I have installed BOINC as a daemon on my Mac Pro, and am now trying to run Test4Theory@Home (part of LHC@Home) - which uses VirtualBox - and having difficulty:

25-Dec-2011 22:35:40 [Test4Theory@Home] Starting task uc_1321272271_165850_0 using cernvm version 703
25-Dec-2011 22:36:08 [Test4Theory@Home] Computation for task uc_1321272271_165850_0 finished
25-Dec-2011 22:36:08 [Test4Theory@Home] Output file uc_1321272271_165850_0_0 for task uc_1321272271_165850_0 absent

I am able to run other projects (which don't require VirtualBox) OK.

I have tried running the EnablingVirtualBox.sh script, but that breaks the permissions for the server mode.

Has anyone managed to get this combination of setup to work correctly?

Thanks in advance,

Josh

http://lhcathome2.cern.ch/node/45 writes:

BOINC must not be installed as a service (Windows) or a daemon (GNU/Linux and Mac OS X) because this project uses Virtual Machines. When BOINC is installed as a service or a daemon it runs as an unprivileged user and cannot run any virtual machine.

The best solution to solve this problem under Windows is to install BOINC disabling the Service option in the Windows installer. For Mac OS X users you have to run a specific script that we have created, and for GNU/Linux users the recommendation is to use the official BOINC GNU/Linux installer instead of the packaged ones for your distribution.

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I'm sorry, but this is unclear.

The first paragraph which you quote says "When BOINC is installed as a service or a daemon it runs as an unprivileged user and cannot run any virtual machine."

But the second paragraphs goes on to say "The best solution to solve this problem [...] For Mac OS X users you have to run a specific script that we have created...", referencing EnablingVirtualBox.sh.

So which is it? Is there a way to get BOINC running as daemon to use virtual machines, or not?

Running EnablingVirtualBox.sh breaks my installation, and running in non-secure mode is not an option for me. If I can't get this working I will have to give up on LHC@home... :(

Josh

Hey, it's what they write, not what I wrote. So if you want to complain about clearness or semantics, you really have to complain about it on the T4T forums.

What they mean you to do is not install as a daemon and run their installation script. The Mac BOINC installer will install BOINC under your account, you need to run the Make_BOINC_Service.sh script to make it a service installation running under a limited user account. So what you do is not run that script after you installed BOINC, but instead run the script you got from T4T.

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Hey, it's what they write, not what I wrote. So if you want to complain about clearness or semantics, you really have to complain about it on the T4T forums.

Hey thanks...
Wasn't complaining, just wanted to understand.

It looks like I will need to hold off on T4T for now, as I must run in daemon mode for security reasons.

I wonder if this is resolved in BOINC 7.0...

Josh

No, this isn't solved in BOINC 7.0
It isn't something for BOINC to solve, it's something for the project to solve. Their (wrapper)application should not run in the way it is now. We are testing the new application for T4T through a test project, which does require BOINC 7. If you want to you can come test running the newer T4T tasks there.

Mind, this project is one for bug fixes, there's no validator running, thus no credits being given out. There's no credit export. The project will be deleted when we're done with it.

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Thanks Ageless. I think I will just hold off for now on T4T -- and jump back on when BOINC 7.0 and the new T4T wrapper is available...