Download errors

Gary Roberts
Gary Roberts
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RE: I'm getting

Message 78783 in response to message 78782

Quote:
I'm getting ....

Data and executables are sent to participants from a series of mirrors located in various timezones around the world. If one of these mirrors fails, BOINC is supposed to switch automatically to a different mirror. It would appear that this functionality is not working. A number of people in the UK timezone (Glasgow mirror) seem to be having the same trouble as evidenced by the previous posts in this thread. As a result of the inability to download the executables, the current task on hand will error out and be reported back as a download error.

There are two things you could try to work around the problem until it gets fixed:-

1. Download manually, what you are missing, from a different mirror. I mentioned how to do this several posts back in this thread.

2. Temporarily change the timezone on your computer to fool BOINC into using a different mirror. Several people have reported success with this.

Quote:
Daily quota? Mind you, it was 8 yesterday! And still no work.

Unfortunately, when computational errors occur, the system protects itself from wastage of tasks by reducing your quota. The system isn't smart enough to know that the download errors are not your fault. Your quota will go back up once you are able to return successful tasks.

Quote:
And why, may I ask, does Einstein keep 45MB+ of finished work units in its project folder? Fouteen files named 'h1_0854.00_S5R3' or such at 3MB+ each.

These are neither work units, nor are they finished. These files contain the actual data from the LIGOs which your machine will need for crunching. A large number of tasks can be 'sliced' from this data over a period of time. When the data is finished with, the system will delete the files automatically. When you are sent new tasks for crunching, effectively you are sent small sets of 'instructions' on how to use the large data files.

EDIT:
You would appear to have a third choice since you seem to be missing just the executables and you seem to have two computers attached to the project. If both computers are running the same version of the science app, you can simply copy the executables from one machine to the other.

Cheers,
Gary.

Guy
Guy
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RE: RE: I'm getting

Message 78784 in response to message 78783

Quote:
Quote:
I'm getting ....

There are two things you could try to work around the problem until it gets fixed:-

1..
2. Temporarily change the timezone on your computer to fool BOINC into using a different mirror. Several people have reported success with this.


Sorry - Yes I did try that. And restarted the PC. Nothing happening. I'll just let that play through.

Quote:

Quote:
Daily quota? Mind you, it was 8 yesterday! And still no work.

Unfortunately, when computational errors occur, the system protects itself from wastage of tasks by reducing your quota. The system isn't smart enough to know that the download errors are not your fault. Your quota will go back up once you are able to return successful tasks.


Ahhh. Thanks

Quote:

Quote:
And why, may I ask, does Einstein keep 45MB+ of finished work units in its project folder? Fouteen files named 'h1_0854.00_S5R3' or such at 3MB+ each.

These are neither work units, nor are they finished. These files contain the actual data from the LIGOs which your machine will need for crunching. A large number of tasks can be 'sliced' from this data over a period of time. When the data is finished with, the system will delete the files automatically. When you are sent new tasks for crunching, effectively you are sent small sets of 'instructions' on how to use the large data files.


Excellent answer. Thank you. Now I know I'll have a little more respect for that volume of data!

Quote:


EDIT:
You would appear to have a third choice since you seem to be missing just the executables and you seem to have two computers attached to the project. If both computers are running the same version of the science app, you can simply copy the executables from one machine to the other.

Gary, I only have one PC. There's somthing fishy going on there but it's OT involving Stats websites and an upgrade from XP32 to XP64...

Thanks for your excellent answers!
Guy

Gary Roberts
Gary Roberts
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RE: Sorry - Yes I did try

Message 78785 in response to message 78784

Quote:
Sorry - Yes I did try that. And restarted the PC. Nothing happening. I'll just let that play through.

I saw someone posting that they changed their timezone to Alaska and that solved the problem. I know Australia works - you could always try that :).

You don't seem to like option 1. - so I'll make it easier for you. Just click on this link and it will take you to a huge download directory and you will get an index listing of its contents. If you scroll right down to the bottom you will see all the executables. Find the exact name of the file(s) you are missing and right click on each one and select the 'save link as ...' option so that you can save each file in turn directly to where you need it - the einstein projects folder. Of course while you are downloading the missing files you will have shut down BOINC.

Once you have manually retrieved all missing files, restart BOINC and see if anything else is missing. Repeat as required.

Quote:
Gary, I only have one PC. There's somthing fishy going on there but it's OT involving Stats websites and an upgrade from XP32 to XP64...

The system thinks you have two :). You can see them both if you go to your account page on the website and click on the link to view your computers. You will see two different HostIDs listed. Click on either one of these to go to a details page about that computer. Go right to the bottom of the page and click on the merge link. The system should offer you the possibility to merge both hosts into a single HostID.

Quote:
Thanks for your excellent answers!
Guy

You're welcome! Good luck.

Cheers,
Gary.

Guy
Guy
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RE: RE: Sorry - Yes I did

Message 78786 in response to message 78785

Quote:
Quote:
Sorry - Yes I did try that. And restarted the PC. Nothing happening. I'll just let that play through.

I saw someone posting that they changed their timezone to Alaska and that solved the problem. I know Australia works - you could always try that :).

You don't seem to like option 1. - so I'll make it easier for you. Just click on this link and it will take you to a huge download directory and you will get an index listing of its contents. If you scroll right down to the bottom you will see all the executables. Find the exact name of the file(s) you are missing and right click on each one and select the 'save link as ...' option so that you can save each file in turn directly to where you need it - the einstein projects folder. Of course while you are downloading the missing files you will have shut down BOINC.

Once you have manually retrieved all missing files, restart BOINC and see if anything else is missing. Repeat as required.

Quote:
Gary, I only have one PC. There's somthing fishy going on there but it's OT involving Stats websites and an upgrade from XP32 to XP64...

The system thinks you have two :). You can see them both if you go to your account page on the website and click on the link to view your computers. You will see two different HostIDs listed. Click on either one of these to go to a details page about that computer. Go right to the bottom of the page and click on the merge link. The system should offer you the possibility to merge both hosts into a single HostID.

Quote:
Thanks for your excellent answers!
Guy

You're welcome! Good luck.

Well Einstein has me deferred for four more hours. I do have two .exe's and a .pdb file:

[pre]einstein_S5R3_4.26_graphics_windows_intelx86.exe
einstein_S5R3_4.26_windows_intelx86.exe
einstein_S5R3_4.26_windows_intelx86.pdb[/pre]
But until it communicates with the server again I won't know what's missing.
The 'Australia' time zone didn't work so tick tock.

This is a bit Off Topic but... I sometimes wonder if my system RAM is corrupted and causes faulty results and that's why I'm not getting work. I have run memtest86 in the past which seemed OK. My last SETI Work Unit is almost up and that's not feeding me anything new either. Why? So I think I'll memtest86 again for a couple of hours to try to relieve my doubts! Gary, can you see my results? And do they have a faulty nature??

Oh, I merged my computers successfully. Thanks for that tip. It's a no go with SETI but that's because the 'other' computer was running the pre BOINC 'Classic' SciApp and they've kept the systems strictly separate.

OK I'll let you know what happens with downloading and memtest86.

Thanks once more,
Guy.

Jord
Joined: 26 Jan 05
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RE: Well Einstein has me

Message 78787 in response to message 78786

Quote:
Well Einstein has me deferred for four more hours.


You can force an update through Advanced->Retry Communications (or if you have one of the newest versions of BOINC: Do network communication). This will immediately try to contact all projects that are deferring communications.

Gary Roberts
Gary Roberts
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RE: Well Einstein has me

Message 78788 in response to message 78786

Quote:

Well Einstein has me deferred for four more hours. I do have two .exe's and a .pdb file:

[pre]einstein_S5R3_4.26_graphics_windows_intelx86.exe
einstein_S5R3_4.26_windows_intelx86.exe
einstein_S5R3_4.26_windows_intelx86.pdb[/pre]
But until it communicates with the server again I won't know what's missing.

The above list looks fine so hopefully BOINC shouldn't report any more missing files. You are being deferred because your daily quota is so low and it is erroring out (download error) very quickly each new day. This is also why the timezone change isn't working. The server isn't going to send you anything new until a new day starts, no matter what time zone you claim to be in :).

Quote:
Gary, can you see my results? And do they have a faulty nature??

Yes, anyone who wants to can see your list of results and it looks much better now with your hosts merged. I can't see anything there that screams out "faulty RAM". I think that some action you took caused a second HostID to be generated and your executables to go missing. You can see diagnostic information from stderr.out if you click on the TaskID of any result in the full list. If you do that you will see that the whole problem seems to be the missing executables.

In fact, I've just had a look at your results list once again and two new tasks have been added. Unfortunately, they both errored out with missing files (ie the same download errors)??? Did you do the following?

  • * Stop BOINC
    * Download the missing executables
    * Place them in your einstein projects folder
    * restart BOINC

Cheers,
Gary.

FrankC
FrankC
Joined: 20 Feb 05
Posts: 3
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RE: RE: Well Einstein has

Message 78789 in response to message 78788

Quote:
Quote:

Well Einstein has me deferred for four more hours. I do have two .exe's and a .pdb file:

[pre]einstein_S5R3_4.26_graphics_windows_intelx86.exe
einstein_S5R3_4.26_windows_intelx86.exe
einstein_S5R3_4.26_windows_intelx86.pdb[/pre]
But until it communicates with the server again I won't know what's missing.

The above list looks fine so hopefully BOINC shouldn't report any more missing files. You are being deferred because your daily quota is so low and it is erroring out (download error) very quickly each new day. This is also why the timezone change isn't working. The server isn't going to send you anything new until a new day starts, no matter what time zone you claim to be in :).

Quote:
Gary, can you see my results? And do they have a faulty nature??

Yes, anyone who wants to can see your list of results and it looks much better now with your hosts merged. I can't see anything there that screams out "faulty RAM". I think that some action you took caused a second HostID to be generated and your executables to go missing. You can see diagnostic information from stderr.out if you click on the TaskID of any result in the full list. If you do that you will see that the whole problem seems to be the missing executables.

In fact, I've just had a look at your results list once again and two new tasks have been added. Unfortunately, they both errored out with missing files (ie the same download errors)??? Did you do the following?

  • * Stop BOINC
    * Download the missing executables
    * Place them in your einstein projects folder
    * restart BOINC


FrankC
FrankC
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Posts: 3
Credit: 3953856
RAC: 0

Looks like Glasgow has

Looks like Glasgow has dropped a disk.

Guy
Guy
Joined: 20 Jan 06
Posts: 25
Credit: 103017591
RAC: 340942

RE: RE: Well Einstein has

Message 78791 in response to message 78788

Quote:
Quote:

Well Einstein has me deferred for four more hours. I do have two .exe's and a .pdb file:

[pre]einstein_S5R3_4.26_graphics_windows_intelx86.exe
einstein_S5R3_4.26_windows_intelx86.exe
einstein_S5R3_4.26_windows_intelx86.pdb[/pre]
But until it communicates with the server again I won't know what's missing.

The above list looks fine so hopefully BOINC shouldn't report any more missing files. You are being deferred because your daily quota is so low and it is erroring out (download error) very quickly each new day. This is also why the timezone change isn't working. The server isn't going to send you anything new until a new day starts, no matter what time zone you claim to be in :).

Ok. Here's a funny thing - the .exe & .pdb files are zero bytes in length. Look at this DIR output:
[pre]15/02/2008 07:38 2,745,667 earth_05_09
15/02/2008 07:38 274,843 sun_05_09
15/02/2008 07:40 3,234,816 l1_0854.00_S5R3
15/02/2008 07:39 3,539,016 h1_0854.00_S5R3
15/02/2008 07:40 3,539,016 h1_0854.05_S5R3
15/02/2008 07:40 3,234,816 l1_0854.05_S5R3
15/02/2008 07:40 3,539,016 h1_0854.10_S5R3
15/02/2008 07:40 3,234,816 l1_0854.10_S5R3
15/02/2008 07:41 3,234,816 l1_0854.15_S5R3
15/02/2008 07:41 3,539,016 h1_0854.15_S5R3
15/02/2008 07:41 3,234,816 l1_0854.20_S5R3
15/02/2008 07:41 3,539,016 h1_0854.20_S5R3
16/02/2008 00:10 3,234,816 l1_0854.25_S5R3
16/02/2008 00:10 3,539,016 h1_0854.25_S5R3
15/02/2008 07:39 3,539,016 h1_0853.95_S5R3
15/02/2008 07:39 3,234,816 l1_0853.95_S5R3
17/02/2008 00:15 0 einstein_S5R3_4.26_windows_intelx86.exe
17/02/2008 00:15 0 einstein_S5R3_4.26_graphics_windows_intelx86.exe
17/02/2008 00:15 0 einstein_S5R3_4.26_windows_intelx86.pdb[/pre]
Odd.
I tried Jord's suggestion (Message 81154):

Quote:
You can force an update through Advanced->Retry Communications


and it still tried to download these files but 'gave up'.
I've just deleted them (.exes & .pdb) and now get the 'quota reached' problem. LOL!

Quote:
Quote:
Gary, can you see my results? And do they have a faulty nature??

Yes, anyone who wants to can see your list of results and it looks much better now with your hosts merged. I can't see anything there that screams out "faulty RAM". I think that some action you took caused a second HostID to be generated and your executables to go missing. You can see diagnostic information from stderr.out if you click on the TaskID of any result in the full list. If you do that you will see that the whole problem seems to be the missing executables.

Oh yes. I see. The Task ID Detail is confirming a D/L error. Thanks.

Quote:
In fact, I've just had a look at your results list once again and two new tasks have been added. Unfortunately, they both errored out with missing files (ie the same download errors)??? Did you do the following?
  • * Stop BOINC
    * Download the missing executables
    * Place them in your einstein projects folder
    * restart BOINC

No. I'm just about to.
Another daft thing that happend is (with SETI again:-) I put one of those enhanced SciApps in the project folder while two completed tasks were waiting to be uploaded. On restarting BOINC the messages suggested that it could not associate these tasks with he SciApp and deleted them! Ha Ha - NOT!

If this would be of any interest here are the logs since the last install:
stdoutdae.txt 129kB
stdoutgui.txt 11kB

Ahhh! I'm deferred for 24 hrs! That's annoying as I successfully downloaded the missing .exes! Oh well - SETI Sunday for me!
I'll post on any developments.

Many thanks for all your help.
Guy.

niterobin
niterobin
Joined: 24 Nov 07
Posts: 10
Credit: 301002
RAC: 0

Hi everyone, I've had the

Hi everyone,

I've had the same problems for the past few days. I was thinking my hard disk was flaky, but I found this thread and followed the suggestions Gary made:

# Stop BOINC
# Download the missing executables
# Place them in your einstein projects folder
# restart BOINC

and also I changed the timezone on my PC to Brisbane (I'm on UTC) and Boinc reinstalled some files and got some new work.

So thatk you, Gary and everyone else, for your posts. They helped me a lot.

Rob.

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