Getting started questions
8 Jun 2005 2:56:18 UTC
Topic 189305
(moderation:
I installed BOINC this past weekend and attached to Einstein@Home without any problem but there are a couple of questions I didn't find in the FAQ:
1) When I reboot my computer BOINC doesn't appear to know that I've attached to the Einstein@Home project (which is the only project I've attached to at this point). If I Exit BOINC and start it up manually everything works fine. Is there something more I need to do to make it start OK automatically when I boot up?
2) What exactly are "Credits" and why should I care about them? The computer I put this on has a 1.4 GHz Pentium4 CPU and was previously sitting idle about 95% of the time, so I see that it has completed several work units (looking on the Messages tab) but I don't see anything telling me statistics about that information. And no credits show up yet (I assume based on the FAQ that means the other computer assigned those work units hasn't yet completed them). Where do I find statistics about what, if anything, my computer has done so far?
3) When I let the screensaver run my computer became so slow it was practically worthless. Even after I moved the mouse and the screensaver exited the computer would barely respond. I Eventually powered it down and turned off the screensaver when I started it back up. I see in the FAQ this is possibly related to OpenGL and hardware acceleration settings but I'm not familiar enough with either of those to know how to change them.
Thanks,
Leland Hosford.
Getting started questions
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One other thing. I did find the "Credits" statistics in My Account. And they do show up on the BOINC projects tab now. But I still don't really understand what "Credits" are and why I care about them.
When I view the Results page in My Account. The first work unit that was sent to me still shows as "In Progress" and hasn't completed. I assume that is because shortly after I first installed BOINC and attached to Einstein@Home I realized it was putting data onto a small disk drive that I didn't want it putting data onto and I didn't see any way to change where it put the data. So I uninstalled BOINC and reinstalled it on the drive I wanted the data to go to. In view of that, I have these questions too:
1) Is there a way to get it to resend that first work unit? Or should I just ignore it and it will eventually time out?
2) Is there a way to specify what drive I want BOINC to use for its data?
Thanks,
Leland Hosford.
Check out thw wiki
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Check out thw wiki
Link to Unofficial Wiki for BOINC, by Paul and Friends
It is good advice to look in
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It is good advice to look in the wiki. There is a lot there. Here are some more direct answers to your points.
I still don't really understand what "Credits" are and why I care about them.
Credits are a way of tracking how much is being contributed to the project.
Whether you care about them is entirely up to you, but here are some reasons why other people care:
- they can be used to compare different machines to see which machine is more effective on this project, so if perhaps you have several machines but are only able to leave one of them on 24/7 you would know which one to choose;
- they can be used by the project as a diagnostic: if the credits scored by a new release were well down on those scored by an earlier release of the software, the project team would know the new release was not running as efficiently as the old one
- they can be used to compare different contributors or different teams by those contributors who enjoy the competitive aspect of the project, getting their name / their team higher up the lists. Everyone who contributes to E@H is altruistic, we are all doing something for nothing. Some of us enjoy adding a little friendly competition to our generosity. Others are motivated by the generosity alone and never look at the lists and rarely bother with credits.
It is also worth knowing that the accumulated credit once granted is never lost: the system 'forgets' the info about specific WU (which it does a few weeks after credit is granted) but the credit you were given remains forever.
The first work unit that was sent to me still shows as "In Progress" and hasn't completed.
1) Is there a way to get it to resend that first work unit? Or should I just ignore it and it will eventually time out?
Ignore it. Just over a week after you downloaded it, it will get sent to somebody else; unless the project decides it can manage on only three goes at that WU. Most of us have 'lost' WU from time to time, especially when starting. I lost far more than just one with the same kind of mistake.
2) Is there a way to specify what drive I want BOINC to use for its data?
As far as I know (and look in the wiki to make sure) the answer is no: BOINC expects to put its data on the same directory/folder as its software, and on Windows machines that means the same drive. On Linux there would be a way, but this would be done from the operating system not from BOINC.
~~gravywavy
Thanks. I'll look in the
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Thanks. I'll look in the Wiki.
Leland Hosford.
RE: - they can be used to
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I thought I'd add that this particular computer performs some scheduled tasks, such that it needs to be on 24/7, but most of the time it is just waiting around doing nothing until the scheduled time. That was why I thought it would be a good candidate for this project.
Leland Hosford.
OK. Could someone also
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OK. Could someone also explain BBcode tags to me. Because I apparently didn't use them correctly in my previous posting. What did I do wrong?
Thanks,
Leland Hosford.