[Abarbarian]

Hi flops . These new versions of linux distros must be easy peasy to install and use if I can cope with them . Why not have another go at one . I noticed a difference in Ubuntu's Gutsy Gibbon and Hardy Heron and thats just one release on . I recon a lot of problems have been brought under control and now we are into a final tweaking stage with linux as a whole . Once folk feel confident about the new distros and work out a way to make money from offering support for them along with games that work on linux , then Microsoft will have real competition to contend with .
Gimp should be no problem once I have figured out how to use it . I can resize and reload all the pics in this series if that is possible to do . Should not take long , well thats if I don't take me eye of the ball that is . Let me know .

[Abarbarian]

I'm a bit paranoid about temperatures especially on a new build . So one of the first programs I install on a new OS is a temperature monitor . This is invaluable for peace of mind if you intend to install and run Boinc . You are going to run Boinc aren't you ?? There are several different monitors to choose from for a linux os and I have chosen GKRELLM . I like the look of the program and it has loads of funky add-ons which appeal to me . For the Mandriva OS this program comes as a RPM so is easy to install . GKrellm can be installed manually and I have done this on a Kanotix os .
This will not take long so backup supplies are not really necessary . Can't be too careful though . So I have a jug of freshly ground coffee and a small plate of home made scones with last years home made pear jam standing by
.



Click here .




Them pesky passwords again . You need the " ROOT " password here . If the task has stressed you out then partake of the backup supplies .




I forgot to take screen shots first time around so here I'm showing how to add a single program . To see what GKrellm programs are available you can type in "gkrellm" in the "FIND" box alongside the binoculars and click "ENTER" . This means that you do not have to scroll through the entire list of available programs as you are only shown the gkrellm programs . If you are installing GKrellm for the first time you would tick several of the boxes shown on the left hand side . You will notice that with a box unticked there is no arrow shown on the right hand side of the window , when you tick the box a " ORANGE " arrow appears , when you have installed the program or for a program already installed a " GREEN "arrow will show . Once you have made your choices click "APPLY" .




A window will appear telling you what will be installed and you are asked if you wish to proceed . Make a choice here and move on . If you chose "YES" then several windows will show briefly on screen telling you that the various modules you have chosen are being downloaded . Then more screens telling you that the modules are being installed . Finally you will end up .............




Here . This shows you that the tasks are completed . Notice on the bottom left near the "APPLY" button , you are given information as to how much space you have left on your hard disk drive , a nice handy little touch . Click "QUIT" and lets get on with playing with the new program .





First we will check that the program has been installed . Well it shows up in the menu so lets click it and see if it will fire up .




Seems like we were sucessful . You get a handy pop up with some information the first time the program runs .




I do not want information on memory usage so I have unticked this box . You get a lot of different options in the setting up section so have fun exploring . You will notice I have installed my favorite plug-in , the Moon Clock . The plug-in's do not show in the list until you have chosen them which helps to keep the list clutter free .




Plenty of funky looking themes on offer along with the different ways of setting up the program . If you noticed I have shown several .



This is my final choice for the moment . As you can see I have shrunk the gui to only show the bits I am interested in , I might get rid of the time and date as well to make it even smaller and leave me with just the cpu usage , temps and total time in use for this session .
Thats all folks . I'm of to recharge with the backup supplies , ready for the next install which will be , Boinc . You are going to install Boinc aren't you ??

[Abarbarian]

Now that a temperature monitor is at hand I can install Boinc . See here for more info on Boinc ,

"Use the idle time on your computer (Windows, Mac, or Linux) to cure diseases, study global warming, discover pulsars, and do many other types of scientific research. It's safe, secure, and easy:"

http://boinc.berkeley.edu/

PC Review has a team that donates their spare cpu cycles to The World community Grid . The team is called "The PCReview Crew ll" . More info on these here ,

http://www.pcreview.co.uk/forums/thread-2350494.php


http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/

"World Community Grid's mission is to create the largest public computing grid benefiting humanity. Our work is built on the belief that technological innovation combined with visionary scientific research and large-scale volunteerism can change our world for the better. Our success depends on individuals - like you - collectively contributing their unused computer time to this not-for-profit endeavor."

Of course after reading all the above information and all the information in the links you do want to join the Crew and crunch to save the world . You do don't you ??

So here is how .It is quite simple if you take it one step at a time . Take plenty of breaks for backup supplies , make that a large jug of coffee or a big pot of tea and several different types of munchies . All prepared ? Lets begin , go to here,

http://www.joescat.com/boinc/

Follow the instructions . Remember my advice above . One extra snippet of information , you can "COPY and PASTE" from the instructions to the Konsole . This will save you loads of time .



Here is how to find a "KONSOLE"




Here is my "BOINC" user accounts desktop . See the GKrellm monitor . It is showing both cores at 100% usage , temperatures are 11 C and 10 C for the cores . The desktop is clear except for the stuff I downloaded for Boinc's install and a shortcut to bring up the Boinc gui . I must find out how to change shortcut icons at some point .



An here is my normal users desktop . As you can see GKrellm is showing both cpu's running at 100% , this tells me that Boinc is running and as the temps look to be ok there is no need for me to open up the Boinc user account .
I did run Mandriva and Boinc for several weeks whilst I was testing various programs out in a temporary install and I had no problems with Boinc at all . I think I logged into the Boinc account three times and that was just to be nosy and to cleanly close the program down . So I can not foresee any problems with this install and will rarely visit the Boinc user account , my biggest problem will be remembering the pesky password for the account .



This is a very informative part of the instillation instructions and well worth reading again .

I'm going to add some extra information on running Boinc here later on , but I need some backup supplies to recharge my batteries . So in the words of that famous actor " I'll be back "

[Abarbarian]

It seems that Boinc runs in a slightly different fashion on a linux install than a windows install . Something to do with the nice factor it seems , no surprise there then I have not noticed boinc interfering with anything I have been doing on this install on this pc . It is a dual core pc so that may have something to do with it or it could be that I am running a linux os . On my last pc , a single core cpu and running windows I did notice boinc affecting the running of programs under certain conditions . It is easy to tweak boinc to run the way you want so this was not a problem for me . Now I know that this is a linux walkthrough but I do like to encourage folk to run boinc , the more hands helping the faster the work gets done , as me dad used to say .

Two important things to remember about boinc ,


Running Boinc will not destroy your pc .

You do not need to run Boinc at 100%.

In the same way as a charity collection for money , it does not matter what the size of your contribution is , one penny or one million pounds , every penny counts . Its the same with boinc , every single unit processed counts .
On m,y old pc I found that boinc affected my dvd playback , so when I played dvd's on my pc I simply shut boinc down for a while . Boinc also affected my pc performance when recoding and burning vidoe files so I simply set boinc to run at 30% for the several days that I was recoding . When the weather gets hot my old pc would run too hot with boinc at 100% so I would run boinc at 70% till the weather cooled down again .
Here are a few screenshots of boinc to help you out if you are a new user .



This is a shot of one of the windows you can view in the ADVANCED mode . Notice how little disk space is used by boinc . From the menu at the top you can access some very informative and easy to use help files . Also you can change over to the SIMPLE VIEW .




Click on "PREFERENCES" here.






You find all the options greyed out at first but tick the box and you can access the options for tweaking boinc to suit your needs .




This is how I usually have boinc set up to run . Flat out , all the time I have the pc running . I have very good cooling on my pc , it is a reasonably powerful cpu and I do not use a great deal of power hungry programs so this set up works for me .




Here is an example of how you might set boinc up to run in different circumstances .

Mr X has a older less powerful cpu and uses his pc in his business for intensive graphic work . after work Mr X likes to watch dvd's on his pc and plays FPS games .
He found that boinc slowed down his graphics programs so during the day boinc is turned off .
Boinc running at 100 % also caused a bit of stuttering in some movies and slowed down the mouse reactions in games . With boinc running at 60% everything runs fine .
Mr X is on dial-up and needs to take calls up untill 11.00 pm for business , so to avoid any conflict with boinc he only gives boinc access to the internet between 11.00 pm and 09.00 am .
Now that Mr X has his boinc set up he never even notices that it is running in the background , yet his little old pc is crunch crunch crunching away day in day out for the benifit of all .

Well thats was a worthwhile detour . You are going to set up and run boinc ? Aren't you ?

Now I'm of to play with me new Mandriva . Mebees some tea and toast first though .

[Abarbarian]

For those of you with busy lives and lots of important appointments and things to do KALARM is a very handy and easy to set neat tool . I use it as an alarm clock if I need to wake up and it gives me the opportunity to Bonk all night .



It can be found here ,



Or you can have a little applet on the task bar at the bottom of the screen .




To set a new alarm click here "NEW".




Open the drop down at "SOUND" .




An you can choose a suitable sound to wake up to along with settings for volume and repeats .




For those with a short memory span , or , if you set the alarm several weeks ago ! You can have a written reminder with or without sound . No more forgotten birthdays, anniversaries etc .




Click on "TRY" and a window appears with the message along with sound to show that everything is working and correct . Close both windows .





Your left with a small window detailing the set alarms . As you can see I only have the one . Must have been a busy month .
Close the window and your alarm is set .

You can import birthdays and such from KAdress book . Kalarm can also be incorporated into KOrganiser . It is a very versatile tool and the HELP file is excellent .

I have the pc running all night with Boinc so I can not say if KAlarm works if the pc is in hibernation or suspend mode . Maybe someone can supply us with that info .

Enjoy .

[Waynos_Face]

Hey Abarbarian,

So, have nearly finished building my new PC and microsoft won't let me use my Vista Home Premium 64bit OEM that i brought for the old one on my new PC, told them the old one blew up but they wouldn't have it.

So if i make a DVD.ISO of mandriva can i boot from this?

Or do i need to make a specific boot cd/dvd?

nice guide by the way, makes it look easy.

[Abarbarian]

Originally Posted by Waynos_Face

Hey Abarbarian,

So, have nearly finished building my new PC and microsoft won't let me use my Vista Home Premium 64bit OEM that i brought for the old one on my new PC, told them the old one blew up but they wouldn't have it.

So if i make a DVD.ISO of mandriva can i boot from this?

Or do i need to make a specific boot cd/dvd?

nice guide by the way, makes it look easy.

You burn them as an image to disc. Double-check your burner software settings
before you start the burn to ensure you're burning an image to disc, and not burning
them as regular files to disc.

I nicked that techy explanation from some page on the net as my grasp of techspeak is rather vague .It is easy peasy and most things I have tried have worked straight out of the box , an I have a slightly out of the ordinary set up . Updating is the key , make that your first move and it will make life easier . Whatch out for my next instalement , all about Flash . Ta fer the compliment and feedback .

Partition your drive with some other program before starting the install as the in program formating and partitioning software takes forever .



Welcome to the other side . Out of the dark and into the light .

[Waynos_Face]

Okay cheers mate, yeah it burnt as a disc image on cd, i have used the disk management in vista on my brothers pc to reformat the hdd and made a 10GB partition, will start by adventure tomorrow when i get back from work.

Am on nights, yay.

Thanks for the reply.

[Abarbarian]

Originally Posted by Waynos_Face

Okay cheers mate, yeah it burnt as a disc image on cd, i have used the disk management in vista on my brothers pc to reformat the hdd and made a 10GB partition, will start by adventure tomorrow when i get back from work.

Am on nights, yay.

Thanks for the reply.

It is very useful to have three partitions for linux installs , as the earlier part of my guide shows . There are good reasons for doing this .

[Waynos_Face]

But ithought you say later you didn't need the swap space partition?

I have 10GB set aside for the O/S and then 226GB for whatever else.

I have 8GB of RAM.