LHC@home

Hello,

I recently reinstalled boinc and vbox from regular Ubuntu ressources. Everything seems to work but not LHC WU's requiering vbox, which always result in a "computation error" after a few seconds.

Vbox seems to be running, but I could not find any information on how to configure vbox. Is any configuration needed at all? I would appreciate your hints on what else I need to do.

Many thanks

System version: WU requiring vbox resulting in computing errors

Virtualbox versions:

boinc-virtualbox/noble 8.2.8+dfsg+202512070716~ubuntu24.04.1 amd64
unity-scope-virtualbox/noble,noble 0.1+13.10.20130723-0ubuntu3 all
virtualbox-dkms/noble-updates,now 7.0.16-dfsg-2ubuntu1.1 amd64  [Installiert,automatisch]
virtualbox-ext-pack/noble,noble,now 7.0.16-1 all [Konfiguration-verbleibend]
virtualbox-guest-additions-iso/noble,noble 7.0.16-1 all
virtualbox-guest-utils-hwe/noble-updates 7.0.16-dfsg-2ubuntu1.24.04.2 amd64
virtualbox-guest-utils/noble-updates 7.0.16-dfsg-2ubuntu1.1 amd64
virtualbox-guest-x11-hwe/noble-updates 7.0.16-dfsg-2ubuntu1.24.04.2 amd64
virtualbox-guest-x11/noble-updates 7.0.16-dfsg-2ubuntu1.1 amd64
virtualbox-qt/noble-updates,now 7.0.16-dfsg-2ubuntu1.1 amd64  [Installiert,automatisch]
virtualbox-source/noble-updates 7.0.16-dfsg-2ubuntu1.1 amd64
virtualbox/noble-updates,now 7.0.16-dfsg-2ubuntu1.1 amd64  [installiert]

Boinc versions:

boinc-client-nvidia-cuda/noble 8.2.8+dfsg+202512070716~ubuntu24.04.1 amd64
boinc-client-opencl/noble 8.2.8+dfsg+202512070716~ubuntu24.04.1 amd64
boinc-client/noble,now 8.2.8+dfsg+202512070716~ubuntu24.04.1 amd64  [installiert]
boinc-dev/noble 8.2.8+dfsg+202512070716~ubuntu24.04.1 amd64
boinc-manager/noble,now 8.2.8+dfsg+202512070716~ubuntu24.04.1 amd64  [installiert]
boinc-screensaver/noble 8.2.8+dfsg+202512070716~ubuntu24.04.1 amd64
boinc-virtualbox/noble 8.2.8+dfsg+202512070716~ubuntu24.04.1 amd64
boinc/noble,noble 8.2.8+dfsg+202512070716~ubuntu24.04.1 all
boinctui/noble 2.7.2-0~202508191807~ubuntu24.04.1 amd64
libboinc-app-dev/noble 8.2.8+dfsg+202512070716~ubuntu24.04.1 amd64
libboinc-app7/noble 7.24.1+dfsg+202402201322~ubuntu24.04.1 amd64
libboinc-app7t64/noble 8.2.8+dfsg+202512070716~ubuntu24.04.1 amd64
libboinc7/noble 7.24.1+dfsg+202402201322~ubuntu24.04.1 amd64
libboinc7t64/noble,now 8.2.8+dfsg+202512070716~ubuntu24.04.1 amd64  [Installiert,automatisch]

Status virtualbox:

virtualbox.service - LSB: VirtualBox Linux kernel module
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/virtualbox; generated)
     Active: active (exited) since Thu 2025-12-18 16:20:37 CET; 3 days ago
       Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)
        CPU: 67ms

Dez 18 16:20:37 johann systemd[1]: Starting virtualbox.service - LSB: VirtualBox Linux kernel module...
Dez 18 16:20:37 johann virtualbox[2704]:  * Loading VirtualBox kernel modules...
Dez 18 16:20:37 johann virtualbox[2704]:    ...done.
Dez 18 16:20:37 johann systemd[1]: Started virtualbox.service - LSB: VirtualBox Linux kernel module.

There are no errors in syslog related to virtualbox

There are no errors in syslog related to boinc

---

Go to one of your faulty WUs e.g

https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/result.php?resultid=431119578

there you see that VB is blocked for boinc

I no longer see the task in question, but you may be running into the issue I documented in this thread:

https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/forum_thread.php?id=6344&postid=52053#52053

The OP's computer doesn't have VirtualBox issues (any more).
Instead it is running empty VMs without any scientific value.
This is caused by backend issues at CERN and can't be solved on the volunteer side.

The suggestion is not to run CMS until CERN staff is back from holidays and solved those issues.