Help Science With Your Idle Computer Using Boinc

In this video we’ll learn Help Science With Your Idle Computer Using BOINC.

BOINC lets you help cutting-edge science research using your computer (Windows, Mac, Linux) or Android device. BOINC downloads scientific computing jobs to your computer and runs them invisibly in the background. It’s easy and safe.

Server Setup

Setting up BOINC in a Docker container is as simple as pasting this into a Portainer Stack:

(Don’t forget to name your stack at the top of the screen!)

version: '2'
services:

  boinc:
    image: boinc/client
    container_name: boinc
    restart: always
    network_mode: host
    pid: host
    volumes:
      - /opt/appdata/boinc:/var/lib/boinc
    environment:
      - BOINC_GUI_RPC_PASSWORD=123
      - BOINC_CMD_LINE_OPTIONS=--allow_remote_gui_rpc

There’s really nothing in there that you NEED to change, but you can change the “BOINC_GUI_RPC_PASSWORD” if you want. You’ll need that password to setup the remote program on your Windows desktop.

Once you paste the Docker compose text into Portainer, click “Deploy Container” and wait for it to start up.

Desktop Setup

Next, you’ll need to download and install the Windows program from the Berkeley website which you can find here: https://boinc.berkeley.edu/download.php

Download and install the .exe file by double clicking it when the download is finished. The program will ask you for a server address. Type in the IP address of your server. Also enter the password that you defined in “BOINC_GUI_RPC_PASSWORD”.

Next you’ll be asked what project you’d like to contribute to. Make that selection and wait for a connection. After a while, your server will download a task and start working on it.

That’s it!

Now you’re contributing unused CPU cycles to scientists and helping them solve some of the problems that they’re working on!

Additional Reading

Here are some additional tutorials about OpenMediaVault 5 and Docker.