Posts by Professor Ray

1) Message boards : Projects : News on Project Outages (Message 102687)
Posted 25 Jan 2021 by Professor Ray
Post:
I'm currently attached to: Einstein, Rosetta, WCG & LHC.

That notwithstanding, the following projects listed in the BOINC projects-listing are essentially defunct:

Asteroids
BOINC@Tacc
CSG
Cosmology
...

ETC.

I'm not going to waste additional time of mine finding viable projects. The fact is that a significant number of BOINC projects - 2/3's ??? are not viable - in that there is NO activity on the respective BOINC-community message-boards.

One project that I'd be interested in - Folding@Home - seems not to be part of the BOINC community.

Whatever. I'm going to look into getting that Dell T7400 to run. That notwithstanding, nevertheless, all that, and whatnot: there's some issues w/ BOINC project participation.

You BOINC-people look into that, I'll look into this, and we'll see where the twain shall meet.
2) Message boards : Projects : News on Project Outages (Message 102649)
Posted 22 Jan 2021 by Professor Ray
Post:
I believe BOINC to be dead.

I'm so sad; I was a BOINC cruncher since SETI. Recently I came across a Precision T7400.

I could put 128gb RAM - albeit FB ECC PC6400 on a quad-channel board - & RAID 0 SSD into it. But why bother?

BOINC is dead.
3) Message boards : Questions and problems : Need to find BOINC VBox config manual (Message 101400)
Posted 31 Oct 2020 by Professor Ray
Post:
Can somebody direct me to the VBox install manual for BOINC projects?

Specifically: is there a need to configure the VM w/ respect to host/VM bridge?

OR are the various BOINC project VM WU-images configured by default to utilize the host network adapter?
4) Message boards : Questions and problems : specify CPU cores allowed with APU / GPU (Message 74542)
Posted 1 Dec 2016 by Professor Ray
Post:
Hmmmm. Thanx for the reply. Seems as if this would need to be declared across the universe of projects one is participating in in. The prollem arose with the current batch of Einstein WU's I'm crunching, i.e., Binary Radar Pulser Search (Arecibo GPU) 1.39 (BRP4G-openCL-ati), which states: 0.5 CPU + 1 AMD/ATI GPU. What's happening is the CPU / APU core gets pretty warm and the fan is constantly spinning up / down.

I've changed the host-based preferences to restrict CPU to 0.25 and this results in only one other non-Einstein WU being crunched while the aforementioned WU's get crunched.

I'm assuming that two CPU are utilized with the single APU / GPU as adjunct to process these Einstein WU. The load on either core is less than if a single WU is tasked to a single core.

All that's fine. I'm just concerned that when the Einstein WU crunching gets down-prioritized, then only a single WU for some non-Einstein project would crunch, when in fact I'd be happy with two non-Einstein project WU's being crunched concurrently on separate cores.

So this custom app_info / app_config solution would be a means to such end.
5) Message boards : Questions and problems : specify CPU cores allowed with APU / GPU (Message 74495)
Posted 30 Nov 2016 by Professor Ray
Post:
Bummers.

I'll just have to manually kludge it by manipulating preferences based on what's being crunched at the time.
6) Message boards : Questions and problems : specify CPU cores allowed with APU / GPU (Message 74490)
Posted 29 Nov 2016 by Professor Ray
Post:
Is it possible to restrict the number of cores to 25% when a APU/GPU WU is crunching, but allow 50% of cores to execute when non-GPU WU is / are being crunched?
7) Message boards : Questions and problems : Projects being re-enabled (???) (Message 67726)
Posted 14 Feb 2016 by Professor Ray
Post:
Twice now, projects that were configured 'No New Tasks' have reverted to their previous status / mode, i.e., soliciting work, downloading work, processing WU, upload results, petitioning for - and obtaining - credit.

I want to say that it even came out of Suspended, but I can't; I don't remember what I did. In both cases - Rosetta and Einstein - I had previously bitched on their respective support forums about they throwing me to the curbside; support for my hardware platform / OS was no longer supported.

Dunno. But I will state that both times this occurred, WU started crunching again - despite NNW or SUSPENDED status / config - and they not only complete, I gets credits too!

Dunno, but this SSE constrained BOINC project participant thanx u; heart heart heart penguin.
8) Message boards : Projects : Ship A-hoy - CONSTELLATION Project - to ALL ~2500 crunchers! (Message 60460)
Posted 22 Feb 2015 by Professor Ray
Post:
Hey there, all you ~2500 project crunchers!

The project servers are being down right now; the project servers are being moved.

Constellation project-servers are being relocated using ants carrying each server-granula from the Earth to the Moon on the Earth-to-Moon transmission-string; that's how far away the new server is.

There are trillions of ants doing the job. What was unanticipated was that the use of a single string would cause prollems, after each server-relocation-tasked ant deposits its assigned server-gruanula-load onto the moon, it makes an unladen journey along the Earth-to-Moon server-relocation-string. If it encounters another ant in the opposite direction there occurs what is known classically as a etherant-collision, i.e., both ants drop their packets and flee in opposite directions.

According to ether-ant collision protocol, no ant will step upon the Earth-to-Moon-Constellation_Server_migration_string if the vibration of a 'packet-collision' is detected by an ant on either end of the 'String'.

This is true because I'm sitting on 48hrs - 2xWU - crunch-time results. I heard the thrips chriping on the Twitchit'
9) Message boards : Questions and problems : BOINC symbols / symbol search path (Message 52503)
Posted 11 Feb 2014 by Professor Ray
Post:
I guess this is a real stumper, eh?
10) Message boards : Questions and problems : BOINC symbols / symbol search path (Message 51799)
Posted 20 Dec 2013 by Professor Ray
Post:
Presently I'm running BOINC v7.0.64 I've configured an environmental var, i.e., _NT_SYMBOL_PATH=srv*F:\Symbols2*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols

I notice that in the BOINC_Data/symbols sub-folder exist several sub-folders, e.g., advapi32.pdb, dbghelp.pdb, dnsapi.pdb, etc. and each of these sub-folders can be found also in F:\Symbols2. Its the GUID lookin' sub-folders within each PDB folder that are different betwixt BOINC & SYMBOLS2.

  • BOINC_Data\symbols\advapi32.pdb\F759D3F1C6614313B07C84BC33F02E4D2\advapi32.pdb - modified 6 Feb 2009, created 12 Dec 2013

    compared to: F:\Symbols2\advapi32.pdb\0075E37A13F84D4E8DDDDA6BAA5F58712\advapi32.pdb - modified 18 Jul 2009, created 7 Dec 2013

  • BOINC_Data\symbols\dbghelp.pdb\6AD43BA6261A40E8A812FA07EABD0E191\dbghelp.pdb - modified 14 Nov 2007, created 12 Dec 2013

    compared to: F:\Symbols2\dbghelp.pdb\6AD43BA6261A40E8A812FA07EABD0E191\dbghelp.pdb - modified 14 Nov 2007, created 7 Dec 2013

  • BOINC_Data\symbols\dnsapi.pdb\F01111D1A3974A80837B62ABD17FBF112\dnsapi.pdb - modified 4 Mar 2011, created 12 Dec 2013

    compared to: F:\Symbols2\dnsapi.pdb\80377DF78C6040C1A011BEC9E4A9DBD92\dnsapi.pdb - modified 4 Mar 2011, created 9 Dec 2013

  • BOINC_Data\symbols\fltLib.pdb\3792070439264076A609BE9E8271B75F1\fltLib.pdb - modified 15 Apr 2008, created 12 Dec 2013

    compared to: F:\Symbols2\fltLib.pdb\ED1106F705D34BFA8D9661D395DE5F6C1\fltLib.pdb - modified 16 Feb 2007, created 7 Dec 2013



I only have one qwexion:

    1. why the duplication of PDB folders w/ in the SymStores?
    2. why the discrepency in the versioning between the SymStores (inferred from the the modified dates and recent, albeit different, create dates)?
    3. if I create a NTFS reparse point, i.e., junction / symbolic-link, of F:\Symbols2 as BOINC_Data\symbols, will it still duplicate the PDB folders within differing GUID lookin' sub-folders?
    4. can I incorporate BOINC symstore like so:_NT_SYMBOL_PATH=srv*F:\Symbols2*http://boinc.berkeley.edu/symstore/*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols (or do I need to use a semicolon delimiter between the two server URL's)?



I'm uncertain about implementing the BOINC symstore whatsoever, given that the contents there are packed.

11) Message boards : Questions and problems : BOINC on Winders Server 2003 (Message 41438)
Posted 2 Dec 2011 by Professor Ray
Post:
Dunno if this is still an issue, but there be prollems with that:

Domain controllers separate local user accounts from Domain accounts. BOINC is not designed to make the sandboxed accounts in Active Directory, but in the local user accounts. Domain Controllers do not have local accounts because they must run Active Directory in order to authenticate users logging on to the network. Ergo, BOINC v6, with its sandboxed accounts, cannot run on Domain Controllers.

On the client side, local user accounts and settings are ignored when the user logs on to the domain, therefore the sandboxed accounts are not seen when run in an Active Directory environment. Since BOINC is not authorized in Active Directory to make Domain accounts, or Domain Global Groups, or even Universal Groups, the sandboxed accounts can only be run when not logged on to the domain.


See: http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=53310&nowrap=true#888986

12) Message boards : Questions and problems : High Priority = Wrong Priority (Message 36691)
Posted 1 Feb 2011 by Professor Ray
Post:
My issue with BOINC v6.10.58 is that it solicits WU's when ALL of the WU's it presently has are HP.
13) Message boards : Questions and problems : bizarre stdoutgui.txt messages (v6.10.58) (Message 36625)
Posted 27 Jan 2011 by Professor Ray
Post:
Roger (that).
14) Message boards : Questions and problems : bizarre stdoutgui.txt messages (v6.10.58) (Message 36611)
Posted 27 Jan 2011 by Professor Ray
Post:
4:20:31 AM: Error: can't open file 'E:\BOINC\\RebootPending.txt' (error 2: the system cannot find the file specified.)

As indicated, the file doesn't exist. However, what does this mean? The aforementioned occurs from either every day to once per week or so. While it occurs indepentantly, it often is seen with the following entrained:

4:53:41 AM: Error: can't open file 'E:\BOINC\\RebootPending.txt' (error 2: the system cannot find the file specified.)
[01/26/11 04:53:42] TRACE [4020]: init_asynch() boinc_socket: 528

[01/26/11 04:53:42] TRACE [4020]: init_asynch() connect: -1

[01/26/11 04:53:42] TRACE [4020]: init_poll(): sock = 528

[01/26/11 04:53:43] TRACE [4020]: init_poll(): sock = 528

[01/26/11 04:53:43] TRACE [4020]: init_poll(): sock = 528

[01/26/11 04:53:43] TRACE [4020]: init_poll(): sock = 528

[01/26/11 04:53:43] TRACE [4020]: init_poll(): sock = 528

[01/26/11 04:53:43] TRACE [4020]: init_poll(): retrying connect: -1

[01/26/11 04:53:44] TRACE [4020]: init_poll(): sock = 528

[01/26/11 04:53:44] TRACE [4020]: init_poll(): sock = 528

[01/26/11 04:53:44] TRACE [4020]: init_poll(): sock = 528

[01/26/11 04:53:44] TRACE [4020]: init_poll(): sock = 528

[01/26/11 04:53:44] TRACE [4020]: init_poll(): retrying connect: -1

[01/26/11 04:53:45] TRACE [4020]: init_poll(): sock = 528

[01/26/11 04:53:45] TRACE [4020]: init_poll(): sock = 528

[01/26/11 04:53:45] TRACE [4020]: init_poll(): sock = 528

[01/26/11 04:53:45] TRACE [4020]: init_poll(): sock = 528

[01/26/11 04:53:45] TRACE [4020]: init_poll(): retrying connect: -1

[01/26/11 04:53:46] TRACE [4020]: init_poll(): sock = 528

[01/26/11 04:53:46] TRACE [4020]: init_poll(): sock = 528

[01/26/11 04:53:46] TRACE [4020]: init_poll(): sock = 528

[01/26/11 04:53:46] TRACE [4020]: init_poll(): sock = 528

[01/26/11 04:53:46] TRACE [4020]: init_poll(): retrying connect: -1

[01/26/11 04:53:47] TRACE [4020]: init_poll(): sock = 528

[01/26/11 04:53:47] TRACE [4020]: init_poll(): sock = 528

[01/26/11 04:53:47] TRACE [4020]: init_poll(): connected to port 31416

[01/26/11 04:53:49] TRACE [4020]: init_poll(): sock = 528

[01/26/11 04:53:49] TRACE [4020]: init_poll(): connected to port 31416

Furthermore, this batch of messages has been recorded:

[11/28/10 11:41:26] TRACE [1252]: init_poll(): connected to port 31416
5:30:20 PM: Error: Memory VFS already contains file 'webexternallink.xpm'!
5:30:20 PM: Error: Memory VFS already contains file 'nvidiaicon.xpm'!
5:30:20 PM: Error: Memory VFS already contains file 'atiicon.xpm'!
5:30:20 PM: Error: Memory VFS already contains file 'multicore.xpm'!
11:02:54 PM: Error: can't open file 'E:\BOINC\\RebootPending.txt' (error 2: the system cannot find the file specified.)
2:06:07 PM: Error: can't open file 'E:\BOINC\\RebootPending.txt' (error 2: the system cannot find the file specified.)
5:45:36 AM: Error: can't open file 'E:\BOINC\\RebootPending.txt' (error 2: the system cannot find the file specified.)
5:49:24 PM: Error: can't open file 'E:\BOINC\\RebootPending.txt' (error 2: the system cannot find the file specified.)
[12/15/10 17:50:12] TRACE [1744]: init_asynch() boinc_socket: 528

...and the whole init.poll() mess repeats itself ad nauseum
15) Message boards : Projects : Comodo Internet Security - Trusted Vendor List Sign Up (Message 34992)
Posted 28 Sep 2010 by Professor Ray
Post:
After some investigation into this matter, I determined this isn't all that much of an issue. While it may be ideal to have BOINC and any BOINC projects recognized by Comodo Internet Security suite out-of-the-box as trusted applications, if the BOINC projects & slots folders are desigated with 'installer / updateer' HIPS policy, sandboxing of any BOINC project binaries is circumvented.
16) Message boards : Projects : Comodo Internet Security - Trusted Vendor List Sign Up (Message 34964)
Posted 26 Sep 2010 by Professor Ray
Post:
Thanks for the reply Ageless. Apparently there's a distinction between public keys and digital signatures.

BOINC.exe properties has a tab that displays a digital signature. That tab is missing for all project apps. Maybe UoC, Berkeley sprung for the cost of BOINC CA certificate? If that's the case, then the public keys of the project apps is a moot point in that they're not valid for establishment of 'trusted' application by HIPS computer security applications.

The issue isn't that of AV in that the apps aren't being detected as malware. What's occuring is the apps are being detected as 'unrecognized' and virtualized in sandbox. THAT results in WU computation error until the project app is manually declared 'safe' by the user. How long it takes for computation error to manifest itself is as long as it takes for the project app to attempt access of some system resource, e.g., run executable, interprocess memory access, Windows / WinEvent hooks, process termination, Windows Messaging, protected COM interfaces, protected registry keys, protected files / folders, DNS / RPC client service(s), physical memory, monitor, disk or keyboard.

The foregoiong are intercepted by Comodo's HIPS on a per application basis. That means that minirosetta_2.14_windows_intelx86.exe has a suite of access rights. When minirosetta_2.15_windows_intelx86.exe was released, that executable needed an entirely discrete set of access rights.

BOINC.exe has a dgital signature and can be user defined as trusted. There's no problem with BOINC's access rights. It has rights to run anything in BOINC_data\projects. So BOINC.exe launching
...\projects\boinc.gorlaeus.nettrajtou-pd110paw_5.40_windows_intelx86.exe
is not an issue. But ...\projects\boinc.gorlaeus.net\trajtou-pd110paw_5.40_windows_intelx86.exe launching
...\projects\boinc.gorlaeus.net\classical_5.56_windows_intelx86.exe IS an issue. And furthermore, whatever
...\projects\boinc.gorlaeus.net\classical_5.56_windows_intelx86.exe wants to do will ALSO be an issue.

Obviously one solution would be to declare EVERY file contained in ...\projects\* & ...\slots\* as trusted. But what kind of maintenance nightmare is that when projects update their apps (as per minirosetta_2.14 & minirosetta_2.15 for example)?

One solution to this would be to have all the projects apps digitally signed akin to the way the BOINC client / manager are. However, as you explain, that doesn't seem to be feasible. However, you did mention that BOINC uses the project apps public keys as a verification mechanism internal to BOINC to determine the integrity of the client apps being run by BOINC. I'm certain the problem could be resolved if the Comodo HIPS client was similiarly aware of these project application public keys. But as it stands, that's not possible without communication between BOINC devs and Comodo devs.
17) Message boards : Questions and problems : Reusing old hardware (Message 34962)
Posted 26 Sep 2010 by Professor Ray
Post:
The minimum hardware requirements for Windows XP Professional include:

Pentium 233-megahertz (MHz) processor or faster (300 MHz is recommended)
At least 64 megabytes (MB) of RAM (128 MB is recommended)
At least 1.5 gigabytes (GB) of available space on the hard disk
CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive
Keyboard and a Microsoft Mouse or some other compatible pointing device
Video adapter and monitor with Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher resolution


Vista minimum system requirements:

•800 megahertz (MHz) processor and 512 MB of system memory

•20 GB hard drive with at least 15 GB of available space

•Support for Super VGA graphics

•CD-ROM drive

Windows 7 should run on Vista compatible hardware if properly detuned, i.e., disable all non-essential services. The requirements for XP are pretty tight. I'd recommend at least the minimum Vista hardware. Obviously all non-essential services should be disabled for all aforementioned OS on legacy hardware.

The ideal in all cases would be to have 2 GB of RAM onboard. If there's a choice between XP & Vista (or Win 7), go with the latter as the memory management technology is vastly superior to that of Win XP. As far as that goes, forget any of the Win XP predecessors. The difference in memory management technology is akin to night and day.

As far as running off of USB memory sticks, forget it with legacy hardware unless your 'legacy' hardware is USB 2.0 capable. That'll give you at best 40 MB/sec bandwidth (equivalant to poor performance ATA 100 IDE drive).
18) Message boards : Questions and problems : boinc as scheduled task? (Message 34959)
Posted 26 Sep 2010 by Professor Ray
Post:
Just noticed that BOINC.exe is a scheduled task in the Windows task scheduler.

Uh. O.k. I guess.

Right?
19) Message boards : Projects : Comodo Internet Security - Trusted Vendor List Sign Up (Message 34915)
Posted 24 Sep 2010 by Professor Ray
Post:
I appreciate your response. I understand the concern about the cost of trusted CA certification. As it stands, BOINC manager and core client are selectable w/in Comodo Internet Security Defense+ Trusted Vendor screen on the baxis that the code is at a minimum self-signed as @University of California, Berkeley (company name: Space Sciences Laboratory). This, at a minimum, allows BOINC to be defined as user trusted by the user.

Unfortunately NONE of the binaries for projaects I particpate in are signed and therefor not selectable as being trusted vendors. Unfortunately, as a result of this, when Comdodo encounters the executable of any arbitrary project for the first time, it is ssandboxed as an unrecognized application. The virtualization that sandboxing entails results in the abortion of that WU. Although the project application can be configured trusted, release of another project application core will result in the same ocenario, e.g.

minirosetta_2.15_windows_intelx86.exe
minirosetta_2.14_windows_intelx86.exe

...\projects\boinc.gorlaeus.nettrajtou-pd110paw_5.40_windows_intelx86.exe
...\projects\boinc.gorlaeus.net\classical_5.56_windows_intelx86.exe

Moroever, although ...\projects\boinc.bio.wzw.tum.de_boincsimap\simap_5.10_windows_intelx86.exe has GSF specified for company name in the exe's properties, it is not digitally signed. In fact, BOINCSimap is the only BOINC project app with such declaration.

Its disappointing to realize that neither BOINC nor associated project applications could ever be on the Comodo Trusted Vendor list. I understand that this is just an economic fact of life. However, if you could bring to bear whatever influence you may have with any arbitrary project themselves, if they at a very minimum self-sign their binaries, that alone would facilitate things for CIS users.

Thank you for your consideration and attention to this matter.
20) Message boards : Projects : Comodo Internet Security - Trusted Vendor List Sign Up (Message 34882)
Posted 24 Sep 2010 by Professor Ray
Post:
Given the dynamic nature of BOINC projects, i.e., multiple clients that may be viable depending on the science that is being conducted for any arbitrary project's WUs, it would facilitate things for project participants that utilize firewalls, HIPS applications such as Comodo Internet Security, if project developers would digitally sign their binaries with a certificate from a trusted CA.

http://internetsecurity.comodo.com/trustedvendor/signup.php

The above URL is a link to a form that allows software vendors to request the addition of their software to the Trusted Vendor List that ships with Comodo Internet Security. This ensures their software will be automatically trusted by the application.

•Your software must be available for download by [Comodo] technicians
•Your software must be code signed with a certificate from a trusted CA (self-signed code signing certs are not acceptable)
•The 'Company Name' you provide below matches the name of the signer on the certificate
•You must provide a valid email address

Please forward this request to adminstrators of all BOINC projects w/the request that ALL of their project applications be digitally signed, e.g., Lattice which has no less than three distinct distributed computing applications avail.


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