BlueCFD-Core 2016 terminal takes 5 minutes to start

[mksamksa]

Hello,

I'm new to GitHub, so I hope that it is the good place to post this.

I have downloaded the BlueCFD-Core 2016 installer, and installed it like described in the user guide (http://bluecfd.github.io/Core/UserGuide/).

The problem is that when starting a BlueCFD terminal, it takes around 5-6 minutes to start the environment. After that, the execution of shell commands is slow too (several seconds for a "ls").

However, the execution of the OpenFoam solvers takes the expected time on cases I've tested (compared to a run in a OpenFoam with Docker).

I tried to solve this issue with the solutions proposed here (http://bjg.io/guide/cygwin-ad/), without success.

If it can help, I precise that I work on a Windows 7 professional.

Thank you for your help!

[wyldckat]

Hi @mksamksa,

I'm new to GitHub, so I hope that it is the good place to post this.

Yes this is the perfect place to ask questions about blueCFD-Core :)

I tried to solve this issue with the solutions proposed here (http://bjg.io/guide/cygwin-ad/), without success.

Many thanks for the link, I was not aware of this problem!

But if that blog post didn't solve your problem, then I'm going to need more details in order to diagnose the origin of the problem. Here are the questions/details I can think of, which may affect MSys2 performance:

1. Do you have Cygwin also installed in your system?
2. Is the machine you are using a laptop?
   • If it is, could you please check what the "Disk" slider on the "Resource Monitor" page shows you? Instructions on how to start the "Resource Monitor" on Windows 7 is provided here: http://www.digitalcitizen.life/how-use-resource-monitor-windows-7
   • While the Resource Monitor is showing which applications are accessing the disk, start up the blueCFD-Core terminal and check if there is any heavy use/access to the disk coming from MSys2.
3. The blog post you provided the link for, mentioned that the specific slow down that was occurring on that particular case was due to the machine being part of a large network with Active Directory and that this was why it was taking so long to run every single command. So my question is whether your machine is also using this kind of Active Directory?
4. Another possible reason for the terminal to be so slow is if blueCFD-Core was installed in a shared directory or inside a folder with a higher level of security or even if it was installed in a slow USB disk/stick. So my suggestion/question here is whether installing blueCFD-Core in C:\blueCFD or D:\blueCFD solves the problem?
5. Last but not least, the other question is related to the previous one: Where exactly was blueCFD-Core 2016 installed? Was it in C:\Program Files or C:\User\your_user_name\...\blueCFD-Core or perhaps in //Users/your_user_name/.../blueCFD-Core?

Best regards,
Bruno

[mksamksa]

Hi Bruno,

Thank you for your answers. You will find below my answers to your questions:

1. Do you have Cygwin also installed in your system?
=> No. I tried in the past to install it for another topic, but now it is removed.

2. Is the machine you are using a laptop? While the Resource Monitor is showing which applications are accessing the disk, start up the blueCFD-Core terminal and check if there is any heavy use/access to the disk coming from MSys2.
=> No, it is not a laptop, but i tried to see what happen in the ressource monitor when I launch a Blue-CFD terminal: Many and many "bash.exe", "sh.exe" and "sed.exe" processes are launched and finished after few seconds (see pictures below). I think this is a part of the problem.

1. So my question is whether your machine is also using this kind of Active Directory?
   => I'm not really sure if my machine is using something like this, but it is probable, as my machine is linked to my company (large) network. As I understood the blog (http://bjg.io/guide/cygwin-ad/), the solution they propose have the aim to set the Msys2 terminal to don't search in the whole Active Directory when working. But it seems to don't work in my case.
2. So my suggestion/question here is whether installing blueCFD-Core in C:\blueCFD or D:\blueCFD solves the problem?
   => I tried do uninstall my BlueCFD-Core (which was installed in C:\Program Files) and reinstall it in C:\blueCFD-Core-2016. This don't solve the problem. Then I tryed again the method described in the blog, without more success.

Thank you for your help,

Best regards,

Maxime

[wyldckat]

Hi Maxime,

Many thanks for the details! It will take me some considerable time to try and reproduce this problem, because I'll have to create a virtual machine network with several entries in an Active Directory server.

In the meantime, I'll try to see if I'm able to bring back the DOS mode feature we use to have, so that at least the minimal functionality is available.

Best regards,
Bruno

[wyldckat]

@mksamksa My apologies, but I haven't managed to take a proper look into this and I don't know when I'll have the time in the next couple of months.

That said, please see issue #16, the latest comment, regarding the "quick-batch-package.zip" file: #16 (comment)

This is a quick workaround and at least it gives you the basics for running OpenFOAM applications within blueCFD-Core's installation.