BOINC Screen Saver does not respond properly when a graphics application spawns a window (like RNA World cmsearch spawns Adobe Flash 9)

[JacobKlein]

Rom and I have been doing some screensaver testing in Alpha testing, and I believe I have come up with some reproducible bugs that should be reported as tickets. As far as I know, these bugs exist on 6.10.58 and the latest alphas.

This ticket is regarding applications where, while in screensaver, their graphics launch a window. In my case, RNA World Project has an application called "cmsearch S" whose graphics consist of spawning an Adobe Flash 9 window even while in screensaver mode.

When the BOINC screensaver runs, and is set to rotate between projects, and an RNA World task gets rotated in, bad things can happen.

Among those bad things are:
- Moving mouse/keyboard does not release the screensaver, and the user has to hit Ctrl+Alt+Del
- Moving mouse/keyboard does not dismiss the spawned window
- The BOINC screen saver shows "unspecified error" for some periods of time
- When rotating the project in, the screen can be completely black for that rotation, yet appear to work fine for the next rotation if it is a different project.

I believe this should be considered one bug -- the BOINC screensaver needs to either properly handle the spawned window graphics, or somehow not allow them.

I'm betting there are other projects that, while in screensaver, launch graphics in a window... but of my projects, only RNA World is causing the problem.

Below is an email detailing the things I found, which I believe are attributable to this ticket's bug(s):

---

From: jacob_w_klein@…
To: romw@…; boinc_alpha@…
Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2011 !17:13:43 -0500
Subject: Re: [boinc_alpha] 6.12.19 - Strange screensaver results

 
Rom (et al):
 
I have good news, I hope!
After more testing (with your most recent build boincscr.310311.x64), I might finally be able to conclude some stuff!
 
Note: I'm only about 70% sure that the following is accurate, but preliminary results show:
- If, when the screensaver is 1-minute-cycling between projects, if the RNA project is selected at all, then I will be later forced to Ctrl+Alt+Del to get back to the login, even if the screensaver shifts out of RNA project before use mouse/keyboard.
- If RNA is selected first in the rotation, I will be able to see the Adobe window, but it will be a) non-focused (could this be a problem?), and b) non-Win-7-Aero (meaning the window frame uses Aero Basic -- could this be a problem? Should be full-screen?)
- If RNA is selected first in the rotation, if the screen saver needs to transition to another project, it will have problems for a short time, and I will see "unspecified error" a few times
- If RNA was not selected first in the rotation, but then needs to "rotate in", sometimes for that whole minute I don't get the Adobe window, and my screen is just completely blank.
 
I've attached some stdoutscr.txt log files, along with an .xlsx Excel file I'm using as a legend.  (Hopefully you can read .xlsx - I think Microsoft may offer a free Windows Excel viewer)
 
Note that "->" means a transition between projects during the screensaver run.
 
The logs that are good control-tests are:
009 (which FAILED): RNA World -> Rosetta, Moved mouse, screen went black, waited 25 seconds, No response, Hit Ctrl, No effect, Hit Ctrl+Alt+Del, Responded.
010 (which DID work correctly): World Community Grid (no transitions), Moved Mouse, responded immediately.
011 (which DID work correctly): Rosetta (no transitions), Moved Mouse, responded immediately.
012 (which DID work correctly): Was showing the generic BOINC screensaver (no transitions), Moved Mouse, responded immediately.
013 (which DID work correctly): Docking (no transitions), Hit Ctrl, responded immediately.
014 (which FAILED): Docking for 1 min -> Blank screen for 1 min (Should have been RNA because I only had those 2 projects running!) -> Docking for 20 seconds, Moved Mouse, screen went black, waited 25 seconds, No response, Hit Ctrl, No effect, Hit Ctrl+Alt+Del, Responded.
015 (which FAILED): RNA World (with nonfocused non-Win7-Aero Adobe window) for 1 min -> On switch to Docking, briefly saw "unspecified error" a couple times -> Eventually switched to Docking, then after 20 seconds, I moved mouse, screen went black, waited 25 seconds, No response, Hit Ctrl, No effect, Hit Ctrl+Alt+Del, Responded.
 
I'm becoming a believer that the funky RNA method of Graphics (and the fact that BOINC screensaver is not handling the funkyness correctly)... is the cause of the problems!
I'll keep testing, but I'm at least smiling - aren't you?
 
- Jacob

[JacobKlein]

stdoutscr_JWK_Testing_20110331

[JacobKlein]

Note 1: When the only project I'm running is RNA World, and the screensaver kicks in, the screensaver will load Adobe Flash 9 and I can see the graphics for the first task, but then if another RNA World task rotates in, the screensaver will fail repeatedly, in the form of a blinking BOINC logo with text that says:

"There was an unspecified problem
with the BOINC screensaver."

Note 2: When not in screensaver mode, if I run the graphics for an RNA World task, then let the screensaver kick in, the screensaver will fail immediately (and repeatedly),in the form of a blinking BOINC logo with text that says:

"There was an unspecified problem
with the BOINC screensaver."

Hope this is somehow helpful!

[JacobKlein]

Tickets #1080 and #1094 are probably related.