Sorry if I'm missing something obvious. I'm attempting to run Primegrid PPS (Sieve) project on my Ubuntu box.
I have installed the nVidia drivers (195.36.24) using the hardware installation tool on Ubuntu (10.04.2 LTS).
I have the tasks set to only run when the computer is idle, however, they never start.
Here is the log messages from my BOINC client, let me know if you want me to run with any more flags in cc_config!

Thu 16 Jun 2011 12:27:32 BST Starting BOINC client version 6.10.17 for x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
Thu 16 Jun 2011 12:27:32 BST log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task
Thu 16 Jun 2011 12:27:32 BST Libraries: libcurl/7.19.7 OpenSSL/0.9.8k zlib/1.2.3.3 libidn/1.15
Thu 16 Jun 2011 12:27:32 BST Data directory: /var/lib/boinc-client
Thu 16 Jun 2011 12:27:32 BST Processor: 4 AuthenticAMD AMD Phenom(tm) 9600 Quad-Core Processor [Family 16 Model 2 Stepping 2]
Thu 16 Jun 2011 12:27:32 BST Processor: 512.00 KB cache
Thu 16 Jun 2011 12:27:32 BST Processor features: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt pdpe1gb rdtscp lm 3dnowext 3dnow constant_tsc rep_good nonstop_tsc extd_apicid pni monitor cx16 popcnt lahf
Thu 16 Jun 2011 12:27:32 BST OS: Linux: 2.6.32-32-generic
Thu 16 Jun 2011 12:27:32 BST Memory: 2.95 GB physical, 499.99 MB virtual
Thu 16 Jun 2011 12:27:32 BST Disk: 29.05 GB total, 24.06 GB free
Thu 16 Jun 2011 12:27:32 BST Local time is UTC +1 hours
Thu 16 Jun 2011 12:27:32 BST NVIDIA GPU 0: GeForce 9500 GS (driver version unknown, CUDA version 3000, compute capability 1.1, 511MB, 88 GFLOPS peak)
Thu 16 Jun 2011 12:27:32 BST Not using a proxy
Thu 16 Jun 2011 12:27:32 BST PrimeGrid URL http://www.primegrid.com/; Computer ID 207449; resource share 300
Thu 16 Jun 2011 12:27:32 BST General prefs: from http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/ (last modified 22-Dec-2010 13:28:22)
Thu 16 Jun 2011 12:27:32 BST Host location: none
Thu 16 Jun 2011 12:27:32 BST General prefs: using your defaults
Thu 16 Jun 2011 12:27:32 BST Reading preferences override file
Thu 16 Jun 2011 12:27:32 BST Preferences limit memory usage when active to 1509.21MB
Thu 16 Jun 2011 12:27:32 BST Preferences limit memory usage when idle to 2716.59MB
Thu 16 Jun 2011 12:27:32 BST Preferences limit disk usage to 10.00GB

Strangely, the tasks do start if the GPU is set to always do work, but it makes the system otherwise unusable because of the graphics lag.

My system specifications are:
AMD Phenom x4 9600 @ 2.3GHz
3GB RAM
500GB HDD with Ubuntu running on a 30GB partition
nVidia 9600 GSO GPU (I know not the most powerful card, but it works on windows on the same computer)

Any suggestions/help would be much appeciated!
Thanks
Peter

I have the tasks set to only run when the computer is idle, however, they never start.

Where did you set that? I ask as your log shows you to use the local preferences, so if you changed this in the online preferences, they'd never be used as the local preferences override the web-preferences. Also, are the Activity preferences for the GPU set to run based on preferences?

Thu 16 Jun 2011 12:27:32 BST Reading preferences override file

---

I set it in local preferences.
Just back from lunch, noticed that a task had started, but a long time after I left. Now that it is running it will not suspend again whilst the computer is in use.

Peter

1. And under the Activity tab you have set "Run based on preferences"?

2. Are you using a USB mouse? If so then be aware that in the past there has been a problem detecting user activity on Linux by detecting mouse movement and keyboard input. See trac ticket [trac]ticket:463[/trac] if you're interested in the details. If you ARE using a USB mouse then open a terminal and enter

ldd -r /usr/bin/boinc | grep -i xss

That will check to see if your version of BOINC has the latest fix for the USB mouse detection. If it does then the output from the above command will be a line like

libXss.so.1 => /usr/lib/libXss.so.1 (0xb74f9000)

Please copy and paste that line (if present) in a post here. If that line is not present then you need to update to a more recent version of BOINC or role back to an earlier version.

3. It's possible that keyboard activity detection is working. See if your GPU tasks are suspended when you open a terminal and type at the keyboard. I'm not suggesting that as a permanent solution for your problem but it may serve as a temporary solution until the problem is fixed properly.

4. I don't think this will solve your problem but you should consider updating to a more recent driver. You installed 195.36.24 but the NVIDIA driver finder page recommends 275.09.07 for your GPU.

Okay thanks!
Will give this a go tomorrow morning and post the results.

Thanks again
Peter

Typing into the terminal works and will pause the task.
Running

ldd -r /usr/bin/boinc | grep -i xss

Gives no output so I'm guessing it is the bug in question.

I upgraded my ubuntu so BOINC is now running 6.10.59 and nvidia driver 270.41.06.

Peter

Reading through the trak ticket, seems like this is a common problem.
Is there a fix?

Peter

If it's in BOINC Trac that you read the ticket, then those are bugs yet to be solved. If it's another Trac, please leave a link.

Idle detection on Linux is a fickle thing, depends heavily on which distro and which kernel of that distro you run. Then there's the USB detection problems.

You could test with BOINC 6.12.33, see if it works in that one.

---

I'll give it a go. Do I need to uninstall the current boinc client before installed the new one? (Current one is from ubuntu repos)

Thanks
Peter