dont_use_dcf active at SETI main

[William]

Attention all:

as of the maintenance on Tuesday 12th June 2012 <dont_use_dcf/> is active on SETI main.

That means BOINC 7 clients are instructed to ignore DCF. To be fair since APR works now again, DCF isn't really needed. [edit: provided you have a stable system. If you up- or downgrade you're in for a headache as Jason pointed out on Arkayn's forum]

The only problem with it is that the 'recommended' 7.0.25 client has a known bug that causes tasks to run in High Priority mode (HP/EDF) all the time.

So if you are on a 7.0.25 client upgrade to 7.0.28 ASAP.

[Richard Haselgrove]

This particular bug is really only a big issue for people who run multiple BOINC projects on the same hardware.

If you run SETI only, the only difference you'll see is that your tasks run in 'Earliest Deadline First' mode. That is marked as 'high priority' in BOINC Manager's display, but it isn't the sort of raised priority which places any extra thermal stress on your CPU or GPU.

If you run other projects alongside SETI, and you're running v7.0.25, you may find that SETI appears to monopolise the CPU or GPU, and not allow other projects to take their turn at the trough. I think that's a big-enough show-stopper for BOINC as a whole that we should be able to get it turned off within a very few hours.

[Raistmer]

I have "high priority" mode under 7.0.25 on both SETI main and SETI beta now.
They run on different hardware though so no problems in that.

[Richard Haselgrove]

An 'at source' fix is under way - dont_use_dcf is being removed from SETI as we speak.

Don't feel under any pressure to upgrade from v7.0.25 just because of this - although v7.0.28 is undeniably better, and "should have already been able to be promoted to a public release before now" (Rom Walton) 

[William]

it appears that the latest attempts to get the scheduler fixed on the 'VLAR to NV' issue have resulted in 'dont_use_dcf' being reactivated.

If you're on Boinc 7 you might have a problem with that if your DCF had deviated too far from 1 for some reason. (like updating to 7.0.33)

[Richard Haselgrove]

it appears that the latest attempts to get the scheduler fixed on the 'VLAR to NV' issue have resulted in 'dont_use_dcf' being reactivated.

If you're on Boinc 7 you might have a problem with that if your DCF had deviated too far from 1 for some reason. (like updating to 7.0.33)

In theory, <dont_use_dcf> should only be sent to hosts running v7.0.27 or later.

Is anybody out there still running v7.0.25? Any sign of 'permanently running in EDF', if you are?