Subject: +30 hours to run 8 hr tasks

I recently installed VB. I'm on Win 11, Intel i5-11, running VB 6.1.32 (the recommended Boinc version), and all Rosetta tasks are estimated by Boinc to take 8 hrs, which sometimes take 4 hrs, and some take +30 hrs. Is this normal? The ones that take the longest often indicate, for ex, time remaining = 30 min, and 8 hrs later, the time remaining = 20 min -- which seems odd. Do I need to tweak something?

It can take some days for Boinc to get used to your system and how quickly it runs. To help it do so make sure you run the benchmarks.

Having said that, Rosetta is different to other projects in that it has fixed length jobs rather than jobs with a fixed amount of work. There are two things that can interfere with that, firstly if the task has a low number of starting points you might run for a shorter time than selected, often 3 hours rather than 8, and secondly if the task takes more than the selected time to run the first iteration of the work as it only checks whether to finish at the end of each iteration.

Ach! I forgot Python and it’s failings - yes, this is likely to be vb going to sleep and only pretending to work.

Look through you stderr file and see if you can find anything unusual. Lost comm or something that burped weird during the process. Look for radical time change message. Compare your CPU run time vs actual run time where it makes checkpoints. If they are not close then something went wrong prior to where the values become to far apart to make any sense. See if you can find anything in the text.
If you can't then it is something BOINC can not identify and you can write it up to a "bug" from the person who wrote that protein sequence.

Repeating my earlier message for those who haven't seen it:

If you have a task you think is stalled or taking a long time, click on it and select properties on the left.
If there's a large difference between CPU time and Elapsed time, then it's stalled and you can only abort it. They <never> restart.

Also, if later tasks are completing before earlier tasks, it's a clue to check Properties of those earlier tasks and, if they've stalled in the way described above, abort them.
This wastes the least amount of processing time.

It's not your fault and there's <nothing> you can do to correct it

---

Cosmology doesn't need it. I can run Cosmology on all 7 of my machines, most are missing AVX. The only thing that annoys Cosmology is VB 6. VB 5 is ok.

Had a look , the q9450 is on Boinc 7.16.20 so its got VB 6.1.2
I will finish all work and revert/uninstall/nuke back to Boinc 7.14.2 uses VB 5.2.8 to see what happens .
I have got versions of boinc mangler back to 5.10.13
Oh! , that's 45 all together in win/Lin 32/64/VB or not , sad case . . . .
Just in case .
But sometimes they come in usefull .

I stick with the latest Boinc (well actually later than latest because I have contacts) but just change the VB version.

Cosmology doesn't need it. I can run Cosmology on all 7 of my machines, most are missing AVX. The only thing that annoys Cosmology is VB 6. VB 5 is ok.

Had a look , the q9450 is on Boinc 7.16.20 so its got VB 6.1.2
I will finish all work and revert/uninstall/nuke back to Boinc 7.14.2 uses VB 5.2.8 to see what happens .
I have got versions of boinc mangler back to 5.10.13
Oh! , that's 45 all together in win/Lin 32/64/VB or not , sad case . . . .
Just in case .
But sometimes they come in usefull .

I stick with the latest Boinc (well actually later than latest because I have contacts) but just change the VB version.

Reverting did no good , it still won`t run any VB tasks from Rosetta or Cosmo , it trashes them
so put it back to 7.16.20 without VB Looks like a Q9450 haznt got what it takes to run boinc `s kind of VB stuff on the projects that I do .
And I will not be bothering to try out others to see what happens .

Over at Cosmo my opteron16 system does work with 7.16.20 and VB 6.1.2 with little or no bother

Cosmology doesn't need it. I can run Cosmology on all 7 of my machines, most are missing AVX. The only thing that annoys Cosmology is VB 6. VB 5 is ok.

Had a look , the q9450 is on Boinc 7.16.20 so its got VB 6.1.2
I will finish all work and revert/uninstall/nuke back to Boinc 7.14.2 uses VB 5.2.8 to see what happens .
I have got versions of boinc mangler back to 5.10.13
Oh! , that's 45 all together in win/Lin 32/64/VB or not , sad case . . . .
Just in case .
But sometimes they come in usefull .

I stick with the latest Boinc (well actually later than latest because I have contacts) but just change the VB version.

Reverting did no good , it still won`t run any VB tasks from Rosetta or Cosmo , it trashes them
so put it back to 7.16.20 without VB Looks like a Q9450 haznt got what it takes to run boinc `s kind of VB stuff on the projects that I do .
And I will not be bothering to try out others to see what happens .

Cosmology should run on anything if you use VB 5. Look at these old things I'm using on it:

https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/show_host_detail.php?hostid=6181958
https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/show_host_detail.php?hostid=6181968

The second one uses DDR2 RAM! Both run Cosmology perfectly. Your computers are better than those, even your Core 2 Quads are newer than mine.

Looks like I waz editing my above post while you where replying to it
I see they are both on win 11 , I wonder if that haz anything to do with it , as the Q9450 iz still on wind7 .
Though the opteron iz on wyn 7 and crunch`s along without any bother , such iz life .

Q9450 Doesn't support AVX. Virtualbox jobs get stuck if avx is missing.

Looks like I waz editing my above post while you where replying to it
I see they are both on win 11 , I wonder if that haz anything to do with it , as the Q9450 iz still on wind7 .
Though the opteron iz on wyn 7 and crunch`s along without any bother , such iz life .

I don't think I was doing cosmology back on windows 10. It is possible that 11 helps, I think the way the OS uses the CPU is different. Just get 11 onto them, use "Rufus" - it can bypass the TPM requirement, I used an 8GB USB stick to perform an upgrade. You can probably do it just on the hard disk if you don't have one.

Q9450 Doesn't support AVX. Virtualbox jobs get stuck if avx is missing.

Not on cosmology or LHC, that's only a Rosetta requirement. I have 5 computers with no AVX and they all run Cosmology and LHC VB tasks fine.

Selecting 2 Hours seams to really take up to and even more than a day.
I can this be fixed?

Selecting 2 Hours seams to really take up to and even more than a day.
I can this be fixed?

Each task is divided into sections called decoys. The checks of whether to end a task are normally only run at the end of a decoy, except for a check that the task has run so long that its outputs are unlikely to be very useful.

For the Rosetta tasks, this is probably unfixable. It usually means that the time per decoy for this task is much more than two hours, and you're unlikely to accomplish anything before the first decoy finishes.

For the Python tasks, you can partially fix some of them by comparing the emulated CPU time with the CPU time used by the emulation, and aborting them if they start using much more CPU time for running the emulation than the emulated CPU time, expect for a few minutes for starting up the emulation.

BOINC is giving me error messages about being unable to run Python tasks because the need very large amounts of free memory to even start, such as about 19 GB. Is this a real requirement for them, or just bad calculations?

BOINC is giving me error messages about being unable to run Python tasks because the need very large amounts of free memory to even start, such as about 19 GB. Is this a real requirement for them, or just bad calculations?

Sometimes they ask for more than they will actually need, but they do use a lot. For example I have a 6 core i5 with 16GB of RAM. It can get 5 Pythons running, then the memory is 80-90% full and doesn't load the 6th.

19GB sounds unusual, since that would stop any from running on my above machine at all, and I've never seen that.

Q9450 Doesn't support AVX. Virtualbox jobs get stuck if avx is missing.

Not on cosmology or LHC, that's only a Rosetta requirement. I have 5 computers with no AVX and they all run Cosmology and LHC VB tasks fine.

Which Virtualbox program does this?

Virtualbox has the old vbox, which handles 32-bit programs, and rarely gives errors these days.

They also have the newer vbox64, which handles 64-bit programs, and often gives errors for the Python tasks, especially on computers where the CPU does not support AVX.

Also, the Cosmology tasks on my computer do not appear to use any Virtualbox program at all. Most of them use the multithreaded feature, which divides the work among 4 virtual CPU cores, without using a Virtualbox program.

My computer doesn't participate in LHC, so I have no information on what LHC tasks do.

BOINC is giving me error messages about being unable to run Python tasks because the need very large amounts of free memory to even start, such as about 19 GB. Is this a real requirement for them, or just bad calculations?

Sometimes they ask for more than they will actually need, but they do use a lot. For example I have a 6 core i5 with 16GB of RAM. It can get 5 Pythons running, then the memory is 80-90% full and doesn't load the 6th.

19GB sounds unusual, since that would stop any from running on my above machine at all, and I've never seen that.

Make that SOME Python tasks. My computer has 32 GB of memory, and often runs seven Python tasks at once. There's no good reason to believe that every Python task requires the same amount of memory, even for just the task startup. The amount of memory required for task startup is often much more than the task is actually uses after it starts.

Q9450 Doesn't support AVX. Virtualbox jobs get stuck if avx is missing.

Not on cosmology or LHC, that's only a Rosetta requirement. I have 5 computers with no AVX and they all run Cosmology and LHC VB tasks fine.

Which Virtualbox program does this?

I'm using version 5.2.44, from here: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Download_Old_Builds_5_2 It's 64 bit.

Also, the Cosmology tasks on my computer do not appear to use any Virtualbox program at all. Most of them use the multithreaded feature, which divides the work among 4 virtual CPU cores, without using a Virtualbox program.

That can't be be right. If the tasks are called "Cosmology Legacy", they're not Vbox and use 1 core. The Vbox ones are the only multicore ones. Linux might be different if you use that (but it appears you're on Windows only).

BOINC is giving me error messages about being unable to run Python tasks because the need very large amounts of free memory to even start, such as about 19 GB. Is this a real requirement for them, or just bad calculations?

Sometimes they ask for more than they will actually need, but they do use a lot. For example I have a 6 core i5 with 16GB of RAM. It can get 5 Pythons running, then the memory is 80-90% full and doesn't load the 6th.

19GB sounds unusual, since that would stop any from running on my above machine at all, and I've never seen that.

Make that SOME Python tasks. My computer has 32 GB of memory, and often runs seven Python tasks at once. There's no good reason to believe that every Python task requires the same amount of memory, even for just the task startup. The amount of memory required for task startup is often much more than the task is actually uses after it starts.

Time to throw memory at it, Some of my machines will take a lot. I have three that will take 128GB (but have 64, 40, 32), one that will take 64GB (but has 16), and three that will take 8GB (and have 8).

Q9450 Doesn't support AVX. Virtualbox jobs get stuck if avx is missing.

Not on cosmology or LHC, that's only a Rosetta requirement. I have 5 computers with no AVX and they all run Cosmology and LHC VB tasks fine.

Which Virtualbox program does this?

I'm using version 5.2.44, from here: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Download_Old_Builds_5_2 It's 64 bit.

Also, the Cosmology tasks on my computer do not appear to use any Virtualbox program at all. Most of them use the multithreaded feature, which divides the work among 4 virtual CPU cores, without using a Virtualbox program.

That can't be be right. If the tasks are called "Cosmology Legacy", they're not Vbox and use 1 core. The Vbox ones are the only multicore ones. Linux might be different if you use that (but it appears you're on Windows only).

I'm on Windows only,

Where's any evidence that the multicore Cosmology tasks use Virtualbox?

I've tried to find memory boards compatible with my computer but with more memory each. I didn't find any.

I've looked for memory boards compatible with my computer but with more memory each and didn't find any. Crucial gives me a page not found error when I try there.

If you want say a single stick of 32GB DDR4 3200, type this into Ebay:
1x32GB DDR4 3200

Or if you want two 16GB sticks of 2600:
2x16GB DDR4 2600

Look what motherboard and CPU you have and decide what the max size and speed sticks they will take are. Let me know the CPU and MB models if you want me to find out.

Where's any evidence that the multicore Cosmology tasks use Virtualbox?

This is the only types I've ever received:

Cosmology@Home	camb_boinc2docker	camb_boinc2docker_2281906_1648978147.594575_0	00:11:31 (00:55:39)	04-04-2022 12:25 AM	04-04-2022 12:25 AM	6C	80.54	Reported: OK +	Xeon 1			
Cosmology@Home	camb_boinc2docker	camb_boinc2docker_2282323_1648978163.467520_0	00:09:20 (00:47:28)	04-04-2022 03:40 AM	04-04-2022 03:40 AM	6C	84.76	Reported: OK +	Xeon 1			
Cosmology@Home	camb_boinc2docker	camb_boinc2docker_2280998_1648978097.037935_0	00:11:03 (00:56:54)	04-04-2022 03:51 AM	04-04-2022 03:53 AM	6C	85.82	Reported: OK +	Xeon 1			
Cosmology@Home	camb_boinc2docker	camb_boinc2docker_2282271_1648978161.905174_0	00:10:23 (00:52:24)	04-04-2022 03:50 AM	04-04-2022 03:53 AM	6C	84.11	Reported: OK +	Xeon 1			
Cosmology@Home	camb_boinc2docker	camb_boinc2docker_2281924_1648978148.115440_0	00:10:44 (00:56:44)	04-04-2022 04:01 AM	04-04-2022 04:02 AM	6C	88.10	Reported: OK +	Xeon 1			
Cosmology@Home	camb_boinc2docker	camb_boinc2docker_2282764_1648978177.782067_0	00:09:22 (00:47:37)	04-04-2022 03:59 AM	04-04-2022 04:01 AM	6C	84.73	Reported: OK +	Xeon 1			
Cosmology@Home	camb_boinc2docker	camb_boinc2docker_1534696_1647543101.040648_0	00:16:26 (01:48:42)	17-03-2022 07:33 PM	17-03-2022 08:35 PM	8C	82.68	Reported: OK	Xeon 2			
Cosmology@Home	camb_boinc2docker	camb_boinc2docker_1533456_1647543016.270791_0	00:16:44 (01:53:57)	17-03-2022 08:28 PM	17-03-2022 08:35 PM	8C	85.12	Reported: OK	Xeon 2			
Cosmology@Home	camb_boinc2docker	camb_boinc2docker_1533220_1647543009.642839_0	00:29:44 (02:44:12)	17-03-2022 08:10 PM	17-03-2022 08:35 PM	8C	69.03	Reported: OK	Xeon 2

and

Cosmology@Home	camb_legacy	wu_031822_080624_0_0_0	11:15:54 (11:10:24)	20-03-2022 09:44 PM	20-03-2022 09:44 PM		99.19	Reported: OK +	Ryzen			
Cosmology@Home	camb_legacy	wu_032922_124412_2_0_0	07:02:49 (07:01:03)	30-03-2022 02:29 AM	30-03-2022 08:17 PM		99.58	Reported: OK	Ryzen			
Cosmology@Home	camb_legacy	wu_032922_124409_0_0_0	07:04:07 (07:02:22)	30-03-2022 02:30 AM	30-03-2022 08:17 PM		99.59	Reported: OK	Ryzen			
Cosmology@Home	camb_legacy	wu_032922_124334_0_0_0	09:43:32 (09:41:25)	30-03-2022 05:09 AM	30-03-2022 08:17 PM		99.64	Reported: OK	Ryzen			
Cosmology@Home	camb_legacy	wu_032922_124419_1_0_0	11:27:54 (11:25:41)	30-03-2022 06:54 AM	30-03-2022 08:17 PM		99.68	Reported: OK	Ryzen			
Cosmology@Home	camb_legacy	wu_032922_124318_0_0_0	08:56:56 (08:55:02)	30-03-2022 04:24 AM	30-03-2022 08:17 PM		99.65	Reported: OK	Ryzen			
Cosmology@Home	camb_legacy	wu_032922_123743_0_0_0	07:12:05 (07:10:26)	30-03-2022 02:39 AM	30-03-2022 08:17 PM		99.62	Reported: OK	Ryzen			
Cosmology@Home	camb_legacy	wu_032922_123737_0_0_0	07:32:27 (07:30:48)	30-03-2022 02:59 AM	30-03-2022 08:17 PM		99.64	Reported: OK	Ryzen			
Cosmology@Home	camb_legacy	wu_031722_143954_1_0_0	07:24:06 (07:23:01)	18-03-2022 12:41 AM	18-03-2022 01:41 AM		99.76	Reported: OK	Xeon 1

6 cores (or whatever you choose) for Vbox and 1 core for legacy.

I've looked for memory boards compatible with my computer but with more memory each and didn't find any. Crucial gives me a page not found error when I try there.

If you want say a single stick of 32GB DDR4 3200, type this into Ebay:
1x32GB DDR4 3200

Or if you want two 16GB sticks of 2600:
2x16GB DDR4 2600

Look what motherboard and CPU you have and decide what the max size and speed sticks they will take are. Let me know the CPU and MB models if you want me to find out.

Too late at night here to check now.

Where's any evidence that the multicore Cosmology tasks use Virtualbox?

This is the only types I've ever received:

Cosmology@Home	camb_boinc2docker	camb_boinc2docker_2281906_1648978147.594575_0	00:11:31 (00:55:39)	04-04-2022 12:25 AM	04-04-2022 12:25 AM	6C	80.54	Reported: OK +	Xeon 1			
Cosmology@Home	camb_boinc2docker	camb_boinc2docker_2282323_1648978163.467520_0	00:09:20 (00:47:28)	04-04-2022 03:40 AM	04-04-2022 03:40 AM	6C	84.76	Reported: OK +	Xeon 1			

The 6C implies 6 cores per task and says nothing about whether Virtualbox is used.

6 cores (or whatever you choose) for Vbox and 1 core for legacy.

We agree on the legacy tasks.