LHC@home

I'm getting a new message- virtual box not installed - but virtual box crashes my computer, can I continue to do lhc@home without it?

I think you should be OK if you only do the SixTrack tasks. If you check the applications page (https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/apps.php) VirtualBox is required for following applications: CMS Simulation, LHCb Simulation and Theory Simulation. SixTrack does not require VirtualBox (at least at the moment), don't know about the future.

There are a few applications that are still missing from that page and they may require VirtualBox as well.

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http://lhcathomeclassic.cern.ch/sixtrack/result.php?resultid=108632625

Well look at that!

My first VB task here worked just like it should and in my 12 years here its the first time I ever got 400 credits for a single task
(it usually would take 100 tasks to get that much)

And I even get to leave a post here now that my RAC has something on it

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Volunteer Mad Scientist For Life

My first VB task here worked just like it should and in my 12 years here its the first time I ever got 400 credits for a single task

Only one single job done during the VM's lifetime. Must have been a monster Theory task. Probably a sherpa with 'only' 22,000 events.

2016-11-15 10:57:19 (8200): Guest Log: [INFO] New Job Starting in slot1
2016-11-16 03:08:56 (8200): Guest Log: [INFO] Job finished in slot1 with 0.

2nd one just finished and about 4 hours faster this time (and closer to 300 credits this time)

http://lhcathomeclassic.cern.ch/sixtrack/result.php?resultid=108632627

#3 is off and running now.

I keep getting this message on one of my machines:

11/16/2016 9:34:25 PM | LHC@home | Message from server: VirtualBox is not installed

Why? I got it both before and after I reconnected to the new website.

OH -- I just read some of the other posts; guess I'd better check which tasks I have checked. . .

I just checked and the only one with a "yes" is SixTrack. . . So the original question still stands.

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Which one are you trying to get these VB tasks with........the XP or the 10 ?

As you can tell you are not getting a VB task because the server can tell you do not have VB and the Extension Pack installed.

I have been doing this since the beginning so I have seen this happen a few times before and still run XP Pro,7,and 10 (and had 8.1 for a while)

Sometimes you can do that d/l (make sure you add the Extension Pack)
and then try to get tasks and you get that from the server.

Did you d/l the Oracle VB alone or with Boinc at the same time?

I never had luck doing it that way so I always d/l VB by itself from Oracle.

But you can still have that happen but most of the time all you need to do is after you install VB with Extension Pack you have to reboot
and then try to get a Theory VB task.

If it still isn't working you will have to do a clean reinstall of the VB
and then reboot and then you should get the server to give you a Theory VB task.

Let me know how you do.

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Volunteer Mad Scientist For Life

Another thing I probably should have added just in case is that Virtualization has to be enabled in the BIOS

You can tell by popping up your Windows Task Manager/Performance/CPU at the lower right it will say if it is enabled (Windows 10)

With my XP Pro it was already enabled but I have before just looked in the BIOS to see if it was on an XP and there is a free program that
also checks and tells if it is enabled or even able to use Virtualization.

One problem you can have with your XP is that it is a X86 32bit version so it can only use 4GB or less RAM and yours only has 2.8GB
so it will not be able to do much with VB tasks since they need all of that and then your computer will lack the ram to run the other hardware.
(you can still add a 2GB ram stick to it if you like)

Your other one is a X64 and has the basic 4GB Ram so it can work but we usually add Ram when we are doing this and I know that
8GB Ram runs these pretty good and more than one task at a time (I have updated my other quad-cores to 12GB or more since I also run GPU's with the several VB tasks)

It does look like BOTH of your CPU's are Virtualization Technology Supported

I DON'T WANT VB TASKS!! I'M ASKING WHY I AM GETTING THE MESSAGE IF I AM NOT REQUESTING VB TASKS! Geezzz...

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I DON'T WANT VB TASKS!! I'M ASKING WHY I AM GETTING THE MESSAGE IF I AM NOT REQUESTING VB TASKS! Geezzz...

Maybe you should go back and read what you said before and stop wasting my time typing info for members who have just asked why the server says that over the last 6 years.

You did NOT say you didn't want these LHC VB tasks.

And as far as now answering your actual simple question.......you won't get any help from me.

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Volunteer Mad Scientist For Life

You will only get VB tasks if you allow other applications than Sixtrack in your project preferences.

Sixtrack has been set as default application for all users, you need to opt-in via preferences to get VB tasks.

I don't see any options to opt-in/out VB tasks ... I still have the original options in my account preferences :

Ressource shares
Use CPU ?
Allow test application ?
Allow Sixtrack email
Allow Sixtrack to display computers
Default location
CPU % for graphics

Am I missing something ?

Edit : I had to edit my preference and validate them again to get them applied ... weird ...

Only by using a new URL (not SixTrack Classic), you can see and modify the list of applications

Maybe you should go back and read what you said before and stop wasting my time typing info for members who have just asked why the server says that over the last 6 years.

Looks pretty clear to me -- and I have NOT been getting those messages over the past 6 years -- only over the past week. And only on a Win10 machine, not on my XP machine.

The messages are easy enough to ignore, but I thought maybe there was some problem someone in control of things might want to know about. . . (Guess no intended good deed goes unpunished. . . :-( )

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On the profile preferences, there is a parameter for "Max # CPUs". What is that parameter supposed to do?

One of my profiles is set for Max # jobs = 3 and Max # CPUs = 1. There are 3 tasks downloaded and all three of them are running.

Thanks for the insight.

On the profile preferences, there is a parameter for "Max # CPUs". What is that parameter supposed to do?

"Supposed to do", I think is the right naming, cause I think it's not yet working like wished.
Example: # CPU's set to 2, should create a VM with 2 cores.
Inside the VM 2 jobs will run and BOINC knows it has to reserve 2 cores for this task.
As far as I know, the only problem is that the desired RAM for the VM is not set right at the moment automatically.
(Can be controlled by using an app_config.xml, but when using an app_config.xml you could also create multicore VM's with a project preference setting of # CPUs 1)

1 advantage: 2 jobs within a VM will require less memory than 2 single-core VM's (# CPUs 1)

1 disadvantage: After the normal runtime there mostly will be a period where 1 job within the VM has finished and the second is still busy.
During that period almost 1 core will be idle.

Multicore is only available in the dev project for now.

Crystal Pellet and Laurence,

Thanks for the clarification. I had completely misinterpreted the usage for the "Max # CPUs" parameter. Now I know how I will have to set up my app_config.xml.

When will VirtualLHC@Home stop providing work?



Off Topic:

1 disadvantage: After the normal runtime there mostly will be a period where 1 job within the VM has finished and the second is still busy.
During that period almost 1 core will be idle.

That's a severe disadvantage for some crunchers. That's lost heating or RAC from other projects. I know people so unwilling to give up any CPU slices that they refuse to run WUProps and it's 0.15 CPU usage and kill Explorer.exe, etc to eek out maybe another 0.5% CPU.

When will VirtualLHC@Home stop providing work?

Once most people have migrated. We will gradually try to persuade people to move with the ultimate motivation being to stop the tasks.

Off Topic:

1 disadvantage: After the normal runtime there mostly will be a period where 1 job within the VM has finished and the second is still busy.
During that period almost 1 core will be idle.

That's a severe disadvantage for some crunchers. That's lost heating or RAC from other projects. I know people so unwilling to give up any CPU slices that they refuse to run WUProps and it's 0.15 CPU usage and kill Explorer.exe, etc to eek out maybe another 0.5% CPU.

Everyone has their own motivations but we should be careful with over optimization. Compare the difference between running and not running vs running more efficiently. If the motivation is to support the science, which is what we hope, then if the only way we can run is with a small efficiency penalty, we hope people will still support what we are doing. Of course we will do what we can to reduce any inefficiency as much as possible.