HTCondor Docker universe throws core.STARTER

This is a problem observed when using HTCondor in the Docker universe.

After re configuring HTCondor and Docker on one processing node, every time a job is sent the following errors are dumped in the corresponding slot’s StarterLog.slot1_N:

(pid:24877) Found 33 entries in docker image cache.
Stack dump for process 24877 at timestamp 1497439919 (13 frames)
/lib64/libcondor_utils_8_7_1.so(dprintf_dump_stack+0x72)[0x7fbbc3e6f0b2]
/lib64/libcondor_utils_8_7_1.so(_Z18linux_sig_coredumpi+0x24)[0x7fbbc3ffb534]
/lib64/libpthread.so.0(+0xf370)[0x7fbbc25bc370]
/lib64/libstdc++.so.6(_ZNSt8__detail15_List_node_base9_M_unhookEv+0x7)[0x7fbbc2f76077]
/lib64/libcondor_utils_8_7_1.so(_ZN9DockerAPI3runERN14compat_classad7ClassAdES2_RKSsS4_S4_RK7ArgListRK3EnvS4_St4listISsSaISsEERiPiR11CondorError+0x42e)[0x7fbbc3e31cee]
condor_starter(_ZN10DockerProc8StartJobEv+0xb66)[0x454656]
condor_starter(_ZN8CStarter8SpawnJobEv+0xc3)[0x45b753]
condor_starter(_ZN8CStarter14SpawnPreScriptEv+0x197)[0x459757]
/lib64/libcondor_utils_8_7_1.so(_ZN12TimerManager7TimeoutEPiPd+0x182)[0x7fbbc3ff9952]
/lib64/libcondor_utils_8_7_1.so(_ZN10DaemonCore6DriverEv+0x9cb)[0x7fbbc3fdb59b]
/lib64/libcondor_utils_8_7_1.so(_Z7dc_mainiPPc+0x13e8)[0x7fbbc3ffebe8]
/lib64/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xf5)[0x7fbbc220db35]

There is also a core.STARTER generated and the output of `gdb /var/log/condor/core.STARTER <<< “where”` is:

Core was generated by `condor_starter -f -a slot1_1 fqdn.domain.com’.

(gdb) Python Exception <class ‘gdb.MemoryError’> Cannot access memory at address 0xb1340bc0:

The lead to that was a bug in the Docker thinpool storage driver, which led to the use of overlay2 driver alongside with a Docker reinstall.

Solution:
There are ‘hidden’ dot files in the condor log directory, they contain cache information that might mess up with you job submission, to fix that one needs to stop condor, remove those files and start condor again. Once done the node start accepting Docker Universe jobs again.

systemctl stop condor
cp /var/log/condor/.s* /tmp/
rm -f /var/log/condor/.s*
systemctl start condor

Debian, The following packages cannot be authenticated!

WARNING: The following packages cannot be authenticated!

This is a Debian warning after an:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

After going through many sources around the correct solution turned out to be be:

sudo rm -r /var/lib/apt/lists
sudo mkdir -p /var/lib/apt/lists/partial
sudo apt-get update

Now you should be able to run the upgrade.

Source: http://doc.ubuntu-fr.org/probleme_apt#erreur_gpg

How to boost your wifi signal?!

You have an Internet connection that has been connected to a wireless emitter in order to provide wireless connectivity, but in some areas you have a lack of signal. What can you do to strengthenĀ  that wifi signal up?

In this article I will try to give you some simple advices to help you improve your wireless device performance.

Let’s assume that you do not have the opportunity to move your device along, otherwise this is one of the best ways to adjust your signal. So here is what you can do:

1. Adjust wireless device antenna direction. The best direction of your antenna is the one that has a 90 degree angle (see the picture bellow) with the imaginary line drawn between the wireless device and your laptop (or any other wireless device, the green line between the laptop and the wireless).

wi-fi

On the figure shown above, the best direction of your antenna is shown in green. The blue position of the antenna shows a relevantly good antenna position. The position coloured in red is worse in this particular case, the weakest signal follows the direction of the antenna (0/180 degrees with the imaginary line of the position of your laptop). If the antenna of your wireless emitter point toward your laptop – you will experience a low signal!

2. Sometimes in the security settings of your wireless emitter, there is an option that lowers the power of the wifi signal for security reasons. Check if your device has such options, make sure to allow full signal strength.

3. If the first two steps are not applicable for any reason, you can boost your signal via wifi antenna booster such antenna can increase the level of you signal. The price of such boosters is near 5 US dollars 3.5 Euros. It attaches to your device just as a regular antenna and it’s fairly easy for setting up.

For other solutions, on larger areas, that require higher levels of the signal an wifi signal amplifier might be a good choice. Such amplifiers might require separate power supply.

Problem during XP SP3 (service pack 3) install on a nForce4 chipset

Problem
Service Pack 3 installation interrupted before it’s completion afterwards the computer is restarted.

Data
System Event viewer shows a problem loading nForce Bus device. This points out to the network bus driver which enables the Ethernet controller.
Latest driver version of the network driver Ethernet driver 4.75 (WHQL). Latest available network driver Ethernet driver 4.75 (WHQL).

Solution
Boot in Safe Mode.
Install Service Pack 3 on nForce4 chipset.
Reboot.
Log in Safe Mode.
Unistal the nForce Bus driver.
Disable the device.
Reboot.
Reinstall the Network Bus Driver.

Conclusion
I have stumbled upon three such cases, before finding an adequate solution of the problem, but I did not test any other combinations such as reinstalling the computer with an integrated SP3 installation and so on. Anyway the above procedure solved my troubles.

Joomla login problem

When I try to log in the administrators front end of a Joomla installation – nothing happens, no login event, no error message, nothing but the refresh of the login page.

I did try to find a solution in the official Joomla forum
but all I got there was a suggestion to change the session_path parameter by inserting a pointer in the .htaccess file. After doing so nothing seemed to have changed.

After investigating the cause if found out that the problem it occurred after a colleague of mine made changes to the php.ini switching off the following parameter
session.use_cookies = 0
on a unix installation. He needed to change this parameter in order to get one application running, which caused Joomla to loose track of login attempts.

The walk around of this problem is to place the following entry in the .htaccess file:
php_value session.use_cookies ‘On’
this will enable the feature “session use cookies”.

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