Folks;
On a PBG4 1.67, 10.4.9, latest updates. I just moved up to 5.8.17 and it is NOT honoring ANY of the prefereces I've got set to not do work when the user is active [all preferences set NOT to do work when computer is in use, and to waite till the user is inactive for at least 1 minute beforer starting work. and BOINC Manager is set to do work based on preferences.]
Anyone else having this trouble; or know how to fix it.

Russell
P.S. this is running SETI@home-beta, and Einstein@home.

In the manager, do you have 'Run Always', 'Run According to Preferences', or 'Suspend' selected?

Have you set up a local override_prefs.xml file? (i.e., have you used the simple view's preferences dialogue?)

---

In the manager, do you have 'Run Always', 'Run According to Preferences', or 'Suspend' selected?

Have you set up a local override_prefs.xml file? (i.e., have you used the simple view's preferences dialogue?)

'Run According to Preferences', Yes I've tryed to use simple view's preferences to override the actions as well without success.

In the manager, do you have 'Run Always', 'Run According to Preferences', or 'Suspend' selected?

Have you set up a local override_prefs.xml file? (i.e., have you used the simple view's preferences dialogue?)

'Run According to Preferences', Yes I've tryed to use simple view's preferences to override the actions as well without success.

Posting replys from andother thread in Einstien@home

Ok Russell, it looks like you have covered your bases here, so I just did some testing on one of my Winboxes running 5.8.15 and you're right, it's broken.

I could not get it to respond to preference to idle when user active at all using the web interface from the project. The client toggles the right element in the glob_prefs file correctly when you change the pref, but does not obey it. Restarting BOINC, rebooting the machine, and/or forcing a reread of the config file from the Advanced view did not help.

In addition, it would not acknowledge the local preference override until I went and manually edited the <run_if_user_active> element from 1 to 0 in the glob_pref_override file. Only then would it acknowledge and obey the preference.

Alinator

<edit> This is something which happened recently, since I know for a fact it worked correctly in 5.4 (I just checked my logbook and I tested for it then). I'm not sure about 5.8 though, I don't have an entry indicating I tested it for this before or if I had it worked so I didn't make a note of it.

Alinator;
your right. I went and manually edited the file "/Library/Application Support/Boinc Data/global_prefs.xml" editing the line "<run_if_user_active/>" to "<run_if_user_active>0<run_if_user_active/>" and it started acting as it should.

Russell
P.S. PLEASE forward this to tthe developers so it can get fixed!!

Sent it to Charlie Fenton, developer of the Mac version of BOINC.

---

From Charlie in email to me:

Hi Jord,

Yes, I noticed this problem about 4 weeks ago and fixed it for
release 5.9.4. From the checkin_notes file:

>Charlie 12 Apr 2007
> - MGR: Fix bug in SimpleGUI prefs: it wasn't resetting the
> <run_if_user_active> tag when changing "Do work when user
> idle" override from "0 (Run Always)" to an idle time value.
>
> clientgui/
> sg_DlgPreferences.cpp

Cheers,
--Charlie

So it will be fixed in the next version of BOINC: 5.10.x
If you don't want to test the 5.9.x versions...

---

OK, here's some clarification for what I posted on EAH regarding the "Do work while computer is in use" preference:

When working with the default preference mechanism:

The empty element <run_if_user_active/> toggles properly upon changes of the preference on the web site. IOW, I'm assuming here the presense or not of the empty element tag is the parameter that gets passed to the CC after parsing, and for 'Yes' it appears in the global_prefs xml file and for 'No' it does not.

In any event, 5.8.15 on Windows does not respond to it at all. The apps will continue to run whether it's there or not. I also tried using standard element syntax for it and that didn't work either.

When using the Local Overide mechanism:

Simply put, once you check the box to enable it from the Simple GUI it does not set up the <run_if_user_active>0</run_if_user_active> element when you select a timeout value for it initially.

If you then go back to the Simple GUI and select 'Run Always' it creates the element set to 1 like it should, but will not toggle it to 0 from the Simple GUI no matter what value you select for the timeout after that.

The bottom line is the only way to get it to work on Windows at all is to manually edit the global_prefs_override file.

Alinator

Yes, I noticed this problem about 4 weeks ago and fixed it for
release 5.9.4. From the checkin_notes file:

>Charlie 12 Apr 2007
> - MGR: Fix bug in SimpleGUI prefs: it wasn't resetting the
> tag when changing "Do work when user
> idle" override from "0 (Run Always)" to an idle time value.
>
> clientgui/
> sg_DlgPreferences.cpp

After you upgrade to version 5.9.4 or later, you will need to run the Simple View Preferences dialog to fix the corrupted global_prefs_override.xml file. Or you can edit it by hand as explained in an earlier post.

If you are running a version of BOINC which has this bug, you can avoid corrupting the file again by not using the Simple View Preferences feature.

This problem is not specific to the Mac. It also exists in the Windows and Linux versions of BOINC.

---

Charlie Fenton
BOINC / SETI@home Macintosh & Windows Programmer

OK, here's some clarification for what I posted on EAH regarding the "Do work while computer is in use" preference:

When working with the default preference mechanism:

The empty element <run_if_user_active/> toggles properly upon changes of the preference on the web site. IOW, I'm assuming here the presense or not of the empty element tag is the parameter that gets passed to the CC after parsing, and for 'Yes' it appears in the global_prefs xml file and for 'No' it does not.

In any event, 5.8.15 on Windows does not respond to it at all. The apps will continue to run whether it's there or not. I also tried using standard element syntax for it and that didn't work either.

When using the Local Overide mechanism:

Simply put, once you check the box to enable it from the Simple GUI it does not set up the <run_if_user_active>0</run_if_user_active> element when you select a timeout value for it initially.

If you then go back to the Simple GUI and select 'Run Always' it creates the element set to 1 like it should, but will not toggle it to 0 from the Simple GUI no matter what value you select for the timeout after that.

The bottom line is the only way to get it to work on Windows at all is to manually edit the global_prefs_override file.

Alinator

Reposting the last part of the thread from EAH:
From Charlie in email to me:
Hi Jord,

Yes, I noticed this problem about 4 weeks ago and fixed it for
release 5.9.4. From the checkin_notes file:

>Charlie 12 Apr 2007
> - MGR: Fix bug in SimpleGUI prefs: it wasn't resetting the
> <run_if_user_active> tag when changing "Do work when user
> idle" override from "0 (Run Always)" to an idle time value.
>
> clientgui/
> sg_DlgPreferences.cpp

Cheers,
--Charlie

So it will be fixed in the next version of BOINC: 5.10.x
If you don't want to test the 5.9.x versions...


It wasn't fixed in the 5.9.9 version I D/led earlier today with a time stamp of 3:14pm yesterday.

Russell

ID:67759
Also, it seemed the fix was addressing the problem with the local override, and made no metion of the problem with the default mechanism behaviour.

In addition, 1 in the element mentioned makes the apps run all the time, 0 makes them go idle when the user is active.

Finally, I haven't rolled out 5.8.16 on any of my hosts yet. So if someone could verify these findings on a Winbox running it, I'll put in for 2 'attaboys' for ya! :-)

Alinator

ID: 67760 |

From Charlie:

"Once the global_prefs_override.xml file has been damaged, you probably need to run the simple GUI preferences dialog again to fix it. You may have to turn the "Do work only after idle" option off, save it, and turn it back on again and save that.

If that doesn't work, trash the global_prefs_override.xml file and run the dialog again.

Cheers,
--Charlie"

When you continue this conversation at the BOINC forums as well, Charlie will be able to help you without me as the person in between. :)
____________
Jord.

BOINC FAQ Service
ID: 67762 |

Everybody;
After I get cuaght up on some work; I'll re-instal 5.8.17 and check out the sugestions made in this and other threads under the same title in either EAH or SAH-beta; and get back to everyone here. Also THANKS to EVERYONE that has responded and/or tried to help

Russell