BOINC linux: how to downgrade?

[zombie67]

Ever since around BOINC 7.14(something), BOINC pre-fetches tasks even with a resource share of zero. This is a problem with "race" projects like PrimeGrid. The solution is to just install the earlier version of BOINC. With windows, it's easy. Just go to the BOINC archive site, download the version, install it.

How does one install an earlier version of BOINC with linux? When installed via package manager? It seems to just offer the latest. I need to switch to an earlier version.

[trigggl]

That would be a good question for the forum at the website of whichever distro you're using. I know how to do it on my end, but that wouldn't help you at all. There should be some way to mask the upgrade (if a lower version is available).

For what it's worth, my available options with Gentoo:
7.14.2
7.16.14

You will probably have to uninstall boinc and do your own manual install. Is it worth the effort and how will it be handled by systemd :-/ ?

[Mumps]

Actually, in a Debian based distro (like Ubuntu or MINT) you can specify which version you want when you do the apt-get install.

https://askubuntu.com/questions/92019/how-to-install-specific-ubuntu-packages-with-exact-version

[zombie67]

Ah! How to check which versions of BOINC are available? From that page, they offered the example:


sudo apt-cache madison ^apache2

Not sure what madison means in this context. But I tried replacing ^apache2 with boinc, and I get this:


sudo apt-cache madison boinc
boinc | 7.16.6+dfsg-1 | http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal/universe amd64 Packages
boinc | 7.16.6+dfsg-1 | http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal/universe i386 Packages

Does this mean that the only available version is 7.16.6, which is the version I am running? Or do I need to change the query somehow?

[Mumps]

To see which versions are available, run apt-cache policy:

And, it looks like Costa is only leaving the latest 2 versions available. :(

Before, at borg.ppa, he used to keep a handful.

So, which specific version were you looking for? I wonder if we can find a .deb package of it somewhere.

So, maybe try 7.14.2?

https://packages.debian.org/buster/net/boinc-client
https://packages.debian.org/buster/net/boinc-manager

You should be able to download the .deb files and install those. I haven't tried that yet myself, but it would probably work. I'm fine with my systems on 7.16.15

[zombie67]

7.14.2, yes that is the one I want.

I am pretty sure older versions of BOINC also require different supporting packages to be installed too. When I tried to download BOINC from their site and run it manually from my desktop, it said I was missing all kinds of things. Even though I was running the current version with no issues.

I like how something like synaptic automatically selects and installs all the dependencies. Is there a way to do it like that? Can I add a repository name or something?

[Bryan]

It is possible you will have trouble downgrading if you have installed Mint or Ubuntu 20. I know where there is a version of BOINC 7.14.2 that has been modified to allow max cache to be 4000 WU versus the standard 1000. That is the version I've been running for several years. You can NOT install it directly on to Mint 20. If you want to use it you have to install it onto Mint 19.3 and then upgrade to Mint 20.

I don't know if this is true of all earlier BOINC versions or just the "special" one. I'm assuming since the libraries etc changed on Linux 20 that it because of Linux.

When I upgrade a "package" install of BOINC I just get the new version, unpack it, and then copy the boinccmd, boinc, and boincmgr files over to /usr/bin. Then just reboot and it picks up the new version. I'm assuming it will also work to downgrade although I can't say I've ever done it.

[zombie67]

Ah, yeah, mint 20 is the problem, I think.

As for why 7.14.2, versions after that prefetch were work up to 3 minutes in advance. Even with a resource share of zero. That is a killer for projects where there is a race to return a task first, before your wingman. Like GFN on prime grid.

Thanks for the pointers!

[Bryan]

Z, if zero resource share isn't working then try setting your cache size to ".01/.01" in the BOINC manager preferences.

[zombie67]

Yeah, everyone has tried everything. No way to prevent the pre-fetch. And a 3 minute pre-fetch kills you when the tasks take a minute to run.

Turns out that the developers never intended to make the change in the behavior of zero resource share, and were completely unaware of the issue until very recently. It was an unintended consequence of some other changes they made. No idea when it will be fixed at this time.

[scole of TSBT]

Shut down boinc and copy a version of the files you want from...
/usr/bin/boinc
/usr/bin/boinccmd
/usr/bin/boincmgr
/usr/bin/boincscr
restart boinc