Boinc Urrrrgh!

[wirelessenabled]

After over 10 years I think I am finally finished with Distributed Computing

Boinc churns the disks and doesn't allow me to work on my computer. When I shut Boinc down all is ok.

Is there some easy fix or should I just follow my instincts and remove Boinc. I am to the point that I don't want to mess with the problems any more.

 

[theAnimal]

Maybe try reinstalling.

You could always run F@H since it is not on Boinc.

 

[Sunny129]

why don't you set your project preferences (in BOINC) to suspend work when you're using the computer?

 

[sangyup81]

are you running some projects that use a lot of RAM or something?

 

[petrusbroder]

See Sunny129's proposal. If you can not find the setting, please update BOINC!
Please don't stop, all crunchers are needed!

 

[wayliff]

After over 10 years I think I am finally finished with Distributed Computing

Boinc churns the disks and doesn't allow me to work on my computer. When I shut Boinc down all is ok.

Is there some easy fix or should I just follow my instincts and remove Boinc. I am to the point that I don't want to mess with the problems any more.

that is odd...what are your specs?

I do software development while crunching and even with that the computer remains responsive.

 

[salvorhardin]

If you have a multicore processor you can just leave 1 core unavailable to boinc so you will always have it available. I'm running the latest version and it gives up processing power when needed. Only time I notice any slow down is when running projects that use up all my ram or when trying to watch any video when gpus are crunching. gpu wise, boinc doesn't let go as easily as it does the cpu. You can also follow sunny129s advice and use suspend work when computer is in use for your specific project.

 

[Ken g6]

are you running some projects that use a lot of RAM or something?

This. Correlizer is one project I find uses too much memory for comfort. Simap is running now and is much nicer; it will run out of work long before the end of the month, but it's a good test project.

You can also set BOINC not to run during a specific time (like when you're awake) and to not leave applications in memory when suspended. This clears it out almost completely during that time.

 

[wirelessenabled]

Thanks for all of the suggestions.

I have a Q6600 running at 3.1GHz, 4 gig of ram, 32 bit XP so only 3.1 gig available.

Running Rosetta on the cpu and Seti on the gpu.

I have had the gpu set to not run when the computer is busy. Up until a month or 2 ago I had the cpu set to run all the time. I changed that about a month ago but the switch over for Boinc to go from running to not running seems to involve a protracted session of disk thrashing. Sometimes it takes 3-5 minutes to get a browser window to open

I snoozed Boinc yesterday and it took about 5+ minutes for all the activity to subside. Now my system is as responsive as it used to be.

Maybe I'll try the latest version of Boinc although I have been noticing the same problem on my work crunchers as well. I have had to turn them all to a off work hours schedule only otherwise I get complaints about slowdowns.

These problems have only started in the last 4-5 months. I have been running DC for ages, long before the Boinc era. I think I know what I am doing but always willing to learn.

 

[petrusbroder]

Well, yes. There is a difference between non-boinc clients of old and the the client now. In the "old time" the clients quit fast (while moving the mouse ...) and furious, now it takes time ...
I would try the new BOINC version. The 6.10.XX versions are better: quit faster, take less resources. Also I would give boinc only three cores to crunch ...
In then BOINC-mamanger find Preferences, get to the tab processor usage, look in the lower part and give BOINC 75% of the processors. That should leave at one core for the less demanding work, such as browsing. It also gives the comp better resources to shut down the processes used because you have a core which can do that. If you have two HDD (I happen to have that on my main computer) you can install BOINC on the lesser used HDD (not the system/program HDD) and then you will probably not have any problems at all ... and still produce a lot on three cores.
Good luck and enjoy the crunching.

An after thought: some clients are huge. The Correlizer client is 56 MBytes when you down-load it, plus all the additional files. It also takes a lot of RAM (182 600 KBytes) and thus 4 processes really take a chunk ... But Correlizer is not alone: some other projerct clients also take a lot of RAM (I try to awoid those on my working computer). Thus code bloating has come to the previously so lean DC too ...

 

[biodoc]

I'm getting a bit frustrated too. It seems boincmgr from the latest version (6.12.34) has a memory leak or some problem on ubuntu or openSUSE (both debian based systems). Also, running boinc/boincmgr requires quit a lot of RAM these days not counting the science apps.

RAM requirements:

boinc: 158 Mb
boincmgr: 221 Mb (6.10.58); 358 Mb (6.12.34)

With 6.12.34, thats 0.5 Gb RAM before loading the science apps.:hmm:

correlizer: 178 Mb per core

With boincmgr (6.12.34) on openSUSE, RAM goes up gradually and after some hours, all RAM is used up (4 Gb) and the system starts using the HDD swap space. Needless to say, the system becomes very slow to respond.



I install boinc in a local directory and start crunching using boinc only. I only use boincmgr to change settings or projects, etc.

On windows, the installer puts both boinc and boincmgr as startup programs. You could run msconfig and go to startup apps tab and click off boincmgr, so it only runs boinc on startup. You could then make a shortcut of the boincmgr app to your desktop if you want to check progress or change other settings, etc. When you quit boincmgr it will ask you if you want to stop the science apps (boinc). Your choice at that time. This might be the way to go on 32-bit systems where RAM is limited.

 

[Rattledagger]

Thanks for all of the suggestions.

I have a Q6600 running at 3.1GHz, 4 gig of ram, 32 bit XP so only 3.1 gig available.

Running Rosetta on the cpu and Seti on the gpu.

Rosetta can be memory-hungry, and is a likely cause for your performance-problems.

SIMAP is a good, low-memory alternative, but unfortunately has normally only work start of month.

World Community Grid has many health-related projects, some of them with minimal memory-requirements, so should be a good project to run alongside Rosetta, to decrease memory-usage but still do useful work.

BOINC also includes many options to suspend then user active, with (or without) removing applications from memory, if removed from memoryit should give you back a responsive computer fast (but you'll lose everything since last checkpoint). Also, it's possible specify specific programs that leads BOINC to pause crunching.


As for BOINC-versions, the current v6.12.3x-versions does have a memory-leak, AFAIK it's fixed in the v6.12.41-clients but strangely these isn't listed on the download-page. For the 32-bit windows-version, you can download http://boinc.berkeley.edu/dl/boinc_6.12.41_windows_intelx86.exe
I've not tested the version myself, so use at your own risk...
Another possibility is to downgrade to v6.10.xx, it's possible these versions doesn't have the memory-leak.

Oh, and while the download-page does list v6.13.xx, atleast Rosetta@home isn't currently working with this version, and all your Rosetta-work will be invalid. Also, downgrading from v6.13.xx isn't supported, among other things you'll lose all work on client.

 

[wirelessenabled]

Thanks for all the suggestions!

 

[wirelessenabled]

Currently working ok on 3 cores. Still have a lag but not nearly what it was before.

It's a shame that Boinc doesn't have finer granularity in control of the resources used.

 

[somethingsketchy]

Currently working ok on 3 cores. Still have a lag but not nearly what it was before.

It's a shame that Boinc doesn't have finer granularity in control of the resources used.

I agree. I wished there was a way to make a dual core laptop only use 25% of total processing power (like you can do with a quad core), but not so it pegs one core. Guess it will be a work in progress.