1. Programs & Projects
  2. Mid-Scale Observatories — Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory
  3. Retired Instruments
  4. ISPI
  5. ISPI Troubleshooting & known problems
  6. Re-starting ISPI
  7. Re-starting ISPI

Re-starting ISPI

If the GUI hangs, you will need to restart ISPI, you should start from the simplest restart, building to a more full restart as neccessary.

Simple Restart:

  • Single click the red 'EXIT' button on the ISPI Control GUI (with the really cool cross section view of ISPI).
  • Quit the 'ArcVIEW Main Application' window by first clicking on the 'EXIT' button in the window and then pulling down the 'File' menu in the top, left corner of the window, and going to 'Quit'.
  • Single click on the 'ArcVIEW' button in the vnc session xload box. This will pop up the ISPI Control GUI, and an 'ArcVIEW Main Application' window. The Application window should have two round buttons, labelled 'Connected?' that appear red.
  • On the ISPI Control GUI, there is a white arrow icon in the upper left corner of the window. Single click on the white arrow. This arrow should now turn black. The two buttons in the Application window should turn green.
  • Minimize the Application window by clicking on the underscore '_' icon on the blue bar, in the upper right corner of each window. You are now ready to operate ISPI.

Less simple:

  • Quit as above for the simple restart. Now check to see if there are any remaining labview processes. To do this, from a terminal window, connected to ctioa9 type the command "ps -ef | grep labview". Note the process# attached to the labview processes.
  • Kill all the remaining labview processes with the command "kill -9 process#" from the same terminal window. You really only need to kill the parent process in order to kill all the subprocesses. The parent is the process with a 1 next to the process#.
  • Verify with ps -ef | grep labview that all the labview processes are killed.
  • Now continue to re-start the GUI as above in the simple restart.

Frustration level rising, deep breath, restart:

  • Do as in the less simple re-start above. Kill the "TightVNC: ispi's X desktop (ctio:9)" by clicking on the X in the upper, right corner of the window. THIS IS THE ONLY X IN A BOX THAT YOU SHOULD EVER CLICK ON IN ANY PART OF THE VNC DESKTOP!
  • Click the ISPI VNC icon in the upper left of the ctioa8 desktop.
  • Single click on the 'ArcVIEW' button in the vnc session xload box. This will pop up the ISPI Control GUI, and an 'ArcVIEW Main Application' window. The Application window should have two round buttons, labelled 'Connected?' that appear red.
  • On the ISPI Control GUI, there is a white arrow icon in the upper left corner of the window. Single click on the white arrow. This arrow should now turn black. The two buttons in the Application window should turn green.
  • Minimize the Application window by clicking on the underscore '_' icon on the blue bar, in the upper right corner of each window. You are now ready to operate ISPI.

And finally:

  • Call the mountain electronics support to reboot ctioa9 and/or power cycle the instrument at the telescope.
  • After rebooting, follow the normal startup.

If in doubt, or really stuck, phone the instrument scientists:

  • Contact scientist cell phone: 09-499-6216
  • Nicole van der Bliek: home: 211869; office: 205
  • Malcom Smith: office: 217

February 15, 2007

Updated on April 1, 2022, 5:34 am