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World Community Grid Forums
Category: Support
Forum: BOINC Agent Support
Thread: For the betterment of BOINC |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 24
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Jord
Advanced Cruncher Joined: Dec 30, 2005 Post Count: 148 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Hi BOINC Community,
----------------------------------------Last week Richard Haselgrove and I were asked to join a BOINC Work Group committee which researches how BOINC can be made more user friendly, easier for anyone to set up their own short- or long term project, and for the community to join in on those endeavours. The goal is to get more people to run BOINC, to join in coding all parts that make BOINC (client, manager, web site, forums, projects, etc.), to test everything, to get them to set up their own projects, to make BOINC a future-proof and reliable brand that isn't dependent on any one person in particular. We do know this is a big order and it won't be solved in a couple of weeks. So we'll work in the background together with some key people from projects/code developers to get things started. Eventually we will need answers from you as well, probably on a lot of things. But we'll start slow with a couple of small questions: 1. If there is anything at all you can change in/withdraw from/add to BOINC, what would that be? While we don't exactly look for enhancements or bug squashing, you may just let out anything you think would put BOINC on the map. For example to add social media inside BOINC Manager, or have certain add-ons integrated into the client (I am making these up, they aren't on the list (yet)). 2. Would you like to contribute to making BOINC better, or program for it, or walk the source code, or do anything to help the project forward? What has held you back thus far? 3. We'd like to get into contact with people who programmed for BOINC, but no longer do. Can you PM me or Richard on this, or contact me via email? Especially if you're one of the people in the Volunteer Developers section here. 4. We also like to get into contact with people who now voluntarily program for BOINC. Can you tell us why you decided to work on BOINC, how difficult it was to get into and what we can do to increase your involvement? With thanks for any answers you have, Richard Haselgrove Jord van der Elst
Tears in my eyes
How they fall like rain to the floor |
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KLiK
Master Cruncher Croatia Joined: Nov 13, 2006 Post Count: 3108 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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For topic:
----------------------------------------1. Sure, there's plenty of thing to do: a) you can pause GPU or both CPU + GPU...why can we also pause "CPU only tasks", so that those GPU + CPU tasks run? b) you can pause BOINC when some app is running (in exclusive apps), but why not also: pause GPU, CPU + GPU, CPU & pause all? c) use of % for processors is not so good...can it be done as on Android BOINC with number of core for selection with scale? BOINC does read a number of cores/ threads it can run... d) why doesn't Linux BOINC has a 30min snooze, like Win BOINC has? e) will BOINC start to use some kind of thermal throttling, instead of CPU time? Currently I have to use Tthrottle not to overcook CPU or GPUs...not to mention that Linux does not have such a program!  4. For promotion of BOINC & volunteering, check non-profit org Play4Life that I run. |
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Jord
Advanced Cruncher Joined: Dec 30, 2005 Post Count: 148 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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a) you can pause GPU or both CPU + GPU...why can we also pause "CPU only tasks", so that those GPU + CPU tasks run? I don't completely follow this. If you mean that when CPU is paused via the Activity menu, that the GPU then also pauses, that's because no application runs solely on the GPU. Work done on a GPU is run via an application on the CPU. Vice versa, one can pause just tasks run on the GPU and continue to run tasks solely on the CPU. b) you can pause BOINC when some app is running (in exclusive apps), but why not also: pause GPU, CPU + GPU, CPU & pause all? The exclusive application option in BOINC 7.6 has options separate for CPU and GPU. You can have BOINC suspend computations when "Notepad.exe" starts for just the CPU, for just the GPU or for both, by filling Notepad.exe as option in in either or both menu parts. d) why doesn't Linux BOINC has a 30min snooze, like Win BOINC has? Snooze is an hour. As far as I know, this works under Linux as well, however since the Linux versions are built and maintained by the package maintainers of the Linux distro, it may be that they changed the code. You best ask the package maintainer of your distro. e) will BOINC start to use some kind of thermal throttling, instead of CPU time? Currently I have to use Tthrottle not to overcook CPU or GPUs...not to mention that Linux does not have such a program! No, and there's the problem: there are so many differen Linux distros that do things like thermal detection in different ways that it's almost impossible for developers to anticipate what's all needed. Therefore, again, this is best asked of the package maintainer. Do know that BOINC is no longer developed by David, Charlie and Rom, but by the BOINC community. It's been like that since 2 years. This is causing slow downs in development, in releasing updated software etc. We can use all the help in the world for that. Which is why I post these threads around. I'll take your points c) and e) along to our group.
Tears in my eyes
How they fall like rain to the floor |
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SekeRob
Master Cruncher Joined: Jan 7, 2013 Post Count: 2741 Status: Offline |
Jord, better revisit the reasoning why there was the switch from core count control at around 6.2 when it went to %. In a nutshell, because if you want to control multiple devices with different core counts, you cant control it from the web, whereas with %, rounded down to whole cores, 90% becomes 1 core on a duo, 3 cores on a quad, 7 cores on an octo, etc. There's only 4 profiles we can set preferences with and control a farm remotely. Obviously, if you enter 2, it's 2 for all on that profile.
----------------------------------------edit: If I remember well, there was a transition period, but now the % supersedes the still available processor hard number field (at WCG). [Edit 1 times, last edit by SekeRob* at Jul 24, 2017 3:12:06 PM] |
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SekeRob
Master Cruncher Joined: Jan 7, 2013 Post Count: 2741 Status: Offline |
Is the intend to mirror what's available in prefs on web in the client, or has that [old] concept been abandoned?
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Jord
Advanced Cruncher Joined: Dec 30, 2005 Post Count: 148 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Aside from the daily schedules, BOINC 7.6 already has the same preferences between the client and the web site. But projects need to update their back-end software for that. WCG's preferences will always be different(ly worded).
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Tears in my eyes
How they fall like rain to the floor |
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KLiK
Master Cruncher Croatia Joined: Nov 13, 2006 Post Count: 3108 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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a) you can pause GPU or both CPU + GPU...why can we also pause "CPU only tasks", so that those GPU + CPU tasks run? I don't completely follow this. If you mean that when CPU is paused via the Activity menu, that the GPU then also pauses, that's because no application runs solely on the GPU. Work done on a GPU is run via an application on the CPU. Vice versa, one can pause just tasks run on the GPU and continue to run tasks solely on the CPU. b) you can pause BOINC when some app is running (in exclusive apps), but why not also: pause GPU, CPU + GPU, CPU & pause all? The exclusive application option in BOINC 7.6 has options separate for CPU and GPU. You can have BOINC suspend computations when "Notepad.exe" starts for just the CPU, for just the GPU or for both, by filling Notepad.exe as option in in either or both menu parts. d) why doesn't Linux BOINC has a 30min snooze, like Win BOINC has? Snooze is an hour. As far as I know, this works under Linux as well, however since the Linux versions are built and maintained by the package maintainers of the Linux distro, it may be that they changed the code. You best ask the package maintainer of your distro. e) will BOINC start to use some kind of thermal throttling, instead of CPU time? Currently I have to use Tthrottle not to overcook CPU or GPUs...not to mention that Linux does not have such a program! No, and there's the problem: there are so many differen Linux distros that do things like thermal detection in different ways that it's almost impossible for developers to anticipate what's all needed. Therefore, again, this is best asked of the package maintainer. Do know that BOINC is no longer developed by David, Charlie and Rom, but by the BOINC community. It's been like that since 2 years. This is causing slow downs in development, in releasing updated software etc. We can use all the help in the world for that. Which is why I post these threads around. I'll take your points c) and e) along to our group. ad a) YES, I know all apps run CPU + GPU...but if you could only pause CPU only apps without pausing the CPU + GPU, that would be a nice feature in some cases! ad b) thanks, will look into that! ;) ad d) Well, I can't pause the Linux version on SNOOZE, as there's not SNOOZE button...there's pause in BOINC, but that's permanently! ;) ad e) so if <i get you right, I could ask someone to just make a version for Ubuntu, which will work only on Ubuntu? Thanks for posting up those questions... ;) |
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TPCBF
Master Cruncher USA Joined: Jan 2, 2011 Post Count: 2173 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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1. If there is anything at all you can change in/withdraw from/add to BOINC, what would that be? While we don't exactly look for enhancements or bug squashing, you may just let out anything you think would put BOINC on the map. For example to add social media inside BOINC Manager, or have certain add-ons integrated into the client (I am making these up, they aren't on the list (yet)). Forget about that (anti-)social media fluff. It just bloats up everything, results in more annoying pop-ups...If here would be one thing that I am really missing to be able to do easily, it would be to be able to more granular define at which times to run or not run the BOINC client. At this time, there is no way to define a inclusion time spanning calendar days, like running outside of the typical "9 to 5", hence allow crunching from 5pm to 9am the next morning... 2. Would you like to contribute to making BOINC better, or program for it, or walk the source code, or do anything to help the project forward? What has held you back thus far? make the source code easier accessible. Didn't have much luck in the past to try and work with that local Git repository that's set up a Berkley...Ralf |
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SekeRob
Master Cruncher Joined: Jan 7, 2013 Post Count: 2741 Status: Offline |
"there is no way to define a inclusion time spanning calendar days, like running outside of the typical "9 to 5","
There is, even wrote an FAQ for it with networking samples, equally applying to cpu/gpu use. i.e. you can set 17 to 9. |
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Jord
Advanced Cruncher Joined: Dec 30, 2005 Post Count: 148 Status: Offline Project Badges:
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Hi all,
----------------------------------------First I'd like to thank those of you who took the time to post your grievances, feature requests and suggestions. We have quite a list already, but we'd love more. I can tell you that all of what makes it through to the list will be spoken about in detail between the group members and possibly back to you who asked about it. Just so you know, this work group isn't some low people who were aimlessly waiting around in the lobby of some university, instead as I hinted in some posts already, these people aren't the least in BOINC, they do have something to say. They are senior project scientists and administrators, and other significant contributors. Meet: - Christian Beer - Einstein@Home - David Wallom - Climateprediction.net - Eric Korpela - Seti@Home - Kevin Reed - IBM/World Community Grid - Laurence Field - CERN/LHC - Tristan Olive - Grid Republic - David Anderson - BOINC So yes, we're quite honored in that they asked us to gather around the table to discuss a lot of things about BOINC, and so should you. All the material Richard and I send in is talked about via email/a dedicated website. There's so much to talk about even, that some of it made it impossible for us to do all the Agenda points on the last weekly meetings. :) Weekly we talk via teleconference with each other, which is really nice as at least that way the others can hear the urgency in my voice on anything I have to say. And that's not all just serious talk, there's a lot of humor passing by as well. Weirdly enough, sometimes these guys sound and act like humans. :-D With that out of the way, please, continue. Give us a lot more to talk about, to decide upon, to vote on how we should change things. We're proud of you. We're BOINC, resistance is futile. :) Jord. Richard.
Tears in my eyes
How they fall like rain to the floor |
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