No work being done by one of my laptops???

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Profile George 254
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Message 1790673 - Posted: 26 May 2016, 20:21:39 UTC

I have 6 laptops giving 3-4,000 credit a day crunching between 22 & 55 tasks a day. One of them, an old Acer with 3GB RAM and running Linux has recently crunched between 2 & 18 tasks a day except for the last two days where it does not seems to have done anything. I have previously rebooted it when the number of tasks has steadily decreased, but no effect this time.

Could someone explain what is going on here?
TIA
George
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Message 1790679 - Posted: 26 May 2016, 20:45:39 UTC

Is this the computer:
ID: 7857207
Details | Tasks

Cross-project stats:

BOINCstats.com Free-DC 	6 	411.30 	52,869 	7.2.42 	GenuineIntel
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU T5500 @ 1.66GHz [Family 6 Model 15 Stepping 6]
(2 processors) 	--- 	Linux

3.13.0-86-generic
Last contact:	24 May 2016, 21:13:35 UTC


The last line shows this computer hasn't contacted the servers for a couple of days - have you checked to see if it can actually contact the internet, if so is there a firewall that is blocking BOINC contacting SETI's servers?
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Message 1790707 - Posted: 26 May 2016, 21:49:27 UTC - in response to Message 1790679.  

yes that is the computer. Can't think why there would be a firewall but will check. The issue only arose a couple of days ago. Thanks for the prompt response.
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Message 1790848 - Posted: 27 May 2016, 7:54:17 UTC - in response to Message 1790679.  
Last modified: 27 May 2016, 7:56:08 UTC

Bob
Checked the settings and can see no reason why there is no communication with BOINC. The WiFi is switched on. It still receives WUs including one yesterday.
George
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Message 1790850 - Posted: 27 May 2016, 8:02:28 UTC - in response to Message 1790848.  

Are there any other programmes running on that system other than BOINC that could be using up CPU time? Did it get shut down for an extended period?
It looks like that system averages around 7 WUs per day.
Then on the 22nd of May, it only downloaded 3. Then there was nothing downloaded till the latest one on the 26th.
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Message 1790854 - Posted: 27 May 2016, 8:12:43 UTC

As a trial - turn off your screen saver and switch to the "advanced view". This will allow you to see more information on what is running and what the progress is.
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Message 1790918 - Posted: 27 May 2016, 11:09:30 UTC

No idea if this applies or not, but I just loaded another computer with Win 7 & BOINC, Computer 8010411, and one thing I noticed was that it didn't seem to have a countdown timer running under Status column in the Projects tab. It would happily up/download the new tasks when I hit the Update button, and would even do the 5 min backoff, but after that completed, it then went to blank. The tasks were still running, but they didn't appear to auto upload, unlike all the other systems I had installed recently.

I poked around the settings, and didn't see anything obvious as to why it wouldn't work as expected, though before I shut it down, I think that it might have at some point uploaded some of the tasks itself, but I had to give it a final nudge to get the last 10 or so tasks uploaded. As I was just test running it, I haven't really worried about it, my main concern was hardware errors, but I will have to keep an eye on it when I bring it up again to run it in the farm. Just thought I'd add this to the discussion, in case there are others with this issue as well.

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Message 1790935 - Posted: 27 May 2016, 13:39:35 UTC - in response to Message 1790918.  

No idea if this applies or not, but I just loaded another computer with Win 7 & BOINC, Computer 8010411, and one thing I noticed was that it didn't seem to have a countdown timer running under Status column in the Projects tab. It would happily up/download the new tasks when I hit the Update button, and would even do the 5 min backoff, but after that completed, it then went to blank. The tasks were still running, but they didn't appear to auto upload, unlike all the other systems I had installed recently.

I poked around the settings, and didn't see anything obvious as to why it wouldn't work as expected, though before I shut it down, I think that it might have at some point uploaded some of the tasks itself, but I had to give it a final nudge to get the last 10 or so tasks uploaded. As I was just test running it, I haven't really worried about it, my main concern was hardware errors, but I will have to keep an eye on it when I bring it up again to run it in the farm. Just thought I'd add this to the discussion, in case there are others with this issue as well.

The next time you communicate with the project is will Update. That has been normal for some time (at least on my computers). It looks as if it is not wasting bandwith when there is nothing meaningful to transmit.

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Message 1791030 - Posted: 27 May 2016, 21:05:11 UTC - in response to Message 1790935.  

Interesting insight Bill, thanks
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Message 1791322 - Posted: 28 May 2016, 16:44:42 UTC - in response to Message 1790935.  

Bill, I think I might not have explained it properly. On the machine I am typing on currently, running Win 7, when I pull up BOINC Manager, and choose the Projects tab, under the column Status, it shows Communications deferred 00:05:05 or some such after each successful contact back to home base. It talks, then it resets and counts down again, and does that continuously. It does it on all of the systems I have set up, except for the one I mentioned. That is what was weird, the comm deferred was not happening, but if I did the manual update by hitting the button, the 5 min countdown happened, the up/download happened, and then it just sat there blank. It is shut down right now, and ready to be put into the farm when the time comes, I just thought that was unusual, and would mention it to the OP. If you have any thoughts as to why it is behaving the way it is, I'd love to hear them, because I couldn't find anything that was mis-configured.

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Message 1791330 - Posted: 28 May 2016, 17:08:58 UTC - in response to Message 1791322.  

All is revealed in the Event Log.

28/05/2016 17:44:06 | SETI@home | Sending scheduler request: To fetch work.
28/05/2016 17:44:08 | SETI@home | Scheduler request completed: got 1 new tasks
28/05/2016 17:44:08 | SETI@home | Project requested delay of 303 seconds

Every so often, your computer needs to compare notes with the project server (specifically, the 'scheduler'). It might be for any one of a number of reasons: that one was 'To fetch work', it might be 'To report completed work', or simply 'Requested by user'. But every time the computer contacts the server, they will do whatever is necessary, and then the server will say "go away for 303 seconds - don't bother me again for that long".

That simply spreads out the workload, giving the server more time to deal with requests from the other 141,458 active users. The countdown you see is simply how much of the requested delay remains before the server will allow another request for work.

There will only be a countdown visible if there has been a reason for the computer to 'phone home' within the last five minutes (and three seconds). If it's just quietly getting on with the work it has already - nothing to chat about, no countdown.
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Message 1791341 - Posted: 28 May 2016, 17:24:29 UTC - in response to Message 1791330.  

Huh, ok, thanks Richard. I guess that makes sense, but it is strange that on all (as best as I can recall) the 30 some systems I've set up in the last couple months, this one was the only one that didn't have the countdown timer running continuously. In fact, when I brought up that screen on that computer, I had to look at it for a second to see what wasn't right about it, as I knew something was off, and then noticed that there was no countdown on this one unlike all the others.

Well, I'll just chalk it up to weirdness, and keep an eye on it when I get them all up and running. Oh, one question. I remember mentioned to me in the last month or two that there was a program that I could put onto each machine, and be able to monitor all of the systems running BOINC as if I was sitting right in front of it, it gives the same info that I see when I pull up BOINC. Do you happen to know what that is, and how well it works? Thanks!

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Message 1791369 - Posted: 28 May 2016, 17:56:13 UTC - in response to Message 1791341.  

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Message 1791374 - Posted: 28 May 2016, 17:57:37 UTC - in response to Message 1791369.  

Thank You! Any experience with it personally?

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Message 1791376 - Posted: 28 May 2016, 17:59:55 UTC - in response to Message 1791341.  

You might be thinking of BoinicTasks http://efmer.com/b/boinctasks to view how all computer are doing.

Or, BOINC Manager can also open other computers by using IP address.

Or, TightVNC can take control, keyboard video mouse, of another computer.
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Message 1791377 - Posted: 28 May 2016, 18:01:21 UTC - in response to Message 1791374.  

I use BoincTasks all the time, and like it.
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Message 1791380 - Posted: 28 May 2016, 18:03:34 UTC - in response to Message 1791341.  

Huh, ok, thanks Richard. I guess that makes sense, but it is strange that on all (as best as I can recall) the 30 some systems I've set up in the last couple months, this one was the only one that didn't have the countdown timer running continuously. In fact, when I brought up that screen on that computer, I had to look at it for a second to see what wasn't right about it, as I knew something was off, and then noticed that there was no countdown on this one unlike all the others.

Well, I'll just chalk it up to weirdness, and keep an eye on it when I get them all up and running. Oh, one question. I remember mentioned to me in the last month or two that there was a program that I could put onto each machine, and be able to monitor all of the systems running BOINC as if I was sitting right in front of it, it gives the same info that I see when I pull up BOINC. Do you happen to know what that is, and how well it works? Thanks!

You can use BOINC Manager to view any system on your network. Once you have configured BOINC to allow remote connections. However if you want to see all of them at once you are probably thinking of BOINC Tasks or BOINC View
I prefer BOINC View. I use it to: 1) Make sure all the hosts are running. 2) Make sure they all have work. I liek the way it does this better than BOINC Tasks. YMMV
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Message 1791381 - Posted: 28 May 2016, 18:03:44 UTC - in response to Message 1791374.  

Thank You! Any experience with it personally?

No, I'm still running its predecessor BoincView - not maintained or updated since 2007, but still working. Once you find a tool and get used to it, you won't want to be without it - but there's always a learning curve to be negotiated first.
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Message 1791382 - Posted: 28 May 2016, 18:05:03 UTC

I think I'll be installing the client on all of my computers in the near future. Are there any security holes opened up by installing it that you are aware of, that I should make sure are closed by proper configuration? Or is it just run it and use it?

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Message 1791385 - Posted: 28 May 2016, 18:08:15 UTC - in response to Message 1791381.  

Is one better than the other? I can relate, I preferred the old version of EVGA Precision, but the X and X16 came out, all bells & whistley, and found that I liked the older one better. Unfortunately, unlike BoincView, it doesn't play well with the latest hardware. But I can relate.

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