My Wish List - part 3.

Message boards : BOINC Manager : My Wish List - part 3.
Message board moderation

To post messages, you must log in.

1 · 2 · 3 · 4 . . . 8 · Next

AuthorMessage
Profile Jord
Volunteer tester
Help desk expert
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 29 Aug 05
Posts: 15477
Netherlands
Message 25101 - Posted: 28 May 2009, 21:07:47 UTC
Last modified: 22 Jan 2011, 0:24:38 UTC

Continuing on from My Wish List - 2.

Any open wishes in that thread, please link to it and answer here.

For clarity, please do not add your signature when you post to this thread.

Before you add to this thread, see if your request isn't already in the list of past requests and what answer the developers gave them.
ID: 25101 · Report as offensive
Andrey

Send message
Joined: 4 Jun 09
Posts: 1
Russia
Message 25196 - Posted: 4 Jun 2009, 6:28:06 UTC

I suggest option "Leave GPU application in memory while suspended" because even if you enable usual "Leave applications in memory while suspended" BOINC Manager kills GPU application in case of mouse/keyboard activity.
ID: 25196 · Report as offensive
Profile Jord
Volunteer tester
Help desk expert
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 29 Aug 05
Posts: 15477
Netherlands
Message 25197 - Posted: 4 Jun 2009, 7:19:57 UTC - in response to Message 25196.  
Last modified: 17 Oct 2010, 20:41:48 UTC

The GPU app runs in physical memory, but the task runs in video memory. You really do not want any of the CUDA tasks suspended to VRAM, as that'll eat up a lot of that VRAM, making your screen refresh slow down enormously and it being neigh on impossible to start up other programs that use a lot of video RAM.

That's why when BOINC suspends for whatever reason and unless the task hasn't checkpointed yet, the kernels that comprise the task in VRAM are purged from memory. If the task hasn't checkpointed yet, it will stay in VRAM.
ID: 25197 · Report as offensive
elyoh

Send message
Joined: 13 Jun 09
Posts: 1
United Kingdom
Message 25416 - Posted: 13 Jun 2009, 17:21:59 UTC

Display the total time remaining for all tasks in the status bar.
ID: 25416 · Report as offensive
Froglet

Send message
Joined: 20 Jun 09
Posts: 1
Canada
Message 25571 - Posted: 20 Jun 2009, 15:40:50 UTC

A hide feature from double-clicking the tray icon would be lovely.
ID: 25571 · Report as offensive
Jonathan

Send message
Joined: 22 Jun 09
Posts: 6
South Africa
Message 25609 - Posted: 22 Jun 2009, 18:02:57 UTC

My Wish List...

1. Ability to prioritize work jobs.
2. Removing the annoying "Connect to Internet" dialog box.
3. Button to clear "Messages"
ID: 25609 · Report as offensive
Aurora Borealis
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 8 Jan 06
Posts: 448
Canada
Message 25615 - Posted: 22 Jun 2009, 20:20:33 UTC - in response to Message 25609.  

My Wish List...

1. Ability to prioritize work jobs.

On multi-project this would defeat resource share rules. On single project, with variable deadline, it would likely lead to missed deadlines (Breaking Boinc rule #1) especially if sorted by due date.


2. Removing the annoying "Connect to Internet" dialog box.

Boinc V6.x.x. Advanced GUI - Advanced Menu - Options - General tab => network reminder interval => slide to 0.


3. Button to clear "Messages"

Wouldn't mine this one myself. It does however involve saving to historical logs.

Boinc V 7.4.36
Win7 i5 3.33G 4GB NVidia 470
ID: 25615 · Report as offensive
Hansen1982

Send message
Joined: 28 Jun 09
Posts: 1
Denmark
Message 25759 - Posted: 28 Jun 2009, 15:25:07 UTC

I would very much like the option to prioritize the CPU (and GPU) workload. For example. If i leave my computer untouched for a minute, it will switch to full processorusage, or what ever i set it to, but then when i start to use my computer, it will slow down to about 50% or 25% usage.

As of now, the only option is workload while untouched or no workload.
Or it could be, that it stoppet using one of the cores, when you start to use the computer. Ofcourse, this would only work on multicore systems.
Or you could choose between the two.

Sometimes you dont need the full computer workload, when you use your computer, and in that case, this feature would be handy. In that way you could use your computer, have some processorpower at hand and meanwhile, still compute.

Regards
Hansen1982
ID: 25759 · Report as offensive
Profile Gundolf Jahn

Send message
Joined: 20 Dec 07
Posts: 1069
Germany
Message 25962 - Posted: 11 Jul 2009, 12:16:56 UTC - in response to Message 25961.  

At SETI and The Lattice Project, there is a "Show names" link in the "Task ID" column.

I don't know if there are more projects. It seems to depend on the server's BOINC version.

Gruß,
Gundolf
Computer sind nicht alles im Leben. (Kleiner Scherz)
ID: 25962 · Report as offensive
Devaster

Send message
Joined: 23 May 08
Posts: 16
Slovakia
Message 25964 - Posted: 11 Jul 2009, 20:08:55 UTC

in task info show a GPU on witch is task running if task is for GPU
ID: 25964 · Report as offensive
Nicolas

Send message
Joined: 19 Jan 07
Posts: 1179
Argentina
Message 25966 - Posted: 11 Jul 2009, 22:46:57 UTC - in response to Message 25961.  
Last modified: 11 Jul 2009, 22:47:11 UTC

If it is at all transmitted from project to client, like to see added to the task properties screen the Work Unit ID number.

The ID isn't sent to clients, and I think it shouldn't be. Having a numeric ID to identify workunits is a server implementation detail; let's not couple the client and server even more than they already are.

Maybe have the project websites as standard show the name.

If there is a quick work around, I've not found it.

Some projects let you show workunit names (it's a link in the list of tasks for a computer). Others have old server code without that feature.

I think it should show names *by default*.
ID: 25966 · Report as offensive
Tom Philippart

Send message
Joined: 9 Aug 06
Posts: 17
Luxembourg
Message 26024 - Posted: 15 Jul 2009, 13:44:50 UTC

it would be useful to have sperate preferences for gpu and cpu, I don't want the huge work buffer I want for my cpu for the gpu too!
ID: 26024 · Report as offensive
abcd

Send message
Joined: 2 Aug 09
Posts: 2
Poland
Message 26431 - Posted: 2 Aug 2009, 16:41:59 UTC

I have recently alleviated problem of overheating and noise because of boinc on my laptop, so i think it might help others.

The usual activity on computer (like internet browsing) doesn't need much cpu power, so i've installed program to underclock my two 1,7GHz cores to 800MHz, and lower the voltage from 1,23V to 0,95V. This is standard mechanism on laptops to save energy when the cpu usage is low. But when the usage is high, this two parameters are restored to higher values, so when boinc runs, the processor is in mode of high energy consumption. This can be changed by forcing the cpu to work on lower parameters, which makes the power consumption drastically lower, and even on 100% cpu usage the processor's temperature reamins low comparing to the usual state.

I have done short tests, and allowed boinc to use 100% of both cores on 800MHz, and 50% on 1,73GHz - that is approximately the same computing power. And the temperaure on 800MHz remained on 50°C, and the cooler was silent, while on 1,73GHz it was changing between 54 to 67°C, with more noise from cooler.

The problem of heat and noise is surely one of those which make people abandon boinc, or lowering it's cpu usage, like i was doing for a long time. But with the change of these parameters i can run boinc at 100% on 800MHz, when previously i set it to use 10% to 20% on normal mode, to keep it cool and silent.

The program i'm using is free, and with two clicks on a tray icon i can switch between normal processor mode, which is fast (e.g. when using Photshop, or play new game), and the power saving state, which is absolutely enough for the most amount of time when using computer. One thing that could be added is changing boinc settings of cpu usage when switching between those states.

I think that such a new feature could even make boinc more attractive, because this option will allow laptops to save energy.

Anyway, if this option could not be added, i can recommend such programs to others. I'm using SpeedSwitchXP, that is only availible for Windows XP, but i also found similar program for Vista - Notebook Hardware Control, here are the links:

http://www.diefer.de/speedswitchxp/
http://www.pbus-167.com/ - NHC

PS Sorry for my english ;)
ID: 26431 · Report as offensive
abcd

Send message
Joined: 2 Aug 09
Posts: 2
Poland
Message 26493 - Posted: 5 Aug 2009, 15:19:27 UTC

Hi, I would like to propose some changes to the BOINC interface that will make using it easier for the beginners. Some of them might completely don't know how BOINC works, or how to use it's interface, and they need additional guidance.

1) My first proposal is a greeting window. After first install of BOINC and opening it, there would pop up a window that will greet, congratulate and thank for using boink, and explain shortly how it all works. Here is my example text for such a window:

" Welcome new BOINCer! Congratulations for installing BOINC that will enable your computer to donate unused computing power to scientists!"

BOINC is a platform that enables researchers all over the world to open so called 'Projects', that users can sign in. This projects include for example fighing diseases, searching for extraterrestial life, doing some math experiments and many more. You can sign in to any number of projects you want. While you are signed in, the BOINC application on your computer will recieve parts of data to compute, we call that parts 'Work Units' (WU). Each work unit that your computer is working on is shown in the main BOINC window. Usually a work unit is computed between few hours to few days, and then, the results are send back to the scientists. Then you recieve next work unit and so on.

On the bottom of the window you can see icons of projects. If you want more information about it just click the icon, and a menu with options will show up.

If you have any doubts of how to use BOINC, there's a wiki with help, that you can open by cliking a question mark next to the 'Add Project' button."

After this text, the standard "Add Project" creator will be launched.


2) Next thing is that while user chooses projects to join, he has no description of it. For a beginner is could be extremely daunting, when he must go to every website and search for information on his own. There should be a brief description on what's the purpose of each project, and who is running it, like on the page boincstats: http://boincstats.com/page/project_ranking.php

I can offer myself as a volunteer for example to write to every project maintainer and asking for such a description, or other similar ways to help.


3) Next I would like to propose adding two labels to the boinc interface, that will make using it move obvious and convinient, especially for beginners:
http://tinypic.com/r/20gyvkx/3
As a reason for such short texts I could tell, that I use BOINC for a year now, and however I usually have Advanced View, sometimes I use Simple View. And for a year I didn't know that I can click the project icon for more optons :-)


4) There should be vivid warnigns (eg. big text, red color, or even pop ups) if user is not signed in to any project, or projects don't have work, and boinc should give user fast way to react:
- If user isn't signed to project, a red massage could show somewhere, for examlpe where the project graphics is usually shown: "You are currently not signed to any project and not working, use button 'Add Project' to get work."
- If there's no work because all projects stopped giving WU's, also a waring could show, or even special window pop up: "Temporarely all Projects you have joined don't have work, you can join other Projects to keep donating your computer time." with a buttor to open adding project. Instead of popup window there could be popular method of sliding out a short info box from above the tray icons area.
- In the case there were some problems with a project, and it couldn't work, there could be such warning: "The project you signed in cannot work on your computer, you can search for help on the project's Help page, or sign to another one."
- If it's potentially possible for boinc to detect some problems, like lack of connection eg. caused by firewall, it could show message with direct link to proper Help part of online wiki, that have solution. This is more like a general wish than a specific solution, but I think the BOINC wiki broad nforamtion should be better accessed from the BOINC Manager in case of problems.

5) There may be added a button "BOINC Wiki", that will bring user to a new page of BOINC wiki, that will explain what he can additionally do there. Currently there's no such guide, just a page Simlpe_View after clicking qustion mark. It would be convinient to beginnet to describe shortly the content for him like that:

" Welcome to the BOINC wiki, here are brief description of the contents you can browse on the menu on the left:
* BOINC home - homepage
* User manual - guide to BOINC
* Help - solutions to common problems
* Download - download BOINC Manager
* Message boards - forums
* Web sites - lots of other websites associated with boinc; you can find additional help and informaion, check your and others statistics, generate images with your results and much more!
* Add-on software - tune your BOINC
* Poll - currently closed servey among BOINC users, you can view the results
* Other ways to help - check out what you can do to promote BOINC and help science even more!"

6) There might happen following scenario: a person installs boinc, but it makes his computer overheat and cause noise; if he's beginner, he may not search for help, but decide to quit boinc; a way to prevent that may the be boinc to monitor the temperature of the processor and showing proper hints, for example a link to proper help page in BOINC wiki (Energy_and_heat_considerations). Even if very many users will run on 10% cpu usage, it would be better than uninstalling because of noise.
A warning could be shown for example when the temp. is higher than 50°C for longer than 10 minutes, and BOINC CPU usage is higher than 30%, with such info.: "If your cooler is producing noise that you find very uncomfortable, you may visit our BOINC wiki page with possible solutions" with link to Energy_and_heat_considerations
If user is bringed to the page Heat_and_energy_consideratons, he can read to "Throttle cpu usage", but beginner might not now what is it, and miss it, which is important thing he should try. Existing link to preferences isn't that good, because the user was bringed here to read about throttling, which is in the middle of the page, after much of text. In my opinion there should be separate page that will explain how to set throttling, encourage to experiment with different levels of CPU usage to fing a quitet but as high as possible level, tell that it will make working slower, give a link to program TThrottle that keep temperature below a limit etc. For the convinience of the beginner. Again I can offer myself to try to do it, but currently I don't have permissions.

These are things that I think may help for some of many problems that a beginner can have. I'm open to discussion on these proposed ideas. I think that some other things could be changed, but don't have good idea for them, like that messages telling about technical data aren't understandable, and i think important to common user, and the simple view could contain other type of messages.

I'm also not native english speaker, so probably my texts will need correction.


ID: 26493 · Report as offensive
EvilEls

Send message
Joined: 18 Sep 09
Posts: 10
Germany
Message 27473 - Posted: 18 Sep 2009, 12:19:12 UTC

Hello everybody!

I have BOINC crunching almost 24/7 on my machine. Also when playing games.
Unfortunately in some cases BOINC is definitely reducing the performance of (hardware-esurient) games.

Of course I could stop BOINC for the time I play but that would be waste of resources as I have an i7 cpu that is not even close to fully utilization when it comes to core/thread usage.
Most games still use just one core/thread, some two and only very few more.
So what I do now is, I check how many cores/threads the game can handle and then set my BOINC to use MAX_AVAILABLE_THREADS MINUS NUMBER_OF_THREADS_GAME_USES.
For example: Before I play EvE Online I go to the BOINC settings and reduce the number of used cores/threads from eight (what is max available at my i7 cpu) to seven in order to have a game-dedicated, free core/thread, but still having BOINC running on the remaining seven cores/threads + I deactivate the gpu-crunching as long as I play.

This settings alteration is of course not a big problem as it is easily accessible. But it is kind of a pain in the ass changing the settings all the time.

Therefore I think it would be a great idea to have predefined profiles that are set up in the settings and are accessible via the tray icon or the menu navigation within the management client software.
This would allow me to setup a couple of profiles that match the hardware requirements for each of my games. Sticking to my example above that would mean, that whenever I want to play EvE Online I just right click the windows tray icon and pick one of my setup profiles which results in an automated setting alteration. Done playing I’d just reset the profile to “Full Throttle” having my settings restored.

Maybe the profile setup even allows to assign them an executable files. So that whenever this exe if found running the according profile becomes active.

I could also imagine of a feature that detects other processes on a computer that are using plenty of cpu over a given amount of time, notifying me about this fact and suggesting an appropriate profile setup.
Even gpu usage could be auto-detected and the BOINC gpu utilization becomes deactivated. AND – vice versa – the client could detect threads/cores that are on idle, suggesting the usage of the same.

It all may sound “useless” in terms of stability, productivity and so on. But it would greatly increase usability and overall user experience + the ease of integration in common pc systems.

Also please have in mind, that the common guy out there is NOT A NERD like most of us are! I’ve heard from a lot of people that are annoyed by the fact that their pcs become slower in games whilst crunching with BOINC and turn it off for good.
My gut feeling tells me, that a little GUI based interface (maybe a wizzard) could significantly increase the client acceptance and understanding of what happens behind the scenes.

It would be great to find a feature like this in one of the upcoming client versions.

Thank you for your time!
ID: 27473 · Report as offensive
Nicolas

Send message
Joined: 19 Jan 07
Posts: 1179
Argentina
Message 27478 - Posted: 18 Sep 2009, 17:59:18 UTC - in response to Message 27473.  

EvilEls, what version of BOINC do you have? Are you using your GPU to crunch?
ID: 27478 · Report as offensive
EvilEls

Send message
Joined: 18 Sep 09
Posts: 10
Germany
Message 27491 - Posted: 19 Sep 2009, 16:17:45 UTC - in response to Message 27478.  

Yepp, using it.

Starting BOINC client version 6.6.36 for windows_x86_64
Configured to use all coprocessors
log flags: task, file_xfer, sched_ops
Libraries: libcurl/7.19.4 OpenSSL/0.9.8j zlib/1.2.3
Data directory: C:\ProgramData\BOINC
Running under account The evil Els
Processor: 8 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz [Intel64 Family 6 Model 26 Stepping 5]
Processor features: fpu tsc pae nx sse sse2 pni mmx
OS: Microsoft Windows Vista: Ultimate x64 Edition, Service Pack 2, (06.00.6002.00)
Memory: 11.99 GB physical, 23.91 GB virtual
Disk: 100.00 GB total, 31.71 GB free
Local time is UTC +2 hours
CUDA device: GeForce GTX 285 (driver version 19038, compute capability 1.3, 2048MB, est. 127GFLOPS)
ID: 27491 · Report as offensive
Sebastian Bobrecki

Send message
Joined: 1 Oct 09
Posts: 11
Poland
Message 27701 - Posted: 1 Oct 2009, 14:18:52 UTC

First Hello Everyone.

I have one but for me very important wish. Is there any option to add some compression to the rpc protocol. I currently have machine that is crunching for Seti@home and it uses multiple GPU for that. It is fast and it have relatively big queue of results about 2k (it is set for only 2 days). To this machine I have only remote access so I'm using for that BOINC gui on my laptop. But when queue is of that size communication between those two hosts uses about 10-12mbps of bandwidth. It is ok when I'm connected through LAN but it totally unacceptable when I'm connecting through the Internet.
ID: 27701 · Report as offensive
Profile Jord
Volunteer tester
Help desk expert
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 29 Aug 05
Posts: 15477
Netherlands
Message 27702 - Posted: 1 Oct 2009, 14:23:13 UTC - in response to Message 27701.  
Last modified: 17 Oct 2010, 20:41:52 UTC

BOINC 6.10 will have a "show active tasks" button, which when pressed will only show the tasks that are currently Running and Waiting to run. All those Ready to start will be hidden.

That should help you along.
ID: 27702 · Report as offensive
Profile Gundolf Jahn

Send message
Joined: 20 Dec 07
Posts: 1069
Germany
Message 27713 - Posted: 1 Oct 2009, 20:45:19 UTC - in response to Message 27701.  

And then, there's always the commandline interface :-)

Gruß,
Gundolf
ID: 27713 · Report as offensive
1 · 2 · 3 · 4 . . . 8 · Next

Message boards : BOINC Manager : My Wish List - part 3.

Copyright © 2024 University of California.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.