FAHControl repeatedly graying out

[Mortivor_81]

Hi there,

I have installed F@H Version 7.6.9. "fahclient_7.6.9_amd64.deb" and "fahcontrol_7.6.9-1_all.deb" under KDE Neon 5.18 (based on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS).

It's running well, but what is irritating me: The application FAHControl does a refresh every few seconds and while it's doing that the main window controls are grayed out. Some menu items regarding configuration (e.g. passkey) disappear and reappear again when the refresh is "done". Now I have a few seconds to make any configurations until the window is grayed out again and the menu item disappear again. It's so disturbing that a have deinstalled the FAHControl and started using the "Web Control" (http://client.foldingathome.org/). It's much simpler and does not allow that many configurations but it's much better usable. It just does not stop being usable every few seconds.
Does anyone of you have the same problem or, better still, knows how to fix it or whether an application fix is planned?

P.S.: I have also tried FAHControl under Ubuntu 19.10 (Gnome) and it's perfectly usable...

Best wishes,
Chris

[ajm]

It looks like this issue that also appears in Windows (10 Pro), with this error code in the log:

Code: Select all

17:00:06:ERROR:Receive error: 997: Overlapped I/O operation is in progress.

It can be annoying indeed, but it doesn't hurt folding. Unfortunately, there's no solution yet. Pausing the client doesn't help, for example.

[Rel25917]

Just out of curiosity is web control open at the same time? Wondering if they are fighting for control maybe.

[ajm]

Not on my system, it isn't (I have the issue I described above on my main PC).

[Joe_H]

Do you have a recent Ryzen processor? That 997: Overlapped I/O error message can be due to that. One person reported that it took updating the BIOS firmware on his motherboard to have that go away.

[ajm]

Yes, one of the new Threadripper. And indeed, after a bios update, the problem is solved. Thank you Joe_H!

EDIT: Well, not quite. I haven't encountered the problem itself (jumpy grayed out interface) since then, actually, but there are still a few of those 997 errors in the log. Not a problem anymore for all intent and purpose, though.

EDIT: It went worse with time. It's like you can make this problem disappear with just about any manipulation, but it comes back after a while.

[Mortivor_81]

@Rel25917: No, WebControl is not open at the same time.
@Joe_H: I do have an Intel Core i5 430M. I'm afraid there does not exist a recent bios update anymore.

[Joe_H]

FAHControl communicates with the background FAHClient process over the local IP 127.0.0.1 on port 36330 by default. Is there any firewall or other setting that would interfere with that?

[Mortivor_81]

No Firewall i know of. It's a standard install of KDE Neon (in essence Ubuntu 18.04 with the most recent KDE Plasma (5.18.4) on top). Kernel is 4.15.
When "updating", the window is all greyed out, no client configuration possible and the client controls are not interactible too: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8djyu7lifz0ts ... 1.png?dl=0
When "online", all behaves normal: https://www.dropbox.com/s/8imukxhrvlpsk ... 2.png?dl=0
These two states fluctuate every few seconds.