Run BOINC on iPhone?

Questions and Answers : Getting started : Run BOINC on iPhone?
Message board moderation

To post messages, you must log in.

AuthorMessage
Profile Louis Levner

Send message
Joined: 25 May 02
Posts: 2
Credit: 13,975,408
RAC: 15
United States
Message 1866136 - Posted: 7 May 2017, 22:42:40 UTC

This may be a dumb question, but I thought I heard somewhere that you can run BOINC on an iPhone. Is this true and if so, how does it affect battery life. Thanks
ID: 1866136 · Report as offensive
Profile Mr. Kevvy Crowdfunding Project Donor*Special Project $250 donor
Volunteer moderator
Volunteer tester
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 15 May 99
Posts: 3776
Credit: 1,114,826,392
RAC: 3,319
Canada
Message 1866138 - Posted: 7 May 2017, 22:51:14 UTC
Last modified: 7 May 2017, 23:01:10 UTC

There's no BOINC for iOS and none in the works as far as I know. The developers from what I have seen have indicated that this is mostly due to the restrictions the Apple Store and the platform have against applications performing code updates and pulling code modules from outside servers once installed; you would basically need a complete BOINC + application module for every project and would need to recertify and repush it every time it updated.

I'm trying to find the last official word on this I remember... I'll edit it in when I do.

Edit: Here is a GITHub discussion on it from the BOINC admins..
ID: 1866138 · Report as offensive
Profile Tom M
Volunteer tester

Send message
Joined: 28 Nov 02
Posts: 5124
Credit: 276,046,078
RAC: 462
Message 1870237 - Posted: 31 May 2017, 1:26:40 UTC - in response to Message 1866136.  
Last modified: 31 May 2017, 1:27:47 UTC

This may be a dumb question, but I thought I heard somewhere that you can run BOINC on an iPhone. Is this true and if so, how does it affect battery life. Thanks


You could try the iPhone "store" and search around for either boinc or "seti".

I do know that under Android you can only run it when your phone is plugged into a power supply. And the battery has to be over 90% and the screen is turned off.

Those sound like reasonable constraints for an iPhone too.

I have two Android phones running Boinc/Seti. They are not real barn burners but then they are not really fast phones either.

HTH,
Tom
A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association).
ID: 1870237 · Report as offensive
Profile Jord
Volunteer tester
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 9 Jun 99
Posts: 15184
Credit: 4,362,181
RAC: 3
Netherlands
Message 1870288 - Posted: 31 May 2017, 10:50:33 UTC
Last modified: 31 May 2017, 10:51:00 UTC

The problem with making BOINC for iOS is that Apple doesn't allow any program that runs on its devices to start download other applications that can start secondary and tertiary processes. In other words, it does not allow that BOINC would download and execute projects' science applications.

The workaround would be to include all science applications into the BOINC installer, but this isn't doable due to:
a) the sheer size the installer would grow to;
b) because every time that a project releases a new application, a new BOINC version would have to be released with that application built in.

So for now, there is no iOS version of BOINC.
ID: 1870288 · Report as offensive
Profile Tom M
Volunteer tester

Send message
Joined: 28 Nov 02
Posts: 5124
Credit: 276,046,078
RAC: 462
Message 1870624 - Posted: 2 Jun 2017, 0:29:47 UTC - in response to Message 1870288.  
Last modified: 2 Jun 2017, 0:32:10 UTC

So for now, there is no iOS version of BOINC.


One possibility would be a Boinc/Seti only client app. Then you would only have to update it when a new version of the cpu code came out.

Hmmmm, so even if we could hack together a "guest android" operating system for the iPhone and run Boinc/Seti under that, we might still have the problem of downloading and spawning processes. But since they would be "hidden" inside the guest operating system, maybe its do able.

Wait a minute, if no app can spawn other processes, that means a web browser like Chrome (which appears to spawn all over the place) can't be run on the iPhone?

Tom
A proud member of the OFA (Old Farts Association).
ID: 1870624 · Report as offensive
Profile Jord
Volunteer tester
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 9 Jun 99
Posts: 15184
Credit: 4,362,181
RAC: 3
Netherlands
Message 1870689 - Posted: 2 Jun 2017, 16:21:32 UTC - in response to Message 1870624.  

Boinc/Seti
Who are you and what have you done to the original Tom Miller?

Wait a minute, if no app can spawn other processes, that means a web browser like Chrome (which appears to spawn all over the place) can't be run on the iPhone?
Sure it can, because the browser doesn't download separate applications that then run separate processes. No matter how many tabs you open.
ID: 1870689 · Report as offensive

Questions and Answers : Getting started : Run BOINC on iPhone?


 
©2024 University of California
 
SETI@home and Astropulse are funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, NASA, and donations from SETI@home volunteers. AstroPulse is funded in part by the NSF through grant AST-0307956.