Posts by AlphaLaser

1) Message boards : Questions and problems : BOINC power hungry (Message 25265) Posted 7 Jun 2009 by AlphaLaser Post: Just something I found useful if you are trying to measure the total CPU time used by a process on Windows -- try Process Explorer -- it's a beefed up version of Task Manager by Sysinternals (now bought by Microsoft) that is really useful in tracking issues like this. You can view usage graphs by process and get the total CPU time used by a particular process. For something like BOINC manager on a new system these days, it should only add up to a few seconds every day I suspect.
2) Message boards : Web interfaces : Forum Post Limit (Message 25208) Posted 5 Jun 2009 by AlphaLaser Post: It appears that some projects can require a certain RAC before users are allowed to post, such as SETI. I assume this is to prevent accounts from being created just for spamming purposes. This can be a problem for me though just because I run a large list of projects, and to cut down on the # of active projects I set NNT mode for some of them resulting in near zero RAC for projects like SETI. Even if I didn't set NNT, I might still have a very low RAC for projects just because of the high ratio of attached projects to available crunching power. I am sure there are other reasons why legit users might have low RAC--those who became inactive but want to visit the forums again, for example. I propose to add another constraint, which is to also allow people above a certain, configurable post count threshold to post. So you can post if either you have the required RAC OR you are above the post count threshold. I think this would make it easier for people who participate in large numbers of projects to also go into forums regularly even though they might not have enough RAC in their machines to go around.
3) Message boards : BOINC Manager : host name fixed? (Message 11931) Posted 2 Aug 2007 by AlphaLaser Post: Okay, I guess that means it wasn't a bad configuration on my end. Thanks for posting the ticket. EDIT: I looked this up and found this thread posted about the same issue over at SETI. Additional info about localhost.localdomain behavior is in this email in the debian mailing list. Lastly, the relevant code appears to be in client/hostinfo_network.C. I'm not sure I understand though, the hostname command in the shell apparently goes through the same function but returns differently. I used it without any arguments. Another concern - if the hostname gets changed, could it lead to a split host on the projects that cannot be merged?
4) Message boards : BOINC Manager : host name fixed? (Message 11926) Posted 2 Aug 2007 by AlphaLaser Post: Okay, I'm having the same problem. On project sites, the name used for this Linux computer is 'localhost.localdomain' however typing in hostname in the shell provides a different and correct hostname. Is there some other place BOINC is expecting the name but didn't find? I'm a bit of a linux neophyte so I didn't bother until seeing this thread.
5) Message boards : BOINC client : CPU Efficiency (Message 11804) Posted 27 Jul 2007 by AlphaLaser Post: I've noticed that the CPU time being reported by Superlink is also very erratic. If CPU efficiency is calculated by dividing CPU time over wall time, then this could explain why efficiency is calculated as greater than 100%.
6) Message boards : BOINC client : Switch Between Projects not working (Message 11307) Posted 27 Jun 2007 by AlphaLaser Post: It might be worth reading Work Scheduler, which explains how the client decides what projects to run (the actual numbers that BOINC tracks to do this is called the short/long term debts). Things like deadlines, work availability, and checkpoint interval can cause BOINC to run certain projects for longer periods of time. Despite this, BOINC does try to stick to your resource share settings in the long run. My suggestion--don't try to override BOINC's decisions about the project to run--this might actually make things worse instead of better. Instead, try to let it run what it wants and you ought to see things go back to normal after a few days. Having said that, if your really seeing one project have a 'monopoly' over others, try downloading BoincDV, which will allow you to view and reset project debts. Another thing, try not to set your workunit cache too large, if you can help it. A cache thats too large will mean BOINC downloads more than it thinks it can handle, even if you do actually complete work on time, because BOINC is very conservative on the way it handles deadlines, and this could easily lead to work scheduling issues. More about the workunit cache can be read at Work Buffer.
7) Message boards : Web interfaces : Created Boinc statistics site (Message 11306) Posted 27 Jun 2007 by AlphaLaser Post: Congrats on getting linked on the front page!
8) Message boards : BOINC client : BOINC using GPU on graphic cards? (Message 10986) Posted 17 Jun 2007 by AlphaLaser Post: I believe BOINC itself is already capable of recognizing GPUs and handling tasks that use them. However, there is an important distinction between the BOINC program itself, which does no processing, and the programs from various scientific projects, where all the computation occurs. Before anything can be done on a GPU, the project must develop an application that will work with it. So that means you will have to check with the individual projects you participate in to see about whether a GPU app is available. I am aware of none that are fully working, though there was a thread in SETI@home a while ago about a volunteer developing one.
9) Message boards : BOINC client : Memory Usage (Message 10970) Posted 16 Jun 2007 by AlphaLaser Post: This issue has finally subsided. I boosted max file transfers up to 24 earlier and it finally went back to normal just a few minutes ago.
10) Message boards : BOINC client : Memory Usage (Message 10951) Posted 16 Jun 2007 by AlphaLaser Post: Hi, I did what you suggested and also gave a PM to the admin. Also from the thread at BoincStats the other testers have reported the same issue. I noted a side effect of this: When I tried to launch BOINC Manager to observe, the manager locked up. I use service install so when I'm physically at the computer to manage I start the BOINC Manager. BOINCView, however, doesn't lock up, it simply reports the host as being unavailable--maybe this is a separate problem with the manager? It seems as if the number of files in BOINC project directory has peaked to just under 10K, and BOINC itself is still uploading files every minute or so. I'm going to try and sit this one out and see if BOINC will settle down after enough files are out. I've got a gig on affected host so despite the huge resource hogging the computer itself is still responsive enough to use.
11) Message boards : BOINC client : Memory Usage (Message 10942) Posted 16 Jun 2007 by AlphaLaser Post: Editing the client state won't really work... BOINC reads it only at startup, loading data to internal structures. Then it writes it to disk when those internal structures change. If you edit the XML file, internal data on the client is still the same, since it never reloads the file from disk unless you restart BOINC. 10MB client state? Now that is insane... I guess I didn't mention but I did in fact stop boinc prior to making any edits to the file. I can't really check but I think BOINC has developed a huge backlog of file transfers to the project. I think the periodic dips in the second screenshot I posted may actually be points where BOINC initiated another set of transfers, I think BOINC does have a short wait period in between those transfers. Work fetch has been disabled for awhile and I've suspended all other projects in an attempt to get rid of the backlog.
12) Message boards : BOINC client : Memory Usage (Message 10936) Posted 16 Jun 2007 by AlphaLaser Post: Wanted to add that 1) there are now over 1,600 files in the project directory for SciLINC, 2) stdoutdae.txt indicates the project continues to download/upload files even though I've set BOINC to no new work via editing client_state.xml at least an hour ago. To try and get files out of the pending queue I've increased max file transfers per project to 8 through cc_config.xml and confirmed this change in stdoutdae.txt, and 3) I took the following screenshot of the BOINC daemon in Process Explorer if it helps any: There doesn't appear to be a decent way to contact admins of SciLINC to maybe get the files grouped together somehow.
13) Message boards : BOINC client : Memory Usage (Message 10932) Posted 16 Jun 2007 by AlphaLaser Post: I noticed BOINC is using a very large amount of memory and also CPU time: I was running 5.9.x, upgraded to the latest 5.10.6 to see that nothing changed in regards to this. This just started occuring, and the only thing I can suspect to cause this is SciLINC. Reason being is that the WUs from this project are miniscule (only a second or two) and each WU seems to deal with a large number of files. In fact, the projects directory for SciLINC lists 740+ files, and client_state.xml is just over 10 MB probably because of all the tags referencing those files. Maybe BOINC is either having trouble dealing with all those files or all the associated file transfers. BOINC Manager and BOINCView are both failing to contact the daemon, so the only way I'm able to really control BOINC right now is via stdoutdae.txt and manually editing client_state.xml.
14) Message boards : Web interfaces : Created Boinc statistics site (Message 10697) Posted 5 Jun 2007 by AlphaLaser Post: Thats a very nice site you have there! I like the RAC rank graphs.
15) Message boards : BOINC client : Playstation 3 for boinc projects (Message 9792) Posted 22 Apr 2007 by AlphaLaser Post: Can a Playstation really do as much work as 20 PCs? I'm not sure about 20, but I'm sure that in specific instances an application optimized for the PS3 could do an amazing amount of work. Just look at the FLOPS performance at Folding. Apparently the PS3s don't get the same type of work as PCs but it is still incredible. And this PS3Grid is interesting. If it is able to bring out the full capability of the processor, it might help expedite the porting of various other BOINC projects over to PS3 as well.
16) Message boards : BOINC Manager : BOINC Manager: The password you have entered is incorrect. Please try again. (Message 6226) Posted 28 Oct 2006 by AlphaLaser Post: how about reinstalling the software again, and reattach to the projects? i dont know if u will lose (a lot of)work but i think that would be easier Reinstalling/uninstalling BOINC does not delete any of the existing project data files. When going through the installation just pick the same directory that BOINC is located in. Afterwards it will be ready to resume any work that existed from before the install. But it is always good to backup your directory just in case.
17) Message boards : BOINC Manager : BOINC Manager could manage more clients (Message 6225) Posted 28 Oct 2006 by AlphaLaser Post: I do not have any problems running BoincView myself.

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