My son built me a new box and installed boinc on it. I had completed all work on the old drive, so he copied over the settings to the new one. The problem came in when he started boinc running. I wanted to use half of the CPUs (old box was using all) and the settings didn't get changed before he copied them and got it running. That meant downloading a bucket load of work units. Since he's not familiar with boinc, he was just aborting them and not stopping new ones coming down. I intervened and stopped the downloads, but not before the debts for the projects was really screwed up.

I was hoping to let it work itself out, but boinc has been running WCG for 2 months now, and refuses to download work units from any other project (I was working on 8 projects prior to the system upgrade). I'm looking for a way to get all of the projects back on equal footing, so that I can get back to helping as many projects as possible. I have not been able to find a solution, in the forums or elsewhere.

As a test, to insure that I COULD get other work, I marked WGC to not get new work. When I did that, I got some work units from Rosetta and Climate Prediction. After that I set WGC back to normal.

I do not mind running out all of the work units I currently have, and making manual changes to files, if that is needed. What I need is the process that can fix the problem.

Running boinc 7.2.42 (x64) under Ubuntu 14.04 (x86-64)

Since nobody has seen fit to try to help, I did a lot more digging and figured it out for myself.

For others who may run into the same problem, here is the solution, that I found, using Ubuntu linux. Windows users should have a similar solution, but the location of the file to edit may be different.

1) Set all projects to not get new work
2) Allow all work to complete and be reported (unless you don't care)
3) Stop boinc client
4) Edit client_state.xml in boinc work directory /var/lib/boinc_client
5) Find <rec> tag for each project
Change this line in each project to:

<rec>0.000000</rec>

6) Save client_state.xml
7) Start boinc client
8) Set all projects to get work (highlight all and click button)

You will likely need administrator privileges to start/stop boinc and edit the file - Ubuntu requires it.

I recommend making a backup of the client_state.xml file prior to editing, just in case.

I do not know if a simple 0 will work or not. Resetting a project may work, but, in my case, resetting resulted in 'nan' (Not A Number as best I can figure) in the <rec> line, for some projects. Projects with 'nan' would not get work. I saw the 0.000000 in one of the projects and copy/pasted over all 'nan' entries, which worked to reset the debt and allow multiple projects to get work, instead of one project running for months on end without work for any other project.

The problem is, the REC value isn't calculated by the client, but by the server. So on any next contact you have with projects that have an updated BOINC back end, the value gets reset to the old value, or thereabout.

See http://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/REC-based_scheduler for an explanation.

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Um. I'm not sure that's true. Checking.

Consider:

(1) If the server calculates it, it doesn't tell the client.

Search "rec" (8 hits in 1 file)
  D:\BOINCdata\sched_reply_setiathome.berkeley.edu.xml (8 hits)
	Line 24:         <graph_style>Rectangles</graph_style>
	Line 50:         <graph_style>Rectangles</graph_style>
	Line 77:         <graph_style>Rectangles</graph_style>
	Line 128:         <description>View your recent tasks</description>
	Line 156:     <name>arecibo_181.png</name>
	Line 157:     <url>http://boinc2.ssl.berkeley.edu/sg_images/arecibo_181.png</url>
	Line 189:       <file_name>arecibo_181.png</file_name>
	Line 201:       <file_name>arecibo_181.png</file_name>

(2) But it does look as if the client updates it locally:

https://github.com/BOINC/boinc/blob/71832f73dce34d6a0bc556acabe65bdee026d852/client/cpu_sched.cpp#L557

My results indicate that the boinc server does not affect the REC line, and it is calculated locally, as per the response by Richard Haselgrove.

Since I made the changes above, back in April, all projects, that I am volunteering for, are getting work, as expected. I waited this long to insure that things were actually working properly.

Do not know how to mark this as solved, but it is - at least as far as I know - solved.

Tbe concept of debt is old hat. It's REC (Recent Estimated Credit or something like that) by which tune the canary sings. Add a project and set it with a decent project weight/resource share and major catch-up ensues.

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Coelum Non Animum Mutant, Qui Trans Mare Currunt

Add a project and set it with a decent project weight/resource share and major catch-up ensues.

That is very annoying by the way, and leaves you in doubt as to what is going on. It is management by Big Brother insofar as I am concerned. If it caught up in a couple of days, it wouldn't be so bad, but it often takes forever.

Add a project and set it with a decent project weight/resource share and major catch-up ensues.

That is very annoying by the way, and leaves you in doubt as to what is going on. It is management by Big Brother insofar as I am concerned. If it caught up in a couple of days, it wouldn't be so bad, but it often takes forever.

It takes rather less than forever if you set an option like

        <rec_half_life_days>1.000000</rec_half_life_days>

It takes rather less than forever if you set an option like

        <rec_half_life_days>1.000000</rec_half_life_days>

Thanks. I will give it a try.

Did you see that little 'BAM! detach / attach' move courtesy of a project link change from http to https... guess what impact that will have in the coming weeks for WCG ;P)

(To emphasize, the fault does not lie with BAM!, as I've already found out last night.)

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Coelum Non Animum Mutant, Qui Trans Mare Currunt

Did you see that little 'BAM! detach / attach' move courtesy of a project link change from http to https... guess what impact that will have in the coming weeks for WCG ;P)

(To emphasize, the fault does not lie with BAM!, as I've already found out last night.)

Interesting. I don't use BAM!, so maybe I will survive on WCG, but if not, I will know where to look. It is remarkable how little it takes to kill a project though, or at least send it into mass confusion.

It takes rather less than forever if you set an option like

        <rec_half_life_days>1.000000</rec_half_life_days>

Thanks. I will give it a try.

It has already straightened out a problem I have been having for several days. I was beginning to think I should detach/re-attach, etc. Thanks again.

I hope when the BOINC programmers get more time, they will make it a user-selectable option on the GUI, or whatever.