Ubuntu Tutorials

Previous to the final release of Ubuntu 9.04 there was a ton of buzz surrounding the new Boot Splash. Personally I don’t see what the big deal is. I am one of those weird people that likes to see the boot output, and have missed it since it was removed. It looks pretty, and I guess that is what they were going for. In any event, I haven’t bothered messing with it until it started conflicting with one of my boot-time applications. At that point I decided it needed to go.

As many of you may know I developed a management tool for Folding@Home clients called Origami. It simplifies the installation of Folding@Home clients and aims to be a set-and-forget kind of tool. The problem is that with the inception of the new Boot Splash the boot-time script for Origami fails. I don’t have any idea how the two of those would be related (if anyone can comment I am very curious), but I can confirm that disabling the splash “fixes” the boot-time issue with Origami. Here I’d like to quickly share now to disable the boot splash for anyone else interested.

Disable Boot Splash

First, for safely, you’ll want to make a backup of your original GRUB menu:

sudo cp /boot/grub/menu.lst /boot/grub/menu.lst.orig

Second, Edit the /boot/grub/menu.lst and remove any mention of ‘splash’ found in the file. You should find one for each configured kernel as well as one slightly above that in the comments. The latter entry defines the default new-entry behavior, and if it is left in place it will re-add the splash to new entries.

Once this is removed you should see the boot output one you restart your machine again. Also, for those running Origami, this should fix any start-time problems until the real core of the issue can be resolved.

Startup Manager

If you’d like to really get in and tweak your boot-time parameters there is a nice GUI tool called Startup Manager. This tool allows you to do what we did above, just via mouse-clicks and a whole lot more. If you’re uncomfortable with the command line, or want to see what else you can do with your boot configuration, check out Startup Manager.

sudo aptitude install startupmanager

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After quite the hiatus from coding I have released Origami 0.6.9.  Thanks go to Martin Zuther for his bug and feature request submissions on Launchpad.  This release should resolve a long standing bug and also added two new features.

Origami now supports definition of BIGPACKETS, which can be very important depending on your hardware.  I’ve also added support for the new PASSKEY feature, which allows you to basically secure your submission results by way of a secret assigned passkey.

To find out more about the PASSKEY system check out:

passkey-FAQ

New Installation

If you’re new to Origami you might want to check it out.  It is a wrapper around Stanford’s Folding @ Home distributed computing client.  I think its a much cleaner way to run Folding @ Home on Linux systems.  If you’re interested you can install the latest trunk (stable) via:

bzr branch lp:origami
sudo origami/origami install [ -u USERNAME -t 45104 -b {small, normal, big} -j PASSKEY]

If you’d prefer to use the PPA you can add the following to your /etc/apt/sources.list file:

## origami
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/christer.edwards/ubuntu intrepid main

Note: Origami 0.6.8.3 is available in the Intrepid repository, but this lacks these two new features.  You can use that package if you prefer not to use “outside” repositories / bzr, and follow the manual upgrade options below.  If you run into any bugs please let me know on Launchpad.

Upgrade Installation

If you’ve previously been running Origami you can update the package as available from the Launchpad PPA.

Currently you’ll have to manually update your config to define BIGPACKETS and PASSKEY (unless you want to re-install completely).

To add these two new features manually follow these steps:

gksudo gedit /var/lib/origami/foldingathome/CPU*/client.cfg

Within the [settings] section you’ll want to add the new directives.  Example:

[settings]
...
bigpackets={small, normal, big}
passkey=PASSKEY

Again, any issues please let me know as a bug on Launchpad or come find me in #ubuntu-folding on irc.freenode.net

Its been a while since I’ve blogged about my Folding@Home management tool, now called Origami.  There was a lull there in development for a while, but this last week I’ve done probably 20+ commits, which puts us up to version 0.6.6.1.  There are now also two branches being maintained on Launchpad (bzr).  One for trunk, which has the latest-greatest features, and another branch called debian which will track the package source files.  As usual, if anyone would like to check out the code and offer improvements feel free.

I also wanted to announce that it is now available in package form via my Launchpad PPA!  Launchpad FTW!  The current .deb is based on the current debian branch.  If any packagers want to take a look and tell me how to improve the package (this is my first one afterall) I’d be very interested.

I should also mention that with the rename there has bit a bit of an overhaul in the code base.  Origami is not directly backwards compatible with folding.sh! I have to say that the simplest method for the transition is uninstalling folding.sh (sudo folding.sh erase) and then installing the Origami package.  This will cause you to lose your current work progress, so maybe wait until you’ve just started a new work-unit and give it a go.

Installing Origami via Launchpad PPA

To install Origami using Launchpad’s Personal Package Archive system, simply add the following line to your /etc/apt/sources.list file or “Add” in System > Admin > Software Sources.

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/christer.edwards/ubuntu hardy main

Once that line is in your config file make sure to update (sudo apt-get update) and then install the origami package.  Currently it is only built for Ubuntu 8.04 “Hardy”, but by the end of the week I’ll have the other supported releases built as well.  (To install for a previous release simply replace “hardy” with “release” in your configuration.)

I’ve been happy with all the feedback so far.  Thanks to those that have reported bugs and helped me make Origami even better.  If anyone finds any additional bugs or has feature requests please let me know!