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Message boards : Graphics cards (GPUs) : BOINC 6.6.9 is available

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MarkJ
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Message 6760 - Posted: 18 Feb 2009 | 20:38:35 UTC
Last modified: 18 Feb 2009 | 20:43:24 UTC

BOINC 6.6.9 is available for Windows. As stated in other threads this is a Development version and may not work correctly.

Changes since 6.6.8
- client: if "no more work" checked, don't request more work (duh!)
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Message 6768 - Posted: 19 Feb 2009 | 0:18:04 UTC

........ Christ. What does Paul think!?

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Message 6770 - Posted: 19 Feb 2009 | 6:04:33 UTC - in response to Message 6768.

[quote]........ Christ. What does Paul think!?[/Surprisingly]

Don't use development versions ... If I am the Paul you are thinking about ... :)

If I am not the Paul you are thinking of ...

Don't use development versions ...

(Sorry, only sense of humor I have)

Without getting too deep into the weeds. I think that BOINC has long had a flawed development process ... when I was in Federal Civil Service we took part in a program called SEI (not sure what they call themselves now these days, ah, still call themselves the same so there is the link if you like...) ... and they did a bunch of research (Carnegie Mellon Univ.) and came up with a model of software development. And, in that model, the lowest level, level 1, was characterized by chaotic processes, inability to hit schedules, and in general bad software ...

Surprisingly, MS, FOr example, is a classic level one organization ... distain for processes, documentation, schedules, and rigorous engineering ... BOINC is much the same ... hackers running about making change with little thought of what comes next.

When I suggested writing down the processes I was mocked ... the point is not that the process has to be large, or complex, but it has to be written down ... if it is not written down, it does not exist ... got that from Tom Clancy ... so you know it has to be right ...

At any rate, the same goes for a design document ... another concept they find funny ... but, if you don't have a design ... how do you know when you have it right? We don't build a building without a design, or a car, or even a computer ... but software? Infinitely more complex, and we can just wing it because we are so good at it ...

Probably more than you wanted to know ... :)

But, that is what I think ...

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Message 6773 - Posted: 19 Feb 2009 | 9:54:56 UTC - in response to Message 6770.

That's not your earnestness? Are you sure M$ is running a code and fix process, without documentation? There are lot of concepts developed and used in IT industry, and you think M$ selected the crap of it? Please explain ...

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Message 6774 - Posted: 19 Feb 2009 | 10:08:19 UTC - in response to Message 6773.
Last modified: 19 Feb 2009 | 10:17:14 UTC

LoL don't tell me you did not know that.

M$ allways did that, making a product and sell it before was ready.
Hence the many crashes and blue screens or the updates who crashed the whole computer :D.

Only with the new vista ( win 7 ) they seem to finally saw the light.

Now they actually start listening to the grand public that things are not working like it should. And fixing them xD.

I agree its not a small project we are talking about millions of lines with code so small errors can and will be made.

But in general M$ is learning from its mistakes in the paste ;) (finally)

But back to the newest beta versions yes i test them all and hoping a stable running one is present with them.

As for now i think its best not to install them over running projects but in a virtual machine like i use and test if it installs well or runs projects ( one by one ) steady.

Now i know that i need to test also with optimized apps for projects also.

The problem with boinc is that you never know its for u the good version till you really tested it in every way.

But basically some are better then others and function with less problems then others, thats why i am not scared to test these beta's as well.

Maybe one version surprises us again and will be the next steady one :D

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Message 6778 - Posted: 19 Feb 2009 | 14:24:46 UTC

Fixed in 6.6.9....

These new releases include the following changes:

* Account manager list in the attach to account manager wizard.

* The manager remembers the last email address/user id used in
the attach to project and attach to account manager wizards.

* The attach to project wizard now changes a project's name to a
light gray if it isn't sure your platform is supported for the project.

* Fixes various issues with the core client automatic back-off
mechanisms.

* Various fixes for long term and short term debts.

* Detection of GPU driver versions (Windows Only)

* New preference for whether BOINC is allowed to use a GPU if
the machine is in use.



Please take a look at the new features. One thing of note is that if you click on a project that is grayed out a dialog should appear telling you that, that project may not support your platform. However, it won't stop you from attaching.

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Message 6781 - Posted: 19 Feb 2009 | 17:12:38 UTC

JM VII says that the CPU scheduler is still not calculating LTD correctly in 6.6.9 ... be wary ... :)

That's not your earnestness? Are you sure M$ is running a code and fix process, without documentation? There are lot of concepts developed and used in IT industry, and you think M$ selected the crap of it?


If you read almost any history or probe of MS and their practices, in the end, it comes down to the super smart hacker working to all hours to grind out the code. Fundamentally that is a level one organization's mindset ... though they have started to add practices and some documentation, for a product that is as complex as these OS there is not really the amount needed to adequately describe the systems.

In each version of Windows, the locations of critical controls and settings moves. Sometimes to the point where experienced users cannot find the setting that is needed to configure the system without hunting. Again, a symptom of inadequate design.

Microsoft's truly innovative concepts are in the areas of marketing and contracts, not technology ... just as Cray Research's main strength of innovations (and number of patents) were in the area of cooling technology and not computing technology ...

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Message 6786 - Posted: 19 Feb 2009 | 18:56:54 UTC - in response to Message 6770.

Probably more than you wanted to know ... :)


Well, he asked ;)

Concerning the topic: it looks like the 6.6.x code is slowly maturing.. there's hope yet they'll get it right some day.

And concerning the not-topic: I think MS' software is better than most people admit.. so it's still easy to get mad at them for various things.

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Message 6790 - Posted: 19 Feb 2009 | 20:50:00 UTC - in response to Message 6786.

Probably more than you wanted to know ... :)


Well, he asked ;)

Concerning the topic: it looks like the 6.6.x code is slowly maturing.. there's hope yet they'll get it right some day.

And concerning the not-topic: I think MS' software is better than most people admit.. so it's still easy to get mad at them for various things.


He did ... :)

But I get wordy at times ...

The code is converging ... and one of the next two might be usable. The major impediment right now might be that they are not listening enough to JM VII ... but what do I know ... :)

I am actually looking forward to the first 6.6 version that works better than 6.5.0 ... which may be 6.6.10 or 11 only time will tell ...

My biggest complaint is the cost. You can buy the OS and Office overseas in some countries for 35 USD while here you cannot even get the OS for that amount. Win95 could have been sold for something like $25 to 30 and they would have made a profit ... but the price was over $100 ...

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Message 6796 - Posted: 19 Feb 2009 | 22:56:10 UTC

Like M$. New version, new bugs.

At the time, no cuda WU is running. Three WU are "Ready to start". One is "waiting to run"

What is that? What can I do?
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Message 6801 - Posted: 20 Feb 2009 | 4:15:34 UTC - in response to Message 6796.

Like M$. New version, new bugs.

At the time, no cuda WU is running. Three WU are "Ready to start". One is "waiting to run"

What is that? What can I do?


Because all versions that work (to this point) don't distinguish between GPU and CPU work the CPU scheduler is not scheduling the tasks. One of the ways to "force the issue" is to select all the projects and suspend them, then un-suspend GPU Grid... then the other projects ... the GPU Grid tasks should continue to run.

I also suggest making sure that the resource share is set for GPU Grid high enough that you always have LTD building ... in the case of 8 cores, 15% share ... quads, 26-30% duos, 51% ... when 6.6.x gets working we should not need to do this ...

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Message 6804 - Posted: 20 Feb 2009 | 5:15:53 UTC - in response to Message 6801.

Like M$. New version, new bugs.

At the time, no cuda WU is running. Three WU are "Ready to start". One is "waiting to run"

What is that? What can I do?


Because all versions that work (to this point) don't distinguish between GPU and CPU work the CPU scheduler is not scheduling the tasks. One of the ways to "force the issue" is to select all the projects and suspend them, then un-suspend GPU Grid... then the other projects ... the GPU Grid tasks should continue to run.

I also suggest making sure that the resource share is set for GPU Grid high enough that you always have LTD building ... in the case of 8 cores, 15% share ... quads, 26-30% duos, 51% ... when 6.6.x gets working we should not need to do this ...


Everything Paul has said is good advice...but I recently had this problem and none of the above worked. Ultimately, only a complete machine shutdown and restart got the "ready to start" workunits actually to begin crunching.

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Message 6807 - Posted: 20 Feb 2009 | 7:47:16 UTC - in response to Message 6804.

Everything Paul has said is good advice...but I recently had this problem and none of the above worked. Ultimately, only a complete machine shutdown and restart got the "ready to start" workunits actually to begin crunching.


As I said, ONE of the ways ... :)

This one works too ... thanks for the reminder ...

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Message 6809 - Posted: 20 Feb 2009 | 8:09:20 UTC - in response to Message 6801.

At the time, no cuda WU is running. Three WU are "Ready to start". One is "waiting to run"

Because all versions that work (to this point) don't distinguish between GPU and CPU work the CPU scheduler is not scheduling the tasks.
Yes I can see it at fetching new WU.

I also suggest making sure that the resource share is set for GPU Grid high enough that you always have LTD building ... in the case of 8 cores, 15% share ... quads, 26-30% duos, 51% ... when 6.6.x gets working we should not need to do this ...
Thanx. I do so from beginning of gpugrid. Worked allways fine. But yesterday I had 4 WU and no one was running.

I think, there need to be a way to distinguish between cpu and cuda task. Look at this:

Virtual Prairie CPU work request: 0.00 seconds; 0 idle CPUs
Virtual Prairie CUDA work request: 92098.56 seconds; 0 idle GPUs

Whee is a overrun at workrequest? What happens then?
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Message 6821 - Posted: 21 Feb 2009 | 0:11:33 UTC

I guess I shouldn't say this too loudly, but 6.6.9 is working perfectly for me thus far (24 hours). Retrieves new work units in a timely fashion and suspends CUDA when system is in use, leaving CPU WUs running. Maybe it'll implode tomorrow.

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Message 6822 - Posted: 21 Feb 2009 | 1:10:13 UTC

If you are running one of the 6.6.x versions you will see new messages and different syntax from the client as it fetches work. They are trying to sort out the fetch and scheduling policies. To this point there is one flaw or another in the system. I can't keep up with them all, and don't think that it is important that I need to do that ...

So, that is why you see CUDA mentioned ... but, that syntax I think will change again in later versions as they need to accommodate the ATI cards which are not CUDA, and OpenCL which is right around the corner ... so, that would mean that the syntax would have to extend more ...

Just for your musing, SaH has tasks and applications that will run on the CPU and the Nvidia GPU ... Milkyway has a volunteer that is working on an application for the ATI GPUs (I am running tasks on my brand new 4870 and it is pretty sweet), and the new intern may be working on an OpenCL version so that they don't have to have as many different versions ...

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Message 6824 - Posted: 21 Feb 2009 | 3:02:45 UTC - in response to Message 6790.
Last modified: 21 Feb 2009 | 3:12:32 UTC

The code is converging ... and one of the next two might be usable. The major impediment right now might be that they are not listening enough to JM VII ... but what do I know ... :)

I am actually looking forward to the first 6.6 version that works better than 6.5.0 ... which may be 6.6.10 or 11 only time will tell ...


There is more tweaking going on, mostly around LTD handling. Maybe 6.6.11 or later.
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Message 6827 - Posted: 21 Feb 2009 | 6:28:46 UTC - in response to Message 6824.

The code is converging ... and one of the next two might be usable. The major impediment right now might be that they are not listening enough to JM VII ... but what do I know ... :)

I am actually looking forward to the first 6.6 version that works better than 6.5.0 ... which may be 6.6.10 or 11 only time will tell ...


There is more tweaking going on, mostly around LTD handling. Maybe 6.6.11 or later.


Yeah ... John is suggesting a few changes ... Dr A. others ... I have long since lost track of what they are thinking about ... and how it might work ...

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