Development for LHC@home

Please can you post here the main issues that you have with Virtual Box. You can include experiences with vLHC@home/Test4Theory.

Please can you post here the main issues that you have with Virtual Box. You can include experiences with vLHC@home/Test4Theory.

I continue to have a problem with VirtualBox on my work Win7 machine, with any modern version of VBox. The BOINC error, after 10 minutes, is:
02/02/2016 15:14:32 | CMS-dev | task postponed 86400.000000 sec: VM Hypervisor failed to enter an online state in a timely fashion.

I'm not sure where the error starts in the VBoxHardening.log file; the last bit is:
6990.9138: '\Device\HarddiskVolume2\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VBoxHeadless.exe' has no imports
6990.9138: supHardenedWinVerifyImageByHandle: -> 0 (\Device\HarddiskVolume2\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VBoxHeadless.exe)
6990.9138: SUPR3HardenedMain: Respawn #2
6990.9138: supR3HardNtEnableThreadCreation:
6990.9138: Error -104 in supR3HardenedWinReSpawn! (enmWhat=5)
6990.9138: Error relaunching VirtualBox VM process: 5
Command line: '60eaff78-4bdd-042d-2e72-669728efd737-suplib-3rdchild --comment boinc_c758dcca12c5143a --startvm f3d89d04-5e08-415d-bbb7-21e7762eedd5 --vrde config --sup-hardening-log=D:\ProgramData\BOINC\slots\10\boinc_c758dcca12c5143a\Logs\VBoxHardening.log'
638.876c: supR3HardNtChildWaitFor[1]: Quitting: ExitCode=0x1 (rcNtWait=0x0, rcNt1=0x0, rcNt2=0x103, rcNt3=0x103, 121 ms, the end);

The end of the stderr.txt is:
2016-02-02 15:04:22 (12392): Starting VM. (boinc_c758dcca12c5143a, slot#10)
2016-02-02 15:09:26 (12392): Successfully started VM. (PID = '12392')
2016-02-02 15:09:26 (12392): Reporting VM Process ID to BOINC.
2016-02-02 15:14:27 (12392): VM is no longer is a running state. It is in 'poweroff'.
2016-02-02 15:14:32 (12392):
NOTE: VM failed to enter an online state within the timeout period.
This might be a temporary problem and so this job will be rescheduled for another time.

I didn't have the problem on my Win7 laptop, nor on some Linux boxes.

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I guess, you have tried uninstalling the virtual box and reinstalling it (with extension pack)?

Sounds obvious, but who knows?

I am running VBox 5.0.14 on this Windows 10 host and a Solaris guest, 5.0.10 on one Linux guest, SuSE Leap 42.1, 4.3.34 on another Linux guest from SuSE, 4.3.28 and 4.3.30 on two Linux hosts running SuSE 13.2 and 13.1. The only problem I have is that the two Linux guests on the Windows host do not appear to see that the AMD A10-6700 CPU has AMD-V enabled and so they don't run vLHC@home and CMS-dev.
Tullio

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Off the top of my head and in no particular order:

1) "VM Hypervisor Failed to Enter..."
2) Host returning bad job results: "Sounds like a corrupt VM, try resetting the project"
3) "VirtualBox is not installed" message for days, when it is, and no clue how to fix (or how it got fixed, it just started working)
4) Certain version (older or newer) of VBox required in order to work correctly depending on the "wrapper of the week" at the project. No way to know what version is wanted. BOINC provides one version, project wants another, and "Check for updates" in VBox gives you yet another. None happen automatically (which I understand is for security, just like BOINC itself must be manually updated, while everything _else_ can be automatic. Must have one "safe point" in the loop. But now we have two.)
5) (Actually partially part of 'no user feedback from project on task results'.) No error message when version of VBox is "wrong" and causing failures
6) Disk thrashing - mainly on SSDs - extremely high number of reads/writes per minute, totally unnecessary for project, just "because it's VBox". Supposedly getting better with newer versions...
7) Requirement to leave suspended tasks in memory
8) Not pausing/shutting down/whatever correctly when host rebooted, task swapped out/suspended, BOINC restarted, etc.
9) "Missing Application - download and install CoRD from sourceforge" when hit "Show VM Console" on Mac
10) On Mac, VBox in BOINC runs as a different user - can't look at console anyway. Unless that's what "Show VM Console" is supposed to do...
11) Need to look at VM Console AT ALL, for any reason. Should be completely in background! Make any problems visible in BOINC Messages.
12) Linux OS update results in "you must recompile xxxx to get VBox working again" Help from boards was "you should install xyzzy to auto-recompile xxxx every time". Come on folks, your grandmother is supposed to be able to run this! (Yes, even on Linux.)
Lucky 13) Whatever problems will appear, unexpectedly, in the NEXT version of VBox, that nobody, project staff, admins, volunteers, etc. are expecting until it happens. In other words, nobody on the BOINC side is involved on the Oracle side to do any beta testing or anything else. At least with the OSes, Apple/MS/etc provide betas that someone _could_ look at, and given the size of the audience, usually that includes plenty of BOINCers.

Oh yeah - the fact that in the last few months, since I joined this project (and it's my only VBox project) I must have had to upgrade VBox three or four times, from 5.0.8 (or earlier, don't remember) to 5.0.14 now. Seems like they do weekly releases?!?!? SHOULD only have to upgrade on a "major" release - like only when BOINC is updated. Minor ones shouldn't break everything!

Oops. Missed a big one.

15?) Not following BOINC preference settings, for either task priority or RAM usage. Not "giving back" RAM when host goes in use, possibly locking up host, as Ivan experienced - and not running at "idle" priority like every other BOINC app. Even on hosts that aren't BOINC-only, I like to let BOINC at least _run_ while in use - but with VBox active, I can't do that, I have to shut down BOINC completely (or suspend task) to get adequate response from the host. Makes it totally impractical for "daily use" machines.

I must have had to upgrade VBox three or four times

You did not HAVE to.
Virtual box was just reminding you, that there was a new version.( so do a lot of other programs)

Please can you post here the main issues that you have with Virtual Box. You can include experiences with vLHC@home/Test4Theory.

Win7 / BOINC 7.6.22 / VirtualBox 5.0.12 with extentionpack 5.0.12

All VBox projects (CMS, LHC, Cosmology, ATLAS) running fine. I even had 8 vLHC's running at the same time for some days on my i7 2600 (HT on - 8 threads)
The only issue: When running too many VM's the computer could feel sluggish, because of the 'normal' process priority of VBoxHeadless.exe's.
This can be prevented by lowering the priority of VBoxSVC.exe to 'below normal'. All VboxHeadless.exe processes started afterwards will get this 'below normal' priority.
So I'm happy with VirtualBox.

I must have had to upgrade VBox three or four times

You did not HAVE to.
Virtual box was just reminding you, that there was a new version.( so do a lot of other programs)

Actually, I wouldn't have even looked to see if there WAS an upgrade, since I have no reason whatsoever to ever "run" the VirtualBox application otherwise, and thus be notified of an available upgrade, except that some issue, according to the boards (here or at vLHC, which I started reading because sometimes something pops up there that's relevant), "might" be resolved by upgrading, so I did. Sometimes it solved the problem, other times it didn't, required a new "wrapper" or other project fix, or whatever.

Then... when I didn't immediately get .12 to replace .10, and was "chastised" for not getting it when I got BOINC .22, and was told that VBox .10 "doesn't work well with Windows 10" {!!!!!}, even though BOINC didn't _include_ .12 with .22 until a week later, and didn't publicize the change... I wound up with .14 instead, since apparently .12 was "the current version" for only a few days, which... wait for it... "may be too new - you may have to downgrade to .12"!!! Not happening. I'll run .14 and let everything else catch up. Or not.

So no, I didn't _have_ to upgrade. In that sense, I misspoke. I CHOSE to upgrade, in order to keep running CMS successfully. And believe me, there were many times I almost threw up my hands and gave up, instead. All because of VBox in one way or another. Upgrading VBox on 8 hosts, 3 OSes, spread across 3 physical locations, after-hours, when the furthest-away one tends to crash when you do anything to it "remotely", is non-trivial. I'll be happier when my "data center" (okay, air-conditioned and UPS'd closet) is completed in the new offices, (A/C went in last week - of course, POWER hasn't made it there yet... or a ceiling...) and everything is in one place. With fiber internet!!! And (maybe) another 4790K!!! Sigh. Another month or three. "Real Soon Now" in the famous saying. The other I'm hearing way too much of is "it's only a SLIGHT cost overrun..." thus the "maybe" on the 4790K... which the new hire really needs... URG!

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My new sig (actual conversation I had, while working very late one night, and actually way-too relevant to the topic above): "Why are you still there?" "My boss is an a$$%01@." "But you're self-employed!" "Yeah, I know..." :-)

Has anyone tried the VBox 5.1.0 [beta] yet? I did this morning on my Windows box and it errored out immediately. Then I removed it and installed V5.0.2 and lo and behold! it worked! I've always had VBox fail on this box, after a ten-minute pause, with a message that the VM couldn't be loaded in a timely manner. I don't know whether VBox has been made more robust, or if some Win7 update fixed the problem, but I now have a Win box on a decent network (only 1 Gbps... :-( ) so I can run it 24/7 to help flag up issues. I hope.

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Rom just released vboxwrapper 26186 at the weekend to support VirtualBox 5.1 on Windows. The Theory app was updated so that the release on Monday would go with that version but the CMS app wasn't updated. It has been done now so please try again.

Rom just released vboxwrapper 26186 at the weekend to support VirtualBox 5.1 on Windows. The Theory app was updated so that the release on Monday would go with that version but the CMS app wasn't updated. It has been done now so please try again.

Does this apply as well to the production work at vLHC?

Rom just released vboxwrapper 26186 at the weekend to support VirtualBox 5.1 on Windows. The Theory app was updated so that the release on Monday would go with that version but the CMS app wasn't updated. It has been done now so please try again.

Does this apply as well to the production work at vLHC?

Yes it does.

Two things so far:

1) Setup seems incredibly complex. Too much dinking around with configuration files and balancing different versions of BOINC and VB with the operating system. I'm a plug-and-play sort of guy, so I find this all unnecessarily tedious and annoying. By the way, I get that this is a development environment, but still....

2) Once VB starts a task, it/they freeze out all other projects. BOINC doesn't seem to exercise any control over the run time allocation. I have three LHC2/LHC-dev tasks running right now that once they started, nothing else has gotten any time at all even on a quad-core machine.

Crystal Pellet - Where did you get the expansion pack for 5.0.12?

All I could find on the Oracle site was the one for 5.0.20.

Thanks, but I found it. Stumbled over it, actually, but found it...

Two things so far:

1) Setup seems incredibly complex. Too much dinking around with configuration files and balancing different versions of BOINC and VB with the operating system. I'm a plug-and-play sort of guy, so I find this all unnecessarily tedious and annoying. By the way, I get that this is a development environment, but still....

2) Once VB starts a task, it/they freeze out all other projects. BOINC doesn't seem to exercise any control over the run time allocation. I have three LHC2/LHC-dev tasks running right now that once they started, nothing else has gotten any time at all even on a quad-core machine.

I have one vLHCathome-dev, 2 vLHC@home and 6 Einstein@home GPU tasks running on my Windows 10 PC with a 4 core AMD A10-6700 CPU with 4 cores. The GPU tasks run one at the time on my GTX 750 OC nVidia board. RAM is 24 GB.
Tullio

Another thing. BOINC control over these tasks seems problematic at best. For example, I've figured out that I can replace the feeble BOINC run-time allocation by setting projects to and from "won't get new tasks" but even this is occasionally ignored.

I installed VirtualBox Version: 5.1.10 on my Windows 7 machine and let 1 Benchmark task run.

It is working OK: http://lhcathomedev.cern.ch/vLHCathome-dev/result.php?resultid=287933