Distributed.net Primer

A few notes about this web page: This primer was written specifically to help Mac users get up & running with dnetc, to show how to limit the dnetc client to work ONLY on the RC5-72 project, and finally, to recruit members into the XLR8YourMac team. The original version of the primer is still posted on the Accelerate Your Mac website, at http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/tips/dnetc_guide.html. As Mike is too busy to take the time to upload revised versions of the page, I've decided to post revisions here.

Cheers!

Andrew McKenzie

Learn about dnetc

Distributed.net's mission statement can be found here:

http://www1.distributed.net/mission.php

To learn about dnetc, click this link & knock yourself out (You'll find yourself at the distributed.net FAQ):

http://n0cgi.distributed.net/faq/cache/1.html

Is my Mac capable of contributing to this project?

Any Mac that can run Mac OS X 10.1.x or later can contribute to the project, including Intel-powered Macs. I must say, the performance of the Core Duo Macs is VERY disappointing (which include the mid 2006 model MacBooks, MacBook Pros, Mac Minis, and iMacs). For example, my G5 Dual 2 GHz does about 28 million keys per second, while a Core Duo iMac 1.83 GHz doesn't even reach 9 million keys per second (and yes, it is running on both cores). Hope the Mac Pros can turn in more respectable results. :-/

Machines that were officially supported by Apple for Mac OS X versions 10.1.x ("Puma") and 10.2.x ("Jaguar") include all G3 or newer Macs except the first G3 PowerBook ("Kanga").

Machines officially supported by Apple for Mac OS X 10.3.x ("Panther") include all G3 or newer Macs with built-in USB ports (Blue & White G3s or newer, Lombard PowerBook or newer, any iMac, any iBook).

Machines officially supported by Apple for Mac OS X 10.4.x ("Tiger") include any Mac with built-in FireWire ports (Blue & White G3 or newer, Pismo PowerBook or newer, iMac slot-loading DV models, iBook SE or newer models).

X Post Facto

Many older Mac models and clones can run OS X in spite of being "unsupported" by Apple. This is made possible through the efforts of an individual named Ryan Rempel, who has written a program called X Post Facto (currently at version 4). Ryan's work is hosted at the Other World Computing website. Click the following link to check it out or download it:

http://eshop.macsales.com/OSXCenter/XPostFacto/

Unsupported Macs which are capable of running Mac OS X include the 7300s, 7500s, 7600s, 8500s, 8600s, 9500s, 9600s, and other models and clones, including those that have been added to the "unsupported" list as Apple has released later versions of OS X. For a page detailing X Post Facto support of different models, click this link.

Both Puma and Jaguar can be installed (using X Post Facto) onto certain models with 603 or 604 CPUs (again, check out the website for more information). For Panther or Tiger to be installed on ANY model, at LEAST a G3 CPU is MANDATORY, along with enough RAM and hard drive space. For what it's worth, a G4 does WAY better at RC5-72 than a G3; keep this in mind when deciding on a CPU upgrade :-)

There are older versions of the client available for older Macs, but these older client versions (for OS X-incapable PPC or 68k machines) do NOT do the RC5-72 project (they are only able to do the OGR project); for this reason, running dnetc on any machine NOT RUNNING OS X is of no value for the RC5-72 project.

Download dnetc

Now that you're ready and want to do it, download the client here:

http://www.distributed.net/download/clients.php

Note that there are both PPC and x86 Mac OS X versions listed on this page; my instructions refer to these versions. These versions of the client will run on 10.2.x ("Jaguar"), 10.3.x ("Panther"), or 10.4.x ("Tiger") (in the case of the Intel Macs, of course, it's Tiger or nuthin').

If you are running OS X 10.1.x, you can run a slightly older version of the dnetc client which CAN do the RC5-72 project. That older version of the client is available here (direct download link):

ftp://ftp.distributed.net/pub/dcti/v2.9005/dnetc484-macosx-ppc.tar.gz

I believe this is the LAST (most current) version that supports 10.1.x.

Install dnetc

So, now that you have a client downloaded, double-click the downloaded file to expand it (note that some browsers are set so that this happens automatically). in any case, you'll end up with a folder named something like dnetc486-macosx-ppc. Place this folder wherever you want to keep it.

Open a Finder window and navigate to the directory that contains the dnetc folder (wherever you just put it). Leave this window open.

Open Terminal. At the prompt, type cd and a space, then drag the dnetc folder (from its Finder window) onto the Terminal window and let go (of course, you have to have the two windows arranged so you can see them both). You should now see the path to the dnetc folder listed after the cd and space you typed. Press return. Note your terminal prompt now has the entire path to the dnetc folder in it.

Next, look at the "help" menu for dnetc so you can get an idea of some of the different options available with the client. Type

./dnetc -help

followed by return. You could even print the page to have it available.

Now you'll tell the client who you are. Since this is the first time the client has been launched, the configuration menu will appear. In terminal, type

./dnetc

and hit return. The instructions tell you that you have not provided a distributed.net client ID. To do so, choose option 1 (General Client Options) and press return. Choose option 1 (Your email address (distributed.net ID)) and press return. At the prompt "New Setting -->", type your email address and hit return. Then it's option 0 and return (to return to main menu) and option 0 and return (to save settings and exit).

Next, you'll install the client in such a way that when you boot up, it will start automatically. Type

sudo ./dnetc -install

followed by return. Enter your password at the prompt (nothing will appear on screen, but your input is being taken) and hit enter.

After it says it's been installed and will start at boot, reboot. If everything has worked, the dnetc client is now running. To check it, launch Process Viewer (in Jaguar) or Activity Viewer (in Panther or Tiger) and you should see a process called dnetc taking most of the CPU cycles. Once you've verified this, quit Process/Activity Viewer.

Setup dnetc to work only on RC5-72

Now you're going to tell the dnetc client that you only want it to work on RC5-72. Launch Terminal. change your directory to the folder containing your dnetc client (as you did above). Type

./dnetc -shutdown

followed by return. Next, type

./dnetc -config

followed by return. Select option 2 (Buffer and Buffer Update Options) and return, then option 9 (Load-work precedence) and return, and change the string at the prompt from "OGR,RC5-72" to "OGR=0,RC5-72" (you have to use the delete key to remove what's there and type in the new setting).

**NOTE** As of sometime in November 04, there was ANOTHER OGR project started.. You need to put the "=0" after all projects listed EXCEPT the RC5-72 one to have the client ONLY work on the RC5-72 project..

When you're done, hit return to record your changes, then type 0 (Return to main menu) and return, followed by 0 (Save settings and exit) and return.

Now just wait...

In the Terminal, launch the dnetc client by typing

./dnetc

followed by return. Read the interesting text that came up as the client started. Then quit Terminal if you want (leave it running if you'd like to see how many keys/sec it's processing). If you see a message about the process terminating if you quit won't really stop the dnetc client if you do quit.

Assuming you're running the client on a desktop machine (I'm not sure I'd want to put a laptop through constant 100% CPU usage, but you can if you want), launch System Preferences and click on the Energy Saver pane. Set the slider for "Put the Computer to sleep.." to Never (all the way to the right). Set your monitor to go to sleep whenever you wish; it is not necessary to set it to never. Leave the "Spin down hard drive" check box checked. Oh, and in Options, if there's a set processor performance dropdown, setting it to Highest does make quite a difference - on my dual 2 GHz G5, Automatic does 9ish million keys per sec, while at Highest it cranks 14ish million keys per sec.

Now you just have to forget about things for awhile. Remember to NOT shut off your computer or put it to sleep; it probably won't break.. (You DO have a backup strategy just in case, right?) In a couple of days, your distributed.net ID will be up on their servers (it took more than 2 days for mine to show up). So after a couple days, go here:

http://stats.distributed.net/projects.php?project_id=8

and type your email address into the search field under Participant Stats. Click Search. If you are in there, your stats page will show up. When it does, go to the bottom of the page and click the button "Please email me my password."

Join the Team!

When you get your login ID and password, go here again:

http://stats.distributed.net/projects.php?project_id=8

and search for "xlr8yourmac" under the Team Stats heading. You'll get the xlr8YourMac team stats page; near the bottom of the page is a link which says "I want to join this team!" Click the link and join the team! Remember, you should try to run the client all the time! We have about 250 members, but only a fraction of those submit work units every day. C'mon, get those Macs working! If everybody worked, we could move up!! (As of July '05, we're #4 overall, but bouncing down between 6th & 9th place or lower on any given day).

Miscellania

I'm on always-on broadband; if you use a dialup connection, you'll want to set some things so that the client will either initiate a connection when the in buffer is empty or send and receive packets when a connection is detected. If you set the latter option, and the in buffer empties, the client will work on random keys until it can return results and get new packets. To set these options, open Terminal, navigate to your dnetc directory, and type

./dnetc -config

followed by return. Then, its option 2 (Buffer and Buffer Update Options), followed by option 6 (Keyserver<->client connectivity options), followed by option 7 (Dialup-link detection), followed by choosing either option 1 or 2, depending on what you want. After you've set it the way you want, it's zero and return several times to get back to the main menu and save your changes and exit. I'd appreciate some feedback on how these options work from somebody who is using them.

There is some argument as to whether it is better to let the hard drive spin down or to keep it on all the time. I tend to believe that spinning a hard drive up again and again is harder on it than letting it spin all the time, and that if a hard drive is going to fail, it is by far most likely to fail during spinup. If you don't want to run your hard drive all the time, you can run the client in RAM. There is an option you can set which runs the client entirely in memory (launching it with the -nodisk option does this). To set the client to automatically work with the -nodisk option every time it starts, launch Terminal, navigate to your dnetc folder, and type

./dnetc -config

followed by return. Then, it's option 2 (Buffer and Buffer Update Options), followed by option 1 (Buffer in memory only?), followed by typing yes at the prompt, followed by return. Then return to the main menu, save your changes and exit.

I will try to answer questions if you have them.. (andrew.mckenzie at onlinecol.com) Thanks for joining the team!

-Andrew