Xubuntu and BOINC...

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If you're using a drive larger than 10 GB on your dedicated cruncher, you might want to consider using the remaining space for network storage. Just add another LOGICAL partition, using the entire space, and mount it at /var/netdrive or /var/mp3 or /var/porn or whatever makes sense for what you'll use it for. This will require adding another package to the system, and setting some privileges, which we'll discuss later on.

There's not much doubt in our minds that people with other ideas about partitioning UNIX and Linux drives will squeal and whine about our advice, here. There's not much we can say about that except to point out that a search engine will provide you with other opinions on the subject. We've had good results with the numbers we give here, but you're welcome to try anything you want, including just throwing everything into one big root partition and hoping for the best.

Begin the install...

We can now begin the install. The installer will ask a few questions, which are self-explanatory, and then start installing the system. It's a pretty lightweight selection of packages, so you don't have to go through checking and unchecking boxes. What few changes you might want to make are easy to do after the system is up and going.

When the installer is done, it will want you to restart the machine. Reboot the cruncher, and have a look around. We're done with the basic install of Xubuntu, and can move on to some other packages we'll want to add to the system.

A discussion of this part of our HOW-TO can be found HERE on our forums, if you have questions about what we've done so far.

Post-Installation additions and changes...

Unlike most distributions, Xubuntu locks the root (superuser) account and require users with administrative authorization to use sudo to execute many administrative functions that normally only the root user can do. This is a minor inconvenience to Linux guru and power user types, but is certainly more secure and safer for users new to UNIX and variants like Linux. The user account you made during the installation will have the required administrative powers to do this. The following procedures will require you to enter your password when the dialog pops up.

Not all of the BOINC projects have native 64-bit applications, so we need to add the 32-bit libraries required for these project applications. Open the package manager from the menu, Applications --> System --> Synaptic Package Manager and perform a search for the ia32-libs package. Mark this package for installation.

Now, we need the libstdc++5 package, for BOINC projects with applications that were compiled on the older C++ version 3 compiler. Perform a search for this package and mark it for install.

We also need two packages for BOINC... boinc-client and boinc-manager will be the version 5.10.45 applications. Find these two packages and mark them for installation.

Some of these packages will have dependencies... libraries that are needed for the applications you are installing. Be sure and mark these for installation when the dialog pops up telling you about them. You may now click on the APPLY button to apply the changes to the system. The package manager will now download the packages, install and configure them.

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