Web GUI shell loses session after closing

[scurrier]

Hi,

I'm new to FreeNAS, but I found something that seems to be misbehaving. I ran "badblocks -sw /dev/ada2" on my new disk from the web gui shell. Then, after reading this wiki page which says I can do the following and not lose the session, I closed the session using the X and almost immediately tried to open it back up to verify that badblocks was still running. It wasn't. It looked like a fresh session. Here is the text from the wiki page that leads me to believe that I could expect it to stay running:

While you are in Shell, you will not have access to any of the other GUI menus. If you are using Shell for troubleshooting purposes and need to leave the Shell in order to modify a configuration, click the x in the window's upper right corner. The next time you enter Shell, you will return to your last session. When you are finished using Shell, type exit to leave the session completely.

I am running FreeNAS 9.2.0. My browser is Chrome.


Is this a bug? I searched the bugbase but after looking at 188 results did not see anything similar described there.

 

[scurrier]

Forgot to mention. I looked at the system processes after doing this and found that badblocks was still a running process. So maybe the session persisted, but not in the visual way that I expected? I thought I would still be able to see the status updates from badblocks.

I'm not sure, but I think badblocks disappeared from the system processes list while I was watching it. I can give more details on what I think I saw, if necessary.

 

[Dusan]

If you want to have fully persistent shell sessions use tmux: http://doc.freenas.org/index.php/Tmux
More detailed documentation: http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?manpath=freebsd-release-ports&query=tmux

 

[scurrier]

So should the wiki be updated to drop the current paragraph and possibly to include a mention to tmux?

 

[Dusan]

I just noticed that the FreeNAS manual states that when you reopen the web shell it will return back to the tmux session. This doesn't seem to be the case. Run "tmux attach" to reattach to the previous session.

 

[Dusan]

So should the wiki be updated to drop the current paragraph and possibly to include a mention to tmux?

Probably yes, but I it would make sense to first check if it ever worked that way (and the current behaviour is a bug), or if it's a documentation problem.
I already changed the tmux wiki page to mention tmux attach (http://doc.freenas.org/index.php/Tmux)

 

[dlavigne]

It's possible that this behaviour changed with a newer version of django or that it might even vary by browser. I'll see what I can dig up.

 

[scurrier]

Here's a new development. I was running the badblocks on my 4TB disk again before I learned about tmux. Of course, it was taking a long time because the disk is so large. So I have been leaving my computer on so that I don't lose the shell and so that I could see the final results when it finished. I made sure that it wouldn't sleep. I came back from work today and found that the web browser window looked like this:

Hmm.

So I thought maybe it had timed out or something (although I've been lead to believe it will not time out) and tried to log back in. When I click the username or password fields, the cursor flashes once and then disappears and I cannot enter any information to log in.

Is there any way to get back to my shell so that I can see what the result of my badblocks scan was?

I will leave this window open exactly as it is now in case anyone wants me to try anything to probe for what the problem might be. If anyone deems this to be significant, that is. I do think that I had this browser window open for quite some time, like 48 hours maybe.

I'll close the window in a few hours to start my badblocks again.

Full disclosure, I am also remembering that I reinstalled my graphics driver yesterday. I didn't restart the computer because I was running this badblocks. With no other information, I have to think that that might have done it. I'm about 75% sure that I looked at where badblocks was before I left the computer yesterday, and it was still running, but I cannot be 100% sure.

 

[pirateghost]

Edit: disregard, I just noticed we are in the bug report forum...

Why not use a real shell/terminal emulator (putty) instead of the web GUI for running long tasks. The web GUI is great for quick checks on things or running a quick command but I wouldn't rely on it for anything more.



Sent from my Nexus 5

 

[scurrier]

Yeah, you're still right though, pirateghost. Last time I used putty was when I was in college and had to use it to log into email! Haha. I need to get back on the horse (and maybe the wagon, too, while I am at it) and figure out how to use it again. Yes, I am a linux noob. This is shaping up as a great learning project for me. I've been wanting to get into linux to bolster my geek cred.

 

[cyberjock]

Good think you are a linux noob. You'd have scared me if you were a FreeBSD noob.

(the joke is on you of course.. since FreeBSD is not linux)

 

[pirateghost]

Yeah, you're still right though, pirateghost. Last time I used putty was when I was in college and had to use it to log into email! Haha. I need to get back on the horse (and maybe the wagon, too, while I am at it) and figure out how to use it again. Yes, I am a linux noob. This is shaping up as a great learning project for me. I've been wanting to get into linux to bolster my geek cred.

If you want to get into Linux you should try a Linux distro....

 

[scurrier]

See? Learning is already occurring.

Let me dig myself further into this hole and claim that I meant "unix-derived OS noob."

 

[cyberjock]

ZOMG! Get the pitchforks and torches! We got a noob to lynch tonight!

 

[scurrier]

Did the hole get deeper? Maybe I misread wikipedia. "Unix-like?"