Borgix

TollhouseFrank · Mar 21, 2005

I know there is already a liveCD distro that has folding in it (overclockix, and overfoldix).... but King_Warg and I have been thinking of making our own distro here in the near future.... designed especially for clusters.... (as soon as the cluster version of F@H is released).... called Borgix.

Not knowing the most about linux and making our own distro... I know knoppix is a good base... but are there any guides you can point us to to help us on our quest to make a cluster-folding version of Linux?

electrorcamd · Mar 21, 2005

Here is a guide on modifying Knoppix:
http://www.knoppix.net/wiki/Knoppix_Remastering_Howto
I don't really know how to setup a cluster, but it looks like most other cluster distros use openmosix.

TollhouseFrank · Mar 22, 2005

thanks man. every bit is a help

Arkaine23 · Mar 22, 2005

That's the guide I used before I quite knew what I was doing.

TollhouseFrank · Mar 23, 2005

hmm.... if arkaine used it... its gotta be good.

King Warg² · Mar 23, 2005

i recommend we use Damn Small Linux for a base, seeing as it is quite small and very functional for its size.

just add us a graphical package installer, the apt-get program, KDE, clustering and folding software, maybe some network card management and router emulation programs like GNU Zebra, maybe add some backgrounds and mozilla firefox and some multimedia apps and Booya, Borgix.

Flamed_Chip · Mar 23, 2005

If its designed for folding farms will it really need X and KDE? I guess people may want it, but if it's main use is on farmed machines, most won't have monitors anyway.

King Warg² · Mar 23, 2005

whell no it wouldnt be necessarry...but i preferr a graphic interface for some stuff, plus if someone wanted to use it as a desktop OS then it might be a good idea for it.. it wouldnt have to be installed anyway, dont install it if you dont want it...

King Warg² · Mar 23, 2005

maybe add some overclocking utilities for video cards and stuff....

Arkaine23 · Mar 23, 2005

Then you've got to get it setting up 3d-accelerated drivers for said video cards as well. Knoppix 3.7 gamer's edition can do that, albeit it downloads and sets that all up in ram which means it requires around 400MB of ram to run live when you install/enable 3d video drivers.

King Warg² · Mar 23, 2005

the whole live CD thing is getting out of control... enable all this stuff as its installed to the hard disk

TollhouseFrank · Mar 23, 2005

hmm... do you HAVE to have a basic linux cd/diskette to boot and get connected to the cluster head? or does the cluster head do everything itself?

King Warg² · Mar 23, 2005

it wont do anything if the client doesnt have a boot ROM on the NIC..

electrorcamd · Mar 23, 2005

I think the NIC has to have PXE support and a boot ROM in order to boot off of a network with no drives. You would also have to have a PXE server somewhere on the network. Or you can use a small Linux install.

Arkaine23 · Mar 23, 2005

A few ways to go about it-

1) All nodes use a HDD, CD, or usb pen drive to boot the full OS.
a. HDD requires installation obviously
b. CD-rom and pen drive would mean two images- i.e. with a cluster version of F@H, only one machine would need to have the WU's, the rest would be picking up load in the cluster, so odds are the server'd be installed and the live-booted nodes would boot as clients client.
2) Use terminal services and either PXE or floppy booting for the nodes.

Certainly your nodes don't need to boot in GUI mode. You'll want them to have more free resources, and the main machine with a HDD is where you're going to be running all the jobs from. Odds are for that one you will want a GUI for ease of use.

TollhouseFrank · Mar 23, 2005

hmm.... ok.... danny and i are trying to get this worked out, as he has access to literrally dozens of machines, and the space to use them in.... and a cluster fold would probably do quite well.

Arkaine23 · Mar 24, 2005

The limited factor on the cluster's performance will be in how the jobs are spread out and in the network bandwidth to share data between machines (100Mbit probably). Gbit network card and switch would probably help, at least for the server, but you'll have to wait for the cluster version of F@H and to build your OS before you can figure that stuff out.

TollhouseFrank · Mar 24, 2005

yeah.... right now,all that is really holding us back is we are missing the cluster version of F@H... we know we can build borgix with no problem following the guide you all gave us.

TollhouseFrank · Mar 25, 2005

Borgix looks like its nearly a go. I found a great guide on how to build a diskless folding farm, and will use it as a basis to help King_Warg get a good LiveCD distro (Borgix) used mainly for cluster-farming, but can also be used similar to Overclockix.

TollhouseFrank · Mar 26, 2005

King_Warg and I officially started work on Borgix today. It was going fine, and we decided to install KDE (started off with DSL aka Damn Small Linux). Figured out we had to install some C++ libraries and stuff. Worked for 3 hours, and every time we'd turn around... another dependency popped up. MOTHER****

Currently, we believe we are * * that close... * * close to getting the C++ and G++ dependencies right so that we can start to compile source code.... but gettin' there is tough.

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