BOINC in a dual-boot Windows XP/Vista PC

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Message 15295 - Posted: 8 Feb 2008, 19:33:46 UTC

I'm running the BOINC client on a Windows XP PC which is about to become dual-boot with Windows Vista. I'm going to switch back and forth between both systems a lot, but would like to have the same BOINC tasks running in each of them.

Ideally, I would like to resume the same BOINC tasks I halted on XP as soon as I boot Vista, and vice versa. Otherwise, I'm afraid that many task deadlines will be missed, since it's going to be unpredictable how often and for how long each OS will be active. I may have found a way, but I don't know if it will work, and would like to discuss it with you.

My hard disk has three partitions, or logical drives: one for XP and its programs, another one reserved for Vista, and a third one where I store all my documents and data. In a former dual-boot configuration, I have successfully made XP and Vista share the same "My Documents" and other such folders by placing them in that common data partition.

The same applies to some programs I installed into the data partition, instead of the standard "C:\Program Files". They successfully loaded in both systems with the same parameters, options and stored data, regardless of the OS. Such programs included Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird, ICUII Video Chat, FlashGet, Trillian Pro and Yahoo! Messenger, for example.

In each case, I had to perform the install again in the other system, but mostly I just had to specify the same path on the data partition and they worked exactly the same way in both systems. (Firefox and Thunderbird demanded a traditional install followed by some additional tweaks to store their profiles in the data partition instead of "C:\Documents and Settings", but it worked in the end, even transparently showing the same bookmarks, browsing history, mailboxes, etc., regardless of the active OS at the moment.)

With that experience in mind, but having only XP again when I installed BOINC (which was very recently), I did the same trick and installed it into the data partition, hoping that I would achieve the same effect when I reinstalled Vista.

Only now, however, I am going to install Vista again, so this guesswork of mine has not yet been put to a real-world test.

My question: will it work? And is there any additional step or tweak I have to make for that to be possible?

Thank you very much!

UrsoBR
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Nicolas

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Message 15296 - Posted: 8 Feb 2008, 19:47:52 UTC - in response to Message 15295.  

That sounds like it would work. Swapping between different operating systems (like Windows and Linux) would have been much more prone to problems, but XP<->Vista should work. A potential problem is: server noticing a different OS, and assigning you a new host ID; every time you communicate.
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Message 15321 - Posted: 9 Feb 2008, 12:38:02 UTC - in response to Message 15297.  

That sounds like it would work. Swapping between different operating systems (like Windows and Linux) would have been much more prone to problems, but XP<->Vista should work. A potential problem is: server noticing a different OS, and assigning you a new host ID; every time you communicate.

This is what WCG uses to identify a previously existing client on re-attaching:

user name
domain_name
ip_addr (the ip of the client on the local network)
operating system name
processor vendor
memory

May not mean that it checks if simple firing up.... the sciences are content to run under any tested windows version.


While WCG is among my projects, they all go through GridRepublic (even though I may have to switch to BAM! because GridRepublic's site has been bugged for weeks now and doesn't compute points and so on). My PC is stand-alone, not on a LAN, and directly connected to the Internet by a cable modem. The user account may be different, since running a non-administrative account on XP is too much of a hassle (one just has to accept the greater security risks, protect oneself as much as possible and cross fingers), while Vista running as a "standard user" is more feasible (and safer).

On the client side, considering my proposed approach, it all boils down to whether BOINC stores its significant data in the Registry (which I can't replicate between systems) or in its installation subfolders (which will be the same). Tasks are stored in the latter, obviously, and it remains to be seen whether this will be enough to achieve the desired results, given the server-side potential problems.

Well, I am scheduling the Vista install for next week, and I'll let you know what happened. Thanks, Nicolas and Sekerob! :-)

UrsoBR
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Message 15350 - Posted: 10 Feb 2008, 19:12:01 UTC

I ended up too anxious to wait longer (not only because of BOINC) and reinstalled Vista last night (including the new final SP1, which I was able to get). My strategy worked like a charm, and BOINC works the same and resumes the same interrupted tasks transparently when I switch from XP to Vista and vice versa. All options and parameters were also kept transparently.

The only caveat is that Vista shows a UAC prompt for BOINC to run. Therefore, whenever it tries to load at system start-up (or account login), Windows Defender intercepts it and I have to authorize it and agree to the UAC prompt (and type my admin password if on another account). Other than turning off UAC altogether (which in spite of the hassle, I'm wary to do, and causes almost equally annoying Security Center warnings anyway), since neither UAC nor Windows Defender allows a "suspicious" start-up application to be whitelisted, I think I'll just have to cope with that on Vista... :-(

Thanks for your help and tips, guys, and I hope this thread will be useful to other people with the same problem.


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MikeMarsUK

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Message 15352 - Posted: 10 Feb 2008, 20:07:28 UTC


Another thing I'd suggest for Vista is to always exit boinc before shutting down Vista - otherwise the tasks you are running may be killed by Vista's very aggressive shutdown process.

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Message 15358 - Posted: 10 Feb 2008, 21:52:06 UTC - in response to Message 15354.  

Another thing I'd suggest for Vista is to always exit boinc before shutting down Vista - otherwise the tasks you are running may be killed by Vista's very aggressive shutdown process.


Thanks, Mike! I didn't know that, but that means that I will need manual intervention both to start and to stop BOINC on Vista (double Windows Defender and UAC prompt when starting, manual exit when shutting down)... Neither is needed on XP... :-(

hmmm, well if on 5.10.35 or higher that is not a concern anymore.


Sekerob, I was on 5.10.28; after reading your message, I downloaded 5.10.30, which is the latest stable version (there was also 5.10.41 beta, but I don't like to run beta software - other than, perhaps, old ICQ, which was officially forever in beta). I don't know if you were commenting on the UAC hassle or Mike's recommendation to exit BOINC manually, but 5.10.30 still has the UAC hassle.

What I can't understand is that all seems to be related to the lack of a digital signature in BOINC's executables. That would be very simple to do, and it's hard to believe that the University of Berkeley can't fit a Thawte or Verisign key in its budget for BOINC... :-(

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Nicolas

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Message 15361 - Posted: 10 Feb 2008, 23:05:34 UTC - in response to Message 15358.  

What I can't understand is that all seems to be related to the lack of a digital signature in BOINC's executables. That would be very simple to do, and it's hard to believe that the University of Berkeley can't fit a Thawte or Verisign key in its budget for BOINC... :-(

They already have a Thawte certificate. The installers are all signed.

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Message 15365 - Posted: 11 Feb 2008, 21:31:53 UTC

I have solved the problem by reinstalling BOINC on Vista as a service. As such, it is already pre-authorized and authenticated and will run even if something happens or runs that will cause an unattended reboot, when I'm not here to even login, let alone restart and authorize the BOINC client manually.

Also as a service, I'm guessing and hoping that Mike's remark won't apply - many services are essential system modules, so it is reasonable to suppose that Vista will have a lighter hand on them when shutting down.

Since the BOINC program folder is shared with XP, and BOINC runs as a regular startup application on it, I was afraid there could be some problem under XP after the reinstall on Vista, but it started and processed normally.

On XP, once in a while Kaspersky Internet Security (KIS) 6.0 pops up a warning that the BOINC application has changed and asks for my authorization (oh no! UAC on XP??!?), but since my current KIS license is about to expire in a couple of weeks, and I'm going to upgrade to KIS 7.0 when it does (I already use 7.0 on Vista), I hope this will not be a problem any more.

Thanks again for your help, folks! :-)


UrsoBR
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MikeMarsUK

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Message 15383 - Posted: 13 Feb 2008, 13:25:30 UTC - in response to Message 15354.  
Last modified: 13 Feb 2008, 13:30:52 UTC

hmmm, well if on 5.10.35 or higher that is not a concern anymore.


Does 5.10.35 solve the 0x40010004 crash as per the following thread? (He's got 5.10.30).

http://climateapps2.oucs.ox.ac.uk/cpdnboinc/forum_thread.php?id=6009
http://climateapps2.oucs.ox.ac.uk/cpdnboinc/result.php?resultid=7211900

The 0x40010004 error occurs when Vista kills the 'show graphics' screen on any climate project (and therefore possibly also the screensaver if it is auto-rebooting).

I know 5.10.35 solves the 0xC0000142 error, but CPDN also gets error code 0, 1/-1, and 0x40010004 in the same cirumstances. I have no idea what additional errors 5.10.35 fixes. Ideally Boinc should ignore any errors received after a shutdown request is received, does it do this now?
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Message 15385 - Posted: 13 Feb 2008, 13:58:32 UTC - in response to Message 15384.  

Someone here

Rebirther copied it from my BOINC FAQs. ;-)

Do know that the error is an application error, not a BOINC error. Can easily be distinguished by the number. If it's positive, it's application; if it's negative, it's BOINC.

It has the same cause as exit code -1073741510 (0xc000013a).
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Message boards : BOINC Manager : BOINC in a dual-boot Windows XP/Vista PC

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