BOINC
Android BOINC 7.18.1 pauzes when run on DC power with battery setting turned off
As per https://boinc.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=14310&postid=109523 User prefers to be answered via the forums, if that's possible, due to dyslexia and these boards being confusing to them.
I have been running BOINC projects on PC for awhile and wanted to make use of all the ARMv7/8 stuff I have (several SBCs, mobiles and a tablet). Those are using Android 4.4.2 to 11, all with BOINC 7.18.1. Most of them are running fine, but a couple are some pain. All of the devices are 100% dedicated to BOINC, with unnecessary stuff disabled/removed (mobiles+tablet). BOINC is excluded from optimization in all mobiles, but not in the tablet (not available) and SBCs (no need). All devices are air cooled.
Case #1
- Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro (Android 11)
- Works fine when display is active, but slows down when display is inactive. May be an Android issue. Optimization settings does not seems to matter. All the other mobiles I have, do not have this issue. (None of the SBCs either.)
Case #2
- Huawei MediaPad M3 Lite 10 (Android 7)
- The same as Redmi Note 9 Pro.
- When reactivating the display on the MediaPad, the app occasionally crash. At next startup, all the running tasks have restarted from the beginning.
Case #3
- MBX MXQ (Android 4.4.2)
- BOINC installs fine and receives WUs, but refuses to do anything. Claims that battery needs to be charged above 10% (minimum setting). The MXQ have no battery and is DC supplied only. When disabling battery use in the settings, BOINC demands DC power to be connected first. At this point, BOINC is hogging the system, regardless of settings and has to be removed/uninstalled completely, before regaining the normal performance. Have also tried BOINC 7.16.5, but the same. It has been working with an earlier version, but can not recall which. Have tried BOINC 7.4.41/43 and 7.4.51/53, but all of them have other issues, like not connecting to projects. Not even with URLs. Have not checked 7.0.x, 7.1.x and 7.2.x versions.
(And yes, I made a new account because I forgot I changed my email address... no worries, is all me. 😀)
Huawei P9 (Android 7) - same as Case #2 too.
(Headline incorrect, it pauses only - Case #3. Yes, I'm the one who reported these issues.)
Edit. Have been in contact with Huawei, but I am only allowed to 'chat' with an unintelligent bot ... (It didn't even comprehend the word 'throttle')
I left the P9 alone running during the night and discovered 8h later that it only managed to do ~7% work on each WU. During the same period, on paper slower Samsung Galaxy S7 managed to start and finish several WUs.
Edit #2 When the screen becomes active again, two messages appears. The first via system about BOINC being paused. The other reported by BOINC that quickly goes away, about work will be resumed when battery is charged above 10% (while still being at 100% and running on DC) Is it related to Case #3?
Edit #3 BOINC halts when running on battery only.
Edit #4 There is a difference in 7.18.1 in the Banana Pi M3 I'm using. (Same apk used in all Android devices I use.) There is an extra option that can be enabled if the device don't have a battery. This isn't available in any of the others. In a mobile it is understandable, but I suppose it should in the SBCs, including the MXQ. A SBC may have a battery as an option, but isn't standard.
Modern Android version limit a lot applications background activity. There is not much we can do about this. Important to note, such limitations are different for different device manufacturers (I may assume this hardly depends on the hardware, but I'm not sure), and sometime even manually adding application to the exceptions in the Battery Optimizations list doesn't help a lot since OS kernel might kill the application when it's not used by the user (screen is off, no any user interactions with the device). I observe this behavior on both of my Xiaomi devices and have no such issues on my Samsung Galaxy device. Battery Optimization Mode will be handled in #4420. Case no. 4 will be handled in #5305.
