Donate@Home: New application for Linux AMD 6.12

[RSS]

This new app version aims at resolving some of the problem of the 6.06 old app.* increased length to align the credit rate to gpugrid acemd2 app instead of acemdlong.* checkpointing* prompt termination if stall detectedReports problems here, if all works a windows version should follow.thanks.

More... (http://donateathome.org/forum_thread.php?id=49)

[Bryan]

I looked at the wu times on the top Linux box running the new app and it is taking 1.88 times the old wu time and pays the same 6250 credits. If that holds true then you can get higher credits on Moo w/ a 5XXX card. Using the times of my 5870 (904s) and extrapolating to the new 1.88x it would take 1700s which gives 317k per day. That card on Moo gets 345k per day. :(

Crunch em with the old app while you can!!!!!

[Mike029]

I'll be moving back to Moo if this is the payout. Donate makes my cards run hotter than any other project. Not worth it if they don't pay more.

[Bryan]

Well I hope you didn't move yet!! They released the new Windows app and it was completing wu in 34s and paying 6250 .... I had quite a bump in my credits :)) It managed to hang 1 machine (1300 miles away) but another stayed with it till they shut it down 30 minutes ago.

I started the project back up at 11:30 last night with 5M credits and woke up to 7.7M credits 8 hours later. Not bad for a single 5870 :))

According to GDF they ARE planning on going to the reduced credits so it appears it will be paying LESS than Moo. I think they are doomed if they do that!

EDIT: IT IS STILL RUNNING AND PAYING BIG CREDITS

[Fire$torm]

Well I hope you didn't move yet!! They released the new Windows app and it was completing wu in 34s and paying 6250 .... I had quite a bump in my credits :)) It managed to hang 1 machine (1300 miles away) but another stayed with it till they shut it down 30 minutes ago.

I started the project back up at 11:30 last night with 5M credits and woke up to 7.7M credits 8 hours later. Not bad for a single 5870 :))

According to GDF they ARE planning on going to the reduced credits so it appears it will be paying LESS than Moo. I think they are doomed if they do that!

EDIT: IT IS STILL RUNNING AND PAYING BIG CREDITS

Two things that concern me. My desktop has intermittent network connection problems while this project is running and my firewall keeps complaining that the executable is a threat and wants to quarantine it. AVG also complained once.

[Bryan]

Still paying big! It is difficult running remotely since I can't babysit the rigs. One machine is totally hung so I'll have to have a neighbor go over and reset it ... durn!

I expect they are going to back out the high credits but just in case they don't I will keep the single 5870 on it for now!

[Slicker]

Two things that concern me. My desktop has intermittent network connection problems while this project is running and my firewall keeps complaining that the executable is a threat and wants to quarantine it. AVG also complained once.

Bitcoin calculations are very time sensitive so the their app connects to the internet to get and return the latest bitcoin data. That's also why the workunits are so small. They can't send hours of work or hundreds of WUs since, just like at MW, the results returned affect the next WUs to be generated.

I've had several WUs hang and require killing the process. It wasted hours last night with the close/debug/cancel window keeping it from crunching. But, the credit is way better on my 6970 that at Moo and even with the outage, I earned more at Donate than at Moo. But, if Donate lowers their credit, I'll leave as it won't be worth the hassle.

[Mike029]

I'm not getting any work now. :(

[Fire$torm]

@Slicker: OK, that makes sense.

@Bryan: It would seem strange for them to march to DA's drum since he is so dead set against them even existing.

[Slicker]

I'm not getting any work now. :(

300 WUs (max) in progress and each user gets up to 2. That means the project can support 150 users. They have over 220 users with credit at present, so 70 of them can't get work at any given time. That's why I released the new BOINC Project Updater which can now update using seconds as well as minutes which gives you a better chance of getting a WU before someone else grabs it.

[zombie67]

BPU is working like a charm. I am getting a mix of 30 second and 900 second tasks.

Edit: 19k tasks ready to send. I think they are back to 2 tasks per GPU, no limit on the total in progress.

[Bryan]

They are going to zero the high paying credits tomorrow :( Dang :))

Here is what GDF said when I pointed out they were cutting the credits to levels below Moo:


Maybe, I have no idea of moo wrapper. The ratio is about right. We are going to align to gpugrid acemd2 credits.

gdf


My replay which he hasn't responded to yet:

Then I'm afraid the project is doomed! IMHO of course.

If I can run an established project, Moo Wrapper, that pays higher credits, is stable, gets its credits reported on ALL major stats sites why exactly would I choose to run Donate?

Maybe, just maybe, I would do it to help get a researcher for GPUGrid BUT I think the project will never realize the full potential available from ATI crunchers.

[Fire$torm]

They are going to zero the high paying credits tomorrow :( Dang :))

Here is what GDF said when I pointed out they were cutting the credits to levels below Moo:



My replay which he hasn't responded to yet:

Then I'm afraid the project is doomed! IMHO of course.

If I can run an established project, Moo Wrapper, that pays higher credits, is stable, gets its credits reported on ALL major stats sites why exactly would I choose to run Donate?

Maybe, just maybe, I would do it to help get a researcher for GPUGrid BUT I think the project will never realize the full potential available from ATI crunchers.

Well, they have started the rollback. If they continue with this then I'm dropping this project.

[zombie67]

I know they fixed the 30 second tasks. Changed them to something like 250 each. That's better than nothing. These were really failed tasks anyway.

But have they started lowering the credits awarded for real tasks?

[Fire$torm]

I know they fixed the 30 second tasks. Changed them to something like 250 each. That's better than nothing. These were really failed tasks anyway.

But have they started lowering the credits awarded for real tasks?

Not sure. Although my stats show a Negative 60,000 credits for today. Not happy. What bugs me is the bait and switch tactic. At least that is what it looks like to me.

[zombie67]

What bugs me is the bait and switch tactic. At least that is what it looks like to me.

The problem was with a bug in the 6.12 app, and it was fixed within 24 hours. Wouldn't they have let go on longer to attract more people, if it was intentional?

This sort of credit over-awarding problem and subsequent credit-correcting is fairly common with BOINC projects.

*shrug*

[Fire$torm]

The problem was with a bug in the 6.12 app, and it was fixed within 24 hours. Wouldn't they have let go on longer to attract more people, if it was intentional?

This sort of credit over-awarding problem and subsequent credit-correcting is fairly common with BOINC projects.

*shrug*

I think I misunderstood Bryan's post. I thought Donate was going to roll back my 7.5 Mil. If that is not the case then I'll keep running it.

[Bryan]

They said they were going to roll back the credits for the wu that took 30s and were paying full credits.

I had looked at the top Linux box when they had come out with the new app and it was taking almost double the normal time and awarding the same credits. If you look at the "New Application" thread they said the new app was being tied to the credit level of acmed versus acmedlong. When I questioned them on it they replied that that was correct. I then asked them why would someone run the project and get less credits than Moo which is an established project.

They didn't reply to that and they haven't dropped the credits on the Windows app. Maybe they won't. You can no longer see the top computers to check what the Linux box is doing since they are only showing the top 5. That machine was #3 until the credit boom happened.

INTERESTING: The last post I made on that thread is no longer there. That is the one I asked why would I run donate when I could get higher credits on Moo :)) I quoted that post on this thread a couple of days ago. But you can see their response to the dropped credits (which hasn't happened yet at least on Windows boxes).


http://donateathome.org/forum_thread.php?id=47

[zombie67]

You can no longer see the top computers to check what the Linux box is doing since they are only showing the top 5.

You can still see the full list. Volunteers -> Hosts

But the problem is that their DB appears to be broken. Any long list fails to completely load. Try displaying any of the longer threads. It will show a few messages, and then stall.

[Slicker]

You can still see the full list. Volunteers -> Hosts

But the problem is that their DB appears to be broken. Any long list fails to completely load. Try displaying any of the longer threads. It will show a few messages, and then stall.

I don't think it is a DB problem. It is a PBCAK (problem between the chair and keyboard) of the person who set up the main page. I think that person changed the queries on the stats pages to limit it to a few users so he/she could use those queries on the main web page without comprehending that those queries are used on the stats pages also. That's my theory anyway.

Credits are still at 6250 per WU, but the WUs have roughly doubled in size. Still, a 6970 can get over 500K per day when the WUs don't crash causing a pop-up window which halts all GPU processing until you clear it. So, just to get as many credits as possible while the going is good, I swapped out a 5450 with a 6850 since it is rated very high on the bitcoin/$$$ charts. After upgrading the AMD drivers, I found out the 5450 will work as well. I've even got the old 4830 on it. Hoping to see 1M per day if I babysit the boxes and close the pop-ups when the WUs crash.

Interesting side note... They hope to earn 18K Euros a year. The only problem with that is that the number of bitcoins found is constantly decreasing. The more people the "mine" them, the faster they will decline. So, this may not be all that long lived. (e.g. 18% in harder to find Oct, 8.5% harder in Nov, 5.9% in Dec, 7.8% in Jan). Eventually, like the Alaskan Gold Rush, it will get to the point where very few are found and those doing the mining to earn money will quit because the electricity cost outweighs the value of the bitcoins. Then again, if they keep paying us to do the mining for them and trade us useless credits for bitcoins.....

[Mike029]

Then again, if they keep paying us to do the mining for them and trade us useless credits for bitcoins.....

The truth, it hurts sometimes. :p

[Duke of Buckingham]

I must say to you: Keep feeding your machines.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ci40tjzuYY4/TZ4KcrPknOI/AAAAAAAAAOw/oI-6erOIbWc/s1600/wargames.jpg

There several ways of feeding your machines, some are better than others, don`t you think Ray Ferrier?

http://static.arstechnica.net/2011/10/06/wotw5-4e8dabf-intro.jpg

Do you want some points for bitcoins human.

http://www.hollywoodtoday.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/terminator-4.jpg

Better for you. So I will let you live longer

http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lbrb16dKm81qdku4ro1_250.gif

Very Crazy Duke

[Mumps]

Still, a 6970 can get over 500K per day when the WUs don't crash causing a pop-up window which halts all GPU processing until you clear it. So, just to get as many credits as possible while the going is good, I swapped out a 5450 with a 6850 since it is rated very high on the bitcoin/$$$ charts. After upgrading the AMD drivers, I found out the 5450 will work as well. I've even got the old 4830 on it. Hoping to see 1M per day if I babysit the boxes and close the pop-ups when the WUs crash.

I'm not sure your crash is the same as mine, but here's something to try. The dialog I've been getting is the standard "Windows Error Reporting" dialog. "Application has crashed, want to tell Microsoft? Look for solution, or close the program?" It looks like it's as easy as setting your system to never worry about reporting errors. On Windows 7, Go into the Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Services and simply set the "Windows Error Reporting Service" to "Disabled" After all, who ever tells Microsoft about any of the errors this stupid thing catches anyways? (It's never found a "solution" for any I ever did report, so why even bother?) I did that this morning, on my system that has the 5770 with Catalyst 12.1 on it and (knock on wood) no problems since. It's even run all day *without* reporting a task as "Error" Completion status, whereas it used to kack at least once every few hours.

Hopefully that means I'll get my RAC up a bit again seeing as that card had been producing about 25% of my total RAC anyways while it was exclusively running Collatz. ;)

PS: I also just saw that Catalyst 12.2 is now available. Guess it's time again to see if it's worth upgrading to...

[Maxwell]

Good to know, Mumps! Thanks for posting that! I've had that same problem when on Donate, and I'll be switching back there in about 8.5 days.

[Mumps]

Good to know, Mumps! Thanks for posting that! I've had that same problem when on Donate, and I'll be switching back there in about 8.5 days.

Update: I just had one fail and it no longer paused. So, while I lost 33 minutes of crunching time, it kicked it out and started the next one. No silly dialog waiting for me to wake up and kick it. :)

[STE\/E]

Update: I just had one fail and it no longer paused. So, while I lost 33 minutes of crunching time, it kicked it out and started the next one. No silly dialog waiting for me to wake up and kick it. :)

Tried your suggestion Mumps & it seems to have helped, I haven't had one hang since early this morning. But I've still had 21 Error out after running just as long as the others that don't error out. It's still a vast improvement though if none hang & just error out. I wake every morning to 2 or 3 Wu's that have been Hung for 7-8 Hr's, uncanny how the Project knows when I'm going to bed ... lol

Funny thing is I thought of Disabling the Error Reporting quite awhile ago but just was to lazy or whatever to implement it ... sigh

[Mumps]

Kinda good day since the tweak. Seems that host has managed to triple it's highest daily output ever on Donate since the tweak.

http://stats5.free-dc.org/stats.php?page=host&proj=don&hostid=213

317K in one day out of a single 5770? I'll take that and be happy. :)