1) Message boards : Cafe LHC : 𝟐𝟎𝘁𝗵 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 (Message 48817)
Posted 25 Oct 2023 by Profile Ray Murray
Post:
Still here, too having had a couple of breaks. Only 1 host just now. I've killed at least 2 laptops and 1 desktop over the years by over-working them and another is too electrically noisy for my Amateur Radio obsession so it's idle.

GM1SXW
2) Message boards : Theory Application : Theory simulation takes way too long (Message 48799)
Posted 20 Oct 2023 by Profile Ray Murray
Post:
Boinc doesn't know what is going on within the Virtual Machine so the % it displays is time-elapsed versus expiry time (10 days) although most run for only a few hours, some a few days. The 10 day limit is to catch faulty units where the user hasn't noticed and stops them so as not to waste resources running a bad task forever.
To see the actual progress within the VM, click Show Console then Alt-F2. Almost all are 100,000 events so it is easy to see the actual % complete.
3) Message boards : Theory Application : Probing /cvfms/grid.cern.ch... Failed! (Message 47736)
Posted 27 Jan 2023 by Profile Ray Murray
Post:
I've found a way to get these ones running again.
Close Boinc.
Open VBox.
In Manager, find the offending VM.
Remove it, with the "Delete all files" option.
Start Boinc.
The Task will start from the beginning again and, if the network connection has been restored, will proceed as normal. It retains the uselessly wasted idling elapsed time and doesn't solve the single probe attempt issue but is gentler than an Abort.
4) Message boards : Theory Application : Probing /cvfms/grid.cern.ch... Failed! (Message 47582)
Posted 7 Dec 2022 by Profile Ray Murray
Post:
I've had a few of these recently (latest one was from -dev) There is only one attempt at probing and if that fails then the tasks idles until I intervene and Abort it, otherwise it will run doing nothing until the timeout.
Might it be helpful to add further attempts to probe, after a delay(s), so that any transient network problem may have resolved itself. Then if the problem persists, after "n" attempts, to end the Task rather than waiting for the timeout or manual intervention?
It doesn't happen often but it is annoying coming home from work to find one that has been idle for a day or more.
5) Message boards : Cafe LHC : Status 2020 (Message 47479)
Posted 3 Nov 2022 by Profile Ray Murray
Post:
I wonder how many of us from that era are still here?
6) Message boards : ATLAS application : Now that the LHC is back online, what are we "simulating" ? (Message 47362)
Posted 10 Oct 2022 by Profile Ray Murray
Post:
So much data is produced from the actual collisions that it would not be possible to search through it all, looking for something interesting. The simulations we run allow the scientists to narrow their search.
I liken it to looking for a needle in a haystack - in field full of haystacks. The simulations we run let the scientists at least start looking in the right haystack, then in the right portion of that haystack.

I believe linking the graphics to the individual job in progress (if that's even possible?) would require considerable resources that would be better allocated to doing the actual calculations, so something more generic is presented instead.
7) Questions and Answers : Getting started : Deleting old account (Message 47277)
Posted 21 Sep 2022 by Profile Ray Murray
Post:
Hi
I can see both messages but only by going via Posts from the account page as the thread is not viewable directly in the Board.
I don't think the account is recoverable without the password, and any reset would be sent to the old, inactive email.

I'm sorry but I don't really know what's going on. The thread has been deleted again but I can get to it through looking at my own posts. Maybe that's a Moderator's privilege I didn't know about.
It could be that there is an automatic security script that deletes accounts where no computers are attached to get rid of suspected SPAM. Yours are listed as "hidden" so I can't tell.

If you just want to leave us, simply Remove the project in Boinc.

Crystal Pellet, a more knowledgeable moderator replied to my message:
Can you still log in to that old account with the old email?
If so, on the account page, in the heading Change, there is option to delete account.
Otherwise, I don't think it's possible.
-----------------
CP I think it's not possible this way.
You will receive an email at your old email address and I suppose you don't have access to that anymore.
If you still can login to your old account with your old email,
I think you first have to change your e-mail address to one you have access to,
because you will receive an e-mail to confirm the deletion.


If you are concerned about security then I don't think there would be any problem as you say the old email is inactive.

I have posted this to the thread and also as Private Message, hoping you will see one or the other.
8) Questions and Answers : Getting started : Deleting old account (Message 47271)
Posted 20 Sep 2022 by Profile Ray Murray
Post:
Can you still log in to that old account with the old email?
If so, on the account page, in the heading Change, there is option to delete account.
Otherwise, I don't think it's possible.
If you are worried about security, change the name and email to something random so it is no longer associated to you, then delete.
I don't know how or why your previous messages were deleted.
Hoping that helps you, and sorry to see you go.
9) Message boards : ATLAS application : ATLAS vbox v2.02 (Message 47089)
Posted 5 Aug 2022 by Profile Ray Murray
Post:
In February, I had a problem with Theory, where I had made sure that VT-x was enabled but Boinc wasn't seeing it and was reporting as disabled. An AVAST (AVG is similar, I believe) update had added, and checked by default, a feature in
Menu - Settings - Troubleshooting called Enable hardware-assisted virtualisation which is checked by default but needs to be UNCHECKED
https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/forum_thread.php?id=5797&postid=46366
10) Message boards : Theory Application : Sherpa tasks run okay for long time, then they fail (Message 47020)
Posted 14 Jul 2022 by Profile Ray Murray
Post:
Is the number of events still increasing? If there has been no event progress since you last looked, it may have already died, even though Boinc says it is still running. When did it last write to its log?
I currently have a sherpa 1.4.1 on -dev with an ETA in the console of 3hrs ago, using all of its allocated core. It run for 4hrs but seems stuck on 22400 events, with nothing written to log in the last 6 hours. It's got until I finish my dinner to make some progress or else it's going to be terminated.
11) Message boards : Sixtrack Application : Tasks available / tasks not available (Message 47016)
Posted 13 Jul 2022 by Profile Ray Murray
Post:
I don't think so. Each batch will be a particular study, or concurrent studies, so a set amount of work to do. When that work is all out, they wait for returns and process those results then possibly issue more work based on those results ... or not. The few tasks listed as In Progress are likely to be on slow hosts or there's been a system or user error on a host. They will eventually time out and be reissued.
12) Message boards : Theory Application : Problem of the day (Message 46767)
Posted 11 May 2022 by Profile Ray Murray
Post:
https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/result.php?resultid=354189019
===> [runRivet] Wed May 11 07:14:58 UTC 2022 [boinc pp mb-inelastic 2760 - - sherpa 1.2.3 default 100000 254]

Ran ok till 22400 events then did nothing more for 12+hrs when I killed it. Full usage of a core but nothing actually being done.
I had another Sherpa 1.x.x a week or so ago that did similar.
I thought the early Sherpas were deprecated ages ago?
13) Message boards : Number crunching : VM Applications Errors (Message 46453)
Posted 17 Mar 2022 by Profile Ray Murray
Post:
I was having similar problem a few weeks ago where Boinc was reporting that Virtualization was either not supported or switched off, when I knew that it was supported and I had definitely turned it on in Bios.
An overprotective Avast Antivirus feature (apparently AVG is the same base) was what was stopping that contact, perhaps the two virtualisation instances not playing well together, much as Hyper-V causes problems.
Turning that feature off and rebooting to get it to stick, got me going again.
Hope that helps you, or other that might be encountering this problem.
14) Message boards : Number crunching : computation error (Message 46368)
Posted 27 Feb 2022 by Profile Ray Murray
Post:
You need to reboot after unchecking that box to get the setting to "stick". Hoping it fixes those machines for you, as it did mine.
I removed the Happy Bunny's "tail" typo 8¬)
15) Message boards : Number crunching : computation error (Message 46366)
Posted 27 Feb 2022 by Profile Ray Murray
Post:
Woo Hoo. Also sorted.
Peter's fix didn't help as I have a Home edition of Windows which supposedly doesn't have Hyper-V so no amount of trying to disable it was of any benefit.
So something was still not allowing VBox to see that Virtualisation was Available and Activated.
Downgrading to VBox 6.1.30 didn't help either, nor did uninstalling a couple of Windows updates.
Further Googling found the problem reported elsewhere as well and eventually I found that an Avast Antivirus update had given it a new feature in
Menu - Settings - Troubleshooting called Enable hardware-assisted virtualisation which is checked by default but needs to be UNCHECKED
One host happy again with LHC & -dev and I'm sure the other will be, too once it finishes a couple of Rosettas and a Yoyo.
  (\_/)
 (=^.^=)
 (")_(")
16) Message boards : Number crunching : computation error (Message 46321)
Posted 22 Feb 2022 by Profile Ray Murray
Post:
I think I'm getting sucked further down the rabbit hole, now.

Virtualization is definitely Enabled in Bios and confirmed in Task Manager and CPU-V but for some unknown reason is not being detected by VBox.
Boinc was last updated in November so not that, and I downgraded VBox to 6.1.30 in case that was the issue, even though earlier tasks had worked with 6.1.32.

In Turn Windows Features on/off, checking Virtual Machine Platform then rebooting to get that to stick, allows an empty VM to boot up after attaching the Guest Additions iso. However, in that configuration Boinc says No Tasks available. Turning that back off, and rebooting, the empty VM fails on start as before, BUT Boinc gets a task, which promptly fails as before. Bizarre behaviour.

Thanks for the input, guys but my brain's getting a bit frazzled and I'm starting to forget what I did or didn't do so I'm going to give up for now and revisit it on Sunday when I will have more time to investigate.
17) Message boards : Number crunching : computation error (Message 46318)
Posted 22 Feb 2022 by Profile Ray Murray
Post:
Same result, sadly.
It gets as far as creating the VM and all looks well until it Starts the VM and instantly stops it again and throws the error.
So for some reason, as yet unknown, virtualization is not being seen as available whereas it IS shown as available and active in Task Manager and CPU-V.

Thanks for the PM, Samson.
I suspended the CMS during download so that I could resume it when I had a chance to observe what it would do
but, alas, it didn't go well. I also ran it on its own so there would be no other contention with memory or processor usage.

I skived off work to do that test so I better get back to that and will investigate further this evening.

I am puzzled that both hosts exhibit the same symptoms, having previously been working fine.
18) Message boards : Number crunching : computation error (Message 46314)
Posted 21 Feb 2022 by Profile Ray Murray
Post:
No joy.
Virtualisation enabled in Bios and Task Manager and CPU-V both confirm that.
vm_extensions_disabled>0< (unchanged)
No Hyper-V as both hosts are Win10Home but I have made sure
Virtual Machine Platform and
Windows Hypervisor Platform are both unchecked.

I'm currently doing a System Restore on the other host to see if removing the last 2 Windows updates will resolve the problem but it is taking ages. Might have to leave it doing that overnight so I won't know if it's fixed until 2moro. If that does work, I'll get an Update Blocker as neither machine is compatible with Win11 so I'll run then as they are until they die.

The Restore didn't fix it so I don't know what's going on.
Hopefully the new XTrack, Sixtrack upgrade won't be far away and my machines can concentrate on that instead.
19) Message boards : Number crunching : computation error (Message 46311)
Posted 21 Feb 2022 by Profile Ray Murray
Post:
I didn't check that as there should have been no reason for that to change but I'll look when I get home and set it to 0 again if it has changed.
Thanks
20) Message boards : Number crunching : computation error (Message 46308)
Posted 21 Feb 2022 by Profile Ray Murray
Post:
With WCG shutting down for a month or more I have moved back to LHC but I am getting similar problems on my 2 laptops which previously worked faultlessly.
The VM is created but instantly fails on start and I get the same VT-x disabled message. I have checked that it is enabled in the Bios and Leomoon gives 2 ticks.
I had updated VBox so will revert to the previous version in case that is to blame.
There have also been a couple of Windows updates so one of them may be the culprit.


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