What are the`deadlines?

01/11/2007 09:31:51

I'm concerned about the deadline. Didn't January 11th pass already?

[Edit] I just realized that could be November first too, depending on which method is used for dates.

Sorry... Typo on my part. It was 06/11/2007. It (along with another) are sitting ready to report now. :)

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IBA# 11465
http://imagesdesavions.com

This is either a settings problem, or a run time issue. I am betting that the RAM usage or CPU usage settings are wrong. How much RAM do you have? What are the RAM usage settings for active and inactive?

Is the deadline January or November?

5/16/2007 22:20:58||Processor: 1 AuthenticAMD AMD Sempron(tm) 2800+
5/16/2007 22:20:58||Memory: 511.48 MB physical, 1.44 GB virtual
5/16/2007 22:20:58||Disk: 76.33 GB total, 22.16 GB free

Use at most 1 GB disk space
Leave at least 1 GB disk space free
Use at most 50% of total disk space
Write to disk at most every 60 seconds
Use at most 100% of page file (swap space)
Use at most 100% of memory when computer is in use
Use at most 100% of memory when computer is idle

Okay... Real life data and example.

BOINC ran out of work this evening:

5/16/2007 22:20:58|SETI@home|Requesting 864000 seconds of new work, and reporting 2 completed tasks

It received three units with a total "To Completion" time of 30 hours. (No where near the 240 hours it requested).

Now when it updates I get the "(not requesting new work or reporting completed tasks)"...

Funny thing is, my laptop with a lot less MIPS than the desktop is sitting here with over 36 hours "To Completion" worth of units and is still requesting 727,660 seconds more work.... In fact, it's getting them right now... Twenty more units have just been added to it queue but my faster desktop is requesting no more... :(

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IBA# 11465
http://imagesdesavions.com

If Stephen! is using the screensaver and has work-while-in-use set to “no”, could it be one of those cases where BOINC decides that the screensaver kicking in constitutes user activity?

Never being one who gets turned on by shiney objects, my screen saver is a simple "Blank Screen"... :)

Besides, I have both active and not active set to 100%...

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IBA# 11465
http://imagesdesavions.com

Funny thing is, my laptop with a lot less MIPS than the desktop is sitting here with over 36 hours "To Completion" worth of units and is still requesting 727,660 seconds more work....

Even funnier... My 400MHz Armada has over 48 hours "To Completion" in its queue and is still requesting 658,925 seconds more. Yet my Main Machine sites here with less than 30 hours and wants no more...

Weird, eh?

Oh... They are all using the same 'default' preferences, BTW...

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IBA# 11465
http://imagesdesavions.com

This is either a settings problem, or a run time issue. I am betting that the RAM usage or CPU usage settings are wrong. How much RAM do you have? What are the RAM usage settings for active and inactive?

Is the deadline January or November?

5/16/2007 22:20:58||Processor: 1 AuthenticAMD AMD Sempron(tm) 2800+
5/16/2007 22:20:58||Memory: 511.48 MB physical, 1.44 GB virtual
5/16/2007 22:20:58||Disk: 76.33 GB total, 22.16 GB free

Use at most 1 GB disk space
Leave at least 1 GB disk space free
Use at most 50% of total disk space
Write to disk at most every 60 seconds
Use at most 100% of page file (swap space)
Use at most 100% of memory when computer is in use
Use at most 100% of memory when computer is idle

Okay... Real life data and example.

BOINC ran out of work this evening:

5/16/2007 22:20:58|SETI@home|Requesting 864000 seconds of new work, and reporting 2 completed tasks

It received three units with a total "To Completion" time of 30 hours. (No where near the 240 hours it requested).

Now when it updates I get the "(not requesting new work or reporting completed tasks)"...

Funny thing is, my laptop with a lot less MIPS than the desktop is sitting here with over 36 hours "To Completion" worth of units and is still requesting 727,660 seconds more work.... In fact, it's getting them right now... Twenty more units have just been added to it queue but my faster desktop is requesting no more... :(

A 10 day cache when there are 4.5 day deadlines? No wonder BOINC does not always ask for more work. Drop the cache to about a day.

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BOINC WIKI

A 10 day cache when there are 4.5 day deadlines? No wonder BOINC does not always ask for more work. Drop the cache to about a day.

Tried that, didn't help. It now has two units with a total of less than 20 hours of work remaining. Both units have a deadline of 13 June.

My laptop, *using the same preferences*, has 35 work units all with deadlines of 10 or 11 June.

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IBA# 11465
http://imagesdesavions.com

I think AB is right. I think the "% of time BOINC client is running" and "while BOINC running, % of time work is allowed" are low, thus making BOINC think that the computer in question doesn't need any more work since it isn't running often enough to need more work cached.

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I think AB is right. I think the "% of time BOINC client is running" and "while BOINC running, % of time work is allowed" are low, thus making BOINC think that the computer in question doesn't need any more work since it isn't running often enough to need more work cached.

How do I make it any better than this? (Keeping in mind I have over 20GB free on this drive)

Use at most 1 GB disk space
Leave at least 1 GB disk space free
Use at most 50% of total disk space
Write to disk at most every 60 seconds
Use at most 100% of page file (swap space)
Use at most 100% of memory when computer is in use
Use at most 100% of memory when computer is idle

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IBA# 11465
http://imagesdesavions.com

A 10 day cache when there are 4.5 day deadlines? No wonder BOINC does not always ask for more work. Drop the cache to about a day.

Tried that, didn't help. It now has two units with a total of less than 20 hours of work remaining. Both units have a deadline of 13 June.

My laptop, *using the same preferences*, has 35 work units all with deadlines of 10 or 11 June.

The first step is to reduce the cache. There really are S@H tasks that have a 4.5 day deadline. If you do get one of these, BOINC will refuse to get more work until it is completed.

The second step is to figure out why your active_frac is so low. What is your setting for do work while user is active?

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BOINC WIKI

Well, there's two ways to fix this (assuming I'm correct). The quick and dirty way is to edit your client_state.xml file. If you're not comfortable with editing files, then the other way is to simply let BOINC run and your %'s will increase eventually over time and it will fix itself.


If you want to try editing the file, close BOINC Manager (and/or stop the BOINC service if you've installed it as a system service), then open up client_state.xml in Notepad and look for the lines (this is taken directly from your post above):

<time_stats>
<on_frac>0.999996</on_frac>
<connected_frac>0.999999</connected_frac>
<active_frac>0.000426</active_frac>
<cpu_efficiency>0.951876</cpu_efficiency>
<last_update>1194166889.048828</last_update>
</time_stats>

I've made the key line bold. Change that line to 1.000000 (I believe the six trailing zeros are necessary). Save the file and exit. Restart BOINC. You should be able to download more work now.

Keep in mind that if you don't crunch all the time on this machine, you will run the risk of being unable to meet workunit deadlines. The setting in question is usually calculated by BOINC to make sure clients don't miss deadlines. This calculation algorithm is 99.9% of the time correct (I've seen a few times where it get screwed up somehow, so this may be one of those cases, again, depending on if you actually crunch all the time or if you shut it down when not in use).

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If you do get one of these, BOINC will refuse to get more work until it is completed.

I believe you that there are deadlines that short but I've yet to see one. Usually they are at least a week out, mostly two or three...

The second step is to figure out why your active_frac is so low. What is your setting for do work while user is active?

Processor usage
Do work while computer is running on batteries? yes
Do work while computer is in use? yes
Do work only between the hours of (no restriction)
Leave applications in memory while suspended? yes
Switch between applications every 60 minutes
On multiprocessors, use at most 2 processors
Use at most 100 percent of CPU time

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IBA# 11465
http://imagesdesavions.com

I've made the key line bold. Change that line to 1.000000 (I believe the six trailing zeros are necessary). Save the file and exit. Restart BOINC. You should be able to download more work now.

Done... It's down to four hours remaining on the last unit so we'll see what happens from here... It's *trying* to get 244,255 seconds of work but can't get through... We'll see how much it really gets this time. :)

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IBA# 11465
http://imagesdesavions.com

I've made the key line bold. Change that line to 1.000000 (I believe the six trailing zeros are necessary). Save the file and exit. Restart BOINC. You should be able to download more work now.

Give the man a cigar! :)

After making the edit I went to see what the two laptops had for that value... (0.999821 and 0.999858)

By the time I returned to the desktop it had sixty-six hours of work stashed in its queue. All with a deadline of 05/29/2007. That's three times more work than it's had at any one time since I upgraded to 5.8.15. It requested just shy of sixty-eight hours (244,470 seconds) so that's not too bad...

Odd that it calculated such a low value. This thing sits here for ~21 hours a day doing nothing but SETI Boinc...

I wonder if I should suspend BOINC during the two or three times a week I play Half Life online with my son...?

Thanks!

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IBA# 11465
http://imagesdesavions.com