Do you run a CVMFS and a Squid on the same computer?
Is this the computer with IP 192.168.1.179?
Can you confirm that CVMFS uses the Squid?

If so, Squid is correctly configured.
=> You need to look into the container config.

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.

In reply to computezrmle's message of 22 Apr 2026:
The runspec tells you that #events had already been reduced from 100000 to 6000.
Nonetheless mcplots reports only lost tasks (9 of 9), which indicates they run much too long.
Your log snippet shows a estimated time left around 2894 days (~7.9 years!) for the integration phase.
Even if you let it run that long mcplots will mark the task as unknown (=lost).Thanks for the explanation, I will abort the task.

One more question: if the #events in a task is already reduced and the runtime is getting towards the BOINC-limit of 10 days, it should be aborted?

Since Catalina 10.15 (introduced in 2019!) the root filesystem is read-only.
To fake a subfolder there you may need an entry in /etc/synthetic.conf that looks like this:
cvmfs<tab>System/Volumes/Data/cvmfs

After a reboot /cvmfs should be available for the Theory docker app.
For more info see:
https://keith.github.io/xcode-man-pages/synthetic.conf.5.html

Since I don't have a Mac I can't verify this method, so please post a comment whether it worked or not.
To check the logs it would be good that you make your computers visible in the prefs:
https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/prefs.php?subset=project

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?

This task is now under ERROR but continued to run after BOINC & PC shutdown and restart...
Name Theory_2922-4882143-675_2
Workunit 239288667
Created 11 Mar 2026, 21:53:12 UTC
Sent 12 Mar 2026, 1:12:12 UTC
Report deadline 23 Mar 2026, 1:12:12 UTC
Received ---
Server state Over
Outcome No reply
Client state New
Exit status 0 (0x00000000)
Computer ID 10970528
Run time 0 sec
CPU time 0 sec
Priority 0
Validate state Initial
Credit 0.00
Device peak FLOPS 5.56 GFLOPS
Application version Theory Simulation v302.10 (docker)
windows_x86_64

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

again no tasks available - what's going on over there ?

Well, it turns out I DID have to blacklist KVM.
Like this -

If it doesn't exist, create this file -sudo touch /etc/modprobe.d/kvm.conf
Edit kvm.conf and paste these lines -blacklist kvm blacklist kvm_intel blacklist kvm_amdand Save.

Update the GRUB configuration (if necessary):sudo grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfgReboot.

It works now. Thanks!

Bonjour,est ce que vous prévoyez d'optimiser encore l'application 302.1 theory ou est ce le modéle définitif parce que c'est lent avec docker.
ça va beaucoup plus vite sur virtualbox.

Hello, do you plan to further optimize the 302.1 theory application or is it the definitive model because it’s slow with docker.
it goes much faster on virtualbox.

Two other jobs where I tested the cpu- and elapsed time difference when using VBox rather than docker for the same job:

pp bbbar 7000 20 - pythia8 8.313 default 100000 644 vbox: Run time 1 hours 18 min 2 sec CPU time 1 hours 16 min 34 sec docker: Run time 45 min 3 sec CPU time 38 min 16 sec
pp zinclusive 8000 -,-,100,170 - pythia8 8.306 tune-AU2m 100000 650 vbox: Run time 5 hours 7 min 54 sec CPU time 4 hours 57 min 50 sec docker: Run time 1 hours 54 min 10 sec CPU time 1 hours 40 min 49 sec

apres essais ,l'émulation linux pour docker me fais perdre environ 20% de performances globales sur mon pc en me basant sur les temps de calcul des autres projets non docker.C'est sans interet.autant resté sous linux.

after trying, the Linux emulation for docker makes me lose about 20% of overall performance on my PC based on the computation times of other non-docker projects. It is of no interest. as much remained under linux.

Cool, thanks for that last tip about the runRivet.log file. At least there I can keep an eye on it.
Very useful.



In reply to Crystal Pellet's message of 12 Feb 2026:
Yeah, Advice is ... let it run.
Theory tasks can run from 5 minutes to over 10 days, so don't look at the % done or remaining time. That's of no use.

The Show Graphics button is only available for VBox-tasks, not for the docker version.

I see your task is running in slot 0
In that slot is a folder named 'shared'.
In the shared folder is a file called 'runRivet.log'.
The process running in the container is writing the progress of the event processing into that file.[/quote]

In reply to Crystal Pellet's message of 9 Feb 2026:
Your i7-8700 can't make a connection to CERN:

Probing CVMFS repositories ...
Probing /cvmfs/alice.cern.ch... Failed!
Probing /cvmfs/cvmfs-config.cern.ch... Failed!
Probing /cvmfs/grid.cern.ch... Failed!
Probing /cvmfs/sft.cern.ch... Failed!
Probing CVMFS repositories failed

Thank you...

This workunit containing the job "boinc pp z1j 8000 - - sherpa 2.2.8 default 100000 500" starves because of EXIT_DISK_LIMIT_EXCEEDED
https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/workunit.php?wuid=238981772
The 20 hours running docker task with peak disk usage of 7.48 GB contains:

got abort request from client
running docker command: kill boinc__lhcathome.cern.ch_lhcathome__theory_2922-4899195-500_1
program: podman
command output:
boinc__lhcathome.cern.ch_lhcathome__theory_2922-4899195-500_1
EOM
.
.
.
stderr end
running docker command: container rm boinc__lhcathome.cern.ch_lhcathome__theory_2922-4899195-500_1
program: podman
command output:
boinc__lhcathome.cern.ch_lhcathome__theory_2922-4899195-500_1
EOM
running docker command: image rm boinc__lhcathome.cern.ch_lhcathome__theory_2922-4899195-500
program: podman
command output:
Untagged: localhost/boinc__lhcathome.cern.ch_lhcathome__theory_2922-4899195-500:latest
Deleted: 79376ef46d917bc296637af0b05b32bfd9343f28f7fbcb0b1de6c1c506d72d39
Deleted: 9259743e983aaef18ae52b23e457320fa4e849e4e352edb3ad1bd4eece38cec6
Deleted: a42a951158504bf9a4debe713e6aa7365d4651bd8f02aa676adef32a66e324da
Deleted: e06ed2ad55322792d5d90223aced1f2c12f101443f88bc2e586a122413c7ebe0
Deleted: c4f9331961caded74fc715fe1b0e5a576df596340e8a2d50385e0fbdc1cd9ea6

I aborted mine.

In reply to homer__simpsons's message of 6 Feb 2026:
Some of the tasks I received completed in less than 20 minutes, some took 2-6 hours (displaying at 99.987% or 100% for hours). This (21h+) is displaying at 100%.

The task: https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/result.php?resultid=432278682
The workunit: https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/workunit.php?wuid=238897618It is very usual when a Theory task is running for more than 1 day. Up to >10 days (very rare)
Your task with the herwig7 generator can last longer than 1 day. Let it run.
You may show the progress when using "Show Graphics" from BOINC Manager.
Highlight the running task and press the "Show Graphics" button. A local webpage will popup. Press the Logs link and then the running.log.