Development for LHC@home

The new docker on Windows app seems to be working. In order to try it out you will need the latest build of the Windows client from the github master branch.

https://github.com/BOINC/boinc/actions/runs/13959247495/artifacts/2785007613

Copy the boinc.exe and boinccmd.exe to the C:\Program Files\BOINC and restart the client.
Using the wsl from the Windows command prompt, download the Ubuntu image. Typing the command wsl should return the Liunx command prompt from the Ubuntu VM.
Install podman in the VM and then try to run a Task via the BOINC client.
There may be one or two additional configuration steps needed but we can document them in this thread.

This configuration will all be wrapped up by the next release of the BOINC client so it should just work out-of-the-box.

In reply to Laurence CERN's message of 20 Mar 2025:

https://github.com/BOINC/boinc/actions/runs/13959247495/artifacts/2785007613

Page not found.

This configuration will all be wrapped up by the next release of the BOINC client so it should just work out-of-the-box.

Maybe this is why my wus say: "wsl_init(): no usable WSL distro" even if i have and Ubuntu machine running...

You need to be logged in to github to get the link. I have copied the zip file to my CERN Box area.

https://cernbox.cern.ch/s/h1oNAwlY178Uhdl

In reply to Laurence CERN's message of 20 Mar 2025:

You need to be logged in to github to get the link. I have copied the zip file to my CERN Box area.

https://cernbox.cern.ch/s/h1oNAwlY178Uhdl

Great!! Thank you!

I have also put it on the server.

https://lhcathomedev.cern.ch/lhcathome-dev/download/win_client_x64_.zip

But still the same error....

<core_client_version>8.1.0</core_client_version>
<![CDATA[
<message>
Funzione non corretta.
(0x1) - exit code 1 (0x1)</message>
<stderr_txt>
docker_wrapper config:
workdir: /boinc_slot_dir
use GPU: no
Web graphics guest port: 80
create args: --log-driver=k8s-file --cap-add=SYS_ADMIN --device /dev/fuse
verbose: 1
wsl_init(): no usable WSL distro
wsl_init() failed: -1
2025-03-20 14:19:34 (3556): called boinc_finish(1)

Please delete the cc_config.xml in the boinc state directory (c:\ProgramData\BOINC) and restart the client. In the event log it should recognize WSL on starting. e.g.

17/03/2025 10:09:59 |  | Usable WSL distros:
17/03/2025 10:09:59 |  | -   Ubuntu (WSL 2) (default)
17/03/2025 10:09:59 |  | -      OS: Ubuntu (Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS)
17/03/2025 10:09:59 |  | -      libc version: 2.39

Sounds trivial, but did you run the fresh Ubuntu installation once to create a username and set a password?

In reply to computezrmle's message of 20 Mar 2025:

Sounds trivial, but did you run the fresh Ubuntu installation once to create a username and set a password?

For me, YES

In reply to Laurence CERN's message of 20 Mar 2025:

Please delete the cc_config.xml in the boinc state directory (c:\ProgramData\BOINC) and restart the client. In the event log it should recognize WSL on starting. e.g.

This is my log:

20/03/2025 14:18:09 | | The BOINC client version has changed from 8.0.2 to 8.1.0.
20/03/2025 14:18:14 | | Docker detection in Ubuntu:
20/03/2025 14:18:14 | | - cmd: podman --version
20/03/2025 14:18:14 | | - output: /bin/bash: line 1: podman: command not found
20/03/2025 14:18:14 | | Docker detection in Ubuntu:
20/03/2025 14:18:14 | | - cmd: docker --version
20/03/2025 14:18:14 | | - output: /bin/bash: line 1: docker: command not found
20/03/2025 14:18:15 | | Windows processor group 0: 12 processors
20/03/2025 14:18:15 | | Local time is UTC +1 hours
20/03/2025 14:18:15 | | Usable WSL distros:
20/03/2025 14:18:15 | | - Ubuntu (WSL 2) (default)
20/03/2025 14:18:15 | | - OS: Ubuntu (Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS)
20/03/2025 14:18:15 | | - libc version: 2.39

You need to install podman.

Access the VM

wsl -d Ubuntu 

Install podman

sudo apt-get install podman

Whats the ETA for Linux? my -dev computer is on Linux.

We are working on it in parallel. You can already give it a try. I will start a new thread.

First Docker-Task WSL finished atm:
https://lhcathomedev.cern.ch/lhcathome-dev/result.php?resultid=3390158
upload failure: <file_xfer_error>
<file_name>Theory_2843-4124703-641_2_r1804770537_result</file_name>
<error_code>-240 (stat() failed)</error_code>
</file_xfer_error>
</message>

Great! This error is due to me playing the template files on the server. Should resolve itself within a few task runs.

:-)) Thank you, good work from you and your Team.

Two Task parallel now,
Taskmanager show:
vmmemWSL with 5.6 GByte RAM in use.

The real credit goes to David Anderson, who developed this. We are merely conducting a test deployment. From what I’ve seen so far, this looks very promising.

No problems so far (Win11pro-Docker).

I tried a Theory docker task on Windows 10 where I didn't have WSL installed. (so from scratch).

I scraped the information left and right and tried a first Theory task with docker instead of VBox.
Miraculously this very first docker task went right away, but was very short, so I'm not sure if any events were actually processed.

https://lhcathomedev.cern.ch/lhcathome-dev/result.php?resultid=3391407

A second task has processed 100000 events:

https://lhcathomedev.cern.ch/lhcathome-dev/result.php?resultid=3391435