Posts by Bill

21) Message boards : Questions and problems : 200 tasks downloaded for a project with a resource share of 0? (Message 96035)
Posted 24 Feb 2020 by Bill
Post:
I see now. Can't the computer update project settings, then request for new work? That seems like a relatively easy fix? Unless that bogs down the servers too much?
22) Message boards : Questions and problems : 200 tasks downloaded for a project with a resource share of 0? (Message 96024)
Posted 24 Feb 2020 by Bill
Post:
I'm trying to figure something out here. I'm not sure if this is a bug or if I did something wrong.

My computer is running Boinc 7.16.3 with three projects: Einstein, MilkyWay, and Seti. I had been running all three with equal resource shares of 100 for most of January. My computer has 4c/4t, with an AMD APU (Vega 8) and Nvidia GPU (1660 Ti). I had enabled AMD/Nvidia GPU tasks for Seti (with no CPU tasks), and CPU/Nvidia tasks for both Einstein and Milkyway.

To make a long story short, I set Einstein to NNT until it went dry. I then set its resource share to 0, and enabled CPU/AMD/NV tasks. At that point, I had set MW & Seti to NNT. Even though there were plenty of CPU and NV GPU tasks in my queue, I downloaded 200 Einstein tasks for CPU/NV. Yes, I made sure my settings were saved online prior to updating Einstein in the client. Einstein tasks are being processed even though there are still seti/MW tasks downloaded.

My past experience was that if a project had a resource share of 0, it would only download enough tasks to keep a CPU/GPU busy if it was idle. Am I missing something?
23) Message boards : Questions and problems : Scheduler Concerns (Message 93294)
Posted 24 Oct 2019 by Bill
Post:
And especially with projects like Einstein that are still using very old server software with outdated application processing rate algorithms, then setting a very low cache level to only a couple of tenths of a day mostly fixes that projects problem of sending way too much work that can't be finished before the normal 14 day deadlines for tasks.
So this kindof gets to my point. Einstein is running in a way that either negativity affects itself (cancelling tasks because they get too many at once) or other projects (downloads too many tasks such that no other projects can send tasks). If I am a casual user, I am not aware of the rec half life option in cc config. If they are unaware of this switch and see that only one or two projects are completing tasks when they have signed up for five, what motivates them to stay signed up for so many projects? I mean no disrespect to Einstein or any other projects, but if the projects can't police themselves, doesn't Boinc have this responsibility?
24) Message boards : Questions and problems : Scheduler Concerns (Message 93291)
Posted 23 Oct 2019 by Bill
Post:
I forgot that detail, the tasks for Einstein were lost because I renamed my boinc directory for 7.14.2 to test 7.16.3. they were casualties that were picked up later, so that may have something to do with it.

I see what you are saying about the new projects catching up with the old one. So, if I have a computer crunching one project exclusively for nearly a year, does that mean the new projects have to crunch a lot before more tasks of the old project are downloaded?
25) Message boards : Questions and problems : Scheduler Concerns (Message 93277)
Posted 23 Oct 2019 by Bill
Post:
Basically, I'm curious how the Boinc scheduler is set up. My one computer crunches 24/7. It normally crunches Seti exclusively, but when I installed version 7.16.3 for beta testing, I thought I would crunch a few other projects that I have in the past (Miklyway and Einstein). I have encountered two symptoms that have caused a significant amount of tasks to be cancelled.

1. Milkyway: The N-body tasks (operating on one core) typically take a significant higher amount of time to crunch than their ETA. Because of this, tasks run longer, and with typically a two week deadline, a lot of tasks end up being cancelled as the deadline is crossed.

2. Einstein: I'm not sure what happened here, but I just had 300+ tasks error out due to the deadline. I know some of this was because Milkyway was hogging time, but I have been essentially crunching E@H tasks 24/7 for more than a week. I do recall that there were a good amount of E@H tasks that were cancelled a few weeks ago due to the M@W deadline (they had similar deadlines), and these were re-downloaded even though I had NNT set for E@H.

I have not had the time to sit down and document all of my steps to fully understand what is happening here. I feel that I have run Boinc during this time period as "set it and forget it". I was not suspending projects (at least, until I saw deadlines may not be reached, and that was to help focus on the tasks that needed to be done first). I was running the computer 24/7, and, I am pretty sure I have had the storage setting to 2 days or less. So, with task deadlines being 10-14 days out from when the task was downloaded, I am confused why for two projects I have had a plethora of tasks be abandoned.

I have brought this up on the Milkyway boards, but the only response I have gotten was to reduce the amount of tasks stored. Although that may be a way to deal with the symptom, I feel this does not cure the disease. Ultimately, I am concerned about the casual Boinc user experience. CPUs are starting to have more and more cores. I suspect that casual Boinc users could focus on one project, but I am willing to bet there are users who assign several projects to one computer. If their computer is cancelling and abandoning tasks because they expire, I could see this being a deterrent to the casual user.

Is there some further investigation that needs to be done? Perhaps there has been more discussion in details in Github, but I don't have the time to browse through all the issues there. So, apologizes if I'm asking something that has been brought up and debated several times before.
26) Message boards : GPUs : The same 2nd GPU question (Message 92994)
Posted 29 Sep 2019 by Bill
Post:
Sometimes NV and AMD drivers will need to be installed in a certain order. I thought it was NV that was more lenient and was to be installed 2nd but not so in your case. Maybe try DDU the drivers, NV and then AMD driver installs.
I ended up running DDU in the way you described. It didn't work quite right, but it was still necessary to do. It ends up, the AMD GPU was listed as an error code 43 under Windows. Long story short (in part, I don't recall my exact methodology), I put the 1660 Ti into the first x16 PCIe slot (PCIe2 for my motherboard), ran DDU, installed the Nvidia and then the AMD drivers. I was still getting the error code 43, but once I switched the HDMI cable from the 1660 Ti to the motherboard output, everything worked. I'm getting 8 GT/S for both GPUs (expected, I think), Boinc recognizes and runs on both GPUs, and when I run Timespy the graphics look like its running on the 1660 Ti and not the Vega 8.

I feel like something isn't quite right here, more with Windows than anything else, but I think I have it arranged in a way to make it work for what I need.
27) Message boards : GPUs : The same 2nd GPU question (Message 92895)
Posted 22 Sep 2019 by Bill
Post:
I just installed a GTX 1660 Ti into my computer that has been computing GPU tasks with a Ryzen 2200G. The 2200G is still in the socket. I plugged the 1660 Ti into the 2nd PCIe 3.0x16 slot so that the Vega 8 graphics could be used. HWinfo recognizes both GPUs, Windows 10 task manager only shows the Nvidia GPU. When I load BOINC, it says it can't find the AMD GPU:

9/21/2019 8:23:44 PM |  | CUDA: NVIDIA GPU 0: GeForce GTX 1660 Ti (driver version 436.30, CUDA version 10.1, compute capability 7.5, 4096MB, 3556MB available, 5714 GFLOPS peak)
9/21/2019 8:23:44 PM |  | OpenCL: NVIDIA GPU 0: GeForce GTX 1660 Ti (driver version 436.30, device version OpenCL 1.2 CUDA, 6144MB, 3556MB available, 5714 GFLOPS peak)
9/21/2019 8:23:44 PM |  | app version refers to missing GPU type ATI
I feel like I should be able to crunch with both the APU and the GPU. My cc_config file says:

<cc_config>
	<options>
		<use_all_gpus>1</use_all_gpus>
	</options>
</cc_config>
I feel like I've done everything I can. I also did a clean install of the Radeon 19.9.2, but that even says it can't find a graphics driver. Thoughts?
28) Message boards : The Lounge : The Seti is Slumbering Cafe (Message 92477)
Posted 13 Aug 2019 by Bill
Post:
We haven't had a shutdown in the past 13 days, right? I didn't miss a shutdown anywhere between now and then?
29) Message boards : BOINC Manager : Boinc Manager won't run on Ubuntu 18.04 after update (Message 92475)
Posted 13 Aug 2019 by Bill
Post:
Just disregard this thread altogether. I got home last night, turned on the laptop, and after a long boot it finally got up and running. I think I got impatient because I saw no HDD activity for several minutes and it caused this whole mess.
30) Message boards : BOINC Manager : Boinc Manager won't run on Ubuntu 18.04 after update (Message 92471)
Posted 12 Aug 2019 by Bill
Post:
Okay, now I'm not sure what's going on. I brought the laptop to work today to diagnose when I had a free moment. Earlier today I tried booting it up, and it wouldn't even get to the GUI. I turned off the laptop, and a few hours tried again and now it boots up and boinc manager loads up! I then turned it off, turned it back on again, and it is flashing the Ubuntu screen as the "dots" change between white and orange. I think Ubuntu didn't update properly and something is screwy. I'm going to attempt to reinstall it when I get home. Thanks for the help, Dave, but I'm thinking my problems are bigger than Boinc at this moment.
31) Message boards : The Lounge : Grumbles, Glory and Covid-19 (Message 92467)
Posted 12 Aug 2019 by Bill
Post:
That is a glory, congrats! I changed my diet a little over a year and a half ago. Smaller portions, more veg, less greasy and fatty foods, and walking/jogging (more of a fast walk) about the same distance daily. I've lost nearly 14 kg in that time with those changes. Keep it up!

Since I normally don't post in here, a grumble: I've had a cold since the middle of last week, and I can't wait for this congestion to go away.
32) Message boards : BOINC Manager : Boinc Manager won't run on Ubuntu 18.04 after update (Message 92463)
Posted 11 Aug 2019 by Bill
Post:
My Ubuntu laptop had an update which I attempted to run. I didn't close out of Boinc prior to running the update, but I think the update went through. However, Boinc Manager didn't seem to be responsive during/after the update. I ended up restarting the computer, and since then I can click on boinc manager, but it never opens. I've restarted a couple of times to be sure, but the problem still persists.

I'm a Linux noob. I know I'm running Ubuntu 18.04 and Boinc 7.14.2, but I'm stuck with how to un-stuck the manager. Any thoughts?
33) Message boards : Questions and problems : Computing suspended even though laptop is plugged in (Message 92299)
Posted 25 Jul 2019 by Bill
Post:
I haven't experienced this. I've run a laptop with Windows 10 and I'm sure the battery was charging and not charging but still computing. I've also had a laptop with Windows 7 with a bad battery (as in, not charging at all, only running off the AC adapter), but it would compute just fine. Just curious, what are your power settings at in Windows?
34) Message boards : The Lounge : Contemplation (Message 92289)
Posted 24 Jul 2019 by Bill
Post:
Sounds like a nice setup! If you don't mind me asking, why the X570 board? The 5700XT won't use all that PCIe 4.0 bandwidth (at least, I don't think it would even for crunching), nor will the NVMe. Just curious, I'm not being critical.
35) Message boards : Questions and problems : Option for downloading and computing only one task at all (Message 92211)
Posted 17 Jul 2019 by Bill
Post:
I haven't tried this, but I suppose you could set the resource share for all projects to 0. Additionally, you could set all projects to No New Tasks. Then, whenever you want to run Boinc, you could select the project you want to run and Allow New Tasks. With the resource share at 0 it should only download enough tasks for the processors you have active. When you don't want that project to download any further tasks you can set it back to No New Tasks. If you don't want all CPU cores to crunch tasks, follow Les' advice and reduce the percentage.

I know this seems to make running Boinc quite a bit more manual than automatic, but I'm guessing you are okay with that.


This works. I do this to have a backup project in case the project I am running runs out of work. With 0 resource share the task count = CPU count. No tasks will be waiting to run.
I have backup projects with a resource share of 0 as well. To clarify, I am not sure what happens when ALL projects in Boinc manager have a resource share of 0.
36) Message boards : Questions and problems : Option for downloading and computing only one task at all (Message 92179)
Posted 16 Jul 2019 by Bill
Post:
I haven't tried this, but I suppose you could set the resource share for all projects to 0. Additionally, you could set all projects to No New Tasks. Then, whenever you want to run Boinc, you could select the project you want to run and Allow New Tasks. With the resource share at 0 it should only download enough tasks for the processors you have active. When you don't want that project to download any further tasks you can set it back to No New Tasks. If you don't want all CPU cores to crunch tasks, follow Les' advice and reduce the percentage.

I know this seems to make running Boinc quite a bit more manual than automatic, but I'm guessing you are okay with that.
37) Message boards : BOINC client : Only use 33% cpu, Boinc (Message 92166)
Posted 15 Jul 2019 by Bill
Post:
Is this a Windows computer, or some other platform? I'm not familiar with the screen you shared. I am guessing it means that your CPU is only reaching 33% of peak capacity. Although that number seems low to me, it should be okay. Some Boinc projects are less demanding than others, which may explain the 33%.

I believe you have the correct Boinc settings. There may be other things restricting your CPU to 33%, but that would be independent of Boinc.

Edit - I just saw your other posts. The moderators would be able to answer that question, but I suggest leaving the posts here for others to learn from it.
38) Message boards : BOINC client : Only use 33% cpu, Boinc (Message 92162)
Posted 15 Jul 2019 by Bill
Post:
It appears you are using all your CPU cores 100% of the time on this computer. Is this what you want, or do you want something else? I'm not sure I understand your original question, or what you are referring to with 33%.
39) Message boards : BOINC client : Only use 33% cpu, Boinc (Message 92160)
Posted 15 Jul 2019 by Bill
Post:
By default, Boinc should use 100% of cpus. If it is not, you can change it under Options-->Computing Preferences. Please note that this will change the computer to read preferences locally instead of using web preferences. (This does not change web preferences, by the way).

If you are still having trouble, could you post part of your event log output when you start Boinc? That will help us with troubleshooting.
40) Message boards : News : BOINC workshop agenda update (Message 92146)
Posted 14 Jul 2019 by Bill
Post:
Looks like it was a beautiful day by the lake! Too bad I had to be behind a desk that day.

It was great to meet everyone as well! A lot of interesting ideas, information, and discussion.


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