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knreed
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Information about BOINC

If you are looking for information about World Community Grid's use of BOINC and how you can use it then please review the Help items located at the following:

Setup and Installation Help
General Instructions: http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/help/viewTopic.do?shortName=bnc
For Linux Clients:

In General: http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/reg/ms/viewThankYouAll.do?platformPick=linux
For Debian: http://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Installing_BOINC_on_Debian
For Fedora: http://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Installing_BOINC_on_Fedora
For Gentoo: http://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Installing_BOINC_on_Gentoo
For Ubuntu: http://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Installing_BOINC_on_Ubuntu

Other Linux Information on Auto Starting, Stopping the client plus more on distros such as SuSe and Mandriva can be found there.

For Mac Clients: http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/reg/ms/viewThankYouAll.do?platformPick=mac
For Windows, including Vista: http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/reg/ms/viewThankYouAll.do?platformPick=win
For FreeBSD, (inofficial and not formally supported!): http://people.freebsd.org/~pav/boinc.html

Information about Points/Credit
http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/help/viewTopic.do?shortName=linpointscalc

edit: Inserted various specific Linux Distro install instruction links

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[Edit 3 times, last edit by Sekerob at Oct 5, 2009 7:05:46 AM]

[Nov 29, 2005 9:39:20 PM]

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BOINC Account Key

The BOINC Account Key for a member can be found by clicking 'My Grid' - 'My Profile'. This should show:
BOINC Account Key:
BOINC Project URL: www.worldcommunitygrid.org
BOINC Account Number:
BOINC Cross-Project Id:

If NO Account Key is listed (yes, this can happen)
then click on http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/ms/viewMyProfile.do?regBoinc=true
to register with BOINC and be assigned an Account Key.

Also see: Message from server: Invalid or missing account key

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[Edit 2 times, last edit by Sekerob at Feb 12, 2010 11:24:22 AM]

[Feb 8, 2006 3:20:36 PM]

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Official & Unofficial BOINC Wiki / Frequently Asked Questions Service

The Official BOINC Wiki, including user manual from the developers at Berkeley: http://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/User_Manual

The Unofficial BOINC Wiki changed its URL from http://boinc-wiki.ath.cx/index.php?title=Main_Page to http://www.boinc-wiki.info/Main_Page

Notice: The BOINC WIKI is shortly moving domain names. The owner of this site is unable to maintain it any longer and so we have had to negotiate this change. The NEW BOINC wiki (which is as of 19-02-2006) can be found at http://boinc-wiki.ath.cx. Please update the NEW site from now on. This site will cease to exist as of 31-3-2006.

The BOINC Frequently Asked Questions Service aka BFS (English and several other languages) is at http://boincfaq.mundayweb.com/index.php?language=1

Some sample page titles:
How do I configure my client using the cc_config.xml file?
How do I get a statistics bar in my signature?
How do I install BOINC in Linux? (general install for advanced user)
How do I set up the Preferences Override File?
How to Reset the Result Duration Correction Factor?
How to revert to an older HostID number?

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[Edit 3 times, last edit by Sekerob at Aug 13, 2008 10:22:17 AM]

[Feb 27, 2006 7:10:43 PM]

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More Distributed Computing Information

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[Edit 45 times, last edit by Former Member at Jan 1, 2009 3:03:32 AM]

[Mar 10, 2006 2:56:26 AM]

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Re: Advice about BOINC Screensavers

Here is some good advice that Sekerob found on the BOINC developers' forum. I am copying from his post at http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/forums/wcg/viewthread?thread=9444

Post Message 6289 - Posted 2 Nov 2006 17:54:58 UTC

Fixes for the Screen Saver:

Make sure you are up to date with your drivers and DirectX version. See this post for links.

Make sure your video card is OpenGL 1.2 compatible. (It doesn't need to be compliant, just compatible with a latest drivers update. If the latest drivers update didn't add at least 1.2 compatibility, your video card can't be used)

Set your Screen Saver settings in Windows to not switch to a blank screen or resume with password **. (Usually Desktop properties, Screen Saver, BOINC as screen saver choice, Settings)

Editor: How to get to the Control panel:

- Windows XP/W2K, Right click the Desktop Background/Wallpaper, take Properties from drop down menu and switch to the Screen Saver tab.
- Vista: Right Click the Desktop Background/Wallpaper, take "Personalize" and choose Screen Saver.
- Linux: Currently not provided!
- Mac OS X:

    * Under the Apple menu, select System Preferences.
    * Click on Desktop & Screen Saver.
    * Select World Community Grid or BOINC from the list of screensavers ***.

Adjust your screen saver to kick in 1 minute after you let BOINC go crunch in Idle time, especially when you have an embedded video card. Embedded video cards are video chips on the motherboard. They use your CPU and motherboard RAM, instead of an independent GPU and additional RAM for graphics only.

Editor: In this example, the screen saver should activate no earlier than after 6 minutes idle time, with BOINC starting after 5 minutes of keyboard and mouse inactivity.

Don't let your monitor power down after less minutes in Windows Power Options (in Control Panel) than you set your BOINC preferences to resume computation if using the idle use option.

You can at all times open the graphics on the running result. In Boinc Manager, go to Tasks (Work in 5.2.x and before), select the result that shows Running, press the Show graphics button. This window can be maximized. If you can't see graphics in this window, you have a problem with your video card. (If you have BOINC installed as a service, you don't have this option by default. You do need this work around )

[Editor: This work around does only function for BOINC 5.10 and below]

Using the screen saver (or graphics) takes up CPU cycles. If you have a slow computer, consider not using either for prolonged periods of time.

When none of this helps, always state what videocard and operating system you use.

____________
Jord

N.B.
* Note that the Screen Saver is not available for Linux!
** This works with password from BOINC 6, even when the client is installed as Service aka in Protected mode. All science graphics have been converted to make full use of this client's features.

*** Sometimes the client Screen Saver is not listed. Find the boinc.scr file and copy it to the location where all other Screen Savers are normally stored for the operating system. For Windows that is usually C:\Windows.

**** Make sure to only have 1 BOINCmgr running which shows as an system tray icon on the Start bar. Running 2 can lead to conflicts if both are attached to the localhost (the locally running client)

Also see: BOINC: Screen Saver CPU usage control from Client version 6.

The complete FAQ index is found here

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[Edit 10 times, last edit by Sekerob at Nov 24, 2008 8:03:20 AM]

[Nov 3, 2006 7:53:19 AM]

Sekerob
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Re: Advice about BOINC & AOL

From the BOINC developers RSS feed: http://boinc.berkeley.edu/rss_main.php

Relates to those who use AOL as a service

Dec, 21, 2006

Workaround for AOL problem

On 20 December 2006 we investigated a problem with the following symptoms:

* The BOINC client connects to some projects but scheduler requests return an error message saying

Project encountered internal error: shared memory

* The BOINC client fails to attach to other projects, giving the error message:

The URL you supplied is not that of a BOINC-based project.

We believe that this problem only affects people connected to the Internet using AOL, and that it is caused by the AOL software.

We were able to work around the problem as follows:

* Reinstall BOINC. When asked what directory to install in, select

C:/Program Files/BOINC2

(or any name other than BOINC).

Note: you must install to a new directory. It doesn't work to rename BOINC to BOINC2, then install.
Return to BOINC main page

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[Jan 17, 2007 7:11:16 PM]

Sekerob
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BOINC Servers

Some server functions being mentioned on the forums are part of the BOINC system at WCG. There are multiple servers with varying tasks. These 'daemon' processes are described in the Back-End Programs page of the Official BOINC Wiki (OBW). Here a summary:

Work Generator: Creates the Work Units that are to be transmitted to the Clients.
Scheduler: Determines what work is going to be sent to/received from requesting Clients, which can be Windows, MAC or Linux of various versions. If this is off, you cannot send any Results or receive any Result Data Files i.e. to finish the final step of "Ready To Report".
Feeder: Fills up the Ready To Send Queue with Work Units. The Scheduler Daemon is preoccupied with handling transactions to/from the BOINC Client thus delegating this task to the Feeder Daemon.
Transitioner: Moves the work around in the various stages of progress along the production line making sure that the conveyor belt always has work to transport to it's next destination. It keeps track of the results in progress and is always asking the questions: Is this assignment ready to be send out? Has this result been received yet? Is this a valid result? Can we delete it now?
Validator: Compares the results returned and does the Validation after quorum has been reached, than arranges credit-granting according general and WCG project specific rules.
Assimilator: Takes scientific data from verified results and puts them in the Project's Master Science Database for later transfer to the Project Scientists computers.
File Deleter: Removes the 'Work Unit' and 'Result Data' files when no longer needed. This BOINC Server-Side Daemon Program keeps upload/download hard disks in the cleanest possible state.
DB Purger: Removes completed records from the on-line BOINC Database when they are no longer needed, preventing that the Database grows too large, thus slowing down the system.

The flowchart above is an edited version of one from a paper by Dr.D.Anderson/E.Korpela/R.Walton High-Performance Task Distributio n for Volunteer Computing and provides the original descriptions of the various program functions encased in the server programs.

The Apache server (added to flowchart) has been upgraded multiple times to cater for e.g. on the 'on-the-fly' file compression and growth of the grid. The system automatically detects the client version and will prepare highly compacted aka *zipped* download files for those on releases 5.4.9 and later. For 5.8.15 and up, also upload 'real-time' zipping was implemented in Q2-07 to reduce data transmission sizes (client shows uncompressed data transmission rates!). The 'Zip' format is used as a generally accepted global standard methodology, not requiring any further licensing.

Added to this BOINC system, World Community Grid applied secure communications, https / port 443 to ensure only properly checked files are being exchanged. WCG is unique in this respect.

edit: Links to the Unofficial BOINC Wiki were removed Oct.2013. This resource no longer exists.

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[Edit 10 times, last edit by Former Member at Oct 7, 2013 12:26:20 PM]

[Mar 11, 2007 3:36:32 PM]

Sekerob
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Controlling BOINC settings locally in the Global_Prefs_Override.xml

For BOINC there are 4 standard named profiles to which each machine(device) can be attached (Default, School, Work, Home), but sometimes you need a special setup. For that there is the Global_Prefs_Override.xml file. You can e.g. set the number of cores to use if you want to run a second agent on a one core of a multi-core CPU with the <max_cpus>1</max_cpus> parameter. Using the affinity function of your Operating system would permit to assign the process to a particular core.

The items that can be set are listed here: BOINC Preferences Override File:

All the items have an equivalent in the website device profile with with sometimes quite different description, but most of the time it's obvious which one performs the same as override control.

Best is to not set items that you do not need to control at device level, as it will cause head scratching if website profile changes do not seem to take effect on one or the other computer!

Sample layout of Global_Prefs_Override.xml:

<global_preferences>
   
   <max_cpus>1</max_cpus>
   
</global_preferences>

After making changes you can read in the local preferences via the Advanced menu or restart the client.

NB:

1) From BOINC version 5.10 all of these settings can be controlled through the Advanced View > Advanced menu > Preferences screens.
2) From BOINC version 6.10 all of these settings can be controlled through the Advanced View > Tools menu > Computing Preferences screens.
3) To return BOINC to use the website device profile settings again, delete the global_prefs_override.xml or operate the Clear button in the Preferences screen.

----------------------------------------

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Global & Research > Make Proposal Help: Start Here!
Please help to make the Forums an enjoyable experience for All!

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[Edit 5 times, last edit by Sekerob at Oct 26, 2010 8:32:57 AM]

[May 2, 2007 7:01:54 PM]

Sekerob
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Dropping support for Win95 , Win98 and WinNT4.0 - BOINC 5.10

In case anyone is still running W95, W98 and WNT4, support is waning:

Message 10659 - Posted 4 Jun 2007 16:42:34 UTC

We are dropping support for Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 in the 5.10 release and future releases.

Basically Microsoft dropped support for both OS’s when they developed Visual Studio 2005 and so the C Runtime Library no longer works on both Win95 and WinNT40. We need the C Runtime Library to handle things like file and memory management.

For anybody using Win95 or WinNT40 you should be able to continue using 5.8.

----- Rom

Announcement of End to Windows 98 Technical Support effective August 01, 2008

http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/forums/wcg/viewthread?thread=21497

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WCG

Global & Research > Make Proposal Help: Start Here!
Please help to make the Forums an enjoyable experience for All!

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[Edit 2 times, last edit by Sekerob at Aug 2, 2008 3:19:34 PM]

[Jun 5, 2007 12:48:52 PM]

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Re: Installing BOINC on Linux

Here is a July 2007 thread about installing BOINC on Linux: http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/forums/wcg/viewthread?thread=15307

Didactylos recommends 'Installing and Running the BOINC client on Unix': http://www.spy-hill.net/help/boinc/unix.html

Custom Write Up of Installation WCG on Linux - Ubuntu at Help.Ubuntu.com

An alternative 'local' install on Ubuntu (Debian) Linux: http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/forums/wcg/viewthread?thread=22190

10 Nov 2008 Uplinger posts a way to install BOINC 5.10 on Ubuntu instead of BOINC 6.2:
http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/forums/wcg/viewthread?thread=22318#191066

And a thread about emulating Linux to run BOINC on FreeBSD: http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/forums/wcg/viewthread?thread=10976

18 Feb 2008 How to install and reliably run Boinc on SuSE Linux 10.3:
http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/forums/wcg/viewthread?thread=18564

Instructions for installing BOINC on FreeBSD: http://people.freebsd.org/~pav/boinc.html
Some threads about running on FreeBSD:
http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/forums/wcg/viewthread?thread=15523
http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/forums/wcg/viewthread?thread=15541

6 March 2008 knreed posts about a change in BOINC which requires a change in the cc_config.xml file to run FreeBSD: http://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/forums/wcg/viewthread?thread=18901#154839

Here is the official BOINC site: http://boinc.berkeley.edu/download_all.php

Installing BOINC in Ubuntu 10.04 and 10.10 using the Synaptic Package Manager. Select the 3 packages as highlighted and after completion, it should start the core client automatically.

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[Edit 8 times, last edit by Former Member at Feb 28, 2011 12:15:19 PM]

[Jul 19, 2007 2:43:59 AM]

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