CTFFIND4 crashes with "ERROR: cannot find line with Final values in Micrographs"

I am running Relion 1.4. For the third time, with different data sets, my CTFFIND4 run fails (at the very end, so after many many hours) with the following message (this is the end of the log file):

Estimating CTF parameters using Niko Grigorieff's CTFFIND ...
27.76/27.76 hrs ............................................................~~(,,">
ERROR: cannot find line with Final values in Micrographs/16sep17b_IrIn7_00003gr_00002sq_v02_00003hln_v01_00002epn-a_ctffind3.log
File: src/ctffind_runner.cpp line: 299
-------------------------------------------------------
Primary job terminated normally, but 1 process returned
a non-zero exit code.. Per user-direction, the job has been aborted.
-------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
mpiexec detected that one or more processes exited with non-zero status, thus causing
the job to be terminated. The first process to do so was:
Process name: [[11301,1],19]
Exit code: 1_

The line it's looking for exist in the .log file (I checked). As a result it does not generate the star file necessary to move on. Please advise.

Thanks - Giovanna

Hello,

What version of ctffind are you using? Have you tried with the latest version available from this website (4.1.5)?

If all the log files contain the "Final values" line, this looks like a Relion problem and I would ask the ccpem mailing list. If some of the log files do not contain the "Final values" line, then this could be a ctffind problem.

Alexis

In reply to by Alexis

Hi Alexis
thanks - I was using V4.0.17, we are now trying to install V4.1.5 as for your suggestion. I double checked the .log files and about 17 (out of 607) don't have the required "Final Values" line.
Hopefully upgrading to the newer version will fix it

Giovanna

In reply to by gscapin

Hi Giovanna,

Yes, it is quite possible 4.1.5 will not have the same problem. The problem you are experiencing with 4.0.17 has been reported by others and occurs when many processes are running in the same directory simultaneously. There are workarounds, but I believe 4.1.5 fixes this so do let me know.

Alexis