Some of us have seen the BOINC Manager when running on BOINC stop updating. I posted the question and Charlie was kind enough to ask some additional questions. I am opening a new thread here so that if anyone has seen this issue with 6.5.0 and later versions if they would post their experiences so that I can send the data on to Charlie.

If we don't look and try then he will never be able to fix it...

On Apr 17, 2009, at 3:01 PM, Charlie Fenton wrote:

Hello Paul,

We've not been able to reproduce this problem.

Not surprising, it is intermittent. Not sure if if it time related or related to other networking issues, for example, if my external network is more rocky does this happen more often as the extern network errors "pile-up" and eventually kill the local TCP/IP connection. OF course I am just speculating ...

Could you please explain what you mean by "freeze"? Does it become unresponsive to mouse clicks on the tabs or selecting items in the lists? Or is it just not updating the values in the task tab?

The tasks tab does not update. I cannot recall if the tabs allow switching for sure or not, memory says they do, but that the data does not update. If you click detach from the client and then try to attach to the local client the BOINC manager pops up the little "connecting" which does nothing. Click cancel and it pops back up a couple seconds later.

If you select a running task, does the "Show Graphics" button work?

Did not think to try this as I never, well almost never use or look at the graphics ... will try to recall this test the next time it happens.

Does the BOINC Client continue to run while the Manager is in this state? Does Apple's Task Manager show normal CPU usage for the manager and BOINC Client when this happens?

The science apps seem to continue to run at 100%, not sure if they are running correctly or not, but am not seeing tasks error out when this problem arises.

Does the problem resolve itself if you reconnect to your Client by using the "Advanced / Select Computer" command to connect to "localhost"?

No, answered above ...

The only resolution anyone has found so far is to Force Quit and then restart BOINC.

What version of OS X are you seeing this on?

10.5..6

2 x 3.2 GHz quad core Xeon

16G RAM 800MHz

Thank you in advance for the extra information.

Sure, love to have this one solved.

I posted these questions on the Rosetta board...

Paul's description seems to cover the most.

My additions, as far as my memory goes:

On Apr 17, 2009, at 3:01 PM, Charlie Fenton wrote:

Hello Paul,

We've not been able to reproduce this problem.

Not surprising, it is intermittent. Not sure if if it time related or related to other networking issues, for example, if my external network is more rocky does this happen more often as the extern network errors "pile-up" and eventually kill the local TCP/IP connection. OF course I am just speculating ...

I have had this problem without being connected to the internet or to a network, the computer solely computing tasks all by itself. So I doubt that networks are to blame.

If you select a running task, does the "Show Graphics" button work?

Did not think to try this as I never, well almost never use or look at the graphics ... will try to recall this test the next time it happens.

The "Show Graphics" and "Properties" buttons give the same result as Paul describes for the "detach from the client" etc.

I have observed this problem only on my Intel Mac (10.5.6), not on my PPC (10.4).

From time to time it happens that the Rosetta app will appear in the dock and will not disappear until BOINC is terminated. In this case it will also "hang" BOINC: BOINC becomes the front-most application and I cannot select any other applications unless I quit BOINC.

This happens on both my Mac Pros, an early 2008 Octa-Core Xeon (3 GHz) and a brand new Nehalem Octa-Core (2.66 GHz).

However, I suspended Rosetta anyway because it grants just 20-25 credits/hour while all other BOINC projects grant 40-50 credits/hour to Macs.

---

Sorry, double-post.

Well, good news is that Charlie Fenton is working in this area still ... we should see a couple minor improvements in 6.6.30 though I don't know if they will for sure affect the problems or not ...

Only time will tell. WHich version of BOINC?

Well, good news is that Charlie Fenton is working in this area still ... we should see a couple minor improvements in 6.6.30 though I don't know if they will for sure affect the problems or not ...

Only time will tell. WHich version of BOINC?

6.6.20 and 6.6.29

---

Avoid 6.6.20 like the plague ... 6.6.29 has some additional fixes in though it is not addressing your issue. I have never seen this ... are you running the screen saver? Or do you look at the graphics?

Avoid 6.6.20 like the plague ... 6.6.29 has some additional fixes in though it is not addressing your issue. I have never seen this ... are you running the screen saver? Or do you look at the graphics?

Paul,

On one of my computers I run the screensaver, on the other one I don't. It does not make a difference. I do not look at the graphics. Most often it happens when I quit e.g. Firefox or Thunderbird.

---