Screensaver doesn't run on macOS Catalina ☹️

Message boards : BOINC Manager : Screensaver doesn't run on macOS Catalina ☹️
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akjeff

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Message 93127 - Posted: 8 Oct 2019, 3:34:53 UTC

Is anyone else having issue with the BOINC screensaver no longer show work? Mine was showing SETI@home items but now just get a generic BOINC screen.
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Profile Jord
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Message 93129 - Posted: 8 Oct 2019, 11:10:30 UTC - in response to Message 93127.  

Seti uses an OpenGL screen saver. As I read around, Apple did away with OpenGL support in Catalina and has gone for Metal2+.
Perhaps that you can reinstall OpenGL, but otherwise you'll have to ask the already overloaded Seti developer to add support for Metal2+ on the Mac.
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dcima

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Message 93153 - Posted: 10 Oct 2019, 13:26:02 UTC - in response to Message 93127.  
Last modified: 10 Oct 2019, 13:32:26 UTC

Yep, same here. After the MacOS update to Catalina, the Boinc screensaver is broken and only a generic splash screen is displayed. Not gonna lie, this is kinda heartbreaking as I love Boinc and I know it will be a while before they can get it fixed :(

Will the projects still get processed when the computer is idle and a regular Apple screensaver is displayed? Or are all the projects only processed while the actual Boinc screensaver is running? (I'm hoping the processing is not dependent on the running of the Boinc screensaver).
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dcima

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Message 93154 - Posted: 10 Oct 2019, 13:27:42 UTC - in response to Message 93153.  
Last modified: 10 Oct 2019, 13:28:07 UTC

It would be nice if they could post a notice in the Boinc manager about the issue.
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Dr Who Fan
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Message 93156 - Posted: 10 Oct 2019, 13:52:36 UTC

Screen saver not working does NOT prevent any project tasks from working and actually the screen saver is wasting CPU resources that could be used by the apps.
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Profile Dave
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Message 93158 - Posted: 10 Oct 2019, 14:27:23 UTC - in response to Message 93153.  

Will the projects still get processed when the computer is idle and a regular Apple screensaver is displayed?


Projects will still run. The screensaver is just to look pretty. (Well it used to provide some diagnostic information on CPDN but they no longer have a screensaver as the person who programmed it moved on a long time ago and no one else has had the inclination or time to take it on. I always had it disabled unless I wanted the diagnostics anyway as it used up computing power and slowed the tasks down albeit by not very much.
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Profile Jord
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Message 93159 - Posted: 10 Oct 2019, 14:53:43 UTC - in response to Message 93129.  

Seti uses an OpenGL screen saver. As I read around, Apple did away with OpenGL support in Catalina and has gone for Metal2+.

Well not quite yet. The next MacOS will no longer have OpenGL and OpenCL built in, this one still does but it's deprecated (thus not getting updates). But since Catalina no longer allows running of 32bit applications, that may be the culprit. The screen saver graphics apps are all AFAIK 32bit apps.
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Profile Dan Twyman

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Message 93343 - Posted: 28 Oct 2019, 6:32:18 UTC - in response to Message 93127.  

I just downloaded for the first time, I should have visited this message board first, I deleted the program and re downloaded it because I thought it was glitched, now I'm reading that the screensaver does not work? I can watch running processes and thats about it, happy to participate but I wish it was a bit more interactive for the volunteers. :/
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jopemoro

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Message 95341 - Posted: 20 Jan 2020, 10:39:58 UTC

What would it take to have the screensaver ported to 64 bits? I'm sure there would be people happy to tinker with it in the communtiy...
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Beavis64

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Message 95535 - Posted: 27 Jan 2020, 21:27:04 UTC

I've been using BOINC since 1998 and have logged countless hours on SETI and Einstein At Home. I miss the graphics on my new iMac!
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lanceness

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Message 95850 - Posted: 15 Feb 2020, 7:58:13 UTC - in response to Message 93127.  

Keep doing the work for science and for now maybe run the Electric Sheep Screensaver; it's pretty, ever changing, light on the system and could bridge the gap until old ones are fixed or new ones come out. Some of us that like the screensavers as art and to get our friends to notice and start doing distributed computing.
https://electricsheep.org/
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Message boards : BOINC Manager : Screensaver doesn't run on macOS Catalina ☹️

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