BOINC Manager

From Unofficial BOINC Wiki

Contents 1 General 2 BOINC Manager Tabs 2.1 Projects Tab 2.2 Work Tab 2.2.1 Work Tab Status Messages 2.3 Transfers Tab 2.4 Messages Tab 2.5 Statistics Tab 2.6 Disk Tab 3 BOINC Manager Menus 4 Also see 5 UCB Source 6 Copyright ©

[edit] General

The portion of the BOINC Client Software installed on the Participant's computer that allows a connect to, and management of the BOINC Daemon. This software item is the Graphical User Interface (GUI) that is available across all of the systems on which the BOINC Client Software can be run. The systems currently supported by the BOINC Client Software include:

• Linux,
• Apple Macintosh OS-X,
• Sun SPARC Solaris Operating Environment, and
• Microsoft Windows®

The BOINC Manager controls the BOINC Daemon through the use of messages.

• BOINC Manager - the GUI / BOINC skins
• BOINC Daemon (on Linux, Solaris, and Apple Macintosh OS-X computers it is a "true" UNIX Daemon; on Microsoft Windows® it is a service)
• Science Applications (varies depending on what BOINC Powered Projects the Participant has joined.

The BOINC Manager program controls the use of your computer's disk, network, and processor resources. It is normally started at boot time. It is represented by a icon in the system tray (Microsoft Windows®) or Dock (Apple Macintosh OS-X).

Double-click on the icon to open the BOINC Manager window. Right-click on the icon to:

• Open BOINC Manager: opens the current BOINC Manager.
• Run always: do work, regardless of Preferences.
• Run based on preferences: do work when your Preferences allow it.
• Suspend: stop work (computation and file transfer).
• Disable BOINC network access: setting this keeps the BOINC Client Software from attempting to contact any of the Project Servers. It is useful for those on dial-up connections who do not want to be bothered with the BOINC Client Software prompting to connect or disconnect for a time.
• About BOINC Manager: displays useful information about the BOINC Manager.
• Exit: exit the BOINC Manager and all running Science Applications. No further work will take place until you run the BOINC Manager again.

Hovering over the BOINC Icon will display a status balloon which contains the Project(s) it is currently working on, how far along it is, and which computer it is connected to and monitoring.

[edit] BOINC Manager Tabs

[edit] Projects Tab

The Projects Tab shows the Projects in which this computer is participating.

• Suspended: The Project is currently suspended.
• Retry in ...: The BOINC Client Software will wait the specified amount of time before attempting to contact the Project Server again.
• Won't get new work: The Project will not fill the Work Buffer for this Project when it runs out of work.

Click on a project name to enable the following additional buttons:

• Allow new work: Allow the Project to download additional work, if needed.
• Detach: Your computer will stop working for the Project.

Note: Any work currently in progress, and work completed but not "reported" will be lost. Along with any potential Credit that may have been earned.

• No new work: Do not download any additional work for this Project.
• Reset project: Stop the Project's current work, if any, and start from scratch. Use this if the BOINC Client Software has become stuck for some reason.
• Resume: Resumes processing of a previous suspended Project.
• Suspend: Suspends any further processing of this Project.
• Update: Connect to the Project; report all completed Results, get more work if necessary, and get your latest Preferences.

Project Administrators can add buttons to the manager to quickly navigate the Project's Web Site (Project Administrators, see: "Add Project-Specific Links to the Client GUI" for details).

[edit] Work Tab

The Work Tab shows the Work Units currently on your computer. Each Work Unit is in one of the following states:

Work Tab Status Messages

A Result will normally go through these states in order, however several may occur at any time. There are also a couple of states that we hope get skipped entirely.

1. Downloading
   • Work Unit Data Files are being downloaded.
2. Ready to run
   • The Result has all it's associated files successfully downloaded. An estimate of the total CPU Time is shown.
3. Running
   • Elapsed CPU Time and estimated percent done is shown.
4. Suspended
   • The Result has been suspended. This normally occurs through Participant intervention or through running the Benchmarks.
5. Paused or Preempted
   • The Result has been suspended by the Work Scheduler and will be resumed the next time the Project comes up in the processing rotation.
6. Aborted
   • The Result has been aborted and will be reported to the Project's Scheduling Server as a "computational error".
7. Computation Completed
   • At this stage all processing for this Result is finished. It is unlikely that you will see this status message displayed since the BOINC Client Software normally goes to the next stage quicker than we mere mortals can see.
8. Uploading
   • In this stage the Result Data File(s) are uploaded to the Data Server. If you have a Broadband connection this stage will also zoom by very quickly most of the time.
9. Ready to Report
   • Results go to this status after the Result Data File(s) are successfully uploaded to the Data Server. It should normally take some time for the BOINC Client Software to get around to reporting finished Results.
   • Results will be reported automatically at the following triggers:
     1. New work is needed. Completed work will be reported at the same time.
     2. The Deadline is less than 24 hours away.
     3. The Result has been in the Ready to Report status longer than the Work Buffer setting.
   • Note: There is a bug in the 4.4x Versions of the BOINC Client Software that causes Results to be reported immediately after the status changes to Ready to Report.

Click on a Result Name to enable the following additional buttons:

• Abort: Abort processing for a result.

NOTE: This will prevent you from receiving Credit for any work already completed.

• Resume: Resumes processing of a previous suspended Result.
• Show graphics: Open a window showing application graphics.
• Suspend: Suspends any further processing of this Result.

[edit] Transfers Tab

The Transfers Tab shows file transfers (uploads and downloads). These may be ready to start, in progress, and completed.

• Aborted: The Result has been aborted and will be reported to the Project's Scheduling Server as a "computational error".
• Downloading: The Work Unit Data Files are being downloaded.
• Retry in ...: The BOINC Client Software will wait the specified amount of time before attempting to contact the Project's Data Server again.
• Uploading: Result Data Files are being uploaded.

Click on a file name to enable the following additional buttons:

• Retry Now: Retry the file transfer now.
• Abort Transfer: Abort the file transfer.

NOTE: This will prevent you from receiving Credit for any work already completed.

Note:' This action cannot be undone once it has been performed. So, be careful about saying "Yes" when prompted.

[edit] Messages Tab

The Messages Tab shows status and error Messages. You can control what messages are shown (see: Debugging the BOINC Windows Client#Logging and Error Output). All Messages are also written to a file 'stdoutdae.txt'.

Click on one or more messages (you can also use SHIFT-Click and CONTROL-Click to select sequential and non-sequential Messages as in any normal windowing application) to enable the following additional buttons:

• Copy all messages: Copies all the messages to the clipboard.
• Copy selected messages: Copies the highlighted messages to the clipboard.

NOTE: To highlight a message hold down the CTRL key and then click on the messages you want to store in the clipboard. When done click on the 'Copy selected messages' button to copy them to the clipboard.

[edit] Statistics Tab

The Statistics Tab shows some simple charts and graphs about the user and host progress for the Attached Projects.

NOTE: This feature requires three successful connections to each Project's Scheduler on three different days before it starts to work properly.

Click on any of the buttons to change to a different chart:

• Show user total: Shows the user's credit totals for each project.
• Show user average: Shows the user's credit averages for each project.
• Show host total: Shows the host's credit totals for each project.
• Show host average: Shows the host's credit averages for each project.

[edit] Disk Tab

The Disk Tab shows how much disk space is currently being used by each Project.

[edit] BOINC Manager Menus

The BOINC Manager's menu items are as follows:

• File
  • Exit: Quits the BOINC Manager
• Commands
  • Run always, Run based on Preferences, Suspend: see above
  • Network activity always available, network activity always based on Preferences, network activity suspended: Sets the network mode. Whether BOINC can use the network always, based on Preferences, or never.
  • Retry communications: Forces BOINC to retry all downloads and scheduler requests if they failed in the past.
  • Run Benchmarks: run benchmark functions, which measure the speed of your processor. The BOINC Client Software does this automatically, but you can repeat it whenever you want. The results are shown in the Messages Tab.
• Project
  • Attach to Project: Enroll this computer in a Project. You must have already created an Account with the Project. You will be asked to enter the Project's Master URL and your Account Key.
  • Account Manager: There are some websites that will allow all projects to be managed under one site. These, however, are still in development and this option is currently not needed.
• Options
  • Options: If you connect to the web through an HTTP or SOCKS proxy, use this dialog to enter its address and port. You can also set other connection settings.
• Help
  • About: show BOINC Manager Version Number.

Menu names and other text in the BOINC Manager can be displayed in languages other than English using Language Customization of the BOINC Manager.

On Windows, the BOINC Screensaver can be selected using the Display Properties dialog. The BOINC Screensaver draws graphics from a running Science Application, if any is available. Otherwise it draws the BOINC logo bouncing around the screen.

[edit] Also see

• BOINC Application Owner's Manual
• BOINC Web Site Owner's Manual

[edit] UCB Source

• The BOINC manager

[edit] Copyright ©

• 2005 University of California
• 2005 Paul D. Buck

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.