Calling all gurus!

I\'m using Boinc 5.4.11, on windoze XP, machine is an Athlon XP64; since a reasonably horrific crash recently, on this computer, the simulation it\'s running this one has somehow been tagged in my boinc to have a deadline back in the past, 1901 to be specific, Lol.
It\'s still running fine, still trickling well, etc, but, it\'s hogging all the processor time, and causing boinc to not download any more work for any other project unless I suspend climate prediction to force things along.
Is it possible to edit a file somewhere, to change the deadline to something more appropriate?

TTFN, Ken Phillips

Edit to fix typos

Shutdown BOINC and open your BOINC/client_state.xml file in Notepad. Search for the <report_deadline> </report_deadline> pair, yes they do have the < and >. The value between the pair determines the deadline, I think, though I have not had this confirmed by an anyone with certain knowledge. On my computer the value between the pair is 1202565236.000000 and the deadline on my project is 2/9/2008.

The only other place in the BOINC directory that I can find the phrase \"report_deadline\" is in the BOINC/schedule_request_climateprediction.net.xml which seems at times to be full of non-printing characters which may give Notepad or anything other than a hex editor fits. If you don\'t have a hex editor then I would recommend ignoring the schedule_request_climateprediction.net.xml and just edit the client_state.xml. I think the report_deadline value for the former is read from the latter anyhow.

The number 1202565236.000000 is a strange looking code for a date, not what most of us are used to. I believe it\'s the number of hours and seconds that have elapsed since midnight on the day Pope Gregory declared the Julian calendar null and void, or something like that. Anyway, unless a real guru tells you I\'m nuts then maybe try that number.

On the other hand, I\'ve found BOINC to be full of surprises and my number may not work on your BOINC and might even screw it up worse that it is now. Are you feeling lucky?

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Apparently the strange number string is the number of microseconds since something. Possibly since the model started. (Or BOINC?)
This was posted by Thyme Lawn, (who is a BOINC tester), possibly on the php board.
Who also said that it can be edited in client_state.xml, if you know the value to use.
Just backup the entire BOINC folder first, then start inserting a few values to find out what year/month/day you end up with.

The 1901 is the default date for when the computer\'s cmos backup battery goes flat. Or the computer blows up.
It won\'t affect this project, but all work units for all other projects will get rejected for being a century past the deadline.

EDIT
On second thoughts, TH may have been talking about a different set of numbers; ones for the \"current date\", and not \"report deadline\". Editing this would put BOINC back to \"today\".
Then all of the WUs would be OK again.

Just backup the entire BOINC folder first, then start inserting a few values to find out what year/month/day you end up with.

Yes, backup BOINC folder first.

I should also have mentioned that when you search in client_state.xml for the <report_deadline> tag you will likely find several such tags. I have only 1 because I run only CPDN on that computer. You have several projects going so you will find 1 <report_deadline> for each workunit in your cache. The one for your CPDN work unit will look similar to the following:

<result>
<name>hadcm3lbm_btvj_25321202_0</name>
<final_cpu_time>5516750.093750</final_cpu_time>
<exit_status>0</exit_status>
<state>2</state>
<wu_name>hadcm3lbm_btvj_25321202</wu_name>
<report_deadline>1202565236.000000</report_deadline>

Note that the \"hadcm3lbm_btvj_25321202\" phrase associated with the <name> and <wu_name> tags refer to my CPDN wu. On your system you will find the name of your CPDN wu there instead. I assume you already know the name of your CPDN wu.

Sorry I didn\'t mention these details in my first post but there you have it now. Let us know how you make out.

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Cheers Les, and Dagorath.

I felt lucky; but too dumb to work a suitable replacement date, so I copied \'1202565236.000000\' into my deadline entry (after backing up), restarted boinc, now my deadline date is 2008, not before computers were actually invented.

Being an alledged PC tech, I should have realised about the 1901 date, duh, thanks for the reminder. The PC as much as blew up, couldn\'t get any life out of it, no boot, no post, no OS load, tried all sorts of things including strip down and rebuild, got it to boot etc, then it keeped crashing (horribly) just after OS load, ripped the hardware to bits again and rebuild again, and now it\'s fine, funny thing that is all the hardware, software, settings, etc, are identical to pre-problems. That\'s got me stumped!

Thanks again, perhaps my other projects won\'t need goading to get more work now!

Bye for now, Ken Phillips

Cheers Les, and Dagorath.

I felt lucky; but too dumb to work a suitable replacement date, so I copied \'1202565236.000000\' into my deadline entry (after backing up), restarted boinc, now my deadline date is 2008, not before computers were actually invented.

That\'s good news:) It\'s evidence that WU deadlines can be easily restored if they get munged.

The bad news is... your deadline is now 2/9/2008 and if that\'s beyond the actual deadline assigned to the WU by CPDN then there is a possibility that BOINC will not finish the WU on time. Maybe check your results page on the CPDN site and find out if the actual deadline is before 2/9/2008 or after? If after then you\'re safe. If it\'s before 2/9/2008 then you might consider fiddling with the date to see if you can get the deadline on your computer to match or precede the actual deadline. I would think a lower number would give an earlier deadline and that trial and error would eventually lead to a proper number. Again, backup the BOINC folder before fiddling.

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Cheers Les, and Dagorath.

I felt lucky; but too dumb to work a suitable replacement date, so I copied \'1202565236.000000\' into my deadline entry (after backing up), restarted boinc, now my deadline date is 2008, not before computers were actually invented.

That\'s good news:) It\'s evidence that WU deadlines can be easily restored if they get munged.

The bad news is... your deadline is now 2/9/2008 and if that\'s beyond the actual deadline assigned to the WU by CPDN then there is a possibility that BOINC will not finish the WU on time. Maybe check your results page on the CPDN site and find out if the actual deadline is before 2/9/2008 or after? If after then you\'re safe. If it\'s before 2/9/2008 then you might consider fiddling with the date to see if you can get the deadline on your computer to match or precede the actual deadline. I would think a lower number would give an earlier deadline and that trial and error would eventually lead to a proper number. Again, backup the BOINC folder before fiddling.

No need to worry about that with this project. As long as the model trickles once a month the server will keep it active and not reassign it.

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