Hi all. I have a virtual machine (winxp) in my server that I have dedicated to boinc. I currently use it only for the seti@home project. Lately, boinc manager keeps running out of tasks. I can restart my (virtual) computer, and sometimes it will start to download new tasks. Then it runs those tasks and wont download anymore. Example: I only have one task in queue and It will not download, just keeps listing "retry in xx:xx" and counts down, doesn't download, and then starts a new countdown. Finally it downloads and runs, but meanwhile the manager is NOT adding new tasks, so it will just run out of work and sit. This is not a problem Ive had in the first few weeks of using BOINC, it just started a few days ago. Its very sad to see the software sitting there NOT DOING ANYTHING, when I've dedicated so many resources to it. Is it normal for the BOINC manager to run out of work? Why doesn't it start downloading more tasks when its current ones finish downloading? If I cant figure this out, Im just going to stop running boinc, as it's not doing anyone any good if it cant keep doing work.

I'll add, I am running BOINC in a virtual machine because when installed in Linux itself I cannot get BOINC manager to load a window to my display client via ssh-x forwarding.
It seems to not figure out to use display "10:0". I also cannot figure out how to tell it which display to load the window on. Ive had this problem on three linux boxes, I have not been able to x-forward the BOINC manager window from ANY of my linux boxes.
Hence, I installed xp in a virtualbox just to run BOINC on my (rather powerful) server.

The Seti project has had problems the past week to make work and distribute it. They're in the process of releasing new applications and new Astropulse tasks (8MB big) which help saturate their already overworked 100Mbit output.

So that counts for your running out of work and download problems, all of us running Seti have those problems. Read all about it on the Seti forums, help desk and Number Crunching.

If you don't want that to happen, simply run a second or third project as well. There are 50+ projects to choose from, some of which are on this list.

As for getting help on how to run BOINC on Linux, if http://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Installing_BOINC#Linux doesn't help you, you will have to supply at least the distro name and the exact error that you get before any of the Linux gurus around here will jump in. Also tell them which BOINC version you use.

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Thanks for your input, and I was going to add that I think the issues were coming from the file transfers. they stall, don't update with new tasks, and IMO take too long to "retry".

Yea as far as the linux issue, I'll give it a go again on my 12.04 buntu test box. The problems weren't with installing it etc., the issue is getting it's window to open over x-forwarded ssh.

Either way, I just added a second virtual machine to my boinc processing. If seti can't keep em busy, Ill add a second project (if I can choose which one to support :-))

Which BOINC did you use on that Ubuntu? The one from the Berkeley site, or the one from the package manager? Try to use the latter first, as that one will always be updated for the OS you're in.

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It was the package manager (ubuntu 10.04). I always use apt and the standard repos. And the issues I've had are with x11 forwarding the boinc manager window. I run almost everything headless these days, using my laptop as a display client. Ubuntu (server) 10.04 (and 11.x) both had this issue. I haven't tried with my 12.04 server test box, but I think that's the one that counts from now on, as its the new lts release.
Ill install it in the next few days and see what I come up with. In my past attempts (on 10.04 and 11.x) I received errors relating to lack of display, i.e. it seemed as if boinc manager didn't know to use the default ssh-x monitor of "10.0". But as I said I'll test it out in 12.04 and report

Update: Eh, go figure. 12.04 ubuntu's boinc seems to load via ssh-x forwarding just fine. So I guess no problem then. That's another instance of boinc I can now run. :-)