Posts by DarkStar

1) Message boards : BOINC Manager : Network Option doesn't "stick" (Message 2891)
Posted 31 Jan 2006 by DarkStar
Post:
Which BOINC version?

First appeared with 5.2.13, and has continued up through several developer versions - from 5.3.6 through 5.3.12 that I'm sure of.
2) Message boards : BOINC Manager : Network Option doesn't "stick" (Message 2889)
Posted 31 Jan 2006 by DarkStar
Post:
Okay, I realize I'm talking to myself - but thought I'd pass this on for anyone else who might experience the same problem.

The registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Space Sciences Laboratory, U.C. Berkeley\\BOINC Manager

contains a value titled "NetworkConnectionType" which, when set to 2725 (Hex) corrects the problem. I still don't know why it wouldn't take when selecting the radio box in BOINC Manager, but this registry edit seems to be working.
3) Message boards : BOINC Manager : Switch from main project to secundaire when Main is down. (Message 2717)
Posted 23 Jan 2006 by DarkStar
Post:
What BOINC needs is secondary project(s) support. No work would be downloaded for a secondary project unless the Primary projects are all out of work. And then it would only download one WU (or a number you set) at a time and when it is done, check the Primary projects for work before requesting additional secondary work.

You might be interested in trux's Calibrated BOINC Core Client, available at http://boinc.truxoft.com/core-cal.htm. While it was developed to increase the accuracy of credit claimed under SETI when using optimized science applications, the "priority_projects" option that's included might be just what you're looking for.
4) Message boards : BOINC Manager : Network Option doesn't "stick" (Message 2714)
Posted 23 Jan 2006 by DarkStar
Post:
I have a laptop that keeps telling me "BOINC Needs to Connect".

While the laptop has several configured network interfaces available (dialup, wireless, wired), only the wired interface is active. Power management for the interface is disabled, so that's not the problem.

However, in Options/Options/Connections, when I click the "Use my Local Area Network(LAN) connection" it doesn't "stick". Instead, the next time I look, it's reverted back to "Automatically detect network settings"

Operating system is WinXP Home. Any clues?
5) Message boards : BOINC client : Switch Between Applications Every (x) Minutes (Message 2578)
Posted 13 Jan 2006 by DarkStar
Post:
Thanks again, Paul, that's very helpful - I'd also prefer to complete than switch in the middle. Because I don't leave projects in memory when suspended, reducing the frequency of switching should also reduce the (albeit little) time lost as a result. I was concerned that there might be unforeseen negative effects of increasing the time.

I'm also interested in your comment about "machines running with various resource shares with either a 2 or 4 hour switch time" - does this mean that you're able to set different resource shares and switch time on a per machine basis, or are you using the "Home/Work/School" configuration options to achieve the effect?

Currently, I'm running 8 boxes ranging in capability from a P3/1000 to P4/3.4's, so that might be a good option for me to investigate, also.

By the way, as it turns out the majority of the EDF was a result of joining a project from BOINCMGR, instead of manually creating an account and setting the resource share first. By the time I got to reducing the resource share for the backup project, BOINC had already downloaded a day's worth of work (assuming the default share) which in the case of the system involved (the P3) would hold it for a couple of months, if not longer. Somebody will probably say bad things about me for aborting a number of results, but by the time the system decided to go into EDF most of them wouldn't have completed before the deadline anyway.

Thanks again for the help!
6) Message boards : BOINC Manager : Updating BOINC and BONC Behavior... (Message 2577)
Posted 13 Jan 2006 by DarkStar
Post:
3. When the BOINC Manager loads at startup, it minimizes itself on my task bar (not the system tray) and won't go away.

I see this happen also (though intermittently). The solution (for me) is to click on the BOINCMGR icon in the System Tray, and then close it - it minimizes back to the system tray and clears the task bar as well.
7) Message boards : BOINC client : Switch Between Applications Every (x) Minutes (Message 2557)
Posted 12 Jan 2006 by DarkStar
Post:
Thanks, Paul - that helps. I'm just trying to determine the most efficient settings for my specific setup ... as the old adage goes, "one size fits all usually doesn't".

Playing with these things is part of the fun.
8) Message boards : BOINC client : Switch Between Applications Every (x) Minutes (Message 2550)
Posted 12 Jan 2006 by DarkStar
Post:
I'm curious what the ramifications are of the "Switch Between Applications Every (x) Minutes" setting, with a 60 minute default.

Does the scheduler stop and restart to see what it's doing every (x) minutes? Or does it just check to see if there's something else it's supposed to be doing?

Or is it more like if the scheduler realizes it needs to do something else, it won't happen until (x)?

If I have a resource share of 90/10 between project A and project B, when project B starts and requires a *bit* more time than (x) to fill its quota, will it continue to run until 2(x)? Conversely, if project A is running and about to finish some work, and (x) rolls around (and there's some work for project B due), will A be terminated precisely at (x) or will it be allowed to finish its work (or at least to its next checkpoint?

Just trying to understand the interactions of the various settings - thanks for any help.
9) Message boards : BOINC client : Use of multiple disks (Message 2510)
Posted 11 Jan 2006 by DarkStar
Post:
Hi, Brian - I'm not sure if this is a "supported" alternative or not, but I've learned that losing the registry data doesn't appear to cause any harm in terms of loss of work for BOINC. In fact, the next time it runs it will recreate the necessary registry keys (most of which are actually nothing other than window and column widths, and an MRU list for clients you've connected to). In my particular case, the only thing that mattered that I needed to reset afterward was the Network Connection Type, which reverted to Default from Use My LAN (I'm otherwise using default prefs and "run according to prefs").

So it seems that your idea of installing to a non-system drive and running from there actually should work. I found this when doing something similar, attempting to work out a "sneakernet" method using removeable hard drives (still working some other minor glitches out of that process, but not related to registry data).

Hope it helps!
10) Message boards : BOINC client : Feature Request: Project Specific Cache Size (Message 2509)
Posted 11 Jan 2006 by DarkStar
Post:
I'm sorry but this will not be happening. The queue size setting is more likely to disappear entirely than to be made project specific.

It seems like that would only discourage participation in multiple projects by those who have a particular project of primary interest, but if a decision's been made (shrug).
11) Message boards : BOINC client : Feature Request: Project Specific Cache Size (Message 2502)
Posted 10 Jan 2006 by DarkStar
Post:
Actually, a better fix for the EDF problem is already "on the list" - to take into account the resource share when doing work fetch. Then when it gets "x" days work, it'll get 90% from your 90% project and 10% from your 10% project.

That's some help, certainly.
I'd still like to be able to set the cache per project though... it's just that that is a much "larger" change to the code, so it's unlikely we'll see it soon.

Of course, there's another reasonably good reason for it, as different projects have different urgency, and will vary widely on their return requirements. If the BOINC client doesn't also take that into account, we'll still have similar problems. If my system's fetching 10% of the work from a project with 10 times the deadline time ... well ...
12) Message boards : BOINC client : Feature Request: Project Specific Cache Size (Message 2477)
Posted 10 Jan 2006 by DarkStar
Post:
Subject says it all. I'd like to see cache size (Connect to Network Every x Days) become a project specific, rather than global setting. This would be useful to avoid going into EDF for projects with a lower resource share.
13) Message boards : BOINC Manager : Running BOINC as a service on WinXP - Requires password? Installer issue... (Message 2437)
Posted 7 Jan 2006 by DarkStar
Post:
After installation, I can go to Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Services, right click on BOINC, go to the Log On tab, and tell it to Log on as Local System Account. That way, it requires no log on at all, and the Process tab in the Task Manager shows the User Name as SYSTEM.

Excellent. Now if there were just some way to do a remote install that way!
14) Message boards : BOINC Manager : BOINCMGR Startup (Message 2436)
Posted 7 Jan 2006 by DarkStar
Post:
This is probably covered somewhere else, but I didn't find it (search seems to be sort of hosed somehow).

Is there any way that BOINCMGR on Windows can be configured to startup directly to the system tray, without the big (kinda ugly since it's mostly blank) white window appearing in the middle of the screen for a few seconds while it's doing whatever it's doing before it minimizes itself?

Note that I am using the /s option, and have already attempted setting the startup shortcut to "run minimized" which hasn't helped.

Alternatively, is there any documentation on what command line options BOINCMGR uses to start BOINC (in Windows)? If so, I'd like to experiment with starting just BOINC itself and only running BOINCMGR when I need it. Or is this something that's only possible on non-Windows platforms?

Thanks!



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