Thanks for all the valuable information. I have run into a lot of it in my escapades and have dealt with admin rights in both Nemo and Nautilus. I do hate having to type in the root password so often, so I'll be looking into that. I'm always root in Windows, so why no Linux? I know enough to not do dumb things most of the time and it just gets a bit annoying.

Thanks again and I'm always willing to listen to any additional sage advice you might want to give me.

Allen

Actually the /var/lib/boinc directory is actually just a placeholder (called a symlink) to the actual, physical BOINC directory at /var/lib/boinc-client.

But possibly the /var/lib/boinc directory may be the real physical directory. I see your distro is using BOINC 7.16.6 and somewhere along the BOINC development I know they were fiddling around with changing from boinc-client to just boinc and not making the symlink.

You can see what type of directory it is by using the ls -ail command in the Terminal for the directory. Normal directories are colored blue in the lettering. Symlinks are colored teal. You can also tell a symlink by its "l" or el prefix in its file structure matrix in the ls output.

Just to add to the info in the previous post the other directory that contains some of BOINC's configuration files is located in the /etc/boinc directory.

This where you will find:
cc_config.xml config.properties global_prefs_override.xml gui_rpc_auth.cfg remote_hosts.cfg

in case you need to modify any of those files. They again are owned by boinc:boinc so any after editing any of them by sudo or superuser, you should change the ownership back to boinc:boinc

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Jim, I just thought I would let you know that I don't have any "Local Security Policy" on either of my Win10 machines, but it is available on all of my Win7 machines. I have set a few of them up with the info you submitted here. No luck so far.

If that question is still relevant, maybe you need the Pro version, which is what I have on Win10.
The Home version leaves some things out.

Jim, I just thought I would let you know that I don't have any "Local Security Policy" on either of my Win10 machines, but it is available on all of my Win7 machines. I have set a few of them up with the info you submitted here. No luck so far.

If that question is still relevant, maybe you need the Pro version, which is what I have on Win10.
The Home version leaves some things out.

I believe you are correct on your guess. I have not checked on my other machine, but on this one, I do have Win10 Home. Thanks for getting back!

Wow, something really weird on the GPU on my Linux machine. It was running 2 units and then 3 units, per my app_config.xml file and now it is back to running 1 unit and I hadn't changed a thing. Went back to the seen of the crime and everything looked the same, but I blew away all of the app_config.xml files and put just one in the /var/lib/boinc/projects/milkyway directory and still no change.

Any thoughts? Same thing happened on my MS machine with the RX560 in it. Help?

Allen

Wow, something really weird on the GPU on my Linux machine. It was running 2 units and then 3 units, per my app_config.xml file and now it is back to running 1 unit and I hadn't changed a thing. Went back to the seen of the crime and everything looked the same, but I blew away all of the app_config.xml files and put just one in the /var/lib/boinc/projects/milkyway directory and still no change.

Any thoughts? Same thing happened on my MS machine with the RX560 in it. Help?

Allen

Did you click to Run based on preferences in the Boinc Manager instead of Run always? Or did you change something on the website and then expect it to change on the pc? For alot of Boinc settings you choose EITHER the website settings which affects every pc you have on the account OR you do it manually pc by pc.

Wow, something really weird on the GPU on my Linux machine. It was running 2 units and then 3 units, per my app_config.xml file and now it is back to running 1 unit and I hadn't changed a thing. Went back to the seen of the crime and everything looked the same, but I blew away all of the app_config.xml files and put just one in the /var/lib/boinc/projects/milkyway directory and still no change.

Any thoughts? Same thing happened on my MS machine with the RX560 in it. Help?

Allen

Did you click to Run based on preferences in the Boinc Manager instead of Run always? Or did you change something on the website and then expect it to change on the pc? For alot of Boinc settings you choose EITHER the website settings which affects every pc you have on the account OR you do it manually pc by pc.

Did you restart BOINC or re-read configuration files in the Manager? As mikey suggested, it sounds like you changed your hosts preference settings from Local to web based preferences.

BOINC applies the most recently configured project preference setting in ANY project across ALL projects when the Manager is switched to web based preferences.

So you can end up with the project preference setting from WCG being applied to Milkyway for example if WCG is where you last changed a project preference.

I'm fairly sure that is what happened here. Just change back to Local preferences on your Milkyway hosts and put your app_config.xml file back into the MW folder and it should return you to your previous configuration.

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Wow, something really weird on the GPU on my Linux machine. It was running 2 units and then 3 units, per my app_config.xml file and now it is back to running 1 unit and I hadn't changed a thing. Went back to the seen of the crime and everything looked the same, but I blew away all of the app_config.xml files and put just one in the /var/lib/boinc/projects/milkyway directory and still no change.

Any thoughts? Same thing happened on my MS machine with the RX560 in it. Help?

Allen

Did you click to Run based on preferences in the Boinc Manager instead of Run always? Or did you change something on the website and then expect it to change on the pc? For alot of Boinc settings you choose EITHER the website settings which affects every pc you have on the account OR you do it manually pc by pc.

Did you restart BOINC or re-read configuration files in the Manager? As mikey suggested, it sounds like you changed your hosts preference settings from Local to web based preferences.

BOINC applies the most recently configured project preference setting in ANY project across ALL projects when the Manager is switched to web based preferences.

So you can end up with the project preference setting from WCG being applied to Milkyway for example if WCG is where you last changed a project preference.

I'm fairly sure that is what happened here. Just change back to Local preferences on your Milkyway hosts and put your app_config.xml file back into the MW folder and it should return you to your previous configuration.

Well, the bad news is that I was using the local settings and the app_config is back in the proper directory and I made sure that I used chown and set it to boinc:boinc. All looks good, but now I am down to only one instance running with my GPU. I don't know what is going on, but I will keep trying and see if I can figure it out. I was thinking about blowing everything away and starting from scratch, but I'm not ready to jump to that extreme yet. Funny thing is, I have the same GPU in a Windows7 machine that is doing the same thing to me, to a tee. I think I'm hoaxed.

Thanks again for all your help!!

Allen

Wow, something really weird on the GPU on my Linux machine. It was running 2 units and then 3 units, per my app_config.xml file and now it is back to running 1 unit and I hadn't changed a thing. Went back to the seen of the crime and everything looked the same, but I blew away all of the app_config.xml files and put just one in the /var/lib/boinc/projects/milkyway directory and still no change.

Any thoughts? Same thing happened on my MS machine with the RX560 in it. Help?

Allen

Did you click to Run based on preferences in the Boinc Manager instead of Run always? Or did you change something on the website and then expect it to change on the pc? For alot of Boinc settings you choose EITHER the website settings which affects every pc you have on the account OR you do it manually pc by pc.

Did you restart BOINC or re-read configuration files in the Manager? As mikey suggested, it sounds like you changed your hosts preference settings from Local to web based preferences.

BOINC applies the most recently configured project preference setting in ANY project across ALL projects when the Manager is switched to web based preferences.

So you can end up with the project preference setting from WCG being applied to Milkyway for example if WCG is where you last changed a project preference.

I'm fairly sure that is what happened here. Just change back to Local preferences on your Milkyway hosts and put your app_config.xml file back into the MW folder and it should return you to your previous configuration.

Well, the bad news is that I was using the local settings and the app_config is back in the proper directory and I made sure that I used chown and set it to boinc:boinc. All looks good, but now I am down to only one instance running with my GPU. I don't know what is going on, but I will keep trying and see if I can figure it out. I was thinking about blowing everything away and starting from scratch, but I'm not ready to jump to that extreme yet. Funny thing is, I have the same GPU in a Windows7 machine that is doing the same thing to me, to a tee. I think I'm hoaxed.

Thanks again for all your help!!

Allen

What does this mean I've never heard of this before "and I made sure that I used chown and set it to boinc:boinc"? Is that a Linux command to change ownership of a set of files? If so I have literally never done that and use Linux Mint as well.

Yes Mikey,

Keith turned me on to that little command. I had used it years ago when I was running 2 UNIX machines, but had forgotten it until Keith brought it up. Handy little tool.

As of right now, nothing has changed, but I'm still looking for some solution.

Allen

Yes Mikey,

Keith turned me on to that little command. I had used it years ago when I was running 2 UNIX machines, but had forgotten it until Keith brought it up. Handy little tool.

As of right now, nothing has changed, but I'm still looking for some solution.

Allen

Okay thanks

Oddly enough, I was doing some fiddling around with files last night and making sure that all preferences were local and then went to bed.
This morning I decided to continue the search for the problem and low and behold, Boinc is spitting out 3 GPU work units again.
Wish I knew exactly what the fix was, but when I stopped working on it last night, it was still just spitting out one unit at a time.

I will try not to mess it up again and want to thank all of you for your valiant efforts to solve my problem and I know that I would never have been able to fix it without your input.

Thanks again,

Allen

There are so many dials and knobs to twist in the BOINC interface that all it takes is for some obscure configuration to apply calculation limitations and you can look for days trying to figure out what changed in a previous stable configuration.

Just the fact that any web based configuration is populated across ALL attached projects is a major flaw in my opinion. Local host based preferences are the most stable as only you can directly affect any change.

---

There are so many dials and knobs to twist in the BOINC interface that all it takes is for some obscure configuration to apply calculation limitations and you can look for days trying to figure out what changed in a previous stable configuration.

Just the fact that any web based configuration is populated across ALL attached projects is a major flaw in my opinion. Local host based preferences are the most stable as only you can directly affect any change.

So right you are, Keith. I can't believe that they make such simple things so difficult to maneuver. Thanks to you and the people here, at least we have a chance to figure it all out.

Thanks again!!

Another question:

Does anyone know why the CPU is set at .9 in the app_config.xml and not at say .5, like it is for an Nvidia GPU?

There are so many dials and knobs to twist in the BOINC interface that all it takes is for some obscure configuration to apply calculation limitations and you can look for days trying to figure out what changed in a previous stable configuration.

Just the fact that any web based configuration is populated across ALL attached projects is a major flaw in my opinion. Local host based preferences are the most stable as only you can directly affect any change.

So right you are, Keith. I can't believe that they make such simple things so difficult to maneuver. Thanks to you and the people here, at least we have a chance to figure it all out.

Thanks again!!

I think it's a hold over from the very early days of Boinc when people only had a couple pc's and just wanted to crunch, YES it should have been fixed a long time ago though!!

Another question:

Does anyone know why the CPU is set at .9 in the app_config.xml and not at say .5, like it is for an Nvidia GPU?

It is just a guess by the app developer or probably just a decision to go with what you used before. I doubt they actually do an analysis determining what the actual cpu usage is to support a gpu task.

It seems like they leave it up to the end user to figure out what the actual optimized configuration is and then let the forums publish the common knowledge to the rest of the participants.

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Another question:

Does anyone know why the CPU is set at .9 in the app_config.xml and not at say .5, like it is for an Nvidia GPU?

It is just a guess by the app developer or probably just a decision to go with what you used before. I doubt they actually do an analysis determining what the actual cpu usage is to support a gpu task.

It seems like they leave it up to the end user to figure out what the actual optimized configuration is and then let the forums publish the common knowledge to the rest of the participants.

Well, I decided to do a little testing myself. This is what I did and what I got.

On system 1, Was getting 5 out of 8 cpus with .9, changed to .5 and went to 6 out of 8 cpu running. This is running 4 GPU units at the same time.
So apparently, ATI GPU's can use less CPU than what we/I thought. I'm thinking of changing it to .4 next and seeing if I get another CPU running.

Now, I know that they are all running, but I guess it must be the way that Boinc is using them. When I use a CPU viewer, I see them all running, but Boinc only shows some of them.

Thoughts?

Allen

Well ATI/AMD gpus have always needed WAY less cpu support for gpu tasks compared to Nvidia cards. Generally, the accepted consensus opinion is that Nvidia cards need a full cpu core/thread to support gpu tasks.

I think I have seen other AMD card users get away with as little as 0.2 cpu core usage running 3-4 concurrent gpu tasks.

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That sounds great, Keith. I think I will make a couple of adjustments today and see how things react. Might be able to energize another cpu or two.
I have my nvidia systems set on .5, but I'm thinking of maybe trying .4, just to see what happens.

Allen