The Official BOINC news thread

Latest BOINC news: There will be no v2.26 release. It failed to run on one Linux system. This bug has been fixed plus some items have been updated and the Alpha test group is now in the process of downloading BOINC v2.27 and testing it. If it installs and runs properly on all systems, it will be the next release to the beta test. Here are the changes to BOINC and Seti@home:

BOINC v2.27 changes-

- Some house keeping with the Windows sources
- All Windows binaries now have a version resource assigned to them.
- The Windows CLI should no longer need to have references to afxwin.h
- project file cleanup work to get rid of some warnings
- Include file overhaul for the Windows platform
- More Windows header file cleanup.
- Include file overhaul for the Windows platform ( Part 2 )
- Adjust default values to download minimum work-unit load until the client can collect preferences from the server.
- Add the Alpha project test team members names to the Contact Us page.
- Changed the namespace references back to the orginal references so that the clients will build on Solaris and Linux.
- Updated the version setting code so that it will include the new file resources for Windows

Seti@home v2.27 changes-

- Include file overhaul on the Windows platform. This fixes the build breaks introduced by the changes to the BOINC include file structure on the Windows platform
- Fixed pulse reported POT for
len_prof>analysis_config.pulse_pot_max.
pulse.len_prof is now set to zero and the pi.pot is .clear()ed.
- changed match_tag in db_table.h to xml_match_tag to fix parsing problem
- Fix build breaks on Solaris/Linux

In the next few days Stackwalker for the BOINC_GUI application will be implemented and on startup stderr.txt and stdout.txt will be copied to stderr.old and stdout.old. This feature didn't make it into BOINC v2.27, but will be in for the next release.

BOINC v2.27 Alpha has been released for all 3 platforms. Seti@home v2.27 Alpha has also been released for all 3. There's some problems with a Mac build. Berkeley hopes to have a build for the Mac tomorrow.

I was able to download and install BOINC v2.27 from the Alpha site. Not much difference between BOINC v2.25 and v2.27, at least nothing visible. It still downloads Seti@home v2.25 though.

Genome@home shutting down. According to a post in a forum, it says: "Over the last year we have kept Genome@home running on a very low budget by sharing much of its client infrastructure with Folding@home, but several months from now its funding will no longer be available at all.

For this reason, the Genome@home project will be terminated. While the servers will stop distributing new work units on March 10, they will remain up until April 15 to receive the final results.

Our sister project Folding@home remains on very solid financial ground."

I guess Genome@home won't be switching to BOINC like Folding@home will.

Here's proof of this news: www.stanford.edu...
www.stanford.edu...

There has been no release today (BOINC v2.27 & Seti@home v2.27). Reason is unknown right now, but I'll be sure to collect more data regarding this. More details later.

Hey XN, can you help me?

I've been running BOINC for a few days, and although the Messages tab says it's uploaded three complete units, they don't show up on my BOINC account as either credit granted or pending. Is there a delay in place, or is there a problem with my BOINC?

Make sure you're running BOINC v2.25 and Seti@home v2.25, which are the latest beta releases of it. After processing a workunit and sending it back, you should get claimed credit. Once 2 other computers get this workunit and process it, it'll be compared with when you processed it, then you'll get granted credit for that workunit. Many people don't like the idea of needing 2 other computers to process the same workunit to get credit. I believe this is done for security reasons, so nobody could cheat. It's really not that bad. Once BOINC replaces the current Seti@home application, there will be millions of computers processing workunits and it really won't take long for credit to be granted. While in the beta test, there's bugs in the credit system, which need to be fixed before BOINC releases.

BOINC v2.27 and Seti@home v2.27 released for the Mac today. After the Linux issue is resolved, all applications will be rebuilt for all platforms and begin a count-down timer for a 5 day burn-in time.

Since I downloaded/installed BOINC, my computer has completed 5 WUs but has not sent them
I'm not sure why this is but if anyone knows why this is, tell me please

Try right clicking on the project and clicking on Update.

ok, thanks usually the most obvious things are the ones I dont figure out

The version of BOINC has been changed to version to 2.28.

Originally posted by xn
The version of BOINC has been changed to version to 2.28.

Hi xn!!

Thanx for keeping us updated on developemnts with BOINC - it seems as if changes are happening on a weekly basis?!

How are you - or others in the ATS BOINC team finding it - is it just as slow or are the recent releases starting to work more efficiently please? When I start BOINC, I'd like to use some "soak-tested" software for sure - let you beta testers discover the bugs!!

Today BOINC v2.28 and Seti@home v2.28 has been tagged for release. I believe the release of BOINC is getting a lot closer. No beta release of BOINC or Seti@home have been released in a while. This is due to the alpha testing and to fix the major bugs before adding it to beta testing. I test BOINC whenever a beta release comes out and it takes a while to complete a workunit due to the debugging code that current Seti@home v2.25+ workunits include. I will switch to BOINC after the beta test ends.

BOINC v2.28 and Seti@home v2.28 have both been released to the Alpha test. If no problems or minor problems occur, then it will be fixed and there will be a new release for Beta in about 5 days or so. You could download and install BOINC v2.28, but it'll be processing Seti@home v2.25 workunits. Use at your own risk.

Windows only -

Here are the changes in BOINC v2.28 since BOINC v2.27:

- Windows Product SKU was being over-written if the person was running with Service Pack 6a.
- Properly identify Windows Longhorn

Mac OS/X, Linux, & Solaris only -

Here are the changes in BOINC v2.28 since BOINC v2.27:

- Here is a patch that fixes CPU detection for Linux (i386) and adds CPU detection for MIPS.
It is not perfect (it's really the proc interface's fault), but at least it is a lot better than

what is there now.
- Another static/dynamic linking problem fixed by an ugly collect2 hack.
- bumped version to 2.28.

Windows, Mac OS/X, Solaris, & Linux -

Here are the changes in Seti@home v2.28 since Seti@home v2.27:

- Reduce user confusion by marking the results_overflow exception as an informational message

instead of an error.
- Updated time_sources script so that the image libraries could be included in the nightly drops.

All Alpha testers should switch to BOINC v2.28 and Seti@home v2.28 and use this week to check out if there's any reason to stop the distribution to the Beta test. Major issue is the change from static to partial dynamic linking of the unix/linux core clients. This may cause problems on not current operating systems.

Here is the latest on BOINC:

LATEST CHECKINS TO BOINC:
- Fixed a bug causing build problems for a customer in Australia, basically we were trying to do some ANSIUnicode conversions that were not needed.
- sighandle.h does not need to include its contents on the Win32 platform
- exit status of application set to nonzero value if there is an uncaught signal.
- checked in signal handling code. Uses sigaction. If signal is originally ignored, do not handle signals.
- Remove "confirm executables" preference. This is replaced by the anonymous platform mechanism.
- Add back in support for Thomas's multi-proc protection aginst strcat for vendor and CPU information
- Included the same multi-proc stuff for the x86
- Add JKecks change for changing when to report results based on the amount of time the machine is connected onto the Internet.
- Added support for keeping a backup copy of stderr.txt and stdout.txt for the previous session of BOINC in case it crashes.
- fleshed out trickle-message support a bit. Separate notions of "trickle up" (client->server) and "trickle down" (server->client) messages. They're kept in different tables.
- added a program trickle_handler.C for handling trickle-up messages. This is a framework program: you need to supply a handler function
- The scheduler sees if there are and trickle-down messages for the host, and sends them

STILL TO BE DONE:
- server-side API for creating trickle-down messages
- client logic for delivering trickle-down messages
- fix bad mem size reporting on Mac w/ > 2GB mem
- fixed bug when files are copied to apps/ in different order

So far BOINC v2.28 appears to be running good according to reports. If all goes well, BOINC v2.28 and SAH v2.28 may release this Friday. After this said, I think BOINC may release in late March at the earliest. If any of you have goals for # of workunits completed for SAH Classic, time to crunch those workunits now.

Here's the latest on BOINC:

A "milestone" field was added to the Taskbase entries and assigned milestone values to all BOINC entries. The current milestones are:

M1: public launch of SETI@home on BOINC
-No critical/high priority bugs in BOINC
-SETI@home failures under 5%
-preparations for increased server load
In this release, the client versions will be as they
currently are (GUI/screensaver for Win, CLI for Mac/unix)

M2: decommission old SETI@home
(i.e. turn off the current SETI@home data server)
The major gating items:
- Separate-GUI architecture
- GUIs available for Win, Mac OSX, Unix/X11

M3: support for Climateprediction.net and other projects
Gating items:
- client data management
- directory structure in project dirs
- WU interleaving
- trickle messages
- file compression
- support for non-CPU-intensive applications

The definitions of priority levels:

Critical
The bug would lead people to stop running BOINC, e.g.:
- it causes BOINC to stop doing work on a host,
even after a restart of the core client
- it causes the core client to violate user preferences
(use too much disk or network BW, etc)
- it is a security vulnerability

High
- It prevents a significant number of people from participating
- It causes recoverable crashes of the core client
- It significantly interferes with work getting done
- It gives zero credit in lots of cases
- Gating item for milestone

Medium
Strongly desirable new features
bugs that give too much or little credit

Low
Weakly desirable new features
cosmetic items

I don't think a late March is possible, but it depends on how fast they fix the bugs. An April or May release seems more possible.

Originally posted by xn

I don't think a late March is possible, but it depends on how fast they fix the bugs. An April or May release seems more possible.

Thanx once again for keeping us all posted pepper - Good job!!

I notice the "milestones" and that M2 signals the end of SETI@home: well, it's been a long time coming, as we all know, so that's just fine. I'm delighted to see that BOINC SETI@home will be released first, of course, *before* SETI@home "original" is closed down, so as to give existing (continuing) users of S@h time to move over before the "plug is pulled".

All ok too on the proposed timeline for these changes - I'll have to keep an eye open on my email to see when the change is announced for me to move over - though I'm sure you'll make some "earth-shattering" announcement in due course xn which will obviate the need for me to look in my mail box!! (Joke: these update mailings are really useful and really eliminate the need for me to check what's happening "firsthand"). Thanx!!

Let's go ATS BOINC and SETI@home teams!!