computing preferences are ignored?

I have set my preferences to use 75% max of the processors and a max of 3 processors in a multi core system. I have a 4 core system and I want one core left free (for the work that pays). When I do a 'top' I notice 4 setis are running and using 100% cpu when nothing else is running - that is all 4 cores doing 100% work. With my preferences I would expect to see 3 setis and the combined cpu load not to exceed 75% - like I asked for. But then there is the field 'Use at most %' - is that use at most of all 4 cores combined or one core? How do these 3 parameters interact, are they orthogonal, AND'ED, OR'ED - or something else? If I asked for 3 max processors and 100% use of the processors, who wins?

I set my preferences 24 hours ago and there has been plenty of comms back to seti from my machine and seti is still using all 4 cores 100% of time when nothing else runs.

Can this be fixed or do I have to risk the wrath of the little green men?

Probably you are using local preferences. They override the online ones. So, either set "On multiprocessors, use at most 75% of the processors" in your local preferences or clear them altogether to reenable the online ones.

And of course, you'll have to select "Run based on preferences" in the Activity menu.

The "On multiprocessors, use at most N processors" used to be obsolete (version 5.x) but seems to have been recycled as minimum count.

The "Use at most XX% of CPU time" setting suspends all tasks (cores) secondwise to effect the desired percentage of runtime.

Gruß,
Gundolf
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Computer sind nicht alles im Leben. (Kleiner Scherz)

SETI@home classic workunits 3,758
SETI@home classic CPU time 66,520 hours

I'm not knowingly using local preferences. Where do I set them? - I'm not using a GUI client but a command line one (on an Ubuntu 64 bit server).

Thanks!

Local preferences are stored in a file named global_prefs_override.xml in your BOINC data directory (where you also find the client_state.xml file). To clear them, just delete the override file.

To check the Activity status without GUI, the only way I've found is looking directly in client_state.xml. Search for <user_run_request> - the value must be 2 (run based on preferences).

To set it, you can use