fails to run: support missing from kernel

[Adam Dingle]

I've installed blcr on Ubuntu 17.04 (Zesty).

If I try to run cr_checkpoint on any process, it fails with this error:

    Checkpoint failed: support missing from kernel

[Paul H. Hargrove (phhargrove)]

Adam,

This error indicates that the kernel modules for BLCR are not loaded.

Unless something has changed recently in the packaging for BLCR, the kernel modules should be loaded automatically at boot. However, if you have not rebooted since the install, they might not be.

Is you run "/sbin/lsmod | grep blcr" do you see any output?
If not, "modprobe blcr" as root will hopefully resolve the problem.

[Adam Dingle (adam-yorba)]

- I tried rebooting and running cr_checkpoint again, and I got the same error.

- "lsmod | grep blcr" produces no output.

- "sudo modprobe blcr" yields this:

modprobe: FATAL: Module blcr not found in directory /lib/modules/4.10.0-21-generic

[Paul H. Hargrove (phhargrove)]

Adam,

Is the blcr-dkms package installed?
That is the ubuntu package containing the kernel modules.

FWIW: blcr-dkms is not listed as dependency for the blcr package because that would create an unwarranted dependency for multiple MPI packages which are built with BLCR support but most frequently used without BLCR.

[Adam Dingle (adam-yorba)]

There is no such package in 17.04 (Zesty). Apparently it last existed in 14.04 (Trusty):

https://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=blcr-dkms&searchon=names&suite=all&section=all

[Paul H. Hargrove (phhargrove)]

Adam,

Lack of a blcr-dkms package in Zesty likely means that BLCR does not support kernels as new as used in this distro (unless it has been renamed?). Unfortunately, that means no BLCR. So, I am surprised that the other blcr packages are distributed at all.

I am the "upstream" for BLCR, but I cannot answer for how BLCR is being packaged for Zesty.
Hopefully the package maintainer (Alan Woodland, IIRC) will respond at some point.

-Paul

[Adam Dingle (adam-yorba)]

Zesty has version 4.10.0 of the Linux kernel and yes, it appears that BLCR supports only up to 3.7.1, as mentioned at

http://crd.lbl.gov/departments/computer-science/CLaSS/research/BLCR/

So yes, presumably the BLCR packages should be removed altogether, at least until BLCR is updated to support more modern kernels.