Using an LRP boot floppy to run SETI@home.

Information on using LRP (Linux Router Project) to run SETI@home from a floppy disk.
You don't need a hard drive, video card or keyboard on your system!
You only need a motherboard and a NIC (network interface card)!

The drive images are a modified version of an image obtained from Nigel Gibbs at lrp.gibbsoft.com.
They run a version of Linux provided by the Linux Router Project.
There are images configured with several network cards available.

The NE2000 PCI compatible (Winbond W89C940 chip) network card.
It will work with many other NE2000 PCI compatible cards.
The D-Link 538TX (Realtek RTL8139 chip) card.
The SIS 900 chip. Thanks to Jesse and the Athlonmb.com Seti team for this image.
New images based on the Bering firewall disk.

Nigel has created a new image using the Bering firewall disk.
I have it configured for several network cards.
Tulip driver. supports Netgear FA310TX, Linksys LNE100TX and others.
The NE2000 PCI compatible (Winbond W89C940 chip) network card.
It will work with many other NE2000 PCI compatible cards.
The 3-Com 3C59x. Works with several 3-Com cards.
Nigel has images on his site configured for the Intel E100B/E100M and 3Com 3c509 cards.
Read this before you begin!
Your computer must meet the following requirements to run this disk.
You must use a LAN (Local Area Network) to connect to SETI@Home.
It won't directly work with a dial up connection and modem.
It WILL work on a computer that connects through another computer
running Windows Internet Connection Sharing with a dial up modem.
It is configured to use a PCI NE2000 compatible or Realtek RTL8139 compatible Ethernet adapter.
If you don't have this type of network adapter it probably won't work.
It can be configured to use other network adapters.
See www.linuxrouter.org for more information on how to do this.
The computer needs 32MB or more RAM installed.
You do not need a keyboard or video card unless your computer requires them to boot.
Your LAN must use DHCP to obtain an IP address.
Windows Internet Connection Sharing supports DHCP.
Most cable modems and cable routers support DHCP.
Other connection sharing software such as WinGate should work too.

Click here to download the floppy image.

You will need to unzip the file and write the image to a floppy.
You can download a copy of WinImage 5.0 from this site
or go to the WinImage site for a more recent version.
This is a Windows program that will extract the file.

You will now need to boot the floppy and set your SETI@Home user information.
If you don't do this it will still run but I will get the credit for the work units processed instead of you!

After the disk boots type root at the Logon: prompt.
Choose option 3 Package settings.
Select option 4 SETI.
Select option 1 Setiathome user config.
Use the text editor to enter your SETI@Home information.
You can obtain this information from the USER_INFO.SAH file
on a computer that you currently have running SETI@Home.
It is in the directory where SETI@Home was installed.
When you are finished type CTRL-S and press ENTER to save the changes.
Type CTRL-C to exit the editor.
Type Q to quit two times.
You should now back up the RAM drive.
Select B backup ramdisk.
Select 7 seti.
At the Enough freespace prompt answer Y for yes.
Select Q to quit two times.
You can now reboot the computer.
type shutdown -r now and press ENTER or just reset the computer.
Linux should boot and download a work unit.
For proper screen display login as root and then choose Q to exit the menu.
You should see SETI@Home progress messages displayed as it downloads
and processes the work unit.

You will need to use WinImage or a similar program to copy the floppy disk.

Please visit my home page.

This page has been accessed times.
This page was last updated .
The current visitor is: .