Technical installation instructions

Step 1 -- Install BOINC

All of our LHC@Home applications use BOINC, which is available for download on the official BOINC site. BOINC will detect your running operating system, automatically choose the best client for your computer, and give you a link to download an installer package.

Note that while set-up is automatic, it does vary under the hood from one operating system to another. Before double-clicking in the installer, please check the following notes depending on your operating system:

Step 2 -- Add virtualisation software if required

Sixtrack

Just requires BOINC - there's nothing else to install for Sixtrack.

ATLAS@Home, Test4Theory, Beauty, CMS

These applications require BOINC and VirtualBox.

If you are using Windows, the BOINC client installation now includes VirtualBox, so installing VirtualBox may have already been done for you.

Step 3 -- Attach BOINC to the LHC@Home project

After installing BOINC (and VirtualBox if your desired project requires it), you will be ready to attach your BOINC client to the LHC@Home project.

When first launched, the BOINC client will pop-up a window with a list of projects. Simply select LHC@Home from the list, and attach to the project. Then click "next", and follow the instructions.

You will be asked to provide a user name and password to create an account in our system. After creating the your account, your system will be ready to start receiving simulation jobs from CERN.


VT-x

In order to be able to run 64bit Virtual Machines on your computer with Virtual Box, you need to enable hardware virtualization technology extensions (VT-x) in your PC BIOS if it is not already enabled.

The exact procedure to do this depends on your hardware.  You can find more information on this link or search for VT-x (or amd-v) for your type of PC.