Collatz Conjecture

Anything "BOINC" specific can be commented on here...such as Project news and announcements etc. Also: any problems with BOINC or maybe you have found something interesting, tell us about it. Chat about the various 3rd party client applications used for some of the projects such as optimised clients.
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UBT - Mikee
Marvin the Dalek
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Collatz Conjecture

Post by UBT - Mikee »

At last a NVidia GPU project that those of us with lower spec Graphics cards can do! (As well as faster cards.)

My 8400GS can do these in around 2-3 hours, the 9800GT does them in 13 minutes.

You should get around 70-80 credits/WU. On slower cards it's around 700/day - not a huge amount but it's 700 you weren't getting before.

Maybe 2 problems...

Slower cards will notice a screen lag - you can stop this by downloading the latest BOINC Manager ( http://boinc.berkeley.edu/download.php ) currently 6.6.36, attach to the project ( http://boinc.thesonntags.com/collatz/ ), set project preferences to...

Use Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) if available 'yes'
Use Central Processing Unit (CPU) 'no'
(CPU version takes 4-5 hours if you want to do that, for the same credit)

In BOINC Manager - 'Advanced' > 'preferences' > 'processor usage' - untick 'Use GPU while computer is in use' box. Set the idle time to whatever you want (mines set to 3 minutes). The GPU will stop crunching as soon as you tap the keyboard and allow normal computer usage without screen lag. It will start again 3 minutes after the last keystroke. Only do this if you do have a lag problem.

The other problem, (which might not be as I'm not at the other PC that often to check) is that on restart the percentage restarts at 0%. Whether it actually does restart from 0 or from a checkpoint I don't know.

Quorum is 2 so you don't get instant gratification (ooer!)
This project's goal is to prove, or disprove, the Collatz Conjecture.

In a nutshell, the Collatz Conjecture states: For any number if the number is even divide by two else multiple by three and add one. Repeat. Eventually all numbers will reach 1.

For example:

Start with 3.
3 -> 3 * 3 + 1 = 10
10 -> 10 / 2 = 5
5 -> 5 * 3 + 1 = 16
16 -> 16 / 2 = 8
8 -> 8 / 2 = 4
4 -> 4 / 2 = 2
2 -> 2 / 2 = 1
1 (finished)

It took 7 steps to reach 1.

Searches will start where the previous 3x+1@home project left off, beginning with the number 2,361,183,346,958,000,000,001

Note: This project is not for commercial purposes, nor it is related to any academic research. It was created because. That's it. Just because.
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Temujin
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Post by Temujin »

On their frontpage news, CollatzCon admins wrote:The ATI v2.06 application was released two weeks ago, but there are still users submitting results with ATI v2.05 applications which are known to cause the validator to crash. On Friday, November 6th, I will be intalling a new validator that will mark any ATI v2.05 results returned after Thursday, November 5th as invalid. Credit will not be granted. The result will be discarded and re-issued to another user.
So, go check you collatz conjecture apps and make sure you're not running v2.05

Basically, unless you're running Linux, you now no longer need an app_info.xml file, it will download the correct app automatically
Ben
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Joined: Wed Dec 19, 2007 12:00 am

Post by Ben »

Temujin wrote:Basically, unless you're running Linux, you now no longer need an app_info.xml file, it will download the correct app automatically
I think you need boinc version 6.10.10 (if i remember correctly) before it can detect you have ATI cards installed. If you have Nvidia cards then it's not a problem, but for us speedy ATI folk i don't think it will happen automatically until you do.  :!:
UBT-mark3346
Active UBT Contributor 15+ yrs
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Post by UBT-mark3346 »

Collatz is back but you will need to restart Boinc to upload etc
The power is back on, and the network is now up as well. For the next week or so, Collatz will be testing an alternate Internet provider. That means that the IP address has changed so you will need to restart your BOINC client in order to upload your results and get more work. I would appreciate any feedback as to how well the new connection is working or not working, whichever the case may be.
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Temujin
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Post by Temujin »

Can anyone help me getting my HD5870 to work on Collatz Conjecture?

This card runs primegrid PPS fine (and can run milkyway) but if I try to run collatz it immediately gives messages like Output file collatzxxxxxxx absent for every WU (see here).

It's a winxp machine running boinc V6.10.60 and has .net 3.5 SP1 installed.
I've just tried the latest ATI drivers without success. AFAIR it was running the same ATI drivers as some of my other machines that run collatz ok

Any ideas?
Zydor
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Joined: Mon Nov 01, 2010 12:00 am

Post by Zydor »

The error message in the stderror for the WUs means there is System File damage somewhere. Emotive explanation, but its a catch all phrase used for various states where an application or operating system falls over.  The fact that you are running the others ok does clearly indicate no Serious OpSys damage - however it could still mean parts of the OpSys are not uptodate, or parts used by Collatz (and not the others) is corrupted.  Nine times out of ten, its a "simple" application level or minor sysfile corruption.  Finding it though is never simple ....

Its impossible to deduce further than that, so the only way to approach it is go through an ever increasing (in terms of effort) set efforts focused on the applications run and OpSys.  Suggest you run through these one at a time in the order shown, see how it flys after each stage (I'll number them as a reference point for ease of explanation if needed later):

1.  Ensure Collatz Project Directory & BOINC Data directory are explicitly entered as exceptions in your anti-v/firewall

2.  Change BOINC to 6.12.26 as a minimum (I am using 6.12.33 at present, that seems ok, so go for that if you want).  There were big changes in the Client "under the hood" from 6.10.XX to 6.12.26 that far far outweigh the controversy over the Message Tab. 6.12.26 and on deals far better with GPU WUs.

3.  Open a CMD Box, and run "sfc /SCANNOW"  (no quotes).  That will take a while - 5 to 15 mins.  That will run a Windows System File Check fixing corrution where  it can, and generally tydes up.  On completion highly likely it will find some it "can't fix", leave them, reboot run it one more time.  After second run, ignore can't fix, and reboot.

4.  Run a Registry Cleaner (twice)

5.  You are running .NET 3.5, install .NET V4.  Slicker always uses the latest "Calls", and if there are "Calls" in the code unique to V4, it will fall over.  No idea if this is happening, however, its worth going to V4 anyway.
Download from Microsoft Site .NET V4

6.  Run SFC again (once) to recheck after V4 install, then run registry cleaner after a reboot.

7.  Delete Grahics Drivers in Control Panel, reboot, run a Driver Cleaner to get rid of bits, reinstall latest Graphics drivers, reboot, run sfc again, and run registry cleaner again.

8.  Reduce Collatz cache to zero, aborting as needed, set BOINC cache prefernces to zero (to stop runaways), detatch the machine from Collatz at BOINCStats, run synch with BOINCStats from BOINC Client, reattatch via BOINCStats, run synch with BOINCStats from BOINC Client, try a couple WUs

After that lot .... you are as clean as you will get apart from deleting and rebuilding the Windows Graphics Devices.  The latter will be partly rebuilt anyway when V4 is installed, but if still problems at this point, worth going to Device Manager, right click each graphics device, select "uninstall" (ignore the Windows Armagedeon Threats), delet graphics drivers from Control Panel, reboot, then reinstall Graphics Drivers.  I know .... yet another graphics driver install, but at this point V4 is in, and Devices being rebuilt, so worth that extra step.

Somewhere amongst that you *should* catch what it is.  Lot of work for sure, probably about an hour in all, and I can't *guarantee* Collatz will work at the end.  However, that work is not wasted as you will have done a very substantial clean out and re-build at OpSys, Device, Driver and application level; that is not a bad thing in itself.

Could jump a few steps for sure, but you can't be certain you will not leave behind the problem as you move on. Very Difficult to say if its worth it, I'm not staring at the screen and seeing what you are seeing. However, its worth a go. If Collatz still bombs out, then its thinking caps on again, but at least you will have a clean well up to date beastie.

Regards
Zy
Temujin
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Joined: Mon Mar 13, 2006 12:00 am

Post by Temujin »

thanks for that Zy, I'll work my way through it tomorrow night
Temujin
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Post by Temujin »

.net v4 seems to have done the trick, thanks Zy :thumbup:
Zydor
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Joined: Mon Nov 01, 2010 12:00 am

Post by Zydor »

Excellent - Happy Crunching :)

Regards
Zy
UBT - Mikee
Marvin the Dalek
Posts: 4395
Joined: Wed Mar 15, 2006 12:00 am
Location: North Wales

Post by UBT - Mikee »

Up and Running Again
The new server is finally up and running and everything that could be recovered from the old server was moved over to it. Total credit and RAC were updated from the last stats dump since it was several hours newer than the database backup. Unfortunately, the server has no knowledge of any work units sent out between the database backup and the crash. While I can recreate the missing work units, I cannot create the missing result records because I have no way of knowing which host was sent which work unit. As is often the case with a new deployment, there will likely be a few glitches so please let me know of any issues. Thanks. 26 Jul 2013, 19:30:46 UTC
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Zydor
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Post by Zydor »

Collatz Configs ....

Worth putting in values for the additional CONFIG group. Speed up is around double previous speed all for nothing, for any type of GPU - just watch your temperatures as they will rise markedly and fan speed will have to go up.

See thread at:
http://boinc.thesonntags.com/collatz/fo ... 6503#16503

You will nearly double the WU crunching output - all for nothing, apart from upping fan speed.

Seems rude not to :)
UBT - Mikee
Marvin the Dalek
Posts: 4395
Joined: Wed Mar 15, 2006 12:00 am
Location: North Wales

Post by UBT - Mikee »

Drive Error
An error on one of the mirrored data drives has caused some concern. The server is currently running without any RAID on the data drives. While the data has been remotely archived, a drive failure on the remaining data drive could result in a loss of data between the last backup and the time at which the drive fails. The drive that has failed will be replaced as soon as possible but will likely not happen prior to early next week due to other commitments. 10 Oct 2013, 4:04:38 UTC · Comment
Upload/download has been a bit flaky for the last 24 or so hours - looks like it's gone down again now and will be 'til next week. If this is is case you may want to swap over to another GPU project. Moo! Wrapper http://moowrap.net/ is my current favourite.

edit...

Just noticed that John has lost his crown and is now #2 as Zydor steals it!
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