BOINC us currently set to "Run based on preferences." When the screensaver starts (currently after one minute of idle time), the graphical screensaver flickers on screen for a second before being replaced by a generic BOINC logo saying "BOINC is suspended."

I assume this is based somehow on my preferences, because when I switch BONIC to "run always" the client works fine without any problems, including processing work units and giving me a cool graphic screen saver. Problem is, I don't want BOINC to run all the time, my only real requirement is that BOINC only run when the computer is idle.

I've copied my preferences below (I'm not sure how the formatting will turn out). Suffice to say that I've tried to give BOINC as much leeway as possible so it will process its work instead of sayying "BOINC is suspended."

Any help would be appreciative. Let me know if you need more information from me.


Processor usage
Do work while computer is running on batteries?
(matters only for portable computers) no
Do work while computer is in use? no
Do work only after computer is idle for 1 minutes
Do work only between the hours of (no restriction)
Leave applications in memory while preempted?
(suspended applications will consume swap space if 'yes') yes
Switch between applications every
(recommended: 60 minutes) 60 minutes
On multiprocessors, use at most 2 processors
Disk and memory usage
Use no more than 50 GB disk space
Leave at least .01 GB disk space free
Use no more than 90% of total disk space
Write to disk at most every 60 seconds
Use no more than 90% of total virtual memory
Network usage
Connect to network about every
(determines size of work cache; maximum 10 days) 0.1 days
Confirm before connecting to Internet?
(matters only if you use a modem) no
Disconnect when done?
(matters only if you use a modem) no
Maximum download rate: no limit
Maximum upload rate: no limit
Use network only between the hours of
Enforced by versions 4.46 and greater (no restriction)
Skip image file verification?
Check this ONLY if your Internet provider modifies image files (UMTS does this, for example).
Skipping verification reduces the security of BOINC. no

---

BOINC us currently set to "Run based on preferences." When the screensaver starts (currently after one minute of idle time), the graphical screensaver flickers on screen for a second before being replaced by a generic BOINC logo saying "BOINC is suspended."

Your preferences look fine... the only thing I can think of that could possibly be happening (and it's a stretch...) is if your OS somehow sees the screensaver as "activity". Suggestion; turn off the screensaver entirely (have it go to a blank screen); write down the CPU time of the WU in progress (won't be changing as computer is active); let it sit for a minute, so the screen goes blank, then wait one more minute; go look at the CPU time again, see if it has advanced a minute (or close) in that minute after the screen was blank and before you went and looked. If so, at least we know it's the screensaver (which would be project specific, or does this happen with all projects?) and not some other issue - if not, it's going to take more digging!

Also, one minor point you may want to consider; if your computer is even reasonably fast, chances are you can just let BOINC run continuously; it's really good about "getting out of the way" when anything else is running at the same time. Try it anyway, you may find that waiting for 1 minute of inactivity isn't needed.

---

Excellent work! Your initial suggestions proved quite a bit of progress, but like all science, I'm afraid the solution has taken us to more questions than solutions. Here's what I did:

1. I did everything as described in your email and sure enough the computer did process some of the units while in the blank screen saver mode.

2. I switched it back to the BOINC screen saver to see if I'd still get the "BOINC is suspended" message. This time I didn't get it ... I was rewarded with a graphic from the Einstein project (I currently have two attached projects, Einstein and SETI).

3. Puzzled, I went to BOINC and suspended Einstein via the Projects Tab (I'm a picky user. I wanted to see the SETI screen saver at work). I waited another minute, this time the screen saver said "BOINC is suspended."

4. Rinse. Lather. Repeat. I did step 1 again and like the first time BOINC did process units in the blank screen saver mode. So I switched it back to BOINC via step 2 but this time it reverted to saying "BOINC is suspended" and no units were processed.

Seems like it's a specific SETI + my computer setting? Any other ideas?

I might switch to processing it full time if, like you say, BOINC is good at getting out of the way. I am running a fast computer (P4 3.2GHZ).

Many thanks,
Joshua

---

Are you running an "optimized" SETI@Home science application? If so, most of them do not compile in the graphics ...

Just brainstorming here ...

---

Are you running an "optimized" SETI@Home science application? If so, most of them do not compile in the graphics ...

Just brainstorming here ...

I'm not too sure ... I downloaded the BOINC software from BOINC (version 4.45) and then I signed up to SETI through their webpage by "attaching" a new project, adding the URL and the account key as provided through the email.

That's it!

So far I'm very pleased with running BOINC in the background and still having plenty of computer power.

---

Are you running an "optimized" SETI@Home science application? If so, most of them do not compile in the graphics ...

I'm not too sure ... I downloaded the BOINC software from BOINC (version 4.45) and then I signed up to SETI through their webpage by "attaching" a new project, adding the URL and the account key as provided through the email.

The default download is not optimized - you might want to look in the WIKI for "optimized clients" - with your CPU, you should cut the time-per-result for SETI almost in half... but you will definitely have no screensaver with them. http://boinc-doc.net/boinc-wiki/

The "serious crunchers" have all given up on the screensavers. If we want to look at the pretty graphics, we do it from within the application. Graphics take at least some of that precious CPU time!

Also... if you have an ATI graphics card, you may be seeing an issue with it. I doubt it, because normally the Einstein screensaver is _more_ likely to have problems than the SETI one.

If there is a workaround you are happy with for now, there probably is little point in turning in an official "bug report" on this - BOINC 4.4x is hopefully being replaced by 5.x within the next couple of months, and the SETI science application either at the same time or shortly after; both are in beta.

So far I'm very pleased with running BOINC in the background and still having plenty of computer power.

That may solve the whole problem anyway! :-)

---

You said you have your screensaver set to engage after one minute. You also have BOINC to suspend work when computer is active.

How long after the screensaver engages do you wait to view the events? I am thinking that maybe there isn't enough time for BOINC to realize that the computer is idle to resume the projects. Perhaps you should let the computer sit idle for several minutes just to see what happens.

Jim

---

The client sometimes will not believe the computer is idle if the screensaver is running, so make sure the screensaver has a longer delay than your idle time.

---

BOINC WIKI

BOINCing since 2002/12/8

So far I'm very pleased with running BOINC in the background and still having plenty of computer power.

That may solve the whole problem anyway! :-)
[/quote]

I've tried a couple of the suggestions in this thread and here's what I've found:

1. When I set the idle time to one minute and the screen saver time to 3 minutes, I literally can watch the BOINC program begin processing units after one minute. Two minutes later, the screen saver kicks in and BOINC stops processing. Apparently, as somebody suggested, when the BOINC screen saver activitates it's enough to convince BOINC that the computer is being used and thus to suspend activities.

I still can't see to find a way out of this.

However, Bill's suggestion above has proved most fruitful. I've had BOINC set to "Run Always" for about 24 hours now and so far I am pleased with BOINC's "ability to get out of the way" when I use other applications. If this keeps up, the screen saver option will become moot and I'll just keep it on all the time. When BOINC is set to "Run Always" the screen saver kicks in after three minutes and I get to both contribute the computer's processing time to a worthy project AND feel super slick about my screen saver.

Thanks for everyone's thoughts and help.

---

You said you have your screensaver set to engage after one minute. You also have BOINC to suspend work when computer is active.

How long after the screensaver engages do you wait to view the events? I am thinking that maybe there isn't enough time for BOINC to realize that the computer is idle to resume the projects. Perhaps you should let the computer sit idle for several minutes just to see what happens.

Jim

Thanks for this idea, for a second I thought you had solved it because I normally didn't give it a few minutes just to see what happens and what you're saying seems to make sense, i.e. Does the screensaver initialization trick the computer into thinking it's active and would it start processing if I waited a few more minutes.

Unfortunately, what happens is that it runs the BOINC IS SUSPENDED screen saver for one minute and then it tries to fire up the SETI screen saver, only to go back to BOINC IS SUSPENDED. You can watch this process over and over again each minute.

More fuel for the fire.

Joshua

---

The "agility" of the old SETI@Home Classic, and now BOINC, is one of the main reasons I have stuck with them. And, I run them 24/7 on all machines. Only on a really rare occasion have I suspended them to prevent conflict.

Heck, on the PowerMac I use as my work station, I see and hear no interruption when I am working. No skips in the music, rarely any hang up, and when I do have one, it is almost always something else causing the problem.

---

I also ran into this behavior and eventually bagged the screen saver. I still have it configured it to pause when the machine is in use, but I might try full-time on the newest one. I have some antiques for use when all three kids are doing homework simultaneously. They are hard enough to use unloaded -- with SETI in the background, they'd probably be pretty useless.

So I don't use the SETI screen saver, which is actually better, because now we can have the screen saver with family photos AND BOINC still works behind it. But leaving the screen saver off left me with a visibility problem, which Joshua also mentioned. I don't have visibility into what BOINC and its clients are up to. It's too hard to figure out which of the following is now correct:

• a client is running under BOINC, and is doing good work
  
• everything was going swimmingly until you showed up and started using my CPU ;-)
  
• everything is fine with BOINC but one of the clients has augered in and needs help
  
• BOINC is running but has augered in somehow and needs help
  
• BOINC is off, since one of my family members accidentally told it to quit
  

(Can this last problem be inhibited, so it's harder to quit BOINC than to quit Microsoft Word? On my PC, things in the system tray can only be killed by deliberate action. Here on the Mac, it's like any app that can be killed with an errant Cmd-Q. In the meantime, I'll see if I can retrain my family.)

By "too hard" I mean it takes a minute to dig around in BOINC mgr to find out whether everything is OK. I'd like to know the status just by glancing at the BOINC icon. That status check was one of the main benefits of the SETI classic screen saver; the icon changes could be an austere form of status check.

Also, in a similar vein, could you leave the "Show graphics" window open after its client has paused? Currently it closes at the pause, but perhaps it could just go blank until the pause is over. It's another visibility thing.

---

But leaving the screen saver off left me with a visibility problem,

...

(Can this last problem be inhibited, so it's harder to quit BOINC than to quit Microsoft Word?

You might look at the Menubar version of BOINC for the Mac... it shows a little antenna icon for SETI, etc., when active, the "round blue B" when suspended, and since it isn't running as an application, requires deliberate effort to quit. However, it does make it harder to check anything other than "running/not". I installed it on family member Macs that I don't have daily access to - I can pull up the results from that Mac on the web sites, otherwise I haven't a clue how it's doing. If, like me, you have more Macs than people, it's a good option for Macs you don't yourself use. For those Macs... retraining the family is the only option.

Also, if you have one PC somewhere (or SoftWindows?) you can try BOINCView, which is able to watch the status of any computer on your local network. Warning, I haven't been able to get it to work with the Macs (yet), though others have, so YMMV.

---

BOINC View, or similar tool is the way to go. You might be able to run it under Wine. Since I only have the one PowerMac, that is less of an issue for me. But, that is one way to go after the monitoring situation ...

---