Hi!

I've just started using boinc to run Seti -- and I've got it running great on 3 Windows XP machines.

However, I have a FreeBSD 7.0-Beta4 machine that I'm trying to add to the pool. I've installed the ports boinc-client (boinc-client-5.10.32) and the Seti project (boinc-setiathome-enhanced-5.27_2) without a problem.

I've started the boinc client just fine using the startup script /usr/local/etc/rc.d/boinc start and I see it running.

I've been able to start the boinc_gui, and it gives me the "wizard" to choose projects, and to input my email address and password and that seems to work fine.

Then, it just goes into "benchmark" mode and, since 0840 central this morning, hasn't left it.

The BOINC Manager window has blanked out (I see the window dressings but none of the data inside of it, and because of this, I cannot click the "messages" to find out what's happening) and my CPU has spiked, running at 97%+ since I started the benchmark.

How long is the benchmark supposed to run? It seems to only take minutes (at the worst) on the windows machines I've installed it on.
How can I troubleshoot this to start helping out? Especially without the "messages" button? If I kill the Boinc Manager window, I cannot get it to restart, If I do start the boinc_gui, after killing it, with the --verbose option, I get the (I think its an) error message that it cannot find the catalog files for domains. Nor do the boinc_cmd commands seem to work -- they time out.

What can I provide to help determine what's happening on my system?

Thanks!

Bryan

The BOINC Manager window has blanked out (I see the window dressings but none of the data inside of it, and because of this, I cannot click the "messages" to find out what's happening) and my CPU has spiked, running at 97%+ since I started the benchmark.

This is not normal.

How long is the benchmark supposed to run? It seems to only take minutes (at the worst) on the windows machines I've installed it on.

Yes. It should run some minutes.

How can I troubleshoot this to start helping out? Especially without the "messages" button? If I kill the Boinc Manager window, I cannot get it to restart, If I do start the boinc_gui, after killing it, with the --verbose option, I get the (I think its an) error message that it cannot find the catalog files for domains. Nor do the boinc_cmd commands seem to work -- they time out.

Could you please post the messages from the BOINC client when this happens.

Could you also please try an older BOINC client version.
I am not shure, if this a BOINC or FreeBSD 7 releated problem...

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However, I have a FreeBSD 7.0-Beta4 machine that I'm trying to add to the pool. I've installed the ports boinc-client (boinc-client-5.10.32) and the Seti project (boinc-setiathome-enhanced-5.27_2) without a problem.

There should be a problem. Where did you get BOINC 5.10.32 from? Or did you compile it yourself?

I ask as the Berkeley released 5.10.32 is for Mac only. The latest Linux release is 5.10.28, while the GTK2 based GUI version of that is for Ubuntu 7.10 style distros only. Other distros best use the command line version only.

Also, according to your computer list you never attached to Seti with this machine, not at least on the account you're posting with. The benchmarks don't run until you've at least downloaded the Seti application (or added it with a correctly set up app_info.xml) and a bit of work. Then they should run for 30 seconds.

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Jord, he using FreeBSD. The FreeBSD BOINC client 5.10.32 is available at the FreeBSD ports : http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/ports.cgi?query=boinc-client&stype=all

Do you know any problems with 5.10.32 ?
I am not shure, if the benchmark hangs are caused from the BOINC client or if it is a FreeBSD 7 problem.

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Do you know any problems with 5.10.32 ?
I am not shure, if the benchmark hangs are caused from the BOINC client or if it is a FreeBSD 7 problem.

That still depends on where they got the source code from. Was it truly from the 5.10.32 SC, or earlier?

But I'll ask Charlie to swing by. He's the only one still busy with the 5.10 code.

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Bryan, could you please try the BOINC client for FreeBSD, which I have build. It works successfull on several FreeBSD 6 systems. So we can look if it is a problem on your system.
The package is avaialble from www.dotsch.de/boinc

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How can I troubleshoot this to start helping out? Especially without the "messages" button? If I kill the Boinc Manager window, I cannot get it to restart, If I do start the boinc_gui, after killing it, with the --verbose option, I get the (I think its an) error message that it cannot find the catalog files for domains. Nor do the boinc_cmd commands seem to work -- they time out.

Could you please post the messages from the BOINC client when this happens.

Here's the output:

jedi# boinc_gui --verbose
11:40:04: looking for catalog 'wxstd28' in path '/usr/local/share/locale/en_US/LC_MESSAGES:/usr/local/share/locale/en_US/LC_MESSAGES:/usr/local/share/locale/en_US:/usr/local/share/locale/en/LC_MESSAGES:/usr/local/share/locale/en/LC_MESSAGES:/usr/local/share/locale/en'.
11:40:04: catalog file for domain 'wxstd28' not found.
11:40:05: looking for catalog 'wxgtk' in path '/usr/local/share/locale/en_US/LC_MESSAGES:/usr/local/share/locale/en_US/LC_MESSAGES:/usr/local/share/locale/en_US:/usr/local/share/locale/en/LC_MESSAGES:/usr/local/share/locale/en/LC_MESSAGES:/usr/local/share/locale/en'.
11:40:05: catalog file for domain 'wxgtk' not found.
11:40:05: looking for catalog 'BOINC Manager' in path 'locale/en_US/LC_MESSAGES:locale/en_US:/usr/local/share/locale/en_US/LC_MESSAGES:/usr/local/share/locale/en_US/LC_MESSAGES:/usr/local/share/locale/en_US:locale/en/LC_MESSAGES:locale/en:/usr/local/share/locale/en/LC_MESSAGES:/usr/local/share/locale/en/LC_MESSAGES:/usr/local/share/locale/en'.
11:40:05: catalog file for domain 'BOINC Manager' not found.
^C

Could you also please try an older BOINC client version.
I am not shure, if this a BOINC or FreeBSD 7 releated problem...

Thanks for trying to help.

Bryan

However, I have a FreeBSD 7.0-Beta4 machine that I'm trying to add to the pool. I've installed the ports boinc-client (boinc-client-5.10.32) and the Seti project (boinc-setiathome-enhanced-5.27_2) without a problem.

There should be a problem. Where did you get BOINC 5.10.32 from? Or did you compile it yourself?

I went into the /usr/ports/net/boinc-client directory and did a

make install clean

I've removed the FreeBSD distfile and re-ran the make:

# rm /usr/ports/distfiles/boinc-client-5.10.32.tar.bz2 
jedi# make
===>  Found saved configuration for boinc-client-5.10.32
=> boinc-client-5.10.32.tar.bz2 doesn't seem to exist in /usr/ports/distfiles/.
=> Attempting to fetch from ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/ports/local-distfiles/pav/.
boinc-client-5.10.32.tar.bz2                    0% of 3928 kB 5784  Bps^C

As you can see, its pulling it right from ftp.freebsd.org, and, just as Dotsch said is the official port for FreeBSD.

<SNIP>

Also, according to your computer list you never attached to Seti with this machine, not at least on the account you're posting with. The benchmarks don't run until you've at least downloaded the Seti application (or added it with a correctly set up app_info.xml) and a bit of work. Then they should run for 30 seconds.

I believe that. I've also looked at my profile, and I never see my FreeBSD system -- I think its because the BOINC Manager hangs at the end of the attach to project step.

Do you have an example of a correct app_info.xml file I could use/modify to use on my system?

Here's an output of the one I have on mine(indentations removed because I don't like the extra linebreaks that the [pre] tags put in the xml file):

# cat /var/db/boinc/projects/setiathome.berkeley.edu/app_info.xml 
<app_info>
    <app>
        <name>setiathome_enhanced</name>
    </app>
    <file_info>
        <name>setiathome-5.27.i386-portbld-freebsd</name>
        <executable/>
    </file_info>
    <app_version>
        <app_name>setiathome_enhanced</app_name>
        <version_num>527</version_num>
        <file_ref>
            <file_name>setiathome-5.27.i386-portbld-freebsd</file_name>
            <main_program/>
        </file_ref>
    </app_version>
</app_info>

Thanks for your help!

Bryan

Do you know any problems with 5.10.32 ?
I am not shure, if the benchmark hangs are caused from the BOINC client or if it is a FreeBSD 7 problem.

That still depends on where they got the source code from. Was it truly from the 5.10.32 SC, or earlier?

Here's all the info I have on the source code:

# ls -l /usr/ports/distfiles/boinc-client-5.10.32.tar.bz2 
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  4022383 Dec 28 17:11 /usr/ports/distfiles/boinc-client-5.10.32.tar.bz2
# md5 /usr/ports/distfiles/boinc-client-5.10.32.tar.bz2
MD5 (/usr/ports/distfiles/boinc-client-5.10.32.tar.bz2) = 0718535f78c4097b8e3fb740b7d423d3# bunzip2 /usr/ports/distfiles/boinc-client-5.10.32.tar.bz2
# ls -l /usr/ports/distfiles/boinc-client-5.10.32.tar
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel  17807360 Dec 28 17:11 /usr/ports/distfiles/boinc-client-5.10.32.tar
# md5 /usr/ports/distfiles/boinc-client-5.10.32.tar
MD5 (/usr/ports/distfiles/boinc-client-5.10.32.tar) = b99bc534b9487c640643fea6d17dbf37

I can to a tar -t of the tar file to show the listing of all the files, but that may be excessive at this time. :)

But I'll ask Charlie to swing by. He's the only one still busy with the 5.10 code.

Again, thanks for your help. I await further instructions on how to get it going.

Bryan

Bryan, could you please try the BOINC client for FreeBSD, which I have build. It works successfull on several FreeBSD 6 systems. So we can look if it is a problem on your system.
The package is avaialble from www.dotsch.de/boinc

I've tried to install the package from your site, however, it doesn't seem to work quite right.

The boinc_client starts just fine, but when I try to use the boinc_cmd commands (I've tried --project_attach and --lookup_account) I get an "authentication denied: -155 error" result.

Thanks!

Bryan

Progress!

I installed the boinc-client port from the ports tree again this morning -- part of trying to get dotsch's package to work, but didn't install the boinc-setiathome-enhanced port.

I started the client and it worked fine.
I started boinc_gui, FreeBSD's boinc_manager and it worked! I'm able to work within the simple and the Advanced View of the Boinc Manager. I found in the messages that (and no, I don't have the exact message) the benchmark was interrupted and that it would use the "generic" benchmarks!

However, there is still 1 problem -- when I try to connect and fetch some work, it gives this error:

Sun Jan  6 12:42:14 2008|SETI@home|Message from server: platform 'i386-portbld-freebsd' not found

I have the full output of the messages, if you wish me to post them to this thread.

I think that all I have to do is find the .xml file that ias i386-portbld-freebsd string in it and change it to a string that the SetiAtHome server(s) recognize.

And! Once I get up and running --able to fetch some work, I'd like your advice on how to --manually, not through the GUI -- update my benchmarks to more closely match my system's parameters (AMD Athlon Mobile processor at 1800MHz, with sse 3dnow 3dnowext and mmx, and 2GB of memory)

Thanks everybody!

Bryan

To get SETI to work, please stop the BOINC client and reinstall the SETI package, and restart the BOINC client with : "./boinc_client -update_prefs http://setiathome.berkeley.edu".

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The boinc_client starts just fine, but when I try to use the boinc_cmd commands (I've tried --project_attach and --lookup_account) I get an "authentication denied: -155 error" result.

Have you installed it in the same BOINC directory as the old one ?
You must first start the BOINC client and then use the boinccmd. Was the old hanging BOINC client running as you have tried it ?

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I hope its okay, I'm going to respond to both posts in one reply.

To get SETI to work, please stop the BOINC client and reinstall the SETI package, and restart the BOINC client with : "./boinc_client -update_prefs http://setiathome.berkeley.edu".

Hot Diggity! That did it! I'm currently running against my first setiathome work unit on my FreeBSD system! Dotsch, you are the best. Thank you for your patience.

I'm assuming that now that the prefs are updated, I can start boinc_client without the -update_prefs option, correct?

The boinc_client starts just fine, but when I try to use the boinc_cmd commands (I've tried --project_attach and --lookup_account) I get an "authentication denied: -155 error" result.

Have you installed it in the same BOINC directory as the old one ?

Yes, I did the port install and then replaced the binaries with the ones from your package (in /usr/local/bin), then tried to start it, both in the default directory for boinc (/var/db/boinc) and from a random spot on my machine. Both came back with the Auth Denied error.

You must first start the BOINC client and then use the boinccmd.

Understood, and this was the how I did it:
Default setup is with port version for both boinc_client and boinc_cmd.
Methodology of testing is the same for all 4 options listed below:

• stop any boinc processes running.
  
• replace item listed with the website (the one from your package) and make sure permissions are the same as the old
  
• start boinc_client
  
• start boinc_cmd with --project_attach and --lookup_account options.
  

And here are the variations I used:

• With the port version boinc_client and the website boinc_cmd
  
• With the website boinc_client and the port version boinc_cmd
  
• With the website boinc_client and the website boinc_cmd
  
• With the port version of both.
  

Was the old hanging BOINC client running as you have tried it ?

Nope.


Thanks again!

Bryan

I hope its okay, I'm going to respond to both posts in one reply.

To get SETI to work, please stop the BOINC client and reinstall the SETI package, and restart the BOINC client with : "./boinc_client -update_prefs http://setiathome.berkeley.edu".

Hot Diggity! That did it! I'm currently running against my first setiathome work unit on my FreeBSD system! Dotsch, you are the best. Thank you for your patience.

You're welcome !

I'm assuming that now that the prefs are updated, I can start boinc_client without the -update_prefs option, correct?

Yes.

[

The boinc_client starts just fine, but when I try to use the boinc_cmd commands (I've tried --project_attach and --lookup_account) I get an "authentication denied: -155 error" result.

Have you installed it in the same BOINC directory as the old one ?

Yes, I did the port install and then replaced the binaries with the ones from your package (in /usr/local/bin), then tried to start it, both in the default directory for boinc (/var/db/boinc) and from a random spot on my machine. Both came back with the Auth Denied error.

Thanks !
The different directories could be the cause for the auth problems.
The BOINC client from the ports has different compiled in directories. Mine has all defaults and requires that all stuff is in the same directory, or you have to specify it manual.

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To get SETI to work, please stop the BOINC client and reinstall the SETI package, and restart the BOINC client with : "./boinc_client -update_prefs http://setiathome.berkeley.edu".

Hot Diggity! That did it! I'm currently running against my first setiathome work unit on my FreeBSD system! Dotsch, you are the best. Thank you for your patience.

You're welcome !

Hm, had/have the same problem here with 7.0-RC2 and now with 7.0-RELEASE. Problem disappears when starting boinc_client as root (su), but stays when started as boinc user. When I try to start it as normal user, it says another instance is already running, but ps and top shows no boinc-'thingie' running. Immediately doing su and starting it again makes it run... seems neither a SETI nor a BOINC problem.

Complete newb to FreeBSD myself... maybe someone more experienced (Dotsch? ;) got a clue what has changed in FreeBSD-7?!

k, got it working as service on startup as user boinc on FreeBSD 7.0-RELEASE. Simply removed "idprio 31" from the /usr/local/etc/rc.d/boinc* script. Now it seems to run like in Windows: boinc_client with normal priority and project_client with low priority.

Oh and since I had it running as root some files and dirs were owned by root in /var/db/boinc. Forgot to change that before rebooting, so boinc couldn't find itself attached to any project. Killed boinc, chowned dirs and files, rebooted and all seems fine :) Even previously downloaded (but not crunched yet) wu's are surprisingly marked as "client detached" on website so no wingmen left hanging :)

HTH someone else running into same problem.