Public BOINC 6.6.20 released for Windows, Windows x64, Linux, Linux x64 and MacOS X

Rom Walton wrote:

Howdy Folks,

We are pleased to announce the first of the 6.6 clients to be ready for
public consumption.

This release includes:

1. A new CPU/GPU scheduler.

2. An improved work-fetch policy.

3. Improved communication handling between the manager and client
software.

4. Consolidation between the grid based advanced view and the list based advanced view for accessibility improvements.

Future 6.6 releases will include the updated localization files that the localizers have been hard at work on.

We would like to thank all the testers for their hard work over the last few months, without your help we would not have had as stable a client as we have now.

----- Rom

BOINC 6.6.21 released for Windows, Windows x64, and MacOS X

Rom Walton wrote:

Howdy Folks,

This release has a backwards compatibility fix with older BOINC clients
as well as some setup and screensaver fixes on Windows.

To trigger the new setup code just choose the 'Allow everyone to control
BOINC' option during setup.

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

Thanks in advance.

----- Rom

For change log, see my earlier post.

BOINC 6.6.22 released 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 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.

Changes for 6.6.22

- client: back out res_init() change; it didn't work

- Mac: build MGR with wxWidgets 2.8.10; Remove -lresolv from XCode linker flags

- Mac client: fill in command field of PROCINFO struct so <exclusive_app> log flag works properly on Mac.

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

- client: for each app version, keep track of the largest WSS of tasks using it.
In checking whether tasks fit in RAM, use this as an estimate for tasks that haven't started yet.
This avoids a situation where the client starts a lot of tasks in sequence, only to find that each one doesn't fit in RAM.

- manager: show execution directory in task properties

- graphics API: add rotation arg to txf_render_string() (from Carl C.)

- Mac client: fill in command field of PROCINFO struct more efficiently

- graphics API: full-on 3D rotation of text

- WINSETUP: Be sure to define INSTALLDIR if it isn't already defined by the system or the transform. DATADIR was already being handled.

- WINSETUP: Save setup state at the end of the execution phase as well as the end of the UI phase.

BOINC 6.6.23 for Windows, Windows x64 and Mac OSX

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 has made the announcement yet.


Changes for 6.6.23

- client: for coproc jobs, don't start a job while a quit is pending. Otherwise the new job may fail on memory allocation.

- client: instead of scheduling coproc jobs EDF:
* first schedule jobs projected to miss deadline in EDF order
* then schedule remaining jobs in FIFO order

This is intended to reduce the number of preemptions of coproc jobs, and hence (since they are always preempted by quit) to reduce the wasted time due to checkpoint gaps.

- client: the CPU scheduling policy made use of the number of deadline misses in various places. This should include only the deadline misses of CPU jobs. So move "deadlines_missed" from RR_SIM_STATUS and PROJECT to RSC_PROJECT_WORK_FETCH so that we have separate counts for CPU and coproc jobs, and use the count for CPU jobs.

- GUI RPC: removed the rr_sim_deadlines_missed field from project descriptor. This is no longer meaningful, and it didn't seem to be used anywhere.

- GUI RPC and manager: send slot and show it in task properties rather than slot path (slot_path is defined only for apps with graphics app).

- client: put back the call to res_init() on lookup failure. Apparently it worked after all.

- client: Fix spelling mistake in Windows environment.

- client: for each app version, keep track of the largest WSS of tasks using it. In checking whether tasks fit in RAM, use this as an estimate for tasks that haven't started yet. This avoids a situation where the client starts a lot of tasks in sequence, only to find that each one doesn't fit in RAM.

BOINC 6.6.23 released for Windows, Windows x64, and MacOS X

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.


Rom Walton wrote:

Howdy Folks,

This release contains the following fixes:

1. Setup fixes for mass deployment scenarios on Windows.

2. Prevents client from starting new tasks for apps that will more than likely consume more RAM than is available on the machine.

3. Prevents client from starting a new GPU job before a previous one has completed its shutdown sequence.

4. Tracks GPU job deadlines in EDF order, if a task isn't flagged as going to miss a deadline process them in the order downloaded.

5. On Linux systems, reread the list of name servers when a host lookup fails. When notebooks roam from one network to another the list of name servers change, the client needs to re-read the list of name servers to continue its job.

For those looking at the various work fetch and CPU/GPU scheduling, be sure to turn on the log flags for the areas that are having the problem. Without the logs we can't really tell what the client is up to on your machine, or why it is or is not doing something it ought to be doing.

Please report issues to http://boinc.berkeley.edu/alpha/

Thanks in advance...



----- Rom

Most Change logs for 6.6.22 and 6.6.23 earlier in this thread.

Extra change for Mac OSX:

- Mac: Add -lresolv to XCode linker flags for client, manager boinccmd, screensaver; add #include of <resolv.h> to non-Windows network.cpp

BOINC 6.6.24 released 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 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.


Changes for 6.6.24

- client: eliminate the need to write the state file on each checkpoint.
Instead, write the info into a file in the slot directory, and check for these files on startup. This should reduce the overhead of state-file writing on machines with lots of cores. There will still be a flurry of writes each time a job finishes, but reducing that overhead would be a larger job.

- client: make sure we write the state file after a failed RPC.

- SS: launch default screensaver graphics app as user and group boinc_project, not boinc_master.

- Fix compiler errors ( From: Sascha Manns )

- Unix build: make it work if "diff" is missing (??)
from Michael Tughan

- Add ICU to the BOINC depends list. It is needed for SQLLite3 which will be needed for reading Firefox 3.x cookies.

- Mac MGR: Add keyboard shortcuts command-shift-S, command-shift-A to switch views

- client: fixed a crash caused by using %f to write working-set size into a fixed-size buffer. use %e instead. TODO: figure out why WSS was huge.

- fix app_plan crash (fixes #874)

- client: if detach a project, adjust debts and trigger CPU sched and work fetch.

- Mac MGR: Changes to build with full Unicode support with wxWidgets-2.8.10

- Fix GPL License

- MGR: Put keyboard shortcuts CTRL+SHIFT+S and CTRL+SHIFT+A in View Menu so their functionality is not hidden.

- client: improve CPU sched debug messages (say what kind of job and why we're scheduling it)

- client: log messages describing GPUs: one line per GPU; fixes #879

- client: new approach to handling multiple GPUs.

old: find fastest GPU, and pretend that others are the same.
Problem: other GPUs might be less capable, and not able to handle jobs sent by server.

new: find the most "capable" GPU, use others that are equivalent, don't use those that are not.
"Capable" is defined by

* compute capability (i.e., hardware version)
* driver version
* memory size
* FLOPs
in that priority order.

- client: fix crash bug in CUDA init

- client: When a preemptable task wasn't preempted (e.g. because it hadn't finished its time slice).
we were failing to mark it as scheduled.

BOINC 6.6.25 released 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 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.

Rom Walton wrote:

Howdy Folks,

This release contains various logging updates and an option to force the
use of all GPUs.

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

Thanks in advance.



----- Rom

Changes for 6.6.25

- client: message tweak

- client: tweak to 4/21 checkin.

After finding the "most capable" GPU, ignore FLOPS in deciding what GPUs are equivalent to it. This opens up the possibility that the client will get jobs that it won't be able to finish in time. But it still avoids getting jobs that will crash.

- fix typo in compare_cuda()

- client: show message when user does a project or task op (suspend, resume, update, etc.)

- client: add <use_all_gpus> config option. If set, use GPUs even if they're not equivalent to the most capable one.

BOINC released 6.6.26 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.

Rom Walton wrote:

Howdy Folks,

This release just contains two fixes:

1. Updates to the localization files
2. Changes to how BOINC Manager saves settings (settings are now
saved with English names).

With this release if you are using a language other than English your
settings for the advanced view column widths will revert back to the
defaults. Once you change them, it'll be saved again for future use.

Please report issues to http://boinc.berkeley.edu/alpha/


Thanks in advance.



----- Rom

Charlie Fenton wrote:

I have posted BOINC 6.6.26 for the Macintosh to the download page.

Remember that we are still waiting for NVIDIA to release the 64-bit
Mac CUDA libraries. Until that happens, we don't have CUDA support
on the Mac.

Changes for 6.6.26

- Remove 10 corrupted languages which haven't seen an update since the conversion to SVN and updated them with current languages.


- removed outdated translation files; updated template

- Changes to get the client to build on IRIX:
don't use the variable name "sgi"; include <xxx.h> instead of <cxxx>; the latter just adds overloaded functions that we avoid.

- MGR: Turn GetViewName? into the unlocalized version of the view name, so the configuration group name is consistant across all languages and does not cause conversion issues on different platforms where the configuration information is treated differently when compiled Unicode vs. ANSI

BOINC 6.6.27 for Windows, Windows x64, 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 6.6.27

- removed outdated translation files; updated template

- client: view 2 GPUs as equivalent if their memory differs by <30%. (maybe their memory differed slightly from the most capable one)

- client: simplify enforce_schedule(), and maybe fix bugs.
New approach: take the "ordered_schedule_results" list, add running jobs that haven't finished their time slice, and order the result appropriately. Then run jobs in order until CPUs are filled. Simpler and clearer than the old way.

= client: fix compiler warning

BOINC 6.6.28 released 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.


Changes for 6.6.28

- client: enforce_schedule() wasn't starting GPU jobs

- Update Translations

BOINC 6.6.29 release for Macintosh

Charlie Fenton wrote:

I have posted BOINC 6.6.29 for the Macintosh to the download page.

This is a bug fix release for the Mac only. It fixes a couple of Mac-only crash bugs in the last few releases.

Remember that we are still waiting for NVIDIA to release the 64-bit Mac CUDA libraries. Until that happens, we don't have CUDA support on the Mac.

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 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.


Changes for 6.6.29

- MGR: Add comments and slightly reorder code for clarity

- client: write message (and show new config info) when config file reread

- client: improve cpu_sched_debug messages

- web translation: code wasn't handling multi-line tokens

- client, Mac: don't do res_init(). It causes a crash.

- client (Unix): if client crashes while benchmark processes are going, make sure they detect this and exit.

- Client: don't do res_init() on Mac, if client crashes during benchmarks, exit benchmarks on UNIX.

- Mac: Remove -lresolv from XCode linker flags for client, manager, boinccmd and screensaver

- Mac client: fix parent died test in benchmark_time_to_stop()

BOINC 6.6.29 released for Linux and Linux x64

Rom Walton wrote:

Howdy Folks,

Here is the latest Linux release. This release should not say it is a
pre-release version anywhere.

If there are no show stopping bugs reported by Friday, we will go ahead
and promote it to a public release.

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

---- Rom

BOINC Alpha Testing for 6.8

Rom Walton wrote:

Howdy Folks,

GridRepublic has been working on a Facebook application for use with Volunteer Computer via BOINC. While the Facebook application isn't quite complete yet, the 6.8 client will be focusing on features and functionality geared toward that effort. We are looking for the client software to be finalized and finished by mid-June.

To that end the only new features that are going to be included with this client version is the new screensaver framework and the ability to attach to an account manager via a web browser cookie.

A new BOINC-based client will be making its entrance next week, we will be focused on that until it is ready to go. After the new client is wrapped up we will follow up with an updated GridRepublic client followed by a BOINC client. The new client has a hard deadline of mid-June.

GridRepublic has updated their server-side software to put cookies on your system during the sign-up process to help test the new cookie attach mechanism. We have packaged up an experimental client with the new features to begin testing and we will be following up with the new client software as soon as I get the new skin and artwork.

In order to test the cookie mechanism you'll need to create a new GridRepublic account at http://www.gridrepublic.org/. When it gives you the link to download the new client click on it and then abort the download. Launch the experimental client. It should automatically attach to GridRepublic and then attach to whichever projects you have signed up too. The supported browsers are Internet Explorer 5.x+, Safari 3.x+, Firefox 2.x+. If you use a different browser go ahead and give it a try, let us know if it works.

To see the new screensaver you'll need to suspend the client before letting the system start the screensaver. Other ways include letting the client go idle, or the only active tasks do not support graphics. This new screensaver component is OpenGL based, at some point we hope to incorporate project news via RSS feeds and the like. For now it displays the basics.

I'll be updating the BOINC Alpha website with the instructions for testing the cookie attach process and new screensaver framework after this email goes out.

Here are the links to the experimental clients:
X86: http://boinc.berkeley.edu/dl/gridrepublic_6.7.5_windows_intelx86.exe
X64: http://boinc.berkeley.edu/dl/gridrepublic_6.7.5_windows_x86_64.exe

Thanks in advance.

----- Rom

I'm going to post the change log till this far. Part of it is incorporated in the never released 6.6.30, part of it in the never released 6.7.0, part of it is probably incorporated in the GridRepublic 6.7.5 (above) and some in the upcoming GRB6.8 (and let's hope BOINC 6.8).

The list is getting a bit too long to keep.

Changes Log for past and present versions.

- MGR: Add comments and slightly reorder code for clarity

- client: write message (and show new config info) when config file reread

- client: improve cpu_sched_debug messages

- web translation: code wasn't handling multi-line tokens

- client, Mac: don't do res_init(). It causes a crash.

- client (Unix): if client crashes while benchmark processes are going, make sure they detect this and exit.

- Client: don't do res_init() on Mac, if client crashes during benchmarks, exit benchmarks on UNIX.

- Mac: Remove -lresolv from XCode linker flags for client, manager, boinccmd and screensaver

- Mac client: fix parent died test in benchmark_time_to_stop()

- client: tweak to avoid -0

- MGR: Include support for Firefox 3.x cookie support for the attach to project wizard.

- MGR: Include support for a cookie based attach to account manager wizard.

- WINBUILD: Have the new installers include the new BOINC OpenGL based screensaver, as well as the logo and font files.

- WINBUILD: Include sqlite3.dll in the BOINC Manager component.

- Mac MGR: Fix compile error; add -lsqlite3 to XCode linker flags

- MGR: Merge "Attach to account manager" functionality into "Attach to project" wizard; Synchronize and Remove Acct Mgr not yet merged.

- MGR: Always treat quit RPCs as non-demand so Manager can exit when client is not responding

- Fix compiler warning

- MGR: Finish merging "Attach to account manager" functionality into "Attach to project" wizard

- MGR: IsBOINCCoreRunning() tests whether Client process exists, not by doing an RPC which hangs Manager if Client is running but unresponsive

- MGR: Add an "Exit BOINC" button ("Quit BOINC" on Mac) to async RPC "Communicating with BOINC Client. Please wait..." dialog

- MGR: CBOINCClientManager::IsBOINCCoreRunning() tests whether the Client process exists, rather than doing an RPC

- Fix bad path in XCode project

- MGR: Fix bug which prevented skin change from being saved if exiting Manager while in Simple View

- Add Sqlite3 support to build system

- MGR: Take care of numerious compiler warning for Linux builds and update license information on a bunch of files.

- Add a lot of translation updates.

- Mac: Fix build scripts for new screensaver

- MGR: Fix bug where *nix platforms using UCS2 Unicode encoding were not able to display graphics as one or more null bytes seperate each character.

- MGR: Fix bug where there was no trailing backslash before 'symbols' was appended to the end of the symbol path. This caused the stack tracing code not to download the actual symbol files needed to debug a problem. I have no idea when this bug was introduced.

- MGR/client: Enable cookie support for Account Managers

- MGR: Support for newer versions of wxWidgets (From: Sascha Manns)

- fix display problem when talking to old clients

- Mac installer: fix off-by-1 error

(- scheduler: return better message if client has too little GPU RAM, wrong driver version, etc. (tell them what the specific requirement is) )

- client: fixed nasty bug that caused GPU jobs to crash on startup when they're preempting another GPU job. The problem was as follows:

* job A is chosen to preempt job B
* we tell job B to quit, and initialize job A but don't start it; however, we set if scheduler state to SCHEDULED (rather than UNINITIALIZED)

* job B exits, and we start job A. Since its state is not UNITIALIZED, we don't set up its slot dir.

* job A runs in an empty slot dir, doesn't find its files, and bombs out.

* client: add <slot_debug> option (prints messages about allocation of slots, creating/removing files in slot dirs).

- Mac MGR: Eliminate erroneous references to wxMac-2.8.7 in XCode

- SS: Add new optional boolean xml tag <default_ss_first>

BOINC 6.6.31 publicly released for Windows, Windows x64, Linux and Linux 64

This version hasn't been announced, but it did make public release as recommended. Most of the change log is what's shown in the post before this one. I want to stress one change though, especially for the CUDA users:

- client: fixed nasty bug that caused GPU jobs to crash on startup when they're preempting another GPU job. The problem was as follows:

* job A is chosen to preempt job B
* we tell job B to quit, and initialize job A but don't start it; however, we set if scheduler state to SCHEDULED (rather than UNINITIALIZED)

* job B exits, and we start job A. Since its state is not UNITIALIZED, we don't set up its slot dir.

* job A runs in an empty slot dir, doesn't find its files, and bombs out.

* client: add <slot_debug> option (prints messages about allocation of slots, creating/removing files in slot dirs).

BOINC 6.6.33 for Windows, Windows x64, Linux, Linux 64 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 as Rom hasn't made the announcement yet.


Change Log for 6.6.32 (not released or on any download list!)

- Mac MGR: Eliminate erroneous references to wxMac-2.8.7 in XCode (now building with wxMac-2.8.10).

- SS: Add new optional boolean xml tag <default_ss_first>; if true, then launch default screensaver graphics app first, else run science graphics first.

- MGR: Remove references to ViewNews, it won't appear in this release.

- fix display problem when talking to old clients

- lib: return proper error codes from boinc_rename() and boinc_mkdir()

- client: Haiku support (from Urias McCullough)

- client: include plan class in other_result list in sched request

- client: unify code for writing soft link files

- Mac MGR: Fix per-thread-locale logic on Mac; weak-link sqlite3 for OS 10.3.9 compatibility.

- client: if scheduler request didn't request work, don't report 0 tasks

- MGR: In Async RPC logic, change calling order for wxCondition and wxMutex to match examples in literature

Change log for 6.6.33

- Mac: delete source files ViewNews.cpp, ViewNews.h from XCode Project

- client: include plan class in other_result list in sched request (for resource-specific jobs-in-progress limit)

- client: show "est. delay" correctly in work fetch debug msgs

- client: show times correctly in rr_sim debug msgs

- client: in "requesting new tasks" msg, say what resources we're requesting (if there's more than CPU)

BOINC 6.6.34 for Windows, Windows x64 (and probably Linux, Linux x64 and Macintosh to follow)

WARNING: Due to a big bug in this version, do not upgrade to it when you're using any sort of CUDA device and are using it to crunch. Your work will get lost.

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 Rom hasn't made the announcement yet.


Change log for 6.6.34

- client: estimated delay was possibly being calculated incorrectly because of roundoff error

- client: add a 1e-6 slop factor in deciding if a resource is fully utilized.

- MGR: finish changes to combined attach wizard

- MGR: cosmetic changes to combined attach wizard, change "Forgot password" link for account managers to a link to AM's home page, add static text

- client: include device number in message describing NVIDIA GPU, and call it "NVIDIA GPU" rather than "CUDA device". fixes #879

- client: tweak messages

- manager: compile fix

- client: when parsing app_info.xml, make sure coprocessors are present. fixes #911

- client: Fix missing argument in printf statements

- GR Installer: Update make_GridRepublic.sh script for new default screensaver

- MGR: Backport a fix to the ProjectListCtrl in the wizard from later branches for Linux distros. Fixes# 759

- fix for coprocessors

- MGR: Accept Unicode input for usernames and password in the manager now that the manager is Unicode enabled. Input will show up as UTF-8 strings in the CC and project. Fixes #452

- MGR: Fix bug in browser cookie detection code where Firefox v3 cookie detection was returning true even for cookies that don't exist.

- MGR: Add some basic validation for account manager cookie detection.

- client: if scheduler request didn't request work, don't report 0 tasks

BOINC 6.6.35 available 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 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 Rom hasn't made the announcement yet.

Change Log for 6.6.35

It may not be so clear from the change log, but the bug of exiting BOINC Manager that kept the client and science applications running has been fixed in this version. Other fixes include:

- GUI RPC: add active_only option to get_results() RPC

- client: read app_info.xml's AFTER scanning GPUs. Otherwise we'll discard all GPU apps and results.

- MGR: Fix compile errors, remove authenticator validity test from detect_cookie_safari()

- MGR: CBOINCClientManager::ProcessExists() finds the process by name if we don't have a pid (Mac, Linux) or process HANDLE (Windows

- Update Mac Manager build instructions for wxWidgets 2.8.10

- scheduler: improve example app plan function for multithread

- MGR: Use code like get_client_mutex() to determine if client is running; KillClient() uses process name if we don't have pid.

- MGR: Implement CBOINCClientManager::KillClient() for Windows.

- MGR: Implement CBOINCClientManager::IsBOINCRunning()for Windows.

- lib: Fix FILE_LOCK::unlock() to reset fd to -1 so FILE_LOCK works correctly with repeated calls.

- MGR: fix CBOINCClientManager::IsBOINCRunning(), add CBOINCClientManager::KillClient(); lib: Fix FILE_LOCK::unlock() for repeated calls

- lib: Fix compiler error on Windows

- MGR: Fix compiler error on Windows

- GUI RPC: include hostid in PROJECT

- Manager: show host ID in project properties

- MGR and Mac MGR: In Async RPC logic, use posix mutexes and condition instead of wxMutex and wxCondition, as this appears to fix an intermittent hang in wxCondition::Wait()

- lib: FILE_LOCK::lock() makes lockfile group-writable so both client and manager can create and write it under sandbox security

- DIAG: Policy change: Only include the BOINC symbol store for BOINC binaries. The old policy was kept around as a backwards compatibility thing before a new flag was added to the diagnostics to identify project applications.

BOINC 6.6.36 available for Windows, Windows x64, Linux, Linux 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 Rom hasn't made the announcement yet.

For change log for 6.6.36 see previous logs.

For Windows:

- client: read app_info.xml's AFTER scanning GPUs. Otherwise we'll discard all GPU apps and results.

I'm going to post the change log till this far again. Part of it is incorporated in the upcoming 6.7.0, part of it is incorporated in the next GridRepublic 6.7.x and some in the upcoming GRB6.8 (and let's hope BOINC 6.8).

Fixes are for trunk, 6.6a and 6.8 branches.
Perhaps it's time to have three threads on these changes.

- Mac: add screensaver, installer and uninstaller support for ProgressThruProcessors branding

- scheduler: include WU#ID in log msgs for handled results

- Mac: Change "ProgressThruProcessors?" to "Progress Thru Processors"

- New script to convert BOINC installer to Progress Thru Processors installer

- Mac: Ensure that InfoPlist.strings file is encoded UTF-8 so make_ProgThruProc.sh works properly

- Mac: Fix script to properly handle UTF-16 encoded InfoPlist.strings files;; reverse previous checkin to XCode project

- Mac: Update copyright date in InfoPlist.strings files to 2009

- Mac: Set copyright date to 2009; reverse previous checkin to XCode project

- MGR: use branded Manager name in async RPC Please Wait dialog

- SCR: Update default values per BOINC defaults.

- Mac Sandbox: check_security() writes path of bad file to stderr for some error codes

- WINSETUP: Change the install validation code so that it reads the MSI database to determine what executable names to check instead of hard coding them. BOINCMGR is renamed to Progress Thru Process or in the case of GridRepublic it would be GridRepublic Desktop.

- MGR: Introduce the notion of a Return URL to the attach to account manager wizard. When successfully attached the account manager can have the manager launch a browser to a given URL by way of a cookie. It only works if the logon credentials were also given to the manager by way of a cookie.

- MGR: Introduce the cookie detection failure URL to the acct_mgr_logon.xml file. If the cookies cannot be found provide a hyperlink control on the AcctountInfo page in the wizard which will point to a fallback URL the user can go to to find out what logon credentials to use.

- Mac: uninstaller doesn't delete data

- MGR: The ReturnURL cookie is optional, not required.

- MGR: Wizard retries acct_mgr_rpc() if acct_mgr_rpc_poll() sets ERR_RETRY

- MGR: Fix browser cookie detection on Windows machines where UAC is turned on. It appears it has never worked, and I imagine it would affect 70% of our Windows Vista and Windows 7 user base.

- MGR: Expand on Charlie's last checkin to include the rest of the polling RPCs in the wizard. The polling RPCs would return ERR_RETRY when the CC was in the middle of some other GUI_HTTP op (version check, project list download).

- MGR: hide main window after auto AM sync only if we showed it; add PTP signing key with UNIX line endings.

- INSTALL: Make sure both installers have the cookie required flag so that the correct information is displayed on the AccountInfo page in the Wizard, if and when a browsers cookie could not be detected.

- WINBUILD: Update the project files to point to the 6_8 depends tree

- MGR: Remove the News tab

- MGR: If LOCKFILE doesn't already exist, core client isn't running so skip further testing

- client: don't require that file upload URLs contain "file_upload_handler".

- client: prepend rather than append to LD_LIBRARY_PATH; on Mac, change DYLIB_LIBRARY_PATH also.

- MGR: Compile fix of Rom's fix to David's compile fix (um.. what, Charlie?)

- lib: created a new file for declaring "replacements" for functions like strlcpy() etc. config.h is included here rather than in str_util.h

- Win: compile fixes

- compile fixes for Linux