New to linux

[TouchuvGrey]

i just installed ubuntu linux on my laptop. Looks like i trashed Windows in the
process but oh well. Can someone point me at a simple explanation of
how to install a linux version of SETI/BOINC ( preferably an optimized app )
 on my computer ?  ( AMD Turion 64 SSE2 )


                                                                                         Mike

[TouchuvGrey]

OK, i have SETI@Home running now, regular version. Going to try
andfigure out how to get an optimized app now.

[Fivestar Crashtest]

Can someone point me at a simple explanation of
how to install a linux version of SETI/BOINC ( preferably an optimized app )
 on my computer ?  ( AMD Turion 64 SSE2 )


                                                                                         Mike

My way is to download the Linux version of BOINC from the BOINC download page.  Move the file you download into the home folder.  Go to Accessories, open a terminal and type into it

sh boinc*

Then type

cd BOINC
./run_client

open another terminal (if you open one in a tab, it will already be in the BOINC directory) and type

./run_manager

Then you will have the gui, which works like the one in windows and you can attach to Seti.

I let it download a work unit or two and set it to no new work.  After the first two are done, then I report them and stop boinc by going back to the first terminal and typing

CTRL C

I close that terminal out and stop the boinc manager too.  I download my optimized app.  With your AMD, you want a generic sse2 linux app, 32 bit if you are using 32 bit linux.  If you are not, you will have other issues, but I can help you with those.

Go to the projects folder in your BOINC folder and remove the Seti app there.  Extract the optimized app and it's app info xml either into it's own folder and copy it into the project folder or extract it directly into the project folder, ARK is pretty easy to figure out. 

When you start BOINC up again in the terminal the way you did before, then you should be crunching with the optimized app. 

A lot of guys like the BOINC with Synaptic Package manager, but I don't.  I like to run BOINC from the home folder.  Hope this helps and welcome to Linux and Optimized Seti.

Pam

[Fivestar Crashtest]

OK, i have SETI@Home running now, regular version. Going to try
andfigure out how to get an optimized app now.

Oops, I need to read further down, I guess.  If you did Synaptic Package manager BOINC, it's in the var lib folder and you will need to either get a super user Nautilus window to get your app in there or type a bunch of code in a terminal after sudo to untar it in there. 

If you want to do my kludgy easy way, you would have to get rid of the Synaptic BOINC first, because Synpatic BOINC and Home Folder BOINC don't coexist.

[TouchuvGrey]

Hello Pam:

               And Thank you, 46 views and you were the first to respond. I think i managed
it by myself though, but may have screwed up. This is what i see in "Messages" 
 Found app_info.xml: using anonymous platform
[error] No app version for result i686-pc-linux-gnu 527
[error] No app version for result i686-pc-linux-gnu 527
[error] No app version for result i686-pc-linux-gnu 527
[error] No app version for result i686-pc-linux-gnu 527
[error] State file error: result 22fe07ac.25718.9070.12.6.111_1 not found

Processor features: fpu vme de psc tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 cflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 syscall nx mmxe...

OS: Linux 2.6.22-14-generic

addendum: ubuntu 7.10 here if it makes a difference and how can i tell if
i'm running 32 or 64 bit linux ? ( there will be a lot more "newbie" type
questions i'm sure )

           Any help will be appreciated.

                                                                       Mike

[TouchuvGrey]

i restarted and now i get

Found app_info.xml: using anonymous platform
Processor: 1 AuthenticAMD AMD Turion(tm) 64 Mobile Technology ML-34 [Family 15 Model 36 Stepping 2]
Processor features: fpu vme de psc tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 cflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 syscall nx mmxe...
OS: Linux 2.6.22-14-generic


                                                       

[Fivestar Crashtest]

addendum: ubuntu 7.10 here if it makes a difference and how can i tell if
i'm running 32 or 64 bit linux ? ( there will be a lot more "newbie" type
questions i'm sure )

           Any help will be appreciated.

                                                                       Mike

I think if you select the AMD64 Ubuntu, you get 64 bit but if you are running BOINC right now, you must be running 32 bit.  If you have 64 bit, it usually takes getting ia 32 libraries to get BOINC to work the way I do it.  It has become one of my steps when I install Ubuntu.

the version 527 error may be from not being metioned in the app info xml.  I just looked at my app info's and they only refer to 515, so maybe I am missing out on some types of work units. 

So help us out fellas, what does a good app info xml say nowadays?  Do we have a 5.27 Seti Linux app?  I see one of Crunch3r's for 32 bit Linux refers to 5.28.

Pam

[Josef W. Segur]

...
So help us out fellas, what does a good app info xml say nowadays?  Do we have a 5.27 Seti Linux app?  I see one of Crunch3r's for 32 bit Linux refers to 5.28.

Pam

I don't run Linux and although I try to follow the discussions on the subject the details often get lost. But I do know there are versions of BOINC for both 32 bit and 64 bit, see the all versions page. Through 5.10.21 they were trying to make builds which would install on any version of Linux, more recently they changed to builds for Ubuntu though I think the target is the version before 7.10.

The S@H applications situation is more complex. The stock build for 32 bit Linux/x86 is version 5.27, but for 64 bit there are both 5.12 and 5.28 versions. IIRC it depends on the platform string BOINC sends which of those would be downloaded.

But with an app_info.xml the S@H application version doesn't really matter, there was a problem before BOINC 5.5.13 but all recent BOINC versions are OK. But again the platform string reported by BOINC does matter, the servers won't send work unless that matches one of the platform strings they expect.

AFAIK, the app_info.xml files Crunch3r supplies with the Linux builds should work well, I don't recall any complaints.
                                                     Joe

[TouchuvGrey]

OK, now another question on my newly linuxed laptop the benchmarks are
Operating System   Linux
2.6.22-14-generic
Memory   1010.05 MB
Cache   1024 KB
Measured floating point speed   612.46 million ops/sec
Measured integer speed   1190.09 million ops/sec

while the results for the same compter 2 days ago were ( before linux )

Operating System   Microsoft Windows XP
Professional Edition, Service Pack 2, (05.01.2600.00)
Memory   1022.17 MB
Cache   976.56 KB
Measured floating point speed   1785.81 million ops/sec
Measured integer speed   3256.43 million ops/sec

      Any thoughts on this ?

[Josef W. Segur]

OK, now another question on my newly linuxed laptop the benchmarks are
Operating System   Linux
2.6.22-14-generic
Memory   1010.05 MB
Cache   1024 KB
Measured floating point speed   612.46 million ops/sec
Measured integer speed   1190.09 million ops/sec

while the results for the same compter 2 days ago were ( before linux )

Operating System   Microsoft Windows XP
Professional Edition, Service Pack 2, (05.01.2600.00)
Memory   1022.17 MB
Cache   976.56 KB
Measured floating point speed   1785.81 million ops/sec
Measured integer speed   3256.43 million ops/sec

      Any thoughts on this ?

Hmm, your result under Linux shows:

Revision: R-2.2B|xW|FFT:IPP_SSE2|Ben-Joe
     CPUID: AMD Turion(tm) 64 Mobile Technology ML-34
      CPUs: 1, cores: 1,  cache: L1=64K,  L2=1024K, L3=0K
  Features: MMX  3DNow!  3DNow!+  SSE  SSE2   
     speed: 797 MHz  -- read MB/s: L1=975, L2=1289, RAM=946

while a result under WinXP showed:

  Revision: 2.2B|xK|FFT:IPP_SSE|Ben-Joe
     CPUID: AMD Turion 64 'Lancaster'
      CPUs: 1, cores: 1, threads: 1   cache: L1=64K,  L2=1024K, L3=0K
  Features: MMX, 3DNow!, 3DNow!+, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, 
     speed: 1778 MHz  -- read MB/s: L1=9769, L2=4997, RAM=1947

That seems to indicate the CPU is being throttled under Linux by Cool'nQuiet or whatever the Linux equivalent is. Beyond that, BOINC on Linux is built with a different compiler than BOINC on Windows, so the benchmarks do tend to be different. Earlier this year the developers worked on equalizing them by using specific optimization options for that part of the Linux build, but I don't think they used a Turion system to do the comparisons.

When you get a chance, switch to a 2.4 or 2.4V build. They're a touch faster and use the current multiplier when reporting fpops_cumulative, so your credit claims would match current standards.
                                                             Joe

[TouchuvGrey]

I certainly did not do anything to deliberately throttle the CPU.
Any suggestions as to what it is, where i can find it, and how to
set it to full throttle ?


                                               Mike

[Josef W. Segur]

I certainly did not do anything to deliberately throttle the CPU.
Any suggestions as to what it is, where i can find it, and how to
set it to full throttle ?


                                               Mike

It's a power management function, and of course everyone assumes that the goal is minimal power usage to get ordinary tasks done. I think it will be using the AMD Athlon™ 64/FX Cpufreq Driver for Linux as described on this AMD page. According to that the driver is built into the kernel, though my understanding is that different distros may build their kernels differently.

A similar case to yours is discussed in this thread about Folding@home. Perhaps the final post will give you some hints on how to control.

Here's one more link which might be helpful, but note that it is about 2 years old.

I'm sorry I can't help more, we need a real Ubuntu guru.
                                                      Joe

[Fivestar Crashtest]

Another thing I do when I install Ubuntu is remove Powernowd if I don't like the way it acts with BOINC.  I like to put the CPU usage applet on the panel (with Gnome) and if it is showing 100% while BOINC is going, then I don't worry about it, but if it shows throttling, I take it out with Synaptic Package Manager.  I don't worry about benchmarks between Linux or Windows, since benchmarks don't play a role in credit anymore at Seti. 

Pam

[TouchuvGrey]

OK, i found it, removed it with Synaptic Package Manager ( did not know
i had it, will investigate it carefully ) re booting now, running benchmarks
Bingo partly at least benchmarks are now

Operating System   Linux
2.6.22-14-generic
Memory   1010.05 MB
Cache   1024 KB
Measured floating point speed   1407.8 million ops/sec
Measured integer speed   2686.86 million ops/sec

  better than what they were, but still not what they used to be.
i'll take it for now, any progress is better than none.

                                                              Mike

 

[autocrosser]

I'm using the 5.10.28 Ubuntu release downloaded & installed to my /home--I agree that I like seti run from /home. Running Beta testing 8.04 Hardy with no problems....Interesting--my app_info shows version_num 521--I'll try changing it to 528 & see what happens---

I just download & install the basic seti app to my /home & after I run a couple of units I stop it & sub the optimized one for it---

Grey---you can goto System>Preferences>Main Menu & create a start launcher for the manager--just mod the run_manager script you will find in your BOINC folder--E me at autocrosser1<at>gmail<dot>com & I'll shoot you some more info-----You can also mod the run_client script & set it to run as soon as you login--I'll cover that also---

By the way---I'm autocrosser at ubuntuforums.org----

<note> All it seemed to do is reload all my w/u--unsure if it changed anything else.