Hello List; I am a long time user of the seti@home screen saver on the windows platform. Am moving to Linux and would like to continue the search. Anybody got experience using seti as screensaver? Using SuSE 8.2 with KDE desktop. Any help would be appreciated. Step by step instructions would be lovely. Be gentle, I'm a real newbie. Thanks.
On Monday 22 December 2003 04:36, James F. Pirtle wrote:
experience using seti as screensaver?
~ maybe, if you want to save the screen, then pull out the electricity plug ? but. if you want to do seti-units fast, then the console version of seti is fastest ? -- best wishes ____________ sent on Linux ____________
On Monday 22 December 2003 06:36, James F. Pirtle wrote:
Hello List;
I am a long time user of the seti@home screen saver on the windows platform. Am moving to Linux and would like to continue the search. Anybody got experience using seti as screensaver? Using SuSE 8.2 with KDE desktop. Any help would be appreciated. Step by step instructions would be lovely. Be gentle, I'm a real newbie. Thanks. Not sure if you can use it as a screensaver. Seti for linux is a command line version, but includes the xsetathome client. You run
./setiathome -graphics and then in another consle run ./xsetiathome and it will give you the graphics output that you get in windows. It does run a little faster without the -graphics though. Maybe someone has written a xscreensaver frontend for xsetiathome? Hans
On Mon December 22 2003 03:44 am, H du Plooy wrote:
On Monday 22 December 2003 06:36, James F. Pirtle wrote:
Hello List;
I am a long time user of the seti@home screen saver on the windows platform. Am moving to Linux and would like to continue the search. Anybody got experience using seti as screensaver? Using SuSE 8.2 with KDE desktop. Any help would be appreciated. Step by step instructions would be lovely. Be gentle, I'm a real newbie. Thanks.
Not sure if you can use it as a screensaver. Seti for linux is a command line version, but includes the xsetathome client. You run
./setiathome -graphics
and then in another consle run ./xsetiathome and it will give you the graphics output that you get in windows. It does run a little faster without the -graphics though.
Maybe someone has written a xscreensaver frontend for xsetiathome?
Hans
I would assume (bad thing to do) that the reason he wants it as a screensaver is that it would not then be running unless the screensaver is running (and the machine is idle) I am not aware that you can do that in the linux version. What you want to do is to specify a 'nice' level.... I run mine with ./setiathome -nice 2 -verbose > <name of a log file> -- +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ + Bruce S. Marshall bmarsh@bmarsh.com Bellaire, MI 12/22/03 11:23 + +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Aigner's Axiom: "No matter how well you perform your job, a superior will seek to modify the results."
On Monday 22 December 2003 18:26, Bruce Marshall wrote:
Not sure if you can use it as a screensaver. Seti for linux is a command line version, but includes the xsetathome client. You run [snip]
I would assume (bad thing to do) that the reason he wants it as a screensaver is that it would not then be running unless the screensaver is running (and the machine is idle) Like I said, I'm not sure if you can run it as a screensaver. Someone else mentioned a KDE screensaver, in the meantime. My collegue next to me uses the screensaver in windows because "it looks cool." - so it doesn't matter to him weather it is the screensaver or the graphics output full screen. Different strokes for different folks...
I am not aware that you can do that in the linux version. What you want to do is to specify a 'nice' level.... I run mine with ./setiathome -nice 2 -verbose > <name of a log file> I use -nice 19 It still runs as fast as with the default (-nice 1), but it backs off quite a bit quicker when you want to do other stuff like play quake3 or watch a DVD!
I'm going to check out that KDE screensaver though. Hans
Hans du Plooy wrote:
On Monday 22 December 2003 18:26, Bruce Marshall wrote:
Not sure if you can use it as a screensaver. Seti for linux is a command line version, but includes the xsetathome client. You run
I have a question of intellectual curiosity, please? (Much as I enjoy sci-fi the only extraterrestrial life I believe exists is that of the spiritual realm, esp. the God of Christ-mas and Easter.) Is there a potential security hole created by programs like SETI wherein it sounds as though external access is granted to external systems to utilize "spare" cpu time? I have seen discussions of math-crunching and other similar apps and don't see a problem under Windows given its porous design but an curious about the potential vulnerability created in Linux? Am I misunderstanding how SETI multi-processes on local computers? -- Amazing Christ-mas blessings ... doc
Doc, I don't think so. The seti@home folks were conscious of those concerns. You do not stay connected to their servers or to the web while you are crunching numbers. The only time you need to be connected is when you are uploading results and downloading the next work unit. You can configure the software to automatically connect to the web and disconnect (on a dial-up connection, anyway) when the software needs the connection, or you can configure the program to alert you when it's finished so that you can log on and off manually. Best, Pete -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Peter N. Spotts Science and technology correspondent | The Christian Science Monitor One Norway Street, Boston MA 02115 Office: 617-450-2449 | Office in Home: 508-520-3139 pspotts@alum.mit.edu | www.csmonitor.com | www.peterspotts.net ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
P.S. It's proven to be a sufficiently promising technique that scientists studying the way proteins fold have a similar, distributed-computing effort underway. And climate researchers in Britain also are seeking volunteer-computers for climate-modeling exercises. While the protein-folding effort has a Linux version, the climate folks are still trying to gin one up. So far, their software runs only on windows. While I've been running seti@home since '99, the latter two efforts strike me as being more in the vein of serious science. But it took seti@home to demonstrate that the concept of distributed computing could catch on with a sufficiently motivated segment of the general public. Check them out at http://setiathome.ssl.berkely.edu for the full story -- even if you have no intention of taking part. Best, Pete -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Peter N. Spotts Science and technology correspondent | The Christian Science Monitor One Norway Street, Boston MA 02115 Office: 617-450-2449 | Office in Home: 508-520-3139 pspotts@alum.mit.edu | www.csmonitor.com | www.peterspotts.net ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On Tuesday 23 December 2003 13:38, Peter N. Spotts wrote:
scientists studying the way proteins fold have a similar, distributed-computing effort underway. And climate researchers in Britain also are seeking volunteer-computers for climate-modeling exercises. While the protein-folding effort has a Linux version
The way "protein-folding" works on Linux, one has to grant "protein-folding" the permissions to download & run new executables on ones 'puter, without any warning or notice ~ this I did NOT like, at all, and therefore stopped running Folding@Home { maybe a malicious code writer could dream up a way to use Folding@Home for placement of Trojans ? } -- best wishes ____________ sent on Linux ____________
On Tuesday 23 December 2003 15:20, Colburn wrote:
Is there a potential security hole created by programs like SETI wherein it sounds as though external access is granted to external systems to utilize "spare" cpu time? Well, that's about the only time a new setiathome client gets released - when a possible security problem is discovered
About external acces being granted: that doesn't happen unless they're not telling us the truth. The client runs on your computer - it's not part of a cluster. It downloads a packet (like any wget might download a file), processes it, and sends it back. To the best of my knowledge, the seti client doesn't accept connections from anywhere, and if you have your firewall enabled, you shouldn't have a problem. Hans
Hans du Plooy wrote:
On Tuesday 23 December 2003 15:20, Colburn wrote:
Is there a potential security hole created by programs like SETI wherein it sounds as though external access is granted to external systems to utilize "spare" cpu time?
Well, that's about the only time a new setiathome client gets released - when a possible security problem is discovered
About external acces being granted: that doesn't happen unless they're not telling us the truth. The client runs on your computer - it's not part of a cluster. It downloads a packet (like any wget might download a file), processes it, and sends it back. To the best of my knowledge, the seti client doesn't accept connections from anywhere, and if you have your firewall enabled, you shouldn't have a problem.
Hans
Thanks to all for the explanations. It sounds as though the folks w/seti@home have been pretty diligent ... perhaps the folks at Micro$oft might learn something from them! Considering the sometimes mammoth effort to get most any Linux system running with full effectiveness across the plethora of proprietary-driver based notebooks and desktops it sure would be a shame to compromise one of the key Linux advantages over M$ ... security. -- Amazing Christ-mas blessings ... doc
The Tuesday 2003-12-23 at 08:20 -0500, Colburn wrote:
I have a question of intellectual curiosity, please? (Much as I enjoy sci-fi the only extraterrestrial life I believe exists is that of the spiritual realm, esp. the God of Christ-mas and Easter.)
ET life might exist, or might not: either way remains to be hard proven. That would be the point of "seti", precisely :-)
Is there a potential security hole created by programs like SETI wherein it sounds as though external access is granted to external systems to utilize "spare" cpu time?
Mmm... If I used one of those I would set them to run under a different user, with shell limited to rbash, belonging to no groups. Or even a chroot jail. -- Cheers, Carlos Robinson
James F. Pirtle wrote:
Hello List;
I am a long time user of the seti@home screen saver on the windows platform. Am moving to Linux and would like to continue the search. Anybody got experience using seti as screensaver? Using SuSE 8.2 with KDE desktop. Any help would be appreciated. Step by step instructions would be lovely. Be gentle, I'm a real newbie. Thanks.
I used to use a KDE seti@home screensaverdownloaded from the KDE applications site. It monitored output from the command line version of seti@home, though the display was not the same as the seti@home windows version. I've since decided to go for maximum processing speed and just blank the screen now. George -- George H. Griffin Powered by SuSE Linux 9.0, kernel 2.4.21 "Some mornings it just doesn't seem worth it to gnaw through the leather straps" Emo Philips
James, Someone else may already have mentioned this, but you might try Ksetiwatch. It's designed for KDE (but works with other window managers like Fluxbox). Ksetiwatch its information from the command line version of S@H and displays the progress in a small icon it places on your taskbar. If you want more-detailed information, you can click on the icon and it will bring up a window showing you more than you ever want to know about your work units. It's a nice balance between having something on screen to show you your progress on the current work unit while saving you from slowing things down because a large on-screen display is running.... Best, Pete -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Peter N. Spotts Science and technology correspondent | The Christian Science Monitor One Norway Street, Boston MA 02115 Office: 617-450-2449 | Office in Home: 508-520-3139 pspotts@alum.mit.edu | www.csmonitor.com | www.peterspotts.net ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
participants (9)
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Bruce Marshall -
Carlos E. R. -
Colburn -
George H. Griffin -
H du Plooy -
Hans du Plooy -
James F. Pirtle -
Peter N. Spotts -
pinto