Setting a variable for your browser with FC4

clwhitt · 07-16-2006, 06:52 PM

I'm trying to set up a BOINC client for distributed computing and keep getting the message that I need to "set the environment variable BROWSER to the path of your web browser". I'm using Firefox 1.0.8, which I assume is in the usr/lib/firefox-1.0.8 directory and would be the file firefox. But where do I find the config file to set the environment variable?

Chuck

P4 2.66 w/FC4 (I don't know which version, but it's up-to-date with yum).

teckk · 07-16-2006, 07:08 PM

http://boinc.berkeley.edu/

http://boinc-wiki.ath.cx/index.php?t...iguration_File

http://www.boinc.dk/downloads/mirror...nux-latest.txt

clwhitt · 07-18-2006, 11:14 AM

Thanks for those links TECKK. I had already looked at the Berkley web site but hadn't found the answer to the BROWSER question. The way I read the dialog that pops up, it means to set the BROWSER variable for FC4 so that it's found in the PATH. It says exactly, "BOINC has tried to display the web page...but couldn't find a web browser. To fix this, set the environment variable BROWSER to the path of your web browser, then restart the BOINC Manager."

I don't know which files to even look into for this command.

Chuck

burninGpi · 07-18-2006, 02:33 PM

Open ~/.profile in any editor. Then add this line to the end of the file:

Code:

export BROWSER=firefox-bin

clwhitt · 07-18-2006, 09:18 PM

Thanks for the quick response burninGpi. I don't find a file named .profile in my Home directory, nor anywhere in the file structure with a find -name '.profile' search in an su environment. Is this a file I should create?

Chuck

burninGpi · 07-20-2006, 12:18 PM

Yes, you should create it. If my solution doesn't work, you can create a wrapper for it:

Code:

$ su -
Password:
# cd /usr/bin
# cat << EOF > boinc
#!/bin/bash
# BOINC wrapper script
exec env BROWSER=firefox-bin boinc_manager $@
EOF
# chmod +x boinc
# exit

Type the section in red into cat. Now, run boinc to open the boinc manager.

clwhitt · 07-23-2006, 12:01 AM

I created a file named .private and put in a line as export BROWSER=firefox-bin then saved the file in my home/clwhitt folder. BOINC manager is in /home/clwhitt/Desktop/BOINC. Is that correct?

Neither worked when restarting run-manager in the BOINC directory (actually a link on the desktop to the file in the /home/clwhitt/Desktop/BOINC directory).

What does it mean to "create a wrapper for it"?

I started with computers back in the days of built in basic interpreters, cpm, dos, drdos, GEM, and every iteration of Windows so far. I'm comfortable with the command prompt. But for some reason, Linux just hasn't "clicked" yet, even after a few years of dinking around with it.

Thanks again for your help.

burninGpi · 07-24-2006, 12:16 PM

the export line should be in .profile or .bashrc, not .private. I forgot, it should be export BROWSER=firefox, not firefox-bin.

By "Create a wrapper", I mean "Make a shell script which sets all the required environment variables, then calls a certain command with those set".
You could make the wrapper by openning a terminal, and typing:

Code:

cd /home/clwhitt/Desktop/BOINC
cat << EOF > run-boinc && chmod +x run-boinc
#!/bin/sh
exec env BROWSER=firefox ./run-manager $@
EOF

Then you should run /home/clwhitt/Desktop/BOINC/run-boinc to run the manager, and you should also change the link on your desktop to point to run-boinc.