Posts by Richard Haselgrove

InfoMessage
1) Message boards : Projects : News on Project Outages
Message 115598
Posted 13 Mar 2025 by Richard Haselgrove
In reply to robsmith's message of 13 Mar 2025:
CPDN???
Certificates have expired, or have they changed URL again?
My browser (Chrome/Windows) is seeing a certificate which only covering the internal server name ('aurai'), so not covering any public internet connection.
2) Message boards : Projects : News on Project Outages
Message 115553
Posted 5 Mar 2025 by Richard Haselgrove
Yes, looks complete from here too - but nothing has been added to the message boards since January. I hope the next stage includes a news post or two, to let us know what to expect next, and over what timescale.
3) Message boards : GPUs : Nvidia RTX 50 series removes 32-bit CUDA and 32-bit OpenCL support
Message 115537
Posted 2 Mar 2025 by Richard Haselgrove
It would help if the volunteers offering the instruction / education could think themselves back to day zero when phrasing their assistance. My script for <use_all_gpus> would start:

In order to fix this issue, you'll need to edit a file called "cc_config.xml".
This is an optional file, and your computer may not have one.
The easiest way to create one is to make a minor change to the Event Log Options selected.
Press 'ctrl+shift+A' in BOINC Manager to switch to advanced view.
Then press 'ctrl+shift+F' to see the options.
Change one (anything), and save the changes.
Open it again, and change it back (it might not have been a good choice!) and save it again.
Now you will find a complete "cc_config.xml" in [however you usually describe it].
Every legal setting is listed in alphabetical order - <use_all_gpus> is 6 lines before the end of the file.
Don't try adding it manually: duplicated tags can cancel each out.
4) Message boards : Projects : News on Project Outages
Message 115527
Posted 2 Mar 2025 by Richard Haselgrove
Yes - all BOINC functions, though a few general information pages are up.

And there's no news yet about when they expect a restart.
5) Message boards : Projects : News on Project Outages
Message 115495
Posted 25 Feb 2025 by Richard Haselgrove
GPUGrid is back up, with a newer BOINC user interface. But in the process, the "master url" has changed, so expect various hiccups as they come fully back up.

No new work has been issued yet, and I expect they'll hold back for a day or two while they check over all the details.
6) Message boards : Projects : News on Project Outages
Message 115459
Posted 18 Feb 2025 by Richard Haselgrove
GPUGrid has been taken down into full "temporarily shut down for maintenance" mode. There's been talk of moving the whole server framework onto new and more powerful hardware, so it may be down for some days.
7) Message boards : Questions and problems : Screensaver
Message 115454
Posted 16 Feb 2025 by Richard Haselgrove
What's your operating system?

If Windows, use the OS settings tool to set the screensaver to something other than BOINC, or none.
8) Message boards : Projects : News on Project Outages
Message 115382
Posted 6 Feb 2025 by Richard Haselgrove
Slight delay on start time. Don't assume it's been cancelled just because the site's still up after 15:00 UTC.
9) Message boards : Projects : News on Project Outages
Message 115372
Posted 5 Feb 2025 by Richard Haselgrove
Prior warning received from CPDN (ClimatePrediction.net):

We are going to be taking the main CPDN project down tomorrow (Thursday 06 Feb 2025) at 3pm (UK time). This will be for an extended period of time of between a week, and a week and a half. This is in order to do an extensive amount of work on the main server where the project is residing.

During this time the main project at main.cpdn.org will be unreachable, however the project website at cpdn.org will still be reachable.
Note that cpdn.org primarily covers the science and context behind the project: all BOINC content, including volunteer accounts and message boards, is at main.cpdn.org and thus will be inaccessible.
10) Message boards : The Lounge : The Seti is Slumbering Cafe
Message 115308
Posted 30 Jan 2025 by Richard Haselgrove
They had a brief outage for maintenance earlier this week - probably taking backups and suchlike - but they returned from that as normal. This feels different, and possibly unplanned.
11) Message boards : Questions and problems : Boinc 8.0.2 Installer fails on Windows 10
Message 115270
Posted 23 Jan 2025 by Richard Haselgrove
Files called 'BOINC.msi' are used twice during installation: first, to remove the old version cleanly, and then later to install the new version.

The 'removal' version is usually stored on your local machine - squirreled away in a quiet corner just so it can be re-used for the upgrade. In rare cases, this copy can be deleted during over-enthusiastic disk housekeeping. If this has happened, all is not lost:

Look to see if you have still got the BOINC installer package you used to install the most recent v7 BOINC package. If not, download it again from the BOINC dowload folder. Make sure you get exactly the same BOINC version.

Run that old installer: if the version matches, you should see an offer to 'repair' the old version. Follow all the instructions and exit the installer: don't start BOINC at this stage.

The repaired version should replace the missing BOINC.msi, and allow the new installer to run normally.

[BOINC.msi only affects the base BOINC installation - I don't think you need to do anything special about vbox. But I'm not an expert on that point]
12) Message boards : Projects : News on Project Outages
Message 115196
Posted 10 Jan 2025 by Richard Haselgrove
In reply to Dave's message of 8 Jan 2025:
CPDN main site back.
I'm currently getting occasional failures to display web pages - there's one going on at the moment. The main problem seems to be a timeout on the initial HTTPS connection to the server.
13) Message boards : BOINC Manager : Elapsed time not visible in 8.1.0
Message 115180
Posted 8 Jan 2025 by Richard Haselgrove
I've not seen any traffic about changes in that area. 'Elapsed time' has been around since GPUs were introduced, and my version 8.1.0 (probably many months older than your build) is showing it.

Check you haven't mistakenly set it to zero width (hidden file '.BOINC Manager' in your home folder). You should see a section 'Tasks' looking like:

[Tasks]
SortColumn=-1
ReverseSortOrder=0
ColumnOrder=Project;Progress;Status;Elapsed;Remaining (estimated);Deadline;Application;Name
HiddenColumns=Estimated Completion;Completion Before Deadline
ActiveTasksOnly=0
[Tasks/Project]
Width=125
[Tasks/Progress]
Width=66
[Tasks/Status]
Width=303
[Tasks/Elapsed]
Width=80
[Tasks/Remaining\ (estimated)]
Width=100
[Tasks/Deadline]
Width=212
[Tasks/Application]
Width=214
[Tasks/Name]
Width=475
[Tasks/Estimated\ Completion]
Width=150
[Tasks/Completion\ Before\ Deadline]
Width=150
If that's not it, report it.
14) Message boards : Projects : News on Project Outages
Message 115124
Posted 2 Jan 2025 by Richard Haselgrove
Website is working fine new, and the project admin (Eric Driver) posted an end-of-year report yesterday - everything seems normal, and tasks are being sent / processed / returned.

BOINC's 'attach to project' wizard offers http://numberfields.asu.edu/NumberFields/, but in common with modern practice, all other references start https - might be worth trying that version.
15) Message boards : Questions and problems : Not getting new tasks
Message 115107
Posted 30 Dec 2024 by Richard Haselgrove
Looking at https://universeathome.pl/universe/server_status.php, they have no tasks ready for processing. Try other projects.
16) Message boards : Questions and problems : Two quirks I've noticed.
Message 115105
Posted 30 Dec 2024 by Richard Haselgrove
This seems to be a new "feature"
Yes, but it's a new feature of the Task Manager introduced with either Windows 10 or Windows 11. NOT a new feature in BOINC.

One way round it would be to uninstall BOINC, and re-install it "as a service". That way, the running project tasks would be seen as system tasks, and not associated with BOINC Manager. But you would lose the ability to run GPU tasks.

Or you could simply stop opening Task Manager while BOINC is running, and stop worrying about it.
17) Message boards : Questions and problems : schannel: disabled automatic use of client certificate
Message 115100
Posted 29 Dec 2024 by Richard Haselgrove
In reply to Dave's message of 29 Dec 2024:
everything was working fine till last week. now only 7.16.20 can run. anything above that version gives error. windows pro 11.
I don't remember if it was Windows or Linux that used to have its own ca_bundle.cert file with its list of certificates rather than relying on the system. Is it possible that your Windows installation is for some reason not updating the certificates? I did have a quick scan through the release notes but didn't spot the change.
Windows.

The ca_bundle.crt file was supplied by BOINC, but sometimes not updated in time[*]. I can't remember whether there was an 'in use' update facility, or if it was only updated by the installer for a new version - I suspect the latter. The use of a separate file was made redundant by the switch to schannel, and won't be coming back: I suggest the questioner should concentrate on working out why that isn't working in this case.

[*] despite me writing it explicitly into the Release Manager's checklist during Kevin Reed's working party - nearly 10 years ago now.

The last version available in the BOINC download folder is datestamped October 2021 - I wouldn't trust that one, but it is a standard internet file and can be downloaded from other sources.
18) Message boards : Questions and problems : Not sure where to go for help for boinc manager
Message 115058
Posted 22 Dec 2024 by Richard Haselgrove
Worth a read of https://github.com/BOINC/boinc/issues/4663 in the meantime.
19) Message boards : Projects : News on Project Outages
Message 114985
Posted 13 Dec 2024 by Richard Haselgrove
https://numberfields.asu.edu is back.
20) Message boards : The Lounge : Let's talk politics
Message 114895
Posted 24 Nov 2024 by Richard Haselgrove
Sadly, under our current 'first past the post' electoral system, that could only have two possible outcomes:

1) The current lot stay in power, probably with a reduced majority.
2) The last lot get back in, which would be infinitely worse.

We don't do coalition governments, even during wartime. There was a brief flirtation between 2010 - 2015, but the Liberal Democrats got their fingers badly burnt by the experiment, and they won't want to repeat the experience for another century or two.
Next 20

Copyright © 2025 University of California.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.