noob to the world of Mac. But since getting my AppleTV I'm fast becomming a convert. Anyhow, can you let me know how to setup my appleTV in order to unzip files directly on it as I don't have another Mac (as of yet ) and it's posing a few problems when trying to install ome plugins. Many thanks in advance, Rob.

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05-08-2007, 12:21 PM	#2 (permalink)
boske Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 112	Looks good, I'm glad you found a useful tool to use while your Apple TV is idle. Why did you choose to run this program instead of others?