Seti@home gauntlet 2012

[Sunny129]

my cache is set to 5 days when crunching SETI@Home...

Sunny129, I looked back and the two Astropulse units in fact appeared to be CPU work.

I have downloaded and installed the V0.40 optimized applications. Only had a couple of hiccups, which rebooting fixed.

i finally found your machines on the SETI@Home website, and see that you have only nVidia GPUs. post up some AP task run times for the GTX 460 when you can...

 

[Pokey]

my cache is set to 5 days when crunching SETI@Home...



i finally found your machines on the SETI@Home website, and see that you have only nVidia GPUs. post up some AP task run times for the GTX 460 when you can...

OK, BTW I have gotten an Astropulse V505 wu............ looks like cpu is doing the work.
Which brings me to the question: Should I actually check the AP box and ask for those units or just let them come on an as needed basis????

 

[Sunny129]

OK, BTW I have gotten an Astropulse V505 wu............ looks like cpu is doing the work.
Which brings me to the question: Should I actually check the AP box and ask for those units or just let them come on an as needed basis????

are you asking b/c you'd like to run AP tasks on the GPU only? unfortunately, you're going to run into some complications with that. you see, if you don't check the AP box you probably won't get any AP work. MB work is far more abundant that AP work, so much so that MB work almost never runs out...so even if you don't have the AP box checked, but are allowing AP work when MB work is unavailable, you probably won't ever get any AP work b/c there's hardly ever an instance in which AP tasks are available for download if available MB work on the server runs out.

also, b/c you're running MB tasks not only on the GPU, but on the CPU as well, you'll have to leave the "use CPU" box checked. this is going to force some AP tasks to run on the CPU too, even if you've got them going to the GPU as well. if you don't want AP tasks running on the CPU, you're going to have to sacrifice crunching MB tasks on the CPU too. of course that wouldn't be the end of the world, since your GPUs will far outproduce your CPUs. however, your overall production and contribution to the TeAm during the Gauntlet will be greater if you keep your CPUs involved. long story short, you're going to have to check the AP box to make sure you'll get any AP work at all, whether for the GPU or the CPU...and while leaving the CPU box checked would allow some AP tasks to run on the CPU, unchecking it will prevent both AP tasks and MB tasks from running on the CPU. so it seems like your best bet is leaving the AP box checked.

 

[Rattledagger]

also, b/c you're running MB tasks not only on the GPU, but on the CPU as well, you'll have to leave the "use CPU" box checked. this is going to force some AP tasks to run on the CPU too, even if you've got them going to the GPU as well. if you don't want AP tasks running on the CPU, you're going to have to sacrifice crunching MB tasks on the CPU too.

This isn't true if you're using optimized applications, that you in any case should use on your cpu, since it's very easy during the installation of these to choose CPU for SETI_Enhanced and GPU for SETI_Enhanced & Astropulse...

BTW, there's updated GPU-applications out for Astropulse now, build-560, and this also includes Nvidia-ones. http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=67578&nowrap=true#1214708

 

[Pokey]

alrighty then............. I have SAH Enhanced, AP v505, and AP v6 boxes checked. Optimized applications are installed........... I should be good to go.

Thanks for the input.

And a week early. I hope seti can keep us in work units. Here lately when I look there is one or two computers idle............

 

[Sunny129]

This isn't true if you're using optimized applications, that you in any case should use on your cpu, since it's very easy during the installation of these to choose CPU for SETI_Enhanced and GPU for SETI_Enhanced & Astropulse...

what isn't true?..that he'll have to leave the CPU box checked?..or that he'll have to sacrifice running MB tasks on the CPU if he wants to keep AP tasks from running on the CPU as well?

 

[Rattledagger]

what isn't true?..that he'll have to leave the CPU box checked?..or that he'll have to sacrifice running MB tasks on the CPU if he wants to keep AP tasks from running on the CPU as well?

Hmm, quoted a little too much, but as my example showed I was aiming on the last part of it.

So, to ask for CPU-work the CPU-box must be checked.
Would guess it's the same for nvidia (have never had any nvidia).
Also, will only get work for the types selected among "Run only these applications" or all wu-types if "other applications" is selected.

But, as long as uses "Anonymous platform"-mechanism, YOU must supply all applications. This means, if you've not installed any Astropulse-CPU-application, you will never get any Astropulse-wu's to run on your CPU. That you've not installed any Astropulse-CPU-application have no effect on any other installed applications, so can have a SETI_Enhanced-CPU-application and use this for CPU-work.

For a computer that's got both Nvidia & Ati-cards, there will be many combinations, some of them are:
1: SETI_Enhanced on CPU, Nvidia & Ati, Astropulse on CPU, Nvidia & Ati.
2: SETI_Enhanced on CPU, Nvidia & Ati, Astropulse on Ati.
3: SETI_Enhanced on CPU & Nvidia, Astropulse on Ati.
4: SETI_Enhanced on Nvidia, Astropulse on Ati.
5: SETI_Enhanced on CPU & Ati, Astropulse on Nvidia.
6: SETI_Enhanced on Ati, Astropulse on CPU & Nvidia.
7: ... multiple other possibilities...

 

[Pokey]

All this has got me digging around.

I am using the Lunatics Unified V0.40 setup.
I have options for:

Enable AP tasks (CPU)
Enable Multibeam tasks on CPU
Enable Multibeam tasks on Nividia cuda GPU

plus ATI card options:

Enable AP on GPU
Enable MB on GPU

It appears that there is no option to do AP on the Nvidia card.

I went back to Lunatics web site and looked and did not see an app for running AstroPulse on Nvidia.

Am I missing something??

 

[Sunny129]

But, as long as uses "Anonymous platform"-mechanism, YOU must supply all applications. This means, if you've not installed any Astropulse-CPU-application, you will never get any Astropulse-wu's to run on your CPU. That you've not installed any Astropulse-CPU-application have no effect on any other installed applications, so can have a SETI_Enhanced-CPU-application and use this for CPU-work.

this is news to me...i remember having a different experience w/ optimized apps and the Lunatics installer...then again i'm remembering way back from Lunatics installer v0.38, which preceded v0.40 by about 6 months, maybe longer...so the way these things work may have well changed since then.

you see, i crunch mainly AP, and i crunch MB when AP is unavailable (which is most of the time, so i end up crunching more MB than AP anyway lol)...and the host i speak of does it all on an ATI GPU - no S@H on the CPU whatsoever. now again, keep in mind that this was quite a while ago, but i seem to remember having accidentally left the CPU box checked, and b/c of that, my host downloaded the stock AP and MB apps for CPU and started running those types of tasks on the CPU. upon opening my S@H data directory, i could verify that the stock CPU apps were in there along with the optimized ATI GPU apps, even though no additional code was written to the app_info.xml file to reference the stock CPU apps...then again, an app_info.xml file is not needed for stock apps. regardless, i recall having to uncheck the CPU box in order to get all AP and MB tasks to run on the GPU.

at any rate, i hope for everyone's sake you're right, and that things no longer work as i remember. you have to remember that b/c my S@H participation has been intermittent over the last 6 months, i haven't spent any time uninstalling/reinstalling/updating apps...i never used the Lunatics v0.39 installer that was released a few months before v0.40. it would make things so much easier to know that you'll only get work for the optimized apps that are referenced in the app_info.xml now...i just had no idea that they've actually finally implemented it that way...long story short - if you're correct about how things work now, that's excellent news!

 

[Rattledagger]

It appears that there is no option to do AP on the Nvidia card.

I went back to Lunatics web site and looked and did not see an app for running AstroPulse on Nvidia.

Am I missing something??

Astropulse v6 was released fairly resently, and this demanded upgraded applications. While the CPU-version and the Ati-version was ready for release, the Nvidia one was not, and is therefore not included in the 0.40-installer.

But, Lunatics has made a more resent Astropulse-version available for both Ati & Nvidia-cards, and this build-560 is downloadable from http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=67578&nowrap=true#1214708

Note, this is just the applications, you'll need to copy the files to SETI's project-directory yourself and edit the app_info.xml file with the correct info yourself.

 

[Rattledagger]

at any rate, i hope for everyone's sake you're right, and that things no longer work as i remember. you have to remember that b/c my S@H participation has been intermittent over the last 6 months, i haven't spent any time uninstalling/reinstalling/updating apps...i never used the Lunatics v0.39 installer that was released a few months before v0.40. it would make things so much easier to know that you'll only get work for the optimized apps that are referenced in the app_info.xml now...i just had no idea that they've actually finally implemented it that way...long story short - if you're correct about how things work now, that's excellent news!

Hmm, the design of "Anonymous platform" has always been to only use the user-supplied applications, since it was intended to be used on either an unsupported platform, or used by someone so suspicious of downloaded applications that BOINC should only use applications the user checked the code of and compiled themselves.

This functionality was fairly early taken advantage of by some SETI-users, that built their "optimized" applications they used themselves, or in closed release to their team or something. But a couple wanted also more general release, so let everyone download these applications.

I remember then SETI_Enhanced was released in 2006 that appart for some angry users credit-wise, I had to remove app_info.xml to continue crunching (or manually download "stock" application and add to app_info.xml), until new optimized applications was released. It was the same then Astropulse was released and later on Astropulse_5 and now the latest Astropulse v6, all needed manually installed new applications to get the new work.

So, I've never seen your reported behaviour, but I do know there's been many bugs with anonymous platform on both client-side and server-side, so it's possible you was hit with one of these that was fairly quickly fixed again.

Guarding against any future bugs is impossible, but unless the design-goals of "Anonymous platform" suddenly is changed to remove the "security"-reason, any downloading of a non-specified application from a project there you're using app_info.xml is a bug, and should be reported as such.

 

[filibusterman]

been a while since i did this does anyone have input (example) how to edit the xml? Do we have to copy executables into the same folder that has the xml file. I have been looking for osx examples with no luck but I have to do this for windows machines too so maybe looking for that will yield some better info.

 

[Sunny129]

been a while since i did this does anyone have input (example) how to edit the xml? Do we have to copy executables into the same folder that has the xml file. I have been looking for osx examples with no luck but I have to do this for windows machines too so maybe looking for that will yield some better info.

well before we get ahead of ourselves, let me ask you a few questions first:

1) are you planning on running Enhanced/Multibeam tasks, or Astropulse tasks, or both?
2) are you planning on utilizing the CPU or the GPU, or both?

you should just run the Lunatics v0.40 installer - it allows you to select the apps you want to install and run, as well as generates an app_info.xml file with all the necessary code for the applications you selected. it also places the executables, .cl files, .dll files, the app_info.xml file, and any other required files in the appropriate directory for you. just keep in mind that running this installer will overwrite any existing app_info.xml file you may have in your SETI@Home data directory...so if you have an old app_info you want to save, make a copy of it, or move it out of the S@H data directory before running the Lunatics installer.

but, if you prefer to do things manually, then just be sure to place the executables, their associated files, and the app_info.xml file all into the setiathome.berkeley.edu directory. you'll just have to make sure that the appropriate executables and any other necessary files are referenced. here's my app_info.xml file w/ the lines of code referencing files bolded:

<app_info>

<app>
<name>astropulse_v6</name>
</app>
<file_info>
<name>AP6_win_x86_SSE2_OpenCL_ATI_r560.exe</name>
<executable/>
</file_info>
<app_version>
<app_name>astropulse_v6</app_name>
<version_num>601</version_num>
<avg_ncpus>0.04</avg_ncpus>
<max_ncpus>0.2</max_ncpus>
<plan_class>ati13ati</plan_class>
<cmdline>-instances_per_device 1 -unroll 4 -ffa_block 2048 -ffa_block_fetch 1024 -sbs 128</cmdline>
<coproc>
<type>ATI</type>
<count>1</count>
</coproc>
<file_ref>
<file_name>AP6_win_x86_SSE2_OpenCL_ATI_r560.exe</file_name>
<main_program/>
</file_ref>
</app_version>

<app>
<name>astropulse_v505</name>
</app>
<app_version>
<app_name>astropulse_v505</app_name>
<version_num>506</version_num>
<avg_ncpus>0.04</avg_ncpus>
<max_ncpus>0.2</max_ncpus>
<plan_class>ati13ati</plan_class>
<cmdline>-instances_per_device 1 -unroll 4 -ffa_block 2048 -ffa_block_fetch 1024 -sbs 128 -v505</cmdline>
<coproc>
<type>ATI</type>
<count>1</count>
</coproc>
<file_ref>
<file_name>AP6_win_x86_SSE2_OpenCL_ATI_r560.exe</file_name>
<main_program/>
</file_ref>
</app_version>
<app_version>
<app_name>astropulse_v505</app_name>
<version_num>505</version_num>
<avg_ncpus>0.04</avg_ncpus>
<max_ncpus>0.2</max_ncpus>
<plan_class>ati13ati</plan_class>
<cmdline>-instances_per_device 1 -unroll 4 -ffa_block 2048 -ffa_block_fetch 1024 -sbs 128 -v505</cmdline>
<coproc>
<type>ATI</type>
<count>1</count>
</coproc>
<file_ref>
<file_name>AP6_win_x86_SSE2_OpenCL_ATI_r560.exe</file_name>
<main_program/>
</file_ref>
</app_version>

<app>
<name>setiathome_enhanced</name>
</app>
<file_info>
<name>MB6_win_x86_SSE3_OpenCL_ATi_HD5_r390.exe</name>
<executable/>
</file_info>
<file_info>
<name>MultiBeam_Kernels_r390.cl</name>
<executable/>
</file_info>
<app_version>
<app_name>setiathome_enhanced</app_name>
<version_num>610</version_num>
<avg_ncpus>0.05</avg_ncpus>
<max_ncpus>0.05</max_ncpus>
<plan_class>ati13ati</plan_class>
<cmdline>-period_iterations_num 20 -instances_per_device 1</cmdline>
<coproc>
<type>ATI</type>
<count>1</count>
</coproc>
<file_ref>
<file_name>MB6_win_x86_SSE3_OpenCL_ATi_HD5_r390.exe</file_name>
<main_program/>
</file_ref>
<file_ref>
<file_name>MultiBeam_Kernels_r390.cl</file_name>
<copy_file/>
</file_ref>
</app_version>

</app_info>

 

[filibusterman]

well before we get ahead of ourselves, let me ask you a few questions first:

1) are you planning on running Enhanced/Multibeam tasks, or Astropulse tasks, or both?
2) are you planning on utilizing the CPU or the GPU, or both?

you should just run the Lunatics v0.40 installer - it allows you to select the apps you want to install and run, as well as generates an app_info.xml file with all the necessary code for the applications you selected. it also places the executables, .cl files, .dll files, the app_info.xml file, and any other required files in the appropriate directory for you. just keep in mind that running this installer will overwrite any existing app_info.xml file you may have in your SETI@Home data directory...so if you have an old app_info you want to save, make a copy of it, or move it out of the S@H data directory before running the Lunatics installer.

but, if you prefer to do things manually, then just be sure to place the executables, their associated files, and the app_info.xml file all into the setiathome.berkeley.edu directory. you'll just have to make sure that the appropriate executables and any other necessary files are referenced. here's my app_info.xml file w/ the lines of code referencing files bolded:

Thanks this is helpful! I can use the installer for the windows machines but I believe I will have to manually edit the xml file for the osx machines? once this seti server is back up I'll play around and see what i can get functioning. As for gpu ussage I have all amd save a 9800 gt that is not currently installed anywhere, would that card even be worth getting up and running? If so I should install now before I run the Lunatics v0.40 installer I suppose.

 

[Sunny129]

I can use the installer for the windows machines but I believe I will have to manually edit the xml file for the osx machines?

this i'm not sure about. i'm not sure if there's a Lunatics installer v0.40 for Linux or OSX based platforms. fortunately its not the end of the world if you have to do it manually.

once this seti server is back up I'll play around and see what i can get functioning.

don't worry about the outage...the S@H server gos down for a few hours every Tuesday for weekly server/database maintenance...actually its already back up and running as we speak...

As for gpu ussage I have all amd save a 9800 gt that is not currently installed anywhere, would that card even be worth getting up and running? If so I should install now before I run the Lunatics v0.40 installer I suppose.

yes it would be worth it strictly from a SETI@Home PPD perspective. nVidia GPUs are much more efficient than ATI GPUs while running Enhanced/Multibeam tasks. ATI GPUs used to be much more efficient than nVidia GPUs while running Astropulse tasks, but i'm not so sure that is the case anymore. now that the S@H server is back up and running, i see you currently have 2 machines running S@H - an Intel E6700 machine, and an AMD X4 945 machine. i'm assuming you'd be installing it in the E6700 machine since it currently has no coprocessors (GPUs)?..not to mention that mixing AMD and nVidia GPUs/drivers can sometimes be a nightmare. if that's the case, then it would certainly be worth it, as even a 9800GT can put up a respectable PPD for S@H. if you're planning on adding it to the machine that already has the AMD GPUs in it, then you'll have to do some experimentation to determine whether it helps or hurts the crunching efficiency of the machine in general.

 

[filibusterman]

Ill have to look around but it looks like the astropulse for osx is only for the old v5 so it will not work. None others are listed so I suppose the osx rigs will have to run stock or in bootcamp mode ;/ which would be to inconvenient to do.

 

[Rattledagger]

Ill have to look around but it looks like the astropulse for osx is only for the old v5 so it will not work. None others are listed so I suppose the osx rigs will have to run stock or in bootcamp mode ;/ which would be to inconvenient to do.

Astropulse-wu's is normally few and far between, so running with only SETI_Enhanced shouldn't be a problem.

 

[filibusterman]

Astropulse-wu's is normally few and far between, so running with only SETI_Enhanced shouldn't be a problem.

From what I gather you would have to update the app_info.xml with the location of the standard seti enhanced file for it to be able to use it correct?

 

[Sunny129]

From what I gather you would have to update the app_info.xml with the location of the standard seti enhanced file for it to be able to use it correct?

i'm not sure i understand your question, but the app_info.xml file does not contain directory/location data. rather it relies on the end-user to be placed in the same directory/folder as the executables themselves. as i said previously, the Lunatics installer is designed install the selected executables and all of their associated files (.cl files, .dll files, .pdb files, and the app_info.xml file) into the appropriate directories/folders...but since you cannot find a Lunatics v0.40 installer for the OSX platform, you'll just have to manually place the files in the appropriate folder(s).

so long as the app_info.xml file is in the same directory as the executable that is the SETI@H Enhanced/Multibeam application, and so long as your file references in the app_info.xml file itself are accurate (i.e. don't contain any misspellings or syntax errors), and so long as you have a CPU or GPU capable of running that particular app, then all should be fine...

 

[Rattledagger]

From what I gather you would have to update the app_info.xml with the location of the standard seti enhanced file for it to be able to use it correct?

Hmm, isn't there an optimized SETI_Enhanced application for Mac available for download ???

Then it comes to Astropulse, while it is possible to manually download the relevant files from SETI@home, put them in the SETI-directory and manually edit app_info.xml-file, I wouldn't recommend to do it, since the "stock" application would be much slower than an optimized application would be. You're better of to just use an optimized SETI_Enhanced-application.

 

[Ken g6]

While I'm not sure I'll put up (m)any SETI points, I suppose that since there are no other races at the time I should at least put my user ID in the ring.

So, my user ID is 18498.

I hope this is enough to make me joined?

 

[Sunny129]

While I'm not sure I'll put up (m)any SETI points, I suppose that since there are no other races at the time I should at least put my user ID in the ring.

So, my user ID is 18498.

I hope this is enough to make me joined?

your userID # is enough to make you part of the AT Gauntlet team, however you must crunch some SETI@H WU's if you haven't done so recently so that you are recognized as "active" by the time the Gauntlet actually starts...quoted from Peter earlier in the thread:

Please all Gauntlet TeAm-members:
Please run a WU or two asap to get at least some points. If you have not any points at all (=0) you can - for some reason I don't know) join the gauntlet.
Probably because you are not "active" ...

 

[petrusbroder]

Sunny129, you already in, remember?

 

[Ken g6]

your userID # is enough to make you part of the AT Gauntlet team, however you must crunch some SETI@H WU's if you haven't done so recently so that you are recognized as "active" by the time the Gauntlet actually starts...quoted from Peter earlier in the thread:

Thanks for the heads up! It took a bit, but I finally completed a WU that someone else has completed as well. So I hope I'm all set.

Edit: By the way, are there any optimized, non-Astropulse apps for Linux?

 

[Rattledagger]

Edit: By the way, are there any optimized, non-Astropulse apps for Linux?

Was sure Lunatics had something, but it seems the links are broken...

Hmm...