BOINC 6.6.9 released for Windows and Windows x64

Yes, an official release again, with change log... woohoo.

Rom Walton wrote:

This release announcement includes release notes for several releases.

These new releases include the following changes:

* Account manager list in the attach to account manager wizard.

* The manager remembers the last email address/user id used in the attach to project and attach to account manager wizards.

* The attach to project wizard now changes a project's name to a light gray if it isn't sure your platform is supported for the project.

* Fixes various issues with the core client automatic back-off mechanisms.

* Various fixes for long term and short term debts.

* Detection of GPU driver versions (Windows Only)

* New preference for whether BOINC is allowed to use a GPU if the machine is in use.

Please take a look at the new features. One thing of note is that if you click on a project that is grayed out a dialog should appear telling you that, that project may not support your platform. However, it won't stop you from attaching.

Please report any issues you find and report test results to
http://boinc.berkeley.edu/alpha.

Thanks in advance.


----- Rom

Change Log:

6.6.9

- client: if "no more work" checked, don't request more work (duh!)

Changes till 6.6.10

- client: adjust debts at least every minute. This fixes a bug that can cause debts to NEVER get updated.

- client: added "abort_jobs_on_exit" feature (available by --abort_jobs_on_exit cmdline or <abort_jobs_on_exit> in cc_config.xml).
If set, when the client is exited by user request (this includes signals on Unix) it marks all pending jobs as aborted, and does a scheduler RPC to all projects with jobs. When these are completed the client exits. This is useful when BOINC is being used on grids where it is wiped clean after each run.

- client: add more info to <work_fetch_debug> messages

- client: don't complain that master URLs differ if it's only in case

BOINC 6.4.6

For everyone with screen saver problems (and systems freezing), could you please test BOINC 6.4.6, which does have lots of fixes towards the screen saver included in its code.

BOINC 6.4.6 32bit
BOINC 6.4.6 64bit

This version is to be released later today or this week as a replacement for 6.4.5

Rom Walton wrote:

Change Log:

- client: add <no_gpus> config option

- WINSETUP: Fix the problem introduced where Enable Application execution wasn't working.

- MGR: Don't convert strings to ANSI juts to have to reconvert them back to Unicode. Fix several help link issues.Fixes #826

- WINSCR: Fix the BOINC text displayed is the screensaver control panel applet

- WINSCR: Get rid of the 'Up to 5 second wait' for the data thread to terminate. Force terminate the thread and clean up the graphics app in a clean-up routine. Forcing the user to wait when they return to the system isn't a good idea.

- WINSCR: Fix screensaver issue where the screensaver locks up when the graphics application deadlocks for one reason or another.

Create two new threads:

1. Monitor system for keyboard and mouse events.
2. Shuffle window z-order positions if needed.

The keyboard/mouse event monitor is isolated from either the core client getting stuck in a loop and not returning the results of an RPC or the window shuffling code which can get stuck if the graphics application dead locks.

The window shuffle code is isolated due to the BroadcastSystemMessage?() API using something akin to SendMessage?() which waits for a return value from the target windows winproc. If a graphics application deadlocks for one reason or another it'll cause the thread to stall. This isn't terminal and so we just wait for the next time the data thread chooses a new application and terminates the old one which will cause the thread to resume.

This should resolve all outstanding issues with the screensaver not exiting when the mouse or keyboard is used.

BOINC 6.6.11 released for Windows, Windows x64, Linux and Linux x64 and Mac

Change log:

Changes for 6.6.11

- screensaver: Implement --test and --retry_connect command-line arguments as requested by Rom

- screensaver: Implement new screensaver coordinator logic as requested by Rom.

- client: if a project is at max backoff for a resource, stop accumulating debt if it's at or around zero.
This prevents other projects from being driven unboundedly negative.

- client: if the number of overworked projects exceeds the number of device instances, clear debts; this indicates that an earlier client was buggy and produced bad debt values.

- client: new work-fetch policy:

1) if an instance is idle, get work from highest-debt project, even if it's overworked.

2) if resource has a shortfall, get work from highest-debt non-overworked project

3) if there's a fetchable non-overworked project with no runnable jobs, get from from the highest-debt one.

(each step is done first for GPU, then CPU)
Clause 3) is new.
It will cause the client to get jobs for as many projects as possible, even if there is no shortfall. This is necessary to make the notion of "overworked" meaningful (otherwise, any project with long jobs can become overworked).
It also maintains as much variety as possible (like pre-6.6 clients).

Also (small bug fix) if a project is overworked for resource R, request work for R only in case 1).

- client: remove the "debt repair" mechanism added earlier today.
There are situations where multiple projects can legitimately have large negative LTD on a uniprocessor.
Instead...

- client: add <zero_debts> option to cc_config.xml

- client: fix bug that can cause no GPU jobs to be scheduled even when a GPU is free.

- Update various source files to GPL 3

- client: tweak the LTD calculation so that the largest debt always tends towards zero

- client: print message if downloaded file has wrong size

- client: associate file xfer messages with a project; fixes #848

- client: more instances of showing project with message. Fixes #848

- WINSCR: Fix the BOINC text displayed is the screensaver control panel applet

- WINSCR: Get rid of the 'Up to 5 second wait' for the data thread to terminate. Force terminate the thread and clean up the graphics app in a clean-up routine. Forcing the user to wait when they return to the system isn't a good idea.

- WINSCR: Fix screensaver issue where the screensaver locks up when the graphics application deadlocks for one reason or another.

Create two new threads:

1. Monitor system for keyboard and mouse events.
2. Shuffle window z-order positions if needed.

The keyboard/mouse event monitor is isolated from either the core client getting stuck in a loop and not returning the results of an RPC or the window shuffling code which can get stuck if the graphics application dead locks.

The window shuffle code is isolated due to the BroadcastSystemMessage?() API using something akin to SendMessage?() which waits for a return value from the target windows winproc. If a graphics application deadlocks for one reason or another it'll cause the thread to stall. This isn't terminal and so we just wait for the next time the data thread chooses a new application and terminates the old one which will cause the thread to resume.

This should resolve all outstanding issues with the screensaver not exiting when the mouse or keyboard is used.

- client: fix work-fetch bug that caused infinite fetch; cleanup/reorganization of work fetch logic

- client: work-fetch bug fix: if we're fetching work for a starved project, it most have no runnable jobs for ANY resource.

- client: work-fetch bug fix: when setting requests in the shortfall case, don't request anything if project is backed off or overworked for the resource.

- screensaver: Code consolidation, fix bug terminating default graphics app on screensaver exit

- scheduler: include driver version in the CUDA description string storing in the database;

- web: display the above

- WINSCR: Clean-up some of the thread cleanup logic.

- screensaver: Fix a bug Charlie introduced during code consolidation

BOINC 6.4.7 released for Windows and Windows x64

Rom Walton wrote:

1. A deadlocked graphics application could cause the screensaver to lock-up. Most users would reboot their computer to re-gain control of it.

2. LibCurl security advisory - http://curl.haxx.se/docs/adv_20090303.html

3. OpenSSL advisory - http://www.openssl.org/news/secadv_20090107.txt

----- Rom

BOINC 6.6.12 released for Windows, Windows x64, Linux, Linux x64 and Mac

This is a development version of BOINC. Do not use it if you do not plan to use it for Alpha or Beta testing. Expect parts of it to be broken, or in the least to work in a different way than you are used to.

Report any problems you get with it to the Alpha email list. This list needs registration. Reporting about it on these forums won't make much sense as the developers do not read these forums.

Unofficial Change Log:

Changes for 6.6.12

- Mac screensaver: fix build break.

- WINSCR: Remove unneeded header files

- SCR: Shuffle headers around so that it'll build on both Windows and Mac without having to put in duplicate entries.

- fix possible crash on state file parse failures

- client: if you put <host_venue> in global_prefs_override.xml, it should select the venue from the network prefs. Now it does.

- API: file descriptor leak in obscure case. fixes #103

- client: make timeout values into #defines

- Update BOINC Manager template from latest sources

- Update permissions files so people can work on localizing 6.6 again

- client: fix bugs in "abort_jobs_on_exit" feature:
* clear project backoffs when start abort sequence
* don't back off projects if in abort sequence

- boinccmd: fix bug in --set_proxy_settings command (it wasn't setting the "use_XXX" flags). Fixes #776

- client: you can now include a <proxy_info> element in your cc_config.xml options.

TODO: the whole proxy info thing needs an overhaul:
- no separate "use_XXX" flags; non-empty http_server_name implies using HTTP proxy, etc.
- merge PROXY_INFO and GR_PROXY_INFO classes
- use XML_PARSER for parsing
- no PROXY_INFO element in HTTP_OP; just use gstate.proxy_info

- client: tag messages with project where possible; fixes #852

- client: show fetch share rather than run share in wfd message

- client: abort jobs that are unstarted and past deadline

- client: abort runaway jobs based on elapsed time instead of CPU time.

Specifically, abort jobs for which elapsed time > WU.rsc_fpops_bound / app_version.flops
This policy works for
1) GPU jobs (which may use little CPU time)
2) jobs that run but because of bugs use little CPU time (e.g., because they're sleeping) whereas the old policy didn't.

- client: skip the above elapsed-time check for non-CPU-intensive jobs

- client: fix bug where if a GPU job is running, and a 2nd GPU job with an earlier deadline arrives, neither job is executed ever. Reorganized things so that scheduling of GPU jobs is done independently of CPU jobs.
The policy for GPU jobs:

* always EDF
* jobs are always removed from memory, regardless of checkpoint (GPU memory is not paged, so it's bad to leave an idle app in memory)

- MGR: Remove the ability to display graphics on a remote computer, or from a remote computer on *nix machines using v5 graphics. fixes #674

- client: shuffle the startup code to avoid showing wrong prefs info on first-time startup.

- client: don't do an RPC until we've done CPU benchmarks. We need the benchmark values to fill in app_version.flops

- screensaver: show correct info if CPU throttling; show correct window title; show "no projects" message.

- boinccmd: make --get_messages output more readable

- screensaver: remove error codes & messages handled by new default gfx app, add new error codes; better logic when coordinator window covered on Mac

- manager: fix roundoff error in Advanced Prefs; fixes #613

- MGR: Make CTRL-SHIFT-A the accelerator in the simple GUI that switches back to the advanced view. refs #147

- client: fix bug that could cause scheduler RPC to ask for work inappropriately, and tell user that it wasn't asking for work. Here's what was going on:

There are two different structures with work request fields (req_secs, req_instances, estimated_delay):
COPROC_CUDA *coproc_cuda and RSC_WORK_FETCH cuda_work_fetch.

WORK_FETCH::choose_project() copied from cuda_work_fetch to coproc_cuda, but only if a project was selected.
WORK_FETCH::clear_request() clears cuda_work_fetch but not coproc_cuda.

Scenario:

* a scheduler op is made to project A requesting X>0 secs of CUDA
* later, a scheduler op is made to project B for reason other than work fetch (e.g., user request)
* choose_project() doesn't choose anything, so the value of coproc_cuda->req_secs remains X
* clear_request() is called but that doesn't change *coproc_cuda

Solution: work-fetch code no longer knows about internals of COPROC_CUDA and is not responsible for settings its request fields. The copying of request fields from RSC_WORK_FETCH to COPROC is done at a higher level, in CLIENT_STATE::make_scheduler_request()

Additional bug fix: estimated_delay wasn't being cleared in some cases.

- client: RR sim FLOPS estimate for GPU jobs should reflect fraction of time BOINC is running.

- manager and GUI RPC: always show resource debt and backoff even if zero; also show backoff interval

- Manager: message tweak

- Manager: scheduling params are not defined for non-CPU-intensive projects; don't show them.

- manager message fix

- Update to OpenSSL 0.9.8i for Win32 and Win64

- Update to LibCurl 7.19.3 for Win32 and Win64

- client: Revise Apple idle time detection for compatibility with OS 10.6

- Mac: Update libCurl to 7.19.4

- WINSCR: fix a bug.

- Mac screensaver: logic to stop Data Management thread even if hung on an RPC.

- client: fix message: "idle instance" => "starved"

- manager: when filtering messages by project, show messages not tagged with a project (fixes #852)

- web: show X-project stats links as icons

- fix possible crash on state file parse failures

- client: change garbage-collect logic.
old: reference-count files involved in a PERS_FILE_XFER
new: if a PERS_FILE_XFER refers to an unreferenced file, delete it (and the associated FILE_XFER and HTTP_OP if present). May fix #366


Other (Unix) source code fixes:

# Added checks for net/*.h, arpa/*.h, netinet/*.h and code to figure out
which of those files to include
# Modified MAC address check to work on some non-Linux unixes.
(mac_address.cpp)
# Added suggested change to "already attached to project" checking.
(ProjectInfoPage?.cpp)
# changed includes of standard c header files to their c++ equivalents
(i.e. replaced <stdio.h> with <cstdio>) for namespace protection.
# replaced "using namespace std;" with more explicit "using std::function" in
several files.
# Fixed bug in checking whether the os is OS/2 and added conditional OS_OS2
to the build environment. (boinc_platform.m4,configure.ac)
# Changed build environment to not use -nostandardlibs unless we are using
G++ and static linkage is specified. (configure.ac)
# Added makefiles and package building files for solaris CSW package manager.
# Fixed bug with attempting to find login name using logname. (configure.ac)
# Added ifdef HAVE_* protection around some include files commonly found in
sys.
# Added support for unified binary for x86_64/i686-pc-solaris.
(cs_platforms.cpp)
# generate_host_cpid() now uses MAC address on non-linux unix.
(hostinfo_network.cpp)
# Macro BOINC_SET_COMPILE_FLAGS now doesn't check gcc only flags on non-gcc
compilers. (boinc_set_compile_flags.m4)
# Library compiles no longer depend upon the library extension or require
the library to be prefixed with lib.
# More fixes for fcgi builds.
# Added declaration of "struct ether_addr" and ether_ntoa(). Have not yet
implemented ether_ntoa() for machines that don't have it, or where it is
buggy. (unix_util.h)
# Added FCGI::perror() which calls FCGI_perror(). (boinc_fcgi.{h,cpp})
# Fixed library Makefiles so that all required headers get installed.

BOINC 6.6 and use of anonymous platform CUDA applications


Two emails from David:


1. On the 24 hour deferrals that we were seeing on projects:

There were bugs in older versions of the server software that caused it to issue 24-hour deferrals inappropriately. In the current server software, the only reasons for 24-hour deferral are:
- core client version not supported by project
- server doesn't recognize client's platform

If anyone sees 24-hour deferrals from projects with current server software (SETI@home, Einstein@home, possibly others) please let me know.

2. On the GPU not being supported in BOINC 6.6, which had the rest of the thread occupied:

It turns out that the changes needed to support coprocessor (e.g., CUDA) apps in the anonymous platform mechanism are entirely server-side.

With these changes, you can safely specify GPU apps in app_info.xml;
the scheduler will take this into account, so if your client is asking for CPU work, the scheduler won't send you jobs that will run on the GPU (this caused the infinite-work-fetch scenario).

In fact, your app_info.xml can specify both GPU and CPU app versions for the same app, and everything will work as designed.

I'm currently testing these scheduler changes, and hopefully will have them deployed on SETI@home later today.

-- David

PS: no progress on ATI GPU detection; I'm waiting for ATI to send me a board.

BOINC 6.6.14 for Windows, Windows x64 and Mac

This is a development version of BOINC. Do not use it if you do not plan to use it for Alpha or Beta testing. Expect parts of it to be broken, or in the least to work in a different way than you are used to.

Report any problems you get with it to the Alpha email list. This list needs registration. Reporting about it on these forums won't make much sense as the developers do not read these forums.

Unofficial change log. You may notice that I omitted saying "released", as Rom hasn't made the announcement yet.

Changes for 6.6.13

- client: run CPU benchmarks and contact ref site if platform changes

- client: show duration estimates for CPU and CUDA separately

- client: don't allow coproc apps in app_info.xml.
Otherwise we'll get stuck in a loop where the client asks for CPU work, and the scheduler sends jobs for what it thinks is a CPU app but is actually a coproc app. Eventually we should add coproc info to the app descriptions send in scheduler request, so that you can use anonymous platform for coproc apps. But let's wait on this.

- client: reorganize and improve the logic for deciding when to do a scheduler RPC: if user request or acct mgr request, ignore backoff and suspend via GUI;
in all other cases honor both of these.

- client: if using anonymous platform, ignore (and complain about) app versions in scheduler reply

- client: when reporting anonymous platform apps in sched request, don't include <file_info>s (not relevant to server)

- manager: show version minor numbers as 0n

- client: anon plaform app versions can specify coprocs

- MGR: Remove previous implementations of the already attached to projects detection code.

- MGR: Prevent the user from progressing beyond the project selection page if they are already attached to the project they are trying to attach to. Display a dialog box telling they are already attached to that project and to choose a different project. This skips a bunch of steps if they meant to attach to a different project

- MGR: Account for new error code returned by the CC in response to a get_project_config.php request. It was causing the wizards to throw a temp unavailable error page instead of the not a boinc project page. Fixes #640

- MGR: Newer versions of the server-side software publish their master url in the response to the get_project_config.php request. If it exists use it over what was specified by the user. Fixes #259

- MGR: Saving and Restoring window diminisions is not a Mac only operation when starting up or shutting down the client. Increase the frequency of the auto-save state timer from 5 minutes to 5 seconds. Fixes #69, Fixes #735, Fixes #790

- MGR: Lengthen the connected to client status field. Fixes #632

- MGR: Properly update the connected to client status field even after a change to the simple view. Fixes #688

- MGR: Don't display the Simple GUI 'Remove Project' menu item if it was attached via an account manager. Fixes #261

- client: with anonymous platforms, app versions are identified by app/platform/version/plan-class, same as normal

- MGR: Set the dial-up and VPN connection list box to a static size so that a scroll bar will appear if the number of items exceeds the space to display them. Fixes #96

- Mac: Remove obsolete files AlreadyAttachedPage?.cpp, .h from XCode project

- MGR: On Mac, revert to auto-save frequency of 5 minutes because the more frequent saves have no positive effect on the Mac.

- client: get rid of CPU_PESSIMISM_FACTOR; it wasn't actually being used.

Changes for 6.6.14

- GUI RPC: the Jan 13 checkin removed some items from the get_state() reply which are not included in our client interface. However, it turns out that BoincView? uses these items; put them back.

- GUI RPC: set_debt() can set CUDA LTD as well as CPU

- scheduler: fix bugs in support for anonymous platform + coprocs (app versions don't have a <coprocs> around coproc elements, may an oversight but let's stick with it). Anyway, I think it's working now.

- lib: remove "owner" array from COPROC.
This was used in client to keep track of assignment of coprocessors to tasks, but we got rid of the reserve/free scheme.
NOTE: this breaks the mechanism for passing --device N to apps; I'll have to do this another way. Stay tuned.

- MGR: Don't hide the main window after attaching to an account manager if we don't support the system tray on that platform. refs #844

BOINC 6.6.15 for Windows, Windows x64 and Mac.

This is a development version of BOINC. Do not use it if you do not plan to use it for Alpha or Beta testing. Expect parts of it to be broken, or in the least to work in a different way than you are used to.

Report any problems you get with it to the Alpha email list. This list needs registration. Reporting about it on these forums won't make much sense as the developers do not read these forums.

Unofficial change log. You may notice that I omitted saying "released", as Rom hasn't made the announcement yet.

Changes for 6.6.15

- client: add a new mechanism for assigning coproc instances to tasks, and passing them the corresponding --device N cmdline args.
This fixes a bug introduced in 17402 (Feb 26) that broke the --device feature, presumably causing problems on systems with multiple GPUs.

- client: fix crash

- client: Fix compiler warning on Mac

- client, GUI RPC: put <host_venue> back in get_state reply; it's used by BoincView.

- MGR: Fix a long standing bug where the pie control in the disk usage tab was being created but a default pie part wasn't being added to the control. This caused the control to display black circles during window initialization on slower systems. This issue has been around since we started using the pie control based disk usage tab.

- MGR: Add more tracing statements. Verify destructors are being called.

- MGR: Set the window size through the window creation routine instead of calling SetSize() after the fact. It removes all the flicker out of the Advanced GUI.

- MGR: Consolidate all the window position restore functionality for both the Simple GUI and Advanced GUI in BOINCGUIApp.cpp instead of having duplicate copies in each view.

- MGR: Have the Advanced GUI remember position across restarts.

- MGR: Create new window events that will save and restore window state for both GUIs. This avoids multiple UI updates. Each time you would change window size from within a OnShow or OnSize event it would spawn an update of its own. Sometimes certain controls would ignore the event because it believed it was already processing the event.

- MGR: Restore state even if we are not going to display the window. Otherwise when restoring from the system tray we'll end up on the resources tab.

- MGR: Save state before exit.

- Mac MGR: Do RestoreState() before Show() so Disk tab doesn't flash briefly on manual launch.

- MGR: suspend periodic RPCs only when displaying SafeMessageBox()

BOINC 6.6.15 released for Windows, Windowsx64 and Mac OS X

Rom Walton wrote:

Howdy Folks,

Well here is a new release with many improvements and bug fixes.
Various issues with the manager not remembering things that have changed should now be fixed. The manager should now remember window placements across restarts. The client software should now properly handle CUDA applications via the anonymous platform mechanism. Compatibility with BOINCView should now work as expected.

Please be advised, if you tried our private drop of the BOINC Manager a couple of days ago setup might complain about BOINC Manager being newer than the one you are trying to install, or any other strange behavior. If you experience a problem re-run the setup program and select the repair option. That should fix whatever issues the installer had during the first installation pass.

Also note that with the new changes, BOINC Manager no longer remembers being maximized or minimized. This is something which different platforms have different rules and this solution appears to be compatible across all platforms. If you disagree with the behavior let us know.

For change log, see previous posts in this thread.

BOINC 6.6.15 released for Linux, Linux 64

This is a development version of BOINC. Do not use it if you do not plan to use it for Alpha or Beta testing. Expect parts of it to be broken, or in the least to work in a different way than you are used to.

Report any problems you get with it to the Alpha email list. This list needs registration. Reporting about it on these forums won't make much sense as the developers do not read these forums.

For change log, see previous posts.

BOINC 6.6.16 for Windows, Windows x64 and Mac

This is a development version of BOINC. Do not use it if you do not plan to use it for Alpha or Beta testing. Expect parts of it to be broken, or in the least to work in a different way than you are used to.

Report any problems you get with it to the Alpha email list. This list needs registration. Reporting about it on these forums won't make much sense as the developers do not read these forums.

Unofficial change log. You may notice that I omitted saying "released", as Rom hasn't made the announcement yet.


Changes for 6.6.16

- client: backoff overrides project-requested scheduler RPC. Otherwise, if scheduler is down, we'll retry infinitely every 10 secs

- client: remove auto_update.poll() (not used)

- Manager: show elapsed time instead of CPU time in Task tab. CPU time is visible in task Properties.

- Manager: in task Properties, show final CPU and elapsed times if job is finished

- client: honor backoff for account-manager-requested scheduler RPCs

- client: keep track final elapsed time for results

- GUI RPC: report final elapsed time

- manager: just call it Elapsed

- MGR: Simplify the fixes for saving and restoring window sizes and other settings

- MGR: Handle EVT_END_SESSION event to call SaveState() on Windows logout or shutdown

- MGR: Add the basic infrastructure for the up and coming news tab in the advanced frame.

- MGR: Fix possible deadlock when exiting manager

- MGR: Delete RPCThread::OnExit(); add new source files to XCode Project

BOINC 6.6.17 for Windows, Windows x64

This is a development version of BOINC. Do not use it if you do not plan to use it for Alpha or Beta testing. Expect parts of it to be broken, or in the least to work in a different way than you are used to.

Report any problems you get with it to the Alpha email list. This list needs registration. Reporting about it on these forums does not make any sense as the developers DO NOT read these forums..

Unofficial change log. You may notice that I omitted saying "released", as Rom hasn't made the announcement yet.


Changes for 6.6.17

- In linux client, Added code to detect capability to run 64-bit binaries from 32-bit BOINC client, and capability to run 32-bit binaries on a 64-bit linux system.

- MGR: RPCThread::KillRPCThread() defers to RPC thread before testing if thread has exited on its own

- client: consider fetching work from overworked projects if resource is saturated for < work_buf_min() (rather than saturated for 0).
So now the only significance of "overworked" is that we won't ask overworked projects for work if resource is saturated more than work_buf_min() but less than work_buf_total()

- client: in RR simulation, use app_version.flops instead of host_info.fpops as the FLOPS estimate for non-GPU apps.
I don't see why this would make any difference (these two are equal for non-GPU apps) but people have reported that this change improves estimates. (Jord: people? How about Richard H., Jason G and me? ;-))

BOINC Alpha reporting of problems

Don't just say which version of BOINC you run, but also on what operating system and add a detailed log of what your BOINC is doing.

Run with at least these flags on: <work_fetch_debug>, <sched_op_debug> and one run with <debt_debug> from the cc_config.xml file. Catch that log and post with it on the BOINC Alpha list.

Without it, the developers won't be able to be of any help, while you will probably only annoy them as they'll have to ask for the nth time that you add those flags and send them a new log.

BOINC 6.6.17 released for Windows, Windows x64, Linux, Linux x64 and Macintosh

Rom Walton wrote:

Howdy Folks,

Here are another batch of fixes. Several fixes for handling back-offs, some more fixes for saving window state information during logoff and shutdown. We think we have fixed the manager lockup issue that was happening when you shutdown the manager during an RPC.

Please report test results to http://boinc.berkeley.edu/alpha/

Thanks in advance.


----- Rom

For change log see previous posts in this thread.

BOINC 6.6 release status

Rom Walton wrote:

Howdy Folks,

Well it appears we have reached the final stretch and are almost ready
to release our first 6.6 to the public. We could use some more test
results, so if you haven't logged your test results please do so.

Right now the showstopper bar for bugs is pretty high, if the bug you
reports exist in 6.2 or 6.4 then it probably won't stop the release
process. Please keep in mind that this will not be the only 6.6
release, more bug fixes will find their way into the 6.6 client.

I think we all can agree that the new 6.6 CPU/GPU scheduler is better
than the 6.4 scheduler, so it is pretty important to get it out to the
public.

If no showstoppers are found we'll release to the public on Monday.

Thanks for all your hard work during the 6.6 release cycle, without your
help it wouldn't have been possible.


----- Rom
BOINC Development Team

BOINC 6.6.18 released for Windows and Windows x64

Rom Walton wrote:

Howdy Folks,

Here is a few build with changes to work-fetch and back-off timeouts.
Please install it and begin testing as soon as possible.

If the client software isn't doing what you expect with regards to
work-fetch/CPU scheduling/GPU scheduling please enable the core client
logging flags as described here:

http://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Client_configuration

Odds are if you can't figure out what is going on, we won't be able to
either unless the extra logging is turned on. I can't stress this
enough, the default logging in the core client does not give enough
information to track down bugs, if you have found a bug you must turn on
the additional logging flags so that we can determine what is going
wrong. Without that extra information we won't be able to figure out
what has gone wrong.


Please log test results to http://boinc.berkeley.edu/alpha.

Thanks in advance.

----- Rom

This is a development version of BOINC. Do not use it if you do not plan to use it for Alpha or Beta testing. Expect parts of it to be broken, or in the least to work in a different way than you are used to.

Report any problems you get with it to the Alpha email list. This list needs registration. Reporting about it on these forums does not make any sense as the developers DO NOT read these forums.

Changes for 6.6.18

- client: work fetch: in RR sim, keep track of the number of device instances used by jobs that miss deadline.
Don't do "variety" work fetch if this is >= # of instances

- client: initial support for detecting the CPU L2 cache size on Windows.

- client: reduce frequency of writing state file:

1) multiply checkpoint period by # of cores (or GPUs)
2) don't write statefile after schedule_cpus()

(we write it after enforce_schedule() if anything started or stopped, and that's all that matters)

- client: add new log flag <statefile_debug>; tells you when and why statefile is written

- client: add --no_priority_change cmdline arg (and <no_priority_change> flag in cc_config.xml).
If set, run apps at same priority as client.

- client: garbage collect after scheduler RPC; if project sent some irrelevant FILE_INFOs, this will avoid starting transfers for them.

- client (linux): if don't find libcudart.so in the current dir, look for it in the library search path. Fixes #863

- new screensaver: don't show jobs if suspended

- client: handle power events on Windows via a seperate thread and hidden window. The basic code was already in place to handle logoff events on Win9x but now it is enabled for all Windows versions.

- small code shuffle

- fix manager build on unix

- remove wait arg of resume_client()

- improve msgs in file upload handler

- client: give highest work-fetch priority to resources with idle instances.

- MGR: Remove erroneous call of locale in main thread; set locale only on a per-thread basis

- MGR: SET_LOCALE constructor, destructor change locale only if no per-thread locale, XCode project supports weak-linking of uselocale()

- client: clear resource backoffs on user-requested RPC

- client: randomize resource backoffs to avoid lockstep

- client: when a job finishes, clear the project's backoff for its resource type. This fixes a problem where a project has a "max jobs in progress" limit, and we're backed off because of that. We'll now fetch work immediately instead of waiting 24 hrs.

BOINC 6.6.19 for Macintosh

This is a development version of BOINC. Do not use it if you do not plan to use it for Alpha or Beta testing. Expect parts of it to be broken, or in the least to work in a different way than you are used to.

Report any problems you get with it to the Alpha email list. This list needs registration. Reporting about it on these forums does not make any sense as the developers DO NOT read these forums.


BOINC Alpha reporting of problems

Report which version of BOINC you run, also on what operating system and add a detailed log of what your BOINC is doing.

Run at least once with these flags on: <work_fetch_debug>, <sched_op_debug> and one run with <debt_debug> from the cc_config.xml file. Catch that log and post with it on the BOINC Alpha list.

Without it, the developers won't be able to be of any help, while you will probably only annoy them as they'll have to ask for the nth time that you add those flags and send them a new log.

Unofficial change log. You may notice that I omitted saying "released", as Charlie hasn't made the announcement yet.


Changes for 6.6.19

- MGR: SET_LOCALE constructor, destructor change locale only if no per-thread locale, XCode project supports weak-linking of uselocale()

- MGR: Remove erroneous call of locale in main thread; set locale only on a per-thread basis

- Mac: Better support if platforms don't have per-thread locale; ensure Mac BOINC libraries build OK using config/make; fix Mac build breaks for example_app.

- Mac: Clean up XCode build settings hierarchies

- manager: display versions as x.xx

- MGR: Remove erroneous call of locale in main thread

BOINC 6.6.20 released for Windows, Windows x64, Linux, Linux x64 and Macintosh

Rom Walton wrote:

Howdy Folks,

This release fixes a few little issues. This release should fix the date/time changing issue when using a non-English locale.

Please report test results too: http://boinc.berkeley.edu/alpha/


Thanks in advance.


----- Rom

Charlie Fenton wrote:

I have released version 6.6.20 for the Mac.

Please note that the first change in the log (remove erroneous call of locale in main thread) is intended to address the issue of the date and time formats changing intermittently in the Manager. Please let us know if this problem is fixed or if it persists.

Cheers,
--Charlie

This is a development version of BOINC. Do not use it if you do not plan to use it for Alpha or Beta testing. Expect parts of it to be broken, or in the least to work in a different way than you are used to.

Report any problems you get with it to the Alpha email list. This list needs registration. Reporting about it on these forums does not make any sense as the developers DO NOT read these forums.


BOINC Alpha reporting of problems

Report which version of BOINC you run, also on what operating system and add a detailed log of what your BOINC is doing.

Run at least once with these flags on: <work_fetch_debug>, <sched_op_debug> and one run with <debt_debug> from the cc_config.xml file. Catch that log and post with it on the BOINC Alpha list, putting the log into the email. Attachments to the list will be deleted by the email server.

Without it, the developers won't be able to be of any help, while you will probably only annoy them as they'll have to ask for the nth time that you add those flags and send them a new log.


Change Log:

- MGR: Remove erroneous call of locale in main thread

- manager: display versions as x.xx

- manager: fix message

- client: typo in work fetch code; may cause minor errors

BOINC 6.6.21 for Windows, Windows x64 and Macintosh

This is a development version of BOINC. Do not use it if you do not plan to use it for Alpha or Beta testing. Expect parts of it to be broken, or in the least to work in a different way than you are used to.

Report any problems you get with it to the Alpha email list. This list needs registration. Reporting about it on these forums does not make any sense as the developers HARDLY read these forums.


BOINC Alpha reporting of problems

Report which version of BOINC you run, also on what operating system and add a detailed log of what your BOINC is doing.

Run at least once with these flags on: <work_fetch_debug>, <sched_op_debug> and one run with <debt_debug> from the cc_config.xml file. Catch that log and post with it on the BOINC Alpha list, putting the log into the email. Attachments to the list will be deleted by the email server.

Without it, the developers won't be able to be of any help, while you will probably only annoy them as they'll have to ask for the nth time that you add those flags and send them a new log.

Unofficial change log. You may notice that I omitted saying "released", as neither Rom nor Charlie have made the announcement yet.


Changes for 6.6.21

- GUI RPC: client side: if parse a RESULT and CPU is nonzero but elapsed time is zero, we must be talking to an old client; set elapsed = CPU

- client: (unix): if host name lookup fails, call res_init().
This is an attempt to fix a problem on Linux where, if the client starts before a VPN is set up, it can never communicate

- Mac: Add -lresolv to XCode linker flags for client and manager

- Mac: MGR: add standard Preferences item under BOINC menu; add -lresolv to XCode linker flags for screensaver

- client: show project name in "backoff ended" msg

- SS: Under Mac Sandbox security, gfx_switcher launches default ss app as user and group boinc_master; don't setgid boincscr

- Mac: Add -lresolv to XCode linker flags for ss_app and boinccmd

- SS: Under Mac Sandbox security, terminate default screensaver graphics app via gfx_switcher

- WINSCR: It appears newer notebook models with multiple video chipsets exhibit an interesting situation. It appears as though in certain conditions a single monitor machine actually reports itself as having three monitors. Normally the monitor that contains the primary window (coord 0,0) is on monitor 0, but on these machines coord 0,0 is actually on monitor 2. This led to the screensaver not properly exiting when keyboard and/or mouse activity was detected. Now when we detect that keyboard and/or mouse activity has happened we send the WM_INTERRUPTSAVER event to all windows on all monitors.

- WINSETUP: When uninstalling, don't migrate the client data back to the 5.x location.

- WINSETUP: On some setups, how we were including the 'Everyone' well known security ID in the boinc_users group didn't work properly.

From now on include the 'Everyone' security ID in the various ACLs instead. This will probley clean up a wide range of various issues with multi-user installs.

- web and client: change the default for "run_gpu_if_user_active" from true to false.
Currently running CUDA apps on NVIDIA GPUs causes a significant slowdown in GUI response.

- client: we were setting config defaults after parsing cmdline.

This meant that the cmdline args that set config params weren't working:
--allow_multiple_clients
--report_results_immediately
--no_priority_change
--start_delay

- MGR: Fix compatibility problem with sizing of all-projects list in Attach Project Wizard on wxWidgets 2.8.8 or later

- XCode Project chenages created automatically by updating XCode to version 3.1.2