Just to follow up, my primary rosetta cruncher has 6 tasks using 1.6gb of ram total. Looks like they got it figured out.

---

A new batch of work has been loaded up- hopefully these have their requirements set properly, and they won't error out in a matter of seconds either.

I got 11 of them. 3 gave errors within seconds, with error messages that probably require access to the source code to interpret. 6 are running normally. The last two haven't started.

At least that is better than mostly fast errors.

Returning to my anecdote about a remote PC I have being unable to download any Rosetta tasks, so running its backup project, WCG, 24/7, my local laptop is also doing weird things. It refuses to run a particular Rosetta task, so it's running those it has room for - a combination of WCG and later Rosetta tasks, but only 3 on 4 cores. Now I know it's definitely happening, I've set NNT and suspended all running tasks except for the one problem Rosetta task. It still refuses to run, even as the only task. No tasks are running in my experiment!

So, maintaining NNT, I've found some combination of WCG and Rosetta tasks that'll run together on all 4 cores. I'll work my way through my small cache until all are completed bar the problem task and see if it runs then. If not, I'll finally abort it and just grab fresh tasks.

Bit of a weird one. Even attempting to micromanage tasks doesn't entirely work. No wonder that graph is running so much lower than it was, if I'm any example

Finally got to the end of this.
Last night I had 3 WCG tasks running (2 of which were Africa Rainfall project that use slightly more RAM, but in fact were only using 300Mb each) and my one weird Rosetta nip* task reporting "waiting for memory" on my 4-core laptop.
Looking at my Event log, it was only when the last ARP was wrapping up that sufficient RAM was available for the Rosetta task to begin running. The last ARP task completed 3 minutes later and now the Rosetta task is the only task running.
Looking at the task's properties, it's only using between 271Mb & 292Mb RAM, while earlier complaining that it needed something like 6.6Gb RAM to begin.
I'm going to wait for completion before dragging any more tasks down. Hopefully there are some new tasks available to download at that time.

The task in question is this one

---

It seems the RAM problem is not yet solved. I just updated Rosetta now and got the same complaint about needing 6 GB of RAM and only having 3 GB.

Returning to my anecdote about a remote PC I have being unable to download any Rosetta tasks, so running its backup project, WCG, 24/7, my local laptop is also doing weird things. It refuses to run a particular Rosetta task, so it's running those it has room for - a combination of WCG and later Rosetta tasks, but only 3 on 4 cores. Now I know it's definitely happening, I've set NNT and suspended all running tasks except for the one problem Rosetta task. It still refuses to run, even as the only task. No tasks are running in my experiment!

So, maintaining NNT, I've found some combination of WCG and Rosetta tasks that'll run together on all 4 cores. I'll work my way through my small cache until all are completed bar the problem task and see if it runs then. If not, I'll finally abort it and just grab fresh tasks.

Bit of a weird one. Even attempting to micromanage tasks doesn't entirely work. No wonder that graph is running so much lower than it was, if I'm any example

Finally got to the end of this.
Last night I had 3 WCG tasks running (2 of which were Africa Rainfall project that use slightly more RAM, but in fact were only using 300Mb each) and my one weird Rosetta nip* task reporting "waiting for memory" on my 4-core laptop.
Looking at my Event log, it was only when the last ARP was wrapping up that sufficient RAM was available for the Rosetta task to begin running. The last ARP task completed 3 minutes later and now the Rosetta task is the only task running.
Looking at the task's properties, it's only using between 271Mb & 292Mb RAM, while earlier complaining that it needed something like 6.6Gb RAM to begin.
I'm going to wait for completion before dragging any more tasks down. Hopefully there are some new tasks available to download at that time.

The task in question is this one

With 30 minutes to go, I've allowed new tasks and 11have come down. Stage one successful.
3 of the new tasks attempt to start. Stage two successful.
2 of the new tasks are waiting for memory... Oh

I'm going out for a while. When I return the older task will have completed and I'll see if the new tasks all run ok.
The journey continues...

---

Returning to my anecdote about a remote PC I have being unable to download any Rosetta tasks, so running its backup project, WCG, 24/7, my local laptop is also doing weird things. It refuses to run a particular Rosetta task, so it's running those it has room for - a combination of WCG and later Rosetta tasks, but only 3 on 4 cores. Now I know it's definitely happening, I've set NNT and suspended all running tasks except for the one problem Rosetta task. It still refuses to run, even as the only task. No tasks are running in my experiment!

So, maintaining NNT, I've found some combination of WCG and Rosetta tasks that'll run together on all 4 cores. I'll work my way through my small cache until all are completed bar the problem task and see if it runs then. If not, I'll finally abort it and just grab fresh tasks.

Bit of a weird one. Even attempting to micromanage tasks doesn't entirely work. No wonder that graph is running so much lower than it was, if I'm any example

Finally got to the end of this.
Last night I had 3 WCG tasks running (2 of which were Africa Rainfall project that use slightly more RAM, but in fact were only using 300Mb each) and my one weird Rosetta nip* task reporting "waiting for memory" on my 4-core laptop.
Looking at my Event log, it was only when the last ARP was wrapping up that sufficient RAM was available for the Rosetta task to begin running. The last ARP task completed 3 minutes later and now the Rosetta task is the only task running.
Looking at the task's properties, it's only using between 271Mb & 292Mb RAM, while earlier complaining that it needed something like 6.6Gb RAM to begin.
I'm going to wait for completion before dragging any more tasks down. Hopefully there are some new tasks available to download at that time.

The task in question is this one

With 30 minutes to go, I've allowed new tasks and 11have come down. Stage one successful.
3 of the new tasks attempt to start. Stage two successful.
2 of the new tasks are waiting for memory... Oh

I'm going out for a while. When I return the older task will have completed and I'll see if the new tasks all run ok.
The journey continues...

And the answer is... no.
Still two new Rosetta tasks running and two more new ones waiting for memory...

It seems we're a way from having a solution or correction

---

It seems the RAM problem is not yet solved. I just updated Rosetta now and got the same complaint about needing 6 GB of RAM and only having 3 GB.

It's not a problem, it's just some tasks needing more RAM. The bigger machines will take those, then you'll get smaller ones. I'm currently running 250-450MB ones, despite having machines with up to 64GB. The only thing they could do is put them in a seperate queue, so you can get smaller tasks for your smaller machine, without having to wait for the big ones to get out of the way. Maybe they didn't realise there were that many people with old machines.

i also got some problems again with the 6gb ram minimum.
After pressing several times Update i got again tasks for my C4s.
Now 5 C4s are running. :-)

The question i have is how often does Rosetta updates automatically and requests new tasks?
If I would not have pressed update, i would have waited however time to get again tasks.

Is there a possibility to tell Rosetta to update every 10mins or similar?

My feeling is that managing Rosetta to use the computer close to 100% is a bit luck.
Its a bit sad because i really want to help and i bought the C4s to run efficiently 100% around the clock.
I do hope that in the near future there are again for many weeks and month enough tasks for <<1GB ram per task so that all the small computers can support Rosetta with their maximum performance.

It seems the RAM problem is not yet solved. I just updated Rosetta now and got the same complaint about needing 6 GB of RAM and only having 3 GB.

It's not a problem, it's just some tasks needing more RAM. The bigger machines will take those, then you'll get smaller ones. I'm currently running 250-450MB ones, despite having machines with up to 64GB. The only thing they could do is put them in a separate queue, so you can get smaller tasks for your smaller machine, without having to wait for the big ones to get out of the way. Maybe they didn't realise there were that many people with old machines.

I wish that were true, but it isn't.
I have a 4-core i3-8350K with 16Gb RAM and lots of disk space but it hasn't been able to download or run any Rosetta tasks - only WCG backup project tasks, of which it now has a dozen.
While my main desktop 16-core 32Gb RAM hasn't had any problem.
If things work, it's like no problem exists. If they don't, it's like nothing will fix it.

---

[snip]

I wish that were true, but it isn't.
I have a 4-core i3-8350K with 16Gb RAM and lots of disk space but it hasn't been able to download or run any Rosetta tasks - only WCG backup project tasks, of which it now has a dozen.
While my main desktop 16-core 32Gb RAM hasn't had any problem.
If things work, it's like no problem exists. If they don't, it's like nothing will fix it.

Have you checked how much of the RAM is reserved for the operating system (Windows, Linux. etc.)?

Have you checked your settings for have much RAM and how much disk space BOINC is allowed to use?

Just to follow up, my primary rosetta cruncher has 6 tasks using 1.6gb of ram total. Looks like they got it figured out.

Can I ask a dumb question? Why is it that we have to divine what "they" are doing by observing the vagaries of tasks and RAM? Isn't there a board or site somewhere that explains what "they" are doing when changes occur in the project that affect the donors in significant ways?

The question i have is how often does Rosetta updates automatically and requests new tasks?

It’s not a fixed interval. While the client is busy with work, it will not contact the server until it needs more work or has results to report. When it asks for work and does not receive any, the client will back off for ever-increasing lengths of time – up to 1½ days – before asking again. This is to prevent hundreds of thousands of hungry hosts hammering a server that has no work to send out.

Is there a possibility to tell Rosetta to update every 10mins or similar?

Anything you can do in the GUI can be scripted, so the short answer is yes – but it will needlessly burden the server, and should not be necessary.

My feeling is that managing Rosetta to use the computer close to 100% is a bit luck.

At the moment there is an element of luck in whether you get work for Rosetta, because overall there is only a very small amount of work that needs doing, and because some of the work units can only be sent to machines with large amounts of RAM and disk space. If those happen to be all that is available at the moment a smaller machine contacts the server, that machine will get nothing, and back off. You can leave machines running unattended 24×7; many people here have been doing it successfully for years. But it is not reasonable to expect any single project to have 100% uptime, or to need work doing 100% of the time. That is why it is recommended to attach to more than one project.

Can I ask a dumb question? Why is it that we have to divine what "they" are doing by observing the vagaries of tasks and RAM? Isn't there a board or site somewhere that explains what "they" are doing when changes occur in the project that affect the donors in significant ways?

(1) You just plan for the worst case if you want to run all the work units. 1.5 GB/work unit should be enough memory. Disk space has never been a problem for me, and I don't know what the minimum is.
(2) This is not a project for laptops, though people may run them. It needs several hours of run time per day, preferably 24/7.
(3) "They" barely acknowledge your existence at all, except some thanks when a project is finished. If that is not your thing, there are other projects.

---

Isn't there a board or site somewhere that explains what "they" are doing when changes occur in the project that affect the donors in significant ways?

There is. You’re on it. But it seems that Rosetta@home has been so successful for so long that “they” no longer feel any need to come here. The supply of computing resources appears to be taken for granted. Researchers simply throw tasks over the wall; as far as we know they do something with the results afterwards. That a batch of work can get sent out configured in a way that cuts off a third of the project’s capacity, without anybody noticing or taking any corrective action even though the problem was instantly noticed and reported by participants, leaves it quite evident that nobody is actively monitoring this project.

[snip]

I wish that were true, but it isn't.
I have a 4-core i3-8350K with 16Gb RAM and lots of disk space but it hasn't been able to download or run any Rosetta tasks - only WCG backup project tasks, of which it now has a dozen.
While my main desktop 16-core 32Gb RAM hasn't had any problem.
If things work, it's like no problem exists. If they don't, it's like nothing will fix it.

Have you checked how much of the RAM is reserved for the operating system (Windows, Linux. etc.)?

Have you checked your settings for have much RAM and how much disk space BOINC is allowed to use?

I'm sure you're right about both those things, but this is an unattended PC in a room close to where some building work has been done over 2 or 3 months and when I got to it last month it was so covered in cr*p the display no longer works, so I can neither check nor modify it. I'll bring it home with me when I visit next week and try to clean it out and resolve the problem when I can dedicate some proper time to it.
It's running WCG just fine for now, so it's not the worst thing in the world. I'll get there eventually. Thanks for offering help.

---

[snip]

I wish that were true, but it isn't.
I have a 4-core i3-8350K with 16Gb RAM and lots of disk space but it hasn't been able to download or run any Rosetta tasks - only WCG backup project tasks, of which it now has a dozen.
While my main desktop 16-core 32Gb RAM hasn't had any problem.
If things work, it's like no problem exists. If they don't, it's like nothing will fix it.

Have you checked how much of the RAM is reserved for the operating system (Windows, Linux. etc.)?

Have you checked your settings for have much RAM and how much disk space BOINC is allowed to use?

I'm sure you're right about both those things, but this is an unattended PC in a room close to where some building work has been done over 2 or 3 months and when I got to it last month it was so covered in cr*p the display no longer works, so I can neither check nor modify it.

Unless you have set it to use local settings, it will use whatever you have set in your account's Computing preferences section.

---

Grant
Darwin NT

It seems the RAM problem is not yet solved. I just updated Rosetta now and got the same complaint about needing 6 GB of RAM and only having 3 GB.

It's not a problem, it's just some tasks needing more RAM.

It is a problem when a Work Unit says it it will need 6+GB of RAM, when it really only needs 300MB (or less), as that results in almost a third of the projects computing resources becoming unavailable.

---

Grant
Darwin NT

And to add to the lack of new work, we had another group of Tasks that had many which crashed and burned in a matter of seconds.
And those that didn't error out, only needed 3 hours to reach their end.

No wonder that last batch of new work went so quickly.

---

Grant
Darwin NT

[snip]

I wish that were true, but it isn't.
I have a 4-core i3-8350K with 16Gb RAM and lots of disk space but it hasn't been able to download or run any Rosetta tasks - only WCG backup project tasks, of which it now has a dozen.
While my main desktop 16-core 32Gb RAM hasn't had any problem.
If things work, it's like no problem exists. If they don't, it's like nothing will fix it.

Have you checked how much of the RAM is reserved for the operating system (Windows, Linux. etc.)?

Have you checked your settings for have much RAM and how much disk space BOINC is allowed to use?

I'm sure you're right about both those things, but this is an unattended PC in a room close to where some building work has been done over 2 or 3 months and when I got to it last month it was so covered in cr*p the display no longer works, so I can neither check nor modify it.

Unless you have set it to use local settings, it will use whatever you have set in your account's Computing preferences section.

Oh! That's a good idea. It does continue to attempt connections, so definitely worth a try.
I have no idea whether I've set it to local or web preferences (probably local tbh) but I've now edited my web preferences both here and at WCG just in case.

---

Isn't there a board or site somewhere that explains what "they" are doing when changes occur in the project that affect the donors in significant ways?

There is. You’re on it. But it seems that Rosetta@home has been so successful for so long that “they” no longer feel any need to come here. The supply of computing resources appears to be taken for granted. Researchers simply throw tasks over the wall; as far as we know they do something with the results afterwards. That a batch of work can get sent out configured in a way that cuts off a third of the project’s capacity, without anybody noticing or taking any corrective action even though the problem was instantly noticed and reported by participants, leaves it quite evident that nobody is actively monitoring this project.

Yeah, and now the queue is empty and nobody cares to give an explanation or at least say "yeah, we know, we're working on it".