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World Community Grid Forums
Category: Support
Forum: BOINC Agent Support
Thread: boinc brings linux to a crawl |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 20
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Gort
Cruncher Joined: Dec 29, 2005 Post Count: 19 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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I'm running opensuse 11.1 with kde 4.2. I update several times a week. My kernel is 2.6.27.21-0.1-pae. The boinc manger says 6.4.4.
About a month ago, after an update, my desktop began to run very slowly. The mouse skips and jumps so badly it is unusable. I tracked this problem down to boinc. boinc manager has been running for nearly an hour and show less than 1 minute of cpu time and only 0.004% of the wu complete. I have been running boinc on opensuse for years. I almost never shut the pc down so boinc will keep crunching. But if I leave it on overnight now, it won't get 1% of the wu done. I stopped running boinc for weeks, as a waste of time, and hoping a new update to kde will fix this. So far, no luck. Anyone have any ideas? |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
These symptoms indicate some other process is using all your CPU time, and, indeed, causing your "slowed to a crawl" problem.
Identify what process is using all your CPU time, and you will identify the problem. Note that our recommended BOINC version is 6.2.15. |
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jal2
Senior Cruncher USA Joined: Apr 28, 2007 Post Count: 422 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Hi Gort.
----------------------------------------I'm running multiple version of OpenSuSE & Boinc without problems from Boinc, although my highest Boinc version is 6.2.15, as Didactylos recommended. I did have to detach, & re-attach, my project after one Boinc upgrade, but that was so new tasks would run. You need to either use the top command, from a console, or the system monitor, to view the cpu resources the different processes are using. The problem processes I have encountered in the past are: - The Beagle search engine in OpenSuSE 10.2 - It had a problem with unknown file types, but it should be fixed for 11.1. - The npviewer.bin process in OpenSuSE 11.1 - this is the pdf plugin for firefox, and the source of most of my recent problems. A beta version is available which is supposed to resolve this problem, but I haven't tried it yet. |
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Gort
Cruncher Joined: Dec 29, 2005 Post Count: 19 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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I should have added that I did check top. The big resource hog is plasma, with boinc or the wu listed right behind it. I am always updating, going forward with versions, so I didn't think to roll back to 6.2.15. I will look around to find that version, but if someone knows where it is, could they be kind enough to post?
----------------------------------------BTW, I let boinc run all night. After10 hours, it shows 9 minutes of cpu time and less than 1% complete. The "time to completion" keeps ticking UP not down! Going to look for the old versions now. [Edit 1 times, last edit by Gort at Apr 24, 2009 2:51:11 PM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Check your powersaving options. It looks like Cool'n'quiet or SpeedStep is getting in the way of things.
Disable it in the BIOS for a permanent fix. |
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Gort
Cruncher Joined: Dec 29, 2005 Post Count: 19 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Check your powersaving options. It looks like Cool'n'quiet or SpeedStep is getting in the way of things. Disable it in the BIOS for a permanent fix. I'll try that next. I found the old version 6.2.15 and installed. There is little to no difference. The mouse and keyboard still lag and in 90 minutes of running, I got 1 minute of cpu time and 0.000% complete. |
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Gort
Cruncher Joined: Dec 29, 2005 Post Count: 19 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Well, I'm stumped. There is nothing in the bios or desktop settings that is relevant to the speed problem. Mostly it is about the monitor and "resume after crash" settings.
I have a "lab rat" that I use to check out software. It is a Celeron with 256 MB of ram. It is running bleeding edge opensuse and kde. I fired it up and installed boinc 6.2.15. In 5 minutes I got over 3.5 minutes of cpu time and nearly 1% completion. In the 90 minutes that this computer ran the same boinc, I have less than 30 seconds of cpu time and no measurable completion. I may have to give up on boinc for my main computer and run it only on the lab rat. Kinda hate to run a pc 24/7 for one app that I should be able to run on my main pc. I think I'll try the beta software just to see if I get lucky. |
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Sekerob
Ace Cruncher Joined: Jul 24, 2005 Post Count: 20043 Status: Offline |
Get ahold of a program similar to OCCT or CPU-Z to monitor the ghz the CPU runs at. Though I don't expect anything, set priority of the science application same as the core client, normal or high and DO check other processes for the sciences WILL go to sleep if something else has the attention.
----------------------------------------Further, try latest client 6.6. You get the BOINC manager to report Elapsed time (wallclock), so at least if the sciences are allowed to run the BOINC manager should show that. With the properties button you can view the elapsed v cpu time. Make sure of course that "run always" is on. oh yes, mouse skipping around. Something might be impeding with the BOINC localhost RPC traffic between BOINC manager and the BOINC core client.
WCG
----------------------------------------Please help to make the Forums an enjoyable experience for All! [Edit 1 times, last edit by Sekerob at Apr 24, 2009 5:55:51 PM] |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Celerons don't have SpeedStep, so the comparison is worthless.
You haven't specified what CPU it is that you do have, but I recommend you research how to control its power saving features. |
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Gort
Cruncher Joined: Dec 29, 2005 Post Count: 19 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Just some info.
My main pc has an Intel Pentium 4 at 2.4 GHz with 756 MB ram. It has been running boinc 6.6 for 90 minutes and has completed 0.5% of the wu. The lab rat has a Celeron Coppermine running at 933 MHz with 256 MB ram. It has been running boinc 6.2.15 for 90 minutes and has just over 5.0% of the wu completed. I know the wu's are different, so there is not an exact comparison but there is no denying the problem. I am unfamiliar with the software you recommend to do a check on things, but the cpu is listed as having 7 steps. The mouse and keyboard are not the whole problem. They are just the early sign. It takes more than a minute to open Firefox fully. The hardware probe took even longer. I'll leave boinc running on the lab rat, even though I am not computing with it. But I have to give up on this pc since it is barely usable. |
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