Manual installation

1) Install BOINC for your distribution

There is no customized version of the Charity Engine desktop application for Linux, but you can use any of the Linux versions of BOINC with our site. Follow the instructions below that are appropriate for your distribution to install BOINC:

• Ubuntu or Debian: apt install boinc-manager boinc-client
• Fedora or RHEL: dnf install boinc-manager
• Gentoo: emerge boinc
• Other distributions: Search for BOINC via your package manager of choice or install manually via shell script or by building from source (see the official instructions for Installing BOINC on Linux for additional details) 

2) Install VirtualBox

While some work can be done by running native apps, a number of jobs are run in virtual machines and require that VirtualBox to be installed on your system.

Follow installation instructions for Linux hosts on the VirtualBox website as appropriate for your distribution in order to enable this functionality.

3) Connect your BOINC client to Charity Engine

Once BOINC is installed, launch the BOINC manager:

• On first run, the Manager will launch an "Attach to Project" wizard. You must cancel this wizard
• Find "Use account manager..." in the Tools menu. Then, enter the name of this website: https://www.charityengine.com. (*If you don't see the Tools menu, be sure to switch to "Advanced View", in the View menu)
• Enter the email address and password for the account you created here at Charity Engine and that's it, you're done!

(*Important note: "Attach To Project" does not work. If you accidentally start that instead, just cancel it.)

Network installation

1) Install BOINC & 2) Install VirtualBox

The process for installing BOINC and VirtualBox on Linux can be scripted for automatic deployment using the commands outlined in steps 1 and 2 above.

3) Connecting to Charity Engine

Automating attachment to Charity Engine can similarly be added to a scripted approach by copying two configuration files from the BOINC data directory on a host that has already been attached:

• acct_mgr_url.xml - configures the BOINC client to attach to Charity Engine
• acct_mgr_login.xml - contians the login credentials to use when attaching to Charity Engine

These files are created on a host by completing step 3 above and can then be used on any number of additional hosts to associate them with the same user account at Charity Engine. An installation script could either copy the files from the first host or a designated configuration server (e.g. using wget or rsync) or the contents of the files could be included in the installation script in order to create the files after installation of the BOINC client. 

When the BOINC client is launched on these additional hosts, it will attach to Charity Engine and receive project assignments and tasks right after initialization benchmarks are run.