The K Desktop Environment

Chapter 2. Getting Started

This section is intended for first-time users. Especially if you haven't run the SETI@home client before you should read on.

If this is the first time ever that you try to start the SETI@home client don't try it via Ksetiwatch! This is because the folks at Berkeley want you to create a new account, and this can only be done interactively.

Note

Note that this has to be done only once. After correct installation of the package, the client can be conveniently controlled via Ksetiwatch.

This chapter will guide you through the process of installing the SETI@home client in your home directory, and configuring Ksetiwatch to monitor the freshly installed client. It is assumed that you have downloaded the tarball with the client software (e.g. setiathome-3.03.i386-pc-linux-gnu-gnulibc2.1.tar), and it is stored in your home directory.

So, open a console window, and make sure that you are in your home directory.
  % pwd
 /home/gordon
 %

If this is not the case, change to your home directory with cd ~, or cd $HOME. Now, unpack the downloaded package.
  % tar xvf setiathome-3.03.i386-pc-linux-gnu-gnulibc2.1.tar
 setiathome-3.03.i386-pc-linux-gnu-gnulibc2.1/README
 setiathome-3.03.i386-pc-linux-gnu-gnulibc2.1/README.xsetiathome
 setiathome-3.03.i386-pc-linux-gnu-gnulibc2.1/setiathome
 setiathome-3.03.i386-pc-linux-gnu-gnulibc2.1/xsetiathome
 %

This command has created the new folder setiathome-3.03.i386-pc-linux-gnu-gnulibc2.1 in your home directory and copied all files to that location. If you wish, you can rename that lengthy directory name by issueing the command mv setiathome-3.03.i386-pc-linux-gnu-gnulibc2.1 setiathome.

Now it's time to change into the freshly created SETI@home location and to start the SETI@home client. Note the funny ./ in front of the start command. It means that the executable file setiathome in the current working directory shall be started (by default, the current working directory is not in the search path under Unix/Linux).
  % cd setiathome
 %
 % ./setiathome
 SETI@home client.
 Platform: i386-pc-linux-gnu-gnulibc2.1
 Version: 3.03
 
 SETI@home is sponsored by individual donors around the world.
 If you'd like to contribute to the project,
 please visit the SETI@home web site at
 http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu.
 The project is also sponsored by the Planetary Society,
 the University of California, Sun Microsystems, Paramount Pictures,
 Fujifilm Computer Products, Informix, Engineering Design Team Inc,
 The Santa Cruz Operation (SCO), Intel, Quantum Corporation,
 and the SETI Institute.
 
 SETI@home was developed by David Gedye (Founder),
 David Anderson (Director), Dan Werthimer (Chief Scientist),
 Leonard Chung, Hiram Clawson, Jeff Cobb, Charles Congdon, Charlie Fenton,
 Kyle Granger, Eric Heien, Mike Hill, Michael Kang, Eric Korpela,
 Matt Lebofsky, Peter Leiser, Brad Silen, Woody Sullivan, and Adam Wight.
 
 Welcome to SETI@home.
 We use your email address to identify you.
 Please type:
     1 to set up a new account (first-time users);
     2 to log into an existing account (returning users).
 Your choice (1 or 2):

Just follow the instructions given by the client now. Make sure that you are connected to the internet, so that the client can download the first work unit. After downloading the WU, the client should immediately start crunching the data (you won't notice this, because the client does not print any status information).

Now it's time to start Ksetiwatch if it's not already running. Click the big K in the panel to get the K-menu, move to Applications, and select Ksetiwatch. You are presented with the following window:

Ksetiwatch start.

To add your client to the list of SETI@home locations right-click on the (empty) list view area (the large white field) in the Analysis tab. You will get a popup menu, choose Add... here. A dialog box will appear, where you have to fill in the required entries.

Add/edit dialog.

Type in a descriptive name for your SETI@home location under Description:, enter the directory where the SETI@home client resides (optionally, you can use the ... button to browse to the directory), and select a color. If you want, you can tell Ksetiwatch to start the SETI@home client whenever Ksetiwatch is started. By doing this, it won't be necessary to manually execute the SETI@home client in a terminal window in future sessions.

Note

A detailed explanation of all options in this dialog can be found in Section 3.6.

That's all, you're done. After clicking OK, Ksetiwatch should monitor your SETI@home location.