Hi all

After a prolonged absence from BOINC, I finally got around to using an old PC to load Ubuntu 16.04 and install boinc-client and boinc-manager successfully. I've attached to Rosetta@home and it's happily churning away on data. The only snag is I can't get the screensaver to work. I know it's not essential but I'd like to see the graphical output.

Steps so far:

Update all software
Install xcsreensaver (and some other associated packages)
Remove gnome-screensaver
Installed boinc-screensaver
Added the recommended line GL boincscr -root n to the .xscreensaver file
test using xscreensaver-demo

A screen shows 'screensaver loading' in small text in the middle and then shortly afterwards in the top left of my screen I get 'exec: no such file or directory'

I've tried various fixes (after much googling) including checking I have the boincscr file - I do and running it via a terminal session gives the same error. I've also tried adding the path to the file in .xscreensaver, creating a symlink from /var/lib/boinc-client to /var/lib/boinc and so on. Still no joy.

Anyone out there managed to get it to work? Any help for this newbie appreciated!

Rob

Hi

Further to the below and more googling, I'm wondering if this has something to do with missing graphics packages. If I select a task and click 'Show Graphics' in boincmgr, nothing happens. Does anyone know if (a) Rosetta@Home has a graphics package for Linux and (b) if so, where do you find it?

Regards

Rob

Hi all

After a prolonged absence from BOINC, I finally got around to using an old PC to load Ubuntu 16.04 and install boinc-client and boinc-manager successfully. I've attached to Rosetta@home and it's happily churning away on data. The only snag is I can't get the screensaver to work. I know it's not essential but I'd like to see the graphical output.

Steps so far:

Update all software
Install xcsreensaver (and some other associated packages)
Remove gnome-screensaver
Installed boinc-screensaver
Added the recommended line GL boincscr -root n to the .xscreensaver file
test using xscreensaver-demo

A screen shows 'screensaver loading' in small text in the middle and then shortly afterwards in the top left of my screen I get 'exec: no such file or directory'

I've tried various fixes (after much googling) including checking I have the boincscr file - I do and running it via a terminal session gives the same error. I've also tried adding the path to the file in .xscreensaver, creating a symlink from /var/lib/boinc-client to /var/lib/boinc and so on. Still no joy.

Anyone out there managed to get it to work? Any help for this newbie appreciated!

Rob

I just tried it - I made sure the daemon was not alive before I edited the file, and put this line in:

  GL: 				boincscr -root				    n

Note that the whitespace in between the columns contain tabs. I duplicated another line in the file, and edited it.

Here's my machine configuration, if it helps - I'm running linux mint with the newest kernel and updates.

$uname -a
Linux frost 5.3.0-23-generic #25~18.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Tue Nov 12 10:58:57 UTC 2019 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

$ inxi -Gx
Graphics:
  Device-1: AMD Vega 10 XL/XT [Radeon RX Vega 56/64] driver: amdgpu 
  v: kernel bus ID: 1e:00.0 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.19.6 driver: ati FAILED: amdgpu 
  unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,radeon,vesa resolution: 2560x1080~60Hz 
  OpenGL: 
  renderer: Radeon RX Vega (VEGA10 DRM 3.33.0 5.3.0-23-generic LLVM 7.1.0) 
  v: 4.5 Mesa 18.3.0-rc4 direct render: Yes 

UPDATE: I noticed that the boinc screensaver was indeed running, but not on the root display, so I took a look at the text output when I started the tool by hand:

$ boincscr -root
Starting graphics..
core.init: Rosetta version  from 
core.init: command: ../../projects/boinc.bakerlab.org_rosetta/minirosetta_graphics_3.78_i686-pc-linux-gnu
core.init: 'RNG device' seed mode, using '/dev/urandom', seed=345054915 seed_offset=0 real_seed=345054915
core.init.random: RandomGenerator:init: Normal mode, seed=345054915 RG_type=mt19937
core.init: Resolved executable path: /var/lib/boinc-client/projects/boinc.bakerlab.org_rosetta/minirosetta_graphics_3.78_i686-pc-linux-gnu
core.init: Looking for database based on location of executable: /var/lib/boinc-client/projects/boinc.bakerlab.org_rosetta/../database/
core.init: 
core.init: USEFUL TIP: Type -help to get the options for this Rosetta executable.
core.init: 
Opened semaphore
Attached shared memory segment 
core.chemical.ResidueTypeSet: Finished initializing fa_standard residue type set.  Created 385 residue types
core.chemical.ResidueTypeSet: Total time to initialize 0.65263 seconds.
core.chemical.ResidueTypeSet: For ResidueTypeSet centroid there is no shadow_list.txt file to list known PDB ids.
core.chemical.ResidueTypeSet:     This will turn off PDB component loading for ResidueTypeSet centroid
core.chemical.ResidueTypeSet:     Expected file: minirosetta_database/chemical/residue_type_sets/centroid/shadow_list.txt
core.chemical.ResidueTypeSet: Finished initializing centroid residue type set.  Created 62 residue types
core.chemical.ResidueTypeSet: Total time to initialize 0.034518 seconds.

$ /usr/bin/boincscr -help
Starting graphics..
core.init: Rosetta version: 2018.04.post.dev+738.master.1a38360 1a383606ee31b3036f3ed96545e3a270d027c2be [email protected]:RosettaCommons/main.git 2018-01-30T11:38:09
core.init: command: ../../projects/boinc.bakerlab.org_rosetta/rosetta_graphics_4.08_x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
core.init: 'RNG device' seed mode, using '/dev/urandom', seed=654166514 seed_offset=0 real_seed=654166514
core.init.random: RandomGenerator:init: Normal mode, seed=654166514 RG_type=mt19937
core.init: Resolved executable path: /var/lib/boinc-client/projects/boinc.bakerlab.org_rosetta/rosetta_graphics_4.08_x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
core.init: Looking for database based on location of executable: /var/lib/boinc-client/projects/boinc.bakerlab.org_rosetta/../database/
core.init: 
core.init: USEFUL TIP: Type -help to get the options for this Rosetta executable.
core.init: 

Then I thought - this screensaver is starting a different executable on it's own. That's what takes the -help option, NOT the screensaver! I'll look at this more tomorrow, but when I start the underlying executable with the -help flag, I get this output. I think then, if I pass "fullscreen" to the executable, it'll work. In addition, it may (if it's configurable) be able to be used to get the graphics working from the manager. Not sure I'll do that one or not, since the screensaver is enough for a start.

$ /var/lib/boinc-client/projects/boinc.bakerlab.org_rosetta/rosetta_graphics_4.08_x86_64-pc-linux-gnu -help 
Starting graphics..

Usage:

/var/lib/boinc-client/projects/boinc.bakerlab.org_rosetta/rosetta_graphics_4.08_x86_64-pc-linux-gnu [options]

Options:   [Specify on command line or in @file]

Showing only relevant options...


                        Option |                  Setting  |Type|  Description                  
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                               |                           |    |
                      boinc:   |                           |    | 
                      graphics |                     false |   B| The boinc client uses this 
                               |                           |    |  option for the windowed 
                               |                           |    |  graphics
                    fullscreen |                     false |   B| The boinc client uses this 
                               |                           |    |  option for the screensaver 
                               |                           |    |  full screen graphics
                       max_fps |                         0 |   I| Maximum frames per second, 
                               |                           |    |  overrides user preference.
                       max_cpu |                         0 |   I| Maximum cpu percentage, 
                               |                           |    |  overrides user preferecne.
                       noshmem |                     false |   B| for testing graphics without 
                               |                           |    |  shared memory.

Follow up to my last post - I found some source code at https://github.com/BOINC/boinc/blob/master/clientscr/screensaver_x11.cpp that lists the command line options to the screensaver. "-root" doesn't put the screensaver on my root window like I thought it would (still appears in a window), but does provide graphics. It appears that no options are passed through to the underlying graphics program, so it may be that there is a separate configuration file that would hold the other options such as "-fullscreen", although, that option didn't seem to work as I expected when I tried it by hand by specifying -boinc:fullscreen as a command line option to the underlying graphics program.

Maybe someone will eventually close the gaps there, not sure.

boincscr relies on one of two window properties to work:

1. WM_COMMAND: path to graphics application executable (for example, /var/lib/boinc/projects/boinc.bakerlab.org_rosetta/rosetta_graphics_4.15_x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)
   
2. WM_CLASS: executable name (for example, rosetta_graphics_4.15_x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)
   

rosetta_graphics sets none of them, so boincscr can't embed it to its window and shows "screensaver loading..."

P.S. If you want to have something screensaver-alike, you can use my overengineered shell script

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