Messages

Ok, I now have the "offending" computer running perfectly.  But Boinctasks still sticks for no reason.  It's monitoring four computers: itself, and three others on a fast local network.  There is no reason for this sticking.  Why does it keep stopping responding?  There's spare CPU time on all computers, yet it just stops talking to the other machines for no reason.  Any other communication between the computers works fine, eg file transfers, remote desktop, etc.  Boinctasks seems to have a very flimsy connection, often requiring the toolbox to persuade communication to work.  Can't this be reprogrammed to function better?

Having many computers is always going to have one that's having problems.  I don't expect this to annoy Boinctasks, making it even harder for me to spot the problem, since the whole thing stops working!

Hmm, the connection is there, but it's doing something unexpected.
It doesn't actually stops but waits, the other computer made a connection and sends something.
But you are right it might be avoided if I knew what the problem is.

I've sorted the dodgy computer and it now runs 24/7 without problems, but it's still causing Boinctasks to stick every so often.  I get the status bar saying "Updating...." with a counter going up to about 100 seconds before it recovers.  Sometimes it changes to "Closing...." with a counter.  Not sure what that means.

Sorry if I sounded rude earlier, I've just been getting rather annoyed with the dodgy computer - I think I've narrowed it down to crappy power supplies that don't like me using the 12V rail without the 5V rail.  Fixed it with a car lightbulb!  CIT power supplies are rubbish!

If I can provide some logs or something to help you find the problem, let me know.

All connections run an isolated thread so they are not supposed to influence each other.
But everyone waits for the slowest computer.

Which is it?

What I suggest is put the 3 good computers in a group to isolate them from the bad computer.
I have no idea why this happens, maybe something low level.

Maybe you should figure out why that one computer isn't responding as it should.

Having many computers is always going to have one that's having problems.  I don't expect this to annoy Boinctasks, making it even harder for me to spot the problem, since the whole thing stops working!

It's one of my computers that's playing up and doesn't always respond.  But why does Boinctasks not continue to run and show the other three?  It seems odd that one connection halts the whole program.  Imagine if I had 50 computers....

I often see Boinctasks not refreshing the screen.  Either it does it very several seconds (instead of the 1 I set it to), sometimes every 30 seconds, sometimes never again until restarting it.  The status bar at the bottom says "updating.....73" where 73 is counting the number of seconds since the last update.  It's monitoring itself and 3 other computers on a local network which has no other problems and is fast and not overloaded.  The computer Boinctasks is on is not overloaded.  Any idea why?  Boinctasks does have immense difficulty connecting to new computers or ones I've rebooted, it seems a rather flimsy communication system.

Thankyou.  I don't know if a limitation would need to be added to only show the last (eg. 1000 messages from each of the 5 computers), as I run Boinctasks on a reasonably fast machine (i5 8600K) .  It would have no problem displaying 5 x 5000 messages, but I do notice that even with 1 x 5000 messages it does take a couple of seconds to display, so on a slower machine that could run into quite a long time.

Giving it more thought, I see no way to combine 5 computers and show messages together that have no relation to each other.
I'm afraid your end up with an unreadable bunch of messages.

Not that I know anything about the programming behind it, but can't they just be displayed in chronological order?  That would be perfectly readable to me.   Ok, sometimes two computers might be doing things at once and you'd get two "conversations" intertwined, but usually not, and you can see from the computer column which is doing what.

It seems it displays only the last 5000 messages when I select one computer.  Could the same not be done if I select all of them?  It's sometimes handy to see what all the computers have been doing recently.

5000 is the BOINC Client Limit.
I will add it to my list and see if it's feasible.

Thankyou.  I don't know if a limitation would need to be added to only show the last (eg. 1000 messages from each of the 5 computers), as I run Boinctasks on a reasonably fast machine (i5 8600K) .  It would have no problem displaying 5 x 5000 messages, but I do notice that even with 1 x 5000 messages it does take a couple of seconds to display, so on a slower machine that could run into quite a long time.

Oh that.  Yes but my problem is what messages are displayed.

Displaying everything would certainly overwhelm you and your computer.

It seems it displays only the last 5000 messages when I select one computer.  Could the same not be done if I select all of them?  It's sometimes handy to see what all the computers have been doing recently.

You're gonna have to get yourself some deputies!

Oh that.  Yes but my problem is what messages are displayed.  If I select "all computers" at the top of the selection window, I don't get all the messages in the main pane, just the ones from the last single computer selected.  I guess showing all of them could make a lot of messages and overwhelm the computer, but if it restricted it to the last 1000....

But Boinctasks (I have the latest Beta, version 1.80) reports it as kbps (which would be kilobits per second).

On the todo list, in transmission rates bps is more common.

I don't mind which is shown, but the B or b makes a difference :-)
I can tell from the speed I'm getting that it's kbytes not kbits.

Mind you, Boinc ignored me anyway!  I set it to 50% memory usage, and Amicable numbers gave me an 8GB task, completely locking up the 8GB machine :-/

I guess the project doesn't know it's there.
Extra BOINC Preference -> Disk, Memory usage, Use at most.

Oops, didn't see that last time, I must have been half asleep.  In the BOINC client there's a seperate tab for memory, maybe I skipped over "disk" thinking it wouldn't be in there.  Ah well, the offending 8GB (yuck!) computer has to run different projects.  The poor old motherboard won't take any more RAM.  Unfortunately it's the computer I'm trying to connect hundreds (well hopefully about 16) GPUs to.  I've found some things GPUs can do that don't tax the RAM or CPU much :-)

Messages view doesn't show all computers at once, but allows you to select all computers, without telling you it's not doing so.  It just displays the last single computer you selected.

Right, but the selection window does.

Sorry, not sure what you mean by that.  What is the "selection window"?

Any progress?

Don't know, this is a BOINC project, not related to BoincTasks.
Probably no one available to work on the project.
The official BOINC client in the app seems te be incompatible with all the other BOINC clients.

So you're saying there's no way to make Boinctasks talk to phones without the phone end being recoded?  Pity, as there are quite a lot of more and more powerful phones around that can add a little extra to Boinc processing.  I've been using mine for a couple of months, and only 4 projects have provided any work for them.

Bumping this up.  Any progress?  I'm happy to change the client on the phones if necessary.  But NativeBoinc refuses to install an the official Boinc doesn't allow connection to Boinctasks.