CPDN News and Announcements

This forum provides an FAQ for users as well as allowing you to ask questions about MundayWeb's very popular BOINC stats services.
Post Reply
mo.v
Member
Posts: 99
Joined: Mon Feb 19, 2007 7:31 pm
Location: Portsmouth UK

Re: CPDN News and Announcements

Post by mo.v »

BOINC 6.2.14

An unexpected bug has appeared for some crunchers who have upgraded to BOINC 6.2.14. The recommended version has reverted to 5.10.45 until a new version of BOINC 6 is released, probably within a few days. The bug has not been found in the Mac command-line version. It happens most commonly with Vista. It can affect members of all projects, not only CPDN. The BOINC team are not recommending that everyone with 6.2.14 should necessarily uninstall it. Please post here or on the boinc_dev forum if you need advice.

What is the problem?

It only affects members who have selected 'Run only when the computer is idle/not in use' in their project account BOINC preferences or local preferences.

After exiting from BOINC and then restarting it, or after a computer reboot, BOINC 6.2.14 never stops running. It does not recognise mouse or keyboard activity and runs constantly.

What should I do?

* Check the current recommended version here.

* If you still have BOINC v.5, keep it at the moment or upgrade to 5.10.45 which will be good for CPDN for a long time.

* If you have already upgraded to 6.2.14 and are not experiencing the bug, keep it. When a new version of BOINC 6 is released, upgrade to it.

* If you have 6.2.14 and experience the problem of BOINC refusing to stop, you can either

a) temporarily tolerate the problem and in the BOINC Manager Activity menu select Suspend while you are using the computer, or

b) uninstall 6.2.14 and downgrade to 5.10.45 until a new version of BOINC 6 is released.

How can I uninstall 6.2.14?

* First back up the complete contents of the BOINC Data folder. Find the location of this folder in the BOINC 6 FAQ then use your usual backup method. Do not back up the BOINC folder.

* To uninstall BOINC on Windows, Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs > select BOINC > Remove. The Data directory will be migrated back into the BOINC directory. This is done so you can return to BOINC 5.10 without needing to move a lot of files by hand. This back-migration may take from minutes to an hour or two.

* Now install 5.10.45. You should not need to restore your backup, which was a precaution. BOINC should start running your tasks/models.
mo.v
Member
Posts: 99
Joined: Mon Feb 19, 2007 7:31 pm
Location: Portsmouth UK

Re: CPDN News and Announcements

Post by mo.v »

CPDN main project

The CPDN server program that exports credits to the stats sites is not working properly. I will not make repeated news posts about this problem which may continue until Milo, who knows about the situation, has time to fix it. CPDN and CPDN Beta2 are giving us our credits correctly and we will eventually receive them on the stats sites. Many thanks to all members for your patience.

On Monday 4 Aug we received (on the stats sites) our credits for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. On Tuesday 5 Aug there was no CPDN credits export.

SAP

There have also been long delays in the exports of SAP credits to the stats sites.
mo.v
Member
Posts: 99
Joined: Mon Feb 19, 2007 7:31 pm
Location: Portsmouth UK

Re: CPDN News and Announcements

Post by mo.v »

Tolu has been very busy. He has released new BOINC6-compliant versions of the following CPDN models:

HADSM3 slab for Windows, Linux and Mac
HADAM3 for Windows and Linux

The BOINC6-compliant HADCM3 coupled models are still being beta-tested.

BOINC6-compliant means that when we upgrade to BOINC version 6, whether we install in 'protected' (service) mode or in 'unprotected' (screensaver) mode, we will be able to see the graphics and screensaver of these models.

While we finish our current BOINC5-compliant models, we can only see their graphics if we have BOINC version 5 or install BOINC6 in unprotected screensaver mode.

All currently available CPDN model version can be seen on the applications page. Versions numbered 5.** are not BOINC6-compliant, ie their graphics can only be seen in BOINC6 screensaver mode. Versions numbered 6.** are BOINC6-compliant ie their graphics are viewable in both BOINC6 installation modes.

The BOINC6-compliant model versions are backwards-compatible; this means that if we decide to keep BOINC version 5 we will be able to see the graphics of these new model versions. So we are not yet obliged to upgrade to BOINC6.

Information about BOINC6

Further information about BOINC6 can be found in the BOINC FAQs. The most useful FAQ items for BOINC6 are The Big BOINC Answer thread, and here (to read after installation) and here. There is also a preview of the BOINC6 protected/service installation process here. If you wish to install in screensaver mode ie not as a service, the preview is also useful.

Many of these FAQs are also available in German, Dutch, Czech, French and Spanish by clicking on the flags at the top of the page.

Please note that BOINC6 installs itself in two folders in two different locations, one for BOINC itself and the other for Data, which includes all project and model/task data. The Big BOINC Answer Thread lists the default BOINC6 locations for Windows, Linux and Mac computers.

BOINC6 Backups

Before upgrading to BOINC6, make a backup of the complete contents of your Boinc folder! Here are the READMEs about backups.

After upgrading to BOINC6, when we back up our models, we only back up the complete contents of the Data folder, not the BOINC folder. The backup methods described in the READMEs also work for backing up this new Data folder. A Data folder backup must be restored to the Data folder in the same location as before.

If you make a backup when you have BOINC5 and need to restore a crashed model after upgrading to BOINC6, please ask for advice on a CPDN forum. To avoid this situation it is a good idea to back up the BOINC6 Data folder soon after your BOINC upgrade.

Please complete your current models before downloading new ones!
mo.v
Member
Posts: 99
Joined: Mon Feb 19, 2007 7:31 pm
Location: Portsmouth UK

Re: CPDN News and Announcements

Post by mo.v »

New experiment for CPDN!

Tolu has released BOINC6-compliant versions of HADSM3MH for Windows, Linux and Mac. The models are for a new research project to study the mid-Holocene climate. They are 4-phase 60-year slab models with one phase for mid-Holocene conditions. You can select these models in the CPDN preferences section of your acccount. They are 33% longer than the current HADSM slab models which are still available.

The researchers for this project are Helene Muri, Myles Allen and Hiro Yamazaki of the Dept of Atmospheric Physics in Oxford, Gideon Henderson from the Dept of Earth Sciences in Oxford and Paul Valdes from the Dept of Geographical Sciences at the University of Bristol.

We will add links to threads about the mid-Holocene models as more information becomes available.

Please see previous News posts on the CPDN forums about precautions to take with all slab models particularly at phase changes.
mo.v
Member
Posts: 99
Joined: Mon Feb 19, 2007 7:31 pm
Location: Portsmouth UK

Re: CPDN News and Announcements

Post by mo.v »

CPDN main project

CPDN trickles haven't generated credit for two days. The problem should be fixed tomorrow but these credits probably won't show on the stats sites until Wednesday.

Reminder

If you think you have a defective model, please report it on a CPDN forum. If we do diagnose a defect we may be able to contact members running a task from the same workunit and help them avoid wasted crunching time.
mo.v
Member
Posts: 99
Joined: Mon Feb 19, 2007 7:31 pm
Location: Portsmouth UK

Re: CPDN News and Announcements

Post by mo.v »

BOINC6 versions

Many computers with Windows and BOINC versions 6.2.14 and 6.2.16 are crashing models immediately after download with error code -185 and the message 'Can't get shared memory segment name: shmget() failed'. This problem is happening with HADAM, HADSM and HADCM models (and also with tasks from some other BOINC projects). You can see the code and messages for finished models on their web page; click + beside 'stderr out' to see these extra details.

Check your version of BOINC by right-clicking on the BOINC icon in the notification area, bottom right of the screen, and selecting About Boinc Manager.

Members with these earlier BOINC6 versions should upgrade as soon as possible to v. 6.2.18 which contains a fix. Download it from here. Please see previous posts in this news thread for links to information about BOINC6.

BOINC5 versions are not affected by this problem.
mo.v
Member
Posts: 99
Joined: Mon Feb 19, 2007 7:31 pm
Location: Portsmouth UK

Re: CPDN News and Announcements

Post by mo.v »

CPDN main project and Beta

Milo says
We've just received a large server that will give us another 10TB of space, and will try to set it up this week. This means that there may be outages on uploader.oerc and cpdn-upload1.comlab that may prevent uploading.
This is good news for CPDN and the programmers.

It would be a good idea for members to keep BOINC network activity suspended most of the time this week and only enable it when you are present and can see whether your trickles and files do upload. We realise that many multi-project crunchers cannot do this.

You can check CPDN server status here and Beta server status here.
mo.v
Member
Posts: 99
Joined: Mon Feb 19, 2007 7:31 pm
Location: Portsmouth UK

Re: CPDN News and Announcements

Post by mo.v »

Please see the CPDN website index page for details of a planned server maintenance outage on Monday 10 Nov. Members who can do so should suspend BOINC network activity before the outage begins. Credits will probably not be exported to the stats sites until Tuesday or Wednesday.

On the index page there's also a link to download a lecture by Myles Allen, CPDN's principal researcher.

The RSS news feed from the CPDN index page was broken but should now be working properly.
mo.v
Member
Posts: 99
Joined: Mon Feb 19, 2007 7:31 pm
Location: Portsmouth UK

Re: CPDN News and Announcements

Post by mo.v »

CPDN main project and BBC

Milo says 'The database and BOINC daemons are now back on line - thanks again for everyone's patience.'.
mo.v
Member
Posts: 99
Joined: Mon Feb 19, 2007 7:31 pm
Location: Portsmouth UK

Re: CPDN News and Announcements

Post by mo.v »

A CPDN credit-calculating script hasn't been working properly. Milo's already isolated one problem. There may also be delays in the transfer of Beta members' credits to our CPDN accounts. So for the next few days our recent CPDN credits will be temporarily missing or delayed on the stats sites.
mo.v
Member
Posts: 99
Joined: Mon Feb 19, 2007 7:31 pm
Location: Portsmouth UK

Re: CPDN News and Announcements

Post by mo.v »

CPDN main project and Beta

Update of announcement made on 24 October in the CPDN forum news threads.

HADCM 6.02 (from CPDN) and HADRM 6.00 spinup models (from Beta) accumulate their .nc files and do not regularly delete them as they should. These models' folders become larger and larger as they progress. So large that some of these models will crash because they use up all the disk space allocated to BOINC. There is a description of the problem and detailed instructions for manually deleting the .nc files here. In that thread please also read Richard Haselgrove's post as he points out the safest and easiest time to delete the files.
mo.v
Member
Posts: 99
Joined: Mon Feb 19, 2007 7:31 pm
Location: Portsmouth UK

Re: CPDN News and Announcements

Post by mo.v »

CPDN main project

Milo has run a series of tests to find out what caused the recent server problems. These have revealed a motherboard fault on the climateapps2 server. The project will be unavailable until the board can be replaced. We are unable to say when the server will return to normal service at this time.

The CPDN BOINC pages and forum run on climateapps2 and are inaccessible. Requests for advice should be posted to the independent forum where separate registration is required.

If you cannot upload trickles please suspend BOINC network activity as much as possible to avoid repeated failed attempts.

There will be no credit exports to the stats sites until the problem is resolved.
mo.v
Member
Posts: 99
Joined: Mon Feb 19, 2007 7:31 pm
Location: Portsmouth UK

Re: CPDN News and Announcements

Post by mo.v »

CPDN main project

Moderator Thyme Lawn says

'The new climateapps2 server is up and running but is under very heavy load.

Access to the web pages which require database access (including server status, user account pages and the message boards) is very slow and will sometimes time out. If the requested page is displayed it might not have the appearance we're all used to (caused by the content being displayed without the CSS file which controls the layout).

Scheduler requests are being accepted but there might be a delay before credits are updated.

Thanks to everyone for their patience during this outage.'
mo.v
Member
Posts: 99
Joined: Mon Feb 19, 2007 7:31 pm
Location: Portsmouth UK

Re: CPDN News and Announcements

Post by mo.v »

BBC Climate Change Experiment

The BBC CCE project is being shut down. All models which are still running will be sent a killer trickle next time they send a message to the scheduler and you should not attempt to restore from backup. The scheduler and upload servers will be disabled at the end of this week and you will not be able to return any more trickles or upload files after that happens.

The results which have been returned will be used as part of a submission to the IPCC AR5 (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report). Carl Christensen is working part-time for CPDN on this and is adapting the model to collect some further data for the submission. This will be released on the main CPDN project.

Any BBC CCE users who have yet to sign up for the main project should follow the instructions here
mo.v
Member
Posts: 99
Joined: Mon Feb 19, 2007 7:31 pm
Location: Portsmouth UK

Re: CPDN News and Announcements

Post by mo.v »

CPDN main project

You may have noticed that Carl is back working for CPDN in Oxford with Tolu and Milo. He is still working part-time for the Quake Catcher Network Boinc project at Stanford University. The extra manpower is long overdue and very welcome.

He has been optimising the credit scripts which were taking up to 8 hours to run each day and causing serious database slowdowns which you will have noticed when you attempted to access the CPDN-Boinc forum and your model web pages or edit your account preferences at certain times of day. This big job has coincided with the installation of the new server and the closing of the BBC project.

Carl thinks he will have the credit scripts running again 'early next week'. Our credits should begin to appear on the stats sites a day after that depending on how quickly the new scripts process the acccumulated backlog.

SAP

Any unfinished Seasonal Attribution Project models should be completed as quickly as possible. The moderators would not be surprised if this project is also closed soon to optimise the use of server resources.
Post Reply