I just started running an x86_64 machine. Reading around here, I found a posting that showed I would need three compat... 32-bit libraries, so I got and installed them.

However, as soon as I got two work units, they crashed in a very few seconds. I was missing some other 32-bit libraries in addition to those I knew about. Several iterations, using the ldd command, got me to install all the need libraries (I hope; no more work units have come down the Internet since).

What I propose is that there be a fake project, call it TEST or some such thing, that always has work units; there need not be many -- perhaps only one -- but with a very high replication count so whoever asks for one will get one almost right away. They need not have real data, and their results can all be discarded by the server without credit. This is so that users who need to test that their systems have all the needed libaries can do so quickly.

---

Sounds like a good idea to me. Of course if the BOINC/WORKUNIT software were better written (not sure which) it would just give a message that you needed to install the software rather than crashing the work unit. But as the last time I did any programming it was in Algol, I don't have a clue as to how much work this would involve and a test work unit that the user could specify in their preferences that was always available to download may be a lot easier to do.

I remember going through the libraries thing on the computer I am using now. On my other box, on which I installed through the package manager instead of unpacking into my home dir, it all worked first time. Was that the difference between the packaged version and stand alone or between Ubuntu and Kubuntu? I don't know. Also I couldn't get the packaged version to run on this box but installing it seemed to sort out some of the library problems.

The project is already very short of server space.
Also, there's an awful lot of people who attach to every project they can find, without bothering to see what it's about. Then they never look at the results of what is happening, working/crashing. We already have to try and find people who are crashing everything because of computer problems.
And the project people are up to their eyebrows at present with work.

Apparently, BOINC from Linux repositories (or, at least, some of them), has tests/checks in the installer which tests for missing libraries, finds them and installs them. And they install to a different location to the version from Berkeley. But are usually a few versions behind Berkeley.

One day perhaps.

---

Backups: Here

I am still using BOINC 6.10.58 on my two Linux boxes, running SuSE Linux 12.1 and 12.2. No newer Berkeley BOINC version runs on them and the SuSE repository for SuSE 12.1 and 12.2 says libboinc7 is not coming from SuSE. Use it at your own risk. Since Test4Theory@home, which I am running on both, soon will launch a new release needing BOINC 7.0.at least,I shall be obliged to leave that project, which uses a BOINC_VM Virtual Machine and requires the installation of Virtual Box by Oracle, which works perfectly on my Linux boxes.
Tullio

---

This project too is being 'brought into the future'. :)

---

Backups: Here

I am using 6.10.45 on my new x86_64 machine running RHEL 6, because that is the newest version I can find that will install.

And on my old i686 machine running CentOS 5 (machine is 12 years old and will not accept CentOS 6), I have to run 6.6.41 because I cannot find a newer version that will work there. I do not like that one because it will not run boincmgr.

---