Process runs 100% until it decides to <defunct>. In order to recover I have to logout/login again. Ubuntu Mate 16.04, boinc 7.6.31 x86_64-pc-linux-gnu Is there a solution? thanks.

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boinc 7.6.31

Where did you get this version from?

As far as I know, the newer 7.6. version have a newer mouse/keyboard idle detection that may not work right on every distro, but you may have to take that up with the package maintainer, or at least the person who compiled this BOINC version.

For reference, Berkeley's recommended compiled Linux version is still at 7.2.42

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I used sudo apt-get install boinc

pavlos@intel:~$ boinc --version
7.6.31 x86_64-pc-linux-gnu

on another system (ubuntu mate 15.10) I have boinc 7.6.6

Do I need to downgrade all of them to 7.2.42?

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No, that should not be necessary.
The 7.6.6 version won't even have this code change, just the 7.6.31 version.
But it is something that the package maintainer will want to know about.

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I've run this by one of the Linux gurus, and he told me that yes 7.6.31 does have the new idle detection code, but that according to him the error you see is not something caused by that code, but by something else.

I'll see if I can get the compiler of that BOINC to make a pass here and see if he knows what can cause this.

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Thank you. There is a bug reported, https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/boinc/+bug/1274456 but the maintainer, GianFranco says it is fixed but ...

Should I apt-get remove boinc (hoping to keep my data intact) and install from the boinc site (there is a sh script version 7.2.42?

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I've asked Gianfranco to take a look here.
As for uninstalling BOINC and installing the one from Berkeley, these two aren't compatible. The one from repositories runs under an unprivileged account and installs in various system directories, while BOINC from Berkeley runs under the user account and installs everything in the Home directory.

How many times did you have the error?
If only once, it may just have been a fluke. But if you do not manage to return any work without error it's something to look into.

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Thanks for the explanation about the different releases.

Every day I check the machine, if the load is zero, boinc stopped and I have to logout/login to get things running again. I was hoping to run 24x7.

/var/log/boincerr.log shows one line the error about the mice and subsequent lines "No protocol specified" ... many lines, wc -l gives me 104,677 lines.

pavlos@intel:/var/log$ ll boinc*
-rw-r--r-- 1 boinc boinc 2302955 May 2 15:24 boincerr.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 boinc boinc 25023 May 2 16:26 boinc.log

pavlos@intel:/var/log$ head boincerr.log
No protocol specified
dir_open: Could not open directory '/dev/input/mice' from '/var/lib/boinc-client'.
No protocol specified
No protocol specified
No protocol specified
No protocol specified
No protocol specified
No protocol specified
No protocol specified
No protocol specified
pavlos@intel:/var/log$

Another machine running ubuntu mate 15.10 and boinc 7.6.6 runs non-stop 24x7 without issues.

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Hi, this error message comes from xorg, not from boinc

https://codesearch.debian.net/results/No%20protocol%20specified%20package%3Axorg-server/page_0

I suspect you don't have any graphical session here, right?

can you please tell me the result of
ls /dev/input/mice?

thanks

there is no graphical session.

pavlos@intel:~$ ll /dev/input/mice
crw-rw---- 1 root input 13, 63 Apr 29 06:49 /dev/input/mice

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this is the problem. you need to install at least xorg I guess, I don't provide a "xorg-less" binary anymore
(because of that idle detection issue)

Maybe I misunderstood ... this is a desktop running ubuntu mate 16.04
The only application running is boinc.

pavlos@intel:~$ ps -ef | grep xorg
root 13914 744 0 May02 tty7 00:07:11 /usr/lib/xorg/Xorg -core :0 -seat seat0 -auth /var/run/lightdm/root/:0 -nolisten tcp vt7 -novtswitch

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I uploaded on this ppa a version that should fix the "input/mice" error
7.6.31+dfsg-6exp1ubuntu1
https://launchpad.net/~costamagnagianfranco/+archive/ubuntu/costamagnagianfranco-ppa

can you please try it? it should become available in an hour or two for xenial, it is already building.

For the xorg question, can you please try to install xserver-xorg-legacy package, and tell me if it does make any difference?

thanks!


g.

Added your ppa and updated boinc to 7.6.31 ... seems to be running fine. I will report back in 24 hours if there are issues.
BTW, how can I add your signing key so that I don't get warnings? I tried ...

pavlos@intel:~$ sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 1024R/3C2A1859
Executing: /tmp/tmp.iqvcaPT4aw/gpg.1.sh --keyserver
keyserver.ubuntu.com
--recv-keys
1024R/3C2A1859
gpg: "1024R/3C2A1859" not a key ID: skipping

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pavlos@intel:~$ sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 1024R/3C2A1859
Executing: /tmp/tmp.iqvcaPT4aw/gpg.1.sh --keyserver
keyserver.ubuntu.com
--recv-keys
1024R/3C2A1859
gpg: "1024R/3C2A1859" not a key ID: skipping

did you add the ppa with apt-add-repository ppa:user/ppa ?

I added those 2 lines to the /etc/apt/sources.list --I assume that was wrong.
I added it using add-apt-repository and no longer see warnings.
I did apt-get update. boinc is 7.6.31 x86_64-pc-linux-gnu

/var/log/boincerr.log has 158 lines with No protocol specified but there is no mice error.
This morning the setiathome processes were <defunct> and had to restart my system.

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Having the same error on Raspian for the Raspberry Pi 2B.

Just set up a Raspberry Pi 2 with Raspian Lite, (no GUI.. no X console) and have Boinc and SETI@home working great. Seems a bit slower than the full Raspian under a GUI X console. (To reiterate the issue, even though it is clear in this thread that there are issues...)

...Anyway, I have a file:

/var/lib/boinc-client/stderrdae.txt

that is filling up fast with:

dir_open: Could not open directory '/dev/input/mice' from '/var/lib/boinc-client'.

The file /dev/input/mice exists and it is a device file. It is a 0 byte or null file.

I believe this file is used somehow when the mouse is moved/used but with no GUI this file is moot.

File permissions on the file mice were set only as RW for root. As a quick check, I changed it (SU) for R/W for everyone but still errors.

Any thoughts or help on this?

In other Googling about, this error seems to be in package/app and would have to be fixed by the package authors. Hint.. hint!

Thanks for any help or work arounds. Not sure whether to set up a cron job to delete it every few days or what....

Update... I just deleted, for now, stderrdae.txt, and monitoring for other issues, error etc and for 48 hours I have noted no issues. Still processing.

Might the authr set up a logrotate on these files or some other cron job, or best we do that?

Thanks!

John

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