Hi,

I'm running latest git version of BOINC on Linux 64-bit, self compiled. When I start the manager and let it compute for a while then Suspend all tasks, CPU tasks continue to run so I have to terminate them manually by sending a kill signal to the running tasks. Sending a kill signal to the boinc client, doesn't seem to do anything to these tasks. They continue to run.

It's pretty annoying so can this be fixed, please?

Thanks

OK... after a bit of investigation, it seems that whenever one chooses to quit the manager and selecting the "stop computing" option it asks before quitting, it doesn't really quit at all but remains in the process list. It also turns the boinc client into a Zombie!

BAD PROGRAMMING, FOLKS. FIX YOUR MESS!

Which project? which apps? do they have the latest fixed api? What 'latest' are you talking about? latest recommended tag release, ie 7.2.28? the latest tag release, ie 7.2.30?,
or from master? If it's from master, then expect it not to work, this is Alpha level, and maybe even pre-Alpha level.

Since this Forum is mainly just for users, you're best to report it to the Boinc Alpha list, But have some manners, if you go around posting the following you won't get any help:

BAD PROGRAMMING, FOLKS. FIX YOUR MESS

and i'll also refer you to this thread, so you can supply some required info:

http://boinc.berkeley.edu/dev/forum_thread.php?id=8600

Claggy

Which project? which apps? do they have the latest fixed api? What 'latest' are you talking about? latest recommended tag release, ie 7.2.28? the latest tag release, ie 7.2.30?,
or from master? If it's from master, then expect it not to work, this is Alpha level, and maybe even pre-Alpha level.

Since this Forum is mainly just for users, you're best to report it to the Boinc Alpha list, But have some manners, if you go around posting the following you won't get any help:

BAD PROGRAMMING, FOLKS. FIX YOUR MESS

and i'll also refer you to this thread, so you can supply some required info:

http://boinc.berkeley.edu/dev/forum_thread.php?id=8600

Claggy

It doesn't matter which project or task, they all display the same problem. When you select in the manager to stop computing before it exits, it doesn't stop the tasks at all. A simple 'top' lists them using CPU time and crunching. If you start the manager again, it displays that all tasks are suspended but it reports the progress of the computation so you can see the percentages of these apparently "suspended" tasks change. What it further does it make the client program a zombie so the only way to fix this mess is to reboot (can't kill a zombie)

Regarding the version, I did a git clone and then selected the 7.2.28 tag. There is no "stable" source code package ready for download so git is the only way

I just tested both 7.2.28 and .30 with Simap running.

In those versions suspending (Activity -> Suspend) did work correctly for me. Also when I told Manager to shutdown client (Advanced -> Shutdown connected client) the science application was shutdown as well.

Do notice that wxWidgets 3.0 version of Manager was merged into master just a few days ago. There has not yet been even an alpha version of it.

Here it only stops the GPU tasks, the CPU tasks continue to run. I have SIMAP, Cosmology, POGS and POEM as CPU tasks.

This is on a newly installed 64-bit openSUSE 13.1 system. At first I was happy to move to the 7.2.x series as I was stuck at 6.12.34 for a long time but that version no longer works on openSUSE 13.1 so I had to upgrade.

If you select from the BOINC sys tray icon to exit, and if you say "yes" to stop running tasks, it closes the GUI but remains in the process table. Its process is easy to find. It also lets other tasks remain in memory and doesn't send a shutdown signal to the client

Same here, i have the Berkeley Boinc 7.2.28 running on Ubuntu 12.04 x64, suspending a task does suspend it, and on shutting down the Manager and client does cause the running tasks to exit.

Claggy

Here it only stops the GPU tasks, the CPU tasks continue to run. I have SIMAP, Cosmology, POGS and POEM as CPU tasks.

So with .28, you select Activity->Suspend and CPU tasks don't react in any way?

This is on a newly installed 64-bit openSUSE 13.1 system. At first I was happy to move to the 7.2.x series as I was stuck at 6.12.34 for a long time but that version no longer works on openSUSE 13.1 so I had to upgrade.

Doesn't stock version work there? 13.1 is apparently brand new so I would have expected the stock version to work fine.

If you select from the BOINC sys tray icon to exit, and if you say "yes" to stop running tasks, it closes the GUI but remains in the process table. Its process is easy to find. It also lets other tasks remain in memory and doesn't send a shutdown signal to the client

Ok, the Manager hangs if you go that route. As a workaround you can use File->Exit or CTRL+Q.

I just checked out 7.2.29 (can't see .30 in the tags) and the behavior is the same. Oh well...

So with .28, you select Activity->Suspend and CPU tasks don't react in any way?

Correct. They keep running

Doesn't stock version work there? 13.1 is apparently brand new so I would have expected the stock version to work fine.

If I try the installer .run file from the Download page, it throws a missing symbols errors from the wxWidget library. Thus the only way to use an up-to-date version is to compile it myself

Ok, the Manager hangs if you go that route. As a workaround you can use File->Exit or CTRL+Q.

I tried both, it asks to stop all running computations before exiting as an option. When I say yes to that, the GUI exits but the client remains in the background along with the running tasks. If you then go look for the manager, it remains in the process list (boincmgr). It gives you the impression that it is closed as you see the GUI going away, but it remains in the process list

microchip,

What happens if you launch the 'boinc' executable manually? You can use CTRL-C to manually shutdown the client. If everything is working correctly you'll see all of the child processes of BOINC cleaned up.

---

----- Rom
BOINC Development Team, U.C. Berkeley
My Blog

microchip,

What happens if you launch the 'boinc' executable manually? You can use CTRL-C to manually shutdown the client. If everything is working correctly you'll see all of the child processes of BOINC cleaned up.

That seems to work...

In regard to the manager, while looking deeply into it, I've observed the following:

If you close the GUI manager and don't manually kill the client, that client becomes a zombie process as the manager doesn't reap it. Now if you start again the GUI manager, it will start the client again so you'll have two clients running, the "good" one and the zombie one. Now if you suspend all computations through the manager, CPU tasks will continue to run.

I SUSPECT (and note that upper case suspect) that the reason why CPU tasks continue to run is because they just shift to the zombie client process instead.

This is just a suspicion as I don't know if this is possible, but I have no other explanation for it.