Posts by MarkJ

101) Message boards : Number crunching : Anyone still using a raspberry pi 3 (Message 1893687)
Posted 6 Oct 2017 by MarkJ Crowdfunding Project Donor*Special Project $75 donorSpecial Project $250 donor
Post:
Is it worth running seti on the pis?
$50 each and producing 300 results each, 6000 results costs you 20*50 = $1k

If you want to use them as crunchers you’ll need to add a heatsink to the SoC and a fan for air flow, and then there is a power supply.

You can have one larger fan cool a stack of them. Some of the multi-port USB chargers can be used to run 4 or more Pi’s off a single power point. The SD cards and fans wear out too so you’ll need to replace them over time, assume 1 to 2 years out of the SD card. There are some people running them off solar/battery but that adds quite a bit to the initial cost.

See Mod my Pi case for what I did to mine.
102) Message boards : Number crunching : Panic Mode On (107) Server Problems? (Message 1893148)
Posted 4 Oct 2017 by MarkJ Crowdfunding Project Donor*Special Project $75 donorSpecial Project $250 donor
Post:
No, the disk is fine. Only using 6.5GB out of 215GB. It seems to clear itself up after a few BOINC restarts with the no state file found for task so and so.

Is this the BOINC 7.8.2 machine(s)? If so might be the slot directories issue
103) Message boards : Number crunching : Dual E5-2670 vs. Threadripper 16 core ?? (Message 1892910)
Posted 2 Oct 2017 by MarkJ Crowdfunding Project Donor*Special Project $75 donorSpecial Project $250 donor
Post:
It was being caused by BOINC. I changed the checkpoint timer to 120 and the disk has quieted down..

On Raspberry Pi’s I have it set to 300 seconds to reduce the writes to the SD card. On my Ryzen’s I have 2TB HDD in them with it set to 120 seconds and a start delay of 2 for BOINC (so the machine can get past the initial start before trying to run 16+ tasks). You specify the start delay in cc_config.
104) Message boards : Number crunching : Linux & multiple GPU's - Numbercrunching very lov comparred to other projects (Message 1892345)
Posted 29 Sep 2017 by MarkJ Crowdfunding Project Donor*Special Project $75 donorSpecial Project $250 donor
Post:
You didn’t say what app you are running. I would guess it’s the project supplied ones. If so you might want to run the cuda80 one, but you would need an up to date Nvidia driver installed (to get CUDA 8 support). There is a rather long thread about running it here
105) Message boards : Number crunching : Anyone still using a raspberry pi 3 (Message 1890915)
Posted 20 Sep 2017 by MarkJ Crowdfunding Project Donor*Special Project $75 donorSpecial Project $250 donor
Post:
Do you have a GPU hooked up to your raspberry pi's ??

There isn't any add on GPU's for the Pi that I am aware of. It has a built-in VideoCore IV but its of no use for number crunching.
106) Message boards : Number crunching : Anyone still using a raspberry pi 3 (Message 1890120)
Posted 16 Sep 2017 by MarkJ Crowdfunding Project Donor*Special Project $75 donorSpecial Project $250 donor
Post:
Seeing if anyone is still running the raspberry pi 3?

Yes ten of them, but over on Einstein where the work units are smaller. While it certainly can do Seti work they take a lot longer to compute.
107) Message boards : Number crunching : BOINC 7.8.3 available to beta test on debian (Message 1889497)
Posted 13 Sep 2017 by MarkJ Crowdfunding Project Donor*Special Project $75 donorSpecial Project $250 donor
Post:
Thanks, looks like I need to move up to 7.8.2. This is my output:
keith@Darksider:~$ uname -a
Linux Darksider 4.10.0-33-generic #37~16.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Fri Aug 11 14:07:24 UTC 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
keith@Darksider:~$

I don't see my status radio buttons ever update the change after making one. Might it be a problem with video driver or Desktop UI?

I am running the repository video driver 375.66 and the standard Ubuntu desktop.

According to that you're running Ubuntu 16.04.1. Its not the same as Debian but its based upon it. Gianfranco has a ppa with 7.8.2 in it for Ubuntu:
https://launchpad.net/~costamagnagianfranco/+archive/ubuntu/boinc

I have the 375.66 driver as well so I don't think it is causing your problem.
108) Message boards : Number crunching : BOINC 7.8.3 available to beta test on debian (Message 1889216)
Posted 11 Sep 2017 by MarkJ Crowdfunding Project Donor*Special Project $75 donorSpecial Project $250 donor
Post:
I'll have to search on just what stretch means. I have no clue. I am a newcomer to linux.

Stretch is the current version of Debian (also known as Debian 9). To find out what version you are using in a terminal window type "uname -a" (without the quotes) and it should say what kernel and OS version it is.

Update: I have just played around with the network activity and it seems to behave. Suspend Network works correctly and making it always available also seems to work, The Activity Menu in Advanced mode shows the radio buttons correctly.
109) Message boards : Number crunching : BOINC 7.8.3 available to beta test on debian (Message 1889188)
Posted 11 Sep 2017 by MarkJ Crowdfunding Project Donor*Special Project $75 donorSpecial Project $250 donor
Post:
I visited the link you provided. It is not obvious to me where the download link is for this new 7.82 version of BOINC. Do you think it fixes the problem I detailed in the BOINC 7.8.0 for Linux thread?

That sounds like you were looking at the instructions on adding Stretch-backports to a Raspberry Pi which I have on my blog. If you have Debian running Stretch on a normal PC (ie the amd64 architecture) you just need to add a line into your /etc/apt/sources.list that reads:
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ stretch-backports main contrib non-free

Then do a "sudo apt update" command followed by a "sudo apt install -t stretch-backports boinc-client boinc-manager" command without the quotes.

Having said that the manager still has the problem of jumping to the bottom of the task list if you have it sorted. It also does it for the transfers tab, even if you don't have it sorted. If that is the bug you were hoping to get a fix for its not in this version.
110) Message boards : Number crunching : BOINC 7.8.3 available to beta test on debian (Message 1889124)
Posted 10 Sep 2017 by MarkJ Crowdfunding Project Donor*Special Project $75 donorSpecial Project $250 donor
Post:
7.8.2 is available now, at least for amd64 architecture.

The armel/armhf architecture seems to have problem so no version for the Rpi yet.
111) Message boards : Number crunching : BOINC 7.8.3 available to beta test on debian (Message 1886932)
Posted 30 Aug 2017 by MarkJ Crowdfunding Project Donor*Special Project $75 donorSpecial Project $250 donor
Post:
Thanks to Gianfranco the beta test version of BOINC 7.8.1 is available in Stretch-backports for those running Debian. Any issues found please report on the BOINC-alpha mailing list.

It might be possible to get it running under Raspbian if you have a Pi2 or Pi3 but you'll have to point to the Debian Stretch-backports repo as the Raspberry Pi foundation don't seem to have their own repo.
112) Message boards : Number crunching : Compute errors Linux "stock" app (Message 1883559)
Posted 13 Aug 2017 by MarkJ Crowdfunding Project Donor*Special Project $75 donorSpecial Project $250 donor
Post:
The later (4.10 and up) kernels have vsyscall disabled. Einstein had a message thread about it breaking their apps. See this thread for more details. Debian Stretch, which comes with a 4.9 kernel, has it enabled and seems to run fine on my Ryzen's.

@Rob, I understand you have the 4.8 kernel, but Mint may have disabled the vsyscall even earlier.
113) Message boards : Number crunching : Panic Mode On (107) Server Problems? (Message 1881621)
Posted 2 Aug 2017 by MarkJ Crowdfunding Project Donor*Special Project $75 donorSpecial Project $250 donor
Post:
I've got 3 hosts that are having upload problems and scheduler failures for Seti. Other projects seem fine on other hosts. Server status page says upload and schedulers working so maybe another DNS issue.

[edit]Just after posting that uploads start going through.
114) Message boards : Number crunching : For the betterment of BOINC (Message 1880256)
Posted 25 Jul 2017 by MarkJ Crowdfunding Project Donor*Special Project $75 donorSpecial Project $250 donor
Post:
As already mentioned I would separate the CPU work fetch/scheduling from the GPU work fetch/scheduling so they are independent of each other.

Make credit standard across projects (maybe time based).

Fix the resource share across projects so it's fairer, maybe also time based (separated into CPU and GPU).

A cluster-aware client would be nice for those with farms so it could feed the compute nodes. It would use MPI to communicate with the science apps.

On the server side to help projects get going maybe YouTube videos showing how to setup the virtual image and get jobs going, a checklist of things to define/configure.

MarkJ
115) Message boards : Number crunching : Getting the most production for the least electricity (Message 1879228)
Posted 20 Jul 2017 by MarkJ Crowdfunding Project Donor*Special Project $75 donorSpecial Project $250 donor
Post:
I think your numbers are actual load as opposed to his which are TDP. My 1060=6GBs drew between 80 and 90 W under full crunch.

. . But the total draw on the clunky old Pentium was about 360W.

Stephen.

The GTX1060 TDP is 120 watts. It also shows that in Nvidia-smi.

The figure I always find difficult to get is how much the memory (and other motherboard components) add.
116) Message boards : Number crunching : Getting the most production for the least electricity (Message 1879033)
Posted 19 Jul 2017 by MarkJ Crowdfunding Project Donor*Special Project $75 donorSpecial Project $250 donor
Post:
For the 8c/16t route I went with a pair of Ryzen 7 1700's. Only 65w for the CPU. I put a GTX1060 (3Gb) which when running the Petri special sauce knocks over a task between 2.5min and 5min depending on the angle range. According to Nvidia-smi its pulling 74-75w. Its got enough PCIe lanes to run two cards at x16. I use Noctua heatsinks on all my rigs and Seasonic PSU. Cases are all Fractal Design ARC Midi (takes an ATX mobo). Not the cheapest to build but doesn't pull too much electricity either.

For 4c/8t I have 8 i7-6700's which only have the iGPU to keep power use down. While I could use the iGPU I don't. They too are rated at 65w but are a little faster than the Ryzen's. I had i7-3770's before these. The difference wasn't that great despite being 3 generations later. I'll probably wait another generation or two before they get replaced.
117) Message boards : Number crunching : Linux CUDA 'Special' App finally available, featuring Low CPU use (Message 1877916)
Posted 12 Jul 2017 by MarkJ Crowdfunding Project Donor*Special Project $75 donorSpecial Project $250 donor
Post:
I found the version of wx3 I was looking for here, https://launchpad.net/~costamagnagianfranco/+archive/ubuntu/locutusofborg-ppa/+build/9539157
Tried it with a new download of bonic-master and ended up at the same place I stopped the last time.
I started a new thread if someone has anything to offer, https://boinc.berkeley.edu/dev/forum_thread.php?id=11719
Doesn't look as though there's much activity over there.

Not sure if you have tried dropping Gianfranco an email. He is one of the Debian maintainers.

I know when DA announced a test version on BOINC-alpha Gianfranco asked for things to get fixed up. I think the whole dev tree is stuffed at the moment.
118) Message boards : Number crunching : Setting up Linux to crunch CUDA90 and above for Windows users (Message 1877389)
Posted 8 Jul 2017 by MarkJ Crowdfunding Project Donor*Special Project $75 donorSpecial Project $250 donor
Post:
For those that like Debian I managed to update my GPU crunchers to Stretch using pretty much the same instructions to install apart from changing Jessie to Stretch.

One gotcha was my firewall script wouldn't execute any more. I used to have it in rc.local. I followed the suggestions on the Debian wiki which run it as a service which still seems to work, however you also have to set execute permissions on a couple of files. I didn't have to do that under Jessie.

Also tried clean-installing Stretch on iGPU machines and can't get a desktop (mate) any more. I've raised a bug with Debian for that one.
119) Message boards : Number crunching : To checkpoint or not -- the wear and tear of SSD drives (Message 1877387)
Posted 8 Jul 2017 by MarkJ Crowdfunding Project Donor*Special Project $75 donorSpecial Project $250 donor
Post:
Q: Should the optimized app make checkpoints and report progress? How often? Based on time or number of internal iterations? Does it need a command line option for that?

I'm running the optimised app on GTX1060's (3GB) and they rip through a work unit in 5 mins or less. The machines all have HDD with a 2 minute checkpoint interval. I wouldn't bother with the complexity of checkpoints, but a percentage progress is always good to see.

Thanks for the great app. By the way if you're interested the Asteroids at home CUDA app needs optimising :-)
120) Message boards : Number crunching : Ok, what the heck is going on with limiting availability of video cards?? At least at Micro Center? (Message 1877385)
Posted 8 Jul 2017 by MarkJ Crowdfunding Project Donor*Special Project $75 donorSpecial Project $250 donor
Post:
I'm counting my blessings for getting the 1080's and 1060's when I did. Dang.

Me too. I got a second pair of 1060's last month before the price jumped. I can see why they had a limit of 2 per customer.

Now might be a good time to sell off the GTX970's that my 1060's replaced.


Previous 20 · Next 20


 
©2020 University of California
 
SETI@home and Astropulse are funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, NASA, and donations from SETI@home volunteers. AstroPulse is funded in part by the NSF through grant AST-0307956.