Processing seems stuck

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Tim

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Message 1411190 - Posted: 3 Sep 2013, 22:59:22 UTC

I haven't been running Boinc for long. It was working for a few months but now the processing seems stuck. It hasn't made any progress in two or three weeks. I haven't changed anything, the Boinc daemon shows that it is running but no progress. I don't know if this means anything but the notices are cut off. Just the first few letters of each line are visible then blank. That started after the update of Astropulse a while back. It was progressing through work units after that update so I think it is an unrelated quirk. I tried reinstalling Boinc but still no progress is occurring. Should I abort this work unit and lose the work done so far?
PCLOS 2013 KDE P4 2.6 GHz 2GB RAM - fully updated

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Message 1411233 - Posted: 4 Sep 2013, 3:39:43 UTC

Additional info: Processing is stuck on my laptop also. Both computers say: Status suspended - computer is in use. It never changes no matter how long I let it sit. Laptop PIII 750 MHz 512 MB RAM PCLOS 2013 XFCE
Both computers kernel 3.2.18 pclos2.bfs

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Message 1411394 - Posted: 4 Sep 2013, 15:02:35 UTC

check your local setting. make sure the "run BOINC if computer is in use" is checked. You can also set that on S@H in your Computing preferences. IF you do this through the Website it will require you to update your BOINC through seti. Once it sees the "Run" option it should be fine


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Message 1411620 - Posted: 5 Sep 2013, 3:18:32 UTC - in response to Message 1411394.  

Processing does progress if I set it to run when computer is active but I don't want that, I want it to run when the computer is not in use. It was working that way for a few months but now it never restarts once suspended. If it won't run just when the computer is not in use I'll just uninstall Boinc.

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Message 1411645 - Posted: 5 Sep 2013, 4:27:15 UTC - in response to Message 1411620.  

There is a corresponding preference item that reads: "'In use' means mouse/keyboard activity in last: X minutes". So when you have your computer set to not run when the computer is in use, it waits the amount of time you specify before resuming crunching. What amount of time do you have it set to?

If it won't run just when the computer is not in use I'll just uninstall Boinc.


Is there a reason you felt it was necessary to state this? Is there any other way to view this statement other than as a threat? If there's a preference item to specify not to use a computer while in use, don't you think that there's a way to make it work the way you want it to?
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Message 1411715 - Posted: 5 Sep 2013, 7:55:31 UTC - in response to Message 1411190.  

It was working for a few months but now...
I haven't changed anything..
..fully updated

Aside from the fact that the latter two statements contradict each other... The fully updated part may well be the cause of the problem, that you got a newer update to the x-server (or a sub-part of that), which then breaks how BOINC detects whether or not the (USB) keyboard and mouse are in use or not (the method for idle detection). It wouldn't be the first time that this happened, and there's just no way for BOINC to stay in-line with all the changes in Linux.

Which is where the BOINC version from repositories comes in, as that's supposedly built against all the latest libraries that your version of Linux contains. And so it should hypothetically work with everything new. And if not, you'll have to complain to the package maintainers.

I see 7.0.36 was released as a new version (August 1st 2013) through repositories, but do know that it was never a release client version under BOINC. It has always been an alpha release. Also know that it's a version that's almost a year old, and considering that 7.0.65 is the recommended version from Berkeley, you can figure that there must be more (functionality) changes between your version and the recommended one. Complaints about that best go back to the package maintainer, who can probably be found through http://www.pclinuxos.com/contact-us/

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Message 1411880 - Posted: 5 Sep 2013, 17:32:32 UTC - in response to Message 1411645.  

No threat. I installed Boinc with the understanding that it would run when the computer was not being used otherwise. If Boinc will no longer operate that way I don't want it on my system. It's no doing anything anymore anyway so what's the point?

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Message 1411883 - Posted: 5 Sep 2013, 17:41:04 UTC - in response to Message 1411715.  

What I meant was I haven't made any changes to the preferences or settings. Of course Linux is constantly being updated as are all current operating systems. However now we seem to finally be getting to the heart of the matter. So if a recent update has fouled up the activity/inactivity detection is there anything I can do about it aside from complain? I know from experience all that the package managers will tell me is to wait until the next update of Boinc which is fine except that Boinc will be totally non-functional until then.
NOTE: PS/2 trackball and keyboard, not USB.

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Message 1411950 - Posted: 5 Sep 2013, 21:51:10 UTC - in response to Message 1411883.  

So if a recent update has fouled up the activity/inactivity detection is there anything I can do about it aside from complain?

it is my assumption, especially because you say you did not change anything in BOINC, it worked before and the only thing that did get updated was the OS. Then in my mind, the problem lies with the updates to the OS. And the only way to see if that was it is to get rid of these updates one by one, to see which one cures it.

Or just run BOINC always. If that takes too much zap out of your system, diminish the amount of cores that BOINC can use. Although that's difficult on a 1 core system. ;-)
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Message 1411977 - Posted: 6 Sep 2013, 0:02:57 UTC - in response to Message 1411880.  
Last modified: 6 Sep 2013, 0:05:01 UTC

No threat. I installed Boinc with the understanding that it would run when the computer was not being used otherwise. If Boinc will no longer operate that way I don't want it on my system. It's no doing anything anymore anyway so what's the point?

Tim KD7ADG


Why did you think that? It runs on all the spare CPU cycles rather than when not in use. The default option is to merely limit the CPU usage to 25% - you have to manually go in and change the preference to not run while computer is in use.

You also didn't answer how you had your preference setting, which I still believe is the likely culprit until we can rule it out.
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Message 1411984 - Posted: 6 Sep 2013, 1:07:49 UTC - in response to Message 1411977.  

I have it set to resume processing after 3 minutes of inactivity. I tried one minute while troubleshooting.



















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Message 1412001 - Posted: 6 Sep 2013, 2:59:38 UTC - in response to Message 1411984.  

I'm unfamiliar with BOINC on Linux, but on Windows there is an application that runs called "boinctray.exe" that runs silently looking for keyboard and mouse activity. Is there such a process in BOINC on Linux? If not, then we're at the same conclusion Jord came to: an OS update.
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Message 1412080 - Posted: 6 Sep 2013, 6:57:01 UTC - in response to Message 1412001.  

No, Charlie, the way that BOINC checks for idle time under *Nix forms as Linux and OS X is to use xprintidle, that queries the X server for the user's idle
time.


But at the same time, https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/boinc/+bug/179849 shows that idle detection is still a problem for some distros out there.
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Message 1412641 - Posted: 7 Sep 2013, 16:53:40 UTC - in response to Message 1412080.  

So how does DPMS and the screen locker (screensaver) determine activity/inactivity? DPMS has always worked. If Boinc could be made to run when the monitor is suspended that would suit me just fine.

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Message 1412657 - Posted: 7 Sep 2013, 17:33:55 UTC - in response to Message 1412641.  
Last modified: 7 Sep 2013, 17:36:42 UTC

The biggest problem with Linux is that it isn't a one-fix platform. With so many different distros out there, it is quite difficult to release a program that works on all of them without problems. So what would work on your platform will not on another. And then we're not even going for the differences between KDE and GNOME.

So, something that should be as simple as detecting whether or not the system is idle, is done through 17 different methods in 17 different distros. You can't just expect of program makers to add all those 17 different methods in the code as then the program becomes gigantic, and bug-ridden. Or for them to release 17 different versions, one for all different platforms.

This is why the BOINC developers have opted for making sure that BOINC is compliant with the platform they build it on (Ubuntu 12.04 LTS).

Any other platform will have to rely on its package manager's maintainer to built a compatible client that works with everything in that distro. Even if that means that this maintainer will then have to adjust the source code to make it work.
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Message 1412699 - Posted: 7 Sep 2013, 20:33:37 UTC - in response to Message 1412657.  

OK and thanks. I guess I'll just have to wait until the latest version becomes available through the repositories.

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Message 1420817 - Posted: 27 Sep 2013, 1:56:36 UTC

Version 7.0.65 became available from the repositories. I tried that. Same problem, once suspended it never resumes processing. I found the RPMs for the older version 6.10.58 and installed them. This version works correctly. I'm fine running the older version. This is just a bug report.

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Questions and Answers : Unix/Linux : Processing seems stuck


 
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