Help with setup of i5 4590 plus nvidia GTX960

Gary Roberts
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RE: 1/4/2016 11:17:33 AM |

Quote:
1/4/2016 11:17:33 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of PM0083_03131.zap
1/4/2016 11:49:59 AM |  | Re-reading cc_config.xml
1/4/2016 11:49:59 AM |  | cc_config.xml not found - using defaults
1/4/2016 11:49:59 AM |  | log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task
1/4/2016 12:14:44 PM |  | Suspending GPU computation - user request
1/4/2016 12:14:47 PM |  | Suspending computation - user request
1/4/2016 12:21:07 PM |  | Resuming computation
1/4/2016 12:21:09 PM |  | Resuming GPU computation
1/4/2016 1:35:43 PM | Einstein@Home | Sending scheduler request: To fetch work.


Thanks for the above log excerpt. When seeking assistance with problems or when trying to describe what BOINC does in response to changes, a log excerpt of exactly what BOINC reports is very useful. It allows the person giving advice to understand the situation much better. It saves a *lot* of second guessing as to what is really going on.

In the above, you requested a re-read of config files at 11:49:59 and there was no mention of app_config.xml so you didn't have one in place at that point. cc_config.xml is a configuration file for the core client (boinc.exe) and such a file doesn't normally exist (unless you deliberately create one) since it is only needed if you want to change defaults for the core client, which you don't - at least not yet :-).

Around 25 mins after the re-read, you asked BOINC to suspend all computation for some reason and about 7 mins later, computation was resumed. Was that a result of you directly selecting the suspend option in BOINC Manager or do you have the option to 'suspend computation when user is active' setting enabled in your computing preferences? I don't know if BOINC makes a distinction between the two in the event log. I would hope it does :-).

Quote:

I originally copied your xml into notepad. I did not use the settings for plain text and ansi as noted by Richard. DAH! I knew that but it didn't occur to me.

THANK YOU Both for your time and patience.


No problem, you're most welcome. I'm glad that's all sorted, thanks to Richard.

Quote:
As before I will update the project with the correct xml when you direct me to!


I've had a further browse of your tasks list for both types and I'm happy to see no errors or invalids and consistent elapsed times with very much the expected natural variations. We have enough data to know accurately the effect of the next change when it happens. So go right ahead, install the file and click on the 're-read config files' option.

To recap, one CPU task should change to 'waiting' status. Nothing should happen to the 3 running GPU tasks. If you don't see this, please report what you do see and post a log excerpt which shows BOINC's reaction to the re-read request. The only thing I'm not 100% sure about is that I decided not to include a

BRP6-Beta-cuda55 line in your app_config.xml file in case the Devs change the status of this beta test app into the default app - which they will eventually do at some point. My assumption is that with no specified plan_class, the config will apply to all BRP6 plan_classes and so you will be covered when the anticipated status change eventually happens. It's not really an issue if we need to specify a plan_class. Let's see what happens.

Quote:
Don't know anything about linux, been in windows all my life.


I'm really sorry for all that suffering you're going through :-) ;-) :-).

Seriously, one of the good things about BOINC is that the user experience is pretty much the same irrespective of the OS. If you just want to donate resources to science, it really doesn't matter which OS you choose to use. I have around 90 machines, all running a specific Linux configuration and all under management and control of a shell script running continuously on a single machine. What happens on every machine is regularly managed and logged multiple times per day. If something goes wrong on any machine, I get alerted in a timely manner. Linux makes it possible for me to oversee the whole farm in a very short time each day - on average, just a minute or two to check the status of everything each time I want to. Of course, if there is hardware failure, that can blow the whole day. I've been surprised at how infrequently that has occurred so far, considering the hot environment the machines live in.

Cheers,
Gary.

bzbro_000
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1/5/2016 7:10:39 PM |

1/5/2016 7:10:39 PM | Einstein@Home | Reporting 6 completed tasks
1/5/2016 7:10:39 PM | Einstein@Home | Requesting new tasks for CPU and NVIDIA GPU
1/5/2016 7:10:42 PM | Einstein@Home | Scheduler request completed: got 1 new tasks
1/5/2016 9:21:25 PM | | Suspending computation - user request
1/5/2016 9:37:19 PM | | Re-reading cc_config.xml
1/5/2016 9:37:19 PM | | cc_config.xml not found - using defaults
1/5/2016 9:37:19 PM | | log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task
1/5/2016 9:37:19 PM | Einstein@Home | Found app_config.xml
1/5/2016 9:37:19 PM | Einstein@Home | Entry in app_config.xml for app 'einsteinbinary_BRP6', plan class '' doesn't match any app versions
1/5/2016 9:37:27 PM | | Suspending GPU computation - user request
1/5/2016 9:37:27 PM | | Resuming computation
1/5/2016 9:37:32 PM | | Resuming GPU computation
1/5/2016 9:37:45 PM | | Re-reading cc_config.xml
1/5/2016 9:37:45 PM | | cc_config.xml not found - using defaults
1/5/2016 9:37:45 PM | | log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task
1/5/2016 9:37:45 PM | Einstein@Home | Found app_config.xml
1/5/2016 9:37:45 PM | Einstein@Home | Entry in app_config.xml for app 'einsteinbinary_BRP6', plan class '' doesn't match any app versions

Good Evening Gary,

edited the xml and put it in and it game me the above errors

Gotta Go
Mike Brown

Gary Roberts
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Edit your app_config.xml file

Edit your app_config.xml file and insert the line I gave you in the previous message as an extra line, immediately after the line. Insert enough leading space characters on this new line so that it lines up correctly with both the line before it and the line after it.

Save the modified file and then force a re-read of config files. There's no need to stop BOINC for any of this.

When you read the event log excerpt, you can see it is insisting on having a plan_class as it can't interpret a blank value (the non-existent stuff between the '' - two single quotes). So, we will need to pay attention for when the Devs announce that the beta cuda55 app is being replaced by the final version as the beta plan_class probably wont work after that.

A second solution (probably a better one for you) is to still use app_config.xml but to use the alternative method as is shown in the application configuration section down near the bottom of the BOINC client configuration page. Here is an example based on that alternative method that should do the same job and doesn't require a plan_class, so will continue to work after the beta test app is replaced.

The disadvantage of this method is that if you had two different GPUs in your machine, they would be forced to run tasks using the one set of settings. This may be not what is needed in other cases but shouldn't affect you unless you wanted to start using your internal Intel GPU. There doesn't seem to be a reliable working driver so it's not an option at the moment.
[pre]


einsteinbinary_BRP6

0.33
0.34

[/pre]
You could copy and paste the above into notepad and save it as app_config.xml. Replace the previous version with the above, re-read config files and the desired changes should occur.

Cheers,
Gary.

bzbro_000
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1/6/2016 4:34:33 AM |

1/6/2016 4:34:33 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of PM0085_02181_273.bin4
1/6/2016 4:34:33 AM | Einstein@Home | Started download of PM0085_02181.zap
1/6/2016 4:34:34 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished download of PM0085_02181.zap
1/6/2016 5:58:30 AM | Einstein@Home | Computation for task LATeah0149E_48.0_644_-9.27e-10_1 finished
1/6/2016 5:58:30 AM | Einstein@Home | Starting task LATeah0149E_80.0_46_-1.76e-10_1
1/6/2016 5:58:32 AM | Einstein@Home | Started upload of LATeah0149E_48.0_644_-9.27e-10_1_0
1/6/2016 5:58:32 AM | Einstein@Home | Started upload of LATeah0149E_48.0_644_-9.27e-10_1_1
1/6/2016 5:58:33 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished upload of LATeah0149E_48.0_644_-9.27e-10_1_0
1/6/2016 5:58:33 AM | Einstein@Home | Finished upload of LATeah0149E_48.0_644_-9.27e-10_1_1
1/6/2016 6:10:46 AM | | Suspending GPU computation - user request
1/6/2016 6:10:50 AM | | Suspending computation - user request
1/6/2016 6:16:53 AM | | Resuming computation
1/6/2016 6:16:56 AM | | Resuming GPU computation
1/6/2016 6:17:03 AM | | Re-reading cc_config.xml
1/6/2016 6:17:03 AM | | cc_config.xml not found - using defaults
1/6/2016 6:17:03 AM | | log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task
1/6/2016 6:17:03 AM | Einstein@Home | Found app_config.xml

Good Morning Gary,

Appears to be working, the 4th cpu now says Waiting To Run! SOO we wait and see how the output goes for a few days??

What do you use 90 linux computers for?

I know enough about computers to be dangerous to myself.

Now IF you want to know about being a sailor on all kinds or work boats, heavy lift semi-submersibles, derrick barges, pipe lay ships and barges, saturation diving boats, and pretty much anything that floats I might be able to help you out.

Again thanks for your help. I find space to be absolutely amazing!

Have A Blessed Day
Mike Brown

Gary Roberts
Gary Roberts
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RE: Appears to be working,

Quote:
Appears to be working, the 4th cpu now says Waiting To Run! SOO we wait and see how the output goes for a few days??


Very good! Yes, we wait until we can accurately judge the change. The smaller the change, the longer you should wait to be sure.

Quote:
What do you use 90 linux computers for?


I'm a nutter that craves an overheated working environment :-).

You say you find space absolutely amazing. I understand the feeling. I want to contribute as best I can to discovering what's out there and working out really how it all evolved. Doing the grunt work in the background to help true scientists work it all out is what works best for me. All my machines essentially do nothing but crunch. I try to make that as efficient as possible.

Quote:
Now IF you want to know about being a sailor ....


I know my limitations ... I think I'll pass on that one thanks ;-).

Cheers,
Gary.

bzbro_000
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I'm a nutter that craves an

I'm a nutter that craves an overheated working environment :-).

Hey at least you will be warm with the coming Maunder Minimum!

Is there a particular hardware configuration you like for building a new machine for crunching? I know you said i3? mb/ram/cpu/video card?

I to like to donate the computer time to crunching. I believe that the only hope humanity has for survival is to get off this rock. I am hoping that one of these projects will prove to humanity the existence of other intelligent life.

Having sailed a LOT, I have been at sea in pitch black where you can really see the stars and planets. What a beautiful creation God has made!

Off and Running Have A Blessed Day
Mike Brown

bzbro_000
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Good Afternoon Gary, I

Good Afternoon Gary,

I have had three nvidia open gl driver unable to recover from a kernel exception code 3 (subset 7) crashes?

The weird part is that the project kept right on running? I came in and the crash was on the screen and as soon as I cleared it boinc was running behind it?

Help
Mike Brown

bzbro_000
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Never mind, Turned off the

Never mind, Turned off the screen saver and it has stopped?

Gary Roberts
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RE: Is there a particular

Quote:
Is there a particular hardware configuration you like for building a new machine for crunching? I know you said i3? mb/ram/cpu/video card?


Three years ago, when I decided to get into GPU crunching in a big way, I reckoned the most important factors would be (1) keeping things cool, and (2) using electricity as efficiently as possible. Because I had concerns about multiple GPU configs - would they be less efficient, harder to cool, more prone to crashes and lockups, have less durability, etc - I made the decision it would be 1 GPU per host. If I were starting again now (which I'm not - well not yet :-) ), I would probably go for a dual GPU design. Things always evolve over time - a shorter time these days than previously.

Here is a list of some things that had a big influence on my decisions:-

  • * I wanted to make a big contribution so power usage would be high. It would all end up as heat so cooling would be an issue.
    * I wouldn't be prepared to pay for aircon for an enclosed environment so there would need to be a good flow of external air to remove heat.
    * I had an existing big supply of 300W 80+ efficient PSUs (270W at 12V) that I had already purchased extremely cheaply as a job lot. This put an upper limit on power consumption per machine and on how much power the GPU could use.
    * I wanted to support both CPU and GPU applications.
    * All machines needed to be in open frames on open racks for good airflow and ease of maintenance.

With these constraints on the design, I chose to go with single PCIe slot budget motherboards with low power CPUs and the best possible compromise between work output and power use for the GPU - which basically pointed to the GTX-650 at that time.

I chose Pentium dual core and i3 with HT quad core CPUs and budget single x16 slot motherboards. In a second stage about 12 months later, I had the opportunity to acquire around 30 AMD HD7850s (2GB) with a 256bit interface, very cheaply. This last factor (256 bit bus width) was really a deal clincher because it had become apparent this had a big bearing on crunching efficiency at that time. I hasten to add that it's no longer so critical since the Devs have optimised the apps to pretty much remove the problem.

So, those were things that influenced my decisions. Without knowing all considerations and factors that affect you, it's pretty hard to give a single "best" option. You really need to put down on paper and think through all the factors you consider important, rather than taking what someone else did in a different era, for different reasons, and with different design constraints. I still think that power efficiency and heat dissipation are key considerations. But if you're looking at a single machine, perhaps in a quite different environment, it might be a quite different answer from what someone else might choose. So, make a list of what you want to achieve, the important factors to you, where you intend to house it, what other uses it might have, etc, and I could probably be a bit more specific about what might work best for you.

If anyone browsing this thread wants to tout their particular favourite design, feel free to do so provided you at least make a basic attempt to lay out the various factors and considerations that your design is supposed to be addressing. That way, the reader has some chance of evaluating each design and deciding if it is fit for his/her particular purpose.

Cheers,
Gary.

Gary Roberts
Gary Roberts
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RE: Never mind, Turned off

Quote:
Never mind, Turned off the screen saver and it has stopped?


When BOINC is using the GPU for crunching, I imagine that parts of the driver subsystem that deal with display functions can crash and burn without affecting the crunching. Screen savers consume cycles that might otherwise be used for crunching, quite apart from any bad interactions that might happen when they get invoked.

Obviously, it's whatever the user wants, but I always disable screen savers and set the monitor to blank screen and then power-off after a relatively short interval. Although I've never seen the sort of problem that you had, I'm not particularly surprised that crunching continued on OK. I didn't see anything unusual in your tasks list on the website.

Cheers,
Gary.

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