"activities suspended" WHY ?
6 Nov 2005 19:15:37 UTC
Topic 190125
(moderation:
Hi everybody!
I'm a complete newby on BOINC. I installed it 4 days ago. it worked very well untill yesterday evening. I registered to the project einstein@home and I change some parameters about the disk space boinc can take. And since then, all my project (LHC and Einstein) are marked "activities suspended". The only means of continuing calculations is to set the parameter to "work all the time" which is less comfortable than the default setting. So I change again the settings about disk space to set the default ones. But the problem is still present. Why does BOINC stop working ? What can I do ?
I'm french, so I may have made mistakes in my english, I hope that it will not prevent you from understanding.
"activities suspended" WHY ?
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Perhaps you have unintentionally clicked on "Suspend" under the BOINC "Commands" menu. If so, you should change back to "Run based on preferences".
RE: RE: Hi everybody! I'm
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No, I haven't click on suspend. The problem comes from something else
I suggest that you tell us
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I suggest that you tell us what values are now set in your preferences.
These are my settings :
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These are my settings :
Processor usage
Do work while computer is running on batteries?
(matters only for portable computers) no
Do work while computer is in use? no
Do work only after computer is idle for 3 minutes
Do work only between the hours of (no restriction)
Leave applications in memory while preempted?
(suspended applications will consume swap space if 'yes') no
Switch between applications every
(recommended: 60 minutes) 60 minutes
On multiprocessors, use at most 2 processors
Disk and memory usage
Use no more than 100 GB disk space
Leave at least 0.1 GB disk space free
Use no more than 50% of total disk space
Write to disk at most every 60 seconds
Use no more than 75% of total virtual memory
Network usage
Connect to network about every
(determines size of work cache; maximum 10 days) 0.1 days
Confirm before connecting to Internet?
(matters only if you use a modem) no
Disconnect when done?
(matters only if you use a modem) no
Maximum download rate: no limit
Maximum upload rate: no limit
Use network only between the hours of
Enforced by versions 4.46 and greater (no restriction)
Skip image file verification?
Check this ONLY if your Internet provider modifies image files (UMTS does this, for example).
Skipping verification reduces the security of BOINC. no
RE: These are my settings :
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Could the line i highlighted be the problem?
Kathryn
Kathryn :o)
Einstein@Home Moderator
RE: RE: Do work while
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That is very likely to be the entire problem. The default setting is "yes" so when EAH was added as a project and settings were changed, that was probably one of the changes. Once the project was "updated" to make the changes effective, every touch of the keyboard or mouse would suspend the science app running at the time for a period of three minutes (the default setting). Also because the user has set the preference for keeping the science app in memory when preempted to "no", the frequent stops and restarts are going to occur from the previous saved checkpoint rather than from where the app had actually got to in its processing. This could have a bit of an impact on the progress that the science app could make during a "working" day. If the app is kept in memory (and with 512MB you do have enough) then all those small bits of calculations (until the next preempting event calls a halt) wont be lost.
My advice to Otakon would be to take advantage of the resources that his laptop possesses (Pentium M - 1.73GHz & 512MB RAM - that's a Centrino right??) and set the following preferences:-
* Set "Do work only after computer is idle for X minutes" to 0.1 minutes
* Set "Leave applications in memory while preempted?" to "Yes"
If the user is using the laptop for "office" type work mainly (wordprocessing, surfing, email, etc) and the occassional heavier process like burning a CD for example, you would be hard pressed to even notice that BOINC is there. I've burned quite a number of CDs with BOINC running and there has never been a hint of a problem for me but I guess YMMV :).
If BOINC did become noticeable, the first preference could be set to "No" and with the second one at 0.1 minutes, BOINC could take fuller advantage of any pauses in the user's daily work routine. For example if the user stopped for 30 seconds to reread that last sentence typed, BOINC would allow 24 seconds of work to be done and it wouldn't be lost because it would be kept in memory and added to at the next little break that came along. The user should think about how he works and how best to fine tune things to take full advantage of his working habits.
Cheers,
Gary.