Posts by Sidewinder

1) Message boards : BOINC client : Bugs in 6.6.31/WinXP (Message 25180)
Posted 3 Jun 2009 by Sidewinder
Post:
1) As reported already for 6.4.6, the screensaver still doesn't launch boinc.exe (the client executable), just shows status information when boinc.exe is already running. This pretty much defeats the entire purpose of the screensaver at least for GPUGRID. With a working screensaver you get OS support for _proper_ user activity detection, which other software are able to override (such as media players, which will inhibit screensavers while watching a 1,5 hour movie for example, that will be irritatingly interrupted by a CUDA load without manually disabling BOINC in advance).

2) The user "processor usage/Computing allowed" settings in Preferences are illogical for CUDA loads.

(a) If neither setting
(1) "Use GPU while computer is in use"
nor
(2) "While computer is in use" are selected,
(3) there is a number in the field "Only after computer has been idle for xx.xx minutes",
(4) Activity selection is "Run always" and
(5) there is user activity,
the CUDA load is not running (status shows as "Waiting to run").

- Expected result is that it should be running with user activity (always should mean just that!).

b) If
(1) "Use GPU while computer is in use" is selected,
(2) "While computer is in use" is _not_ selected,
(3) there is a number in the field "Only after computer has been idle for xx.xx minutes",
(4) there is user activity,
(5) Activity selection is "Run always", the result is that the CUDA load is running.

c) With the settings 1-4 above and
(6) Activity selection is "Run based on preferences", the result is that the CUDA load is not running (status "Suspended - user active").

d) But with
(1) "Use GPU while computer is in use" selected and
(2) "While computer is in use" also selected,
(3) there is a number in the field "Only after computer has been idle for xx.xx minutes",
(4) there is user activity,
(5) Activity selection is "Run based on preferences", the CUDA load is running.

- Expected result is that the setting "Use GPU while computer is in use" should act consistently as being independent of "While computer is in use" or subordinate to it (considered only if the earliers setting is also enabled). Or in other words, if both settings are required to be enabled for CUDA load to run with user activity, then enabling _only_ "Use GPU..." should have no effect whatsoever, but it does, and quite unexpectedly to a situation where "Run always" is selected.

3) Setting Advanced/Options/General/Run manager at login? has no effect. Enabling or disabling this setting will not remove or add the lines for boincmgr.exe and boinctray.exe in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run, the only result of closing this dialog with OK (without touching the proxy settings or even opening their tab) is this:
"stdoutdae.txt" wrote:
03-Jun-2009 04:15:11 [---] Not using a proxy
2) Message boards : BOINC client : Screensaver not launching the client (Message 24265)
Posted 13 Apr 2009 by Sidewinder
Post:
By the way, does GPUGrid have a screen saver then?


IIRC it didn't have anything else than the BOINC logo and two rows of text floating around in 6.4.5 (it wouldn't make much sense to have any rendering, since it would waste GPU cycles that could be used to do actual work). However, in 6.4.5 the screensaver launched the client which did CUDA work and the screensaver also indicated that the client is running in the two lines of text. Now it doesn't. This was verified by both looking at the client logs and monitoring of the GPU temperature, which has an unmistakable rise whenever any CUDA load is being processed.
3) Message boards : BOINC client : Screensaver not launching the client (Message 24242)
Posted 12 Apr 2009 by Sidewinder
Post:
Same thing with 6.6.21.0.

However, I noticed that it states "BOINC is currently idle." if the client is already running when the screen saver activates, but has no work to crunch (due to the GPUGRID project servers being offline currently). So in other words, the screensaver is able to interface with the client, just not launch the client on its own.

Also, my BOINC folders are in different path than default (checked the permissions for them, which are Full Control for "SYSTEM" and the user account attempting to use the screen saver).
4) Message boards : BOINC client : Screensaver not launching the client (Message 23390)
Posted 2 Mar 2009 by Sidewinder
Post:
The changes to the screensaver in 6.4.6 broke it completely for me. It no longer launches the client at all. Also the setting "Go to blank screen" has no effect either. It basically just shows the "BOINC is not running. Please launch BOINC to display graphics" image and does nothing else.

In 6.4.5 the screensaver still worked (but that version had its high CPU usage issues with GPUGRID). I also tried 6.6.11 with the same result (installed with the "Use BOINC screensaver" option). Otherwise either version works just fine from the BOINC Manager. Checked the firewall, no issues there (access to localhost granted to the screensaver).

Is there any instrumented version I could run, since the screensaver leaves no logs that I'm aware of when the client is not even started (checked the "Data" directory).

Windows XP Pro SP3, 8800GT with the 182.06 driver. Message digest for the digital signature on the 6.6.11.0 boinc.scr in my WINNT directory is:
04 14 fd 34 c7 80 e4 de ...4....
8b dc 2c 3b 5f 0a 8f ef ..,;_...
90 af bb d0 e6 4e .....N



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