• Instructions for the Windows client
  • Instructions for the command-line client (Mac OS/X, Linus, Unix)
  • Additional instructions for Mac OS/X

    BOINC for Windows

    Install BOINC by running the installer program.

    The BOINC work manager program controls the use of your computer's disk, network, and processor resources. It is normally started at boot time. It is represented by a icon in the system tray. Double-click on the icon to open the work manager window. Right-click on the icon to:

    When the icon is flashing, there is an unread error message. To view it, open the work manager window and go to the Messages tab.

    The work manager window has several tabs:

    The work manager's menu items are as follows:

    Menu names and other text in the work manager are stored in a file called language.ini. The release uses American English. Other languages are available here (thanks to Robi Buechler and other volunteers for this).

    The BOINC screensaver can be selected using the Display Properties dialog. The BOINC screensaver draws graphics from a running application, if any is available. Otherwise it draws the BOINC logo bouncing around the screen.


    The BOINC command-line client

    Install the BOINC client by using gunzip to decompress the application. Use 'chmod' to make it executable. Put it in a directory by itself. Run it manually, from your login script, or from system startup files.

    The command line client has several options: "; list_start(); list_item("-attach_project", "Attach this computer to a new project. You must have an account with that project. You will be asked for the project URL and the account ID." ); list_item("-show_projects", "Print a list of projects to which this computer is attached." ); list_item("-detach_project URL", "Detach this computer from a project." ); list_item("-reset_project URL", "Clear pending work for a project. Use this if there is a problem that is preventing your computer from working." ); list_item("-update_prefs URL", "Contact a project's server to obtain new preferences." ); list_item("-run_cpu_benchmarks", "Run CPU benchmarks. Do this if you have modified your computer's hardware." ); list_item("-help", "Show client options." ); list_item("-version", "Show client version." ); list_end(); echo"

    Installing BOINC on Mac OS/X

    The Mac OS X client will unpack correctly with gunzip on Mac OS X 10.2 (jaguar) or 10.3 (panther) as long as you type the command within Terminal. Stuffit 7.x or newer will work under the Finder in either OS X or OS 9, but I'd recommend using 'gunzip' or 'gzip -d' within Terminal instead.

    However, the two main browsers on OS X (IE 5.2.x and Safari 1.x) will automatically unpack downloads by default, so your work may already be done.

    If you use IE, the boinc client will download and automatically unpack leaving two files:

    1. boinc_2.12_powerpc-apple-darwin [this will have the stuffit icon in the finder]
    2. boinc_2.12_powerpc-apple-darwin7.0.0 [this will not have any icon in the finder]

    #2 is the unpacked program ready-to-run. You can just start Terminal and run boinc.

    If you use Safari, the boinc client will download and automatically unpack, leaving a single file:

    This is the unpacked program, but it's not yet ready-to-run (this is a bug with how Safari handles gzipped downloads; we'll fix this soon).

    Here's what you have to do to fix the Safari download (apologies if you already know how to do this):

    Now you can run BOINC. "; page_tail(); ?>