1) could it be that all the people observing "signal 11" are running boinc (and the Apps) as root? In other words is anyone seeing this that is running it under a different account?
2) If you're not using the "official" BOINC Client, the availability and location of tools, init scripts, BOINC data, project directories etc. depends on your Linux distribution. You can download the BOINC Core client package from http://boinc.berkeley.edu/download.php , install it in your HOME directory and run BOINC under your account. If you have a system-wide BOINC installation, you should stop / switch off this installation first (usually something like "/etc/init.d/boinc stop" as root should do this).
In general, running BOINC as root is not a good idea, though even some Linux distributions do this (by default).
Interesting point, Bernd. To be honest, I kinda liked the idea of running BOINC as a daemon- simply because it's so convenient and you never forget to start it. I found the old approach quite a hassle, even when you're using screen- it may be no problem on servers, but on a laptop which is rebooted a couple of times a day it can be annoying.
I never thought that running BOINC as root could be a problem. Of course I'm aware that running something (well, anything) as root is a potential security risk, but I wasn't overly concerned since this isn't a server and when sth is offered as a daemon those issued have usually been taken care of. But I never thought that it could be a problem in terms of causing computation errors or similar problems.
Of course, under those circumstances, I'm more than willing to do an "old style" installation. Just one question before I proceed: How can I be sure to keep my WUs and metadata? Will just copying my "projects" folder and chowning it do the trick? Thanks in advance.
Annika
Interesting point, Bernd. To be honest, I kinda liked the idea of running BOINC as a daemon- simply because it's so convenient and you never forget to start it.
It's a good and surely more convenient way to run BOINC as a daemon, but it still don't need to run under the root account. You (or the install script of the distribution) could create an own user and run BOINC under that account automatically, controlled by a runlevel script (that usually is run as root).
There are privileges to root that BOINC don't need and that could damage your system more than an ordinary user process can. E.g. there is usually some amount of spaece on the system disk that is reserved for root, so that even when the disk looks full to normal user's processes, the system remains operational. A BOINC Client or App running as root can literally fill up your filesystem to the last bit, and in bad cases you won't even be able to boot it anymore.
In the one cause of the 'signal 11' I found and fixed in this App running it as root was at least what it prevented from reporting a useful stack trace, and I haven't seen this failure at all when running under a normal user account.
Quote:
Of course, under those circumstances, I'm more than willing to do an "old style" installation. Just one question before I proceed: How can I be sure to keep my WUs and metadata? Will just copying my "projects" folder and chowning it do the trick? Thanks in advance.
Annika
I would be glad if you could at least try the old-fashioned approach until we found and fixed the current 'signal 11' problem.
If you want to keep the work in progress, I'd suggest to copy the whole BOINC directory from wherever on your machine into your home directory (depending on how you do this 'chown -R BOINC' afterwards so that all files are writeable to you). Temporary files and checkpoints are kept in the slots/ directories, references in the client_state.xml.
Just did as you said, seems to work great. Thanks a lot for answering so quickly. Btw, this approach means I don't have problems with the debugger any more, so in case anything fails I hope I'll be able to give some valuable data. I wanted to try the "power user" app anyway as soon as my current two Einstein WUs have finished crunching, so I'll be on the bleeding edge of beta-testing again ;-)
My frustration with the signal 11 issue has finally forced me to say something. I realise resolving bugs is very difficult when the problem is difficult to reproduce.
I have just lost yet another 27 hours of work due to the signal 11 issue. In this instance, it occurred just after coming out of hibernation. I also experience signal 11 errors whenever Internet connection is unavailable and BOINC attempts a network connection.
I know I am not the only one receiving signal 11s as I have noticed several of my wingmen incurring the error in the past. I have been getting them ever since S5R3 4.02 (and possibly earlier, though I cannot remember for sure).
I am still relatively new to Linux (I run Kubuntu on multiple machines) but I am quite sure the packaged version of BOINC runs as its own user, ie not as root. At present, I am quite sure that all my hardware running Linux are reliable, but the majority of the signal 11s seem to occur on my laptop (hibernation and network disconnection).
I don't know if this information is of any help, but it just seems to me that with the current 4.20 application, no one seems too concerned about the signal 11 issue at the moment.
You are not alone ;)
It seems like the latest Boinc's have problems when not connected to the net.
My latest signal 11's happened just because of that.
Again 236.43 credits on my Linux box running BOINC 5.10.21, app. 4.20, SuSE 10.1. Had to suspend a huge QMC@home WU with deadline January 28 2008. Happy New Year to everybody.
Tullio
Next bunch of signal 11s,
)
Next bunch of signal 11s, this time I know for sure that the laptop didn't have internet at that time since it shows up in the logs.
1) could it be that all the
)
1) could it be that all the people observing "signal 11" are running boinc (and the Apps) as root? In other words is anyone seeing this that is running it under a different account?
2) If you're not using the "official" BOINC Client, the availability and location of tools, init scripts, BOINC data, project directories etc. depends on your Linux distribution. You can download the BOINC Core client package from http://boinc.berkeley.edu/download.php , install it in your HOME directory and run BOINC under your account. If you have a system-wide BOINC installation, you should stop / switch off this installation first (usually something like "/etc/init.d/boinc stop" as root should do this).
In general, running BOINC as root is not a good idea, though even some Linux distributions do this (by default).
BM
BM
Interesting point, Bernd. To
)
Interesting point, Bernd. To be honest, I kinda liked the idea of running BOINC as a daemon- simply because it's so convenient and you never forget to start it. I found the old approach quite a hassle, even when you're using screen- it may be no problem on servers, but on a laptop which is rebooted a couple of times a day it can be annoying.
I never thought that running BOINC as root could be a problem. Of course I'm aware that running something (well, anything) as root is a potential security risk, but I wasn't overly concerned since this isn't a server and when sth is offered as a daemon those issued have usually been taken care of. But I never thought that it could be a problem in terms of causing computation errors or similar problems.
Of course, under those circumstances, I'm more than willing to do an "old style" installation. Just one question before I proceed: How can I be sure to keep my WUs and metadata? Will just copying my "projects" folder and chowning it do the trick? Thanks in advance.
Annika
RE: In general, running
)
I never run programs as root, except when installing packages by rpm.
Tullio
RE: Interesting point,
)
It's a good and surely more convenient way to run BOINC as a daemon, but it still don't need to run under the root account. You (or the install script of the distribution) could create an own user and run BOINC under that account automatically, controlled by a runlevel script (that usually is run as root).
There are privileges to root that BOINC don't need and that could damage your system more than an ordinary user process can. E.g. there is usually some amount of spaece on the system disk that is reserved for root, so that even when the disk looks full to normal user's processes, the system remains operational. A BOINC Client or App running as root can literally fill up your filesystem to the last bit, and in bad cases you won't even be able to boot it anymore.
In the one cause of the 'signal 11' I found and fixed in this App running it as root was at least what it prevented from reporting a useful stack trace, and I haven't seen this failure at all when running under a normal user account.
I would be glad if you could at least try the old-fashioned approach until we found and fixed the current 'signal 11' problem.
If you want to keep the work in progress, I'd suggest to copy the whole BOINC directory from wherever on your machine into your home directory (depending on how you do this 'chown -R BOINC' afterwards so that all files are writeable to you). Temporary files and checkpoints are kept in the slots/ directories, references in the client_state.xml.
BM
BM
Just did as you said, seems
)
Just did as you said, seems to work great. Thanks a lot for answering so quickly. Btw, this approach means I don't have problems with the debugger any more, so in case anything fails I hope I'll be able to give some valuable data. I wanted to try the "power user" app anyway as soon as my current two Einstein WUs have finished crunching, so I'll be on the bleeding edge of beta-testing again ;-)
edited for spelling
236 credits on 4.20, BOINC
)
236 credits on 4.20, BOINC 5.10.21, SuSE Linux 10.1, no problems.
Tullio
My frustration with the
)
My frustration with the signal 11 issue has finally forced me to say something. I realise resolving bugs is very difficult when the problem is difficult to reproduce.
I have just lost yet another 27 hours of work due to the signal 11 issue. In this instance, it occurred just after coming out of hibernation. I also experience signal 11 errors whenever Internet connection is unavailable and BOINC attempts a network connection.
I know I am not the only one receiving signal 11s as I have noticed several of my wingmen incurring the error in the past. I have been getting them ever since S5R3 4.02 (and possibly earlier, though I cannot remember for sure).
I am still relatively new to Linux (I run Kubuntu on multiple machines) but I am quite sure the packaged version of BOINC runs as its own user, ie not as root. At present, I am quite sure that all my hardware running Linux are reliable, but the majority of the signal 11s seem to occur on my laptop (hibernation and network disconnection).
I don't know if this information is of any help, but it just seems to me that with the current 4.20 application, no one seems too concerned about the signal 11 issue at the moment.
Soli Deo Gloria
You are not alone ;) It seems
)
You are not alone ;)
It seems like the latest Boinc's have problems when not connected to the net.
My latest signal 11's happened just because of that.
Again 236.43 credits on my
)
Again 236.43 credits on my Linux box running BOINC 5.10.21, app. 4.20, SuSE 10.1. Had to suspend a huge QMC@home WU with deadline January 28 2008. Happy New Year to everybody.
Tullio