LHC@home

I've been doing Theory tasks and one sixtrack. Now I'm trying to start ATLAS, but I can't get very far into creating/configuring the VM. The VM console says:

IPaddress of this VM: 10.0.2.15
In order to apply cernvm-online context, use #<PIN> as user name.
localhost login: _

Although not a PIN, I once entered my email address. I was then asked for a password. But if I remember correctly I couldn't even enter my password (probably because I hadn't entered a number for localhost login).

Where and how do I get a PIN, and what password do I use? Do I have to create an account somewhere? I'm at a total loss. I've gone so far as emailing service-desk@cern.ch, but all they could do was give me a link to two other cern email addresses. I sent email to them, but they both came back with the statement:

Delivery has failed to these recipients or groups:
cernvm-talk@cern.ch (cernvm-talk@cern.ch)
Your message can't be delivered because delivery to this address is restricted.

and

Delivery has failed to these recipients or groups:
cvmfs-talk@cern.ch (cvmfs-talk@cern.ch)
Your message can't be delivered because delivery to this address is restricted.

I'm at wits end. Please help.

LHC VMs are distributed as ready-to-use images.
There is no need to login as a normal volunteer.
Thus you will not get any password.

What you can do is to watch the different consoles.
Use ALT + Fn or Host + Fn or Right-Ctrl + Fn to switch between them.
It depends on your VirtualBox configuration whitch key combination works on your host.

Hi again computezrmle

LHC VMs are distributed as ready-to-use images.

That's certainly true for Theory. But for ATLAS, after I allow the task to run, it creates a VM, I click on Show VM console and the only script is:

IPaddress of this VM: 10.0.2.15
In order to apply cernvm-online context, use #<PIN> as user neme.
localhost login: _

There is no need to login as a normal volunteer.
Thus you will not get any password.

This isn't just about passwords, it's about a PIN. The only time it then asked for a password was after I entered my email address. And whereas I could type my email address (or probably anything else) after it asked for my PIN, nothing I typed when it asked for a password got entered into the VM console. Not even asterisks.

What you can do is to watch the different consoles.
Use ALT + Fn or Host + Fn or Right-Ctrl + Fn to switch between them.
It depends on your VirtualBox configuration whitch key combination works on your host.

Now I am confused, for three reasons. Are you saying there are more than one console? And if there are, which Fn button do you mean? There are 12 of them. Will any Fn button work? And what do you mean by Host + Fn? The only key that starts with H is Home, not Host.

One other thing. After 24 minutes of elapsed time there were just a few minutes of CPU time, and that was with 3 CPUs. And although according to the Task Manager Performance tab CPU Usage would occasionally go as high as ~50% for a short time, it was usually more like watching grass grow. Well, maybe not that bad, but nothing like the first 24 minutes of a Theory task.

Hi again computezrmle

LHC VMs are distributed as ready-to-use images.

That's certainly true for Theory. But for ATLAS, after I allow the task to run, it creates a VM, I click on Show VM console and the only script is:

IPaddress of this VM: 10.0.2.15
In order to apply cernvm-online context, use #<PIN> as user neme.
localhost login: _

There is no need to login as a normal volunteer.
Thus you will not get any password.

This isn't just about passwords, it's about a PIN. The only time it then asked for a password was after I entered my email address. And whereas I could type my email address (or probably anything else) after it asked for my PIN, nothing I typed when it asked for a password got entered into the VM console. Not even asterisks.

What you can do is to watch the different consoles.
Use ALT + Fn or Host + Fn or Right-Ctrl + Fn to switch between them.
It depends on your VirtualBox configuration whitch key combination works on your host.

Now I am confused, for three reasons. Are you saying there are more than one console? And if there are, which Fn button do you mean? There are 12 of them. Will any Fn button work? And what do you mean by Host + Fn? The only key that starts with H is Home, not Host.

Again.
Forget any idea to login to the VM as it WILL NOT WORK!

Yeti's checklist (#17) may solve your confusion.
https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/forum_thread.php?id=4161&postid=29359

One other thing. After 24 minutes of elapsed time there were just a few minutes of CPU time, and that was with 3 CPUs. And although according to the Task Manager Performance tab CPU Usage would occasionally go as high as ~50% for a short time, it was usually more like watching grass grow. Well, maybe not that bad, but nothing like the first 24 minutes of a Theory task.

ATLAS and Theory are different and must not be compared this way.
During the setup phase every VM loads lots of data via internet and prepares the runtime environment for the scientific apps.
This may take between a few minutes and >1/2 h.
Internet downloads don't need very much CPU.
That's what you see while watching your monitoring tools.

Once the setup is complete ATLAS will use 100% of all configured cores.

Thanks for taking the time to provide the clarifications, computezrmie, and for the link to Yeti's checklist. I guess I should also be thanking Yeti. I read it once and I'll read it (and apply it where possible) again. It looks like the biggest problem may be with regard to allowing certain ports in my firewall. Last night I entered the local and remote IP addresses and ports for boinc.exe and I got an error message. I don't understand that, since I got my information from Resource Monitor. But not to worry...boinc.exe was already being allowed. I think my AV software allows all installed apps bidirectionally by default. But it does provide a list of executable files that have been allowed, so the user can change the rules on a case by case basis. I can except executable files so they won't be scanned for viruses. Thanks again.

You don't have to enter anything. It should start all by itself. I am running Atlas@home on a Windows 10 PC and it works, Theory and CMS tasks fail for no known reasoe, Condor only lasts about 1200 seconds.
Tullio

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