BOINC and Ubuntu NOT Working - No Sphere Screensaver!

John Persichilli
John Persichilli
Joined: 23 Jan 12
Posts: 58
Credit: 66718108
RAC: 8663
Topic 224182

Hi Oliver,

This is something strange behavior. This computer I am using now initially had Astronomy Linux 18.04 Ubuntu. I then upgraded the OS to 20.04 Ubuntu. I Then used the software catalog on the OS to download and installed BOINC. I clicked on the BOINC Manager to start it. I added the Einstein@Home project and clicked on the show graphics button. It opened a new window and I enlarged it with the sphere working great.

After I had enough for the day I quit the BOINC Manager and shut down the computer as normal. No issues.

That was two days ago. When I once again started this same computer and clicked on the BOINC Manager it opens with the normal window showing the working tasks. However the show graphics button is now greyed out and there is no screen saver sphere.

I followed what Keith suggested to the link of additional guidelines which was a list of command lines to try. A couple required me to change them to reflect my user name. Which I did. The first two on the list returned error messages telling me that the file already exists, The rest on that list appeared to work as expected. No errors returned.

Still no sphere screensaver as the show graphics button was still greyed out. I also decided to delete the BOINC Manager, shut down and restart the computer and reinstall the BOINC Manager. Same result.

I am stumped. Why would I get a sphere screen saver with the initial installation of BOINC Manager but not again when all I did was shut down the computer for a couple of days and restart it?

Regards,

John

John Persichilli
John Persichilli
Joined: 23 Jan 12
Posts: 58
Credit: 66718108
RAC: 8663

Hi Oliver and all. I have

Hi Oliver and all.

I have an update. I decided to see what would happen if I experimented with the BOINC Computing Preferences. I unchecked two of the "When to Suspend" check boxes; Suspend when computer is in use and Suspend GPU computing when computer is in use. The Show Graphics button changed and was no longer greyed out. I clicked on the Show Graphics button and a new window appeared with the sphere screensaver.

Why should this be the case?

Regards,

John

John Persichilli
John Persichilli
Joined: 23 Jan 12
Posts: 58
Credit: 66718108
RAC: 8663

Hi all, Well, I see there

Hi all,

Well, I see there is still an issue with the Einstein@Home celestial sphere screensaver not showing with my updated Windows 10 Home edition as the show graphics button remains greyed out. 

I have restarted Bonic Manager and even transferred the data back. 

I still get the BOINC screensaver with the words BOINC Screensaver Loading yet nothing else does load. The strange behavior includes that sometimes I actually do get the Einstein@Home celestial sphere load other times it doesn't. Every first time my computer goes to the BOINC screensaver it blinks as if it wants to load the sphere but then just reverts to the BOINC loading screensaver.

 I've tweaked a few in preferences but nothing seems to correct the behavior. 

If I find how to change things I will post it here. 

 

Regards,

John

Oliver Behnke
Oliver Behnke
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Administrator
Joined: 4 Sep 07
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RAC: 39

John Persichilli wrote: I

John Persichilli wrote:

I unchecked two of the "When to Suspend" check boxes; Suspend when computer is in use and Suspend GPU computing when computer is in use. The Show Graphics button changed and was no longer greyed out. I clicked on the Show Graphics button and a new window appeared with the sphere screensaver.

Why should this be the case?

From what you're describing it sounds like you might be running a GPU task? In that case BOINC disables the screensaver/graphics as those are likely to collide with the GPU computing (on single-GPU systems), if I remember correctly. Now that you've effectively suspended it, graphics are enabled again.

Oliver

Einstein@Home Project

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