Index: trunk/Ohana/src/opihi/pcontrol/StartJob.c
===================================================================
--- trunk/Ohana/src/opihi/pcontrol/StartJob.c	(revision 17476)
+++ trunk/Ohana/src/opihi/pcontrol/StartJob.c	(revision 17477)
@@ -72,5 +72,13 @@
   /* check on result of pclient command */
   p = memstr (buffer[0].buffer, "STATUS", buffer[0].Nbuffer);
-  ASSERT (p != NULL, "missing STATUS in pclient message");
+  if (p == NULL) {
+      // failed to get a valid response.  kill the job and try again, 
+      // or accept a running process without a PID?
+      if (VerboseMode()) gprint (GP_ERR, "failed to get a valid PID, trying to continue without\n");
+      PutHost (host, PCONTROL_HOST_BUSY, STACK_BOTTOM);
+      PutJob (job, PCONTROL_JOB_BUSY, STACK_BOTTOM);
+      gettimeofday (&job[0].start, NULL);
+      return (TRUE);
+  }
 
   sscanf (p, "%*s %d", &status);