Installer v0.43 release notes

[Richard Haselgrove]

Lunatics are pleased to announce the availability of the v0.43 installer in the Lunatics main download area and mirror sites.
Please take care you use the right installer (32/64 bit) for your system.

Should you have any questions or problems - ask! Post in this thread or open a new one.

New in this installer:
---------------------
Added support for Astropulse v7 on all platforms.

How to use the installer:
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For the CPU applications, you need to know what your CPU supports. Either check the Boinc startup messages or check with CPU-Z downloadable from http://www.cpuid.com
Tick or untick CPU AP and MB applications as desired. 
Tick ATI (OpenCL) AP or MB if/as desired.
Tick NVidia (OpenCL) AP or CUDA MB if/as desired.
Tick Intel (OpenCL) AP or MB if/as desired.
More details further down.

NB We use default values throughout the app_info.xml. If you have previously installed optimised applications and manually edited app_info.xml (e.g. <count> for multithreading GPUs, <flops>, <cmdline> for ATI) you WILL lose those edits on running the installer and have to redo them. You may wish to make a note of them.
You will also lose all other manual edits to app_info.xml such as beta applications.

You are strongly recommended to use a version of BOINC which supports app_config.xml files. These can be used to manage the number of tasks running on each GPU more simply than by editing app_info.xml, and will NOT be removed by re-running this or subsequent installers. If you have previously used an app_config file for Astropulse, you may want to add a similar section for Astropulse_v7.

Known issues - general:
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This installer contains v6 legacy apps for cleaning up residual AP v6 tasks still active during the changeover, or which may be re-issued later. They will be installed automatically alongside the AP v7 applications you choose - please leave them in place to help with the 'end of run' cleanup.

The AP v7 CPU applications can all run on BOINC 7 installations running in service mode: if this mode is detected during installation, the compatible AP v6 application will be installed for the cleanup.

Be careful when upgrading if you have already pre-installed optimised AP v7 applications from individual pre-release build packs. Some of these packs deploy version numbers derived from Beta testing, and they are not guaranteed to match the Main project release values. This installer follows the application version numbers and plan classes displayed on http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/apps.php - if yours differ, set NNT and drain your cache before proceeding.

TAKE SPECIAL CARE when upgrading from the stock 7.00 Astropulse CPU application. The intermediate checkpoint files have a non-standard format, and the Lunatics applications can't resume a part-computed task. Either set NNT and wait until the current task(s) have finished - may be a long wait - or abort tasks if they haven't progressed very far. This only applies to v7.00 tasks which have commenced processing - v7.03 (sse or sse2) tasks are safe to upgrade while in progress, and all unstarted tasks are safe.
 
BOINC v7 installations are not able to run any GPU applications in service mode, and the installer will now bypass GPU application pages on machines which cannot run GPU applications because of this restriction.

The installer is supposed to shut down the BOINC client whilst leaving the Manager running - noticable from the red 'disconnected' dot in the tray. After finishing the BOINC client should restart and the red dot vanish when the Manager reconnects. This may take a few minutes. On some systems however this fails to work. Please ensure BOINC has restarted.
Advanced users only: If you know you are going to edit app_info.xml, it may be easier to shutdown and restart BOINC manually, so you can get the changes into app_info.xml before the restart.

Some users reported that installer v0.41 failed to assemble a complete app_info.xml file from the aistub files supplied with each application. We have switched to using a 'grep' application (supplied) called from a slightly modified 'aimergeg.cmd' script to help avoid this problem. The original aimerge script is also present for people who are used to using it.


CPU MB apps - AKv8c r2549 (unchanged)

If you have any doubt at all about what instruction sets your CPU supports, download CPU-Z from http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

We have now incorporated a 3rd party CPU feature detection tool into the installer. Unsupported applications will be greyed out, and the installer will pre-select recommended application versions for your CPU.


CPU AP v7 app - r2672/2692/2696/2703 depending on optimisation level.

A 32-bit AVX build is offered for the first time - at the SSE3 level, the installer will choose between AMD and Intel builds automatically (there wasn't space for an extra manual choice).


NVidia GPU (CUDA) app - x41zc

For details please see the separate ReadMe_x41zc.txt.

Rule of thumb selection guide:
Cuda 2.3: PreFermi - NOT to be used on Fermi/Kepler/Maxwell
Cuda 3.2: mixed systems
Cuda 4.2: Fermi
Cuda 5.0: Kepler/Maxwell
If you have run stock and have established APR you can also pick the fastest app from there.
For compatible cards see http://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-gpus
Should run on all NVidia CUDA cards with at least 512MiB video RAM. Actual free memory required is in the region of 200-235MB, depending on driver, OS flavour and CUDA variant. The code will scale up if more memory is available. Running on a 256MiB card is just possible, but you will have to free up as much VRAM as possible, e.g. by disabling Aero.
Used video RAM can be checked with GPU-Z downloadable from
http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/2244/techpowerup-gpu-z-v0-7-1/
Watch closely on GPU-Z and in BOINC manager if the application finds enough memory.
Symptoms of insufficient memory are
- in BOINC manager: tasks start up and run a few seconds then go to 'waiting
  to run' and the next task tries to start
- on GPU-Z: the sensor for memory shows used VRAM ramping up and almost
  immediately dropping again.
Depending on BOINC version your tasks will either error out with 'too many exits' or get stuck in an infinite loop.
If you don't have enough memory, set BOINC to NNT, abort tasks and uninstall the CUDA application by rerunning the installer with CUDA MB UNticked. If in doubt ask for help on NC: http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_forum.php?id=10
To multithread on Fermi/Kepler cards, find all instances of <count>1</count> in app_info.xml and decrease to 0.5 or 0.3 to run two or three tasks in parallel.
Again, if  you are uncertain of how to do this correctly, ask on the above mentioned forum. 'Your mileage may vary' - it depends on your specific system which count will give the highest throughput.
Full release notes and history in separate readme.


NVidia (OpenCL) AP v7 app - updated to r2721

Please see separate ReadMe_AstroPulse_OpenCL_NV.txt for details.
Reserving one CPU core per GPU card will improve performance.

Warning - the NVidia 340.52 driver (released 29 July 2014) causes invalid results on legacy compute capability 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 cards. This application will - deliberately - NOT run on such cards: it will alternate between displaying a warning message in BOINC Manager and apparently 'running', but will make no progress and eventually error out. If you have an old card (8000 series, 9000 series, or 2xx series), either exclude it from crunching AP, or downgrade to an older driver.



ATI (OpenCL) MB app - remains at r2489

Please see separate ReadMe_MultiBeam_OpenCL_ATI.txt for details, especially on driver requirements.
Reserving one CPU core per GPU card will improve performance.
We offer the MB application in two different variants, depending on card:
plain - for most HD4xxx owners and those with HD5xxx, HD6xxx cards and
        HD7xxx cards who suffer from driver incompatibilities.
HD5 - for most if not all owners of HD5xxx, HD6xxx and HD7xxx GPUs.

ATI (OpenCL) AP v7 app - r2721
ATI (Brook) AP app - r1890

Please see separate ReadMe_AstroPulse_OpenCL_ATI.txt or ReadMe_AstroPulse_Brook.txt for details, especially on driver requirements.
Reserving one CPU core per GPU card will improve performance.

For cards without OpenCL support (from HD2xxxx on) use the 'hybrid' r1890 Astropulse application. NB this is a combined CPU/GPU application and will only use the GPU for some of the calculations, while doing the rest on a CPU core. Minimum driver version Catalyst 9.x.

The Hybrid AP application uses about 80% of a CPU core and does only about 20% of the calculations on the GPU. Parameters have been choosen to reflect this usage. However present BOINC can not reserve '0.8' of a CPU core and therefore reserves none. This means your CPUs will be overcommitted and runtimes and DCF (if applicable) will suffer. You do increase the overall output though.

Please note that HD2xxx cards requiring Brook (Hybrid) applications are not currently supported by Lunatics for Astropulse v7 - the Brook application is supplied for cleaning up any AP v6 tasks that may be in progress.


Intel (OpenCL) applications for both MB and AP v7 (updated to r2721)

These are offered by Lunatics for the first time. Please note the supported iGPU models, and observe the minimum OpenCL and driver versions, shown on the selection page. Intel CPUs offering plain "HD graphics" are NOT supported by these applications.

You MUST update your Intel driver if BOINC reports the OpenCL version as 1.1
The applications may appear to run without updating the driver, but the results will not be valid and you will have wasted your computing power.

Visit https://downloadcenter.intel.com/ if you require an updated graphics driver for your iGPU. Note that you will require a driver for a 3rd. or 4th. generation Intel 'core' CPU with the appropriately numbered HD or Iris graphics support.

Many people have reported problems getting Intel's automated update and installation tools to work, but their manual installation instructions (requiring the download of the '.zip' driver package) appear to work on systems which reject the automated tools. A copy of Intel's ReadMe file for driver installation will be placed in the Lunatics docs folder for reference if you select either of the iGPU applications.


This time the thanks go to Joe (Josef W. Segur) for the optimised CPU apps, to Raistmer (with additional input from Urs Echternacht) for OpenCL apps and to Jason (jason_gee) for CUDA apps.
Thanks guys. There would be no need for an optimised app installer if there weren't optimised apps in the first place!

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank our active alpha testers
(in no particular order and apologies to anybody we've forgotten):
Claggy, arkayn and Mike.


The Lunatics Installer team AD MMXIV

[Mike]

Thank you very much Richard for your hard work.
Its much appreciated.

I also want to thank each of the devs for developing such great apps.

[msattler]

The kitties send their regards and accolades of appreciation to all here at Lunatics who put in the hours of blood, sweat, and tears to make the new installer and the new apps contained within available.

Meow meow meow.

[msattler]

And just a little side note...
Not sure if it would have anything to do with the virus warnings being reported in NC.
On my Win 7 rig, I downloaded both the 64 and 32 bit versions.  From here at Lunatics. (I put them on a USB stick to load into my other 8 rigs.)
The 64 bit version downloaded as a file, with the .exe contained within.
The 32 bit version downloaded as the .exe only, not contained within a folder.

Meow.

[arkayn]

I downloaded both of them and they are both applications.

[msattler]

I downloaded both of them and they are both applications.

OK....upon further reflection, I know how it happened.  I had downloaded the release candidate for a look-see, which was a zip file that then got unzipped into the folder with the file inside.
When I downloaded the actual release, it asked if I wanted to replace the existing file, which I did.  It was, of course, still contained in the folder set up by 7zip.
So, no problems there.
Thanks for yanking my memory, arkayn.

[msattler]

I did just notice something else.
When running the installer, on the CPU option page, for the AP v7 app, SSE3 is the default (at least on my rigs).
However, I was just looking at the task list on a couple of my rigs and the CPU AP tasks are tagged sse2.
Am I missing something here?
I did not manually select anything on the page, just clicked through it leaving the default selections.

EDIT...
Those two rigs were 64bit.  I just checked one of the 32bit rigs, and the tasks are only marked sse.

[Josef W. Segur]

I did just notice something else.
When running the installer, on the CPU option page, for the AP v7 app, SSE3 is the default (at least on my rigs).
However, I was just looking at the task list on a couple of my rigs and the CPU AP tasks are tagged sse2.
Am I missing something here?
I did not manually select anything on the page, just clicked through it leaving the default selections.

EDIT...
Those two rigs were 64bit.  I just checked one of the 32bit rigs, and the tasks are only marked sse.

The project has 3 Windows CPU app versions. The generic one has no plan_class name, the 32 bit SIMD version has plan_class sse, and the 64 bit SIMD version has plan_class sse2. The Lunatics installer uses the same names so when converting from stock tasks won't be trashed. On BOINC manager's Tasks tab those plan_class names are shown in parentheses.

Server-side, the task list shows which app version the Scheduler expected the host to use, any sse or sse2 you see there are tasks which were sent before you did the Lunatics install. Tasks sent since will simply be "AstroPulse v7 Anonymous platform (CPU)".
                                                      Joe

[msattler]

Thank you so much for the explanation, Joe.
I did finally catch one of those tasks running, and saw that it WAS being processed with the SSE3 app, so the installer worked correctly.  It just puzzled me why they were marked otherwise.  Appreciate the help very much.
And again, no problem with the installer.