The Official BOINC news thread

BOINC core client version 5.2.8 has released as stable. It was said that as long as you're using 5.2.x you're fine, and that you don't have to upgrade to each one, unless you're encountering a problem that a new release fixes, or unless the project requires a minimum version number such as 4.45 or 5.2.x(where x could be 0-8).

I'm still using v4.19, it works fine. However, 5.2.x contains many improvements over 4.19. I guess for the time being, staying with 4.19 is fine. Note that if you're using 4.13, please upgrade.

boinc.berkeley.edu...

The latest version contains an improved login method using your email address and password instead of that long random string of letters and numbers. I believe that string is still used internally in the program. For example, instead of trying to memorize dg89ge9sgdf9, the program will link your email address: [email protected] and password ******** to the string.

BOINC core client v5.2.9 and .10 have released, and .11 is in the directories already. These releases fix some bugs found in a previous release.

Changes since 5.2.10
Wizards cannot be run without a connection to the core client.
Changes since 5.2.9
Win: Fixes a BOINC Manager connection issue when the manager is waiting on a firewall for the all clear. This generally happens after a reboot.
Changes since 5.2.8
Win: Fixes the 'connection failed' message when another program is using the BOINC communication port.

BOINC core client v5.2.12 is now out.

Changes since 5.2.11
Prompt to retry the connection if a connection failed event occurs.
Treat various forms of the local computer name as a local machine instead of a remote machine.

The merge may happen after Classic is over according to this:

"Chances are fairly high we might postpone this merge until after the Classic shutdown. We were hoping to get it done sooner than later, but that's just not in the cards.

You won't need to cache any work - we plan to have enough work in the results to send queue for 2 or 3 days of outage, and also plan to have the part of the merge that requires the splitters to be off take less than 2 or 3 days.

Once the dust settles on the classic shut down and the merge, we hope to have a lot more up-to-date scientific progress statistics up on the site. At least counts of validated signals, at best an up-to-the-minute list of the most interesting points in the sky (something we could never have done with SETI@home classic as it was) with maps, graphs, etc.

- Matt"

BOINC core client v5.2.13 is now out.

Changes since 5.2.12
Localization updates.
Network communication failure page added which describes basic ways to resolve common networking issues.
Fixed a timing issue where the manager would look for the password file before the client actually created one.

There's been only 637,179 results sent in on Monday. This number has started dropping after the emails went out last week. People are either switching to BOINC, or simply crunching until the end of Classic. It's still set for December 15, and it looks like it'll stay that.

So the master database merge is at a complete standstill. Unless everything suddenly works, we probably won't embark on this adventure until after the December 15th cutoff date for SETI@home Classic. It has become a programming/database nightmare where each fix or workaround brings forth another unexpected show-stopper.

Our server closet is in flux. The SETI project (which uses SETI@home raw data to study hydrogen in our galaxy) recently bought a new dual opteron system (4GB RAM, 3TB drives) which we wanted to rack up in our closet, but kryten (the BOINC upload/download server) was actually in the way. So we rolled kryten into our secondary lab. But first we had to route a Cogent connection and a link to our internal gigabit switch into that lab. Also in this lab are isaac (the boinc.berkeley.edu web server among other things) and jocelyn (the BOINC database server), which we hope to move in the closet shortly after Classic is shut down.

When this happens, we'll be able to turn off sagan (the Classic data server) and get it out of the way, so we can remove a set of four A5000 (disk arrays attached to galileo which hold the now-defunct Classic master science database). And all this is just the beginning of what is shaping up to be a large-scale shell game.

We also updated DNS maps and URLs to continue balancing the web load as well as move the BOINC core client downloads off isaac and onto kryten. With the warning e-mails still being sent, the new core client downloads have been peaking out at 40 Mbit/sec. Since isaac, which handles these downloads, is on the campus network, this was adversely affecting others. So we moved all that traffic onto our Cogent link, which is now close to topping out at 100 Mbit/sec at any given time. All BOINC core client downloads, SETI@home science client downloads, SETI@home/BOINC workunits and SETI@home Classic workunits are all going out over our single Cogent connection. Of course, Classic activity will ramp down significantly over the coming weeks, so bandwidth constraints shouldn't be an issue.

classic servers appear to be down. more details about this when it happens.

BOINC core client v5.2.14 has released to ALPHA testing! This is NOT stable!

Changes since 5.2.13
The manager should now correctly detect if the core client is currently running on the machine.

Classic servers are now back up. The servers were restarted.

On December 15, 2005, after 6 years of operation, Classic SETI@home sent out its last workunit. The current SETI@home project is up and running. Please join us! The new software uses the BOINC distributed computing platform, which enables your computer to work on other scientific endeavors like SETI@home if you wish. We could all use your CPU cycles! It's easy to switch over - just follow the instructions on the new SETI@home web site. We hope to see everyone there!

At the time of shutdown, the stats for this project will be frozen but will continue to be available on the web. It may take several weeks to clean everything up and syncronize the classic stats with the current SETI@home project.

Thanks to all original SETI@home participants for their tremendous dedication to the project. You made SETI@home into something of lasting significance.

BOINC v5.2.15 has been released to ALPHA testing! Use at your own risk! There was a 5.2.14, but now 5.2.15 replaces it.

# Changes since 5.2.14

* Use curl error messages for network errors. Maybe more useful information will be displayed than what was previously displayed.
* Fixed another problem which could prevent BOINC Manager from connecting to core client.
* Mac only: we are now building with newer tools and libraries: XCode 2.2, WxWidgets 2.6.2, libcurl 7.15.1.
* Mac only: in anticipation of Intel-based Macs, the Mac BOINC Manager package name now specifies the cpu architecture: boinc_5.2.15_macOSX_powerpc.zip.

# Changes since 5.2.13

* The manager should now correctly detect if the core client is currently running on the machine.
* Mac: Only administrators can attach to a new project (for improved security).
* Mac: No longer crashes if there is a space character in the path to BOINCManager.

For those of you who have high performance NVIDIA graphics cards, you can use the GPU to process the seti signals. You will probbaly get a factor speedup of 20-50 x's the speed using your cpu. It should be on their website.

Wheres all the pictures of astroid belts and astroids getting in the way of clear deep space pictures?