stuck at "Ready to start"

Jelle
Jelle
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Topic 196137

The title says it all. I have jobs downloaded. They show up in the task list. Their status is "Ready to start". And nothing happens.

I already re-installed BOINC from scratch, but still have the same problem. System is running on Ubuntu 10.10.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Claggy
Claggy
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stuck at "Ready to start"

Which version of Boinc? [Edit: i guess 6.12.34, but which host?] Have you got Computation set to 'Suspend' in the activity menu? have you got 'Suspend work while computer is in use?' set to yes?
Are you CPU cores doing work from other projects at the moment?

Claggy

Bikeman (Heinz-Bernd Eggenstein)
Bikeman (Heinz-...
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Hi! You are participatiing

Hi!

You are participatiing in several projects, so I wonder if any tasks are running? If, for example, some tasks from other projects are in danger of failing their deadline, BOINC will not (and should not) start E@H tasks but will keep them in state "Ready ro start".

HBE

Jelle
Jelle
Joined: 16 Aug 11
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Thank you for responses.

Thank you for responses. Answers to questions are below.

Quote:
Which version of Boinc? [Edit: i guess 6.12.34, but which host?] Have you got Computation set to 'Suspend' in the activity menu? have you got 'Suspend work while computer is in use?' set to yes?
Are you CPU cores doing work from other projects at the moment?

Your guess is correct. I'm running 6.12.34 on Linux 64-bit host. Computation is not suspended. I did try that followed by a resume, just to see if that would unstick it, but it made no difference. Suspend while in use is switched to off.
This particular machine is not doing work on any other projects. The last point also answers HBE's question.

I have been running Einstein on a number of machines for a couple of months now and have not had this problem before. I installed BOINC on this machine a week ago and it has been running Einstein without problems as well. The machine is
Computer 4510124

By way of a hint, the only thing new I did yesterday, before this problem cropped up, was starting to install Gentoo Linux in a separate partition. As part of that process I chroot-ed into the new partition. Afterwards, however, I rebooted and went back to my normal Ubuntu installation. I don't see why that should have affected my BOINC installation, but if anybody has ideas I'm open.

Jelle
Jelle
Joined: 16 Aug 11
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Problem (partially) solved.

Problem (partially) solved. Einstein is running again.

First, I tried adding another project. Cosmology@home happily started cruncing away, so then I knew it was not the BOINC installation.

Then I removed and reattached Einstein. The CUDA task got stuck again, but a non-CUDA task started running. So that was good. Then I changed the settings under the Advanced menu in the BOINC manager to use the GPU always, instead of based on preferences. Lo and behold, then the CUDA task started running.

The only big mystery to me remains why this behaviour changed. And, when I set the BOINC manager back to project preferences, the CUDA task starts waiting again, even though in my preferences it can use the GPU. Still seems strange, but the BOINC manager override works, so problem solved.

archae86
archae86
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For the web site version of

For the web site version of Computing preferences, how do you have the item named:

Suspend GPU work while computer is in use?

set? This can be quite helpful in preserving the interactive performance of your PC, but does have the effect that your GPU task will be shut down anytime you actually look at it using an application on the same PC.

Jelle
Jelle
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Hi. I do indeed have the

Hi. I do indeed have the "Suspend GPU work while computer is in use" on my web preferences. For the default time of 3 minutes. But I had that before too, so I did not make changes there. Previously my CUDA jobs would start running anyway. Besides, I would then expect them to start running after 3 minutes, if I do not touch my mouse or keyboard. That did not happen. Jobs were just stuck what seemed permanently. I turned computer off after a few hours. Incidentally, turning it back on again did not help either.

archae86
archae86
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It seems that something

It seems that something changed on your system which caused the interpretation of the "in use" status by BOINCmgr to change to deeming it always in use.

The fact that CPU jobs were starting while GPU "ready to start" jobs were not really does seem to point to this particular mechanism.

No, I don't have any guesses as to the offending condition, setting, or process. If I were curious, I'd be inclined to start up a copy of Process Explorer, and use it to kill off processes one at a time, waiting four minutes each time, and watching to see whether a GPU task eventually started up.

On the other hand, you have found a setup that works for you, so it seems not worth the bother.

Jelle
Jelle
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I think you may be right.

I think you may be right. Considering that it's working again now, I don't really want to spend time on figuring out what exactly caused it. So that will remain a mystery. Thank you to everyone that offered encouragement and support.

roboterwerke
roboterwerke
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There are more settings under

There are more settings under "Computation settings".

On third tab there are following settings:

--> If computer in use, use max [x]% RAM

--> If computer not in use, use max [x]% RAM

If you have too little RAM or WIs need more RAM, than [x]% of RAM on your system, WI will not start.

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