Rosetta@home: Notice from server
VirtualBox is not installed
12/11/2021 12:38:57 ??
What does this mean?

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If you can't take a joke you should never have joined.

It means you don't have VirtualBox installed on your PC and therefore you cannot run the Rosetta Python tasks which require Virtualbox.

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Rosetta@home: Notice from server
VirtualBox is not installed
12/11/2021 12:38:57 ??
What does this mean?

Exactly what it says- it means you don't have VirtualBox installed, which is required to process Python Tasks. Rosetta 4.20 Tasks don't need VirtualBox in order to be processed.

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Grant
Darwin NT

I am exerience the same problem as some of the other members.

"Rosetta@home | Message from server: VirtualBox jobs require hardware acceleration support. Your processor does not support the required instruction set."

VirtualBox is installed (version 6.1.12). Virtualization is enabled on BIOS and I can conifrm that is enabled on Win10 Task Manager too.
PC specs: https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/show_host_detail.php?hostid=5945561

Any ideas what is going wrong ?

Rosetta@home: Notice from server
VirtualBox is not installed
12/11/2021 12:38:57 ??
What does this mean?

You can download and install BOINC either with or without VirtualBox. It looks like you installed it without VirtualBox and therefore need to download and install it again if you want any tasks that require VirtualBox.

Download BOINC client software

https://boinc.berkeley.edu/download_all.php

I am exerience the same problem as some of the other members.

"Rosetta@home | Message from server: VirtualBox jobs require hardware acceleration support. Your processor does not support the required instruction set."

VirtualBox is installed (version 6.1.12). Virtualization is enabled on BIOS and I can conifrm that is enabled on Win10 Task Manager too.
PC specs: https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/show_host_detail.php?hostid=5945561

Any ideas what is going wrong ?

It could mean that the CPU of your computer doesn't support virtualization, or you have it turned off in the BIOS settings.

You could mention what model of computer you are running, so someone can tell you how to reach the BIOS settings,

I use an HP ENVY Desktop 795-0xxx.

It is now running only half as many tasks as usual, after a BIOS update, so virtualization is probably turned off.

How do I get into the BIOS settings so I can turn it back on?

I use an HP ENVY Desktop 795-0xxx.

It is now running only half as many tasks as usual, after a BIOS update, so virtualization is probably turned off.

Not Virtualisation, Hyperthreading.
Hyperthreading allows a single CPU core to appear as two.

However the most likely reason there are only half as many Tasks (at least for Rosetta), is because no new Rosetta 4.20 work is going out.

How do I get into the BIOS settings so I can turn it back on?

For most you tap the DEL key or F2 as it boots up. For HP it appears they use ESC or F10.
Reboot the system & start tapping the appropriate key (don't hold it down).
Once you're in the BOIS, check through the system settings till you find Hyperthreading, enable it, save & exit.



However, before you do that, bring up Task Manager, Performance Tab, CPU (Click on More details if these options aren't there). Down the bottom it should give you the number of Sockets, Cores & Logical processors. The number of Logical processors should be twice the number of Cores (Alder Lake is really going to complicate this).
And below that it will also show if Virtualisation is enabled or not.
Right click on the Graphs, change graph to Logical processors, will give you a CPU usage graph for each Logical processor.

If is shows 12 processors & Virtualisation is enabled, then there is no need to go in to the BIOS.

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Grant
Darwin NT

I use an HP ENVY Desktop 795-0xxx.

It is now running only half as many tasks as usual, after a BIOS update, so virtualization is probably turned off.

Not Virtualisation, Hyperthreading.
Hyperthreading allows a single CPU core to appear as two.

However the most likely reason there are only half as many Tasks (at least for Rosetta), is because no new Rosetta 4.20 work is going out.

How do I get into the BIOS settings so I can turn it back on?

For most you tap the DEL key or F2 as it boots up. For HP it appears they use ESC or F10.
Reboot the system & start tapping the appropriate key (don't hold it down).
Once you're in the BOIS, check through the system settings till you find Hyperthreading, enable it, save & exit.



However, before you do that, bring up Task Manager, Performance Tab, CPU (Click on More details if these options aren't there). Down the bottom it should give you the number of Sockets, Cores & Logical processors. The number of Logical processors should be twice the number of Cores (Alder Lake is really going to complicate this).
And below that it will also show if Virtualisation is enabled or not.
Right click on the Graphs, change graph to Logical processors, will give you a CPU usage graph for each Logical processor.

If is shows 12 processors & Virtualisation is enabled, then there is no need to go in to the BIOS.

You're right. It shows 12 virtual processors and virtualization and hyperthreading are both enabled. I've already downloaded a few more tasks from another BOINC project, but only 3 tasks are running. It appears that the python tasks reserve much more of something than I'd expect, and therefore not much else will run at the same time, Probably memory - each of the two python tasks I have running at once appears to reserve 7,45 GB of memory.

I've already downloaded a few more tasks from another BOINC project, but only 3 tasks are running. It appears that the python tasks reserve much more of something than I'd expect, and therefore not much else will run at the same time, Probably memory - each of the two python tasks I have running at once appears to reserve 7,45 GB of memory.

A familiar complaint from those that do Python work- the extreme memory requirements just to run a single Task.
There is no way on earth it needs 7.5GB of RAM to process each individual Python Task, and it still needs to leave enough for the host OS & it's running programmes to continue to function.
End result- most systems will only be able to run 1 or 2 Python Tasks at a time (if that), and not much else, and even those with oodles of RAM still won't be able to do much more due to the 7.5GB requirement.


The Project needs to fix up their implementation of VirtualBox. I'm quite sure it should be possible to set up a VM of only a few hundred MB in size, plus the needs of the Task being done (200MB to 1.4GB, at least for Rosetta 4.20 Tasks).
A quick search shows that VirtualBox itself only needs 512MB to run- so you'd be looking at 512MB for Vbox, plus whatever the Virtual Machine needs (what VM are they using- how much RAM does it need?). plus the needs for the Python application & Task (however much the Python Tasks may need).
So my WAG guess is you'd need 0.5GB+2GB minimum for each Python Task being processed plus 2GB Min for the host OS.

So lets say 3GB RAM per Python Task, which is a whole lot less than 7.5GB.
Or the project just develops native applications to process the Python Task data. They'd get a lot more work done.


Edit- Having said all that, taking a look around it's generally considered that if you are going to run more than a couple of VMs, you're going to have upwards of 32GB of RAM on the host system.

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Grant
Darwin NT

[snip]

So lets say 3GB RAM per Python Task, which is a whole lot less than 7.5GB.
Or the project just develops native applications to process the Python Task data. They'd get a lot more work done.

Edit- Having said all that, taking a look around it's generally considered that if you are going to run more than a couple of VMs, you're going to have upwards of 32GB of RAM on the host system.

If 3 GB was adequate, they could use 32-bit versions of Python, which CAN'T use more than 4 GB of memory.

After I get further in recovering from two computer failures, I'll consider ordering more memory.

Can they adjust the virtual machines so that they don't allow changing certain regions of memory, so that those regions can be shared between all of the virtual machines that can use them?

If 3 GB was adequate, they could use 32-bit versions of Python, which CAN'T use more than 4 GB of memory.

From the very few Python Tasks i've seen, they use much, much less.
The main reason for having 64bit applications, is because all current Operating Systems are 64bit.

Can they adjust the virtual machines so that they don't allow changing certain regions of memory, so that those regions can be shared between all of the virtual machines that can use them?

That is pretty much what the VM Manager (in this case VirtualBox) does. It allows VMs to be created, allocates them their resources, then lets them do whatever it is the programme(s) they are running do.
VMs can ask for more RAM, and the VM Manager can allocate it (if it's available). But as to what level VirtualBox supports the re-allocation of RAM after a VM is created, i don't know. I suspect the value being used at present when a VM is created is a hard lower limit, so even if it never gets close to being used, it's still not available for other VMs to use.
Hence the issues people are having with memory requirements.

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Grant
Darwin NT

Hi,

I am also now getting this message in the Event Log for Rosetta: "Message from server: VirtualBox jobs require hardware acceleration support. Your processor does not support the required instruction set." This apparently started in the last couple of days, maybe even today.

I have been running R@H for over 1.5 years, usually 24 hrs a day, with no problems, VirtualBox or otherwise. Could something have changed very recently with R@H to cause this? Does anyone have any idea (besides not have VB) what could suddenly cause this?

Thanks.

Doug

I am exerience the same problem as some of the other members.

"Rosetta@home | Message from server: VirtualBox jobs require hardware acceleration support. Your processor does not support the required instruction set."

VirtualBox is installed (version 6.1.12). Virtualization is enabled on BIOS and I can conifrm that is enabled on Win10 Task Manager too.
PC specs: https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/show_host_detail.php?hostid=5945561

Any ideas what is going wrong ?

It could mean that the CPU of your computer doesn't support virtualization, or you have it turned off in the BIOS settings.

You could mention what model of computer you are running, so someone can tell you how to reach the BIOS settings,

CPU Model: AMD Ryzen 5 3400G with Radeon Vega Graphics
MOTHERBOARD: ASRock A320M_HDV (AM4)

Virtualization is enabled on BIOS, I can confirm that. Check link

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1A1MjBVI291CL8Y5iTg2fzj-pDl-Z9Olc/view?usp=sharing

Hi,

I am also now getting this message in the Event Log for Rosetta: "Message from server: VirtualBox jobs require hardware acceleration support. Your processor does not support the required instruction set." This apparently started in the last couple of days, maybe even today.

I have been running R@H for over 1.5 years, usually 24 hrs a day, with no problems, VirtualBox or otherwise. Could something have changed very recently with R@H to cause this? Does anyone have any idea (besides not have VB) what could suddenly cause this?

Thanks.

Doug

Did you go back into BIOS and tell it to allow virtualization?
When you update everything goes back to default.

I am sorry, if it has been asked before, but here I found the only mention of "VirtualBox"..
I am running Boinc (now latest version 7.16.20, but it does not matter) Standalone on Windows 10.
Since some days I get the message:
"Rosetta@home: Notice from server
VirtualBox is not installed"
All my remaining Rosetta tasks finished and uploaded. However, I am not able to download new tasks. Response in the message log ist always:
"Notice from server: VirtualBox is not installed. Project requested delay..."

Is this a new technical requirement of Rosetta (to use the Virtual Box version) or is there any other change or problem in the infrastructure?

Thanks, Edgar

Is this a new technical requirement of Rosetta (to use the Virtual Box version) or is there any other change or problem in the infrastructure?

We don't know whether it's just a case of all the last batch of Rosetta 4.20 work being done, and we're now waiting on more to be released, or if there is more but it's a server issue stopping it from being sent out.

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Grant
Darwin NT

Thank you for the response!
I just got a new task 16min ago and the "VirtualBox" message disappeared.
So message was a little bit misleading and all seems back to normal now.

Thank you for the response!
I just got a new task 16min ago and the "VirtualBox" message disappeared.
So message was a little bit misleading and all seems back to normal now.

VirtualBox is necessary for the Rosetta Python tasks but not the standard Rosetta 4.20 tasks.

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I wish they'd use KVM/QEMU instead of Virtualbox for Linux. It's the much more efficient method of virtualization on Linux that doesn't require installing external DKMS modules since it's supported directly by the Linux kernel. That said, I don't see why we're even using virtualization when a sandboxed namespace does the job just as well. Anyway, call me when there's interest in seeking open source contributors to transition from Python to Rust.