Bug 705444

The problem is how to configure BOINC to run as real background task when systemd and cgroups are being used. boinc-client package should be configured in that way, so after installation (or upgrade) it would run really in background instead of getting the same cpu time share as all some other normal user processes together.

Workarounded problem by
1) adding backgromg CGROUP

--- /etc/cgconfig.conf-20110526 2011-05-26 08:49:07.794303903 +0300
+++ /etc/cgconfig.conf  2011-05-26 08:49:49.666429924 +0300
@@ -24,3 +24,8 @@
        net_cls = /sys/fs/cgroup/net_cls;
 }
 
+group background {
+       cpu {
+               cpu.shares = 1;
+       }
+}

2) telling boinc-client service to use cpu:/background group

--- /etc/sysconfig/boinc-client-20110526        2011-05-26 08:51:06.530832500 +0300
+++ /etc/sysconfig/boinc-client 2011-05-26 08:51:37.530188219 +0300
@@ -40,3 +40,5 @@
 #BOINCOPTS="--check_all_logins"
 # The default is no options.
 #BOINCOPTS=
+
+CGROUP_DAEMON="cpu:/background"


After that BOINC client seems to work OK in background (tested on 2
systems: both Fedora 15 x86_64)

I guess it would be good idea if this would happen automatically without need
to additionally hack config files.

It seems that setup mentioned above is highly unreliable
- starting cgconfig.service often fails at boot time and as result
   cpu:/background group is not created
- it is often impossible to start cgconfig.service also manually (it simply
   fails, no matter what I tried:
      - systemctl start cgconfig.service
      - service cgconfig start
      - /etc/init.d/cgconfig start
   also with attempting to stop it at first

In these cases boinc-client service does not start (well I'm getting message
that it is started, but 'systemctl status boinc-client.service' says that it has
exited with return code 0)

So I reverted modifications to /etc/cgconfig.conf and put the following
into /etc/sysconfig/boinc-client:

------------------------------------------------------------
if ! [ -d /sys/fs/cgroup/cpu/background ] ; then
    mkdir -p /sys/fs/cgroup/cpu/background
    echo 1 >/sys/fs/cgroup/cpu/background/cpu.shares
fi

CGROUP_DAEMON="cpu:/background"
------------------------------------------------------------
(the idea is taken from 'man cgconfig.conf')

Andris,

thank you very much for your detailed bugreport and sorry for the delay. I'm about to release a boinc update that solves this issue (using more or less your solution, except for some details -- minimum allowed cpu.share is 2 and I use the cg* tools to manipulate cgroups + configuration is in the init script so that it can be overridden by user in sysconfig file).

boinc-client-6.12.35-1.r24014svn.fc16 has been submitted as an update for Fedora 16.
https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/boinc-client-6.12.35-1.r24014svn.fc16

boinc-client-6.12.35-1.r24014svn.fc15 has been submitted as an update for Fedora 15.
https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/boinc-client-6.12.35-1.r24014svn.fc15

Package boinc-client-6.12.35-1.r24014svn.fc16:
* should fix your issue,
* was pushed to the Fedora 16 testing repository,
* should be available at your local mirror within two days.
Update it with:
# su -c 'yum update --enablerepo=updates-testing boinc-client-6.12.35-1.r24014svn.fc16'
as soon as you are able to.
Please go to the following url:
https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/boinc-client-6.12.35-1.r24014svn.fc16
then log in and leave karma (feedback).

boinc-client-6.12.35-1.r24014svn.fc16 has been pushed to the Fedora 16 stable repository.  If problems still persist, please make note of it in this bug report.

boinc-client-6.12.35-1.r24014svn.fc15 has been pushed to the Fedora 15 stable repository.  If problems still persist, please make note of it in this bug report.