Posts by Zeiss Ikon

21) Message boards : Questions and problems : BOINC Manager: no activity in three weeks and no "Disk" graphic (Message 104387)
Posted 16 May 2021 by Zeiss Ikon
Post:
I noticed the other day that my CPU was running near zero rather than near 100%, indicating BOINC tasks had stopped. I got time today to check into it beyond that level and discovered that I have one Einstein GPU task that seems to have been static for about three weeks, and a bunch (probably my usual buffer of two days of work units) of MilkyWay CPU tasks that show "ready to report" but haven't been uploaded and replaced with fresh tasks.

The only notifications I see in BOINC Manager are one from Einstein warning me that my settings don't allow downloading CPU tasks and one from MilkyWay warning that my settings don't allow downloading GPU tasks; this is intentional, to keep them from competing with each other.

In the past, I've had computation stops because of my disk settings (over time, I have to adjust these as free space on my system partition changes -- which begs the question of why BOINC for Linux defaults to putting its disk storage in the system volume) -- but now I find the "Disk" tab displays no pie chart; I see just a small place holder square in the upper left of that tab, and I don't have the options that I'm used to seeing. This suggests something is broken in the BOINC manager (if the tasks situation didn't already).

My installed BOINC Manager version is Linux 64-bit 7.16.6, on Kubuntu 20.04, kept up to date (and I haven't had an error message during a system update in several weeks). I'm running an AMD FX8350 CPU, nVidia GTx750 with 1 GB VRAM on 460.73.01 proprietary driver, kept updated automatically; I have 16 GB RAM and a 250 GB SSD containing my system volume, /home, swap, and a couple other partitions (plus a 1 TB platter drive with a bunch of legacy stuff from Windows XP). Everything else seems to run well; my system has been restarted due to OS updates several times since the last confirmed task updates.

I have tried 
sudo apt install --reinstall boinc-client boinc-client-opencl boinc-manager libboinc7
(and subsequently purged boinc-client-opencl after realizing it was AMD graphics specific), no change.

I'm not a power user by any stretch, neither of Kubuntu nor of BOINC; if you need logs please include information on where/how to find them.
22) Message boards : Questions and problems : Ubuntu -- After recent update, BOINC Manager is blank and tasks aren't running. (Message 86084)
Posted 3 May 2018 by Zeiss Ikon
Post:
Bingo. Ubuntu had an update available this morning, still marked at 7.10.1, but now my clients (Einstein and Milkyway) started right up and picked up where they left off.
23) Message boards : Questions and problems : Ubuntu -- After recent update, BOINC Manager is blank and tasks aren't running. (Message 86050)
Posted 1 May 2018 by Zeiss Ikon
Post:
The title pretty well covers it: I had an update along with a bunch of other stuff last night; got up this morning, and my fan seemed too quiet. Conky shows near-zero CPU. Open BOINC Manager, no projects, never mind tasks. Everything in the menus (advanced view) is grayed out, except the File and Help menus.

I presume I need to "reconnect" the manager, but there are no instructions in the manager help for doing so (that I've found), and something I need to do once or twice a year just doesn't stick.

I'm running Ubuntu Mate 16.04.5 on AMD FX8350 (8 cores, 8 threads, up to 4.1 GHz) with 16 GB RAM, nVidia GTx950, and this ran perfectly (if a little noisily due to high fan speed) before last night's update. Same thing happened with my laptop (Same Ubuntu version, Core i7-3250 Mobile, 2 cores, 4 threads, up to 3.5 GHz, 8 GB RAM, Intel graphics) after a similar update on Saturday the 28th.
24) Message boards : Questions and problems : Ubuntu - Updater wants to remove BOINC Manager?! (Message 81928)
Posted 10 Oct 2017 by Zeiss Ikon
Post:
Okay, I found the problem. There's a package named "golly" -- Game of Life, and a really good one. It depends on libwxgtk-3.0-0, which prevented that file from being replaced by the 3.0-0v5 version, and up the dependency chain. Now, I have a working BOINC Manager again, but I no longer have Golly. Guess someone needs to nag the maintainers of the "golly" package to update its gtk dependency.
25) Message boards : Questions and problems : Ubuntu - Updater wants to remove BOINC Manager?! (Message 81531)
Posted 21 Sep 2017 by Zeiss Ikon
Post:
Yes, I have the costamagnagian repo enabled. I haven't had a working BOINC manager since attempting to lock the version failed (though the clients are still pounding through work units). It works fine on my "new" refurbed laptop, running Ubuntu MATE 16.04. The other machine (my older laptop) still running 14.04 doesn't have a mouse plugged in at the moment (and the touchpad disabled in BIOS to prevent it moving my cursor when I'm typing), so I can't readily check if it's still got a working BOINC Manager -- I don't update it as regularly as my desktop machine, but I might also have missed this on that machine.

Given it wasn't working anyway, I unlocked boinc-manager and libwxgtk-webview3.0-0, and removed both packages. I still can't install libwxgtk-webview3.0-0v5; Synaptic says it's got broken dependencies, and invoking edit>fix broken packages gives me a message that " you have held broken packages". Apparently, it depends on something that's not in a repo I have enabled. Any suggestions what repo I need to add?
26) Message boards : Questions and problems : Ubuntu - Updater wants to remove BOINC Manager?! (Message 80917)
Posted 7 Sep 2017 by Zeiss Ikon
Post:
I use Synaptic, mostly because I'm used to it. I assure you, I'm being told that boinc-manager 7.6.33+dfsg-0 is to be removed. Not upgraded, removed. Attempts to instead mark this package for upgrade, or to force version to 7.8.2 (seemingly available for trusty) result in the same effect: removal of libwxgtk-webview3.0-0, which appears to be a BOINC Manager depend. Marking the meta-package boinc for installation also marks libwxgtk-webview3.0-0 for removal, and thus marks various boinc-client packages to install or upgrade, but does not mark boinc-manager to install.

I do see a newer version of libwxgtk-webview3.0-0, labeled as libwxgtk-webview3.0-0v5, but marking that version also results in either removing or breaking boinc-manager 7.6.33. For the time being, I'm going to try locking boinc-manager and libwxgtk-webview3.0-0, so as to be able to install other needed updates without making it impossible to manage my BOINC clients.

Edit: Adding to this, despite locking versions as noted above, after completing updates that updated my boinc-client packages, boinc-manager now will not start from the same launcher I've used for three years, since installing on a then-new Kubuntu 14.04. Attempting to launch in terminal gives no output at all, just a pause of a few seconds and a return to the prompt.
27) Message boards : Questions and problems : Ubuntu - Updater wants to remove BOINC Manager?! (Message 80867)
Posted 6 Sep 2017 by Zeiss Ikon
Post:
I'm running BOINC on three machines now, one of them my desktop machine, which has been running MilkyWay (CPU) for several years, and Einstein (GPU) for a little more than two years.

Yesterday, I happened to look before committing on a system update, and noted that the BOINC client was to be updated (along with some libraries it depends on, of course) -- and the BOINC Manager was to be removed?!

I don't see BOINC Manager being replaced with something else, it's just being removed entirely. For the moment, I've blocked all the BOINC updates -- but is this expected/intended, and if so, why don't I see a message or announcement in the manager itself?

Woops, guess I should tell potential help that I'm running BOINC for 64-bit Linux, installed from the Berkeley repository, with this machine running Kubuntu 14.04.5 LTS.
28) Message boards : Questions and problems : Moving BOINC data file folder isn't working (Message 79461)
Posted 4 Jul 2017 by Zeiss Ikon
Post:
Okay, problem solved, and with a method that's likely to work for anyone on any version of Linux.

Previous to my original post here, I'd moved the BOINC storage from /var/lib/boinc-client to ~/.boinc-client, and created a symlink replacing /var/lib/boinc-client. It might be that my 14.04 is using systemd; I'm running a 4.4 series kernel (mainly because it seems to be faster than the 3.13 series). However that may be, the method in the link I originally posted for repointing the client to see the new location for its storage hadn't worked; it was still reporting no space available and no tasks.

If you prefer, you could use any storage volume with enough free space in place of ~/ and there's certainly no requirement to hide the storage folder.

To solve this, I purged the boinc meta-package: using synaptic, I marked every installed package that came up in a search for boinc for complete uninstallation. During the process of removing those packages, I was prompted whether to remove the storage folder containing project and task information -- I answered NO.

Once that was done, I took the opportunity to auto-remove many old kernel versions (Ubuntu seems to send kernel updates once a week or more, and doesn't automatically remove them regardless of their age).

After finishing the auto-remove, I reinstalled BOINC using the boinc-client-nvidia-cuda metapackage, and added the boinc-manager metapackage to obtain the GUI controls. Once done, and the system restarted, BOINC Manager reports 50+ GB free (indicating it is using the ~/ storage) and has downloaded new tasks for both of my projects (CPU tasks for Milkyway, and GPU for Einstein). Existing Einstein tasks were preserved.

Now, my BOINC projects are storing their data in a partition that has (relatively) lots of space, and isn't subject to filling up without my noticing (I don't store photos or music on the SSD; they live on a couple platter drives in the same machine). As a bonus, I once again have approximately 15 GB free in the OS partition.
29) Message boards : Questions and problems : Moving BOINC data file folder isn't working (Message 79447)
Posted 4 Jul 2017 by Zeiss Ikon
Post:
Agentb, I saw that thread, but didn't try to follow that process because 16.04 doesn't work the same as 14.04 in a number of ways (systemd vs. upstart being a significant change in itself). For space reasons, I must move my BOINC working directories. The partition with my home folder has about 55 GB free; the one with the OS, even after I clear out old kernels, would have no more than about 10 GB, and tends to fill up with frequent kernel updates.

I did correct the ownership and permissions for the folder when I moved it, but I'm not sure how to even tell if BOINC is looking in the right place -- I suspect it's not, because it's reporting that it has zero space for anything.

If I'm understanding your/Juha's method correctly, it's better to put the BOINC data on another hard disk, rather than a different folder or partition on the same physical drive? I don't see how that matters with the way Linux manages filesystems. What I tried first, using GUI tools, is essentially the same process you give above, except I didn't make a backup copy. Making a symlink to the new folder location didn't work; I got the same result I have now (i.e. BOINC reports it has no space, no tasks, and no projects). That was the point where I started the search that led to attempting to alter BOINC configuration files.

The last time I had any major problem with BOINC not working, I wound up having to purge and reinstall; I'm willing to do that now, but since there's no option during installation or setup to put the task storage in a different place, I'll still need to relocate BOINC storage.
30) Message boards : Questions and problems : Moving BOINC data file folder isn't working (Message 79438)
Posted 2 Jul 2017 by Zeiss Ikon
Post:
I'm using BOINC 7.6.33 64-bit in Kubuntu 14.04.5 LTS (also 64-bit); I run CPU-only tasks for Milkyway, and GPU-only tasks (on nVidia GTx950 with up to date driver) for Einstein. If it matters, I have a Core2Quad 2.7 GHz with 8 GB RAM, running OS and BOINC from an SSD.

I'm having trouble with disk space availability (again) in my OS partition, which is currently 30 GB, so I'm trying to move the BOINC data folder to another location that has about 30+ GB of free space (and won't tend to fill up if I forget to delete old kernel versions, as my OS partition does). I've followed the instructions here, but now when I start BOINC manager I see a report that there is zero disk used, zero available, and zero storage for both projects. I know the instructions are three years old and for an older version of Ubuntu, but I found all the same folders and files as expected, so I expected this to work.

I used Dolphin with root privilege to move the boinc-client folder to my ~/, where I renamed to ~/.boinc-client, then I edited /etc/default/boinc-client to have BOINC_DIR="/home/myuser/.boinc-client" as instructed. All of this was done with BOINC manager closed from its File menu, with the "stop all tasks" option checked -- but when I start BOINC Manager, now, it has no projects, no tasks, and shows no disk available or used.

What have I done wrong, and how can I fix it?


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