We have a new Disclaimer blurb on the alpha releases, please read carefully and test all links.

Separate links for downloading 7.9.2 on Linux:

- First check your repository, it may be updated and have it.
- For RHEL, download and use boinc-client-7.9.3-1.el7, this requires that you have RPM installed. See this page for that how-to.
- For Debian/Ubuntu, Gianfranco's PPA page: https://launchpad.net/~costamagnagianfranco/+archive/ubuntu/boinc

To install...
Debian unstable and testing: sudo apt-get install boinc-client boinc-manager
Debian stretch: (enable stretch-backports repo) sudo apt-get install boinc-client/stretch-backports boinc-manager/stretch-backports

Ubuntu: sudo apt-get install boinc-client boinc-manager

Older Ubuntu releases:
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:costamagnagianfranco/boinc
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install boinc-client boinc-manager

Fedora/RedHat/CentOS
sudo dnf config-manager --set-enable updates-testing
sudo dnf install boinc-manager

7.9.2 Auto-attach

Auto-attach is a feature where you download the BOINC installer directly from a project or account manager, and when the client first runs it's attached to that project or AM. You don't go through the BOINC web site to download the software, and you don't see the Attach Wizard.

The feature involves server software. Currently only SETI@home (project) and Science United (account manager) have the needed server support.

To test this feature on SETI@home:

    Uninstall BOINC or rename your data directory.
    In a browser, visit https://setiathome.berkeley.edu/download.php?dev=1
    Click on either link (with or without Vbox) and install.
    Verify that BOINC starts up attached to your SETI@home account. 

To test this feature on Science United:

    Uninstall BOINC or rename your data directory.
    In a browser, visit https://scienceunited.org/
    Create an account, and download BOINC
    Verify that BOINC starts up attached to Science United 

If you are already using Science United, go directly to https://scienceunited.org/download.php?dev=1

At the moment, I'm getting

Fatal error: Call to a member function update() on a non-object in /disks/carolyn/b/home/boincadm/projects/sah/html/inc/account.inc on line 28

from SETI - probably because their server is still in maintenance mode. When I tried it yesterday, even the ?dev=1 modifier on the url gave me the current v7.8.3 BOINC installer - which won't perform the auto-attach trick.

Best to wait on the SETI version of this test until the installation there has been checked - we'll post here when it's good to go.

Upgraded to try this beta version on one PC today running the installer boinc_7.9.2_windows_x86_64.exe

Microsoft Windows 8.1_x64 Edition
VirtualBox Version 5.2.6-120293
Boinc 7.9.2 Development Version X86_64 (64 bit). This is after upgrading from Boinc 7.8.3 (64 bit) and rebooting.

Strange "error message" (in red text below) appeared in the startup message. It currently is running a VBox task for Duchamp/Sophia Beta

27-Feb-2018 17:04:03 [---] Starting BOINC client version 7.9.2 for windows_x86_64
27-Feb-2018 17:04:04 [---] This a development version of BOINC and may not function properly
27-Feb-2018 17:04:04 [---] log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task, cpu_sched, http_debug
27-Feb-2018 17:04:04 [---] Libraries: libcurl/7.47.1 OpenSSL/1.0.2g zlib/1.2.8
27-Feb-2018 17:04:04 [---] Data directory: C:\BOINCData
27-Feb-2018 17:04:04 [---] Running under account -------
27-Feb-2018 17:04:05 [---] OpenCL: Intel GPU 0: Intel(R) HD Graphics (driver version 10.18.10.3355, device version OpenCL 1.2, 1752MB, 1752MB available, 6 GFLOPS peak)
27-Feb-2018 17:04:05 [---] OpenCL CPU: Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU J1900 @ 1.99GHz (OpenCL driver vendor: Intel(R) Corporation, driver version 3.0.1.10878, device version OpenCL 1.2 (Build 76413))
27-Feb-2018 17:04:05 [Rake search of diagonal Latin squares] Found app_info.xml; using anonymous platform
27-Feb-2018 17:04:05 [SETI@home] Found app_info.xml; using anonymous platform
27-Feb-2018 17:04:05 [Enigma@Home] Found app_info.xml; using anonymous platform
27-Feb-2018 17:04:05 [---] Version change (7.8.3 -> 7.9.2)
27-Feb-2018 17:04:05 [---] Host name: -------
27-Feb-2018 17:04:05 [---] Processor: 4 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU J1900 @ 1.99GHz [Family 6 Model 55 Stepping 3]
27-Feb-2018 17:04:05 [---] 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 htt tm pni ssse3 cx16 sse4_1 sse4_2 movebe popcnt rdrandnx lm vmx tm2 pbe smep
27-Feb-2018 17:04:05 [---] OS: Microsoft Windows 8.1: Core x64 Edition, (06.03.9600.00)
27-Feb-2018 17:04:05 [---] Memory: 3.89 GB physical, 9.89 GB virtual
27-Feb-2018 17:04:05 [---] Disk: 449.14 GB total, 385.69 GB free
27-Feb-2018 17:04:05 [---] Local time is UTC -6 hours
27-Feb-2018 17:04:05 [---] Can't detect VirtualBox because this is a 32-bit version of BOINC; to fix, please install a 64-bit version.

David says that the SETI server has been fixed to run the auto-attach test, and it's working for me with the plain-vanilla BOINC installer under Windows 10. The BOINC+VBox combined installer seems to have multiple problems, and gets an error message when attempting to attach: I've reported that back upstream, but clearly more testing is needed.

I'm pondering that strange 32-bit message for VBox: my W10 log has

28-Feb-2018 11:32:25 [---] Starting BOINC client version 7.9.2 for windows_x86_64
28-Feb-2018 11:32:26 [---] OS: Microsoft Windows 10: Professional x64 Edition, (10.00.16299.00)
28-Feb-2018 11:32:26 [---] VirtualBox version: 5.1.26

as it should - that was an old install from previous testing, though it should have been updated to VBox 5.2.6 as part of my testing.

Edit - found it.

        if (!strcmp(get_primary_platform(), "windows_x86_64")) {
            msg_printf(NULL, MSG_USER_ALERT,
                "Can't detect VirtualBox because this is a 32-bit version of BOINC; to fix, please install a 64-bit version."

The primary platform "OS: Microsoft Windows 8.1: Core x64 Edition, (06.03.9600.00)" fails that test. I'll open an issue.

@Dr Who Fan

Please double check what you downloaded and what you installed. Also check Task Manager if the client is 32-bit process.

The thing with that message is that it is included only in Windows 32-bit version.

Starting BOINC client version 7.9.2 for windows_x86_64

windows_x86_64 there is not how the client was built but what it detected.

Strange.. I had originally downloaded the 64 bit version "boinc_7.9.2_windows_x86_64.exe" from the download link on the download all page. Confirmed the 32 bit that was installed and running.

Shutdown BOINC and went ahead and downloaded a fresh copy of "boinc_7.9.2_windows_x86_64.exe" and reinstalled. Confimed it was 64 bit installed and running.

All ok for now.

windows_x86_64 there is not how the client was built but what it detected.

As far as I know, this indicates it's the 64bit client, as opposed to a startup message stating Starting BOINC client version 7.9.2 for windows_intelx86

Edit:
I installed the 32bit client (boinc_7.9.2_windows_intelx86.exe) on my Windows 7 64 bit. It shows as 7.9.2 (x86) in About.

28/02/2018 19:44:20 |  | Starting BOINC client version 7.9.2 for windows_x86_64
28/02/2018 19:44:23 |  | OS: Microsoft Windows 7: Ultimate x64 Edition, Service Pack 1, (06.01.7601.00)

All along I always thought the intelx86 stood for 32 bit client and x86_64 for 64 bit client. Was it ever like that then?

Just done exactly the same thing. With a deliberate 32-bit installation, I get

28/02/2018 19:04:12 |  | Starting BOINC client version 7.9.2 for windows_x86_64
28/02/2018 19:04:12 |  | OS: Microsoft Windows 10: Professional x64 Edition, (10.00.16299.00)
28/02/2018 19:04:12 |  | Can't detect VirtualBox because this is a 32-bit version of BOINC; to fix, please install a 64-bit version.

So I read it wrongly too. If it's confused all of us, I'd suggest it's a bad message.

Now here's the confusing thing. When I install the 32 bit client and check with boinc.exe --version from the command line what it answers, it says 7.9.2 windows_intelx86, while the 64 bit client will answer 7.9.2 windows_x86_64. So if the client answers that via the command line, why can't it do so via the event log?

Now here's the confusing thing. When I install the 32 bit client and check with boinc.exe --version from the command line what it answers, it says 7.9.2 windows_intelx86, while the 64 bit client will answer 7.9.2 windows_x86_64. So if the client answers that via the command line, why can't it do so via the event log?

When you look in task manager does it show a *32 next to it? That usually indicates windows thinks its a 32 bit app (at least under Win7, the Win10 version of task manager may not provide it).

It sounds like the first message "Starting BOINC client" is wrong but the Vbox message is correct.

---

MarkJ

It sounds like the first message "Starting BOINC client" is wrong but the Vbox message is correct.

Well, as I found out last night by installing the 32 bit client + VBox version, that message is to be taken with some salt as well. For when you install the 32bit version of client and VBox on a 64bit CPU and OS, the message is wrong.
VBox is silently dropped in this, you can only find out about that by going through Windows Event Viewer.

The message we get is: Can't detect VirtualBox because this is a 32-bit version of BOINC; to fix, please install a 64-bit version.
This is because the 32bit VBox cannot run on a 64bit system/OS. The above message implies that by installing a 64bit version of BOINC, the 32bit version of VBox will work. Which it still won't. It requires a 32bit operating system as its (hidden as an informational message in Event Viewer) error message says: Product: Oracle VM VirtualBox 5.2.6 -- This application only runs on 32-bit Windows systems. Please install the 64-bit version of Oracle VM VirtualBox 5.2.6!

The 32-bit installer on a 32-bit version of Windows 7 seems to behave as expected from what we've seen over the last couple of days. David has refreshed the build, and it now includes VBox 5.2.8: that goes through all the VBox installation steps (including USB and networking), and shows up in the list of installed programs in Control Panel: I have BOINC configured not to use it (because this machine - at the full 4 GB - barely has enough RAM to do the things I ask of it), so it's not yet showing in the BOINC Event Log.

David was going to refresh the 64-Bit version as well, but something went wrong: the 19 Feb build with broken VBox is still there. I'm going to start putting together a cherrypick PR so we can test everything in place as a v7.9.3 build.

The 32-bit BOINC on 32-bit OS combo reports:

02/03/2018 10:26:55 |  | Starting BOINC client version 7.9.2 for windows_intelx86
02/03/2018 10:26:59 |  | OS: Microsoft Windows 7: Ultimate x86 Edition, Service Pack 1, (06.01.7601.00)

David has put together a patch (awaiting approval), so that the first 'Starting client' line reports the build version rather than the environment version: I'll try to get that into v7.9.3

Edit - VBox detection is OK:

02/03/2018 10:56:44 |  | VirtualBox version: 5.2.8

David was going to refresh the 64-Bit version as well, but something went wrong: the 19 Feb build with broken VBox is still there.

Well, at least the broken VBox installer showed some shortcomings in the BOINC installer package and in the logging. I told you we'd find lots of problems, just didn't expect them to be there. ;-)

Poking about, there might be a viable 64-bit file in /dl/BOINCx64_vbox/WEBx64/Web/DiskImages/DISK1 (right name and size) - I've only just discovered it and I need a break, so I haven't tested it. Have fun.

Edit - yes, the file in DISK1 is viable and installs VBox v5.2.8 as it should

Given the memory limitations of 32 bit, why do we even have a 32 bit BOINC with VirtualBox? I would suggest that we should only offer it as a 64 bit build. By all means keep the 32 bit BOINC client but don't waste resources on a Vbox for it.

---

MarkJ

BOINC 7.10.2 Notice

This version is being made available as a release candidate: no further changes will be made to this branch unless a significant bug is found.

If you find anything wrong or anything that worries you, please report it either to this mailing list (boinc_alpha@ssl.berkeley.edu), on the BOINC message boards, or via https://github.com/BOINC/boinc/issues

We have recently become aware of a problem causing the 64-bit Windows client to crash on some of the new low-power Intel CPUs. The problem appears to lie in our third-party SSL secure communications library, not in BOINC itself. It appears that the 32-bit client can be used on the affected machines as a workaround. We'll continue to explore the issue ready for the next development cycle.

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Re: 7.10.2 Win x64 installer

Both this and the 7.9.x installers don't see active projects when installed over a working 7.8.x install. I'm prompted to add a project to an empty project pane.

Downgrading back to 7.8.3 works fine. All projects enumerated and pick up where they left off.

I've used both 7.9 and 7.10 installers multiple times during this development cycle, and I've never had that problem.

Would you mind trying one more time, first making a note of where your current BOINC Data directory is located, and then looking at the installer screen so see what the new installation folder will be? That might help us understand *why* BOINC can't find it when it starts up.