Need a little help here, I have been noticing on a couple of my machines that I have been getting more and more of these errors:

2/8/2007 11:35:34 AM|SETI@home|Task 20se03aa.24771.1281.61078.3.203_1 exited with zero status but no 'finished' file

I "reset" the project, it works fine for a few hours {sometimes as much as a day} then the next time I check, same error. Machines are all XP SP2 and worked fine until a few months ago.

Any thoughts would be appreciated

---

First off, your host are hidden so it's hard to tell what's going on exactly.

However, generally speaking this condition is due to something else causing the communication between the science app and the CC to get interrupted for more than ~30 seconds. Doing a project reset will not help correct this in most cases.

The only thing I can suggest is to set your host to boot with nothing else running in the background, and then start re-enabling your other applications one by one until you see the BOINC error again.

As a head start, AV software is a common source for issues like this with BOINC due to the somewhat intrusive manner in which they operate by design.

Alinator

Hi, that message means the science application couldn't communicate with Boinc.exe via "shared memory" for more than 30 seconds. Dr. Anderson give this:

Applications listen for "heartbeat" messages
(sent via shared memory) from the core client.
Normally it's sent once a second.
If the application doesn't get one in 30 secs,
it prints "no heartbeat" and quits

-- David

Exactly why it's not talking is another matter.

I'd recommend upgrading to the latest boinc client, then going to "your account", then "general preferences" and increasing memory available for both "while active" and "not active", and see if that helps. I'm not a whizz at how the OS uses shared memory, so if anyone else has any advice, please chime in".

hope this helps

tony

I believe it might be my AV because it scans over 380,000 files on these machines every day and the first daily entry is usually right around the time my autoscan starts.

Let me ask the question this way.....since resetting will not help this, will BOINC eventually finish the workunit and upload it, or is this a problem in which I should go ahead and uninstall BOINC {AV vs BOINC = No contest}

---

Each time you see it, boinc quits and restarts. When it restarts, it restarts from a previous checkpoint created by the Application. This means you'll lose a few minutes of crunchtime(anywhere from zero seconds, up to the checkpoint period set by the project) each time it happens, however, it should finish, upload, and report just fine.

some checkpoint every 10 minutes, and if it happens mid-checkpoint, then you'll lose 5 minutes, for example.

It's an informational error. It does not hurt the work (in most cases). A suggestion is to stop scanning the BOINC folder, if possible, this may help some. Another thing found to cause this issue is the Time Sync built in Windows 2K/XP.

If you are not getting errors, all that is usually happening is the file backs up to the last check point and continues. Takes a few minutes more. Worst case it starts over, and you lose that time on the file.

Since the projects are under a low priority, when an AV scan like that takes over, it can slow the processes / stop the processes of crunching (whatever project it is on). That's why the error. Kind of a no heartbeat issue.

---

My movie https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/502242

My Linux box has developed the same symptoms since I upgraded it to 5.8.11

No such problem when I was using 5.4.9 and resetting the project makes no difference. No virus scanner on a Linux box to blame, so I can only assume that this is a problem specific to 5.8.11

Wed 14 Feb 2007 21:15:53 GMT||Starting BOINC client version 5.8.11 for i686-pc-linux-gnu
Wed 14 Feb 2007 21:15:53 GMT||log flags: task, file_xfer, sched_ops
Wed 14 Feb 2007 21:15:53 GMT||Libraries: libcurl/7.16.0 OpenSSL/0.9.8d zlib/1.2.3
Wed 14 Feb 2007 21:15:53 GMT||Data directory: /home/robert/BOINC
Wed 14 Feb 2007 21:15:53 GMT|SETI@home|Found app_info.xml; using anonymous platform
Wed 14 Feb 2007 21:15:53 GMT||Processor: 1 AuthenticAMD AMD Sempron(tm) Processor 2800+ [fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt lm 3dnowext 3dnow up pni lahf_lm]
Wed 14 Feb 2007 21:15:53 GMT||Memory: 1002.64 MB physical, 1.07 GB virtual
Wed 14 Feb 2007 21:15:53 GMT||Disk: 84.93 GB total, 76.65 GB free
Wed 14 Feb 2007 21:15:53 GMT|SETI@home|URL: http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/; Computer ID: 2730267; location: home; project prefs: default
Wed 14 Feb 2007 21:15:53 GMT||No general preferences found - using BOINC defaults
Wed 14 Feb 2007 21:15:53 GMT|SETI@home|Restarting task 07mr00aa.12622.13186.61078.3.60_2 using setiathome_enhanced version 513
Wed 14 Feb 2007 21:16:16 GMT||Running CPU benchmarks
Wed 14 Feb 2007 21:16:17 GMT||Suspending computation - running CPU benchmarks
Wed 14 Feb 2007 21:16:18 GMT|SETI@home|Task 07mr00aa.12622.13186.61078.3.60_2 exited with zero status but no 'finished' file
Wed 14 Feb 2007 21:16:18 GMT|SETI@home|If this happens repeatedly you may need to reset the project.
Wed 14 Feb 2007 21:17:18 GMT||Benchmark results:
Wed 14 Feb 2007 21:17:18 GMT|| Number of CPUs: 1
Wed 14 Feb 2007 21:17:18 GMT|| 1372 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU
Wed 14 Feb 2007 21:17:18 GMT|| 2268 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU
Wed 14 Feb 2007 21:17:19 GMT||Resuming computation

I've also just started seeing this message since installing 5.8.11

As I am running a slower PC with a medium sized cache, I do a bit of "micro-managing" BOINC to try to maximize my RAC. If I suspend a WU to start one that has a quicker credit available, since 5.8.11 this message happens when a WU is suspended.

I would not worry too much about this, as it appears to be a "non-fatal" error at the moment.

EDIT: It also happens if you manually run CPU benchmarks.

14/02/2007 23:44:55||Running CPU benchmarks
14/02/2007 23:44:55||Suspending computation - running CPU benchmarks
14/02/2007 23:44:56|SETI@home|Task 07mr00aa.3854.850.922144.3.70_0 exited with zero status but no 'finished' file
14/02/2007 23:44:56|SETI@home|If this happens repeatedly you may need to reset the project.

I would not worry too much about this, as it appears to be a "non-fatal" error at the moment.

If that is the case, then the message
"If this happens repeatedly you may need to reset the project."
should be removed from the code.
It causes useless resets at the moment.

I would not worry too much about this, as it appears to be a "non-fatal" error at the moment.

If that is the case, then the message
"If this happens repeatedly you may need to reset the project."
should be removed from the code.
It causes useless resets at the moment.

Please don't reset, it is non-fatal. See this thread over on the BOINC message boards.

5.8.11 has fixed one bug and introduced another :-(

Keith.

If that is the case, then the message
"If this happens repeatedly you may need to reset the project."
should be removed from the code.
It causes useless resets at the moment.

Only because people have different interpretations of what repeatedly means.
"If it happens half a dozen times or more on all (or at least the vast majority of Work Units) then you should reset" is really a bit wordy.

---

Grant
Darwin NT

Dr. Anderson has checked in a fix for this message. You should see it in the next version. He states this message is "harmless".

David Anderson to James, me, boinc_alpha
show details 4:14 pm (1½ hours ago)

Yes, these are bogus (but harmless) messages.
I checked in a change that gets rid of them.

-- David

Yes, these are bogus (but harmless) messages.
I checked in a change that gets rid of them.

I'd have thought they were actually usefull messages.
If you get a lot of them on a lot of Work Units then you know there is a problem. Removing the message now means people won't know there is a problem, till they notice slowly increasing completion times.

---

Grant
Darwin NT

Yes, these are bogus (but harmless) messages.
I checked in a change that gets rid of them.

I'd have thought they were actually usefull messages.
If you get a lot of them on a lot of Work Units then you know there is a problem. Removing the message now means people won't know there is a problem, till they notice slowly increasing completion times.

Let's hope that what he really means is "get rid of the [new] spurious messages that keep cropping up when there isn't a problem, but keep the [old] messages that cropped up very occasionally when there really was a problem."

But I must say, I haven't been very impressed by this process of gamma-testing a version which was supposedly ready for public release several .versions ago. Reminds you of the advice not to install a certain operating system until at least SR1?

I've just installed BOINC 5.8.12 and that does not fix this error.

There is also another thread on Windows Q & A about this.

5.8.12 was release prior to his post. Keep looking for the next one.

thanks
tony

All,

I clipped the following from the logs on one of my machines. I reset the project at noon today because it still had not finished this one file after 22 hours {showed it was at 17% or so. While I would agree this might be a bogus error, my machines usually do more than 1 workunit in 22 hours.

After the reset, it is 37% through the last workunit....so no reset = no results and 17% in 22 hours, reset = 1/3rd way through workunit in less than an hour.

It could be the AV, but I also turned off the AV yesterday morning to see if it was the culprit. No changes. Any thoughts would be appreciated, I am on 5.8.11 and getting bored with continually resetting the project to get workunits done:

RS

Log entries are as follows:

2/15/2007 2:45:06 PM|SETI@home|Starting task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 using setiathome_enhanced version 515
2/15/2007 4:41:59 PM|SETI@home|Task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 exited with zero status but no 'finished' file
2/15/2007 4:41:59 PM|SETI@home|If this happens repeatedly you may need to reset the project.
2/15/2007 4:41:59 PM|SETI@home|Restarting task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 using setiathome_enhanced version 515
2/15/2007 5:32:18 PM|SETI@home|Task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 exited with zero status but no 'finished' file
2/15/2007 5:32:18 PM|SETI@home|If this happens repeatedly you may need to reset the project.
2/15/2007 5:32:18 PM|SETI@home|Restarting task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 using setiathome_enhanced version 515
2/15/2007 5:38:50 PM|SETI@home|Task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 exited with zero status but no 'finished' file
2/15/2007 5:38:50 PM|SETI@home|If this happens repeatedly you may need to reset the project.
2/15/2007 5:38:50 PM|SETI@home|Restarting task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 using setiathome_enhanced version 515
2/15/2007 5:46:08 PM||Restarting 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 - message timeout
2/15/2007 5:53:27 PM|SETI@home|Task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 exited with zero status but no 'finished' file
2/15/2007 5:53:27 PM|SETI@home|If this happens repeatedly you may need to reset the project.
2/15/2007 5:53:27 PM|SETI@home|Restarting task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 using setiathome_enhanced version 515
2/15/2007 7:03:21 PM|SETI@home|Task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 exited with zero status but no 'finished' file
2/15/2007 7:03:21 PM|SETI@home|If this happens repeatedly you may need to reset the project.
2/15/2007 7:03:21 PM|SETI@home|Restarting task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 using setiathome_enhanced version 515
2/15/2007 7:34:13 PM|SETI@home|Task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 exited with zero status but no 'finished' file
2/15/2007 7:34:13 PM|SETI@home|If this happens repeatedly you may need to reset the project.
2/15/2007 7:34:13 PM|SETI@home|Restarting task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 using setiathome_enhanced version 515
2/15/2007 7:44:31 PM|SETI@home|Task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 exited with zero status but no 'finished' file
2/15/2007 7:44:31 PM|SETI@home|If this happens repeatedly you may need to reset the project.
2/15/2007 7:44:31 PM|SETI@home|Restarting task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 using setiathome_enhanced version 515
2/15/2007 7:49:34 PM|SETI@home|Task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 exited with zero status but no 'finished' file
2/15/2007 7:49:34 PM|SETI@home|If this happens repeatedly you may need to reset the project.
2/15/2007 7:49:34 PM|SETI@home|Restarting task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 using setiathome_enhanced version 515
2/15/2007 7:57:41 PM||Restarting 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 - message timeout
2/15/2007 7:57:41 PM|SETI@home|Restarting task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 using setiathome_enhanced version 515
2/15/2007 8:00:57 PM|SETI@home|Task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 exited with zero status but no 'finished' file
2/15/2007 8:00:57 PM|SETI@home|If this happens repeatedly you may need to reset the project.
2/15/2007 8:00:57 PM|SETI@home|Restarting task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 using setiathome_enhanced version 515
2/15/2007 8:03:07 PM|SETI@home|Task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 exited with zero status but no 'finished' file
2/15/2007 8:03:07 PM|SETI@home|If this happens repeatedly you may need to reset the project.
2/15/2007 8:03:07 PM|SETI@home|Restarting task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 using setiathome_enhanced version 515
2/15/2007 8:04:38 PM|SETI@home|Task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 exited with zero status but no 'finished' file
2/15/2007 8:04:38 PM|SETI@home|If this happens repeatedly you may need to reset the project.
2/15/2007 8:04:38 PM|SETI@home|Restarting task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 using setiathome_enhanced version 515
2/15/2007 8:06:50 PM|SETI@home|Task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 exited with zero status but no 'finished' file
2/15/2007 8:06:50 PM|SETI@home|If this happens repeatedly you may need to reset the project.
2/15/2007 8:06:50 PM|SETI@home|Restarting task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 using setiathome_enhanced version 515
2/15/2007 8:12:50 PM||Restarting 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 - message timeout
2/15/2007 8:18:58 PM||Restarting 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 - message timeout
2/15/2007 9:32:55 PM|SETI@home|Task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 exited with zero status but no 'finished' file
2/15/2007 9:32:55 PM|SETI@home|If this happens repeatedly you may need to reset the project.
2/15/2007 9:32:55 PM|SETI@home|Restarting task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 using setiathome_enhanced version 515
2/15/2007 9:54:38 PM|SETI@home|Task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 exited with zero status but no 'finished' file
2/15/2007 9:54:38 PM|SETI@home|If this happens repeatedly you may need to reset the project.
2/15/2007 9:54:38 PM|SETI@home|Restarting task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 using setiathome_enhanced version 515
2/15/2007 10:01:19 PM|SETI@home|Task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 exited with zero status but no 'finished' file
2/15/2007 10:01:19 PM|SETI@home|If this happens repeatedly you may need to reset the project.
2/15/2007 10:01:19 PM|SETI@home|Restarting task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 using setiathome_enhanced version 515
2/15/2007 10:17:03 PM|SETI@home|Task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 exited with zero status but no 'finished' file
2/15/2007 10:17:03 PM|SETI@home|If this happens repeatedly you may need to reset the project.
2/15/2007 10:17:03 PM|SETI@home|Restarting task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 using setiathome_enhanced version 515
2/15/2007 10:24:37 PM||Restarting 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 - message timeout
2/15/2007 10:30:52 PM||Restarting 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 - message timeout
2/15/2007 10:30:52 PM|SETI@home|Restarting task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 using setiathome_enhanced version 515
2/15/2007 11:18:23 PM|SETI@home|Task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 exited with zero status but no 'finished' file
2/15/2007 11:18:23 PM|SETI@home|If this happens repeatedly you may need to reset the project.
2/15/2007 11:18:23 PM|SETI@home|Restarting task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 using setiathome_enhanced version 515
2/16/2007 12:16:01 AM|SETI@home|Task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 exited with zero status but no 'finished' file
2/16/2007 12:16:01 AM|SETI@home|If this happens repeatedly you may need to reset the project.
2/16/2007 1:08:29 AM|SETI@home|Task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 exited with zero status but no 'finished' file
2/16/2007 1:08:29 AM|SETI@home|If this happens repeatedly you may need to reset the project.
2/16/2007 1:08:29 AM|SETI@home|Restarting task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 using setiathome_enhanced version 515
2/16/2007 1:38:04 AM|SETI@home|Task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 exited with zero status but no 'finished' file
2/16/2007 1:38:04 AM|SETI@home|If this happens repeatedly you may need to reset the project.
2/16/2007 1:38:04 AM|SETI@home|Restarting task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 using setiathome_enhanced version 515
2/16/2007 1:39:36 AM|SETI@home|Task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 exited with zero status but no 'finished' file
2/16/2007 1:39:36 AM|SETI@home|If this happens repeatedly you may need to reset the project.
2/16/2007 1:39:36 AM|SETI@home|Restarting task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 using setiathome_enhanced version 515
2/16/2007 1:46:10 AM||Restarting 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 - message timeout
2/16/2007 1:46:10 AM|SETI@home|Restarting task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 using setiathome_enhanced version 515
2/16/2007 2:19:48 AM|SETI@home|Task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 exited with zero status but no 'finished' file
2/16/2007 2:19:48 AM|SETI@home|If this happens repeatedly you may need to reset the project.
2/16/2007 2:19:48 AM|SETI@home|Restarting task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 using setiathome_enhanced version 515
2/16/2007 2:40:08 AM|SETI@home|Task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 exited with zero status but no 'finished' file
2/16/2007 2:40:08 AM|SETI@home|If this happens repeatedly you may need to reset the project.
2/16/2007 2:40:08 AM|SETI@home|Restarting task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 using setiathome_enhanced version 515
2/16/2007 2:58:29 AM|SETI@home|Task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 exited with zero status but no 'finished' file
2/16/2007 2:58:29 AM|SETI@home|If this happens repeatedly you may need to reset the project.
2/16/2007 2:58:29 AM|SETI@home|Restarting task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 using setiathome_enhanced version 515
2/16/2007 3:35:57 AM|SETI@home|Task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 exited with zero status but no 'finished' file
2/16/2007 3:35:57 AM|SETI@home|If this happens repeatedly you may need to reset the project.
2/16/2007 3:35:57 AM|SETI@home|Restarting task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 using setiathome_enhanced version 515
2/16/2007 3:44:07 AM|SETI@home|Task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 exited with zero status but no 'finished' file
2/16/2007 3:44:07 AM|SETI@home|If this happens repeatedly you may need to reset the project.
2/16/2007 3:44:07 AM|SETI@home|Restarting task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 using setiathome_enhanced version 515
2/16/2007 6:00:26 AM|SETI@home|Task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 exited with zero status but no 'finished' file
2/16/2007 6:00:26 AM|SETI@home|If this happens repeatedly you may need to reset the project.
2/16/2007 6:00:26 AM|SETI@home|Restarting task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 using setiathome_enhanced version 515
2/16/2007 6:51:02 AM|SETI@home|Task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 exited with zero status but no 'finished' file
2/16/2007 6:51:02 AM|SETI@home|If this happens repeatedly you may need to reset the project.
2/16/2007 6:51:02 AM|SETI@home|Restarting task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 using setiathome_enhanced version 515
2/16/2007 6:57:01 AM||Restarting 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 - message timeout
2/16/2007 7:15:40 AM|SETI@home|Task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 exited with zero status but no 'finished' file
2/16/2007 7:15:40 AM|SETI@home|If this happens repeatedly you may need to reset the project.
2/16/2007 7:15:40 AM|SETI@home|Restarting task 06jn00aa.11712.23312.928404.3.149_3 using setiathome_enhanced version 515

---

My suggestion is to try 5.4.11 for windows and see if the problem goes away. If you're not a windows user I can provide a different link. This wasn't a problem with that version, so if it still exists, then we'll know it something on your end, if not then it's boinc.

tony

NOTE: make sure boinc is NOT running, uninstall your current version before reverting.

5.8.13 contains the fix for this when it happens due to preemption/pausing.

- core client: don't print "finish file not found" message
when app quits because of preemption

5.8.13 contains the fix for this when it happens due to preemption/pausing.

- core client: don't print "finish file not found" message
when app quits because of preemption

Thanks. I've just checked http://boinc.berkeley.edu/dl/?C=M;O=D and there are 5.8.13 and 5.8.14 versions now available for Windows.

How do I decide which to use?
Is there a changelog somewhere?

Keith.