Linux S5R2 App 4.21 available for Beta test
Bernd Machenschalk
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7 May 2007 9:23:25 UTC
Topic 192690
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A Linux App (4.21) is available from our Beta Test page. It fixes one possible source of the "SIGABRT" problem. As this is actually a combination of problems, I'm not sure this fix covers all of them. Please test and report in this thread.
BM
BM
Linux S5R2 App 4.21 available for Beta test
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Just set it up as it was stated in the howto. It killed all my workunits (state file error), including one that was already more than 80% finished. As I never used a Beta or unofficial app before, I'm not quite sure if that is expected behaviour, but if it is, maybe one should put a warning into the howto. If I had known this, I would have waited the few extra hours... Sorry if this was a newbie mistake on my part, but one could still save others from making the same mistake then ;-)
Seems to be crunching okay now with new workunits and also survives a manual "update" which normally tended to send the WUs into Nirvana... no adverse effects from running the graphics or repeatedly suspending/resuming a result, either, so, this app is looking good. Let's see how it turns out in the long term.
Oh, to do this like a proper beta test ;-) a few infos on the system I'm testing on:
This is an AMD Athlon 3500+ with a Venice core (512 MB cache) running at the normal 2.2GHz and normally dead stable (used to run CPDN on it with no problems); it has 2 Gigs of memory and an NVidia Geforce graphics card for which I'm using the proprietary NVidia drivers. The OS is Debian 4.0 "Etch" with a 2.6.18 kernel.
This host has not been completely immune to "SIGABRT" problems in the past but got relatively few compared to what others reported (I think there were two since the beginning of the run).
I do hope this helps and I'll keep you posted!
Cheers, Annika
Hi! Great news there's a
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Hi!
Great news there's a possible fix!!
As indicated by Annika, I will first let my pipeline run dry before trying this one, tho.
Bernd, are you interested in any special kind of hosts to try this one on? OS should be Linux, I guess. Any other suggestions which host should be preferred when selecting one for the beta? AMD/Intel ? Single/Multi-core? fast/slow?
Keep up the good work,
BRM
RE: Bernd, are you
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Probably all of the above since eventually the app'll be deployed to all of them if it works. Faster hosts might be a better place to start just to make sure its results validate.
RE: Just set it up as it
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This one:
There is a hack to Switch applications half way through a result
Michael
Team Linux Users Everywhere
RE: Bernd, are you
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The only difference relevant for the issue this App adresses is the Linux version (i.e. glibc), and possibly the graphics, not the hardware. A bleeding edge Linux distribution (e.g. from the Gentoo or Debian lines) and switching on graphics (*) should be the hardest test.
BM
(*) Actually running the graphics isn't necessary for testing, just the necessary libraries have to be installed to enable the graphics thread, which can be tested by switching on the graphics for a moment.
BM
Yes Michael, noticed that
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Yes Michael, noticed that now. Guess I only looked at the Linux section... embarassing, normally I do read the manual before I do sth to my system. I'll have to excuse that with being a bit too enthusiastic about participating in this Beta test (and beat myself up about it in silence)...
Bernd, sth strange I noticed about the graphics: Normally they're active, but I just noticed they don't display now, even after restarting the manager. I had KDE closed for a while, could that be the reason? I had the graphics on for a few minutes just after installing the beta app and then everything was normal but now I can click the graphics button a hundred times and noting happens... is it the app or just my system? And does it mean sth significant?
RE: I had the graphics on
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Thanks for spotting this. "Graphics only shows up first time" is an issue I have seen quite a while ago (rather years than months), it has to do with initialisation of the graphics libraries. Something changed in BOINC there since our S5R1 Apps, I'll look into it.
I think that most Linux instances are running rather unattended and not normally showing the graphics anyway, in particular as there isn't a BOINC screensaver for X11/Linux yet, so I'll not give this issue the highest priority right now. Is there any Linux user out there who normally enjoys the graphics?
BM
BM
Occasionally, but nothing I
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Occasionally, but nothing I couldn't live without, especially as I usually have a Win box around aswell. So I agree this really isn't high-priority.
I installed the new app on
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I installed the new app on one host and two virtual machines so far. I waited untill the actual unit was finished and uploaded, then, in case of a not self-reportig client, I updated the project to report finished WUs.
The remainig WUs in cache got killed, but the scheduler sent them back again. :)
This way, one can expect earlier results, if the WUs in cache are a couple of hours/day old.
So just wait till a new WU gets started and then update. Only a few seconds of work will be lost.
cu,
Michael
Not wanting to cry wolf or
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Not wanting to cry wolf or sth, but atm it looks like this app is extremely slow on my box. This box used to finish 500-credit-WUs in hardly more than 100,000 seconds, which would be around 28 hours iirc (not just one large WU but at least half a dozen so far which should be halfway significant) but atm it has been crunching on a WU for more than 6 hours and it's only 10% done...
As I said, don't want to whine, or sound overly dramatic, but this box has never had performance issues under Linux so I thought I'd get back on this just to be on the safe side...