BOINC Mini-FAQ
From Unofficial BOINC Wiki
10 Frequently Asked Questions / Common Problems
[edit] How do I set up SETI@Home (or any other BOINC project)
[edit] Note Before you Start:
- Depending on the version of Microsoft Windows® that you are running you may see a run time warning after you start to install the BOINC Client Software. Click the "Run" button.
- The Single-User installation is the recommended choice
- After you install, the BOINC Client Software will start the Benchmark process (this may take a few minutes, and your computer may get slightly sluggish, try to avoid moving the mouse or using the keyboard). The Benchmark is run to establish the processing characteristics of your computer, which will enable the calculation of appropriate claims for Credit . You can read the progress and result of the Benchmark in the Messages Tab. The Benchmark will be run automatically about once a week.
- There may be a Warning from Microsoft Windows® Firewall , (and/or from your other firewall or security program), you will need to Grant Permission For The BOINC Client Software to Access The Internet. My recommendation is that Unblock or allow be chosen.
- The two components of the BOINC Client Software , the BOINC Manager (BOINCmgr.exe) and the BOINC Daemon (BOINC.exe) require access to the Internet. When either of these components attempt to access the Internet, Microsoft Windows® may display a dialog box. In both cases, for the BOINC Client Software to operate correctly these accesses must be granted access to the Internet. The "Name" of the program will vary depending on the type of installation performed. But, it will be "BOINC Something".
- Read Installing The BOINC Client Software (Version 6) on Microsoft Windows, for a more detailed description of what follows below.
[edit] To Participate In a BOINC Powered Project
You can participate in any, or all, Projects - the choice is up to you.
Download, install and then run the BOINC Client Software.
- An Attach to Project dialog box will appear
- And when requested, enter the Project's Master URL (for Seti@Home this is http://setiathome.berkeley.edu). (To find the the Project's Master URL, click on the BOINC link (http://BOINC.berkeley.edu/) under the space for the project's URL, this link will take you to the list of Projects, from where you can obtain your required Project's Master URL). The Project's Master URL is the address of the project's web site. If you like, you can copy and paste it from your web browser.
- You will then get two options Create new account or Use an existing account. Choose one.
- Create new account if you have not already registered with a project or created an account
- Use existing account if you have already registered with a project or created an account
- When requested, enter your e-Mail Address and a password of your choosing
- If you choose Use existing account and if you haven't set a password, then copy and paste your account key into the password box (from the e-Mail that the project sent you)
- - if you can't remember your account key, log in to your account from the Seti@Home main page, which will take you to the Login Page, where you will see the option: If you don't know your account key, click here, which will take you to the Get account key page - enter your e-Mail Address and your Account Key will be sent to you via e-Mail
- BOINC will then open a web page that allows you to set other account data, such as name, country, and preferences.
- If you want to attach other projects, click on the Projects drop down menu (in-between Commands and Options at the very top of BOINC Manager) and select Attach to Project, and repeat steps 2 - 5 above. Using any of the following Project URL's (this is not a full list):
- SETI@home http://setiathome.berkeley.edu
- climateprediction.net http://climateprediction.net
- Einstein@Home http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/
- ProteinPredictor@Home http://predictor1.scripps.edu/
- LHC@home http://lhcathome.cern.ch
- Rosetta@home http://BOINC.bakerlab.org/rosetta
That's it! You've Set It, you can now Forget It (if you do want or need to check back to make sure everything's working fine, read what the BOINC Manager tells you in it's Messages Tab, and see 3a and 3b below)
You can set your preferences from Your Account page, see Preferences in the BOINC System and "General Preferences" Page, or just leave the default settings in place.
If you participate in several BOINC Powered Projects, your computer will be busy even when one project has no work. You can control the percentage of your computing power that goes to each Project from the View or edit SETI@home preferences section of Your Account page, similarly for the other Projects. BOINC works out the percentages from the numbers in this option, i.e. if left at the default 100, on two projects this would be 50% each, for three 33% each. You can put in any numbers like, 10, 8 & 6 for each separate project so that it reflects hours each project crunches in one day, if computer runs 24 hours a day (10 + 8 + 6 = 24).
[edit] Multiple Computers Under One Account
You can run BOINC on several computers under one account. Once you have created an account as above, you can add new computers in either of two ways:
- Download and install the BOINC client software on each computer, and follow the above procedure (using the same e-Mail Address, password & Project URL).
- If the new computer is the same type as an existing computer, create a BOINC home directory on the new computer, copy the ' account_*.xml ' files from the original computer to the new identical computer and install normally into the BOINC home directory that you created if it is not chosen automatically.
[edit] Older Software Versions
The procedure is a little different if you're using a pre-5.0 version of BOINC, or a command-line version of BOINC, or the Mac OS X Menubar version of BOINC. In these cases:
- Visit the project's web site, click on 'Create account' or similar link, and fill out a web form.
- You will be sent an e-Mail containing an Account Key (a long random string).
- Run the BOINC client software. You will be asked for the project's URL and for your Account Key; copy and paste this from the e-Mail you received.
[edit] Known Issues
To see what known issues there are and to see what has been changed from previous versions, just go to the Download page and click on the version details link and look down and have a read of what is mentioned in the New features and Known problems sections (see Currently known issues).
If you go to Participate in Seti@Home you will notice that the System requirements are:
- There is an initial download of about 10 MB.
- You'll need about 20MB of free disk space and 64MB of RAM. (Note: when the new enhanced Seti application comes out (early 2006 ?) this should be reduced to about 32MB of RAM, see 64MB Limit)
- with a typical computer (such as a 2 GHz Pentium 4), you'll need to let SETI@home run for at least 2 hours per week (slower computers are fine but they'll have to run proportionally more).
- The BOINC Manager may hang on boot up
This is caused by the BOINC Manager trying to start up too soon in the boot up process. The BOINC Manager opens and every tab is blank, as if all your Work Units have disappeared. You can't minimise or exit BM either. Rebooting doesn't always help, sometimes it just happens again. You can fix it by double clicking on the B icon in the system tray (bottom right of your screen), and all your Work Units and messages will reappear! This bug should be fixed in the more recent BOINC Clients (version 5.2.13 and newer).
- BOINC doesn't always shut down properly when you try to exit Win98, WinME
Download and unzip into your windows directory the file Default.zip [direct download link] to instruct Windows to close the SETI CLI when exiting. You may need to reboot after to activate this change. Note this windows patch doesn't always work with Windows 98 original edition. The file you are unzipping is called _Default.PIF and contains the information to tell Windows to honor application close instructions. It only impacts 16 bit (DOS) and 32 bit console applications. See Eliminating the Appliction Not Responding message when shutting down Windows 95, 98, and ME for more info.
- If BOINC runs at the same time as Windows XP 3-D screensavers, the system becomes sluggish and unresponsive.
- If you decide to do more than 1 project on Win98, do not use the option 'leave in memory'. Win98 has strange hiccups that causes it to not switch properly from one application to another, causing it to try to crunch more than 1 application at a time and very little work is actually done.
[edit] For More Info
- Installing BOINC on Windows,
- Joining a project,
- Participate in SETI@home,
- Introduction to BOINC,
- BOINC Application Owner's Manual,
- Running the BOINC software,
- Preferences in the BOINC System,
- General Preferences Page,
- Currently known issues
[edit] How Do I link My "SETI@Home Classic" Account to My BOINC Account
If you participated in SETI@Home Classic before 23 March 2005, a SETI@home/BOINC account has been created for you. It's linked to your Classic account so that it shows your work totals and signup date from Classic.
To access this account, fill out the following form Transfer SETI@home Classic account. You'll receive an e-Mail containing an Account Key (a long random string). When you run BOINC, it will ask you for this account key. Copy and paste it from the e-Mail. You will need to know, either:
2.a Your e-Mail Address of your SETI@Home Classic account as of 23 March 2005 (if it is still currently valid)
or 2.b If your SETI@home Classic e-Mail Address is no longer valid, then you will need a current e-Mail Address, and your SETI@Home Classic password
or 2.c If you don't have your Classic password, use the SETI@Home Classic User Info form. You may be able to retrieve your SETI@Home Classic password (even if your SETI@Home Classic e-Mail Address is not valid) by locating the file "user_info.sah" on your computer, open the file with a text editor (such as notepad, wordpad, ms word, etc) and cutting/pasting the contents of that file into the window shown in the Seti@Home Classic User Info form, and clicking on the "submit" button. This file should be in your SETI@home folder where you installed Classic. Otherwise use your operating systems "find files" or "search" options to locate "user_info.sah".
(If you need the classic program a link for version 3.08 is here [direct download link])
Otherwise, you won't be able to activate your account; instead, just create a new account .
or 2.d or if you've already created a BOINC account and want to link it to your Classic account, then you will just need the following:
(1) e-Mail Address of existing SETI@Home/BOINC account
(2) Account Key of your SETI@home/BOINC account. If you don't know your account key, click here
(3) SETI@home Classic password
or 2.e Dr. Anderson is the next step if people cannot do any of this.
Dr. Anderson is the only person that can reset the password if you have lost both the password and the e-Mail Address you registered with. His e-Mail Address is: Dr. David P. Anderson Director and architect. Contact him at: davea at ssl.berkeley.edu
For More Info: (1) Transfer SETI@home Classic account, (2) Seti@Home Classic User Info form, (3) Introduction to BOINC, (4) BOINC Application Owner's Manual
[edit] It's not working!
[edit] Why Can't I Upload or Download or Connect to The Server
3a1) Check that you have internet access - can you get to Google and complete a random search.
(3a2) Check the news section of the Seti@Home main page and the Technical News section for any information about servers being down or various services having been turned off or disabled (such as validators, assimilators, schedulers, deleters, splitters, database, etc). If any of the servers are turned off or disabled you may get error messages in the Messages Tab of BOINC Manager but still have partial internet access - you may be able to download work units but not upload results, be able to upload results but not report the results, etc. The Tech staff will know about this and will be working to resolve any issues caused by this.
(3a3) There are a number of ways to check that the Seti@Home servers are working:
(1) BOINC Project Status Page, will show the server status of most BOINC projects - just click on the project you are interested in
(2) BOS (BOINC Online Schedulers), will show the server status of most BOINC projects
(3) Team ACC BOINC Page (uses BOS), will show the server status of most BOINC projects - in a larger format
(4) Seti@Home Server status page, will show the server status of the Seti@Home servers
(5) BOINCStats Status Schedulers, will show the server status of most BOINC projects
And I'd like to draw your attention to messages along the lines of "This page was last modified on...." just in case the page is 'stuck' and has not been updated recently.
(3a4) If all the server indicators seem ok, and you can access the internet, but you are still having problems then have a look at Scarecrow's SAH/BOINC Server Stats, if you look at the graphs - if the curves are near the top it may be an indication that there is a backlog of work and one or more of the servers are inundated with requests from computers and so the servers may not be able to keep up with all the requests, therefore some connections may be dropped resulting in error messages in the Messages Tab, see section 3b below.
(3a5) Double check that your firewall is still allowing BOINC access to the internet. The two components of the BOINC Client Software , the BOINC Manager (BOINCmgr.exe) and the BOINC Daemon (BOINC.exe) require access to the Internet.
(3a6) Have a read of Troubleshooting Network Problems
For More Info: (1) Discovering the Meaning of The Message Tab's Contents, (2) BOINC Messages, (3) Numeric Error Codes, (4) No schedulers responded, (5) Couldn't read master page for..., (6) Couldn't connect to hostname, (7) Scheduler request to '(url)' failed: '(error-text)', (8) Scheduler request failed: '(error-text)', (9) Fetching master file
[edit] I've installed BOINC but it's still not working
Assuming you have installed BOINC and double checked your firewall still gives BOINC internet access. Check what error messages you see in the Messages Tab of BOINC Manager against the following lists:
(3b1) Check that you have attached to a project, see 1.a section 6 above, and 1.d Known Issues above
(3b2) Comprehensive list of all BOINC Messages (click on this link, then scroll down the page until you find the error message you are interested in, and then click on that to see a detailed description of your message)
(3b3) A BOINC Information Message in which you do not need to do anything in response to the message(s). It tells you things like:
* Throughput of an upload/download operation * Benchmark Test results * Amount of work that will be requested when a Scheduler is contacted. * Host ID number
(3b4) A BOINC Status Message in which you do not need to do anything in response to the message(s). It is reporting the current operational state of the reporting system. It tells you that the program has started and what Work Unit is being processed using which Science Application .
(3b5) A BOINC Warning Message indicates an event or problem during operation in which you will have to do something. This is almost always an indicator of some kind of un-good thing happening.
(3b6) A BOINC Error Message indicates a significant event or problem during operation in which you will have to do something. This is almost always an indicator of some kind of very un-good thing happening.
For More Info: (1) Discovering the Meaning of The Message Tab's Contents, (2) BOINC Messages, (3) Numeric Error Codes, (4) No schedulers responded, (5) Couldn't read master page for..., (6) Couldn't connect to hostname, (7) Scheduler request to '(url)' failed: '(error-text)', (8) Scheduler request failed: '(error-text)', (9) Fetching master file
[edit] Credit
[edit] What is BOINC credit and where do I see it
Credit is a measurement of the contribution by the volunteer to the science activities being performed with their computer.
Many people are motivated by the possibility of competition. Credit is just a way for people to become more addicted to the pleasure of the donation of their "Idle" Computer Time .
Credit is just for showing you how much validated (scientifically useful) work your computer has done, and to compare it to the work done by other people/computers/teams.
When you have finished a work unit and uploaded the result, your computer will claim (what your computer thinks is the right amount of) credit for the amount of work done (known as pending credit), once the results of that work has been validated by other computers you will be granted (what BOINC thinks is the correct amount of ) credit by comparing all the results for that particular work unit, so that everybody who successfully worked that unit get the the same amount of credit.
You can view your credits on Your Account page, or underneath your User Name in the Forums if you have made a post.
For More Info: BOINC FAQ: Credit
[edit] What's happened to my Classic credits
The Classic credit isn't added to BOINC because they are calculated differently, but you do get to keep and display your old SETI@Home Classic credit.
On the Your Account page of the SETI@Home site you should see listed your SETI@Home classic workunits and your SETI@Home Classic CPU time.
This number will only be in your account data if you open your SETI@Home BOINC account using the same e-Mail Address of your original SETI@Home Classic account - see question 2. How do I link my Classic account to BOINC above.
If you would like a permanent record of your Seti@Home Classic statistics, why not print off a certificate and get it framed in an official Set@Home Frame: Certificate of Computation (NB you can also print off your Seti BOINC stats from here aswell)
If you want to show off your Classic credits in the Forums, then you can incorporate your Classic (and any other) statistics into your signature - see 10. I want an Avatar and a Signature below.
For More Info: SETI@Home and Credit
[edit] Where are all my Statistics and Figures
Seti@Home Statistics are available from Statistics and leaderboards, where you can search for Top Participants, or Top Computers(Hosts), or various Team Statistics.
Statistics data is exported in XML-format files. All Projects can export statistics data describing Teams , Participants, and Hosts. This data can be imported and used to produce web sites that show statistics and leaderboards for one or more Projects.
There are many Statistics sites available at Statistics and leaderboards, ask in the forums or use Google to search for others.
For example: If you want to see your Stats, compare them to other peoples by 'Registration Class' (Sign-Up Date), compare teams, etc, then go to BOINCStats Just enter your User Name or Team name in the Search user or team box at the top left of the page and click the various links or icons, and read what comes up. If you click on the little icons that appear to the right hand side of the page they will take you to different sets of statistics (Where do the icons under options take you?). In particular the little blue and white square will take you to your detailed statistics (either for BOINC or for one of your projects), if you click on that icon to take you to the detailed stats for, say, Seti you will find some lines that state something along the lines of: Sign-up date 2003-10-03 Position in 'sign-up date' stats 19 Link to position in 'sign-up date' stats here
and if you click on the link that says here, it will take you to your 'Registration Class' or sign-up date of, for example, 03-October-2003, currently ranked position 19, and you will be able to see a list of who is ranked higher or lower. Other icons/links take you to your team stats, hosts stats, country stats, etc
It is highly recommended to browse the site, read the BOINCStats FAQ and click on the links so as to see what's available.
(you may have to wait until BOINCStats updates your info - a day or so perhaps if you have only recently started getting credit for SetiBOINC)
For More Info: BOINCStats FAQ
[edit] The Screen Saver
[edit] How do I setup the Screen Saver
The BOINC Screen Saver is installed automatically for Microsoft Windows® systems.
To enable the screensaver for your Microsoft Windows® system you have to do the following:
1. Right-click on the desktop.
2. Select the "Properties" menu option.
3. Click on the tab labeled "Screen Saver"
4. In the "Screen saver" box (immediately under the picture of the monitor) select the "down arrow" to expand the list
5. Select "BOINC" from the list.
6. Click on the "Settings" and uncheck or check (you decide) the box labeled "Go to blank screen"
Obviously here this is a matter for personal preferences, if the box is un-checked you will not go to a blank screen. If it is checked, then it will after the time delay.
7. Now, regardless of the setting of the check box, make sure that there is a time number that is not zero.
For some reason, windows can go immediately blank with no screen saver even if the box is unchecked and the time is "0".
8. Click "Ok".
9. Enter a time number in the field labeled "Wait x Minutes"
10. Check or clear the "On resume" check box.
If you do not want people to have access to your machine (like at the office) then I would have this checked so they cannot get into my system.
At home, you may want to leave this box clear.
11. Click "Ok" to save the changes.
When active, the screen saver does the following:
* If a graphics-capable application is running, the screen saver causes that application to provide full-screen graphics. If more than one is running (e.g. on a multiprocessor) the screen saver cycles between them every few minutes. * If applications are running but none are graphics-capable, the screen saver shows the names of the applications and their fraction done. * If the core client is running but no applications are running, the screen saver shows that. * If the core client is not running, the screen saver shows that.
If the project does not have a built-in screen saver, your monitor will instead display a bouncing BOINC Logo on your display.
Note: Some of the standard windows screensavers, particularly the ones with '3D' in the name, can cause the computer to hang when running any distributed computing project. See section (1d3) in 1.d Known Issues above.
If you want to check the screen saver go to the work tab in BOINC Manager, click on the project that is currently running, and then click on the show graphics button.
For More Info: (1) What Data is the screen saver showing me, (2) Setting the Screen Saver for a Service Installation
[edit] How do I get the Classic Screen Saver back
There is a detailed guide Screen Saver & Graphics Display - SETI@Home Classic (Emulation) that you can follow to get a reasonable replication of the old screen saver.
[edit] Why Has Classic Closed?
SETI@Home Classic has no funding at this point. The development of the BOINC Client Software has funding. Therefore, putting SETI@home on BOINC has given it at least some life.
SETI@Home Classic was supposed to be a 3 or 4 year project to begin with.
The science in SETI@home Classic is basically over. More than enough data was collected with the current instrument (Arecibo). There is a new data recorder close to being finished and a new BOINC client will be in the works to analyze this data. To keep Classic going would mean compiling a new Classic client to analyze this data.
BOINC was written so you can connect to other projects when there are server issues with a specific project. This is a good thing. SETI@home Classic has no such ability.
There is no tech support on staff. Don't have the staff or the money to add the staff. And it's not so easy to add news items to the page. The staff is small. No administrative staff, no tech writers. When it comes time to fill out a new grant proposal, we all drop everything and work on that.
For More Info: (1) Message by Matt Lebosky, (2) SETI@home's transition to BOINC, (3) The Plan
[edit] How do I find an answer to a question
If you're not getting any of the answers you're looking for and if the question is likely to be a fairly common one, try the Seti@Home Forum Text Message Search or the Seti@Home Questions/Problems Message Search, which searches all Seti forums. And whilst you're about it, it couldn't do any harm to do a search of the BOINCWiki (there are two search options part way down on the left hand side) or even try Google.
Post a question in the appropriate Forum, the more relevant the Forum you post in the more likely you are to get a relevant response. Your first port of call should be the Seti@Home Questions and answers Forum or perhaps the Seti@Home Number Crunching Forum.
I would like to point out that a lot of newbie question have already been asked and answered, or at least discussed. The problem is that every other person asks the same question in a slightly different way and so may not easily recognise that a solution or solutions provided could actually apply to them also.
So what to do? Learn how to do a search: the more you do it the easier it gets and the more proficient you become. You will have little choice but to wade through loads of links that (at first glance) don't seem to be related to your query, but as you become better at refining your search you will get fewer and more appropriate links.
Learning something new is always difficult at first, but after a while you wont believe that you didn't get it first time. But you have to make the initial effort if you want to understand/learn.
For More Info: (1) How to Search and find whatever is most important to you, (2) Hints, cheats, and advice for New users
If you still have any unresolved questions then ask at the Questions & Answers Forum of Seti@Home or the Questions & Answers Forum of BOINC
[edit] Have the developers mentioned anything important recently
Read the News Section of the Seti@Home Main Page, for more details read the Technical News section. Or subscribe to one or more of the e-Mail lists that the developers post in on a regular basis, in particular the BOINC Development list.
For more general further news try the Science Newsletters section (to be revamped and updated), or Matt Lebofsky: SLog (a.k.a. SETI log).
For More Info: (1) You can also read all the posts ever made by the developers (or by any poster in fact) by going to that person's account page and clicking on the Message board posts count link: Matt Lebofsky, Rom Walton, bobb2, Janus, and others. (2) This is a list of some of the Personnel and Contributors
[edit] I Want an Avatar and a Signature
1. For your Avatar. Go to Your Account 2. Go to View Or Edit Forum Preferences 3. Click on Use this uploaded avatar 4. Click on Browse to choose a picture (from your computer or wherever)- [format: jpg/png - size: at most 4k] 5. Click on Update Info
6. For your Signature. Go to Your Account 7. Go to View Or Edit Forum Preferences 8. Go to Signature for message boards 9. Enter in the box: Your text, pictures, links using BBCode tags, note the one "to display an image" [img]http://www.some.web.site/pic.jpg[/img] [format: jpg/png/gif/etc] 10. Click on Update Info
If you would like your Classic stats visible all the time, why not make a signature to show it off, for example, mine is from Seti (Classic) Stats Counter by Neil Munday: kinhull Seti Classic Stats
For More Info: (1) Avatar, (2) about Signatures that include your Statistics: BOINC Wiki Signature, BOINCStats FAQ, BOINC Stats Counter site by Neil Munday, Seti (Classic) Stats Counter by Neil Munday, BOINC Stats site by Markus Tervooren, see also section 5. Where are all my Statistics and Figures above
RSS Feeds
