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My BOINC doesn\'t work

My BOINC doesn\'t work

Questions and Answers : Preferences : My BOINC doesn\'t work
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old_user387622

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Message 28908 - Posted: 23 May 2007, 4:34:07 UTC

My system says it hasn\'t enough memory to work. The message is :
23.05.2007 07:24:01|climateprediction.net|Message from server: No work sent
23.05.2007 07:24:01|climateprediction.net|Message from server: (there was work but you don\'t have enough disk space allocated)
23.05.2007 07:24:01|climateprediction.net|Message from server: Not enough disk space (only 434.3 MB free for BOINC). Review preferences for maximum disk space used.
23.05.2007 07:24:01|climateprediction.net|Deferring communication for 1 hr 0 min 0 sec
23.05.2007 07:24:01|climateprediction.net|Reason: requested by project
23.05.2007 07:24:01|climateprediction.net|Deferring communication for 3 hr 58 min 30 sec
23.05.2007 07:24:01|climateprediction.net|Reason: no work from project

My preferences are :

Processor usage
Do work while computer is running on batteries?
(matters only for portable computers) no
Do work while computer is in use? yes
Do work only between the hours of (no restriction)
Leave applications in memory while suspended?
(suspended applications will consume swap space if \'yes\') no
Switch between applications every
(recommended: 60 minutes) 60 minutes
On multiprocessors, use at most 1 processors
Use at most
Enforced by version 5.6 and greater 100 percent of CPU time
Disk and memory usage
Use at most 3 GB disk space
Leave at least
(Values smaller than 0.001 are ignored) 3 GB disk space free
Use at most 40% of total disk space
Write to disk at most every 60 seconds
Use at most 50% of page file (swap space)
Use at most
Enforced by version 5.8 and greater 50% of memory when computer is in use
Use at most
Enforced by version 5.8 and greater 90% of memory when computer is idle
Network usage
Connect to network about every
(maximum 10 days) 0.1 days
Cache enough work for an additional
(maximum 10 days; requires 5.10+ client) 3 days
Confirm before connecting to Internet?
(matters only if you have a modem, ISDN or VPN connection) no
Disconnect when done?
(matters only if you have a modem, ISDN or VPN connection) no
Maximum download rate: no limit
Maximum upload rate: no limit
Use network only between the hours of
Enforced by versions 4.46 and greater (no restriction)
Skip image file verification?
Check this ONLY if your Internet provider modifies image files (UMTS does this, for example).
Skipping verification reduces the security of BOINC. no

I have 10+ GB free disk space.

So what the heck ? I want to save the world (climate-wise, at least) and cannot ! Please help !

Mike
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Profile MikeMarsUK
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Message 28913 - Posted: 23 May 2007, 6:56:45 UTC


A few questions ...

On the \'disk\' tab in Boinc manager:

* How much space in total has been used by Boinc?
* How much space is in use on the disk (by anything)
* How big is the disk?
* How much space has been used by CPDN specifically?


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Message 28936 - Posted: 24 May 2007, 5:23:05 UTC - in response to Message 28913.  


A few questions ...

On the \'disk\' tab in Boinc manager:

* How much space in total has been used by Boinc?
* How much space is in use on the disk (by anything)
* How big is the disk?
* How much space has been used by CPDN specifically?



The Disk Tab has the following to say :

free disk space 10.49 GB
used by BOINC 50.45 MB (yes, MEGA !!)
used by other programs 26.72 GB

disk usage by BOINC projects 50.45 MB

I guess 50.45 MB is the BOINC subdirectory in Program Files.

mikey




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Message 28937 - Posted: 24 May 2007, 5:29:02 UTC
Last modified: 24 May 2007, 5:33:49 UTC

Actually, I don\'t have ANY clue where the (434 something MB) come from ! Why 434 ?

The disk is 36 GB.
The last question I didn\'t quite get, please rephrase it ?

mike



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Message 28938 - Posted: 24 May 2007, 7:09:48 UTC - in response to Message 28937.  
Last modified: 24 May 2007, 7:11:12 UTC

Actually, I don\'t have ANY clue where the (434 something MB) come from ! Why 434 ?

The disk is 36 GB.
The last question I didn\'t quite get, please rephrase it ?
...



Try changing:
Use at most 40% of total disk space
to
Use at most 80% of total disk space

Then click save, \'update\' on the Boinc manager to download the new settings.

Perhaps it\'s looking at your 27GB used by other stuff and saying that it\'s more than 40% of the total 36GB. Not sure how it\'s getting to 434MB.

The \'How much space has been used by CPDN specifically?\' question depends on how many different projects you are attached to via the Boinc Manager. ClimatePrediction.Net (CPDN) is only one of about 30 projects which uses Boinc, and people often attach to many of them. If you\'re only attached to this one project, then it\'ll be the same figure as \'used by Boinc\'. I can tell that you\'ve attached to the BBC project before, is this still using disk space?

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Message 28940 - Posted: 24 May 2007, 11:00:26 UTC

The drive must be at least 37GB, or else the numbers don\'t fit. ;)
So, using 37GB as the number to start with, 37GB = 100%

37-27 = 10GB
BOINC Max usage = 3GB
Free maximum = 3GB

So total disk space after reservations is 4GB free.

The computer uses 1024MB of memory (Albeit that part of it is used as videoRAM).
It\'s using Windows XP. As far as I know, XP uses the same page file settings as it has memory installed. So that\'s 1GB.
4-1=3GB (your free maximum!)

Any little bit of page file used more at this point in the free space of your disk drive and BOINC will tell you to free space as else it can\'t get you work.

The Use at most x GB disk space and Leave at least y GB disk space free numbers have priority. They are strictly followed. The Use at most z% of total disk space is a control number. But that one is broken here already anyway as 40% of 37GB means you need 14.8GB free.

So if Use at most 80% does not work, lower your number for Leave at least y GB free.
Jord.
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Message 29022 - Posted: 28 May 2007, 8:29:44 UTC
Last modified: 28 May 2007, 8:38:17 UTC

Ok, so now I changed my configuration as follows :

Use at most 9 GB disk space
Leave at least 2 GB disk space free
Use at most 90% of total disk space
Write to disk at most every 60 seconds
Use at most 90% of page file (swap space)
Use at most 70% of memory when computer is in use
Use at most 90% of memory when computer is idle

And guess what ?! Still doesn\'t work !
The software acknowledges my changes, but... issues the same bloody 434 MB message.


Mike
(Hope I don\'t become the nuisance of the Century on this message board :-))

PS. My C: disk reports 10.4 GB free.
Swap file management set to automatic.


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Message 29023 - Posted: 28 May 2007, 8:54:37 UTC


Those settings look OK, but perhaps you could set \'use at most GB\' to more.

The thing to watch out for is that the settings will only take affect after they\'ve been downloaded from the server, i.e., click update once, and they\'ll get to your machine, click update again and hopefully the machine will ask for work.
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Message 29024 - Posted: 28 May 2007, 10:02:14 UTC

Sometimes after the update, you need to stop and restart BOINC. It resets some of the xml files that seem to get stale if not used regularly (like an outage / not getting work). It looks like they are trying to fix this in newer versions. They noticed this happening when SETI was down for over 2 weeks, there was a file or two that got in the way, but stopping and restarting BOINC cleared it up.


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Message 29025 - Posted: 28 May 2007, 10:30:19 UTC

I stopped and restarted BOINC, i.e. Exited and then launched from Programs.

I got the following :

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28.05.2007 13:22:16||Starting BOINC client version 5.8.16 for windows_intelx86
28.05.2007 13:22:16||log flags: task, file_xfer, sched_ops
28.05.2007 13:22:16||Libraries: libcurl/7.16.0 OpenSSL/0.9.8a zlib/1.2.3
28.05.2007 13:22:16||Data directory: C:\\Program Files\\BOINC
28.05.2007 13:22:16||Processor: 1 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Celeron(R) M processor 1.40GHz [x86 Family 6 Model 13 Stepping 8] [fpu tsc sse sse2 mmx]
28.05.2007 13:22:16||Memory: 958.23 MB physical, 2.26 GB virtual
28.05.2007 13:22:16||Disk: 37.26 GB total, 10.45 GB free
28.05.2007 13:22:16|climateprediction.net|URL: http://climateprediction.net/; Computer ID: 662181; location: (none); project prefs: default
28.05.2007 13:22:16||General prefs: from climateprediction.net (last modified 2007-05-28 11:18:33)
28.05.2007 13:22:16||Host location: none
28.05.2007 13:22:16||General prefs: using your defaults
28.05.2007 13:22:16||Reading preferences override file
28.05.2007 13:23:11|climateprediction.net|Sending scheduler request: To fetch work
28.05.2007 13:23:11|climateprediction.net|Requesting 8640 seconds of new work
28.05.2007 13:23:16|climateprediction.net|Scheduler RPC succeeded [server version 509]
28.05.2007 13:23:16|climateprediction.net|Message from server: No work sent
28.05.2007 13:23:16|climateprediction.net|Message from server: (there was work but you don\'t have enough disk space allocated)
28.05.2007 13:23:16|climateprediction.net|Message from server: Not enough disk space (only 433.9 MB free for BOINC). Review preferences for maximum disk space used.
28.05.2007 13:23:16|climateprediction.net|Deferring communication for 1 hr 0 min 0 sec
28.05.2007 13:23:16|climateprediction.net|Reason: requested by project
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

As you can see, the problem persists. I noticed this :

28.05.2007 13:22:16||General prefs: using your defaults
28.05.2007 13:22:16||Reading preferences override file

What is a \"preferences override file\" ? Where can I find it ? Maybe herein lieth the problem ?

I also noticed that my system set the virtual memory to 2.26 GB. That means that BOINC won\'t be able to use the 8 GB memory I allowed it to. Could that be a problem, or does it know to make the best of it ?

Mike

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Message 29030 - Posted: 28 May 2007, 14:08:03 UTC - in response to Message 29025.  
Last modified: 28 May 2007, 14:08:39 UTC

Since CPDN doesn\'t take up 9GB of disk space and you\'d even be hard pressed to be able to fill that space if you attached to 30 projects, why not lower the 9GB to something in the amount you seem to have free? Say 5GB.

I\'m using that number and haven\'t got a problem.

The preferences_override.xml file is a file made by the simple GUI\'s preferences settings. Whatever information it doesn\'t find in there is still read from the global_prefs.xml file. You\'re not using a 5.9.x development branch BOINC version, so you do not have the advanced preferences in Boinc Manager yet, which set all preferences for that one computer.

The simple GUI\'s preferences can set the disk space used.
So open BOINC Manager, View, Simple View. In the Simple View window that opens, press Preferences. If you want to use the preferences set through CPDN, uncheck the option to use the preferences and save your changes. To return to Advanced view, just press Advanced view. ;-)
Jord.
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Message 29035 - Posted: 28 May 2007, 20:36:32 UTC

Yesss !

It seems I HAD some customized preferences ! I removed them and the machine started working ! (I mustva pressed the darn key sometime and forgot... we\'re humans, not computers :-p)

Guys, thanx to everyone who answered my questions and gave me advice. Bon voyage towards the future.

Mike
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