The BoincCmd "-quit" still doesn't work.  The first time after a reboot, it
works correctly: Boinc.exe and all the applications are purged from memory,
and after about 60 seconds, they are restarted.  However, the second and
subsequent times "-quit" is invoked, BoincMgr posts a message box saying
something like 'Connection error.  The password you have given is
incorrect.'  Yet, when the user logs into the remote computer, opens
BoincMgr, clicks on "Advanced/Select Computer," and types in the computer
name, the password appears beneath it EVERY time, and of course Boinc and
all the applications restart.

 

We need this functionality!  Under Nvidia's version 266.58 video driver and
when two instances per video card are being processed, when one instance
finishes and another is begun, one or the other instance makes no progress,
either right away or later.  This situation will continue indefinitely
unless BoincMgr is restarted or "-quit" is invoked with BoincCmd.  This
problem only rarely occurs with versions 301.42 or 306.23 of Nvidia's video
drivers, but the latter take much longer to process a workunit than the
former and use huge amounts of CPU time.  Complaints to Nvidia have not
changed been successful.  Hence, it is natural to write a short program that
does a "--get_simple_gui_info" RPC to all computers every 2 minutes or so,
parses the active tasks,  notes when fraction done has not changed for 10
minutes, and in that case, send the affected computer a "-quit" RPC.  Except
more often than not, Boinc and the applications do not restart.  This
situation occurs several times a day.  It is extremely discouraging to note
that a workunit has been processing for 8 hours or more with no result, when
normally they finish in about 2 hours. 

 

We need this functionality!  So there is no point in arguing about two
topics:

 

1.        Quit should quit.  Fine, provide the functionality that "-quit"
attempts to provide now under another name; restart, pause or invoke_brief_
interregnum (perhaps with a parameter defining brief) would do.  But what is
important is being able to restart Boinc's applications automatically from a
remote computer.

2.       Why don't we just install Boinc as a service (protected execution)
and then use "net stop" and "net start" to restart the applications when
there is a problem?  BECAUSE IT WAS A SECURITY NIGHTMARE under Windows XP;
it took weeks to make that facility provide the desired functionality.  One
trembles uncontrollably to think how difficult it would be to make it work
under Windows 7's much stricter security model.  All that time to solve a
trivial problem that Boinc should be able to handle on its own just can't be
worth it to the individual user.

 

Quit does not work, and I for one have been complaining about it literally
for years.  Yet nothing has changed.  Why can't we take it out, make it
work, or provide the intended functionality another name?  We need the
functionality that "-quit" was designed to provide.

 

Charles Elliott

 

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