I am able to run tasks with the pattern Theory_nnnn-nnnnnnn-nnnn with out issues but the ones with the extra _nnnnnnnnnn seem to fail after 60 s, they are also not aborted cleanly so if I actually inspected them after some time they are running fine so it seems like there is a timeout that is a little too short for these tasks.

e.g.

https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/workunit.php?wuid=241788633
https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/workunit.php?wuid=241783983

I'm sure that most people have seen this message:

level=warning msg="The cgroupv2 manager is set to systemd but there is no systemd user session available"
level=warning msg="For using systemd, you may need to log in using a user session"
level=warning msg="Alternatively, you can enable lingering with: `loginctl enable-linger nnn` (possibly as root)"
level=warning msg="Falling back to --cgroup-manager=cgroupfs"

For me enabling linger never worked on my computers so I set in /etc/containers/containers.conf

[engine] cgroup_manager = "cgroupfs"

All was well and I had no issues to run tasks.

However, I had another issue and asked the BOINC team for help, they said my podman has issues, so it seems that its not recomeneded to use cgroupfs.

After many hours of trying settings I was able to get systemd to work.

I installed BOINC directly from BOINC as per instructions here https://boinc.berkeley.edu/linux_install.php via apt as I have a Debian based Linux.

However, as it common for LHC@Home the default settings are not compatiable, so you need to overide the defualts.

to get the nnn value you can run id -u boinc,

my numbers, were different on each computer, some were 120, others 125 and other 997.

systemctl edit boinc-client to edit the overide of the default BOINC setting:

[Unit] Requires=user@nnn.service #Wait for the users instance of systemd to start since BOINC is set to auto start at boot. After=user@nnn.service #Wait for the users instance of systemd to start since BOINC is set to auto start at boot. [Service] ProtectHome=false #Since podman need to read and write to /run/user/ folder this needs to be off so it can communicate with podman Delegate=cpu io memory pids #I needed this to ensure that the statistics about the containers are populated correctly MemoryAccounting=yes #I needed this to ensure that the statistics about the containers are populated correctly ProtectSystem=full #needed for VirtualBox to run correctly Environment="XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/nnn" #I'm not sure if this is needed but seemed to help BOINC find podman Environment="DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:path=/run/user/nnn/bus" #I'm not sure if this is needed but seemed to help BOINC find podman

For me the boinc user that was created automatically had many services that were not needed (e.g. audio, firmware updater) so I could disable these, its more a cosmetic thing.

systemctl --user -M boinc@ mask \ pipewire.service \ pipewire-pulse.service \ pipewire-pulse.socket \ filter-chain.service \ wireplumber.service \ xdg-document-portal.service \ xdg-permission-store.service \ snap.firmware-updater.firmware-notifier.service \ snap.firmware-updater.firmware-notifier.timer \ snap.prompting-client.daemon.service \ snap.snapd-desktop-integration.snapd-desktop-integration.service

Hopefully this is useful to get your podman/BOINC running too.

In reply to Pascal's message of 29 May 2026:
... could you give me a step-by-step description. ...
My previous post describes the steps you need to do.

For example #3:
Use an editor you are familiar with and modify /etc/cvmfs/default.local as follows:
- add 'alice.cern.ch' to the repository list
- remove 'geant4.cern.ch'

For example #4:
Use an editor you are familiar with and modify /etc/cvmfs/default.local as follows:
Add 'CVMFS_USE_CDN=yes'

Similar with the other numbers.
I will not explain how to create a file, open a file in an arbitrary text editor, enter a line, modify some text, remove another line, save the file ...

... if I understood correctly, you have to install cvmfs + podman and that’s it.
Is the installation of CVMFS for podman identical to the one used to do the theory native tasks?
The docker/podman app replaced the older Theory native app.
Podman (or docker) is a MUST HAVE to run this app.

A local CVMFS is recommended as it avoids a lot of network traffic but it is independent from Podman.
If you don't install it, a CVMFS inside the container will be used.
If you decide to use CVMFS on the host it MUST be correctly configured!
As for CVMFS you got the links with step by step instructions and comments in your task logs.

Done its https://github.com/BOINC/boinc/issues/7100

Finally got the server to take back my finished Dockers and give me some new ones ....nothing at -dev yet

I used to get very long Theory work units, such as some more than 12 hours (on a 2 year old CPU) such as sent dates April 5, 13, 30 and May 1 and 8 (such as https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/result.php?resultid=435330784). Some long tasks included those with Input file metadata indicating pythia8, sherpa, herwig, powheg-box, and likely other subtypes.

Since May 8, all work units complete in usually under an hour and a few within about 3-4 hours on that same PC system,

Has the generation of the long work units changed or is it just random over time?

Just wondering whether we still need to request a red message in the Event Log to warn users when a specific task may take a very long time to run.

Sadly, that's not the same problem. It completed on my end successfully and the task has online the status 'Completed, waiting for validation' but it has been waiting for 10 days.
Some tasks had similar results, but they got sent out again to another user, and when that was done, it finished up.
But here it seems that the sending-out part was not generated successfully.

I don't have htop inside the container so I just used top e.g.

podman exec -it ed746bb7ffd4 top -n1

Tasks: 17 total, 2 running, 15 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie %Cpu(s): 0.4 us, 24.3 sy, 72.5 ni, 2.9 id, 0.0 wa, 0.0 hi, 0.0 si, 0.0 st MiB Mem : 511227.9 total, 447688.1 free, 53287.8 used, 17278.2 buff/cache MiB Swap: 8192.0 total, 8192.0 free, 0.0 used. 457940.1 avail Mem PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND 965 boinc 30 10 635044 269404 14120 R 100.0 0.1 3196:45 Herwig

Since I have more than 1 container I used podman ps to get the ID (ed746bb7ffd4 ) that I was intrested in.

This is the current mcplots statistic for that runspec:
run events attempts success failure unknown pp z1j 13000 55 - herwig7 7.2.0 nlo-pw 453000 10 5 0 5
So far the success rate is 50%, so there are computers returning valid results.
Be more patient.
It doesn't make sense to complain about each long running task that has not even reached the deadline.

Very cool. I had a bot modify it to run in wsl.
I am attached to 2 very slow huge tasks at the moment.
Both are over 26 hrs old and still chewing.

When you install a local CVMFS on MacOS this is what 'cvmfs_config setup' originally does (copied from the CVMFS source code):
# Since MacOS 10.15 Catalina it is not possible anymore (without disabling # SIP) create directory in root `/`. # We decide to move the standard installation directory on # `/Users/shared/cvmfs` instead of `/cvmfs` # In order to keep the standard CVMFS mountpoint, we decide to implement # firmlinks from `/cvmfs` to `/Users/shared/cvmfs` if compare_versions $(sw_vers -productVersion) -ge "10.15"; then mkdir -p /Users/shared/cvmfs chown cvmfs:cvmfs /Users/shared/cvmfs chmod 777 /Users/shared/cvmfs if ! grep -q "^cvmfs\t" /etc/synthetic.conf 2> /dev/null ; then echo -e "# The line below was autogenerated by CernVM-FS, do not delete nor edit" >> /etc/synthetic.conf echo -e "cvmfs\t/Users/Shared/cvmfs" >> /etc/synthetic.conf fi # reload synthetic.conf - seems to return nonzero status code even on success /System/Library/Filesystems/apfs.fs/Contents/Resources/apfs.util -t || true else echo "Fuse4x and autofs bug" > /dev/null mkdir -p /cvmfs chown cvmfs:cvmfs /cvmfs chmod 777 /cvmfs fi
To run Theory (docker) without a local CVMFS you MUST ensure '/cvmfs' is present since the container requires it as mountpoint.
So, manually run the relevant commands from the source code above as admin, then reboot:
mkdir -p /Users/shared/cvmfs chmod 777 /Users/shared/cvmfs if ! grep -q "^cvmfs\t" /etc/synthetic.conf 2> /dev/null; then echo -e "cvmfs\t/Users/Shared/cvmfs" >> /etc/synthetic.conf; fi
The part between 'if' and 'fi' must be run as one command without a newline that may be inserted by the forum software here!
If you get permission issues you may not be admin!
In this case, consult your manual or visit MacOS related websites.

It's working fine.

The environment proxy is nice to have for CMS (only) since CMS requests many objects from a distinct CERN webserver (but by far the most from CVMFS!). Theory does not use any data not provided via CVMFS.

Since the scripts were developed for CMS but are now also used for Theory you get that message about the missing environment proxy.
The reason is not the script but a missing tool at Theory (VM as well as podman image).
So far it makes no sense to install that tool on Theory.
Just focus on CVMFS and ignore the message.

In reply to computezrmle's message of 20 Apr 2026:
Toby Broom already mentioned that the VirtualBox app will not run on your Mx Mac (since the guest is x86_64 based).

What may run is the Theory docker app, but it reports an error since it requires /cvmfs to test whether a local CVMFS client is available.
Although running a local CVMFS would be the preferred solution I suggest to first test the following method.

Creating a subfolder directly under '/' seems to be a pain on MacOS.
See here for a possible solution and report if it works:
https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome//forum_thread.php?id=6481&postid=53450

Thanks computezrmle,

I'll see what I can do.

Name Theory_2922-4881498-693
Anwendung Theory Simulation
batch 19854517
erstellt 6 Mar 2026, 12:21:50 UTC
Mindestanzahl 1
Anfängliche Kopien 1
max # von Fehler/Gesamt/Erfolg Aufgaben 3, 3, 1
Fehler Zu viele Ergebnisse insgesamt
Command line
Priority 0
Job instances
Aufgabe
anklicken für Einzelheiten Computer Gesendet Meldezeit
oder Ablaufdatum
Erklärung Status Laufzeit
(sek) CPU Zeit
(sek) Punkte Anwendung
433463131 10870847 7 Mar 2026, 1:17:10 UTC 14 Mar 2026, 9:37:54 UTC Abgebrochen 627,659.94 595,418.10 --- Theory Simulation v302.10 (docker)
windows_x86_64
433857762 10915803 14 Mar 2026, 12:17:41 UTC 25 Mar 2026, 7:45:25 UTC Abgebrochen 137,481.22 112,932.80 --- Theory Simulation v302.10 (docker)
windows_x86_64
434120529 10797673 25 Mar 2026, 10:45:38 UTC 8 Apr 2026, 7:52:12 UTC Abgebrochen 1,197,623.06 1,139,443.00 --- Theory Simulation v302.10 (docker)
windows_x86_64
Input files

if you run boinc as the boinc user you might need to make the config global e.g.

/etc/containers/containers.conf

or put the the boinc users folder., wherever this might be for your install.

I also faked that VirtualBox is installed as alternate

New-Item "C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\virtualbox.exe" New-Item -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Oracle\VirtualBox" New-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Oracle\VirtualBox" -Name "Version" -Value "7.2.2" -PropertyType "String" New-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Oracle\VirtualBox" -Name "VersionExt" -Value "7.2.2" -PropertyType "String" New-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Oracle\VirtualBox" -Name "InstallDir" -Value "C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\" -PropertyType "String"

Seems like the don't use vbox would stop the tasks being sent from server.

The wrapper is part of the main BOINC code base:

https://github.com/BOINC/boinc

Its maintained.

MadGraph5

These types of tasks are rare, but I see the same scenario on one of my PCs.
1. For about half an hour, there is some activity in the VM: Guest shows some CPU load, it downloads around 200 MB, and writes about 100 MB to the disk.
2. After that, Guest activity drops to zero, all performance graphs are flat, and the task log file becomes unreachable.

Here is an excerpt from the log:
===> [runRivet] Wed Apr 8 07:03:39 AM UTC 2026 [boinc pp zinclusive 13000 -,-,200 - madgraph5amc 2.7.2.atlas3...] ... ValueError: unsupported hash type md5 AttributeError : 'module' object has no attribute 'md5' ... ERROR: missing LHE output file: /scratch/tmp/tmp.UjcDJkl2wh/MG5RUN/Events/run_01/unweighted_events.lhe ... [2]+ 2535 Running ( $rivetExecString; exit $? ) & ERROR: fail to run madgraph5amc 2.7.2.atlas3 or Rivet (error exit code)
My preliminary, but not yet firm conclusion: The simulation never started because the angry Python strangled everything, maybe even itself. :)
My action: Brick therapy for that VM.

P.S. For those who are experienced or have real knowledge – please comment, is this "Brick therapy" a correct solution?

Ah thats why i saw a ton of upload backlog on my Boinctasks before shift.