I have just installed BONIC 6.10.36 and in my Messages (from BONIC's main page), I keep having the above message displayed. I run BONIC all the time, at night and during the day, whilst I am at work, so I am at a bit of a loss to understand why this message is being displayed. I have only seen this message in the past few days, I think after I installed V6.10.36.

I have checked my CPU usuage and can't see any thing wrong, as it is very low, when I'm not running BONIC, when I am it goes up to 100%.

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John F.

It's new to the latest version.
In BOINC Manager Preferences > Processor usage, set the "while processor usage is less than" setting to 0.

This preference is added for users who complain that BOINC is taking over their system, slows it down. The value of the CPU Usage preference is the amount of CPU cycles a non-BOINC application has to take up, before BOINC suspends computations. With non-BOINC application we mean anything else than BOINC or the science applications.

E.g. anti virus, indexing, anti-spyware, browser, MP3 player, etc. etc.

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Thanks, have now set Processor use to '0' and installed V6.10.37.

I noticed that 'Preferences' appear in two places and both have a different layouts. As a software engineer, I would rename one of these 'Preferences', as they can be confusing - initially, I opened the other one in error.

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John F.

I'm either looking in the wrong place or this doesn't work.

In my BOINCstats/BAM! preferences "Run only when CPU usage is less than" is set to 0 but still I'm getting the "Suspending computation - CPU usage is too high" message.

This has happened since I upgraded to BOINC manager 6.10.43.

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I'm either looking in the wrong place or this doesn't work.

In my BOINCstats/BAM! preferences "Run only when CPU usage is less than" is set to 0 but still I'm getting the "Suspending computation - CPU usage is too high" message.

Did you check your local preferences? They override the online ones, which are controlled by BAM!.

Gruß,
Gundolf

Garrr - when did that change? It';s never been set to 25% before

I'm with you, man. I think this new "feature" is absolutely stupid.

Except for the people who have asked for it.

I'm with you, man. I think this new "feature" is absolutely stupid.

Please, think outside your own box. This feature isn't for everyone who has been using BOINC for ages and are running it 24/7 without looking at it much.

It's built in for completely new people, people who were complaining that despite BOINC's applications running on the lowest possible priority, it taking up CPU cycles that would slow down their computer.

These people would complain about that, uninstall, leave and tell other potential crunchers negative things about BOINC. It's added to help those people, for if they come back, to see that even they are listened to.

You can easily disable the function by setting its value to zero.

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@jord: "Please, think outside your own box."

You are right, but you should do that too.

Of course the new parameter is not stupid, this parameter makes sense. But the introduction of this parameter changed the behaviour of BOINC and this was not mentioned during the installation of the new version.

imho to do such is simply a bug. I set the parameters of my programs on my PC - not the programs. Everything else is bad behaviour of the programs.

If cc_config.xml does not exist, create it on new install with some base defaults. If it exists, don't touch it. Would reduce many a support query and certainly ease it.

The developer's standpoint on this (and I must say I follow them in that) is that the normal user doesn't need to fiddle around with mythical entries in a cc_config.xml file.

With "normal user" is meant those who don't know what half the stuff on their PC does, who don't need to know this. Those who (sorry to say) may not even know about an on/off button on their monitor/PC. Those who do not read the forums. Those who, when their computer is doing things they do not understand and usually after they installed something, will uninstall (or have a technically challenged friend, family member or technician do that) that something and go on their merry way. We all know someone like that.

As soon as you feel you need to know something about the running of the program, you're "average". Above normal at least. Then we can teach you about the mythical entries into the core client configuration file. Then we can tell you to increase the setting on the CPU usage preference, or disable it.

The preferences screen for projects and BOINC Manager will change soon. Then they're all in line. With yet more options to choose from.

koyaanisqatsi wrote:

But the introduction of this parameter changed the behaviour of BOINC and this was not mentioned during the installation of the new version.

The installer never says what's new in a certain version. The Version history does. In those, 10th line, it says "New: Suspend computation of BOINC applications if CPU usage from non-BOINC applications exceeds a volunteer defined value (Defaults to 25%)".

You can find the link to the Version History from the normal BOINC download page.

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We're talking two things now. You're going on about the core client configuration file, which enables specific debug and advanced messages, that the people who just install BOINC and check the screen saver do not need.

These options aren't used by BOINC when you do not have the file in question.

The CPU usage option is in the preferences. It will always be used.
Even if the message about a newer version being available included a mention of reading the version history, people would a) not be able to find it, even if it wasn't that difficult to find; b) not read it as it's not interesting enough.

Specifically b). It's easier to complain than to read up front what might have changed. I usually put up a thread about it as well, here in the forums.

The end-goal is still to simplify the running of BOINC, for all. If that means a preference has to be added that makes it easier for completely new people to run BOINC on their system(s), which enables them to run BOINC without it interfering with their normal use of their system, then that should be applauded.

PS: The WCG 6.2.28 installer and I presume their 6.10 skinned kit will too, does create the cc_config.xml.

It does, but it's got WCG specific options only, e.g. to give a path to check for a new client through the WCG mirror and if there is one, to tell what server to get it from. It doesn't have any other BOINC options.

World Community Grid options
<client_version_check_url>
Used to check for newer updates on the WCG specific BOINC version. Points to the WCG client archive.
<client_download_url>
Used to tell the user which URL to use to download the new WCG BOINC version from.
<network_test_url>
Used to ping another site than Google (the default check). In this case, the IBM server is pinged.
<proxy_test_server>
Used to check whether BOINC can ping another site than Google (the default check) when using a proxy. In this case, the IBM server is used.
<version_check_server>
Does the same thing as the <client_version_check_url> option, but is deprecated on the newer versions.

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Maybe derisively it´s thought that Linux noobs are less in need of protection from fables than those in Windows.

How many people who have never had a PC before buy a PC in the store equipped with Linux? How many of those people know everything that runs in the background? How many of them will know all of the files of whatever they install through the package manager?

You're still thinking about yourself and your knowledge of whatever the OS is that you run. Now drop that knowledge and look at the nearest person you know of who doesn't know a thing about computers or how they operate. Do you think he or she will know? Or more precisely, care? Or will he or she figure that as long as whatever the software is that was installed isn't interfering in his or her daily business on the computer, that it's OK?

Look who's curing cancer describes it well: "WCG exploits this unused computing power by borrowing -- with the owner's permission -- a machine's central processing unit to do some serious math. It works unobtrusively, when you aren't working. You download software that takes advantage of any break, from a phone call to a pause while you're thinking of what to type next. The instant your fingers touch the keys, the calculations cease."

That's what people want. Not what you want (whomever is reading this), but those other people out there.

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But why this ridiculous low default?
It's OK not to put the "0" in default, but 50% should have been minimum.

What's "25%" anyway? One core at 25% or 1 core busy on a quad?

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Gruesse vom Saenger

For questions about Boinc look in the BOINC-Wiki

But why this ridiculous low default?
It's OK not to put the "0" in default, but 50% should have been minimum.

Isn't 50% more than 25%?

What's "25%" anyway? One core at 25% or 1 core busy on a quad?

Both - it's the same thing, as far as BOINC's concerned.

But why this ridiculous low default?
It's OK not to put the "0" in default, but 50% should have been minimum.

Isn't 50% more than 25%?

Yes, if it's lower, it will stop BOINC earlier. That's wrong. At least for most participants and for the "Use of unused CPU-cycles".

25% means it will stop quite early, 50% will give it a bit more lee way, 100% == 0, i.e. it's always running.

What's "25%" anyway? One core at 25% or 1 core busy on a quad?

Both - it's the same thing, as far as BOINC's concerned.

It's something very different.
25% of 1 core on my computer is only 6.25% of it's CPU-power.

How is it supposed to work on multi-core main boards?
Shut down one core for every 25% core use on the board?
Shut down the whole board if 25% total CPU-usage is reached?
Shut down the whole board if 25% of a single core is reached?

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Gruesse vom Saenger

For questions about Boinc look in the BOINC-Wiki

Yes, if it's lower, it will stop BOINC earlier. That's wrong. At least for most participants and for the "Use of unused CPU-cycles".

You're still thinking about yourself and the people who leave BOINC running 24/7/365. Instead think about the people who do have BOINC running while they're active on the computer, but who find their system to slow down when they open anything else, as the science app isn't giving up its cycles quickly enough.

It's even for those people who only let BOINC run when their computer is otherwise idle and something outside BOINC needs more CPU cycles, like a scheduled AV scan. You wouldn't want BOINC to be active while a scan is happening anyway.

The 25% is for 1 core, only when another program outside of BOINC uses that many CPU cycles (check Windows Task Manager). It'll suspend the whole of BOINC since it's BOINC that is taking up all left-over CPU cycles at that time, when you do not want that.

It's not a preference to pester you who run 24/7 BOINC only, it's a preference to help those who find their system is slowed down when they do other things with their system. Take off the blinders, check out your surroundings, there's other people out there who use their systems differently than you are. :-)

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The 25% is for 1 core, only when another program outside of BOINC uses that many CPU cycles (check Windows Task Manager). It'll suspend the whole of BOINC since it's BOINC that is taking up all left-over CPU cycles at that time, when you do not want that.

I still don't know what will happen on a normal PC, i.e. one with 2-8 cores.
Will it stop completely if only one core is used for more than 25% or will only that core be taken from BOINC?

Is the 25% that what normal people will think, 25% of the overall power of the machine, or just 25% of one ( sometimes quite tiny) part of it?

Aah, and I would have to look in the gnome system monitor, there's no use for the windows task manager on my machine ;)

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Gruesse vom Saenger

For questions about Boinc look in the BOINC-Wiki

It's 25% of the total power of the machine. If you have four cores, that would be the equivalent of 1 core full time, and nothing at all on the other cores - except no self-respecting operating system would ever run the hardware that way. It's far more likely to be 25% of each of however many cores you have, +/- 25% in every case.

And please do check that you're looking at this from the right end of the telescope. BOINC excuses itself and gets out of the way if other tasks are using 25% of the CPU(s). Or more. So 26%, 27%, 30%, 50%...... stop BOINC. Conversely, if other tasks use less than 25%, BOINC runs ... at 24%, 23%, 20%, 10%, 5%.

Don't be confused, easy though it is, that the figure '0' (note: not a percentage) is used to represent 100%, to save typing.