Topic: Installing SETIDriver and the SETI@Home commandline client

[IKV Nemesis D7L]

Slight update of links from the old version of this in the old offtopic forums.

Quote:
A year or so back I posted this set of instructions to assist people in setting up the SETI commandline client with SETIDriver.  There was a recent request for a repost of them.  The original no longer exists but Mazeppa had archived it and reposted it for us.

Here is an update with corrected links.

Setting up the SETI command line client with SETIDriver

Some people have requested assistance on setting up the Windows SETI commandline client and a caching program. Here is my attempt to provide such aid. Hopefully it will be of use.
 
These instructions are based on Windows 98 SE and Windows 2000Pro and may need to be adjusted slightly for other versions of windows. I anticipate that most users of other versions of Windows can adapt these instructions to their version.
 
The download locations below are the ones to which the SETI site itself directs you. These instructions assume that during the setup you stay connected to the internet. If not you will need to reconnect to do Step 4:

Step 1: Create directory from which you will run the SETI program. If you are already running the graphical version you should create a new location, just in case  .

Step 2A: Download the SETI client from the address below to the prepared directory.

Link below is to ftp site for downloading the commandline client.

ftp://alien.ssl.berkeley.edu/pub/setiathome-3.08.i386-winnt-cmdline.exe

Step 2B: Download the SETIDriver utility from the following link to the same directory.

Link to SETIDriver

You will also need a utility such as Winzip or PKUnzip to open the SETIDriver archive. Most people here will already have one.

Link to GPL'ed unzip program for Windows Link to 7-Zip

Step 3: Open the directory to which you downloaded the programs with Windows Explorer. Extract SETIDriver from the archive using your chosen UnZipping program. Create a directory under that you extracted into to run SETIDriver from.

Example:

C:\Seti\SETIDriver.zip when unzipped creates:

C:\Seti\SETIDriver\SETIDriver.exe

Step 4:Run the SETIdriver program by doubleclicking on it. Do not have the setiathome client in the same directory as SETIDriver at this point.

A/ A window will open entitled "SETI Driver - Select CLI Client".  Open the directory with the SETI Client (setiathome-3.08.i386-winnt-cmdline.exe), select that client.  Click OK

B/ Clear the Hideprocessing box by clicking on it.

C/ Change the Desired Cache Size to 1.

D/ Click transmit. SETI will open in a DOS shell.

Step 5: At this point you are presented with 2 options.

The choices are:

1/ setup a new account

and

2/ log into an existing account. Choose the appropriate option.

These instructions will continue based on using an existing account.

Choose option 2: It will display "E-mail address:". Type your address and hit enter. SETI will then connect to the internet and download a Work Unit.

Step 6: Fill in your options:

SETI client priority - I suggest Low.

All other options should be based on your personal setup and preferences. If other people use your system you may wish to use the Hide Processing options and choose not to Display Transmit. I suggest a cache size sufficient to last one week, in case of SETI outages or your having internet connection problems, you may wish longer or shorter.

Those like myself with a dialup connection will wish to choose to set Auto Transmit off unless working with a SETIQueue (a follow up message will deal with that topic).  Those with a persistant connection may wish to choose Auto Transmit on to transmit as they process.

Those with multiple processors or with a Pentium 4 with Hyperthreading may choose more than one in the Maximum Processes: option.  SETIDriver does detect 2 processors at least and autmatically adjusts to use both.  I don't know if it detects hyper threading processors or more than 2 CPUs.  If SETIDriver does not do so automatically choose one process per processor or two per hyperthreading processor.  Hyperthreading and multiprocessor use requires a Operating System that can use them.  Windows 2000Pro or Windows XP Pro.  Windows 98SE cannot use these features and I suspect Windows XP Home cannot either.

Click on the save config button.

Step 7: Basically you are done. Some may wish to enable SETIdriver to load on bootup or put an icon on the desktop. Those issues should be easily dealt with.              

     

[nexa1]

 You are such the mind reader. *grin*  You kick A$$!!
 

This is just what I was looking for.  

[IKV Nemesis D7L]

Quote:
 You are such the mind reader. *grin*  You kick A$$!!
 

This is just what I was looking for.  

I have to share the credit with Mazeppa and others.  Mazeppa was the original inspiration to write it up back in the old forums, back when the team was more active.  When the old forums went down he saved a copy.  Ultimately when people asked for a repost he sent it on to me so that I could update it (and save my own copy this time) and repost it in the off topic forum.  Since then a link has been in my signature for any who cared to follow it.   Much of the information here was posted by others long before I joined the team.  My primary contribution was to gather together what the team knew into one place that was more easily accessible without reading everything in the SETI thread(s).

I and others on the team will gladly help anyone who needs assistance with SETI.  The more the merrier.  Whether you can do 1 work unit a month or a thousand a day (like Raven) each unit is appreciated.   Any unit could be the one, it could be found by someone who processes one and only one or by a giant like Raven.    Anyone could win this lottery, Raven buys more tickets than I do but I can still "win", so can you.    

[Demandred]

Is there any way to do SETI on a machine with no connection to the internet? I have a small server that spends most of each day idle that I do web development on and I don't want accessible from the internet. If it's possible to send the processed work units from my desktop I might as well do it. The server is running Windows 2000 Advanced Server.

[The Postman]

Raw WU's are about 350kb each. Finished WU's are about 20kb each. If you want to take the time to move them back and forth with a floppy or a cdrw, it can be done. I had an older machine that I fed and emptied with a floppy for several months.  

[IKV Nemesis D7L]

Quote:
Is there any way to do SETI on a machine with no connection to the internet? I have a small server that spends most of each day idle that I do web development on and I don't want accessible from the internet. If it's possible to send the processed work units from my desktop I might as well do it. The server is running Windows 2000 Advanced Server.  

Yes.  Though I have not done so.  Here is a quick off the top of my head explanation of how to do it.  It is not nearly as detailed as my SETIDriver install instructions above.

You need to have a common type of removable media on both machines and a compatible (to each other) OS on both.  

1/ Set up SETIDriver on the machine connected to the internet.   If you are already running SETI on that machine you need to set up a second copy to use for transferring data for the offline machine.

2/ Download data in a quantity that can fit on your removable media.  

3/ Setup SETIDriver on the offline machine.  When it tries to connect to the internet to download a data packet stop it.  

4/ Zip the data (not the whole seti driver setup just the data) that you downloaded on the connected machine and place on the removable media.  I say zip so that long file names are preserved.  You will also need to preserve the directory structure.

5/ Unzip the data onto the offline machines SETIDriver directory.  

6/ Run SETIDriver on the offline machine

7/ Zip the processed data on the offline machine unzip it onto the online machine, run the second copy of SETIDriver to transfer data to SETI and new data from SETI.

8/ Return to step 4/ and repeat the cycle.

Obviously since this is a hassle you don't want to do it more often then absolutely neccesary.  So CD/RW is the best media.  WUs expire after 4 weeks so I would not download more than a 3 week supply at a time.  On my network I keep a 2 week cache to allow for connection problems (Currently that is 609 WUs my Queue takes 239MB).  

Since you are only tranferring text files you should be pretty immune to transferring a virus to the offline machine.

While experimenting to get things right I suggest that you only tranfer one or two WUs at a time.  It should also be possible to setup a batch file to do the zipping and unzipping on both ends.  

There are in fact other ways.   If I were doing it I would probably use SETIQueue instead of SETIDriver and copy the whole SETIQueue between machines.  But so far I have not (and neither has anyone else here) written up full instructions on setting up a SETIQueue install.   SETIQueue might fail if the offline machine does not have a network address of its own, I am unsure as I have not actually tried it on an offline machine.    

Good Luck and let us know how it works out.  

If it works out you might wish to consider writing up some full instructions on how you did it, if so I would suggest adding it to this thread.    No pressure, just a suggestion.  

[ActiveX]

When the DOS winda wont do anything else, is it okay to terminate it from Windows?

[IKV Nemesis D7L]

Quote:
When the DOS winda wont do anything else, is it okay to terminate it from Windows?  

Yes.  I have done so more than once, never with a problem.  

[ActiveX]

Am I goin to have to point it to the CLI every time I run it?

[IKV Nemesis D7L]

Quote:
Am I goin to have to point it to the CLI every time I run it?  

Not if you followed my setup instructions.    

[ActiveX]

Quote:

Quote:
Am I goin to have to point it to the CLI every time I run it?  

Not if you followed my setup instructions.    

I'll review then...

[ActiveX]

I followed your directions and it is processing, but it makes me point it to the CLI when I start it up...

[Demandred]

Quote:

Quote:
Is there any way to do SETI on a machine with no connection to the internet? I have a small server that spends most of each day idle that I do web development on and I don't want accessible from the internet. If it's possible to send the processed work units from my desktop I might as well do it. The server is running Windows 2000 Advanced Server.  

Yes.  Though I have not done so.  Here is a quick off the top of my head explanation of how to do it.  It is not nearly as detailed as my SETIDriver install instructions above.

You need to have a common type of removable media on both machines and a compatible (to each other) OS on both.  

1/ Set up SETIDriver on the machine connected to the internet.   If you are already running SETI on that machine you need to set up a second copy to use for transferring data for the offline machine.

2/ Download data in a quantity that can fit on your removable media.  

3/ Setup SETIDriver on the offline machine.  When it tries to connect to the internet to download a data packet stop it.  

4/ Zip the data (not the whole seti driver setup just the data) that you downloaded on the connected machine and place on the removable media.  I say zip so that long file names are preserved.  You will also need to preserve the directory structure.

5/ Unzip the data onto the offline machines SETIDriver directory.  

6/ Run SETIDriver on the offline machine

7/ Zip the processed data on the offline machine unzip it onto the online machine, run the second copy of SETIDriver to transfer data to SETI and new data from SETI.

8/ Return to step 4/ and repeat the cycle.

Obviously since this is a hassle you don't want to do it more often then absolutely neccesary.  So CD/RW is the best media.  WUs expire after 4 weeks so I would not download more than a 3 week supply at a time.  On my network I keep a 2 week cache to allow for connection problems (Currently that is 609 WUs my Queue takes 239MB).  

Since you are only tranferring text files you should be pretty immune to transferring a virus to the offline machine.

While experimenting to get things right I suggest that you only tranfer one or two WUs at a time.  It should also be possible to setup a batch file to do the zipping and unzipping on both ends.  

There are in fact other ways.   If I were doing it I would probably use SETIQueue instead of SETIDriver and copy the whole SETIQueue between machines.  But so far I have not (and neither has anyone else here) written up full instructions on setting up a SETIQueue install.   SETIQueue might fail if the offline machine does not have a network address of its own, I am unsure as I have not actually tried it on an offline machine.    

Good Luck and let us know how it works out.  

If it works out you might wish to consider writing up some full instructions on how you did it, if so I would suggest adding it to this thread.    No pressure, just a suggestion.  

I'll have a go at doing it tomorrow. It's actually not going to be that much of a hassle because my desktop is networked to the server, removing the need to use compatible media (I could set up ICS to give the server internet access but I don't feel comfortable having an always-on box running IIS that can be connected to from outside the network). If it works out, I'll see about writing a short guide.

[IKV Nemesis D7L]

Quote:

I'll have a go at doing it tomorrow. It's actually not going to be that much of a hassle because my desktop is networked to the server, removing the need to use compatible media (I could set up ICS to give the server internet access but I don't feel comfortable having an always-on box running IIS that can be connected to from outside the network). If it works out, I'll see about writing a short guide.  

If the two machines are networked it becomes much easier.  SETIQueue is the program you want.  It allows you to run both (or many more) machines off of one queue.  I don't have set up instructions for it though.  I have it running on my main machine and it handles uploads/downloads for all four machines.  It also gives you some statistical information.  With SETIQueue you don't need SETIDriver but using SETIDriver on each individual machine does protect you from network problems your Queue system crashing does not bring everything to a halt.    

[ActiveX]

Okay, it still wants me to point it to the CLI each time it starts up, I dunno what I did wrong...as far as I can tell everything is right...

[ChAotiCIllusion]

Did you cliick the save config button. I noticed the instructions didn't mention it.  

[ActiveX]

Yeah, everytime hehe...

[IKV Nemesis D7L]

Quote:
Okay, it still wants me to point it to the CLI each time it starts up, I dunno what I did wrong...as far as I can tell everything is right...  

My guess is that you missed the following comment, specifically the part in red.

Quote:
Step 4:Run the SETIdriver program by doubleclicking on it. Do not have the setiathome client in the same directory as SETIDriver at this point .

 

[ActiveX]

SETI Driver is at C:/SETI/SETIDriver/

the client is at C:/SETI/

 

[IKV Nemesis D7L]

Quote:
SETI Driver is at C:/SETI/SETIDriver/

the client is at C:/SETI/

 

Try a totally unconnected directory.  Such as C:/SetiTemp/