Where to start...I'm signed up with both Einstein and SETI@home, but apparently my computer does not alternate between the two and consequently I have .41 units of SETI and 170 units of Einstein. How can I set the account so my computer alternates tasks?
This BOINC thing is way out of hand and I'm THIS close to chucking the whole concept...WAAAAAYYY too computer programming intensive in order to just have a nifty screen saver }:-(
Too many gadgets and thingamabobs to have to futz with.

Leo Horishny

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First Boinc is not a screensaver it is Management software to allow volunteers to contribute to scientific research by providing computing power. Some project provide a screensaver.

If you received only .41 credits then your first Seti WU was a very noisy one. You should have almost immediately received another WU to crunch. Since you didn't get one, I have to assume that either you have a bunch of Einstein WU on hand or you have set Seti to receive no new work.

With the general preferences at default settings Boinc should be downloading WU from both projects then switched working from one to the other project about every hour.

Before we can help we need a few details of how you have your preference set and what share number you set at the projects. It would also be helpful if you could exit Boinc and restart it then post the entire log from the Boinc Message tab.

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Boinc V7.2.42
Win7 i5 3.33G 4GB, GTX470

If you received only .41 credits then your first Seti WU was a very noisy one. You should have almost immediately received another WU to crunch. Since you didn't get one, I have to assume that either you have a bunch of Einstein WU on hand or you have set Seti to receive no new work.

>>It has been some time since I had to transfer to BOINC and initially it seemed that the work switched between programs, but for some time, I've only noticed the Einstein screensaver operating when the computer was quiet.

With the general preferences at default settings Boinc should be downloading WU from both projects then switched working from one to the other project about every hour.

Before we can help we need a few details of how you have your preference set and what share number you set at the projects. It would also be helpful if you could exit Boinc and restart it then post the entire log from the Boinc Message tab.[/quote]

>>I've already downloaded the client software twice now and the preferences shown on the SETI account show 100 resource share and on the BOINC interface it shows both Einstein and SETI at 50% resource share.

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>>Another thing, when I went to the BOINC client to check my preferences, the tab for SETI had a button for YOUR PREFERENCES, but the Einstein tab had numerous buttons, but none that said YOUR PREFERENCES.

Before we can help we need a few details of how you have your preference set and what share number you set at the projects. It would also be helpful if you could exit Boinc and restart it then post the entire log from the Boinc Message tab.[/quote]

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The general preference used by Boinc is the one in the project account you last modified.

The link buttons in Boinc are determined and configured by data the individual projects supplies to Boinc.

In the Projects tab, is there a something in the status column of Seti row? Suspended? No new work?

There is one way you can force Boinc to download Seti work. In the Projects tab select Einstein and click on the suspend button. Boinc should imediately try to DL work from Seti. You can then resume Einstein.

I still would like you to copy and post the log from the message tab so we can see what is happening. It is very dificult to try and determine what might be the problem if you don't provide the information we need.

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Boinc V7.2.42
Win7 i5 3.33G 4GB, GTX470

The link buttons in Boinc are determined and configured by data the individual projects supplies to Boinc.

In the Projects tab, is there a something in the status column of Seti row? Suspended? No new work?
>> No, there is nothing showing when I look in the status column, but when I leave the computer alone, Einstein automatically runs.

There is one way you can force Boinc to download Seti work. In the Projects tab select Einstein and click on the suspend button. Boinc should imediately try to DL work from Seti. You can then resume Einstein.
>> I saw that, but I didn't think that was the way it should be I would like to at least get this running correctly.

I still would like you to copy and post the log from the message tab so we can see what is happening. It is very dificult to try and determine what might be the problem if you don't provide the information we need.[/quote]
>>Here's the only messages listed currently:

5/28/06 7:37:14 PM||Starting BOINC client version 5.2.13 for windows_intelx86
5/28/06 7:37:15 PM||libcurl/7.14.0 OpenSSL/0.9.8 zlib/1.2.3
5/28/06 7:37:15 PM||Data directory: C:\\PROGRAM FILES\\BOINC
5/28/06 7:37:16 PM||Processor: 1 AuthenticAMD AMD Athlon(tm) processor
5/28/06 7:37:16 PM||Memory: 247.46 MB physical, 1.76 GB virtual
5/28/06 7:37:16 PM||Disk: 38.28 GB total, 35.83 GB free
5/28/06 7:37:16 PM|Einstein@Home|Computer ID: 459491; location: ; project prefs: default
5/28/06 7:37:16 PM|SETI@home|Computer ID: 1838547; location: home; project prefs: default
5/28/06 7:37:16 PM||General prefs: from SETI@home (last modified 2005-11-28 22:46:44)
5/28/06 7:37:16 PM||General prefs: no separate prefs for home; using your defaults
5/28/06 7:37:18 PM||Remote control not allowed; using loopback address
5/28/06 7:37:18 PM|Einstein@Home|Resuming computation for result z1_1210.5__74_S4R2a_0 using albert version 437

Thank you.

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[
There is one way you can force Boinc to download Seti work. In the Projects tab select Einstein and click on the suspend button. Boinc should imediately try to DL work from Seti. You can then resume Einstein.

>>I didn't try to suspend Einstein, but when I tried to click on any of the buttons below, the computer would time out trying to reach that url. When I went to the SETI project and selected any of the buttons on that choice, I was connected.

FWIW,

Leo

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Ok, I'm stumped..... Thinking.

How many hour (number of WU X completion time) of Einstein do you have on your computer? How many hours a day does Boinc work? What is the CPU speed.

The only other thing I can think of trying is putting the project back on an equal footing by resetting to zero your long and short term debt contained in client_state.xml file. The debt numbers are what the Boinc scheduler uses to determine what project to run and DL work from.

This can be done with a program called BoincDV which allow you to easily view and reset the debt numbers to zero. The link takes you to the authors site where you can obtain the file. Unzip it and follow the instruction in the readme.txt file.

Copy the unzipped files into the Boinc folder (probably C:\\Program Files\\BOINC). The program does not get installed, just run the BoincDV.exe file by double clicking on it. It reads the client_state files and displays the project debt numbers. You can reset the values to zero by clicking on clear debts button. Make sure you use the Program manager File - exit to stop Boinc running before clearing the debt.

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Boinc V7.2.42
Win7 i5 3.33G 4GB, GTX470

[quote]Ok, I'm stumped..... Thinking.

How many hour (number of WU X completion time) of Einstein do you have on your computer? How many hours a day does Boinc work? What is the CPU speed.

>>Just one WU waiting, working on another Einstein WU with the computer taking 13 hours to complete a WU. The second unit is 9 hours in. I am on my computer infrequently and I don't leave it running unless I'm on it, probably 3 days a week, possibly 4 and I'm on the computer a couple of hours or less at a time usually. I can't find what speed chip I have, it's an AMD Athlon 5 yrs old.

The only other thing I can think of trying is putting the project back on an equal footing by resetting to zero your long and short term debt contained in client_state.xml file. The debt numbers are what the Boinc scheduler uses to determine what project to run and DL work from.

>>Rather than that, how about trying the reset project button on my SETI project tab and/or doing the same w/Einstein at home?

Leo

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>>Rather than that, how about trying the reset project button on my SETI project tab and/or doing the same w/Einstein at home?

That's a nice way of losing all current work in progress. A reset of the project will delete all result in progress, all you are trying to upload to Einstein (which is down, btw), all results you try to report and all the science application files.

It'll only download new after that. Yet with Einstein down and out of reach, you'd best not reset Einstein!

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[quote}>>Just one WU waiting, working on another Einstein WU with the computer taking 13 hours to complete a WU. The second unit is 9 hours in. I am on my computer infrequently and I don't leave it running unless I'm on it, probably 3 days a week, possibly 4 and I'm on the computer a couple of hours or less at a time usually. I can't find what speed chip I have, it's an AMD Athlon 5 yrs old.

[/quote]

Going by the above statemnt, BOINC has about 8 Hrs a week to process work units. By that information, it is taking over a week to complete an Einstein unit. So the computer is using all the cycles availble to avoid the units expiring.

Once it has finished Einstein, BOINC should switch back to SETI and process work there. Likely you will see SETI do work units for a long time while it catches up with your preference settings.

Over a long period of time, BOINC will honour your setup. It will do its best not to allow work units to expire, so that can mean one project getting a lot of time. After it has finished those units, it will switch to the other project and give it an equal amount of time.

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You need a second life? Seconlife.com

[quote]>>Rather than that, how about trying the reset project button on my SETI project tab and/or doing the same w/Einstein at home?

That's a nice way of losing all current work in progress. A reset of the project will delete all result in progress, all you are trying to upload to Einstein (which is down, btw), all results you try to report and all the science application files.

>> All right, I'll take that as a no then...<g>

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Going by the above statemnt, BOINC has about 8 Hrs a week to process work units. By that information, it is taking over a week to complete an Einstein unit. So the computer is using all the cycles availble to avoid the units expiring.

>>So that may be why my system isn't working, because it's only being allowed to work so infrequently? I would have thought that the systems would have been designed to work off and on, a few seconds here and a few seconds there. I never had any such problem before with the old SETI client.

Once it has finished Einstein, BOINC should switch back to SETI and process work there. Likely you will see SETI do work units for a long time while it catches up with your preference settings.

>>That's what's throwing me, my settings are set at 50/50 yet, for whatever reason, only Einstein is working and it doesn't switch to SETI after it's sent a WU.

After it has finished those units, it will switch to the other project and give it an equal amount of time.

>>If only....

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Going by the above statemnt, BOINC has about 8 Hrs a week to process work units. By that information, it is taking over a week to complete an Einstein unit. So the computer is using all the cycles availble to avoid the units expiring.

>>That brings up another point I just noticed on these thread postings. I am listed as having 0 credits, but on my BOINC manager I have 157+ Einstein credits,
not to mention my .41 SETI credit. Shouldn't I have a 157 at least on my credits
when I'm posting? If not, why not?

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That brings up another point I just noticed on these thread postings. I am listed as having 0 credits, but on my BOINC manager I have 157+ Einstein credits,
not to mention my .41 SETI credit. Shouldn't I have a 157 at least on my credits
when I'm posting? If not, why not?

Project forums only show credit earned with that project (rounded to the nearest integer, which is why your 0.41 shows as zero). To get combined statistics, there are four third-party stats sites linked to on your Account page; no doubt there are more out there. I like "BOINC Combined Statistics" for a quick summary. To display your stats other than from S@h here, you can get yourself a signature graphic; from the links I just mentioned BOINCstats and BOINC Synergy offer them, while mine below (and Aurora B's upthread) come from Neil Munday's site.

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To put the deadline situation into prespective, consider you have only 8 hours a week to do a work unit; that is 2 hours a session, mulitipled by 4 sessions. Einstein has a two week deadline, and is requiring 13 hours to complete from you. So with a requirment of 13 of your available 16 hours, BOINC has determined that you do not have the resources to switch between projects.

I complete a Einstein unit in 5.5 hours, so you need 2.5 times longer to do that same work unit. So keeping this 2.5 times difference in mind, lets consider SETI work units.

NOw for SETI, they have recently just completed a switch to the new 'SETI Enhanced". This has varible completions times. I currently have a SETI work unit that estimated at 6.5 hours, and has been gived a 13 day deadline. You would need 16.5 hours to complete this WU, using the 2.5 factor. Your machine would be hard press to complete the work unit. This could be the main reason you are not recieving SETI units. Deadline problems.

If you want to try and force SETI, set Einstein to 'Get NO new work'. Then after you have a seti unit, you can change Einstein back to 'get new work'. Keep an eye on your BOINC messages. If you are running into deadline problems, it generally stated in the messages when it tries to get work.

considering your very limited processing time, projects with short work units might be better for you. For example: SIMAP, SZTAKI, Predictor.

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You need a second life? Seconlife.com

This could be the main reason you are not recieving SETI units. Deadline problems.

If you want to try and force SETI, set Einstein to 'Get NO new work'. Then after you have a seti unit, you can change Einstein back to 'get new work'. Keep an eye on your BOINC messages. If you are running into deadline problems, it generally stated in the messages when it tries to get work.

considering your very limited processing time, projects with short work units might be better for you. For example: SIMAP, SZTAKI, Predictor.[/quote]

>>That puts the problem in perspective, thank you. I guess I will have to manually switch between projects or, just let it go and stay w/SETI. I was happy with that operation before this switch and never had a problem with processing the SETI units with the time I spent on the computer; I didn't realize there'd be this kind of a wrinkle adding another project.

thank you!

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