Just curious.. you did install BOINC separately on each machine such that they are running in separate, independant directories, right? You're not running BOINC on all three machines from a common network directory are you? Also, does each machine have a different host name?

Those are the only things I can think of that might cause problems.

I had BOINC running on two of my systems at home without any problems, so I know it's certainly possible. BOINC was installed separately on each machine and they both have different hostnames and different hostid numbers.

Mark H.

Just to amplfy what Mark said,

If you have all three computers working out the same directory on a share that could be the problem.

When I installed BOINC on all of my computers I installed them on a non-shared disk (the C: drive) and they run fine. I could have pointed them all to a series of shares on the RAID array for protection of the data, but it is a small concern that information will be lost.

So, you need three sets of install directories, and they can be all hosted off of one machine, but you need 3 directories and 3 executables. ...

If you want to be able to see the information from one computer, you can use BOINC View to do that ...
<p>
For BOINC Documentation: Click Me!

Maybe is the problem listed here:

http://setiweb.ssl.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=5224

If you install boinc on one machine, and then copy the entire contents of that install folder to the other two machines...you would get this affect.

If you tried running all 3 from the same shared folder on the "residential LAN" you would get this affect.

The problem, simply, is that somehow each of these 3 machines is saying
"hello server...I am machine #48382838".

As they said in Highlander...There Can Be Only ONE!

Separate installs on each machine would work (run the install executable).
Copying the "account_.xml files and global_prefs.xml file to additional installs is fine. Do this copying before running the boinc_gui or command line, and the newer machines will automatically join these projects.

=Ben

I'm pretty sure that the classic SETI program didn't track host computers, so you wouldn't have this issue with the older version.

A fresh install on all the machines is the best thing to do here.

> A fresh install on all the machines is the best thing to do here.

No, a simple detach and reattach on your other machines will generate a new host ID.

> I don't even know how to do a detach and reattach, but it is too late anyway,
> because I just did a complete reinstall from scratch on this machine. I threw
> out everything, including the WU that the client was working on at the time.
> Now I am just going to wait and see if I still get that "another instance"
> message at the top of the hour when the cron job kicks in on both machines. If
> this works, then I will do a fresh install on my daughter's machine as well,
> and I will have three Boinc clients running, as well as two of the "classic"
> clients. Maybe I'll finally start racking up some credits. :)

You should only run BOINC or SETI@Home Classic ... otherwise, you rob peter to pay paul ...

Both projects fight for the idle time and one of them loses (I think it is Classic) ...
<p>
For BOINC Documentation: Click Me!

Oh and Word Weaver, just so you kknow, you could crunch for up to 2 weeks without seeing any credit. If this happens, DON'T WORRY. BOINC uses a different validationa nd credit system than SAH Classic did... but once credit starts rolling in for you it should (theoretically) come in more or less consistently.

Welcome to BOINC!


<br />

Feel free to take a look inside my brain

EDIT: I just looked at your computers (WOW they're running 7.5!! I'm impressed!!), and my questions are: are any of your computers the same? because here is the information given in your "computers" section (editted for better viewing):

Rank RAC Total credit CPU type Operating system
1 0.00 0.00 Power Macintosh PowerMac-G3 Darwin 7.5.0
2 0.00 0.00 Power Macintosh PowerMac3,3 Darwin 7.5.0
3 0.00 0.00 Power Macintosh PowerMac3,3 Darwin 7.5.0
4 0.00 0.00 Power Macintosh PowerMac-G3 Darwin 7.5.0
5 0.00 0.00 Power Macintosh PowerMac-G3 Darwin 7.5.0

From this, I only see 2 computers that are for certain distinct, that is 2 and 3 are different from 1, 4, and 5.

Is that 2 computers or 3? Just something that I thought I should bring in...

If they both run fine until your cron task executes, could it be something to do with that?
Could you tell us exactly what you are running under cron?

BOINC shouldn't need a cronjob to keep working... It picks up work automatically... Could it be that you actually try to run another instance of BOINC on the same machine?

Morning, Wordweaver,

I don't know what a Cron Job is, but I get the impression that it is trying to restart the application, or to restart it if it's not running. Do you have each instance of boinc set to "Run Always"?. It's located under "File" menu. If not then maybe Cron Job sees that it isn't computing and tries to restart it. Then the OS gives you the error message.

I have read this entire thread and I can find no error in what others have said.

To "Detach" from a project you need to click on the "Projects" tab the select Detach. Warning I believe all data you have achieved so far on the computer will be lost.

To "Attach" click on the "Setting" toolbar, select "Attach to a project" and enter the appropriate data.

I'm siding with the others who have suggested a complete removal from each machine then a fresh install. You should install each instance of boinc to a non-shared drive.

I doubt this helps, but I have tried.

tony

> Actually, Peter would never rob Paul...at least he didn't in the Bible. As a
> matter of fact, Paul and his companions went to Jerusalem in order to offer
> help to Peter and the rest of the brethren. :)

Well, ok ... I was talking about another peter, paul, and mary ... :)

I couldn't resist ....

> But on the serious side, yes, I know it sounds like a crazy setup, but the way
> it was explained to me is that if you set up both on the same machine, if
> Boinc is running idle because there is no work units for it, then classic can
> do its thing in the meantime.

I think the CRON is the problem on each machine ... I installed BOINC on my Dual G-5, and have it start up at boot time (Though the "Hide" is not working as I expect) and it starts up and runs ... You might try my instructions (this will also tell me if I missed something) ...

Try these instructions and tell me if they work for you.

> I must admit though, that I have noticed that Boinc tends to run faster, since
> there is no pretty GUI to take up processing time. If I can't get Boinc to
> stop having these problems, I might just trash it on all of the machines and
> stick with classic until they send it to the graveyard. :)

Well, as far as science is concerned, putting more into the BOINC is best in that many of the WU you process in Classic are just the 23rd rehash of the same WU ...

<p>
For BOINC Documentation: Click Me!

> Okay guys, let me clarify my situation a little more.
>
> We have three machines on our LAN.
>
> On the first machine, which is my personal work machine, (a beige G3 400 mhz
> AV mini-tower with 768 MB of RAM, and running Panther 10.3.5), I have one copy
> of the classic client running, and one copy of the Boinc client running. I
> also use SETI Control to start and stop the Boinc client, as well as to view
> the log file.
>
> The second machine has the same kind of SETI setup as the first, that is, two
> clients, but it is a G4 500 mhz DP with 1.5 Gigs of RAM, and also running
> Panther 10.3.5.
>
> The third machine runs only one copy of the Boinc client, and no classic
> client. That machine is also a G4 400 mhz with something like 800 MB of RAM,
> and also running Panther 10.3.5.
>
> There is no conflict between the two classic clients, as I noted earlier. The
> only conflict is between the three Boinc clients, as I have already described.
> In short, to answer Janus's question, there is only one instance of Boinc
> running on each of the three machines.
>
> To answer both Janus and Lowfield, I set up the cronjob at the recomendation
> of others, who said that it was a good idea, in case the Boinc client quits
> for some unexpected reason. I know nothing about Unix and the Terminal, so I
> just followed the instructions I was given to set up the cronjob, so that it
> checks the Boinc clients once every hour in order to make sure that they are
> still running.
>
> Lowfield, yes, I too have suspected that the problem has something to do with
> the cronjob I set up. At this point, I think I am going to just delete it, (if
> I remember how to -- I think the author of SETI Control explains it in his
> short doc), and see if things improve at all. As I said, Boinc runs fine,
> except when we hit that top of the hour when the cronjob is executed.
>
> I hope this answers everyone's questions.
>
> By the way, I never did find where the host name info is stored. It is not in
> the client_state.xml file like the host ID number is.
>
> The WordWeaver
>
> The WordWeaver
> Endtime Prophecy Net
> <a> href="mailto:webmaster@endtimeprophecy.net">webmaster@endtimeprophecy.net[/url]
> EPO Messageboard
>


If your cron job is there to restart BOINC if it has failed - which is the only reason I can see for doing one - it will try and execute BOINC. BOINC will find a lockfile in the directory and exit immediately outputting "Another copy of BOINC is already running". In this case this is NOT an error - it is actually saying that BOINC is already running so there's no need for action.

I'd suggest stopping the cron job poste haste and see what happens :)

HTH