V10/11 of modified SETI MB CUDA + opt AP package for full multi-GPU+CPU use

[Raistmer]

Yesterday I reported running out of work. Still the same thing today. I have a dozen or so AP units in progress. But in BOINC manager Projects tab pressing SETI update returns a msg:

.....Requesting 0 seconds of work. ......

With no SETI WU in the queue that does not seem like the right choice :-( Anyone help me understand what is going on? The only recent change I made is on the SETI site to enable AP WU.

All 3 choices for work are enabled (SAH Preferences):
SAH Enhanced
AP
AP V5

Thanks
Art

So if you enabled AP you got AP. And you got so many AP tasks that BOINC doesn't count you need any more work in near few days.
So, action=>consequencies.
Wait until some of AP tasks will be done, then if you will lucky you could get more MB work.

[toomnymods]

now all OK. Re-read description of how this mod work in first posts of this and other threads about "team" mod.

<cc_config>
<options>
<ncpus>6</ncpus>
</options>
</cc_config> is placed excactly where you say to and i still had 2 idle processes in task manager..

[Raistmer]

now all OK. Re-read description of how this mod work in first posts of this and other threads about "team" mod.

<cc_config>
<options>
<ncpus>6</ncpus>
</options>
</cc_config> is placed excactly where you say to and i still had 2 idle processes in task manager..

ALL OK. It SHOULD be so, they waiting CUDA_MB. You have 4 cores - 4 CPU apps running. You have 2 GPUs - 2 GPU apps running. What else you want ??

[Raistmer]

This update ONLY for those who use BOINC only for SETI MB crunching. No other projects, not even AstroPulse, ONLY SETI Enhanced (MultiBeam).
In this build CPU-GPU re-scheduling is disabled (it's not needed for only SETI MB configuration).
It should increase total performance for such configs.
Again, use it ONLY if you crunch SETI MB solely.

And don't forget RULEs for opt apps updating:


1) DISABLE network access in BOINC
2) STOP BOINC
3) Copy BOINC whole data directory in another place as backup.
4) install update
5) start BOINC.
6) if all work fine - resume network access, else - stop BOINC and restore BOINC data folder from backup.


[attachment deleted by admin]

[k6xt]

Yesterday I reported running out of work. Still the same thing today. I have a dozen or so AP units in progress. But in BOINC manager Projects tab pressing SETI update returns a msg:

.....Requesting 0 seconds of work. ......

With no SETI WU in the queue that does not seem like the right choice :-( Anyone help me understand what is going on? The only recent change I made is on the SETI site to enable AP WU.

All 3 choices for work are enabled (SAH Preferences):
SAH Enhanced
AP
AP V5

Thanks
Art

So if you enabled AP you got AP. And you got so many AP tasks that BOINC doesn't count you need any more work in near few days.
So, action=>consequencies.
Wait until some of AP tasks will be done, then if you will lucky you could get more MB work.

Maybe so. However I've also got only 8 AP. 4 in progress, 4 waiting. I specify 10 days of work in queue. This is not 10 days on the particular PC. So will wait out the AP WU see if I get more when the last 4 start.

[k6xt]

This update ONLY for those who use BOINC only for SETI MB crunching. No other projects, not even AstroPulse, ONLY SETI Enhanced (MultiBeam).
In this build CPU-GPU re-scheduling is disabled (it's not needed for only SETI MB configuration).
It should increase total performance for such configs.
Again, use it ONLY if you crunch SETI MB solely.

And don't forget RULEs for opt apps updating:


1) DISABLE network access in BOINC
2) STOP BOINC
3) Copy BOINC whole data directory in another place as backup.
4) install update
5) start BOINC.
6) if all work fine - resume network access, else - stop BOINC and restore BOINC data folder from backup.

Just a suggestion it would be helpful to take the + opt AP part out of the name. This thread is confusing enough already for us non-code wizards.
Regards
Art

[Leopoldo]

This update ONLY for those who use BOINC only for SETI MB crunching. No other projects, not even AstroPulse, ONLY SETI Enhanced (MultiBeam).

Thank You very much!

It's right my case!

[edit] Only one thing remains - don't launch GPU-part in case of VLAR workunit (do CPU, even with sharing core with already launched), so no more losses of workunits
Every WU will be crunched (maybe slightly longer but no errored). Show must go on
[/edit]

[yodi]

yodi - with already installed TightVNC - that might work fine

I still use remote desktop on my server host, but just don't touch local login session. That is, BOINC runs under user session logged locally and I connect to another session remotely. It works fine for me.
Think it's possible on WinXP too, you just need 2 different user accounts in this case (not sure though - didn't try this).

Hi Raistmer,

b@ck from some wired testing regarding remote desktop sessions on Windows XP. Here is the result, jFYI.

You mentioned it's possible to keep the first (local) session running on the machine when logging in as a different user via remote desktop using Vista. Tried this with XP32 and XP64 as well but unfortunately this is not possible (or I am to unexperienced to manage it), when logging in as a different user via remote desktop, the first (local) session will be terminated and I ran in the same issues (CUDA device not detected).

The describes issues seams to be related to CUDA device detection in general (rpd is using it's own video driver). Starting BOINC after logging in via remote desktop will show a no CUDA device found message within the BOINC manager.

Here is a workaround to get and keep crunching running (more or less):

1. Stop BOINC.
1.1. In case no service installation done before - uninstall BOINC and install it in protected mode (as a service).

2. Install modified V10 apps.

3. Overwrite the libfftw3f-3-1-1a_upx.dll, cufft.dll and cudart.dll with those from V8 apps. (Otherwise you'll see the same behavior mentioned earlier with the V10 stock apps: BOINC will never detect the CUDA device when logging in later via remote desktop... So the modified apps will flush all cached WUs with computation errors as it will not fall back to CPU processing.)

4. Set the BOINC service startup type to automatic (to have it running before any login).
4.1. Same for the terminal service, if not done before (this enables a remote desktop login without logging in a user locally).

5. Reboot the computer.

What will happen now is the following. The computer starts, our BOINC service as well. No user is logged in via remote desktop and BOINC will detect the CUDA device, starts computation, everything is fine.

Option 1: You login directly on the machine, nothing will change, BOINC is up and running.

Option 2: You're using remote desktop to login. As BOINC is already running, it detected the CUDA device before this login. Once you logged in via remote desktop the machine will be more than busy with the WU calculated using our CUDA device at this moment (in my case the CPU or GPU fan is more than noticeable). It will continue calculating up to 100%, throw a computation error BUT crunches all following CUDA WUs without any error, even if the rpd video driver is in use at this time.

Maybe this information is some kind of interesting.

Cheers,
yodi

[Richard Haselgrove]

Presumably this will be different on a server-class OS, where a second user can log in using Remote Desktop without terminating any existing user's sessions.

[SoNic]

Personally I am using UltraVNC to remote connect to another PC. It doesn't log off the user, it is more secure and... it works even on Vista x64.

[Saprovor]

Anybody tried Teamviewer? Easy to use software an its free. I'm very satisfied with the software.

[k6xt]

And don't forget RULEs for opt apps updating:


1) DISABLE network access in BOINC
2) STOP BOINC
3) Copy BOINC whole data directory in another place as backup.
4) install update
5) start BOINC.
6) if all work fine - resume network access, else - stop BOINC and restore BOINC data folder from backup.

I want to reinstall BOINC as a service - now its an app - so I don't have to be logged on. Do these instructions apply, if I delete and reinstall BOINC? Or, will I lose my WU cache? (WinXP SP3)

I'm now using V9. Am also thinking this would be an opportunity to upgrade to the V10 that allows AP and other apps. Advice appreciated.

Thanks Art

[yodi]

Presumably this will be different on a server-class OS, where a second user can log in using Remote Desktop without terminating any existing user's sessions.

Hi Richard, you are right. Had a quick look on wiki. It explains very well that concurrent remote sessions are allowed for server operating systems only. And in addition why Raistmer's local session will not be terminated using Vista: "...can host the remote session in the context of the currently logged in user without creating a new session, and make the Desktop, or a subset of it, available over Remote Desktop Protocol...".

Personally I am using UltraVNC to remote connect to another PC. It doesn't log off the user, it is more secure and... it works even on Vista x64.

Anybody tried Teamviewer? Easy to use software an its free. I'm very satisfied with the software.

Hi SoNic and Saprovor, thanks a lot for your valuable hints here. Personally I already tried a VNC client (TightVNC) and TeamViewer, both are working fine.

Please see my post above just as a kind of MS remote desktop proof, playing around a bit, not more or less. To be honest I just like this service, my experience is that remote desktop is much more 'performant' than all other solutions around.

I want to reinstall BOINC as a service - now its an app - so I don't have to be logged on. Do these instructions apply, if I delete and reinstall BOINC? Or, will I lose my WU cache? (WinXP SP3)

Hi Art, yes - it will work fine, you will not loose the cache or current V9 app. The BOINC data folder will not be deleted when uninstalling BOINC. Even better, when installing BOINC again (e.g. as a service), it will 'remember' the old data folder. Would perform the following (and did it this way a lot of times before):

1. Stop BOINC.
2. Uninstall BOINC.
3. Install BOINC, choose the protected mode install (as a service).
4. Start BOINC, should run now as a service.
4.1. Please keep in mind to set the BOINC service startup type to automatic (will then run when you're not logged in).

Here is no real need to disable network access or backup the data folder (just my point of view) but feel free to do so, it's the secure way. When performing later an update to V10, it's for sure an excellent idea as Raistmer explained.

Cheers,
yodi

[k6xt]

The key difference from V9 packs is :
The "team" mod now supports multi-GPU configs.
There will be number_of_GPUs file in SETI project directory. By default it contains number of 1.
If you have more GPUs just edit that file (enter number of GPUs installed in host instead of 1 ).
And don't forget to change your cc_config.xml
{Snip}


Fixed version posted, please, update your configs.
Thanks mr.kjellen from SETI main forums for bug report.

The quote above is from the first page on this thread. Re: the reference to "Fixed version posted......" Does this mean somewhere in those 15 pages there is a fix to V10 that I need to install?


Second item, this for Yodi:  You said:
Hi Art, yes - it will work fine, you will not loose the cache or current V9 app. The BOINC data folder will not be deleted when uninstalling BOINC. Even better, when installing BOINC again (e.g. as a service), it will 'remember' the old data folder. Would perform the following (and did it this way a lot of times before):

1. Stop BOINC.
2. Uninstall BOINC.
3. Install BOINC, choose the protected mode install (as a service).
4. Start BOINC, should run now as a service.
4.1. Please keep in mind to set the BOINC service startup type to automatic (will then run when you're not logged in).

Here is no real need to disable network access or backup the data folder (just my point of view) but feel free to do so, it's the secure way. When performing later an update to V10, it's for sure an excellent idea as Raistmer explained. Smiley

Cheers,
yodi

Unfortunately this did not occur on my PC. Uninstalling BOINC also emptied out the BOINC work directory in my "My Documents" including SETI and Einstein folders.  I saved work before uninstalling so now I'll see if the BOINC service installation will begin working from my last, saved and restored, work directory.

Is there something I can to to ensure the new BOINC service uses the saved work?

I was using BOINC 6.4.5 and that is the install I will repeat for the service configuration.

Thanks
Art

[k6xt]

Second item, this for Yodi:  You said:
Hi Art, yes - it will work fine, you will not loose the cache or current V9 app. The BOINC data folder will not be deleted when uninstalling BOINC. Even better, when installing BOINC again (e.g. as a service), it will 'remember' the old data folder. Would perform the following (and did it this way a lot of times before):

1. Stop BOINC.
2. Uninstall BOINC.
3. Install BOINC, choose the protected mode install (as a service).
4. Start BOINC, should run now as a service.
4.1. Please keep in mind to set the BOINC service startup type to automatic (will then run when you're not logged in).

Here is no real need to disable network access or backup the data folder (just my point of view) but feel free to do so, it's the secure way. When performing later an update to V10, it's for sure an excellent idea as Raistmer explained. Smiley

Cheers,
yodi

Unfortunately this did not occur on my PC. Uninstalling BOINC also emptied out the BOINC work directory in my "My Documents" including SETI and Einstein folders.  I saved work before uninstalling so now I'll see if the BOINC service installation will begin working from my last, saved and restored, work directory.
Thanks
Art

This is wrong. My work directory was restored with reinstalling Boinc. But, my graphics card is now idle. Five AP WU are running, two at half speed.

Did I miss an update somewhere in these 15 pages of posts?

Conditions:
XP SP3
Q6600 processor
<cc_config>
    <options>
   <save_stats_days>120</save_stats_days>
   <ncpus>5</ncpus>
    </options>
</cc_config>

number_of_gpu = 1
NX8500GT GPU
V10 installed.