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Posts by old_user30025

Posts by old_user30025

1) Questions and Answers : Unix/Linux : How can I send/update workunit in progress to server ??? (Message 10699)
Posted 11 Mar 2005 by old_user30025
Post:
It should trickle results back automatically after some time. If you follow the output on the console you can watch the timeslot being worked on. The first trickle should occur for TS 10802.
2) Questions and Answers : Preferences : Problem merging my computers (Message 9382)
Posted 16 Feb 2005 by old_user30025
Post:
> The computers have different CPU types, which might make it impossible to
> merge them.

Which makes me wonder in general what use this merging stuff has? I have some models and started them on computer X but now they run on Y still with that inaccurate setting from X. All these accounts stats appear to me as flawed and therefore rather useless. Am I wrong?
3) Questions and Answers : Unix/Linux : Making \'viz\' runnable from any folder : solution. (Message 9381)
Posted 16 Feb 2005 by old_user30025
Post:
Will,

go to http://www.climateprediction.net/misc/contactus.php, choose the appropriate options and make your suggestion as I just did for a minor bug in viz yesterday.

Best

Rolf
4) Questions and Answers : Unix/Linux : MPICH version? (Message 9380)
Posted 16 Feb 2005 by old_user30025
Post:
> You'd still be limited to running N separate boinc processes on your 'central'
> machine and hoping they'd migrate to N other machines. No speedup over
> logging on to each machine manually and starting boinc on each one.
>
> OpenMosix only migrates work to other machines at the process level (not e.g.
> thread level) as I recall. So since boinc is one process, that still hogs
> 100% of 1 machine.
>
> The only advantage I see (if you can get it to work) is ease of administration
> - log into a single machine and control many. But then, couldn't you achieve
> all that with a few 'ssh remotemachine /usr/local/boinc/boinc_xxxx' commands.

You made explicit the points I was referring to when saying "CPDN can be run on it ATM and OOTB, it just does not yet benefit too much from it." Your analysis is absolutely correct. There are only few benefits to be had today but it would be great if BOINC/CPDN actually were written such that it spawned several processes. How much work that would involve? I have no idea, but I do know that the change could be gradual. And if it does not happen, then it just does not happen.
5) Questions and Answers : Unix/Linux : How to force a trickle!? (Message 9303)
Posted 14 Feb 2005 by old_user30025
Post:
> The tag is "min_rpc_time"

Hi Josh, thank you for providing that info.

For all my computers it says "0
6) Questions and Answers : Unix/Linux : VIZ again (Message 8999)
Posted 9 Feb 2005 by old_user30025
Post:
> Open ./viz in some text editor and change the second line to:
>
> nice -n18 ./hadsm3viz_4.04* $1
>
> I think it was initially
>
> nice -n18 ./hadsm3viz_4.03* $1

Is there some kind of "bugzilla" for CPDN to inform the responsible person so this gets fixed?
7) Questions and Answers : Unix/Linux : How to force a trickle!? (Message 8998)
Posted 9 Feb 2005 by old_user30025
Post:
Sarav,

thank you for the reply.

> Open client_state.xml.

I think you'd have to shut down the computation for the model, right? Or can it be done even while CPDN is running?

Best
8) Questions and Answers : Unix/Linux : MPICH version? (Message 8911)
Posted 8 Feb 2005 by old_user30025
Post:
> As I understand it, OpenMOSIX environments works best when the app and the
> data can be readily separated.

Where do you infer that from? I am not sure that is the case.

Take a look at http://howto.x-tend.be/openMosixWiki/index.php/FAQ, especially "Generally, how do I write an openMosix-aware program?".
9) Questions and Answers : Unix/Linux : MPICH version? (Message 8907)
Posted 8 Feb 2005 by old_user30025
Post:
> quote
> .... does not seem to be such a biggy.
>
> Over 1 million lines of fortran developed and evolved over 20-30 years by a
> long line of
> scientists / programmers, and running on a 64 bit supercomputer. And then
> ported to desktops.
>
&gt; If you're comfortable working with that sort of thing, Oxford Uni had <a> href="http://www.climateprediction.net/newsb.php?id=4"&gt; a vacancy advertised
&gt; </a> in mid-November.

Les Bayliss, if you quote, please try to understand what I write and please do not quote out of context! Thank you.

What I quoted and what I was referring to is the following from steve_vmwx:

&gt; right about Boinc OOTB. I'm not sure if it'd be worth the complication though.
&gt; Might just be as easy to let each node run its own model :/

Steve said that it might not be worth the complication for him to run Boinc on openMosix OOTB, i.e. as it is today. I *specifically* said that even *without* changes to Boinc and/or CPDN to make it run just one model pre cluster instead of one per node, there are some benefits to be had even today and that installing an openMosix cluster does not involve much more than recompilation of the Kernel. This *clearly* relates to benefits vs. costs of switching with what is available software wise ATM.

In any case, getting a program to run on openMosix is still much easier than with one of the other cluster types. CPDN can be run on it ATM and OOTB, it just does not yet benefit too much from it.
10) Questions and Answers : Unix/Linux : MPICH version? (Message 8870)
Posted 7 Feb 2005 by old_user30025
Post:
&gt; right about Boinc OOTB. I'm not sure if it'd be worth the complication though.
&gt; Might just be as easy to let each node run its own model :/

What I do like about the idea even without being able to run just a single model on the cluster is that is becomes possible to have something like a "boinc server" where processes are started. Then you can add and remove nodes to the cluster (for example computer that only run at day time) and the "server" distributes the load on the cluster.

As far as complications go that does not seem to be such a biggy. AFAIK it does not involve much more than patching and recompiling the kernel.

&gt; I'll post back on this forum if I take it further :)

Please do!
11) Questions and Answers : Unix/Linux : Recommend a Linux distro for a complete newbie please..? (Message 8737)
Posted 6 Feb 2005 by old_user30025
Post:
If you just want to get your feet wet I suggest you try knoppix.de. It will not touch your HD at all but there is a boat load of software on the compressed file system CD. You can try out many things with it. It auto-detects a lot of hardware and thus runs OOTB. This is often a weak point with Linux. Knoppix tries very hard not to alter your HDs. HDs are mounted read-only by default unless you explicitly tell it otherwise. This can sometimes be frustrating for a first-timer that actually does want to alter files, so keep this in mind if you stumble upon an error that your file cannot be written to. It is not a bug, it is a feature!

If you are really serious about going the Linux route I'd certainly suggest Debian or one of its descendants (Ubuntu, maybe, which might fit your situation). It is just the best and most powerful distro going forward. It is not always easy to set up at first. But maybe go to your local LUG (Linux User group) and ask for help installing.

Do not hesitate to ask me personally -&gt; http://home.arcor.de/leggewie has my contact details.
12) Questions and Answers : Unix/Linux : Will it run on a dual cpu machine? (Message 8735)
Posted 6 Feb 2005 by old_user30025
Post:
&gt; In your preferences, it has one something like "On multiprocessor PCs, use at
&gt; most X processors" where the default is 2. So, if your kernel is SMP enabled,
&gt; then it should start two models when you install it.

Of course it would be great if CPDN/Boinc could be improved that the two CPUs share the work of *one* model. This yields many advantages.
13) Questions and Answers : Unix/Linux : Unable to restart BOINC (Message 8734)
Posted 6 Feb 2005 by old_user30025
Post:
*IF* you are sure that indeed there is no other CPDN boinc client running (ps aux|grep boinc) you might want to remove the lock file and restart. I had to do that once.
14) Questions and Answers : Unix/Linux : boinc client version 4.19 (Message 8732)
Posted 6 Feb 2005 by old_user30025
Post:
When I started a new computer with CPDN recently, it dl'ed 4.19, so I assume no there is no problem running it. But it might be a good idea to backup your boinc directory if you switch the program half-way through. Better safe than sorry ;-)
15) Questions and Answers : Unix/Linux : climateprediction slow on linux boxes? (Message 8731)
Posted 6 Feb 2005 by old_user30025
Post:
Yes, I also get very weird numbers for my Linux computers with respect to ALL numbers (uptime, up/download rate, % online, % working on the WU, time per TS, etc.). I think it is safe to assume they do not mean a thing, or do they?
16) Questions and Answers : Unix/Linux : MPICH version? (Message 8728)
Posted 6 Feb 2005 by old_user30025
Post:
I do not have a Beowulf but I was looking into running this beast on an openMosix.org cluster. I have started a bit of discussion on the NG comp.distributed and the boinc ML@berkeley. Quite understandably the devs said they have other priorities first and unfortunately I am not enough of a programmer to do this myself. But I am certainly interested to hear from you on how you come along.

PS: openMosix has the advantage that it should run Boinc OOTB and you can add and remove clients at will. Have a look and let us know what you think.
17) Questions and Answers : Unix/Linux : Running BOINC as daemon/auto-startup process on Ubuntu (Message 8726)
Posted 6 Feb 2005 by old_user30025
Post:
&gt; why don't you run it as a cron job?

How do you prevent multiple instances of the program?

&gt; For me, this was easier than figuring out startup scripts, and works fine
&gt; since my machine is hardly ever rebooted.

Actually it is not that hard. I have it on a Debian machine and since Ubuntu is Debian-based I assume it should work likewise.

Just have a script in /etc/rcS.d/S80boinc.sh that cd`s into the desired directory and then executes boinc as the user you want it to. I am not sure if this is "the Debian way" to do it but it works fine here.
18) Questions and Answers : Wish list : RFE: Change Code to allow for parallel execution (Message 6708)
Posted 7 Dec 2004 by old_user30025
Post:
This is probably a low-priority request for CPDN users in general but something that for me personally is of high interest.

I am starting to experiment with a cluster of computers connected through a LAN running openmosix.org cluster software. This software is special in that nodes can join and leave the cluster at will. Furthermore programs need not be rewritten to run on top of openmosix (contrary to other paradigms like MPI, for example).

There are some things which can be done when coding that will improve performance on openMosix (and oftentime on SMP machines as well). There is a list of do's and dont's at http://howto.x-tend.be/openMosixWiki/index.php/work%20smoothly and http://howto.x-tend.be/openMosixWiki/index.php/don't . The most important thing to change for CPDN would be to change it from running in a single Linux process into spawning several subprocesses.

Again, this probably is not the top-most priority but I'd be happy if the coders would keep this aspect in mind when programming CPDN and spawn new processes whenever possible.
19) Questions and Answers : Unix/Linux : Change of kernel (Message 6193)
Posted 17 Nov 2004 by old_user30025
Post:
Hi,

I was wondering whether a change in the Kernel (from 2.4.26 to 2.4.27 for example) and the necessary reboot for an otherwise 24/7 machine would disrupt the work on CP (BOINC client) in any way? TIA.

Best

Rolf




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