Tasks disappeared after connecting to different network

Message boards : Questions and problems : Tasks disappeared after connecting to different network
Message board moderation

To post messages, you must log in.

AuthorMessage
carmar

Send message
Joined: 22 Dec 21
Posts: 12
Message 106484 - Posted: 22 Dec 2021, 21:06:05 UTC

Hi all.

I've been running https://www.mlcathome.org/mlcathome/ on Zorin 15 (Ubuntu 18.04) using Boinc manager version 7.9.3.

Last night I set it to not receive any more tasks - it had several on my laptop that were continuing to be processed and I left them running. I had turned off my router overnight and this morning had a few tasks finished but not yet sent to the server since my router was off. I have done this before numerous times and once I reconnect the router the tasks get transmitted just fine. Anyway, I shutdown the laptop in the morning.

Later in the morning, I connected to another router at a different location (trusted). Boinc manager wouldn't start. I used the command here to stop Boinc https://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=84654&postid=2011880 since I could tell based on the CPU usage that the client was running but the manager was not launching.
This allowed me to launch Boinc manager but it showed Disconnected. I used File -> connect to client and just clicked OK (blank) and then had to start again to connect to MLC. Manager connected to MLC, showed no credit, then after about a minute showed my correct credit.

But my tasks, processed and unprocessed, are all gone. This is where I hope you can help me - is it possible to get those back on or have I lost them?

Thanks.
ID: 106484 · Report as offensive
Dr Who Fan
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 10 May 07
Posts: 1328
United States
Message 106485 - Posted: 22 Dec 2021, 21:35:51 UTC - in response to Message 106484.  

They probably have been sent to the project server.

Have you looked at your tasks list at the project to confirm they were received?
Goto https://www.mlcathome.org/mlcathome/home.php then scroll down and click on the blue link at Tasks View. They should be there showing as one of THREE STATES:
* Validation pending
* Validation inconclusive
* Valid
ID: 106485 · Report as offensive
Profile Keith Myers
Volunteer tester
Help desk expert
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 17 Nov 16
Posts: 863
United States
Message 106486 - Posted: 22 Dec 2021, 23:30:25 UTC - in response to Message 106484.  

When the Manager won't start for unknown reasons, it is always good to check for the Manager lockfile still being present from the last session. BOINC should delete that file upon Manager exit but sometimes it forgets to do so. It is located in /home/{user} with the filename BOINC Manager-{username}
Just delete the lockfile and restart the Manager and it will launch and connect to the client.
ID: 106486 · Report as offensive
carmar

Send message
Joined: 22 Dec 21
Posts: 12
Message 106487 - Posted: 22 Dec 2021, 23:39:59 UTC - in response to Message 106485.  
Last modified: 22 Dec 2021, 23:47:33 UTC

Thanks for that. I checked. Some tasks did go through, that's a relief. The rest were all abandoned. Not a big deal, however, now when I shutdown and started up a little later, I again got the Manager showing as disconnected. I'm still not on my home network. How should I resolve this properly so I stay connected the next time I decide to shutdown and boot up later?

PS - Sorry, just saw your second post. I found ".BOINC Manager" in my home folder and deleted it after I exited the Manager. Starting it up it still shows as disconnected. There's a Boinc folder in my home folder but that has "stderrgui.txt" and "stdoutgui.txt"
ID: 106487 · Report as offensive
Les Bayliss
Help desk expert

Send message
Joined: 25 Nov 05
Posts: 1654
Australia
Message 106488 - Posted: 23 Dec 2021, 2:21:46 UTC - in response to Message 106487.  

See if there's anything in the Event log: Shift+Ctrl+E
ID: 106488 · Report as offensive
carmar

Send message
Joined: 22 Dec 21
Posts: 12
Message 106489 - Posted: 23 Dec 2021, 3:08:30 UTC - in response to Message 106488.  

It shows nothing, blank.
ID: 106489 · Report as offensive
Les Bayliss
Help desk expert

Send message
Joined: 25 Nov 05
Posts: 1654
Australia
Message 106491 - Posted: 23 Dec 2021, 7:20:38 UTC

It's beginning to sound as though you've created a 2nd account, although I don't see how.
ID: 106491 · Report as offensive
carmar

Send message
Joined: 22 Dec 21
Posts: 12
Message 106493 - Posted: 23 Dec 2021, 16:11:59 UTC - in response to Message 106491.  
Last modified: 23 Dec 2021, 16:19:37 UTC

The first time when I managed to connect, I had to get MLC back on the project list from scratch. It is the only project though, and I used the same email and password that I had in account with MLC.
However, before I managed to connect with File -> select computer , I had tried entering my system user and password (rather than leave both blank). I didn’t get anywhere with that but maybe the information helps you ? I don’t know.

PS - my main concern is that if I run some tasks here, shutdown, and go back to my own network, boinc manager may again wipe out my tasks. Or if it may happen even without switching networks if I happen to shutdown. I haven’t run any new tasks since this happened.
ID: 106493 · Report as offensive
carmar

Send message
Joined: 22 Dec 21
Posts: 12
Message 106495 - Posted: 23 Dec 2021, 17:59:50 UTC - in response to Message 106493.  

An update. On the same thread I cited earlier, I tried the commands listed here: https://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=84654&postid=2011927

When I run only
sudo systemctl stop boinc-client
and then launch Boinc manager, MLC shows on my project list. None of my older tasks (which it seems were either sent or abandoned) but at least the project shows. I think there does seem to be a second client/account run as you suspected but I don't know how.
ID: 106495 · Report as offensive
carmar

Send message
Joined: 22 Dec 21
Posts: 12
Message 106518 - Posted: 25 Dec 2021, 15:07:22 UTC - in response to Message 106495.  
Last modified: 25 Dec 2021, 15:07:53 UTC

Update: that didn’t last. On this morning’s boot, nothing showed under project list. Thankfully I haven’t run any tasks since starting this thread.

I have now completely removed boinc, including folders, and done a fresh install. I am now running some tasks. I will report back if I learn anything new. If the problem persists, I may just quit boinc since I haven’t had luck searching for solutions to this problem - it seems very unique.

Thank you all for your help.
ID: 106518 · Report as offensive
Profile Keith Myers
Volunteer tester
Help desk expert
Avatar

Send message
Joined: 17 Nov 16
Posts: 863
United States
Message 106520 - Posted: 25 Dec 2021, 20:51:35 UTC - in response to Message 106518.  
Last modified: 25 Dec 2021, 20:52:12 UTC

The other very common problem of the Manager not connecting to the client is a mismatch in the account password which is stored in the gui_rpc_auth.cfg file. It cannot be left blank. Either you have to leave the automatically generated, salted password that is created upon BOINC installation or to put in your own password. The salted password is generated by the hardware and the network and email address. The localhost address of 127.0.0 is the normal address that is used. I can see that a different network might change the localhost address and the salted password would be different and not match the original password and the Manager would not be able to connect. The solution for this problem would be to input your own permanent password in the file.

With the default distro BOINC packages with their default installation locations, file permissions come into play and that is a common issue with the gui_rpc_auth.cfg not being able to be read and passed to the client upon Manager connection.

If you search the forums for this topic you will find a wealth of information on the possible fixes.

One trick I have always used to lay blame on the offending application is to start both the client and Manager in separate terminal instances where you can see the outputs of both applications and any error messages to give you a starting point in determining where the fault lies.
ID: 106520 · Report as offensive
carmar

Send message
Joined: 22 Dec 21
Posts: 12
Message 106544 - Posted: 27 Dec 2021, 0:28:02 UTC - in response to Message 106520.  
Last modified: 27 Dec 2021, 0:28:29 UTC

Thanks.

In addition to entering a password in the gui_rpc_auth.cfg file, I tried all the steps up to this point: https://boinc.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=14013&postid=103913#103913 - this one didn't make sense to me so I didn't try it. I also set permissions to both BOINC folders (in etc and in var/lib) to have the client get full create and delete permission. Also added myself (only user) to boinc group. The manager stays disconnected.

I think the easiest fix, until I get tired of it, would be to just manage my tasks so that if I go to another location (which I rarely do) I don't lose any work. And then I'll just purge and reinstall as necessary.
ID: 106544 · Report as offensive
carmar

Send message
Joined: 22 Dec 21
Posts: 12
Message 106595 - Posted: 28 Dec 2021, 19:52:05 UTC
Last modified: 28 Dec 2021, 19:53:33 UTC

Closing the loop on this by confirming what worked for me (YMMV).

Short answer: Shutdown BOINC manager and client before leaving home network and keep them off until you return to home network. This works for me because my laptop rarely leaves the house.

Long answer: Reinstallation alone doesn't fix the problem. Use Synaptic Package Manager (Complete Removal option) or
sudo apt purge
. But this only removes files in root, not in home. For home, you have to intensively go through each file and each subfolder. There were files in the home folder and subfolders that didn't have "boinc" anywhere in the names. For example, a file in home named "processedtasks" and a subfolder in home named "projects". The names will give you hints that these are for boinc but will not show up in any searches for "boinc". Most of the files I removed were XML, a couple of text files. There was also a ".BOINC" hidden folder and a ".BOINC" text file. Yes, hidden files need to be made visible (ctrl+h for nautilus, nemo, thunar). I also used BleachBit after the Synaptic removal step and before this manual intensive home folder cleanup but I'm not sure if BleachBit is necessary. Once all this is done, reinstall boinc manager, add your projects, run the tasks, reboot to test, voila it works.

Hope this precludes, or at least alleviates, headaches for some users in the future.
ID: 106595 · Report as offensive
Profile Dave
Help desk expert

Send message
Joined: 28 Jun 10
Posts: 2516
United Kingdom
Message 106596 - Posted: 28 Dec 2021, 20:41:25 UTC

For example, a file in home named "processedtasks" and a subfolder in home named "projects".


Interesting, I have not had a file named, "projects" while running BOINC under Ubuntu. I may have had one when I ran it under Mandrake and later Mandriva when i used the self extracting archive to run BOINC from my home directory in the past. I Certainly don't ever remember a folder named, "processedtasks" I have .BOINC folder but no .BOINC text file.
ID: 106596 · Report as offensive
carmar

Send message
Joined: 22 Dec 21
Posts: 12
Message 106619 - Posted: 31 Dec 2021, 7:14:21 UTC - in response to Message 106596.  

The .BOINC folder and .BOINC Manager text file both persisted into this installation that works. Additionally, there’s a BOINC Manager-<username> file. I don’t recall seeing this third file last time but I can’t be certain.

I’ve had no problems since, as noted in my last post.

Hope this helps.
ID: 106619 · Report as offensive
Bryn Mawr
Help desk expert

Send message
Joined: 31 Dec 18
Posts: 284
United Kingdom
Message 106624 - Posted: 31 Dec 2021, 11:44:39 UTC - in response to Message 106619.  

The .BOINC folder and .BOINC Manager text file both persisted into this installation that works. Additionally, there’s a BOINC Manager-<username> file. I don’t recall seeing this third file last time but I can’t be certain.

I’ve had no problems since, as noted in my last post.

Hope this helps.


The Boinc Manager-username file (5 bytes) is a lock file that only exists whilst the manager is running.
ID: 106624 · Report as offensive
carmar

Send message
Joined: 22 Dec 21
Posts: 12
Message 107760 - Posted: 7 Apr 2022, 21:37:29 UTC
Last modified: 7 Apr 2022, 21:40:08 UTC

Thanks, Bryn.

This week after adding LHC, the "Disconnected" problem resurfaced.
Instead of reinstalling I simply went through the home folder and deleted the following (anything that seemed tied to boinc):
https://tinypic.host/i/boincdelete.AG0G8

Hope this helps as a much easier future solution.

PS - 2-3 files may not have been boinc related but erred on the side of caution and then boinc manager was fine after that.
ID: 107760 · Report as offensive
carmar

Send message
Joined: 22 Dec 21
Posts: 12
Message 107949 - Posted: 24 Apr 2022, 17:59:56 UTC - in response to Message 107760.  

In the interest of a record for future reference, summarizing what I’ve learned. The disappeared tasks issue can be mitigated (no guarantee to eliminate) by one or more of the following:
1. Shutdown boinc and avoid use when accessing the internet through a different network.
2. Preferring File -> Exit Boinc Manager as the mode to shutdown Boinc as well as Shutting down the computer (reboot’s helpfulness is iffy).
3. If you have just added a project that has zero new tasks (even if you’ve done work for it in the past but just newly re-added it), remove it until you definitely get new tasks for it.
4. Use the file deletion method I referenced in my prior post, shutdown machine, boot up.
ID: 107949 · Report as offensive

Message boards : Questions and problems : Tasks disappeared after connecting to different network

Copyright © 2024 University of California.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.