I was invited here from the SETI@home Linux forums because it's been over a month, and my problem still hasn't been solved.

Please understand that I'm technically challenged. I'll be more than happy to clarify the best I can if somebody asks me to.

My BOINC manager (v7.2.42 x64) on Linux Mint is frozen, and won't budge. I can download projects, but then it just stops about halfway through.

The original thread at the Seti forums, for more information: https://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=76409

I emailed one of the Linux buffs, am waiting for an answer.

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I think I'd best ask for clarification first, the 'Manager is frozen' is a bit ambiguous.

Does the Manager respond in any way when you switch tabs or click buttons or select different projects or tasks? If it doesn't then it has hung. This can happen if any of the projects you have joined have images in any of their news items. BOINC Manager tries to show news in Notices tab but 7.2 and earlier versions can't really handle images and usually hang.

This is easy to avoid by not visiting the Notices tab until the offending news item has expired which happens in 30 days.

Now, I checked the projects you have joined and none of them appear to have images in news (although CPDN and WCG don't use the standard BOINC web pages so I'm not sure of them) and you say you 'can download projects' (and when you say projects I'm assuming you mean tasks) so your problem is perhaps something other than hung Manager.

The other interpretation is that Manager is working just fine but the science applications aren't making any progress. If that's the case I suppose you could say that the 'Progress' column in Tasks tab is frozen.

For this option we are going to need more information from you. What does the Manager say in 'Progress', 'Status', 'Elapsed' and 'Remaining' columns for each of tasks you have. As time goes by is there any change in 'Elapsed' or 'Remaining' columns?

Is there any change to any of the columns if you go to 'Activity' menu and select 'Run always'? If there is then we need to know what computing preferences you have selected. You can find them in 'Tools' -> 'Computing preferences' if you are using local preferences (local preferences = at some time in past you clicked OK in the Preferences windows) or if not local preferences then in project website, using S@H for example, http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/prefs.php?subset=global .

If 'Run always' doesn't help then I think we need to dig into BOINC's Event Log. You can open the Event Log from 'Advanced' menu. Select lets say 50 of the most recent messages and copy-paste here. Then restart BOINC (umm, just restart your computer), re-open BOINC Manager and Event Log and then select-copy-paste all messages from there (there will be new different messages).

(The user interface elements I mentioned above are in Manager's Advanced View. You can switch the view from 'View' menu.)

"Elapsed" and "Remaining" have not changed in the last month.

Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:19 PM MST | | Starting BOINC client version 7.2.42 for x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:19 PM MST | | log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task
Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:19 PM MST | | Libraries: libcurl/7.35.0 OpenSSL/1.0.1f zlib/1.2.8 libidn/1.28 librtmp/2.3
Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:19 PM MST | | Data directory: /var/lib/boinc-client
Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:19 PM MST | | No usable GPUs found
Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:19 PM MST | SETI@home | Found app_info.xml; using anonymous platform
Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:19 PM MST | | Host name: nepthe
Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:19 PM MST | | Processor: 2 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz [Family 15 Model 4 Stepping 3]
Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:19 PM MST | | Processor features: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx lm constant_tsc pebs bts nopl pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl est cid cx16 xtpr
Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:19 PM MST | | OS: Linux: 3.13.0-24-generic
Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:19 PM MST | | Memory: 3.05 GB physical, 0 bytes virtual
Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:19 PM MST | | Disk: 69.54 GB total, 59.43 GB free
Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:19 PM MST | | Local time is UTC -7 hours
Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:19 PM MST | | VirtualBox version: WARNING: The character device /dev/vboxdrv does not exist.
Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:19 PM MST | | Config: GUI RPCs allowed from:
Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:19 PM MST | Einstein@Home | URL http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/; Computer ID 11702078; resource share 100
Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:19 PM MST | SETI@home | URL http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/; Computer ID 7444732; resource share 100
Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:19 PM MST | World Community Grid | URL http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/; Computer ID 3212179; resource share 100
Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:19 PM MST | climateprediction.net | URL http://climateprediction.net/; Computer ID 1349418; resource share 100
Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:19 PM MST | Milkyway@Home | URL http://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/milkyway/; Computer ID 601066; resource share 100
Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:19 PM MST | rosetta@home | URL http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/; Computer ID 2204776; resource share 100
Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:19 PM MST | SETI@home | General prefs: from SETI@home (last modified 18-Apr-2010 18:14:53)
Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:19 PM MST | SETI@home | Computer location: home
Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:19 PM MST | SETI@home | General prefs: no separate prefs for home; using your defaults
Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:19 PM MST | | Reading preferences override file
Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:19 PM MST | | Preferences:
Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:19 PM MST | | max memory usage when active: 1563.95MB
Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:19 PM MST | | max memory usage when idle: 2815.11MB
Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:19 PM MST | | max disk usage: 17.39GB
Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:19 PM MST | | don't compute while active
Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:19 PM MST | | don't use GPU while active
Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:19 PM MST | | (to change preferences, visit a project web site or select Preferences in the Manager)
Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:19 PM MST | rosetta@home | Task rb_01_31_53327_98891_ab_stage0_h004___robetta_IGNORE_THE_REST_08_08_242514_147_0 is 1.38 days overdue; you may not get credit for it. Consider aborting it.
Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:19 PM MST | | gui_rpc_auth.cfg is empty - no GUI RPC password protection
Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:19 PM MST | | Not using a proxy
Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:21 PM MST | | Suspending computation - computer is in use
Wed 18 Feb 2015 12:33:18 PM MST | World Community Grid | Sending scheduler request: Requested by project.
Wed 18 Feb 2015 12:33:18 PM MST | World Community Grid | Not requesting tasks: don't need
Wed 18 Feb 2015 12:33:24 PM MST | World Community Grid | Scheduler request completed

"Elapsed" and "Remaining" have not changed in the last month.

OK. You didn't say if 'Run always' made any difference.

Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:19 PM MST | | Reading preferences override file

In other words, you are using local preferences.

Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:19 PM MST | | don't compute while active
Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:19 PM MST | | don't use GPU while active

Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:21 PM MST | | Suspending computation - computer is in use

BOINC's in use/idle detection on Linux has a history of not really working. Tick the 'While computer is in use' box in Computing preferences and see if it makes any difference.

Mon 16 Feb 2015 11:20:19 PM MST | rosetta@home | Task rb_01_31_53327_98891_ab_stage0_h004___robetta_IGNORE_THE_REST_08_08_242514_147_0 is 1.38 days overdue; you may not get credit for it. Consider aborting it.

You can indeed abort the task. A replacement has been created and returned already. wuid=647346770

"OK. You didn't say if 'Run always' made any difference."

Switching it to Run Always is going to significantly slow down my computer, isn't it?

"In other words, you are using local preferences."

I don't know what that means or how it's going to solve my problem. Layman's terms please. I'm not computer literate.

Run Always serves as a quick test to see if it's anything in the preferences that made BOINC to not run or suspend the science apps.

As for slowing down computer, I have set BOINC's preferences for my computer so that it's really the same as running always. The only time I've seen BOINC slow down anything is when I watch TV online but that's only because I have old and slow CPU and GPU. (Then again, I've been running like that for years so maybe I've just gotten used to to the slow computer...)


BOINC has two different kinds of preferences, global and local. Global prefs are set in project website. They are handy if you have a large number of computers and want to run them the same way. Any time you want to change the way they run you just change the settings in the project's website and all the computers will automatically pick up the new settings the next time they connect to the project.

If you have only one or a few computers and don't mind setting up each one individually, or you want one or some of the computers to work differently than others you use local preferences. Local prefs are set in BOINC Manager, they override global prefs and apply only to that one computer. If you ever decide you want that computer to use global prefs you need to clear the local prefs by clicking the Clear button in the Computing preferences window.

So, since that computer is using local prefs you would either tick the box in Manager's Computing preferences window or clear the local prefs and then tick the box in project's website.

^I'm sorry, all of that was rather confusing. Could we please stick to how to solve my problem? I think I'd be better off if we didn't explain how everything works.

OK, I'll try to keep it simple.

Try the Run Always. Status column should change to say 'Running' for two tasks. The elapsed time should start running right away and remaining time should follow shortly after. How often the progress meter increases depends on the science app. It may change a few times per minute or it may take minutes or even tens of minutes between changes.

If the tasks start running you can either stay with Run Always (tasks will keep running) or you can select Run based on preferences (BOINC will behave the way it currently does and tasks will most likely stop running).

If nothing changes even after several minutes after you have selected Run Always select Run based on preferences and report back.

OK. I switched it, and it downloaded two tasks. I'll let you know if they stop halfway. Thanks.

Appears to have fully completed a MilkyWay unit. I'll be back if there are any problems. Thank you for your help.