I am a new poster to this forum--I am a beta tester for SETI@Home & a BOINC alpha/beta tester. I also test alpha/beta for Ubuntu linux.

As a suggestion from one of the ubuntuforums users, I am posting the way I do a NON-global install of BOINC. This allows BOINC to be portable & easily setup. Any questions/flames/suggestions I will gladly respond to

This tutorial is for Ubuntu Linux (and other Debian-based Linux)--feel free to modify the method to install to your OS of choice.

Installing BOINC to your /home folder.

I have found that doing a global install of BOINC is not the most effective way to use it. If you are to loose your system thru a reinstall or other problem, you loose BOINC also. I have used a separate /home (in a different partition) for several years so I can do testing work without data loss--this includes my BOINC install. This also allows me to update BOINC when I feel that it is time to do so.

1. GOTO the main download page for BOINC--I use the BOINC main download page ( http://boinc.berkeley.edu/download.php ) & put the script you get in your /home directory. (not your Desktop)

2. Open a terminal & input: chmod 777 /home/"your_home"/"name of the script" & then <enter> This will make the script executable. Next, just put: /home/"your_home"/"name of the script" & again hit <enter> PLEASE make sure you DO NOT use sudo at any time during this--you want to be the MAIN owner of the data. This will install BOINC to your /home directory.

The reason you put the script in your /home instead of your Desktop? The script makes two "helper" scripts - run_client & run_manager. They use the current location of the script as a "starting point"--as long as you know that it is easy to "fix" a script that points to the wrong place--such as moving the location of the main BOINC folder.

A typical script looks like: cd "/home/dean/BOINC" && exec ./boincmgr $@

As you can see it points to the location & then starts the Manager.

3. Next your need to create a startup in your gnome session (I have not used KDE, but I would think that there is a similar way for it)...

Open up your gnome sessions preferences & ADD a new startup program--put in /home/"your_home"/BOINC/run_manager & save it. I know that all of you are thinking that you need to put "run_client" in, but the manager will startup the client as part of its duties--this holds true for the current stable version of BOINC--the older versions & the new testing version need "run_client" there because the client is not auto-started.

You can also just start the current stable manager as a program without any problem--I include a menu item in my Menu Accessories section--there as a couple of good icons in the BOINC folder for that purpose. This allows you to start/stop the daemon & application AT THE SAME TIME.

The created BOINC folder has it's own ca-bundle.crt, so you don't rely on the system you are running & ALL data is saved to the BOINC folder EXCEPT for the BOINC Manager status file--that is in your dot files in your home directory as .BOINC Manager

As you can see, BOINC becomes "portable"--if you need to make a new /home, just move the BOINC folder--rename things in the scripts if you need to & move .BOINC Manager to the new /home directory & then restart BOINC---Job done.

Updating your BOINC install is even easier--just download the new BOINC--chmod 777 it (making sure it is in your /home directory & then run the script. It will update the required elements & keep your data intact.