I am a Linux noob. I have installed BOINC in Virtual Box on a Windows machine. The virtual disk space was initially set to only 10GB. Subsequently I increased it to 20GB. On this VM BOINC does not recognize the added disk space available. How can make it recognize that there is more than a few hundred MB of disk available to it?

I am a Linux noob. I have installed BOINC in Virtual Box on a Windows machine. The virtual disk space was initially set to only 10GB. Subsequently I increased it to 20GB. On this VM BOINC does not recognize the added disk space available. How can make it recognize that there is more than a few hundred MB of disk available to it?

I have never used VB but I think the issue is to do with your virtual box settings. Might be worth doing a search on how to change those?

I used the VirtualBox Virtual Media Manager to increase the initial 10GB limit to 20GB. VirtualBox recognizes that the limit is now 20GB. Neither Ubuntu or BOINC sees the change.

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Just checked, with 5 tasks running at once, CPDN is taking up a bit over 14GB of disk space. As one task has just started this probably will peak at about 15GB so I can see this is not satisfactory. There is this that looks like the same problem and seems to have a solution. A quick search indicates this is a problem many experience. Do let us know how you get on.

Edit: Pretty sure that if no one here knows the answer, there will be people over on the BOINC forums who do.

Just checked, with 5 tasks running at once, CPDN is taking up a bit over 14GB of disk space. As one task has just started this probably will peak at about 15GB so I can see this is not satisfactory.

On my regular RHEL8 Linux system (not Virtual Box on a Windows machine. ... VM BOINC) I run 8 Boinc tasks at a time. I limit ClimatePrediction to 4 tasks and it is currently running four N216 tasks and there are no others queued up to run and all completed ones have been reported. According to 7.16.11 Boinc Manager,, ClimatePrediction uses 19.05 GB of disk space. On my machine, there are about 85 GBytes more disk space available for Boinc projects if needed.

Perhaps I use more disk because there is code for other ClimatePrediction tasks up there. Here are the big CPDN disk files. Note the non N216 tasks are all very small compared to the N216 tasks. I cut the list off once some non N26 tasks started showing.

jeandavid8[/var/lib/boinc/projects/climateprediction.net]$ du . -a | sort -nr 
19934520	.
3064424	./hadam4h_c08c_206511_5_883_012036988
2872124	./hadam4h_11fr_209905_5_902_012079222
2831412	./hadam4h_h0wn_201305_5_901_012076434
2700732	./hadam4h_b0oe_201111_5_882_012035886
2686084	./hadam4h_10g5_209305_5_902_012077940
2452696	./hadam4h_c08c_206511_5_883_012036988/datain
2272464	./hadam4h_h01h_200711_5_889_012043540
2222900	./hadam4h_h0vf_201205_5_901_012076390
2055996	./hadam4h_c08c_206511_5_883_012036988/datain/ancil
1950428	./hadam4h_b0oe_201111_5_882_012035886/datain
1733888	./hadam4h_11fr_209905_5_902_012079222/datain
1733888	./hadam4h_10g5_209305_5_902_012077940/datain
1731492	./hadam4h_h0wn_201305_5_901_012076434/datain
1731492	./hadam4h_h0vf_201205_5_901_012076390/datain
1731484	./hadam4h_h01h_200711_5_889_012043540/datain
1553728	./hadam4h_b0oe_201111_5_882_012035886/datain/ancil
1337188	./hadam4h_11fr_209905_5_902_012079222/datain/ancil
1337188	./hadam4h_10g5_209305_5_902_012077940/datain/ancil
1334792	./hadam4h_h0wn_201305_5_901_012076434/datain/ancil
1334792	./hadam4h_h0vf_201205_5_901_012076390/datain/ancil
1334784	./hadam4h_h01h_200711_5_889_012043540/datain/ancil
1137228	./hadam4h_11fr_209905_5_902_012079222/dataout
1096996	./hadam4h_h0wn_201305_5_901_012076434/dataout
1000812	./hadam4h_h0wn_201305_5_901_012076434/datain/ancil/oxi.addfa.N216L38
1000812	./hadam4h_h0vf_201205_5_901_012076390/datain/ancil/oxi.addfa.N216L38
1000812	./hadam4h_h01h_200711_5_889_012043540/datain/ancil/oxi.addfa.N216L38
1000812	./hadam4h_c08c_206511_5_883_012036988/datain/ancil/oxi.addfa.N216L38
1000812	./hadam4h_b0oe_201111_5_882_012035886/datain/ancil/oxi.addfa.N216L38
1000812	./hadam4h_11fr_209905_5_902_012079222/datain/ancil/oxi.addfa.N216L38
1000812	./hadam4h_10g5_209305_5_902_012077940/datain/ancil/oxi.addfa.N216L38
948468	./hadam4h_10g5_209305_5_902_012077940/dataout
749976	./hadam4h_b0oe_201111_5_882_012035886/dataout
611348	./hadam4h_c08c_206511_5_883_012036988/dataout
540668	./hadam4h_h01h_200711_5_889_012043540/dataout
491000	./hadam4h_h0vf_201205_5_901_012076390/dataout
414900	./hadam4h_c08c_206511_5_883_012036988/dataout/atmos_restart.day
414896	./hadam4h_b0oe_201111_5_882_012035886/dataout/atmos_restart.day
404912	./hadam4h_h0wn_201305_5_901_012076434/dataout/atmos_restart.day
404912	./hadam4h_h0vf_201205_5_901_012076390/dataout/atmos_restart.day
404912	./hadam4h_h01h_200711_5_889_012043540/dataout/atmos_restart.day
404912	./hadam4h_11fr_209905_5_902_012079222/dataout/atmos_restart.day
404912	./hadam4h_10g5_209305_5_902_012077940/dataout/atmos_restart.day
396672	./hadam4h_h0wn_201305_5_901_012076434/datain/dumps
396672	./hadam4h_h0vf_201205_5_901_012076390/datain/dumps
396672	./hadam4h_h01h_200711_5_889_012043540/datain/dumps
396672	./hadam4h_c08c_206511_5_883_012036988/datain/dumps
396672	./hadam4h_b0oe_201111_5_882_012035886/datain/dumps
396672	./hadam4h_11fr_209905_5_902_012079222/datain/dumps
396672	./hadam4h_10g5_209305_5_902_012077940/datain/dumps
396668	./hadam4h_h0wn_201305_5_901_012076434/datain/dumps/h0wn_901_atmos
396668	./hadam4h_h0vf_201205_5_901_012076390/datain/dumps/h0vf_901_atmos
396668	./hadam4h_h01h_200711_5_889_012043540/datain/dumps/h01h_889_atmos
396668	./hadam4h_c08c_206511_5_883_012036988/datain/dumps/c08c_883_atmos
396668	./hadam4h_b0oe_201111_5_882_012035886/datain/dumps/b0oe_882_atmos
396668	./hadam4h_11fr_209905_5_902_012079222/datain/dumps/11fr_902_atmos
396668	./hadam4h_10g5_209305_5_902_012077940/datain/dumps/10g5_902_atmos
364492	./hadam4h_c08c_206511_5_883_012036988/datain/ancil/sst_r001i1p02868_20641001-20661230
364492	./hadam4h_c08c_206511_5_883_012036988/datain/ancil/sic_r001i1p02868_20641001-20661230
341064	./hadam4h_11fr_209905_5_902_012079222/dataout/11frga.pat9may
321744	./hadam4h_h0wn_201305_5_901_012076434/dataout/h0wnga.pal3jul
252192	./hadam4h_10g5_209305_5_902_012077940/dataout/10g5ga.pat3aug
238688	./hadam4h_11fr_209905_5_902_012079222/datain/ancil/so2dms_rcp26-2095_N216_208912-210112
238688	./hadam4h_10g5_209305_5_902_012077940/datain/ancil/so2dms_rcp26-2095_N216_208912-210112
238576	./hadam4h_c08c_206511_5_883_012036988/datain/ancil/so2dms_r001i1p02868_2065_2076_v2
237040	./hadam4h_h0wn_201305_5_901_012076434/datain/ancil/so2dms_rcp45_N216_2009_2020
237040	./hadam4h_h0vf_201205_5_901_012076390/datain/ancil/so2dms_rcp45_N216_2009_2020
237036	./hadam4h_h01h_200711_5_889_012043540/datain/ancil/so2dms_rcp45_N216_1999_2010
237036	./hadam4h_b0oe_201111_5_882_012035886/datain/ancil/so2dms_rcp45_N216_2009_2020
195336	./hadam4h_11fr_209905_5_902_012079222/dataout/11frga.pct9may
195336	./hadam4h_11fr_209905_5_902_012079222/dataout/11frga.pbt9may
191364	./11fr_902_atmos.gz
190780	./10g5_902_atmos.gz
190184	./h0vf_901_atmos.gz
190108	./h0wn_901_atmos.gz
184296	./hadam4h_h0wn_201305_5_901_012076434/dataout/h0wnga.pcl3jul
184296	./hadam4h_h0wn_201305_5_901_012076434/dataout/h0wnga.pbl3jul
174592	./oxi.addfa.N216L38.gz
144552	./hadam4h_10g5_209305_5_902_012077940/dataout/10g5ga.pct3aug
144552	./hadam4h_10g5_209305_5_902_012077940/dataout/10g5ga.pbt3aug
132544	./hadam4h_b0oe_201111_5_882_012035886/datain/ancil/sst_r001i1p01554_20111001-20120530
132544	./hadam4h_b0oe_201111_5_882_012035886/datain/ancil/sic_r001i1p01554_20111001-20120530
123336	./hadam4h_b0oe_201111_5_882_012035886/dataout/b0oega.pbl2jan
116632	./so2dms_rcp45_N216_2009_2020.gz
103576	./hadam4h_b0oe_201111_5_882_012035886/dataout/b0oega.pal2jan
91960	./so2dms_rcp26-2095_N216_208912-210112.gz
77784	./hadam4h_b0oe_201111_5_882_012035886/dataout/b0oega.pcl2jan
71592	./hadam4h_c08c_206511_5_883_012036988/dataout/c08cga.pbq6jan
62856	./hadam4h_h01h_200711_5_889_012043540/dataout/h01hga.pak8jan
60192	./hadam4h_c08c_206511_5_883_012036988/dataout/c08cga.paq6jan
45312	./hadam4h_c08c_206511_5_883_012036988/dataout/c08cga.pcq6jan
45152	./hadam4h_c08c_206511_5_883_012036988/datain/ancil/ozone_RCP85_N216L38_2064-2075
39672	./hadam4h_h0vf_201205_5_901_012076390/dataout/h0vfga.pal2may
36360	./hadam4h_h01h_200711_5_889_012043540/dataout/h01hga.pck8jan
36360	./hadam4h_h01h_200711_5_889_012043540/dataout/h01hga.pbk8jan
23112	./hadam4h_h0vf_201205_5_901_012076390/dataout/h0vfga.pcl2may
23112	./hadam4h_h0vf_201205_5_901_012076390/dataout/h0vfga.pbl2may
23072	./hadam4h_h0wn_201305_5_901_012076434/datain/ancil/ALLclim_ancil_7mon_OSTIA_sst_N216_2013-04-01_2013-10-30
23072	./hadam4h_h0wn_201305_5_901_012076434/datain/ancil/ALLclim_ancil_7mon_OSTIA_ice_N216_2013-04-01_2013-10-30
23072	./hadam4h_h0vf_201205_5_901_012076390/datain/ancil/ALLclim_ancil_7mon_OSTIA_sst_N216_2012-04-01_2012-10-30
23072	./hadam4h_h0vf_201205_5_901_012076390/datain/ancil/ALLclim_ancil_7mon_OSTIA_ice_N216_2012-04-01_2012-10-30
23072	./hadam4h_h01h_200711_5_889_012043540/datain/ancil/ALLclim_ancil_7mon_OSTIA_sst_N216_2007-10-01_2008-04-30
23072	./hadam4h_h01h_200711_5_889_012043540/datain/ancil/ALLclim_ancil_7mon_OSTIA_ice_v2_N216_2007-10-01_2008-04-30
23072	./hadam4h_11fr_209905_5_902_012079222/datain/ancil/HAPPI_1.5K_sst_N216_2099-04-01_2099-10-30
23072	./hadam4h_11fr_209905_5_902_012079222/datain/ancil/HAPPI_1.5K_ice_N216_2099-04-01_2099-10-30
23072	./hadam4h_10g5_209305_5_902_012077940/datain/ancil/HAPPI_1.5K_sst_N216_2093-04-01_2093-10-30
23072	./hadam4h_10g5_209305_5_902_012077940/datain/ancil/HAPPI_1.5K_ice_N216_2093-04-01_2093-10-30
20992	./hadam4h_h0wn_201305_5_901_012076434/datain/ancil/VOLC38_LR_N216
20992	./hadam4h_h0vf_201205_5_901_012076390/datain/ancil/VOLC38_LR_N216
20992	./hadam4h_h01h_200711_5_889_012043540/datain/ancil/VOLC38_LR_N216
20992	./hadam4h_c08c_206511_5_883_012036988/datain/ancil/VOLC38_LR_N216
20992	./hadam4h_b0oe_201111_5_882_012035886/datain/ancil/VOLC38_LR_N216
20992	./hadam4h_11fr_209905_5_902_012079222/datain/ancil/VOLC38_LR_N216
20992	./hadam4h_10g5_209305_5_902_012077940/datain/ancil/VOLC38_LR_N216
20856	./hadam4h_h0wn_201305_5_901_012076434/datain/ancil/ic_N216_2003_11_000057_f.nc
20856	./hadam4h_h0vf_201205_5_901_012076390/datain/ancil/ic_N216_2003_03_000037_f.nc
20856	./hadam4h_11fr_209905_5_902_012079222/datain/ancil/ic_N216_2003_03_000037_f.nc
20856	./hadam4h_10g5_209305_5_902_012077940/datain/ancil/ic_N216_2003_11_000057_f.nc
20852	./hadam4h_h01h_200711_5_889_012043540/datain/ancil/ic_N216_2003_11_000057.nc
20852	./hadam4h_c08c_206511_5_883_012036988/datain/ancil/ic_N216_2003_08_000006.nc
20852	./hadam4h_b0oe_201111_5_882_012035886/datain/ancil/ic_N216_2002_12_000034.nc
16008	./hadam4h_b0oe_201111_5_882_012035886/dataout/b0oega.pfl2jan
15984	./ic_N216_2003_11_000057_f.nc.gz
15976	./ic_N216_2003_03_000037_f.nc.gz
12056	./hadam4h_b0oe_201111_5_882_012035886/dataout/b0oega.pdl2jan
10912	./HAPPI_1.5K_sst_N216_2099-04-01_2099-10-30.gz
10912	./HAPPI_1.5K_sst_N216_2093-04-01_2093-10-30.gz
9672	./hadam4h_c08c_206511_5_883_012036988/dataout/c08cga.pfq6jan
9068	./hadam4h_11fr_209905_5_902_012079222/datain/ancil/ozone_rcp26-2095_N216L38_208901_210201v2
9068	./hadam4h_10g5_209305_5_902_012077940/datain/ancil/ozone_rcp26-2095_N216L38_208901_210201v2
8320	./hadam4h_h0wn_201305_5_901_012076434/datain/ancil/ozone_rcp45_N216L38_2009_2020v2
8320	./hadam4h_h0vf_201205_5_901_012076390/datain/ancil/ozone_rcp45_N216L38_2009_2020v2
8320	./hadam4h_h01h_200711_5_889_012043540/datain/ancil/ozone_rcp45_N216L38_1999_2010v2
8320	./hadam4h_b0oe_201111_5_882_012035886/datain/ancil/ozone_rcp45_N216L38_2009_2020v2
7572	./hadcm3s_um_8.36_i686-pc-linux-gnu
7392	./hadam4h_c08c_206511_5_883_012036988/dataout/c08cga.pdq6jan
6552	./hadsm4_um_8.02_i686-pc-linux-gnu

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I never found an answer to my original question, but I did find a more draconian solution to the problem. After playing around with the VBox Media Manager while trying to convert dynamic virtual disk to fixed virtual disk, I managed to break my Ubuntu installation. I removed the VM and its files and started over giving a new VM 20 GB of virtual disk. Going forward with a new Ubuntu install and a new BOINC install fixed everything. I am now crunching in VBox under Windows 10.

---

Glad you got it working even if via a rather drastic method.

I removed the VM and its files and started over giving a new VM 20 GB of virtual disk.

I don't know what disk usage will be when they hit the main site but an OpenIFS task from testing branch is currently using about 10GB on my rig!

Glad you got it going. I would sugest that you increase the virtual disc size to at least 40 or 50Gb if you have the hard drive space available.

I don't know what disk usage will be when they hit the main site but an OpenIFS task from testing branch is currently using about 10GB on my rig!

I do not have any OpenIFS work and never had any. At the moment, three N216 tasks and one N144 task are taking about 17 GBytes of disk.

In anticipation of these tasks, I doubled my RAM and the partition Boinc is in can go up to about 110 GBytes, so it is now

Processor               Intel(R) Xeon(R) W-2245 CPU @ 3.90GHz
Memory 	                  62.4  GB  64GB 4x16GB DDR4 2933MHz RDIM M ECC Memory
Cache 	               16896    KB
Swap space 	          15.62 GB
Total disk space 	 117.21 GB
Free Disk Space 	  88.41 GB

---

In anticipation of these tasks, I doubled my RAM and the partition Boinc is in can go up to about 110 GBytes,

A wise move. I have suggested the minimum requirements for running the project are updated on their website. Currently it suggests a dial up connection is OK! In 24 hours the testing task I was running produced over 7GB of zips which I reckon would take over a week to upload on dialup!

Fortunately, I no longer have dial-up. Verizon FiOS instead.

Timestamp 	     Download 	    Upload 	   Test Server	
6/1/2021 13:21:11    76.88 Mbps     89.09 Mbps    New York City, NY
5/22/2021 0:0:26     79.18 Mbps     89.10 Mbps    Washington DC
5/21/2021 23:59:23   79.01 Mbps     88.68 Mbps    Chicago, IL

---

Some things BOINC only looks at during client startup. If OpenCL drivers are added a client restart is needed for the client to see the drivers. Was the client restarted after the VM disk size change?

Some things BOINC only looks at during client startup. If OpenCL drivers are added a client restart is needed for the client to see the drivers. Was the client restarted after the VM disk size change?

Yes, I even re-booted the entire PC.

---

I used the VirtualBox Virtual Media Manager to increase the initial 10GB limit to 20GB. VirtualBox recognizes that the limit is now 20GB. Neither Ubuntu or BOINC sees the change.

That is as expected. There are three steps:
1. The VM media manager will increase the disc partition size to 20GB, nothing else. More than 30GB virtual disc will be needed. After two tries, I ended up at 40GB.
2. To increase the ubuntu disc into the expanded VM partition, I use the Gparted utility.
3. Check and adjust the BOINC local preferences (disc and memory) to allow BOINC/CPDN to use the increased ubuntu disc space.

Note 1. These three steps worked for me with a dynamically allocated VM disc using Oracle VM Virtualbox 6.1. I've not tried it with a fixed disc size.
Note 2. There is a lot of stopping ubuntu and rebooting (starting) the ubuntu VM throughout the process steps. It's quite logical when you think about the steps.
Note 3. Always suspend BOINC activity before playing with the partitions and discs.
Note 4: With WIN10, Oracle Virtualbox,6.1 and ubuntu 20.04 VM, 16GB RAM is barely enough to run four CPDN tasks. 3GB for each CPDN task is the minimum recommended elsewhere.
Note 5. Allocating more than 11GB memory for the VM (physical RAM 16GB) ran into the buffers of WIN10.
Note 6. With a 40GB virtual disc, BOINC and four concurrent CPDN tasks take up 15GB, ubuntu (et al) takes up 12GB, about 10GB free to BOINC, and 1GB free but not available to BOINC.
Note 7. For heavy users of other software the VM ubuntu and BOINC/CPDN software can be a less 'friendly' combination than running BOINC/CPDN under a native OS setup. I routinely run into blank screen issues whilst chrome excel and word are heavily used. The answer (for me) is to stop the ubuntu VM and close Virtualbox.

---

Thinking, I might need to go down the virtual box route to run a windows client at the same time as a Linux one. This would let me run testing work for windows using WINE at the same time as running main site work natively under Linux. Unless someone knows an easy way to run a windows BOINC under WINE at the same time as the linux client? - have also asked about this over on the BOINC forums.