Hello,

I just got myself a Macbook and noticed that BOINC manager becomes unresponsive for a few minutes every time there is BOINC-related network activity, when getting new work, when uploading / downloading, when attaching to projetcs, even when I manually Update a project. At the same time, the Work Units currently in progress (seti@home) exit with "zero" status and some of the work already done goes down the drain.

Any information on such a behaviour?

Even on a fresh system install and with a fresh BOINC installation, BOINC Manager stalls for a minute before asking to attach to a project. No other activity is hogging the processor at that time.
I noticed, though, that the kernel_task process goes over 5% during the wait, which makes me a little suspicious...

Any ideas?

OK, some more information... Each tme BOINC Manager becomes unresponsive, there is certain output on the Console log:

Jan 13 23:29:13 Thanars-MacBook /usr/sbin/spindump[579]: process 522 is being monitored
Jan 13 23:29:58 Thanars-MacBook /usr/sbin/spindump[579]: process 522 is being no longer being monitored

As you might have already imagined, process 522 is BOINC Manager.

How much memory in the computer?

It's not a matter of memory; the latest MacBook comes with 1Gb. Facing no other problems whatsoever on any other application.

Spend nearly 2 hours yesterday debugging with the help of BOINC's volunteer helper Mike Harris and managed nothing. It's clearly an issue with BOINC network activity. We are almost definitelly sure that it's not airport-related, since we've both heard of a couple of issues regarding OS X Leopard and wireless networks.

It is general. Happens with both SETI and Rosetta, but it should be client-independent, since this slugginess takes place even while attaching to projects (when BOINC manager gets project status). Happens almost every time there is BOINC-related network activity.

Mind you, there is nothing in the logs of Console, except that BOINC Manager is being monitored from some new Leopard proccess, because it is not responding, which I guess is normal, there is however a rise in kernel_task's CPU usage from around 4% to 11% or so.

Managed to setup BOINC with SETI@home after some tries and trying to do some debugging of my issue as BOINC is working. BOINC now launches fine and starts working right away as long as there's no BOINC network traffic after launch. Console message (anyone knows what wxWidgets is?):

1/15/08 12:06:24 AM [0x0-0x35035].edu.berkeley.boinc[614] Using wxWidgets 2.8.7. 

Everything seems to be working fine, with no sluggishness or hangs, until there is BOINC-related network activity. BOINC Manager is [614]. At this point, I push the "Update Project" button, just to repeat the issue. I get the following messages in Console:

1/15/08 12:08:48 AM /usr/sbin/spindump[646] process 614 is being monitored 
1/15/08 12:09:35 AM /usr/sbin/spindump[646] process 614 is being no longer being monitored 

followed from BOINC's log:

Tue Jan 15 00:09:28 2008|SETI@home|Task 27dc06ad.16512.3755.10.6.58_1 exited with zero status but no 'finished' file
Tue Jan 15 00:09:28 2008|SETI@home|If this happens repeatedly you may need to reset the project.
Tue Jan 15 00:09:28 2008|SETI@home|Restarting task 27dc06ad.16512.3755.10.6.58_1 using setiathome_enhanced version 528
Tue Jan 15 00:09:29 2008|SETI@home|Task 04ja07aa.11840.280995.15.6.128_0 exited with zero status but no 'finished' file
Tue Jan 15 00:09:29 2008|SETI@home|If this happens repeatedly you may need to reset the project.
Tue Jan 15 00:09:29 2008|SETI@home|Restarting task 04ja07aa.11840.280995.15.6.128_0 using setiathome_enhanced version 528

EVERY time there is BOINC-related network traffic (be it result upload / WU download / scheduler connection) the above situation repeats. Any new ideas?

Tons of info on Widgets on the net. Wikipedia

Is there any way I can activate some verbose logging on BOINC or BOINC Manager in order to see what's wrong with my situation here?

As a last resort, since my issue continues to puzzle me, I will try downgrading to BOINC Manager versions 5.8.17 and 5.4.9 that are still available for download and see what happens.

By the way, tried installing BOINC as a service, and seems like it doesn't work, either. At all in this case.

Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get any new information using the various debug flags in cc_config. Having a clean client with network activity disabled, I enabled it and here's the output:

16-Jan-2008 10:53:06 [---] [status_debug] CLIENT_STATE::write_state_file(): Writing state file
16-Jan-2008 10:53:06 [---] [status_debug] CLIENT_STATE::write_state_file(): Done writing state file
16-Jan-2008 10:53:06 [---] [time_debug] dt 10.079618 w2 0.999988 on 0.999792; active 0.996862; conn -1.000000
16-Jan-2008 10:53:07 [---] [network_status_debug] status: online
16-Jan-2008 10:53:07 [SETI@home] [task_debug] result state=FILES_DOWNLOADING for 04dc06ac.28822.15614.5.6.59_1 from CS::update_results
16-Jan-2008 10:53:07 [SETI@home] [task_debug] result state=FILES_DOWNLOADING for 04dc06ac.28822.15614.5.6.43_0 from CS::update_results
16-Jan-2008 10:53:07 [SETI@home] [task_debug] result state=FILES_DOWNLOADING for 04dc06ac.28822.15614.5.6.107_0 from CS::update_results
16-Jan-2008 10:53:07 [SETI@home] [task_debug] result state=FILES_DOWNLOADING for 04dc06ac.28822.15614.5.6.91_0 from CS::update_results
16-Jan-2008 10:53:07 [SETI@home] [task_debug] result state=FILES_DOWNLOADING for 12ja07af.28037.16841.13.6.215_1 from CS::update_results
16-Jan-2008 10:53:07 [SETI@home] [task_debug] result state=FILES_DOWNLOADING for 04dc06ac.28822.15614.5.6.19_0 from CS::update_results

This is where the BOINC Manager froze. A minute later the output continues, but with no error message whatsoever:

16-Jan-2008 10:53:08 [---] [network_status_debug] status: online
16-Jan-2008 10:53:08 [---] [http_debug] HTTP_OP::init_get(): http://boinc2.ssl.berkeley.edu/sah/download_fanout/1c2/04dc06ac.28822.15614.5.6.59
16-Jan-2008 10:53:08 [SETI@home] Started download of 04dc06ac.28822.15614.5.6.59
16-Jan-2008 10:53:08 [---] [file_xfer_debug] URL: http://boinc2.ssl.berkeley.edu/sah/download_fanout/1c2/04dc06ac.28822.15614.5.6.59
16-Jan-2008 10:53:08 [---] [http_debug] HTTP_OP::init_get(): http://boinc2.ssl.berkeley.edu/sah/download_fanout/377/04dc06ac.28822.15614.5.6.43
16-Jan-2008 10:53:08 [SETI@home] Started download of 04dc06ac.28822.15614.5.6.43
16-Jan-2008 10:53:08 [---] [file_xfer_debug] URL: http://boinc2.ssl.berkeley.edu/sah/download_fanout/377/04dc06ac.28822.15614.5.6.43
16-Jan-2008 10:53:08 [---] [state_debug] set dirty: pers_file_xfer_set poll

No idea what's going on still. I will give the older BOINC Managers a try.

OK, no luck with neither 5.8.17 or 5.4.9 whatsoever. The only difference is that 5.4.9 reported "no internet connection" while trying to attach. Of course, there was no problem with my network connection. The second time I tried, it worked with no problem at all. That happens with both 5.8.17 and 5.10.32, but instead of "no internet connection", they report misc errors. It must be some network protocol issue that's changed for my configuration only (!?!), but it's above my understanding. I say again, I have not met a sole other application that's being so nasty on my new config.

I have no idea what the culprit may be. I just noticed that every time BOINC manager freezes, that is for EXACTLY one minute. Then, some timeout kicks in and there is some activity. Sometimes of course, there are several one-minute freezes, which adds up to around 3 mins freeze maximum.

Ultimately, was this behavior before going to Leopard?

This behavior started on my new Santa Rosa MacBook which came with Leopard. I even re-installed Leopard from scratch with no different results. BOINC runs well on my MacBook Pro (build on Santa Rosa chip as well) with Leopard, however this Mac was upgraded to Leopard.

I finally found another thread that the initial poster seems to be dealing with the same issue I am. Quite relieved I am not the One!

Just tried BOINC version 6.1.0 from BOINC download directory with the same results. Frustrating!

BOINC 6.1 is nowhere near ready and should not be used. We're only testing the installer on Windows at this moment, the underlying BOINC doesn't even migrate properly when installed over a 5.10 version. So just don't do it.

---

I was just trying to find any version of BOINC that would not give me any problems, so I could get back online. I am aware that 6.1.x is in alpha status, so I wouldn't complain about any problems, as long as the one I am facing was resolved. That way, I could hope that a 5.x version that behaves well on my config would be around the corner...

I was just trying to find any version of BOINC that would not give me any problems, so I could get back online. I am aware that 6.1.x is in alpha status, so I wouldn't complain about any problems, as long as the one I am facing was resolved. That way, I could hope that a 5.x version that behaves well on my config would be around the corner...

We did upgrade to a new version of the cURL library as of version 5.10.30. Could you try Version 5.10.29 and post here whether that fixes your problem?

Cheers,
--Charlie

---

Charlie Fenton
BOINC / SETI@home Macintosh & Windows Programmer

Version 5.10.29 does not seems to work any better. As I have reported, I tried all available for download BOINC versions, down to 5.4.9 and the results are exactly the same. I would like to pinpoint again that every FIRST attempt to a network connection fails, the second attempt in a short time period is successful however, almost every time. The third attempt usually fails and so on...

I am beginning to believe that the problem lies to the way BOINC Manager sends network requests to boinc client, but I am not sure; I would if I could install boinc as a servive, but that doesn't work either, seems like something's changed in Leopard, at least for my config.

I guess I will have to wait a little more for a newer version, at least to be able to test the service option...

I guess this is irrelevant, but I am seeing lots of this message

1/18/08 9:14:00 AM kernel SetCryptoKey R: len 32, idx 2 

while the BOINC Manager is in frozen state.