Though I've successfully attached classic BOINC to GR as account manager (the documentation here said that perfectly fine) and did synchro, nothing is happening here or at the project site profile, so went to look for that GR Download page. It says 5.10.30, where at the Berkeley forum change log it says that 6.8.14 is out with all the bells and wistles.
A GR page advertises as a screensaver project (similar to old UD Screenssaver, Lifesaver), but is that still a proper or is it just to indicate that the client by default will only run when the screensaver has kicked in / the system has been idle for X minutes?
Thanks in advance for your advice.
Edit: sorry, 6.8.15 is now the latest (alpha I suppose).
Which distribution to use with GridRepublic:
You are correct you can use GridRepublic with the standard BOINC software by attaching it. (attachment instructions for BOINC users)
If you want to use the BOINC software it is fine to do so. It is not required for someone to use the GridRepublic's program to use GridRepublic. See more on BOINC and GridRepublic.
Addressing the problem of nothing happening:
You stated "did synchro, nothing is happening here or at the project site profile,".
This is a little unclear could you please clarify what you mean by nothing is happening? Are you not getting any work, not showing your computer on the GR website or project website, preferences are not being applied, etc?
Screensaver:
Yes, a screensaver is a feature of BOINC.
The downloaded BOINC programs have a default screensaver which vary depending on what brand of download you are using. These screensavers are not required to be run to help in the research they are more of a thank you. In addition some projects you may choose to participate in distribute a screensaver automatically and if your computer is set to run the BOINC screensaver these will be displayed as well. You can see screen captures of the sceensavers in the project list here by selecting a project to clicking on the computer with the word enlarge under it. If you are logged in you only can view the projects you have not added by going to the add tab.
Your preferences determine when your computer is active at making contributions, a few settings are when you are using the computer and it runs in low priority in the background (most computers handle this without any noticeable change), use after idle for X min, and a few others. See more about changing your preferences here.
both GR and BOINC can run as a tradional screensaver (ie only when the user is inactive), or they can run while you are working, computing with resources not required by other processes active on the machine..
both GR and BOINC currently set the latter as the default. (this can be changed via application preferences.)
the screensaver idea is really more of an analogy at this point -- a way to explain to people the idea of a program that is activated when resources are idle. it is a an analogy which has probably outlived it's usefulness.
1st, you will almost certainly run into to all kinds or problems if you have some computers in an account attached here and others at Bam. adding/removing subprojects is certainly a possibility in that scenario.
we get the list of computers from the project servers. this is not scraped in any sense. that data is private if you marked it as such. however, you (and only you) can access it here, provided that you have either created the account here, or explicitly attached to the account here (both of which required authentication).
does that help clarify?
To add, absent an answer from WCG, that BAM knows my devices are hidden, but does show them in the user account when signed in, all and under their worldly names. Opposed, here they don't though the one device continues to be attached to GR.
There was a comment by knreed that the former "verification code" used to allow 3rd parties to query stats details now also double acts as the BOINC weak account key. The CPID being public, would GR need a field to enter this in the profile to facilitate? Again BAM seemingly does not.
Still in the quest to understand, my GR account password is NOT the same as the WCG password. Is that maybe needed since the verification code is derived off the user id/passwordcombination.
My concern was not GR publishing device information by their network names. My corcern is that I did not want GR to have the host names, just the device ID as what the projects know such as 1223456, using the <suppress_net_info>1</suppress_net_info> line in the cc_config.xml.
Anyway, now understanding what is happening, coming some bug or feature to light. Changing the flag setting of the suppress, then doing a project update and synching instantaneously made a listed retired device pick up the credit of the live device going by the same name and a line remaining at top of the My Computers without a device name that holds the sum of the credit for both the retired and remaining live devices, tallying to the total credit shown on My Projects. In effect the My Computers always showed the total credit, but not any device name associated with it. I'm sure you can look in my account details to see what I mean. Boils down to GR in present setup not picking up Device ID's just device names. I can live with that.
So for the other readers I have on My Computers:
Line 1, no device name but with credit total of all devices live and retired, less line 2/3. It's listed as the oldest BOINC install ever created:
Line 2, a long retired device, no credit (before the days of the network suppress feature)
Line 3, the device summing the credit of a retired and a live host who happen to have the same host name.
I've switched back to suppress network info for all devices, except the My Computers list now refuses to forget what it learned during the test.
ttyl