What about making it possible for "force" merging of computers?

I have upgraded two of my computers (Call them A and B) with new BOINC software. After that I have two of A and two of B under "View computers"

I try to merge them back together. Buy the "auto merge detection" algorithm the BOINC people have programmed don't see A1 and A2 to be the same computer... (And B1 and B2 can't be merged either)

I can see on the computer list that the different versions of the BOINC software have detected the CPU type a little different. And that might be the problem.

Example of the two A-computers:
34### computer-a.mydomain.dk 70.99 7,535.33 GenuineIntel 451MHz Pentium Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server Edition, Service Pack 4, (05.00.2195.00)

555### computer-a.mydomain.dk 31.86 1,521.34 GenuineIntel x86 Family 6 Model 5 Stepping 2 451MHz Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server Edition, Service Pack 4, (05.00.2195.00)

Why not make it possible to make the USER tell wich computers are the same?

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When I upgraded to BOINC 4.25, almost every computer showed up in the list again as a new computer. When I went to merge them, it was like it was randomly selecting pairs. Something is wrong with the "auto merge detection".

I agree, give us a "force merge" that will list all the PCs and let us force them together. If we mess it up (say merging all 5 PCs into one computer) then nect time they report, it would be bust like it was a freshly installed client.

As it is, I went ahead amd merged the random pairs so I had some reduction in the number of computers in my list. So now results made by different machines are merged (by error, most likely), anyway.

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I don't think a forced merge option will ever be implemented. Too much chance of database corruption and it may open an exploit. Once the old work has been removed from your old computer records you can delete them though.

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BOINC WIKI

BOINCing since 2002/12/8

Except that some computers will never have the old work gone, because it's "stuck" data from back in July, August, November and December of last year when database problems arrised. I have 1 machine sitting there that I'd like to delete, but alas, I can not.

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My movie https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/502242

I also vote for some kind of a force merge option. BOINC seems to want to duplicate computers for no apparent reason even when there has been no change at all to the machine, OS or client; and then can't figure out which ones to merge.

If "force" merging isn't going to happen, how about allowing the user to group computers. In other words, keep the records separate, but summarize the data of computers in the same group.

In my case merging works fine, but since about version 4.4x, I discovered that my host #979199 took over about 18000 credits from host #954694. The host #954694 started again at zero. The host #954694 was the machine with the most gained credits until then. Why this?!? I did not lose any credits but my "best" host spent it's credits to the "most lame" machine ...

I also agree that we should be allowed to force merge two machines.

--- bt

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You will be able to delete the computers that are no longer there, if there is no WUs left in that computer. It does not hurt your cobblestones, it just removes it from the list.

There really isn't a need for a force merge.

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My movie https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/502242

> There really isn't a need for a force merge.

There is a need if the two computers are actually the same computer. I like to keep all of my totals attached to the same host.

We've probably spent more time discussing this problem than it would have taken to fix the problem.

--- bt

i would also like a force merge. i have a computer that is seen as two because i changed operating systems. ie went from windows 2000 to windows xp. the computer is the same but boinc/seti@home see it as different because of the operating system upgrade. they are the same name and everything.

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<img src=\"http://boinc.mundayweb.com/seti2/stats.php?userID=1570&trans=off\">

When I upgraded to BOINC 4.25, almost every computer showed up in the list again as a new computer. When I went to merge them, it was like it was randomly selecting pairs. Something is wrong with the "auto merge detection".

I agree, give us a "force merge" that will list all the PCs and let us force them together. If we mess it up (say merging all 5 PCs into one computer) then nect time they report, it would be bust like it was a freshly installed client.

As it is, I went ahead amd merged the random pairs so I had some reduction in the number of computers in my list. So now results made by different machines are merged (by error, most likely), anyway.

This is interesting to say the least. I have been trying to figure out how TenaciousT - Huntsville, AL a member of the TeAm AnandTech currently in second place with an average credit of over 7,400 average credits, with only 78 CPU's that don't add up to his total. He must be merging his machines together and only showing some of them. He shows several machines with the following specs.

GenuineIntel
Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz Microsoft Windows XP
Professional Edition, Service Pack 2, (05.01.2600.00)

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I have a computer which is running Windows Vista Beta 1 which was running and was accidently powered off a few times and now shows as three different hosts even though no hardware/software changes were made at any time and it reconnected without any trouble to the Setiathome project. Yet it was created as a different computer each time it started up and do not get any opportunity to merge them back to one computer.

Any suggestions would be welcome.

2350106 fredsdellvista.fmsconsultants.com 69.67 1,243.55 GenuineIntel
Intel(R) Xeon(TM) CPU 3.06GHz Microsoft Windows Longhorn
Professional Edition, (06.00.5112.00) 643 17 Apr 2006 23:55:06 UTC

2149724 fredsdellvista.fmsconsultants.com 256.82 35,177.09 GenuineIntel
Intel(R) Xeon(TM) CPU 3.06GHz Microsoft Windows Longhorn
Professional Edition, (06.00.5112.00) 261 12 Apr 2006 10:35:49 UTC

2369923 fredsdellvista.fmsconsultants.com 11.65 120.80 GenuineIntel
Intel(R) Xeon(TM) CPU 3.06GHz Microsoft Windows Longhorn
Professional Edition, (06.00.5112.00) 263 24 Apr 2006 16:05:36 UTC

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