LHC@home

Running arch linux

Installed virtualbox 5.2.8-1
virtualbox-host-modules-arch 5.2.8-3

Atlas task are downloaded but end in error. Now what?

"Output file absent" in log

You know what, I felt incredibly dirty installing this oracle crap, I'm outta here.

VirtualBox 5.2.8 works in Atlas tasks on my two Linux boxes with SuSE Linux Leap 42.2.
Tullio

I'm sure it will run on my Arch boxes, but it seems there is some configuration necessary. Maybe it has to do with permissions I don't now. But unless someone is going to spoon-feed this to me, I'm pointing my processors somewhere else.

I'm sure it will run on my Arch boxes, but it seems there is some configuration necessary. Maybe it has to do with permissions I don't now. But unless someone is going to spoon-feed this to me, I'm pointing my processors somewhere else.

Your logs show that you ran only Sixtrack and ATLAS (native).
Both don't need VirtualBox.
In case of ATLAS you would get tasks for "vbox64_mt_mcore_atlas" once your BOINC client has discovered VirtualBox.

Are you sure your VirtualBox is correctly installed?
You may work through Yeti's checklist to avoid pitfalls.

Ok thanks, Yeti's checklist said something about extensions, so now I installed these:

libvncserver-0.9.11-2 virtualbox-5.2.8-1 virtualbox-ext-vnc-5.2.8-1 virtualbox-host-modules-arch-5.2.8-3

I'll let you know how it goes...

Boinc thinks virtualbox isn't installed:

cat /var/lib/boinc/stdoutdae.txt | grep -i virtual

10-Mar-2018 21:30:29 [LHC@home] VirtualBox is not installed

Your logs show that you ran only Sixtrack and ATLAS (native).
Both don't need VirtualBox.

I'm sure those atlas tasks only showed up after I installed virtualbox. But then again, the logs said that virtualbox wasn't installed...

Maybe I'll try again tomorrow, maybe not.

Your logs show that you ran only Sixtrack and ATLAS (native).
Both don't need VirtualBox.

I'm sure those atlas tasks only showed up after I installed virtualbox. But then again, the logs said that virtualbox wasn't installed...

Maybe I'll try again tomorrow, maybe not.

Native atlas doesn't require Vbox. Instead of including everything in a .vdi the native app puts those requirements on the user if they wish to not use vbox. Please read this thread for some info on how to get it all setup. I haven't done so myself as even vbox is easier.
https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/forum_thread.php?id=4396

After vbox is installed, the BOINC client must be restarted. VBox detection is done at client startup.

Native apps can be disabled by unselecting test apps.

Your sixtrack tasks are validating, no need to abort those.

If you do wish to run Atlas, they run most efficient at 3-5 threads with an app_config file.

+1 to all your comments, except:
mmonnin wrote:

If you do wish to run Atlas, they run most efficient at 3-5 threads ...

The VMs run through a startup phase and a shutdown phase where only 1 core is used and all other cores remain idle.

Those total idle times become more relevant for WUs with short calculation phases together with a slow internet connection.
WUs with long calculation phases together with a fast internet connection will be less affected.

Thus, a singlecore setup will be most efficient.
Of cource, there may be other reasons to run multicore VMs. e.g. a single 5core would need much less total RAM than 5 singlecores.

+1 to all your comments, except:
mmonnin wrote:

If you do wish to run Atlas, they run most efficient at 3-5 threads ...

The VMs run through a startup phase and a shutdown phase where only 1 core is used and all other cores remain idle.

Those total idle times become more relevant for WUs with short calculation phases together with a slow internet connection.
WUs with long calculation phases together with a fast internet connection will be less affected.

Thus, a singlecore setup will be most efficient.
Of cource, there may be other reasons to run multicore VMs. e.g. a single 5core would need much less total RAM than 5 singlecores.

I was referencing David Cameron's post here:
https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/forum_thread.php?id=4479&postid=32802#32802

A single thread is 5th most efficient.

An answer may be better located in this thread.

I got vbox working with the help of yeti's checklist and the Arch Linux VirtualBox documentation, thanks everyone!

I'll check the threads discussion, at the moment the Atlas task is only using 1 of 8 available threads... oh wait here we go 780% CPU that's more like it.