Simple Linux Setup - a few more steps
Here are a few more steps for a simple install now that you seem to have the basics up and running. (these steps are still simpler in complexity than some other suggestions)
1) This step was omitted by mistake from my first response.
Make sure your seventeen or bust client is executable.
Without the execute flag set, it will not run; To set the execute flag type:
chmod +x sb
2) The Client will need to be restarted by hand at every reboot unless you put an autostart procedure in place. There are many ways to do this, depending upon your flavor of Linux or Unix, or how you login, or even if you use a GUI or not. I would like to hold off on this issue right now - or defer to someone else.
When restarted, Clients will resume the calculations from where they left off. A calculation progress file is written periodically so that the client can recover from most shutdowns; even aggressive ones like the unexpected loss of power. It is important not to mess with these progress files unless you know what you are doing.
2) If you plan to run more then one instance of the client, I would recommend creating a directory for each client. I would then put a copy of the client executable "sb" and client configuration "sclient.conf" in each directory. This makes the clients independent; each will work on there own calculations independent from each other and each can be independently started or stopped. Each client also has its own log file output. This independence makes debugging any client troubles very easy. This independence also gives you the ability to move clients from one machine to another - just by: Stopping the client. Moving that client's directory to the new machine and restarting the client. The client will then resume work on the same calculation where it left off.
3) Upgrading the client. You can make your client run faster by upgrading the client to the latest version. In this case it is called sb2.5.06 (BETA), I have been running this beta without trouble since it came out. On my machines it runs about 6% faster than previous versions. Mine is dated 2-17-2008, is 3879608 bytes in size and has a MD5 signature of f3b8dc1ab2744468e19e3513b08f0d09. This is the latest beta I know of; there was no formal release - so use the above information as a guide.
To install simply
a) stop the client
b) copy the newer executable over the older one
(something like: cp sb2.5.06 sb)
c) make sure it is executable:
chmod +x sb
d) restart the client.
This should be done individually to all the clients you want to upgrade.
This latest client also provides some communications benefits. It can be configured to only contact the main server (to transmit completed block information) at specified intervals. This can save a good amount of time and bandwidth with the fastest machines saving the most.
To enable this feature make sure the following lines are in the "sclient.conf" configuration file for the client.
--- section from sclient.conf -----
# The transmission of intermediate blocks is recommended if you
# have a constant internet connection. Even if you cannot
# connect for the intermediate block reports every time,
# computation will still continue, although it will pause
# breifly to try every hour or so.
# 1 - Enable
# 0 - Disable
Transmit 1
TransmitBlocks 100
--- section from sclient.conf -----
The setting of "Transmit 1" tell the client to report status to the server - which is nice for getting up to date user statistics. The setting "Transmit Blocks 100" tells the client to transmit this information every 100 blocks instead of every block. On fast clients, 100 Blocks might work out to effectively transmit update information once every 100 minutes (an hour and a half) instead of every minute. On faster clients, 200 might be a better number. On fast clients that you only want statistics once a day you can use very large numbers like 2000 or 4000 to cut down on overhead.
Let me know if this information helps. This is probably the end of my "simple" installation notes. Other individuals can provide more information on more complex methods of installation and monitoring of seventeen or bust clients. I personally would look forward see what other people post about their more complex implementations, especially their benefits and their trade offs.
Good Luck and Best Regards,