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World Community Grid Forums
Category: Support
Forum: BOINC Agent Support
Thread: boinc running 2 w/u on a single core machine arrghhh help |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 11
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
hmmm, i am experimenting with boinc on windows just for interest, it seems it has setup itself to run 2 work units simultaneously,, not ideal on my windows single core machine.. is there a simple setting to remedy this? btw i have a dual core linux box running linux boinc client, i wonder if that has confused boinc??? my 3 puters connect via a router... hmmm
if i cant set it up correctly i will go back to ud client, but will try this for interest sake,, and share the expericne etc in case is usefull or relevant to others, i need to figure out how to make it do one at a time or else abandon boinc / windows, ok i have just tried it for 5 minutes but so far have not worked it out, not very patient am i |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
20 mins later, not sorted, have lost patience, ud works fine, had a chance to look at ud for windows, seems easy enoguh to setup, only prob seems to be the prog get confused and thinks i have a dual core(?) unless this is normal for boinc windows??? i dont expect so, my linux box crunched away on one w/u until i updated for dual core support then it happily does 2 w/u on separate cores, no such luxury on my windows single core jobby, the ud works nicely and has pretty graphics so have gone back to it while awaiting more info
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Really? What makes you think it's doing that?
There is a solution, but I'd like to work out what's going on first. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
basically cos it says so, ie in boinc windows client it ticks over on 2 work units at the same time giving cpu time and % completed with estimates to finsih time etc etc... i expect to see that type of thing on my dually but not my humble single core .. i aborted them but thought it was an interesting "bug"??? i suspect that maybe the prog assumed i havea dual core ?? maybe t cant see behind the router? i doubt that it seemed to attacth to progject and d/l work units, infact aftea while i decided to suspend one w/u to let it do that by itself but it then d/l another one and of course proceedded to crucnh it,, as per many many comment on HT etc everyone seems to conclude that only ONE work unit at a time (per core if that is relevant yadda yadda)
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Really? What makes you think it's doing that? There is a solution, but I'd like to work out what's going on first. hey Didactlyos i see you are online but i note this forum asfaik does not allow PM between users, nor gives public profiles as far as i can see... no big deal but would be interesting to explore the program's foibles with you and others , am sure i would learn something.. cheers.. hmm if there were a hot topic to debate then Private Messages and user profile to allow better communication might be nice,,, hhmmm |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
It's usually best to leave as much discussion as possible on the forum, so if anyone else has a similar problem later, they will be able to search and find the discussion.
Anyway, to force BOINC to only run a single thread at once on a particular machine, set up a seperate device profile (you have to use one of the preset names) and change On multiprocessors, at most use: n processors to 1. Also, uncheck the "default" box at the top. Finally, go to device manager and change the profile for this machine to your newly created profile. If you only had one machine, you could just change the "Default" profile. |
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RT
Master Cruncher USA - Texas - DFW Joined: Dec 22, 2004 Post Count: 2636 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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Didactylos is correct in the solution; use two different BOINC profiles. The key parameter to set differently between the two is the is the "On multiprocessors, at most use:" set this to 1 on one profile and use that profile on the single core machine. The other profile should be used on the dual core machine.
----------------------------------------Now as to why. There has be a long history of Windows being unable to distinguish between a true multiprocessor (dual core or multiple processors) and a P4 with HyperThreading. Windows thinks the HT machine is a multiprocessor. So he reports that to the BOINC Mgr and the BOINC mgr acts accordingly. There is another way to stop this running multiple WUs on your HT machine and that is to turn off HT (I recommend against this...but it will work). Now, it is possible and I have done it for a long time to run multiple WUs on a single core HT machine. I believe you get a touch more throughput from the machine this way, and should be done only if you have plenty of real memory. So there are the two ways to "fix it" and an idea about not "fixing it". Take your choice. Thank you for contributing.  |
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knreed
Former World Community Grid Tech Joined: Nov 8, 2004 Post Count: 4504 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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I looked up this computer and it is in fact a P4 with HyperThreading. BOINC will identify the computer as having 2 processors and therefore run 2 workunits simultaneously unless otherwise set in the BOINC device profile.
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
at 1st when trying to edit when on ud windows thought arghh have to wait till next time ud connects before updating, arggg, ok but for the impatien i noted that i could reset profile "live" on boinc while on linux beast, interesting it seems they all have their strenghts and weaknesses, interesting to compare, now i have 3 puters using 3 differnet setups,,, just for fun.. i suspect all is well, but will let youse know in case the experience is relevant to anyone else.. basically just wanted to give it a go and have a look at boinc windows..
hmm minor setback, i detatched from project cos would not d/l a w/u doh, but when i re-attatched it set to default profile which of course is for my linux box of dual cpu, so i have reset the device profile to the single cpu setup , and so far is working nicely ... hmm now to tie it all to complete the ud w/u after this 1st boinc one complets then to unsuspend the 2nd boinc w/u so it settles down to single core profile, .. getting there,, thanx for advice, is all a learning experience.. cheers.. keeps me occupied.. until the next new thing,,, hmmm maybe tomorrow i will swap ubuntu to suse as something new for me to try.. meanwhile want to keep the crunching going as the mostimprtant thing,, chhers |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
great the single core machine now runs with one project, very good, thanx for advice , that problem sorted,
now i have installed suse10 on another hd with view to using that instead of ubuntu.. i have managed to get it up and running but of course always a minor glitch, i have ONE w/u on a dual core machine now... hmm ran benchmarks and boinc can see the 2nd core,, i am pretty sure the default for my boinc is multicores so i m wondering if i have skipped something or iriit will have to wait till 1st result is handed back??? any ideas? cheers |
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