How about more apps written for linux-powerpc? Currently there are only three that I know of (SETI, SIMAP, SuperLink).

Sorry, I'm not a real Mac user. I just have 2 PowerMacs running Linux :)

That's up to the individual projects, not the BOINC development people. Bug the projects.

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Kathryn :o)

That's up to the individual projects, not the BOINC development people. Bug the projects.

True, but BOINC could make those linux-ppc apps automatically downloadable through the BOINC manager, instead of having to dig through other websites to find them, figure out how to install them, and write your own app_info.xml file! Beginning users would never get through it all.

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That's up to the individual projects, not the BOINC development people. Bug the projects.

True, but BOINC could make those linux-ppc apps automatically downloadable through the BOINC manager, instead of having to dig through other websites to find them, figure out how to install them, and write your own app_info.xml file! Beginning users would never get through it all.

Uh, no. It's up to the projects. If the projects do it, the apps will automatically download through BOINC.

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I would prefer that the BOINC Manager only be set to launch at login for the account I want that to happen from. When I install a new version of the software (I'm running 6.6.17 right now), it sets all user accounts to launch the manager at login time. The rest of the family doesn't need to know how many units we've crunched in the off-hours!

You would probably want to install as a daemon then and only have the manager accessible from your account.

http://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Tools_for_Mac_OS_X

I would like to clarify exactly why I opened this thread.

I'm only asking about the manager; that is, the graphical interface. That's why I posted in the "BOINC Manager" forum category. Any issues with the core client probably exist in all platforms, and either way it's not what I need. Direct those questions/complaints to the general wishlist in this forum. Same for installation issues, really.

It's clear the BOINC Manager doesn't quite feel "at home" in a Mac. The buttons on the left should probably be in a toolbar. The columns should allow reordering (I don't mean ordering the list by a column, I mean changing the order of columns, like putting CPU Time after Progress). Maybe "Projects", "Tasks", etc. should be on an iTunes-like sidebar instead of tabs.

That is the kind of suggestions I'm looking for :)

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My system info:
Mac Mini (07 version)
Mac OS 10.5.6
2.0Ghz Dual-core intel processor
2GB DDR2 Ram @667Mhz
72oorpm, 250GB HDD
some godawful, utter s*** intel intregrated GPU
Boinc V6.6.20, GUI version
note: I run only one project, Rosetta@Home, which I have been running since 28 Apr 2007 and received 247,946 total credit for.


small suggestion:
I switch between Boinc's simple view and advanced view frequently, but I don't like the fact that there isn't a keyboard shortcut to do this. I have used Mac OSX's system preferences option to assign the "Simple View..." option a keyboard shortcut, namely command-S. This allows me to switch from the advanced view back to the simple view, but I want a keyboard option to do the opposite as well. I would like you to make it so that the "View" toolbar exists in the simple view so that I can assign a keyboard shortcut to it, instead of having to click on "Advanced" within the simple view GUI window. I understand why you want to make the Simple view as, well, simple as possible, and therefore took out almost all of the toolbar items. However, I don't think "View" would clutter it.

Sincerely,
Jack

1. BOINC installs with the wrong permissions: it should be owned by me, but my access (until I fixed it) was "read only."

2. BOINC shouldn't need to run with both a dock icon and a menubar icon. I'd be just as glad if it didn't clutter up my desktop with either of these. Accessing it through the screensaver panel or its own preference panel would be fine with me.

2. BOINC shouldn't need to run with both a dock icon and a menubar icon. I'd be just as glad if it didn't clutter up my desktop with either of these. Accessing it through the screensaver panel or its own preference panel would be fine with me.

You can run the command line version, then you won't have any GUI interface to deal with.

--Nathan

I just seconded Terry's request "elsewhere" on this forum and I'm seconding it again here, too. Like Terry, I want BOINC Manager to be up and running when I'm running the program, but there is no need to stick an item up on the menubar that adds no extra functionality (and NO, that is not an invitation to give it special functions). It only adds to the clutter, and is only more annoying when you are running BOINC on a laptop and menubar/screen space is already at a premium.

It may be bad timing (due the to the recent negative comments about the menubar icon) but I have written a 3-rd party manager for BOINC called BOINCMenubar 2. It gives you a overview of the computers running BOINC and allows you to manage them.

It requires Leopard and that you have installed BOINC first. Also it currently cannot run BOINC, so you need to run BOINC Manager, BOINC from the command line, or BOINC as a daemon.

It will post Growl messages for certain events and has a Mac native interface for preferences and attaching to projects. And if you have multiple computers running BOINC (they don't have to be Macs) you can store the GUI RPC passwords to each one in Apple's Keychain and switch between them by selecting one from a menu.

It is not complete and I'm calling it Beta (there are bound to be bugs in it). But if you are interested please check it out and send me some feedback.

http://brotherbard.com/boinc

--Nathan

p.s. the icon is grayscale :)

Would it be possible to implement a search bar in the Messages tab (in advanced view)? This would be really helpful for people looking through the messages for the time when a specific event happened. It could be placed beneath the Commands box, and would show messages in order of relevance to the search terms. The alternative is something modeled after Firefox's Command-F page search.

You can use any editor you like to search in the stdoutdae.txt file (where all the messages are stored). You'll find that file in the BOINC data directory.

Gruß,
Gundolf

Hi !

It's a good idea to give ideas for Manager GUI :

- Left column is often not wide enough (still in 6.6.36 in French) the right round border of the buttons is not visible neither is the right border of the outer box. Its gets nastier when more buttons appear and the dreaded inside slider appears :-( But then, when less buttons are in the way, the display is nicer.

- International strings are not well printed. For example today we are Sam 8 aou√a 16:54:59 2009 on all the logs instead of Sam 8 août 16:54:59 2009. The year is pretty useless in all the lines of the log too. Maybe for project due date it's useful, but not everywhere.

- In advanced view removing column could be interesting. Work Load name is not very helpful. I think some don't care application name. Einstein@Home is more informative than "Hierachical S5 all-sky GW search #5 5.01". Drawback for World Community Grid you can't know wheter you "Help Conquer Cancer" or "Fight aids".

- Project and Tasks could be merged. It could be a hierachical view. You could show/hide the details of each project like on the finder when dealing with folder (project) and file (task)

- I don't know if the fact that benchmark are redone every time you change your number of CPU is Manager's fault or the underlying core's but if I bench a 4-core, when I want to work with 2 they're still as powerful. And when I get back to 4, I did not change them. It seems useless useless to redo thoses benches when my computer has not been restarted. I don't know a computer where you can swap CPU when it's still on.

- Growl support would be nice. Notification for background useful message (Workload fifo empty, result sent, ...)

- Simplified view is still too large. It could be as simple as a bargraph for each task (with play / pause symbol and the project logo for each)

- There's still no notification of upgrade. I upgraded today to 6,6,36 from 10 June 2009 and I was using 6.6.20. Never got a notification, even when I was using version with second digit difference (maybe 6.4 vs 6.6) ....

- The scheduler was in 6.6.20 still not very deadline friendly. It could suspend a WL with 5 minutes left to finish and whose deadline is very close, for a WL with a due date one week later. Then again it maybe has nothing to do with the "manager".

We're crossing our fingers for a nicer GUI :-)

Keep the good work going ...

- Left column is often not wide enough (still in 6.6.36 in French) the right round border of the buttons is not visible neither is the right border of the outer box. Its gets nastier when more buttons appear and the dreaded inside slider appears :-( But then, when less buttons are in the way, the display is nicer.

You aren't thinking far enough. Is it a good idea to have a "left column" at all? Shouldn't those buttons be in menus and/or toolbars on top?

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I can't stand the fact that the application permissions are non-standard! I have a black background color scheme I prefer on my Macs and the file name is invisible without changing the file name label color attribute in file info from clear to a color. I can't with Boinc however (the only program I have that does this btw...) because the file is locked. If I try to change the file permissions to give myself permission to write to it and then change them back, it says the file from that point forward has custom permissions and it fails to load BOINC and errors out with some bogus "application installation is corrupt" (or something that means similar) error message and terminates and I have to reinstall BOINC all over again. This is a really frustrating bug for me. Probably for same or other reasons its odd file permissions which don't give the user or superuser even default permission to even edit file label color is also frustrating to others who couldn't figure out why BOINC has to be reinstalled...

Since upgrading to BOINC 6.10.17 from 6.6.something (36?), all attempts to run the program fail with the following message:

You currently are not authorized to manage the client.
Please contact your administrator to add you to the 'boinc_master' user group.

And what keeps you from doing so?

Gruß,
Gundolf

If I am not mistaken, the Mac version comes with a Readme.rtf, from which it reads:

Due to new restrictions imposed by OS 10.6 Snow Leopard, there has been a change in BOINC's security implementation. Non-administrative users can no longer run BOINC Manager unless they are added to group boinc_master. As of BOINC 6.10.5, the BOINC installer asks whether or not you wish to allow this.

Although this change was made for compatibility with OS 10.6 Snow Leopard, the change in BOINC affects all users, not just those running OS 10.6.

The 6.10.17 Mac installer displays a dialog asking "Do you want non-administrative users to be able to run and control BOINC?". You should run the installer again and answer YES.

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Well. I would to see an option in Boinx preferences to ask boinx to looking for new versions... I eared about last new version today, and it's was out in novembre.......

BTW sorry I couldn't found how to add a new thread !!!!