idle on start, how to fix?

[Aardvark]

@jackrabbit,
When you did get back to lizzy, on Saturday, did you find it(she)  had gone into a stall or had it overcome the problem?  I have had a couple of new WUs on the Intel Mini and they have all required what I now call the "Shock & Awe" treatment. Stop and restart the Client. Sometimes I have to even leave Terminal and restart that to get it Folding.

[phantom]

@aardvark,

I don't ever see this problem using InCrease...  Maybe there is a little "Shock & Awe" built into InCrease?

Have you tried using InCrease instead of Terminal?

[jackrabbit]

@Aardvark: it processed a second WU and subsequently failed to get a new one (38 times or so). Since it was not related to my original problem, I didn't pursue it.

@Phantom: InCrease does not do anything the CLI client wouldn't do on its own. InCrease just provides a nicer interface to control the client.

[uncle_fungus]

jackrabbit, where abouts in the process is the hang occuring (the fahlog or terminal output would be useful for determining the cause)? Does the client try to start the WU and then just sit idling after trying to intiate the MPI connections?

[uncle_fungus]

Edit, if anyone is still having problems with DHCP hostname issues, here is some interesting info which I'll repost on ff.org

http://www-unix.mcs.anl.gov/mpi....105.htm

Under Mac OS X, the hostname handling is unusual. The hostname that the  hostname command or the  gethostname function return is determined by the name set in the ``Sharing preference'' pane. If this name contains a space, you may get only the leading part of the name, upto but not including the first space. This name is stored in the file  /etc/hostconfig. MPICH, for the  ch_p4 and  ch_p4mpd device, needs a sensible name returned by both  gethostname and  hostname. If you are using a single machine in a standalone configuration, the easiest option is to change the name of the machine in  /etc/hostconfig to  localhost (use  sudo). If you wish to use another name, you need to make the name in  /etc/hostconfig match the name in the  NetInfo database.

http://www.geektimes.com/macintosh/os/x/10_0/core/hostname.html also http://www.luisdelarosa.com/2005....x-tiger

Apple doesn't follow the canonical UNIX conventions for setting the host computer name. Instead of an entry in /etc/hosts, /etc/hostconfig is used.

Edit the line which says

HOSTNAME=-AUTOMATIC-

to look like

HOSTNAME=rosencrantz.geektimes.com

Restarting the daemon, or rebooting, will result in the hostname command working as expected

[jackrabbit]

I'll look it up tomorrow.

[Aardvark]

@Phantom,
I do use Increase to monitor progress but I have never turned control over to it. I agree with jackrabbit that the CLI should be able to do what is needed and why complicate the control "system". I have never tried to run multiple clients on a machine. If and when I do that, I will probably take a more serious look at Increase.

I think something about my overall hardware/software combination puts me in a subset that is sensitive to this particular "hang/stall on start" problem. A particular concern of mine that continues is the fact I still use 56k dialup for access. My internet IP is set dynamically at the ISP and this somehow becomes my hostname, as reported in Terminal, while I am connected to the Internet. When I logoff, the hostname becomes the name that exists in the Sharing Preferences pane.  uncle_fungus has shared some valuable information in this thread that may lead to a resolution of this(my) problem.

[Aardvark]

@jackrabbit,
I wouldn't draw much significance from the inability to get a new WU last weekend. I think it was one of the "crazy times" for the Servers at Stanford. I couldn't upload or download a classic WU for quite a while.

[Aardvark]

@uncle_fungus,

Thanks for the post in regard to DHCP hostname issues. I do believe that my "hang on start" problem is related to the areas you covered in those quotes. I have to digest it now and develop an implementation plan.

I may be back with some questions.

[jackrabbit]

Agreed on the server troubles over the weekend. What I did to prevent getting the hostname from my provider is put a router in between that does NAT and DHCP (fixed hostname for the clients). No idea whether that's possible with a dial-up.

BTW, lizzy's /etc/hostconfig (10.5.5) does not contain a "HOSTNAME=..." line. It does contain the line "This file is going away". Also, netinfo does not exist as such anymore since 10.5, it's been merged into the Directory Services. You can inspect the database using dscl(1) in the Terminal.

Lizzy is now on her third consecutive WU without problems. I sure hope it stays this way. The last thing I tried was to put localhost and lizzy after every suitable IP address in /etc/hosts. This is my current setup:

127.0.0.1       localhost lizzy
255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
::1             localhost lizzy
fe80::1%lo0     localhost lizzy[/code'..']