Zetagrid installation and configuration FAQ

GLUE team (Gentoo Linux Users Everywhere)


Zetagrid is run by IBM (link in section 5) and tries to find a proove for Riemann's hypothesis as "The verification of Riemann's Hypothesis is considered to be one of modern mathematic's most important problems. "
There aresome reward's:
  1. $10 (USD) will be awarded to the first person who discovers the first two zeros which have a distance less than 10-6, using the software provided by ZetaGrid.
  2. $100 (USD) will be awarded to the first person who discovers the first two zeros which have a distance less than 10-7, using the software provided by ZetaGrid.
  3. $1,000 (USD) will be awarded to the first person who discovers a nontrivial zero which is not on the critical line using the software provided by ZetaGrid but only if this constitutes the first disproof of the Riemann Hypothesis by any method.
  4. Up to $1,000,000 (USD) award to the first 100 top producers of ZetaGrid if Sebastian Wedeniwski wins the $1 million prize for a proof of the Riemann Hypothesis from Clay Mathematics Institute by using the results or the statistical summaries of ZetaGrid.
We are trying to get a great piece of point 4 and are contributing to a single user account (as teams will get nothing).

1. Installation

A ebuild is available: "app-sci/zetagrid".
For installation just merge it :-)
Zetagrid will then be located in "/opt/zetagrid".

The zetagrid ebuild is marked stable on x86 and ppc at the moment, support for sparc is under development.

2. Configuration

For configuration you have to edit "zeta.cfg" in /opt/zetagrid.

A sample configuration file (with the right account settings, rest as in the default file) can be found here: zeta.cfg

As we are contributing as a single user set user/email/team to the following:
name=Michael Imhof
eMail=tantive@gentoo.org
team=Gentoo Linux Users Everywhere
All money won with this account will be used for gentoo!

It is extremely important that everyone who wants to help gentoo is using the above mentioned account! (Easiest way is using the sample config-file)
We are contributing as a single user with the above mentioned data. We are doing this as 100 users can't reach the "winning zone" (the top 100 in the ranking). Maybe some of them can, but that would be very difficult.
But when we all contribute as a single user (with many contributor to that single account) it is easy to reach the top 100 and even the top 10 (as we did already).
So please if you want to help gentoo, then contribute as Michael Imhof with EXACT the name, eMail and team as mentioned above!

The other options depend on your preferences :-)
Just note that not completed work units will be discarded after 7 days.

One interesting option is this one:
# Using resources
# 0: using about 37 MB main memory (default)
# 1: using about 45 MB main memory (~ 20% faster)
# 2: using about 51 MB main memory (~ 40% faster)
resources=2
 Explanation: Using more memory can speed up the computation. On athlon systems option 1 (~ 20 % faster) is the FASTEST due to caching.


3. Running

Running zetagrid is simple: Just run "/opt/zetagrid/zeta.sh"
You can gain progress information by using
- "zeta_progress.sh" for a command line version or
- "java -cp zeta_progress.jar zeta.JShowProgress" for X.

Or use the new startup script:
/etc/init.d/zetagrid start            - starts zetagrid by calling /opt/zetagrid/zeta.sh
/etc/init.d/zetagrid stop            - stops zetagrid
/etc.init.d/zetagrid status         - tells you if zetagrid is running or not
/etc/init.d/zetagrid progress    - gives you the output of /opt/zetagrid/zeta_progress

To run zetagrid automatically on system startup add the zetagrid init script to the default runlevel by typing
rc-update add zetagrid default
It will now be started on every boot automatically.

If you want to remove it from the default runlevel again just type
rc-update del zetagrid default
You'll now have to start it manually again.

4. Faq

Q: At the first start of the client I'm getting a error!
A: That's normal, restart the client and the error will be gone.

Q: Why do I need a port number in the config file?
A: The port number is not used for communication, all communication goes over http! The port number is only used as a semaphore to avoid multiple instances of zetagrid running on the same machine.

5. Links

Gentoo Forums - ZetaGrid GLUE-team - Most of you questions should be answered here. If not, then ask them ;)

Zetagrid Homepage
Perfomance characteristics - Tell's you how long it'll take to complete a work unit on your system. But be careful, these numbers may differ from real ones.
General (overall) Statistics
Statistics for Michael Imhof - All used computers will show up at the end of the page.
Statistics for GLUE (Gentoo Linux Users Group) - Not really needed :-) as we all contribute as "Michael Imhof".