Posts by Michael Roycraft

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1) Message boards : BOINC Manager : I got the software installed, recovered seti acct, so what
Message 3694
Posted 29 Mar 2006 by Michael Roycraft
... It is very difficult to find ones location once one leaves the instructions, or when one leaves the message boards, or when .... one does anything to move about. Memorizing several screens full of information is not to fruitful when one has no idea if things are working up to the point where one is given an error message, but has no idea how to get past that point. I'd love to give you all the details, but my brain is getting a little old. And I really do think STUPID is an appropriate name at my current level of lack of understanding of how to use this new system. With GUI screens, it is very difficult to save the critical information to paste accurately into a text message system.


Sir, I have to disagree with your rationale. Labeling yourself "Stupid" just reinforces a negative image, is counter-productive, and if unchecked tends to become a self-fulfilling prophesy. Allow me to suggest maybe "Confused", "At Sea", "Lost", maybe "Slipping down the Learning Curve".
Do you have a teenager around, or young adult to help you? They tend to feel more comfortable with this stuff, assimilate it more naturally.

I just don't know which of one zillion alternatives to try.

Only with luck will I get back here to find answers, but IF I do I will appreciate any advise that is helpful.


bbCode - Just a set of small codings to allow formatting, such as italics, boldprint, etc in the messageboards.
2) Message boards : BOINC Manager : I got the software installed, recovered seti acct, so what
Message 3661
Posted 27 Mar 2006 by Michael Roycraft
S....d,

You mentioned setiathome. In case you haven't grown past that, you could start with the SetiBOINC Q & A page. BOINC is just the framework upon which the various projects rely. The projects themselves are something entirely seperate, and require account creation, application software installation, and preference setting.

Respects,

Michael R.
3) Message boards : BOINC Manager : I got the software installed, recovered seti acct, so what
Message 3659
Posted 27 Mar 2006 by Michael Roycraft
Yes, I downloaded the software.
After several tries I got the magic number to recover my setiathome account.
But someone forgot to tell me how to make BOINC work.
...was this thing designed by the inventors of Billy's help files? Or is it only for ITs and gurus?


Stupid, (sorry, couldn't help myself) ;-)

Did you read the instructions?
4) Message boards : BOINC Manager : BOINC has CLIMATE PREDICTION
Message 3657
Posted 27 Mar 2006 by Michael Roycraft
I have a related question to the previous one. Which projects have the smallest downloads for WU? I am on dial up and a slow one at that. I am not in a position to leave the connection on for hours, which is what I am finding necessary for Rosetta.

Thank you to any who can help,

Dave


Dave,

I would suggest Einstein@Home. E@H does involve a rather large (~7Mb) download, but once that is on your harddrive, it will be "sliced" into literally 100s of WUs, maybe 2 months of work, with ongoing upload/download only of tiny parameters/results in the interim. When that large datafile is exhausted of WUs, (in about 2 months, as I said) it will then need to fetch another of similar size.

Hope this fills your bill. L:-)

Respects,

Michael R.
5) Message boards : BOINC Manager : Manager Not Showing all the Button
Message 3651
Posted 26 Mar 2006 by Michael Roycraft
MrAsker,

What version of BOINC are you using, what OS, and which type of installation? On my 5.2.13, Windows, single user install, I see no Preferences window.

Michael R.
6) Message boards : BOINC Manager : Not getting any new workunit
Message 3617
Posted 24 Mar 2006 by Michael Roycraft
.... I got boinc 5.2.13 on win2k and I'm attached to the following projects:

BBC Climate Change Experiment
rosetta@home
boincsimap
climateprediction.net
Einstein@home
LHC@home
QMC@home
SETI@home
SZTAKI Desktop Grid
cpdn seasonal

Any idea about what the problem is?

Thanks
darkpella


darkpella,

Yes. The problem is that you wandered into the candy store and greedily helped yourself to every flavor and variety on the shelves, and kept gobbling until you could stuff no more in. Where is your sense? You walk into a project, having no idea what's going on nor what the ramifications could be, read nothing in the way of instructions or documentation anywhere.
The upshot is that you've attached your computer to too many projects, especially too many projects (emboldened above) with huge long worktimes. It doesn't take long under those conditions to reach the point where deadlines on the longer projects, even though far distant, become endangered. Then BOINC goes into EDF mode, refusing to accept work, because at least it recognizes that there is not enough computer to go around. The problem can get much worse more quickly if you do not commit your computer to work 24/7.
7) Message boards : BOINC client : Core client periodically crashes - I have the std err file!
Message 3585
Posted 21 Mar 2006 by Michael Roycraft
I have seen the same failure periodically.

***UNHANDLED EXCEPTION****
Reason: Access Violation (0xc0000005) at address 0x0032F114 read attempt to address 0x00000008

1: 02/03/06 13:12:34
1: SymGetLineFromAddr(): GetLastError = 126


Jim,

That particular error has proved to be an extremely pesky one to track down and eliminate, and is still being worked on. Hopefully, it will be fixed in the upcoming 5.4.x version, which has been in a particularly long beta "incubation" stage.

Michael R.
8) Message boards : BOINC Manager : Windows XP
Message 3584
Posted 21 Mar 2006 by Michael Roycraft
Tim,

That is essentially what works for me. The first time, I just deleted BOINC from the startup folder. Later, on the next install, in the configuration screen, I unticked the "Run at logon" checkbox, and it has worked fine ever since (over a year now). :-)

There are other workarounds for the problem, for example, editing the "gui_rpc_auth.txt" file, etc.

Michael R.
9) Message boards : BOINC Manager : Applications problem
Message 3583
Posted 21 Mar 2006 by Michael Roycraft
Hello everyone, this is my first thread in the forum. I have a problem that I don't understand. In my general preferences of BOINC manager I have choose to change every 50 min but it doesn't change between applications. I don't know where is the problem. Can anyone tell me what could be the problem?? Thanks in advance


Denis,

Welcome! The setting you mention is an interval, but not specifically to switch projects. Let me explain. If I am running 2 projects, Einstein and Rosetta, and have set their shares at 80% Einstein - 20% Rosetta, I wouldn't want them switching every interval of "x" minutes, or Einstein would never get it's 80% resource, they would essentially be even, 50-50.
Rather, the interval is when BOINC checks to see what is needed - upload, download, project switch, etc. So, given your 50 minute setting, my BOINC would take stock after 50 minutes. Do I have a finished WU to report? Does one of the projects need more work? Am I honoring the resource share by continuing the present project, or do I need to switch? After another 50 minutes, it would go through the same process of checks and adjustments.

Respects,

Michael R.
10) Message boards : BOINC Manager : Status Indicator
Message 3572
Posted 21 Mar 2006 by Michael Roycraft
It sure would be nice if there was some kind of status indicator, rumming, suspended etc. Something like what MSN messenger has. Just something small so we can see easily if we are running or suspended. I usually suspend when going on the net because the nbet works so much faster without BOINC running but sometimes, often, I forget to restart BONIC.What do you guys think??? :)



Greg,

Not too likely to see this kind of change addressed. There are far more important considerations for the very limited (in terms of personnel) development team to slave over. Another consideration is program size and simplicity - idiot-proofing (and Please :-), this is not a reference to you :-) ) would tend toward becoming bloated code, which would take cache space and slow execution, reducing productivity.

Respects,

Michael R.
11) Message boards : BOINC Manager : zlib1.dll
Message 3486
Posted 14 Mar 2006 by Michael Roycraft
Frank,

I suggest you go with the two premier (and free) anti-spyware apps, Spybot and AdAware, and sh^tcan the rest. AntiSpyware apps that "find" false positives are nearly as bad as the spyware they claim to clean.

Regards,

Michael
12) Message boards : BOINC Manager : Benchmarks: Windows vs Linux
Message 3475
Posted 13 Mar 2006 by Michael Roycraft
I recently did a hardware upgrade on my computers and to make a long story short: my Athlon XP 2400+ / 1GB RAM computer which was running Windows XP Pro SP2, is now running SUSE Linux 10.

I installed BOINC (5.2.13), no problem, but the benchmark scores under Linux are about half what they were under Windows.

Windows:[u]
1867.51 (floating point)
3134.29 (integer)

[u]Linux:

1023.53 (fp)
1795.64 (int)

I checked the obvious h/w things like the CPU clock speed and FSB speed, and eveything is the same.

The interesting thing is that the work units are taking the same length of time to execute as they were before, so the machine appears to be running the same as it was under Windows.

Has anyone noticed this with Linux ?

The real issue here is the fact that credits are claimed based on: the work done compared to the benchmark scores. A slower machine (based on benchmark) will claim fewer credits.

In my case, it appears that I am being punished for running Linux. [grin]

--- bt


bt,

If you'd checked any of the boards beforehand, you would not have been in the dark - It's been discussed ad nauseum on every project board.
Punished for running Linux? BOINC might as well join the crowd. Other "punishments"? With Linux, nothing fun to run, astronomical learning curve to ascend, tons of incompatibilities, high maintenance time.
Ah, the price of being different.
13) Message boards : BOINC Manager : How to delete a work package
Message 3473
Posted 13 Mar 2006 by Michael Roycraft
Hi Michael, great, that's it - thanks.


No problem, Dhiller, that's what we volunteers are here to do. glad it worked for you - ask away again, any time.
14) Message boards : BOINC Manager : How to delete a work package
Message 3468
Posted 13 Mar 2006 by Michael Roycraft
Dhiller,

Are you running a version of BOINC that will display the BOINC Manager? Open the Manager window, select the "Work" tab. Highlight (click on) one of the WUs (tasks, "packages") which you would like to eliminate. The column of buttons on the left panel should now show up (become active), including "Abort". Click on "Abort", affirm your selection in the dialog box. Repeat as needed.
Open the "Projects" tab, select the Climate Prediction project, and click the "Update" button on the left. The aborted WorkUnit(s) may not be immediately cleared from your cache, but that is the quickest way to return them to CPDN for re-assignment. (I don't run CPDN, so there may be some special-case variations, which I'm sure will be clarified by someone more versed in CPDN).

NOTE: An abort cannot be "undone", reversed, so be sure you have selected the intended item.
15) Message boards : BOINC client : BOINC won't uninstall from Windows XP Pro Client
Message 3465
Posted 13 Mar 2006 by Michael Roycraft
I'm having trouble uninstalling BOINC from a Windows XP Pro Client. When the Windows Installer comes up it freezes the entire machine. The only way out of this state appears to be a powercycle. I've also tried bringing up the BOINC client, but it freezes too. Is there another way to uninstall it?


Are you sure that no part of BOINC is running during the uninstall attempt? Check with Task Manager.
Check to make sure that no file in the BOINC folder is "write-only".
16) Message boards : BOINC client : Internet request on dial-up
Message 3427
Posted 10 Mar 2006 by Michael Roycraft
The programmers for BOINC need to recognize that an internet connection request does not happen instantly on a dial-up service. BOINC at my location spends a lot of time spinning its wheels by requesting hookup and then giving up before a connection is established over...and over...and over, etc. Allow a few seconds (perhaps as much as 5 or even 10) to allow the connection to be established.


From what I can remember of the time I was on dialup, 20 seconds of "chatter" before establishing a connection would not be too much, so even setting it at 30 seconds would be helpful.
17) Message boards : BOINC Manager : strange error messages
Message 3382
Posted 7 Mar 2006 by Michael Roycraft
paul,

You may safely ignore the "exited with zero status but no 'finished' file" message - it seems to be an artifact from early BOINCing, now irrelevant. By all means, do post for help on the messageboards before resetting or detaching - those two options should be emergency-only last-resort things.

Regards,

Michael
18) Message boards : BOINC client : BOINC Applications not giving up CPU Time to cleanmgr.exe
Message 3231
Posted 24 Feb 2006 by Michael Roycraft
Aaron,

From the %s you gave, that seems about right. Disk Cleanup is not a CPU-intensive operation, and should only show high % when the system is idle and nothing else asks for cycles. That said, Disk Cleanup wastes most of it's time in checking what is, for 99+% of users, a useless endeavor - how much space can be gained by archiving files. Most users want to use their files frequently or not, but they don't want them zipped up where they can't be easily accessed. There is a registry tweak and a few utilities that will disable the archive-checking function in Cleanup, reducing Disk Cleanup to a less-than-one-minute operation, though I can't name any off the top of my head. Try a Google search, and possibly a utility called Tweak XP.

Michael
19) Message boards : BOINC Manager : Option to turn on/off LTD.
Message 2969
Posted 6 Feb 2006 by Michael Roycraft
adrian,

First off, there is not such switch, and no need for one.

BoincDV will zero the debts, but note that you have to exit Boinc completely before a debt reset can be done, otherwise the file it need to change is in use. At that point, open BoincDV, click on the "Clear debts" button, close BoincDV, and restart Boinc. You will need to do this sequence periodically, say every few days.

Those 4 steps are only a little less than adjusting shares, the proper solution and the task which you find so daunting, and much less trouble than the constant micro-managing which you have been doing and with which you seem to feel comfortable. Please don't take offense - I'm not here to put you down. I don't understand you, but I also don't feel that it's too necessary that I do. Whatever works for you is fine with me.

Good Luck,

Michael
20) Message boards : BOINC Manager : Boinc Screensaver arrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggghhhhhhh
Message 2943
Posted 3 Feb 2006 by Michael Roycraft
Merlin,

Here is a link to a thread I wrote on the Einstein board about graphics drivers, containing all the info you should need to update them. That may solve your screensaver problem, may not. Here's hoping. :-)

Regards,

Michael

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