Astropulse app install problem

[MasterChief]

I just recently came back to seti@home after a long absence.

Last night I installed the boinc client and manager using apt-get. It's currently running just fine but seems a little slow. I'm running Ubuntu server 9.04 32-bit on a ProLiant DL580 G2 with quad Intel 2.2ghz Xeon MP cpu's, 8gb of ram, and four 10k scsi drives in raid 5. Eight cpu's running at 100% looks nice in the system monitor.

I got to reading the BOINC wiki etc and came across this place and the optimized apps for speeding things up. I downloaded the Linux 32-bit for SSE2 and read the install instructions. I understand how to stop the manager part OK. In the copy files part though things don't jibe very well. It says to copy files to the "BOINC\projects\setiathome.berkeley.edu" directory. I can't find that directory. Only place I can find BOINC at all is in /etc/boinc-client.

I'm not the brightest bulb when it comes to Linux. Specially concerning Ubuntu. I'm more familiar with Fedora. Is using apt-get to get BOINC not the right approach? Or am I just looking in the wrong place? Or can I just copy the files into the /etc/boinc-client folder?

I have only only one astropulse task at present. It shows 350:49:28 to completion! Looks like I really need to speed this beast up some?

Any help or comments will be greatly appreciated.

[Josef W. Segur]

...
It says to copy files to the "BOINC\projects\setiathome.berkeley.edu" directory. I can't find that directory. Only place I can find BOINC at all is in /etc/boinc-client.

I'm not the brightest bulb when it comes to Linux. Specially concerning Ubuntu. I'm more familiar with Fedora. Is using apt-get to get BOINC not the right approach? Or am I just looking in the wrong place? Or can I just copy the files into the /etc/boinc-client folder?

I have only only one astropulse task at present. It shows 350:49:28 to completion! Looks like I really need to speed this beast up some?

Any help or comments will be greatly appreciated.

The files must go in ".../projects/setiathome.berkeley.edu", wherever that is. It's an optimized science application for the S@H project, not a modified BOINC client. Someone more knowledgable about Ubuntu can probably advise you more specifically.

BOINC's estimate of how long work will take adapts after you've completed some, don't believe it yet. The Astropulse progress is fairly linear, if your host has done over 5% you can calculate a better estimate from the time spent getting that far.
                                                                                 Joe

[arkayn]

http://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Installing_BOINC_on_Ubuntu

Creates the working directory /var/lib/boinc-client/ for BOINC data files and the slots and projects directories. Also creates links from this directory to the files in /etc/boinc-client

[MasterChief]

Thanks for the replies.

After a little messing around...I now have the Astropulse optimized app working!

Had to do a little chmod work to get the needed permissions...but all ended well.

I currently have four astropulse tasks running. Though things don't seem to running any faster, I'll wait and see how it goes. The old Xeons aren't the fastest things around.

[Urs Echternacht]

... quad Intel 2.2ghz Xeon MP cpu's ...

Be aware that these oldies have very small L2 caches (p. 512kb only + 1024kb or 2048kb L3) . So do not run too many AP tasks at once, because that will degrade runtimes.

[MasterChief]

The MP Xeons in the server have 512kb L1 & 2mb L2 to old for L3. SSE2

They seem to be doing pretty well all things considered.

Currently have 8 AP tasks running. Going by average cpu time vs percentage...looks like about a 50hr +/- average.

Here's a breakdown on the server: http://stats.free-dc.org/stats.php?page=hostbycpid&cpid=18a9195a188b97c8c587efd7df35149e

[Raistmer]

The MP Xeons in the server have 512kb L1 & 2mb L2 to old for L3. SSE2

512kB of L1 cache ?!     
It's just HUGE, it's more than L2 cache for most P4 

[MasterChief]

Er...my bad!

I must be getting old...my mind is slipping some.

L1 is 8kb, L2 is 512kb, and L3 is 2mb. L1 & L2 are 8-way associative. MMX, SSE, and SSE2

Seems my completetime estimates were way off to! Looking more like 80 to 90hrs per AP task? Isn't that a little slow? I've seen times for more modern cpu's that are in the 40hr or less range? Or are those GPU times?

Echternacht mentioned that running to many at once can degrade performance? Have 8 AP's running at present time on four cpu's. Do I need to cut that number down? And if so...how much? Or should I just go back to running regular seti tasks?

[Raistmer]

General rule - try to run different tasks on adjacent cores.
If L2 is cache per core - run no more 1 AP on each core. If L2 per 2 cores - run 1 AP task per 2 cores and add some MB tasks in mix.
Unfortunately I don't know way to do it with current BOINC versions.
Project/app pairing is missing feature....
For example, 32k of complex floats - it's FFT size used by AP.
It will take 32*2*4=256k of memory. General rule - not to take more than 1/2 of cache lines for app to avoid cache line excessive evictions. Thats why P4 should not like AP tasks and Xeon can handle 1 per core better than P4.
6MB per 2 cores of quads is just perfect for AP tasks. P4 will be better with MB tasks IMO.

[sunu]

A bit late at the party...

Ubuntu repositories have a fairly old boinc version. At http://boinc.berkeley.edu/download_all.php you can find newer versions. With these you can install boinc in your home directory, no need for correct permissions or other stuff. Boinc needs a lot of tinkering, so being in your home directory is better since you don't have to be root.

Astropulse is quite a bit faster in 64 bit. If you could go 64bit you would see a speedup compared to your 32bit.