Posts by computezrmle

1) Message boards : BOINC client : 8.1.0 Not able to start a client. (Message 113803)
Posted 21 Mar 2024 by computezrmle
Post:
Just a quick look at the master source used for boinc-client.service.
There's this line:
ProtectHome=true

Didn't test it yet but you may try to use:
ProtectHome=false

Then run "sudo systemctl daemon-reload" and restart the client.
2) Message boards : Questions and problems : BOINC seems to tell any V-Box project not to run on this machine. (Message 113801)
Posted 21 Mar 2024 by computezrmle
Post:
Of course you can test it, even without getting a task.

This is your computer at LHC@home:
https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/show_host_detail.php?hostid=10835631

It states:
Virtualbox (7.0.6) installed, CPU does not have hardware virtualization support


Now change your local configuration, step by step according to each advice you have been given, reboot, start BOINC and connect to the project (once).

Then check again the computer details page.
as long as the statement from above remains unchanged (and I don't mean the VirtualBox version) the project will not send any VBox tasks.
This makes sense since you (your computer) tells the project you are not able to run those tasks.
So why should they waste them and send any?

And yes, you have been told that a couple of times (see LHC@home) but it looks like you ignore every advice.


Hint.
On the computer details page you must find something like this:
Virtualbox (7.0.14) installed, CPU has hardware virtualization support and it is enabled
3) Message boards : Questions and problems : lost team points on march 13th (Message 113791)
Posted 19 Mar 2024 by computezrmle
Post:
LHC@home was fine.
It was LHC@home-dev that temporarily got all credits from LHC@home.

Boincstats corrected this last week.
4) Message boards : Questions and problems : BOINC seems to tell any V-Box project not to run on this machine. (Message 113773)
Posted 16 Mar 2024 by computezrmle
Post:
Add #5.
Another possible reason if you run BOINC inside a VirtualBox guest.
To forward hardware virtualization to the guest this option must be ticked in the VirtualBox GUI:
System -> Processor -> Enable Nested VT-x/AMD-V
5) Message boards : Questions and problems : BOINC seems to tell any V-Box project not to run on this machine. (Message 113771)
Posted 15 Mar 2024 by computezrmle
Post:
This is what the VirtualBox manual explains regarding hardware virtualization in section 10.3:
"Oracle VM VirtualBox's 64-bit guest and multiprocessing (SMP) support both require hardware virtualization to be enabled."

Rosetta and LHC@home both send out vbox64 applications, which means their guests are 64-bit.
LHC@home even sends out a multiprocessing application (ATLAS).

Both don't send vbox tasks to a computer that reports hardware virtualization is disabled, like your computer at LHC@home does:
"Virtualbox (7.0.6) installed, CPU does not have hardware virtualization support"


Things you will have to do

1.
Ensure SVM/AMD-V is enabled in the computer's BIOS

2.
Ensure other hypervisors don't conflict with VirtualBox.
Best would be to disable them if they are not required elsewhere.
This mainly applies to Hyper-V which can be disabled running this command as admin:
bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off

Then reboot.
Be aware that WSL uses certain Hyper-V components.
Your logs show that you use WSL, hence Hyper-V is not completely disabled.

3.
Ensure "<p_vm_extensions_disabled>" is set to "0" in BOINC's client_state.xml.
Detailed instructions can be found here.

4.
In your Windows Defender Security Center disable "Memory integrity" as it also conflicts with VirtualBox's hardware virtualization.
6) Message boards : Questions and problems : Can't get virtual work. (Message 113666)
Posted 23 Feb 2024 by computezrmle
Post:
Just checked your computer details page at LHC@home.
It states this:
Virtualbox (7.0.6) installed, CPU does not have hardware virtualization support

Since your BOINC client just reports what it gets from the BIOS/OS you have to ensure your BIOS/OS options are correctly set.
Otherwise you will never get any vbox tasks.


Most common reason:
AMD-V (on an AMD platform) is disabled in the BIOS (on Intel it would be VT-x).
This must be enabled.
Carefully read your BIOS documentation since some manufacturers may use slightly different names or use more than just 1 switch.


Next common reason:
On Windows Hyper-V might be enabled.
Hyper-V is a type-1-hypervisor started before any hyper-2-hypervisor like VirtualBox.
Hence, all computer resources already allocated by Hyper-V are no longer available for other hypervisors.
Ensure Hyper-V and all related components, e.g. WSL, are fully disabled or uninstalled.
Be aware that Windows updates may reenable Hyper-V.

You may use this command as admin, then reboot:
bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off



Next common reason:
On Windows 11 "Memory integrity" must be switched off.


Other reasons, e.g. virus scanner issues ..., are mentioned in a checklist at the LHC@home forum as well as in many other comments there.


As for IOMMU
Shouldn't be included any more in recent VirtualBox versions as mentioned here:
https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=99396
7) Message boards : Questions and problems : Runninb BOINC on a Win 11 laptop (Message 113289)
Posted 16 Dec 2023 by computezrmle
Post:
This will not necessarily put less load on the cooling system.
Unlike (very) old CPUs modern ones can be limited by power usage and/or CPU temperature.
The same power usage/temperature can be reached with few cores running at a high frequency or more/all cores running at a lower frequency.

The cooling system must be able to deal with max limits.
If not this would be a design issue.

Example:
Recent AMDs typically throttle when 95 °C is reached.
This limit can be set to 85 °C or even 75 °C via the BIOS.
8) Message boards : Questions and problems : "Computing suspended because processor usage is high" (Message 113248)
Posted 10 Dec 2023 by computezrmle
Post:
Someone else will have to answer the problem with not getting a notification. Don't have a clue on that.


@Richard Mitnick
Please check your settings on this page:
https://boinc.berkeley.edu/edit_forum_preferences_form.php
Notifications -> Immediately, by email
If you changed anything click "Update" close to the bottom of the page.

Also on this page:
https://boinc.berkeley.edu/edit_email_form.php
Did you enter the correct email address?


If you still don't get any email, try "Notifications -> On my Account page (no email)" on the forum preferences page.
9) Message boards : Questions and problems : Your processor does not support the required instruction set. (Message 113194)
Posted 29 Nov 2023 by computezrmle
Post:
The task will automatically restart after the end of the 86400 s break.
It will also restart after a BOINC client restart (if no other task has a higher priority).


Ralph uses vboxwrapper 26202, right?
That (Windows-)version is built against Microsoft's .com interface which is known to occasionally show the postpone issue.

Recent vboxwrapper versions do not use the .com interface any more.
Hence, the project developers should be asked to use the most recent vboxwrapper (currently 26206):
https://boinc.berkeley.edu/dl/
10) Message boards : Questions and problems : Can the "slots" folder in the Data directory be located on a seperate drive? (Message 112578)
Posted 23 Aug 2023 by computezrmle
Post:
You can use /slots/ as mountpoint.
That way the data can be sent to another drive/partition/folder, e.g. tmpfs or zram on Linux or a ramdisk on Windows.

It is a different question whether this is useful or not.
11) Message boards : Projects : CPDN server cert expired (Message 112499)
Posted 7 Aug 2023 by computezrmle
Post:
The server certificate for www.cpdn.org expired Mon, 07 Aug 2023 10:02:42 UTC.
Needs to be replaced by a new one.
12) Message boards : BOINC Manager : Boinc won't start on Linux Mint (Message 112455)
Posted 5 Aug 2023 by computezrmle
Post:
Your computers don't meet some essential requirements to run VirtualBox tasks.
See an extended answer here:
https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/forum_thread.php?id=6023&postid=48343
13) Message boards : BOINC client : Add Max concurent downloads and uploads setting under Computing Prefs -> network (Message 112440)
Posted 3 Aug 2023 by computezrmle
Post:
See:
https://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Client_configuration

You may try to adjust the following options in cc_config.xml.
<max_file_xfers>N</max_file_xfers>
    Maximum number of simultaneous file transfers (default 8).
<max_file_xfers_per_project>N</max_file_xfers_per_project>
    Maximum number of simultaneous file transfers per project (default 2).

This is a per client setting.

With the default values a single client should not be able to make a 1 Gbit connection unusable.
Since you mention a "farm" and WIFI beside wired connections you may have lots of clients on many computers.
To get an impression: How many of each?
14) Message boards : Questions and problems : Taska have estimated remaining over 8 years, deadline in the past -- is something wrong? (Message 112215)
Posted 30 Jun 2023 by computezrmle
Post:
Looks like none of the following projects has a user account "David Pickett":
Asteroids@home
LHC@Home
MilkyWay@home
Rosetta@Home

Are you sure you are correctly connected?
Are you connected via an account manager using their account?
15) Message boards : Questions and problems : Linux Won't Start Agent (Message 112193)
Posted 28 Jun 2023 by computezrmle
Post:
Program is still not running.

The BOINC service is running.
So, which 'program' do you mean? The BOINC manager (GUI)?

As suggested in a thread nearby you may need to ensure your own user account is a member of the boinc group.
Run:
sudo usermod -aG boinc your_own_username

Then log out -> log in (or reboot)


Be aware that the current settings don't automatically start the BOINC service when you reboot.
To configure this run once (before the next reboot):
sudo systemctl enable boinc-client
16) Message boards : Questions and problems : Linux Won't Start Agent (Message 112189)
Posted 28 Jun 2023 by computezrmle
Post:
After
sudo systemctl start boinc-client

run
sudo systemctl status boinc-client
17) Message boards : BOINC client : Multi core tasks alongside single core tasks. (Message 111989)
Posted 3 Jun 2023 by computezrmle
Post:
The current ATLAS batch from LHC@home has significantly longer runtimes than the previous batch but the rsc_fpops_est value didn't change. The calculated flops value connected to your computer also represent the "speed" for the old batch. It needs a couple of valid tasks returned to the server to adjust that.

As a result your computer requests too much work at the beginning of the batch and server sends too much work.
At the end it also affects credit calculation (usually low credits).
Once this is balanced you will see the behaviour you are familiar with.
If another new batch will hand out shorter tasks you will see the opposite picture - less work and usually high credit values - until this is balanced again.


If you didn't ran ATLAS before the initial flops value is usually also not in balance.
18) Message boards : Questions and problems : Core/thread rotation while boinc runs (Message 111984)
Posted 2 Jun 2023 by computezrmle
Post:
Modern CPUs have a built-in overheat protection.
Don't worry about that as long as you run a sufficient cooling solution.

The main reason to keep processes on distinct cores is to ensure a much better L3 CPU cache utilization.
19) Message boards : BOINC client : Multi core tasks alongside single core tasks. (Message 111945)
Posted 31 May 2023 by computezrmle
Post:
Now downloading a 7 core task from LHC. Might pause it in order to be awake to see what happens.

Edit: It is a VB one.

Pausing tasks from LHC@home can be tricky.
CMS: If they pause for more than 2h they loose connection to WMAgent and cancel their subtask; depending on the runtime the either finish or try to get another subtask
ATLAS native: always restarts from scratch
Theory native: requires cgroups v1 and a special preparation; does not work on cgroups v2


LHC started to download a task for 8 cores

ATLAS has a server side max core limit of 8 for Vbox and 12 for native tasks.
20) Message boards : BOINC client : Multi core tasks alongside single core tasks. (Message 111935)
Posted 30 May 2023 by computezrmle
Post: 
The following packages have unmet dependencies.
cvmfs: Depends:cvmfs-config-default but it is not installable or cvmfs-config but it is not installable

You also need this package:
http://ecsft.cern.ch/dist/cvmfs/cvmfs-config/cvmfs-config-default_latest_all.deb

First you need to do after installation is to run (once!):
[sudo] cvmfs_config setup

Never directly modify the options in any *.conf file below /etc/cvmfs
Instead create a corresponding *.local file and write the modification to that file.

I probably have time to sort this before Atlas tasks become available again.

That's why I suggested CMS from LHC@home dev since this has mt tasks available and does only need VirtualBox.


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