I don\'t know the answer, but a quick look at one of the readme\'s gives me the idea of backing up on one PC and then restoring to another, would this work?

I\'m using Ubuntu 7.10, with BOINC Manager version 5.10.8.

The reason for wanting to move tasks from one PC to another, is simply that CPDN is straining my poor notebook and I would prefer running it on a desktop PC [also Ubuntu 7.10 and also x86].

Yes, that\'s right. If the two machines are compatible then copying the entire BOINC folder is all that\'s needed. (Windows requires BOINC to be re-installed, but I don\'t think that\'s necessary in Linux.)

Hi Iain

Last week I moved the complete contents of a boinc folder from one computer with Windows to another with Windows. The second computer already had boinc installed and I didn\'t need to reinstall boinc after moving the folder contents.

Later the same day I moved the boinc folder contents back to their original home and didn\'t need to reinstall boinc this time either. Both times the climate models started up immediately.

When I did the same sort of boinc folder swap between 2 Windows machines over a year ago I think I did have to reinstall boinc. Maybe this was necessary with earlier boinc versions.

It can\'t depend on both computers having exactly the same boinc version because one of my two current computers has 5.10.28 while the other has 5.10.30.

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Cpdn news

Ok, this might be obvious to everyone else running BOINC+CPDN in Linux, but I could not figure out where the \"BOINC folder\" actually is that I need to backup, and as far as I can tell all the FAQs and READMEs etc are slanted towards Windoze.

I have just spent a few minutes locate\'ing all occurrences of boinc, and I *think* I might have found the boinc folder I need to backup in Linux:
/var/lib/boinc-client/
specifically:
/var/lib/boinc-client/projects/climateprediction.net

If you\'re running BOINC in Linux, please let me know if you agree that I need to backup /var/lib/boinc-client/.

/var/lib/boinc-client/projects/climateprediction.net

is only the climateprediction.net sub-folder.
You need the root folder of all of this PLUS all of it\'s sub-folders.

The root folder should have the BOINC progs in it. At least it does on Windows.
(It\'s possibly /var/lib/boinc-client, looking at the folder string.)

/var/lib/boinc-client/projects/climateprediction.net

is only the climateprediction.net sub-folder.
You need the root folder of all of this PLUS all of it\'s sub-folders.

The root folder should have the BOINC progs in it. At least it does on Windows.
(It\'s possibly /var/lib/boinc-client, looking at the folder string.)

/var/lib/boinc-client likely has all the boinc executables but it may not have all the data and config files. See, Linux and Windows have different philosophies regarding where files should be kept. In Windows, data and config files required by the executables are usually kept in the same directory as the executables or else a sub-dir of that dir. In Linux, data and configs are usually kept in some other directory. That may seem strange but there are valid arguments for doing it that way.

The BOINC installer for Linux available from Berkeley installs BOINC similar to the way it\'s done in Windows... everything goes into a dir named BOINC. Specifically, it will be /home/{user}/BOINC, where {user} is the user\'s name, just a little different from Windows\' c:\\progran files\\BOINC but it works the same. However, the fact that he has /var/lib/boinc-client tells me he did not use the Berkeley installer, he installed BOINC with Ubuntu\'s Synaptic package manager which, I suspect, does things more in the Linux tradition. In other words, some/all of the config/data files might be in some other directory rather than in /var/lib/boinc-client or one of it\'s sub-dirs. There may be sym-links in that diectory too, rather than the actual files.

I use Fedora Linux and the Berkeley installer. I\'m not very familiar with Ubuntu and I\'m not 100% sure about how Synaptic installs BOINC on Ubuntu. Sorry I have only warnings and that I can\'t be more help. I\'m hoping someone more familiar with Ubuntu will jump in here and take over.

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The BOINC installer for Linux available from Berkeley installs BOINC similar to the way it\'s done in Windows... everything goes into a dir named BOINC. Specifically, it will be /home/{user}/BOINC, where {user} is the user\'s name, just a little different from Windows\' c:\\progran files\\BOINC but it works the same.

That\'s what I was expecting - a hidden .boinc folder in my ~ folder, but there is only a ~/.BOINC\\ Manager config file which doesn\'t provide any clues as to where the projects & tasks etc are stored by the Ubuntu packaged versions of boinc-manager and boinc-client.

However, the fact that he has /var/lib/boinc-client tells me he did not use the Berkeley installer, he installed BOINC with Ubuntu\'s Synaptic package manager

Yep, that I did :-).

In other words, some/all of the config/data files might be in some other directory rather than in /var/lib/boinc-client or one of it\'s sub-dirs. There may be sym-links in that diectory too, rather than the actual files.

The only symlinks appear to be to a few files in /etc/ and /etc/boinc-client/ but definitely not any projects or task files, those all seem to be in /var/lib/boinc-client/ and /var/lib/boinc-client/projects/ and /var/lib/boinc-client/slots/.

This weekend, I will backup the whole of /var/lib/boinc-client/ preserving file & folder permissions and restore it onto my other desktop Ubuntu PC, and post the result of this experiment here.

This weekend, I will backup the whole of /var/lib/boinc-client/ preserving file & folder permissions and restore it onto my other desktop Ubuntu PC, and post the result of this experiment here.

What about the symlinks? Although they don\'t link to Climate Prediction files/dirs I should think they are necessary. I am guessing you already have BOINC installed via Synaptic on the destination machine? If so then the symlinks would already be created and there should be no problem. However, if you used the Berkeley installer on the destination machine then the symlinks won\'t be there which might cause problems. I strongly suspect they won\'t be there because the Berkeley installer didn\'t create them on any of my machines.

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I use Fedora Linux and the Berkeley installer. I\'m not very familiar with Ubuntu and I\'m not 100% sure about how Synaptic installs BOINC on Ubuntu. Sorry I have only warnings and that I can\'t be more help. I\'m hoping someone more familiar with Ubuntu will jump in here and take over.

The reason for installing in /var/lib is, I think, so that all users from the computer can process the same WU. If it was installed under /home, each user would need to install BOINC and they could not share the WU.

Regarding the config files, I don\'t know. It SEEMS there\'s everything under /var/lib still, but I\'m far from an expert on the subject. :)


Eduardo