Project News - MilkyWay@Home

[Mysteron347]

IOW - quality, not quantity?

[Dataman]

Yet another Milkyway problem.  I seems it never ends with them.

2011-02-10: MilkyWay@home - Issues with the Milkyway@home Support Server
The Computer Science account server at RPI has crashed, making it hard for us to access the Milkyway@home server. The staff is working hard to restore it.
We have to wait this one out. In the meantime, the Milkyway@home server may start doing crazy things - please bear with us until we regain access. Thanks!
-Matthew

[Dataman]

Some interesting images of who crunches MW. From their website:
http://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/milkyway/

[JugNut]

Milkyway now (finally) has badges.. 

http://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/milkyway/forum_thread.php?id=3423&postid=60567
and
http://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/milkyway/forum_thread.php?id=3463#60878

[kashi]

Thankfully they are clear and distinct, unlike NFS badges which are the same colour for all 3 apps, so require my nose to the monitor to see what they are.

[Daniel]

Milkyway@Home has published a newsletter with highlights from the 2014/2015 academic year.

It is located at ...
http://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/milkyway/fundraising_docs/MilkyWayNews.pdf

[chooka03]

Booo...... They must be having server issues as noone's getting any work :( 
Oh well. good excuse to boost my SETI numbers I guess.

[chooka03]

Anyone here know anything about app_info.xml files?
Because I'm running  a newer AMD card, they don't work anymore as standard. I was given a app_info.xml file which I copied into my BOINC directory to get things working again but it has now stopped working again.

I've asked the question over on the message boards but no help so far. This is  what I'm currently using -

<app_info>
<app>
<name>milkyway_separation__modified_fit</name>
</app>
<file_info>
<name>milkyway_separation__modified_fit_1.36_windows_x86_64__opencl_ati_101.exe</name>
<executable />
</file_info>
<app_version>
<app_name>milkyway_separation__modified_fit</app_name>
<version_num>136</version_num>
<avg_ncpus>0.040000</avg_ncpus>
<max_ncpus>0.567833</max_ncpus>
<plan_class>opencl_ati_101</plan_class>
<file_ref>
<file_name>milkyway_separation__modified_fit_1.36_windows_x86_64__opencl_ati_101.exe</file_name>
<main_program/>
</file_ref>
<coproc>
<type>ATI</type>
<count>0.5</count>
</coproc>
</app_version>
<file_info>
<name>milkyway_separation__modified_fit_1.36_windows_x86_64.exe</name>
<executable />
</file_info>
<app_version>
<app_name>milkyway_separation__modified_fit</app_name>
<version_num>136</version_num>
<file_ref>
<file_name>milkyway_separation__modified_fit_1.36_windows_x86_64.exe</file_name>
<main_program/>
</file_ref>
</app_version>
<app>
<name>milkyway</name>
</app>
<file_info>
<name>milkyway_separation_1.20_windows_x86_64__opencl_amd_ati.exe</name>
<executable />
</file_info>
<app_version>
<app_name>milkyway</app_name>
<version_num>120</version_num>
<avg_ncpus>0.040000</avg_ncpus>
<max_ncpus>0.567833</max_ncpus>
<plan_class>opencl_ati</plan_class>
<file_ref>
<file_name>milkyway_separation_1.20_windows_x86_64__opencl_amd_ati.exe</file_name>
<main_program/>
</file_ref>
<coproc>
<type>ATI</type>
<count>1.0000</count>
</coproc>
</app_version>
<file_info>
<name>milkyway_separation_1.20_windows_x86_64.exe</name>
<executable/>
</file_info>
<app_version>
<app_name>milkyway</app_name>
<version_num>120</version_num>
<file_ref>
<file_name>milkyway_separation_1.20_windows_x86_64.exe</file_name>
<main_program/>
</file_ref>
</app_version>
</app_info>

^^ This now produces invalid or inconclusive WU's.
Got me stumped.

Thx

[kashi]

Flying blind here because I don't have the same hardware to test but there are 2 things quickly apparent. Firstly you are using an old version 1.20 application which is no longer supported. Secondly you have configured to run 2 tasks at once, which can cause problems sometimes. Assuming you don't want to do any MilkyWay CPU tasks then you could try the following:

Clean out all unsupported BOINC MilkyWay files by detaching and reattaching.
Stop BOINC, copy app_info.xml below plus copy 2 program files you've downloaded into Milkyway project folder.
Start BOINC again.

Download these 2 and save them somewhere in case BOINC has a hissy fit and deletes them. This will allow you to try again if need be without having to download again.

http://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/milkyway/download/milkyway_1.36_windows_x86_64__opencl_ati_101.exe
http://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/milkyway/download/milkyway_separation__modified_fit_1.36_windows_x86_64__opencl_ati_101.exe

Following app_info file will use 1 CPU core to support running 1 GPU task. For now, set computing preferences to use 100% of CPU time. Using less has sometimes caused problems. You can try changing it again if/when you get your GPU crunching MilkyWay properly.

<app_info>
<app>
<name>milkyway</name>
</app>
<file_info>
<name>milkyway_1.36_windows_x86_64__opencl_ati_101.exe</name>
<executable/>
</file_info>
<app_version>
<app_name>milkyway</app_name>
<version_num>136</version_num>
<platform>windows_x86_64</platform>
<avg_ncpus>1</avg_ncpus>
<max_ncpus>1</max_ncpus>
<plan_class>opencl_ati_101</plan_class>
<cmdline></cmdline>
<coproc>
<type>ATI</type>
<count>1</count>
</coproc>
<file_ref>
<file_name>milkyway_1.36_windows_x86_64__opencl_ati_101.exe</file_name>
<main_program/>
</file_ref>
</app_version>
<app>
<name>milkyway_separation__modified_fit</name>
<user_friendly_name>Milkyway Sep. (Mod. Fit)</user_friendly_name>
</app>
<file_info>
<name>milkyway_separation__modified_fit_1.36_windows_x86_64.exe</name>
<executable/>
</file_info>
<app_version>
<app_name>milkyway_separation__modified_fit</app_name>
<version_num>136</version_num>
<platform>windows_x86_64</platform>
<file_ref>
<file_name>milkyway_separation__modified_fit_1.36_windows_x86_64.exe</file_name>
<main_program/>
</file_ref>
</app_version>
<app>
<name>milkyway_separation__modified_fit</name>
</app>
<file_info>
<name>milkyway_separation__modified_fit_1.36_windows_x86_64__opencl_ati_101.exe</name>
<executable/>
</file_info>
<app_version>
<app_name>milkyway_separation__modified_fit</app_name>
<version_num>136</version_num>
<platform>windows_x86_64</platform>
<avg_ncpus>1</avg_ncpus>
<max_ncpus>1</max_ncpus>
<plan_class>opencl_ati_101</plan_class>
<cmdline></cmdline>
<coproc>
<type>ATI</type>
<count>1</count>
</coproc>
<file_ref>
<file_name>milkyway_separation__modified_fit_1.36_windows_x86_64__opencl_ati_101.exe</file_name>
<main_program/>
</file_ref>
</app_version>
</app_info>

This app_info was extracted from one posted on MilkyWay. Hopefully it will work for you. If it's not a configuration issue it may be a driver incompatibility.
 
As always, should you or any of your Crunching Force be caught or killed, Dingo will disavow any knowledge of your actions. This tape will self-destruct in five seconds. Good luck, chooka.  

[chooka03]

HAHAHA Thank you very much Kashi!

I managed to get it working again now. Yes, I run 2 tasks at the same time which uses 100% of my GPU. Running 1 task at a time underutilised the card.

All seems good now. 

[kashi]

Glad to hear you got it working again. Well done.

[Dataman]

Eureka! MW has ordered a new server (hopefully with sufficient storage).

http://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/milkyway/forum_thread.php?id=4383#68034

[chooka03]

I agree DM!
Do you know why the server/database goes down usually every 24hrs? It's bloody annoying.
Lets hope it fixes things

[Dataman]

I agree DM!
Do you know why the server/database goes down usually every 24hrs? It's bloody annoying.
Lets hope it fixes things

I think they bring them down early in the AM (eastern time) to run a cleanup job otherwise they run out of space. They were down all weekend because of some power upgrade at the university. They have been up since then.

[Dataman]

If you are running MW, check your invalids. Since the last outage the invalids are about 8-10%. I have set the project to "no new tasks" until they resolve it.

EDIT: Also they received their new server today so expect some downtime over the next few days.