Even if you set it to not start on Windows startup if you go to task manager you can see that it always does(without charityengine icon showing in notification icons next to the clock). And sometimes the processess continue even if you shut it down by right clicking on the notification icon.
Are you even in the process of fixing this?
It basically acts like a spyware/hijack which is very unpleasant, especially for new people who would like to try it.
Sorry to hear you are having problems, Mark. Yours is the first report of such behavior. For starters, I wonder what version of Windows you are running?
I'm running windows 7 64-bit. And mine does the same thing. If I don't want it to be running I have to open it then close out of it every time I start up.
What versions of Charity Engine or BOINC are you running? Look under the help > about and the number should be 6.xx.xx or 7.xx.xx. I believe the latest is Charity Engine is 6.8.44 and BOINC 7.0.28 for Windows.
Nicholas I suggest trying the upgraded version of Charity Engine by downloading the installer from the Charity Engine site and installing the new version. Download the new installer by logging in on the home page and selecting add a computer to Charity Engine.
There are no automated updates at this time. Report back if the behavior is still present after the newer version is used and I will try to figure out if it is a new issue.
If the update does not fix please explain in more detail on what is showing up on the task manager when run at startup is not selected, etc.
CE is set to not start on boot however after a restart I discovered the BOINC Service was running and there were 6 minirosettas stuck in my processes (a separate issue I know but it alerted me to the fact that CE was active) stopping the BOINC service removed one of the processes (I assume the one that was currently running) and I manually removed the others.
HTH, Let me know if you want screenshots, message logs etc
Hmm so the latest Win7 64bit CE 6.8.44 also produces this issue. Is it only the rosetta@home tasks that appear in the startup?!? Have you seen any Einstein@home processes startup when you have CE set not to start on boot?
I'm just curious is if its a rosetta related issue or an issue related to our software. Manually open CE.
open the advanced view (view >advanced)
select the projects tab.
select the rosetta@home projcts
on the left menu select no new tasks
then select the tasks tab
select any rosetta@home tasks and click abort and yet to the confirmation that you want to abort the tasks
This will one prevent rosetta@home processes from being downloaded. Let CE download some new tasks for malariacontrol or einstein@home. Now reboot and see if the BOINC process starts and tasks begin processing. If they do its an issue with CE and if no then it could be related to our rosetta issue... we are looking into both of these issues.
I have done the actions above and as soon as I restarted I looked at task manager and found:
1 x boinc.exe*32 under boinc_master user 8 x openMalariaA_6.58_windows_intelx86 *32 processes under boinc_project user 8 x conhost.exe under boinc_project user.
Opening and closing CE removes all of the processes and stops the BOINC/CE service.
I then changed the BOINC/CE service from Automatic to Manual in Services.msc and after several reboots it has not started processing unless I start CE manually. This appears to have resolved this issue for me and I hope the information is of use to you.
I have Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 6.1.7601 SP1 Build 7601 with an Intel Core i7-3770K CPU @ 3.50GHz, 4 Cores, 8 Logical Processors.16GB Ram
Just poking my head in here - thanks for helping us sort this, guys.
Was a completely unknown issue to us (and obviously not expected - or welcome - behaviour). BOINC should indeed shut down properly when told, same as anything else.
Thanks for reporting back Ian. Those instructions are a work around for the unexpected start issue. We are still looking into this. It would help for some additional information. Were any of you prior BOINC users or using the BOINC client instead of the Charity Engine install? We have a few theories on the possible cause and this would help us narrow these down.
Short answer I have never previously used BOINC. Long answer: When I got this new machine the install of CE did not work properly. I think that was my fault for using the client I downloaded on my first machine. The units were being counted but the last activity date never changed. I downloaded a fresh CE and tried to uninstall/reinstall CE but the issue persisted. After a bit of online research and contacting the helpdesk I did a full uninstall and also deleted the boinc user accounts and services. I then downloaded a fresh CE and reinstalled which appeared to be ok.
I don't restart very often so I didn't notice the startup issue until the Rosetta tasks didn't close properly and I took more notice of what CE was doing in the background. HTH :)
After reading the whole thread i just got some hints which maybe could be useful for the tech guys...
When using Boinc without the Boinc manager, which is obviously adapted by the Charityengine, boinc has just the behaviour mentioned above.
But since this isn't possible on Windows I just thought back where i used boinc on a linux distro (http://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Installing_on_Linux). Reading there could also lead to the fact that maybe another service was installed using the charityengine which don't get handled by the manager.
For me it seems that the charityengine installation is different to the original boinc installation more than intended. There should be the issue i think.
First point: the CE version of BOINC is simply a reskin. No underlying changes to the code, we use it fresh from Berkeley.
But it seems a shut down pop-up message either doesn't appear on Win 7, or a few of us don't pay enough attention to it (including me - I'm having the same issue on my own PC).
As Mac owners will know, the message says that closing the BOINC manager does NOT stop the background computing - and it asks you if you want to shut everything down, or just the manager.
It also has a 'don't show me this again' box, so if we didn't notice the message (assuming it appears), then it's very easy to tell it to ONLY shut down the manager and never shut down the background computing.
Personally, I think that needs changing. Exit should mean exit, the default being that everything shuts down unless you say otherwise. Next version of BOINC will hopefully tweak that.
The Charity Engine client differs from the general distribution of BOINC in three ways:
It is, as Mark observers, reskinned -- to look a bit nicer, and carry the Charity Engine identity (*which we like ;) )
It has a custom installer --
CE automatically installs in a more secure way than does generic Boinc: the CE installer creates a "sandbox", a limited and protected account within which all activies subsequently are run. This means that the distributed computations do not have access to your computer's general file system. (It also means, because of how Windows works, that we can't at present use the GPU). Such "protected mode" installations are an option with generic BOINC distribution, but are not the default.
The CE installer auto-attaches users to their CE accounts, to make signup a bit easier
CE runs a version of BOINC which is a few versions behind the mainstream release. These older releases can be a bit more stable -- though we don't want to get too far behind as that leads to other shortcomings; we'll likely release an update later this year.
For readers: click 'advanced view', then 'options'. You'll see a box to tick for showing the exit message. When you next exit the manager, you'll have the option to stop/continue processing in the background.
Even if you set it to not start on Windows startup if you go to task manager you can see that it always does(without charityengine icon showing in notification icons next to the clock). And sometimes the processess continue even if you shut it down by right clicking on the notification icon.
Are you even in the process of fixing this?
It basically acts like a spyware/hijack which is very unpleasant, especially for new people who would like to try it.
Sorry to hear you are having problems, Mark. Yours is the first report of such behavior. For starters, I wonder what version of Windows you are running?
I'm running windows 7 64-bit. And mine does the same thing. If I don't want it to be running I have to open it then close out of it every time I start up.
Windows 7 64-bit too.
What versions of Charity Engine or BOINC are you running? Look under the help > about and the number should be 6.xx.xx or 7.xx.xx. I believe the latest is Charity Engine is 6.8.44 and BOINC 7.0.28 for Windows.
6.8.29 for me.On charity engine.
Nicholas I suggest trying the upgraded version of Charity Engine by downloading the installer from the Charity Engine site and installing the new version. Download the new installer by logging in on the home page and selecting add a computer to Charity Engine.
There are no automated updates at this time. Report back if the behavior is still present after the newer version is used and I will try to figure out if it is a new issue.
If the update does not fix please explain in more detail on what is showing up on the task manager when run at startup is not selected, etc.
I have the same issue.
Win7 64bit CE 6.8.44
CE is set to not start on boot however after a restart I discovered the BOINC Service was running and there were 6 minirosettas stuck in my processes (a separate issue I know but it alerted me to the fact that CE was active) stopping the BOINC service removed one of the processes (I assume the one that was currently running) and I manually removed the others.
HTH, Let me know if you want screenshots, message logs etc
This sounds very similar to me, and I am also running charityengine on a windows 7 64bit
Hmm so the latest Win7 64bit CE 6.8.44 also produces this issue. Is it only the rosetta@home tasks that appear in the startup?!? Have you seen any Einstein@home processes startup when you have CE set not to start on boot?
I'm just curious is if its a rosetta related issue or an issue related to our software. Manually open CE.
This will one prevent rosetta@home processes from being downloaded. Let CE download some new tasks for malariacontrol or einstein@home. Now reboot and see if the BOINC process starts and tasks begin processing. If they do its an issue with CE and if no then it could be related to our rosetta issue... we are looking into both of these issues.
Hi Jonathan,
I have done the actions above and as soon as I restarted I looked at task manager and found:
1 x boinc.exe*32 under boinc_master user
8 x openMalariaA_6.58_windows_intelx86 *32 processes under boinc_project user
8 x conhost.exe under boinc_project user.
Opening and closing CE removes all of the processes and stops the BOINC/CE service.
I then changed the BOINC/CE service from Automatic to Manual in Services.msc and after several reboots it has not started processing unless I start CE manually.
This appears to have resolved this issue for me and I hope the information is of use to you.
I have Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 6.1.7601 SP1 Build 7601 with an Intel Core i7-3770K CPU @ 3.50GHz, 4 Cores, 8 Logical Processors.16GB Ram
Just poking my head in here - thanks for helping us sort this, guys.
Was a completely unknown issue to us (and obviously not expected - or welcome - behaviour). BOINC should indeed shut down properly when told, same as anything else.
Cheers,
Mark
Thanks for reporting back Ian. Those instructions are a work around for the unexpected start issue. We are still looking into this. It would help for some additional information. Were any of you prior BOINC users or using the BOINC client instead of the Charity Engine install? We have a few theories on the possible cause and this would help us narrow these down.
Short answer
I have never previously used BOINC.
Long answer:
When I got this new machine the install of CE did not work properly. I think that was my fault for using the client I downloaded on my first machine. The units were being counted but the last activity date never changed. I downloaded a fresh CE and tried to uninstall/reinstall CE but the issue persisted. After a bit of online research and contacting the helpdesk I did a full uninstall and also deleted the boinc user accounts and services. I then downloaded a fresh CE and reinstalled which appeared to be ok.
I don't restart very often so I didn't notice the startup issue until the Rosetta tasks didn't close properly and I took more notice of what CE was doing in the background. HTH :)
After reading the whole thread i just got some hints which maybe could be useful for the tech guys...
When using Boinc without the Boinc manager, which is obviously adapted by the Charityengine, boinc has just the behaviour mentioned above.
But since this isn't possible on Windows I just thought back where i used boinc on a linux distro (http://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Installing_on_Linux). Reading there could also lead to the fact that maybe another service was installed using the charityengine which don't get handled by the manager.
Another idea could be here: http://boinc.berkeley.edu/dev/forum_thread.php?id=6812&postid=39519 Please refer to message 39519 since the anchors for this board doesn't work.
For me it seems that the charityengine installation is different to the original boinc installation more than intended. There should be the issue i think.
Hi folks,
We might have solved it...
First point: the CE version of BOINC is simply a reskin. No underlying changes to the code, we use it fresh from Berkeley.
But it seems a shut down pop-up message either doesn't appear on Win 7, or a few of us don't pay enough attention to it (including me - I'm having the same issue on my own PC).
As Mac owners will know, the message says that closing the BOINC manager does NOT stop the background computing - and it asks you if you want to shut everything down, or just the manager.
It also has a 'don't show me this again' box, so if we didn't notice the message (assuming it appears), then it's very easy to tell it to ONLY shut down the manager and never shut down the background computing.
Personally, I think that needs changing. Exit should mean exit, the default being that everything shuts down unless you say otherwise. Next version of BOINC will hopefully tweak that.
Cheers,
Mark
Hi Mark,
but you can easily change this back to get the exit dialog so you can reassign your answers.
Just below the "Start on Boot" or how it's called in charityengine.
There should be something like "show the end-dialog". Maybe someone can test this?
To clarify on questions and comments above --
The Charity Engine client differs from the general distribution of BOINC in three ways:
Hi Darkknight,
Yes, thanks for pointing that out.
For readers: click 'advanced view', then 'options'. You'll see a box to tick for showing the exit message. When you next exit the manager, you'll have the option to stop/continue processing in the background.
Hope that helps!