Why are there suddenly BOINC-related Unix/Terminal apps in my Mac's Dock?

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Message 77346 - Posted: 12 Apr 2017, 17:23:48 UTC

I just noticed 4 apps running at the bottom of my applications list in my iMac's Dock that all have Terminal "exec" icons. Hovering over them, all 4 are labelled "setigraphics_8.03_x86_64-apple-darwin". There's no option to quit any of them, only force quit which does nothing. The contextual menu displays "Application not responding". I can't drag them out of the Dock either and none of them shows up in Activity Monitor.

A Unix Executable File with the name "setigraphics_8.03_x86_64-apple-darwin" is in User > Library > Application Support > BOINC Data > Projects > setiathome.berkeley.edu. I did not run this file on my own and am not sure why it's appearing as 4 separate non-responsive apps in my Dock.

Any idea what's causing this? I believe I was running BOINC version 7.6.22 but just updated to 7.6.34. Running it after the install didn't halt those Unix files from running. I'm going to restart to see if that clears them and report back if they appear again.
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Message 77348 - Posted: 12 Apr 2017, 20:40:19 UTC - in response to Message 77346.  

The unresponsive scripts forced me to do a hard reboot. After starting up, none of the Unix files appeared in my doc. However, not longer afterwards, I noticed 2 of them in my Dock after a BOINC notification appeared on-screen. My screensaver had been running, though. Now hours later I'm seeing 4 total again. No more notifications but my screensaver had kicked in at least once more. Maybe the script is being run and then hangs every time it starts crunching project data? All four say "Application not responding".
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Les Bayliss
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Message 77349 - Posted: 12 Apr 2017, 22:20:52 UTC

There are two other threads about Mac problems that seem to relate to an OS update:

here
and
here

Perhaps your problem is another instance of a problem with the update.
It may be a few hours before someone shows up who can start the ball rolling, (wrong time of day now), so hang in there.
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Message 77350 - Posted: 12 Apr 2017, 22:37:24 UTC - in response to Message 77349.  

Thanks, Les, but the issue started before I updated to v.7.6.34, and the issues described in those threads don't seem to match the issue I'm having with Unix files running as apps and showing up in the Dock. All as "setigraphics_8.03_x86_64-apple-darwin".

I should mention, I'm running BOINC on a 27" iMac (mid-2011 2.7 GHz core i5) under MacOS 10.10.5 Yosemite. First noticed the issue today, Apr 12, while still running v.7.6.22.
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Les Bayliss
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Message 77352 - Posted: 12 Apr 2017, 23:46:08 UTC - in response to Message 77350.  

Sorry, I may not have been clear before. I didn't mean that the other two problems were related to yours, other than they also applied to Macs, and that they were being discussed in the other two threads.
Best to wait until someone shows up "this evening".

(They may even be related to a seti problem.)
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Message 77354 - Posted: 13 Apr 2017, 2:43:20 UTC - in response to Message 77352.  

No, you were clear. I just didn't read carefully enough, haha. I clicked the thread links and forgot to closely read your reply. Thanks again. I'll wait to see if someone replies.
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Message 77360 - Posted: 13 Apr 2017, 10:30:40 UTC
Last modified: 13 Apr 2017, 16:21:20 UTC

The Setigraphics application is used to show the Seti@Home screen saver/graphics.
If you see four of them, that means you have at least a four core CPU, running four Seti tasks.
Only CPU tasks have the Seti graphics, GPU tasks do no.

You could test if they go away if you tell OS X not to run the Seti screen saver.

If that 'fixes' it, you best walk over to the Seti forums and repost there and ask why it's doing this and hope that the Seti application developer for the Mac wanders by and can give an answer. For best viewing possibilities post in Number Crunching if you have sufficient RAC (more than 1), else post in the Macintosh forum in the Help Desk.
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Message 77366 - Posted: 13 Apr 2017, 16:17:40 UTC - in response to Message 77360.  

Thanks for the info. As of last night, I left my Mac running and the SETI screensaver was going. I returned home to find 10 (count 'em, 10) unresponsive Unix files at the bottom of my Dock. I turned switched to another screensaver overnight and found the number remained at 10 this morning. I'll pop over to the SETI forums like you suggested. Thanks for the tips!
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Message 77368 - Posted: 13 Apr 2017, 19:37:37 UTC

After the Seti admins pointing out that the BOINC developer for the Mac was the the original porter/developer of the Seti science applications, I had a chat with him on this. He's willing to look into it, but after his vacation which starts tomorrow morning. He has promised me to look into it at the end of the month, when he's returned.

Sorry, I hope that in the mean time someone else will be able to explain why this happens.
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Message 77369 - Posted: 14 Apr 2017, 3:14:18 UTC - in response to Message 77368.  

Thanks very much. That just means I'll run another screensaver in the meantime and get to crunching again after they get back and can hopefully find a fix. Cheers.
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Message 77759 - Posted: 6 May 2017, 0:19:53 UTC - in response to Message 77369.  

That just means I'll run another screensaver in the meantime and get to crunching again after they get back and can hopefully find a fix. Cheers.


You don't need the BOINC screen saver for tasks to be running; correct me if I'm wrong, but the way you phrased it makes me think you're not crunching SETI at all because the screensaver is not working.
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Message 77889 - Posted: 15 May 2017, 3:31:40 UTC - in response to Message 77759.  

Despite the issue I outlined, the screensaver is working and crunching data but when it does I'm getting a bunch of non-responsive scripts filling up my Dock. I was just saying until the issue is resolved I'll run another screensaver entirely. I don't run tasks outside of the BOINC screensaver (that I'm aware of anyway).
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Message 78384 - Posted: 30 May 2017, 15:41:33 UTC

In case this is helpful to someone else, the issue I described is no longer happening since upgrading from Mavericks to Sierra 10.12.5. Possibly related to running the latest BOINC 7.6.34 under the most recent version of Mavericks only?
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Message boards : Questions and problems : Why are there suddenly BOINC-related Unix/Terminal apps in my Mac's Dock?

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