Invalid global preferences problem

Jim1348
Jim1348
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Christian Beer wrote:You can

Christian Beer wrote:

You can check if your hosts are affected by this if you go to your Account dashboard then click on each of the hostnames listed in the lower right and then click on the time of last contact (Last time contacted server:) or add a /log to the URL in your browser. If you see a message like this you are affected by this problem:

2016-09-08 09:35:13.8272 [PID=19551] [debug] [HOST#11767746] MSG(high) Invalid global preferences supplied, please check https://einsteinathome.org/community/forum/19 on how to fix that.

I just noticed a few minutes ago the error message in my BoincTasks messages for my Win7 64-bit machine (BOINC 7.8.2) https://einsteinathome.org/host/11368189 which in addition to Einstein is attached to WUProp, WCG, CPDN and Climate@Home 2.0.  It was receiving its "General prefs" from WCG, as usual.  But I then made a couple of minor changes to the Computing preferences for this machine (the download and upload rate), and rebooted.  Now, I am picking  up my General prefs from Einstein, since they were the last changed.  But the error message is now gone in the BoincTasks log, and also when I check it as above.  I have no idea if this means anything, but thought I should mention it.

 

Christian Beer
Christian Beer
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Yavanius wrote:Here's the

Yavanius wrote:

Here's the interesting thing:

 

Fresh machine so fresh install:

Added Skynet POGS.

Added Eistein.

See in log getting web prefs from LHC@home.

Getting Invalid Global Preferences msg in log...

You should contact the Skynet POGS project and let them know that they need to update their scheduler. They can of course contact me if they have questions as to what exactly needs to be updated.

Christian Beer
Christian Beer
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Jim1348 wrote:Christian Beer

Jim1348 wrote:
Christian Beer wrote:

You can check if your hosts are affected by this if you go to your Account dashboard then click on each of the hostnames listed in the lower right and then click on the time of last contact (Last time contacted server:) or add a /log to the URL in your browser. If you see a message like this you are affected by this problem:

2016-09-08 09:35:13.8272 [PID=19551] [debug] [HOST#11767746] MSG(high) Invalid global preferences supplied, please check https://einsteinathome.org/community/forum/19 on how to fix that.

I just noticed a few minutes ago the error message in my BoincTasks messages for my Win7 64-bit machine (BOINC 7.8.2) https://einsteinathome.org/host/11368189 which in addition to Einstein is attached to WUProp, WCG, CPDN and Climate@Home 2.0.  It was receiving its "General prefs" from WCG, as usual.  But I then made a couple of minor changes to the Computing preferences for this machine (the download and upload rate), and rebooted.  Now, I am picking  up my General prefs from Einstein, since they were the last changed.  But the error message is now gone in the BoincTasks log, and also when I check it as above.  I have no idea if this means anything, but thought I should mention it.

 

This is what is supposed to happen immediately after changing the preferences on Einstein@Home but that doesn't mean the problem is fixed for you. If one of the other projects you are attached to still have the bug you will see the message again.

Jim1348
Jim1348
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Christian Beer wrote:This is

Christian Beer wrote:
This is what is supposed to happen immediately after changing the preferences on Einstein@Home but that doesn't mean the problem is fixed for you. If one of the other projects you are attached to still have the bug you will see the message again.

Thanks.  I notice that WCG often has wrong General prefs information for me on their website, and I frequently have to correct it.  And it is not picked up from another site, but is more or less random.  Whether that means it is the cause of this particular problem is another matter. 

However, while we are on the subject, why not eliminate web preferences anyway and just go with local ones?  It would eliminate another bit of BOINC over-engineering that does not seem to be needed.  Maybe I should mention it on the BOINC forum.

Gary Roberts
Gary Roberts
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Jim1348 wrote:... why not

Jim1348 wrote:
... why not eliminate web preferences anyway and just go with local ones? ...

Think about all the nodes in the Atlas cluster.  Lots of them are crunching EAH work right now.  If a preference change was needed, do you think it would be a good idea to force someone to have to make the change on every affected node on a node by node basis?

Even someone with a relatively small number of hosts would probably prefer to make a change in just one place.  Having global preferences capability is NOT over-engineering.

 

Cheers,
Gary.

Jim1348
Jim1348
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Gary Roberts wrote:Jim1348

Gary Roberts wrote:
Jim1348 wrote:
... why not eliminate web preferences anyway and just go with local ones? ...

Even someone with a relatively small number of hosts would probably prefer to make a change in just one place.  Having global preferences capability is NOT over-engineering.

 

I am sure it was done originally for a good reason.  But it seems to have grown into a monster.  How about just a single preferences site, on the BOINC servers?  This round-robbin scheme of "last changed" is sure to break somewhere.

Christian Beer
Christian Beer
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Please don't start a

Please don't start a discussion about the preferences in this thread. This is about a specific issue that was investigated and fixed. The problem now is that other projects don't adopt the fix available. What I would like to see are volunteers who bother other projects so they adopt the fix that is already available.

Project administrators can find more information in my email from a year ago to the boinc_projects mailing list (https://lists.ssl.berkeley.edu/mailman/private/boinc_projects/2016-October/011869.html)

Conan
Conan
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Just noting that I have had

Just noting that I have had this issue pop up on my Windows host.

I have been receiving work and only spotted the error message by accident when checking for something else.

In order to fix it I went as the message suggests to this forum thread.

I went into my settings and found Einstein had created a school venue with nothing in it and weird preference settings. So I deleted the venue as I was not using it.

All my computers are set to 'Home' venue.

But doing an update showed the Windows computer had a school venue set. I selected generic then back to home for venue in preferences so it would change on next update. When I updated the host it still showed School as the host venue. I tried a number of times but it would not change.

I have never had a school venue on Einstein.

In the end I had to detach then re-attach the host before the venue would change.

So in my case it seems the global preferences are not propagating as per my selections.

Conan

 

 

 

HAL9000
HAL9000
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Conan_4 wrote:Just noting

Conan_4 wrote:

Just noting that I have had this issue pop up on my Windows host.

I have been receiving work and only spotted the error message by accident when checking for something else.

In order to fix it I went as the message suggests to this forum thread.

I went into my settings and found Einstein had created a school venue with nothing in it and weird preference settings. So I deleted the venue as I was not using it.

All my computers are set to 'Home' venue.

But doing an update showed the Windows computer had a school venue set. I selected generic then back to home for venue in preferences so it would change on next update. When I updated the host it still showed School as the host venue. I tried a number of times but it would not change.

I have never had a school venue on Einstein.

In the end I had to detach then re-attach the host before the venue would change.

So in my case it seems the global preferences are not propagating as per my selections.

Conan

I tried following the steps listed to fix the error, but it didn't correct the issue.
So I have decided to ignore the error as it doesn't seem to cause an actual problem. Only erroneous error message from the servers.

nzmeccanoman
nzmeccanoman
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It is now 2018. 16 months

It is now 2018. 16 months since the last comment on it was made in the forum.  I never received the message until a couple of weeks ago and am now receiving it every day.  I cannot understand from the steps below how to fix it.  Can I just ignore it or is it affecting my processing of projects Which appear to be taking about 20% longer than in the past, however this could be related to other computer usage issues

cheers

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