Posts by computezrmle

1) Message boards : BOINC client : Multi core tasks alongside single core tasks. (Message 111989)
Posted 1 hour ago by computezrmle
Post:
The current ATLAS batch from LHC@home has significantly longer runtimes than the previous batch but the rsc_fpops_est value didn't change. The calculated flops value connected to your computer also represent the "speed" for the old batch. It needs a couple of valid tasks returned to the server to adjust that.

As a result your computer requests too much work at the beginning of the batch and server sends too much work.
At the end it also affects credit calculation (usually low credits).
Once this is balanced you will see the behaviour you are familiar with.
If another new batch will hand out shorter tasks you will see the opposite picture - less work and usually high credit values - until this is balanced again.


If you didn't ran ATLAS before the initial flops value is usually also not in balance.
2) Message boards : Questions and problems : Core/thread rotation while boinc runs (Message 111984)
Posted 12 hours ago by computezrmle
Post:
Modern CPUs have a built-in overheat protection.
Don't worry about that as long as you run a sufficient cooling solution.

The main reason to keep processes on distinct cores is to ensure a much better L3 CPU cache utilization.
3) Message boards : BOINC client : Multi core tasks alongside single core tasks. (Message 111945)
Posted 3 days ago by computezrmle
Post:
Now downloading a 7 core task from LHC. Might pause it in order to be awake to see what happens.

Edit: It is a VB one.

Pausing tasks from LHC@home can be tricky.
CMS: If they pause for more than 2h they loose connection to WMAgent and cancel their subtask; depending on the runtime the either finish or try to get another subtask
ATLAS native: always restarts from scratch
Theory native: requires cgroups v1 and a special preparation; does not work on cgroups v2


LHC started to download a task for 8 cores

ATLAS has a server side max core limit of 8 for Vbox and 12 for native tasks.
4) Message boards : BOINC client : Multi core tasks alongside single core tasks. (Message 111935)
Posted 3 days ago by computezrmle
Post: 
The following packages have unmet dependencies.
cvmfs: Depends:cvmfs-config-default but it is not installable or cvmfs-config but it is not installable

You also need this package:
http://ecsft.cern.ch/dist/cvmfs/cvmfs-config/cvmfs-config-default_latest_all.deb

First you need to do after installation is to run (once!):
[sudo] cvmfs_config setup

Never directly modify the options in any *.conf file below /etc/cvmfs
Instead create a corresponding *.local file and write the modification to that file.

I probably have time to sort this before Atlas tasks become available again.

That's why I suggested CMS from LHC@home dev since this has mt tasks available and does only need VirtualBox.
5) Message boards : BOINC client : Multi core tasks alongside single core tasks. (Message 111931)
Posted 4 days ago by computezrmle
Post:
Just started testing again. 30% of cores available. ...
... increased %CPUs to 55. ...

Didn't recently test BOINC's behaviour regarding the core percentage setting.

At least far in the past it worked in intervals.
On Dave's 16 core computer the interval is 100/16=6.25
Hence, each setting 50 <= x < 56.25 results in the same number of cores that will be used.

=> It shouldn't make a difference whether it is set to 50% or 55% but you may see a difference if you set 57%.
6) Message boards : BOINC client : Multi core tasks alongside single core tasks. (Message 111919)
Posted 4 days ago by computezrmle
Post:
... next stage is to find a non Amicable multi-threaded task that will run on my box. I don't know which other projects have them without GPU?

ATLAS from LHC@home.
But it is out of work for a couple of days.

From the BOINC perspective CMS from https://lhcathomedev.cern.ch/lhcathome-dev/apps.php is an mt vbox app.
The scientific app inside the VM runs as singlecore but this shouldn't matter here.
It may just result in a misleading walltime/CPU-time ratio.
7) Message boards : Questions and problems : boinc-client reports wrong disk size (Message 111819)
Posted 18 days ago by computezrmle
Post:
cvmfs2 fuse 40G 1.8G 39G 5% /cvmfs/atlas.cern.ch

Just to mention it:
Your CVMFS is configured to use a local disk cache size limit of 40G.
This seems to be far too much if you use it for nothing but ATLAS/Theory from LHC@home.
A cache size limit of 6 GB results in a 99.995 % hitrate for the repository atlas.cern.ch which is the one mostly used.
8) Message boards : Questions and problems : How to get Flatpak BOINC manager to let the client run when the manager window is closed? (Message 111617)
Posted 20 Apr 2023 by computezrmle
Post:
It might work if a corresponding systemd service file is available.
In case flatpak doesn't install it's own the original one from here can be used:
https://github.com/BOINC/boinc/blob/master/client/scripts/boinc-client.service.in

Shouldn't be a problem for an experienced user to copy it to the right location and adjust at least the paths.
9) Message boards : Questions and problems : Old way doesn't work -- how do I change where BOINC looks for its data directory (Kubuntu 22.04)? (Message 111547)
Posted 13 Apr 2023 by computezrmle
Post:
I used to be able to just move the boinc-client folder...

You may check whether you accidentally changed ownership/permissions during this move.
Use a tool that preserves both.

After the move a directory symlink oldlocation -> newlocation should do the trick.
Most Linux systems do so, e.g. for /bin -> /usr/bin.
10) Message boards : Questions and problems : BOINC Manager is not able to start a BOINC client (Message 111084)
Posted 16 Feb 2023 by computezrmle
Post:
Failed upgrades might be part of the problem.


The computer sometimes reports it runs Windows Vista, sometimes Windows 11.
15/2/2023 20:26:00 | | OS: Microsoft Windows Vista: Home Premium x64 Edition, Service Pack 2, (06.00.6002.00)

16-Feb-2023 23:02:19 [---] OS: Microsoft Windows 11: Core x64 Edition, (10.00.22621.00)




At TN-Grid computer ID 84269 is reported as Windows Vista:
http://gene.disi.unitn.it/test/show_host_detail.php?hostid=84269
16-Feb-2023 23:02:19 [TN-Grid Platform] URL http://gene.disi.unitn.it/test/; Computer ID 84269; resource share 100




At Rosetta computer ID 6239350 is reported as Windows Vista:
https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/show_host_detail.php?hostid=6239350
16-Feb-2023 23:02:19 [Rosetta@home] URL https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/; Computer ID 6239350; resource share 100
11) Message boards : BOINC client : BOINC 7.22 Change Log (Message 110960)
Posted 25 Jan 2023 by computezrmle
Post:
Compiled and installed OK here. On starting the updated client, it asked me to run
systemctl daemon-reload

which I haven't seen before on updates within testing branch.

This must be run once whenever you touched a systemd service unit file.
The command ensures systemd checks/updates it's data structures, e.g. dependencies to other services.
12) Message boards : Questions and problems : How to edit 'Select computers' list? (Message 110669)
Posted 7 Dec 2022 by computezrmle
Post:
On Linux locate the file ".BOINC Manager" (usually in your home directory)
At the end there's a section [ComputerMRU] (->most recently used computers).

Close the BOINC manager and remove the outdated entries.
I'm not sure whether the order numbers of the remaining ones allow missing numbers.


Might be that this method doesn't work on Windows.
13) Message boards : Questions and problems : ': No such file or directory' (cryptic/useless error message) (Message 110546)
Posted 24 Nov 2022 by computezrmle
Post:
Instead of this
/usr/bin/BOINC_BIN

you may try this
/usr/bin/$BOINC_BIN
14) Message boards : Questions and problems : ': No such file or directory' (cryptic/useless error message) (Message 110538)
Posted 23 Nov 2022 by computezrmle
Post: 
su - $BOINC_USER -c "cd $BOINC_DIR; exec /usr/bin/BOINC_BIN $BOINC_OPTIONS" &
su - $BOINC_USER -c "cd $BOINC_DIR; exec /usr/bin/boinccmd --join_acct_mgr https://grcpool.com/ user pass"

Sending the first command bg might cause a race condition since BOINC needs a short while to be completely up.
The 2nd command requires a fully running BOINC client.
You may consider to remove the "&" insert a "sleep x" after the 1st command.
15) Message boards : Questions and problems : ': No such file or directory' (cryptic/useless error message) (Message 110533)
Posted 23 Nov 2022 by computezrmle
Post:
Looks like you mix command options from 'boinc' and 'boinccmd'.

Check valid options running:
/usr/boinc/boinc --help
/usr/boinc/boinccmd --help
16) Message boards : Questions and problems : LHC ATLAS error during job setup (Message 110413)
Posted 11 Nov 2022 by computezrmle
Post:
No answer does not mean you will be ignored.

Native tasks at LHC@home are complex and not easy to set up.
That's true.
Hence, keep the setup as simple as possible and follow the howtos there.

You didn't get an answer so far because nobody, even the experts could deal with the additional complexity you want to add.
Other people might not be available atm for different reasons like busy with other work, on vacation, being ill ...
17) Message boards : Questions and problems : Install of client failed to obtain the service script (Message 110372)
Posted 8 Nov 2022 by computezrmle
Post:
Nowadays /lib is a link pointing to /usr/lib.
18) Message boards : Projects : Einstein Shuts Down My Computer (Message 110317)
Posted 4 Nov 2022 by computezrmle
Post:
...apply more thermal paste

More does not mean better.
If you apply too much thermal paste it could increase the CPU temp.

If you touch this part of your computer, thoroughly remove the old thermal paste, then apply a thin layer of fresh thermal paste evenly.
The sense of thermal paste is to close those very small gaps between the CPU and the cooler.
19) Message boards : Questions and problems : Linux automatic CPU temperature regulation (Message 110310)
Posted 3 Nov 2022 by computezrmle
Post:
... apparently this possibility has unfortunately been removed from recent kernels.

You may need to activate the 'ondemand' governor first.
The cpupower utility tells you which governors are available.

Example run on an intel i7:
cpupower frequency-info
analyzing CPU 0:
  driver: intel_cpufreq
  CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 0
  CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 0
  maximum transition latency: 20.0 us
  hardware limits: 1.60 GHz - 3.90 GHz
  available cpufreq governors: ondemand performance schedutil
  current policy: frequency should be within 1.60 GHz and 3.90 GHz.
                  The governor "schedutil" may decide which speed to use
                  within this range.
  current CPU frequency: Unable to call hardware
  current CPU frequency: 3.70 GHz (asserted by call to kernel)
  boost state support:
    Supported: yes
    Active: yes
    3700 MHz max turbo 4 active cores
    3800 MHz max turbo 3 active cores
    3900 MHz max turbo 2 active cores
    3900 MHz max turbo 1 active cores


To activate 'ondemand' run
cpupower frequency-set -g ondemand


/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpufreq/ondemand/ignore_nice_load should then be available again.
On my AMD Threadripper systems it appears that 'ignore_nice_load' has no effect.
Instead, the CPU frequency change is controlled via XFR.
20) Message boards : Questions and problems : Effect of settings on multi-core tasks. (Message 110300)
Posted 2 Nov 2022 by computezrmle
Post:
Looks like Mint 21 installs newer libraries than those the ubuntu CVMFS package is compiled against.
I suspect nobody at CERN or LHC@home will solve those library issues and compile a package for a distribution not used there.

If a precompiled packet doesn't work the recommended way would be to get the CVMFS source from github and compile the client on the target computer.
See:
https://github.com/cvmfs/cvmfs

Since it's just for a test it may be too much work to do so, hence the test may be done only on Mint 20.3.


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