Linux with AMD

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#1 Linux with AMD

Post by Alez »

Does anyone know how to get a working setup with AMD graphics cards and Boinc on Ubuntu 14.04. Compared to nVidia cards this is a nightmare. The drivers on the standard repos are a waste of time and are not recognised by Boinc or even sysinfo. Image
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#2 Re: Linux with AMD

Post by Dirk Broer »

From a post of mine on AMD Users: I decided to read up on other user's problems and found the 'solution': Removing ubuntu-drivers-common allowed for customization of xorg.conf again
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#3 Re: Linux with AMD

Post by Alez »

Will need to look into this. I actually managed to get a HD6770 running on 14.04 and crunching using the fglrx updated drivers but had to remove all access control to xhost and then sudo restart boinc. Haven't managed the same trick with a 7970 yet. I have a how to almost ready if I can get that crunching.
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#4 Re: Linux with AMD

Post by Dirk Broer »

Having to restart BOINC in order to be able to crunch using AMD sounds very familairImage
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#5 Re: Linux with AMD

Post by Alez »

Yes, far more work involved than nVidia, which is pretty much windows style plug and play. Strange thing is I can get an HD6670 crunching but so far not a HD7970. Fglrx drivers from repo don't seem to install openCL with the HD7970, but they work fine with the HD6770.
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#6 Re: Linux with AMD

Post by Alez »

What I've got so far. Far from a how to as with the nVidea's as it seems different things needed with different cards. Any other knowledge or tricks / tips post them up. There must be an easier way than jumping through all these hoops. Anyhoo this is a total work in progress and is not intended as a definitive step by step yet. More work is required. The guide as it is ....

Here is a step by step guide for installing Ubuntu 14.04 lts with boinc and AMD gpu's.
Written by an idiot so it should work. Have computer built as you want it, GPU on Mobo etc.

Download Ubuntu 14.04 lts http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop use the 64bit version unless you really have to use 32bit ( really old computer ) Don't use 12.04 LTS or you are on your own. I'm never touching that again.

Burn iso to CD / DVD http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/ ... -on-ubuntu
or bootable USB http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/ ... on-windows

Make sure boot from CD ( or USB ) is set in bios as 1st option. Stick disc in cd drive, boot and
install Ubuntu.Remember to input a password as you will need one. When finished system will reboot.

Upon reboot let system update install updates if it is required. Reboot if required.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Select system settings from the launcher bar.
Brightness and lock - turn screen off -> never
lock -> off
Power management
suspend when inactive for -> never

select software updater and enable partner repo's in SETTINGS -> OTHER SOFTWARE and select all 4 options.( use file manager to search for it if it is not on your launch bar )

Select software center from launcher bar and search / install the following packages

Sysinfo
Psensor
Freeglut3 ( freeglut3-dev )
Virtualbox
7zip
java ( open JDK java7 runtime )

select additional drivers from the software updater ( SETTINGS -> ADDITIONAL DRIVERS )
this will search and give options for amd drivers, install amd propriatory drivers

Reboot when finished
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Select software center from launcher bar and search / download the following packages

boinc ( boinc 7.2.42 ( ancient but it will do at first ))
metapackage for boinc client and manager

(both found by searching boinc)


metapackage for openCL savvy boinc client and manager.
(this will install all the libraries needed for GPU crunching, both found by searching amd )

next we need to install the 32 bit libraries ( this list will do all the projects on boinc ( it
can be installed from software center, but installing 32bit, removes 64 bit, go figure )). This will
require the terminal i'm afraid, but dont worry. Either copy and paste or type exactly the commands in red. Linux is reliant on syntax

open terminal -> Ctrl-Alt-T

sudo apt-get install gcc-4.7-multilib
sudo apt-get install lib32z-dev
sudo apt-get install lib32ncurses5 lib32bz2-1.0 libstdc++6 libstdc++5

add the following ppa's

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:webupd8team/java
sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:webupd8team/y-ppa-manager
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates

ppa:webupd8team/java will update java
ppa:webupd8team/y-ppa-manager gives you a ppa manager
ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa and ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates give you updated nvidia drivers

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Finally we update boinc to a up to date version by adding this PPA to your system
( You can update your system with unsupported packages from this untrusted PPA by adding
ppa:costamagnagianfranco/boinc to your system's Software Sources.There is a PPA repository available for Ubuntu.
This is a "testing" PPA, that typically is rebuilt with the newest Boinc version as they are released.
You may experience bugs with the version changes, but if you want the current boinc version installed the easy way from a repository: type these commands in a terminal CTRL-ALT-t)

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:costamagnagianfranco/boinc

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get upgrade

(will bring you to current version 7.4.34 (as of 19/12/14))

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

select additional drivers from the software updater -> additional drivers ( use file manager to search for it if it is not on your launch bar )
this will search and give options for amd drivers, install propriatory plus updates
Reboot when finished

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Boinc should now be running but no usable gpu will be found.

in terminal ( ctrl-alt-t )


sudo usermod -a -G video boinc

( this adds the unprivalidged boinc account to the video group )

sudo update-rc.d -f boinc-client remove
sudo update-rc.d boinc-client defaults 99

( move BOINC start-up to the end of start-up processing )


sudo service boinc-client restart

( restarts the boinc client )

Thats it, check boinc now see's a usable gpu in the start up log. Select boinc from launcher bar, ( advanced view -> advanced -> view log ( at the start of the log it should now have entries for your GPU with openCL versions )) .
Once you have completed and have a GPU available to BOINC, running and controlling Boinc is exactly as you would under windows.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
launch Bam manager as per usual for new install or attach to project as per your preferences. Boinc will autoboot on startup of computer. Set all your preferences on boinc as you usually would.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you have problems check that the fglrx drivers are installed.
fglrxinfo

this should give an output similar to this
fglrxinfo
display: :0 screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: AMD Radeon HD 6300M Series
OpenGL version string: 4.2.11733 Compatibility Profile Context

I found that installing from the repo didn't work so I installed through the command line.

Save a backup copy of xorg.conf in case this doesn't work.

sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.BAK

Remove/purge current fglrx and fglrx-amdcccle (If you have used a method outside of aptitude, apt, Software Center or Synaptic, follow the other party's instructions for removal). You will need to deliberately remove both the normal and -updates versions in recent releases of Ubuntu because it seems that attempting to remove one installs the other:

sudo apt-get remove --purge fglrx fglrx-amdcccle fglrx-updates fglrx-amdcccle-updates

Reboot.

You may need to install the linux generic headers

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic

Install the driver:

sudo apt-get install fglrx fglrx-amdcccle

or

sudo apt-get install fglrx-updates fglrx-amdcccle-updates

Generate a fresh xorg.conf BEFORE REBOOTING!

sudo aticonfig --initial

or:

sudo amdconfig --initial

If you are using multiple AMD graphics cards or AMD dual graphics (i.e.: notebook users), use:

sudo aticonfig --adapter=all --initial

or:

sudo amdconfig --adapter=all --initial

Reboot again.

To confirm the drivers are working open a terminal and type:

fglrxinfo

You should get an output similar to the following:

fglrxinfo
display: :0 screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: AMD Radeon HD 6300M Series
OpenGL version string: 4.2.11733 Compatibility Profile Context

Use the Catalyst Control Center to make final adjustments to your monitor setup. If, after rebooting, you are presented with the message "Could not apply the stored configuration for monitors", do not be alarmed. It simply means that you will have to use the Catalyst Control Center to configure your monitors as you should even in the case where this warning is not shown. This most likely to happen with multiple monitor applications (particularly if the monitors are of different sizes) and multiple graphics card applications.

more info here https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/AMD

Boinc still would not recognise my card. I tried inserting the sleep command as per .......
That didn't work either.

I also tried most of the fixes below

ISSUE #2 (ATI Only): ATI Driver / X-session can not be accessed by user “boinc” results in GPU not found with Hdxxxx series cards (this may have started with v10.04 of Ubuntu).

See history here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... bug/587426


FIX #1 (recommended one):
(a)Do not apply this fix without first having applied one of the delay BOINC fixes above.
(b)By default the user “boinc” does not have access to the x-session and therefore the ATI driver that is installed (Proprietary v10.x driver from AMD site).
(c)After multiple attempts at fixing this, the following line added right after the sleep 6 (see issue #1) will give you a work around solution. A permanent fix will require changes in the ATI drivers.
xhost local:boinc &> /dev/null

(d)This will allow user “boinc” access to the x-session and therefore the ATI drivers.
(e)You will have to restart boinc after you've logged in from a cold start or reboot with:
sudo /etc/init.d/boinc-client restart

(f)You will have to leave the machine logged on.
(g)The credit for this fix really goes to gfarmerfr


FIX #2 (the first one I tried & tested):
(a)Edit the file /etc/default/boinc-client with sudo gedit /etc/default/boinc-client.
(b)Change the line
BOINC_USER="boinc"
to be
BOINC_USER=”root”
.
(c)This has some security risks that would not normally be tolerated on a linux system because BOINC will now be running with root privileges and a malicious task could destroy your system.
(d)I'm not sure of this (bad memory installed in the unit writing this) but I believe you will still have to restart BOINC as in steps f and g above.


FIX #3 (I don't think I ever tested this one but it should work and has been reported as such):
(a)Same as FIX #2 but instead of running BOINC as root set it to run as your user id.
(b)So (see (b) above) change it to
BOINC_USER=”skip”
instead (obviously, I hope, use your user id here not mine).
(c)Change the directory /var/lib/boinc-client and everything under it to be owned by your user id. See man chown. This should be something like:
sudo chown -R skip: /etc/var/lib/boinc-client.


ISSUE #2, FIX #1 addendum:
(a)One person reported that this will get rid of the need for a restart and to remain logged in but it didn't work for me.
(b)It did buy me one thing. A GPU WU that was in progress when a machine was restarted will start up again after the restart and seems to finish OK. I say “seems to” because I only tested this on one project. However another new GPU WU didn't start up for me, instead the application reported errors finding threads and/or devices for the WU (two different projects did this). There are some security issues around this. However here's all it is if you want to give it a try.
(c)Create or Modify /etc/gdm/custom-conf with sudo gedit /etc/gdm/custom-conf adding the following lines:
# to allow user "boinc" to connect prior to log on [xdmcp] Enable=true

(d)Modify /etc/init.d/boinc-client to include an additional line AFTER the sleep 9 from issue #1, fix #1 and BEFORE the
issue #2, fix #1 xhost local:boinc line so your start-up script now has the following in it:
else sleep 9 export DISPLAY=:0.0 xhost local:boinc &> /dev/null start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --background --pidfile $PIDFILE \ --make-pidfile --user $BOINC_USER --chuid $BOINC_USER \ --chdir $BOINC_DIR --exec $BOINC_CLIENT -- $BOINC_OPTS

http://boinc.berkeley.edu/dev/forum_thr ... 307&sort=5

I also tried

here's a bug in the 13.8 beta driver which means access rights to the device are not set correctly and so for example the AMD Catalyst Control Centre program does not start unless you are root. We don't like being root, so you need to enable access to /proc/ati with a chmod -R 777 /proc/ati

To allow this to happen, and to make sure the video drivers are there before boinc starts I amended /usr/lib/systemd/system/boinc-client.service with the following lines...

ExecStartPre=/bin/sleep 20
ExecStartPre=/usr/bin/chmod -R 777 /proc/ati

i.e. changed the sleep from 1 to 20, and added the line to change permissions.

I also added the following line to allow the Xserver realise that boinc is allowed access to the GPUs

ExecStartPre=/usr/bin/xhost local:boinc

Boinc now starts up and says I have a GPU ...

http://boinc.berkeley.edu/dev/forum_thread.php?id=8571


What worked for me in the end was to issue the command

xhost +si:localuser:boinc
or just disable access restrictions altogether.

xhost +

after that
sudo service boinc-client restart

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

if you wish to use Linux for more than just a cruncher, take a look here to install VCL, photo editors, MP3/4 plugins etc.
http://howtoubuntu.org/things-to-do-aft ... rusty-tahr

Hope it helps
Alez
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#7 Re: Linux with AMD

Post by Dirk Broer »

Drat, that's one mighty how-to....I'll try it on my AM1 system.
If it won't work I'll switch it to Windows 10 :)
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#8 Re: Linux with AMD

Post by Alez »

If you get it to work, find any other tricks or even better find an easier way, please let me know. nVidia is so easy on Linux, AMD can't be this hard surely. I currently run all my AMD cards on Windows simply because it's so hard to get them to crunch. Display and openGL is easy but as soon as you go near openCL it just becomes a nightmare.
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#9 Re: Linux with AMD

Post by Dirk Broer »

I finally got my HD 8400 (aka AMD Kalindi or something like that) working, under Windows 10!
I had first married the AM1I-A iTX mobo to an Antec ISK 110 VESA and when I was satisfied with the result,
I decided to give it one more try to run the IGP under Ubuntu 14.04. Netto result: a totally borked system.
First I got into an endless password loop, later into low graphics mode. When I was done raving and shouting
I installed Win10, downloaded the last AMD driver, installed BOINC and: voila!
Collatz runs, using only OpenCL and not needing CAL :alien:

Soon as Windows 10 is no longer free I will of course re-install a Linux distro.... :clown:
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#10 Re: Linux with AMD

Post by Alez »

Found this useful post which has some very useful info
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#11 Re: Linux with AMD

Post by Dirk Broer »

Just brought my F1A75-V EVO back from Windows 10
-I had used the same install DVD as for the AM1 system, so according to MicroSoft not eligible for free real Win10 upgrade- to Linux, this time Linux Mint 17.2
At first no GPUs at all,
then -installing the distro's FGLRX files- CAL on the IGP only,
now -after adding some stuff (the prerequisites as AMD mentions them on their download page)-
OpenCL on all three GPUs -but no CAL anymore (just as with the AM1 under Win10).
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#12 Re: Linux with AMD

Post by Alez »

currently changing all my linux machines over to lubuntu 15.04. All my nvidia cards are now under linux. Going to have to set up an amd card and try again see if 15.04 is any better than before.
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#13 Re: Linux with AMD

Post by Dirk Broer »

Alez wrote:currently changing all my linux machines over to lubuntu 15.04. All my nvidia cards are now under linux. Going to have to set up an amd card and try again see if 15.04 is any better than before.
Going to build another Socket AM1 based Athlon 5350 system, but planning to run that under Ubuntu. By running the same projects as the first, now Win10 running Athlon 5350, I hope to see whether the massive difference in BOINC benchmarks between Linux and Windows can be translated into some real-life performance.
The outcome might mean that I will run all my AMD based systems under Linux in the future....
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#14 Re: Linux with AMD

Post by Silver »

Sounds like a good experiment Dirk, I'm sure a few will be interested to hear your results.
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#15 Re: Linux with AMD

Post by Bryan »

Dirk Broer wrote: I hope to see whether the massive difference in BOINC benchmarks between Linux and Windows can be translated into some real-life performance.
The outcome might mean that I will run all my AMD based systems under Linux in the future....
The benchmarks don't mean anything Dirk. If you want to compare 2 Linux machines then they might be an indication of which machine is faster. A Windows to Linux benchmark comparison means nothing at all. There are some projects that pay a little better on one OS than the other, but that is a function of how good the executable is.

There are a number of projects that are not fixed credit that Linux will crunch faster than Windows, but on those Linux will always request far less credits than a Windows machine.
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#16 Re: Linux with AMD

Post by Dirk Broer »

Bryan wrote:The benchmarks don't mean anything Dirk. If you want to compare 2 Linux machines then they might be an indication of which machine is faster. A Windows to Linux benchmark comparison means nothing at all. There are some projects that pay a little better on one OS than the other, but that is a function of how good the executable is.
There are a number of projects that are not fixed credit that Linux will crunch faster than Windows, but on those Linux will always request far less credits than a Windows machine.
The exact same physical box working on SRBase:
CPU type AuthenticAMD AMD Athlon(tm) 5350 APU with Radeon(tm) R3 [Family 22 Model 0 Stepping 1]
OS Microsoft Windows 10 Professional x64 Edition, (10.00.10240.00)
BOINC version 7.6.6
Memory 15296.18 MB
Cache 2048 KB
Virtual memory 17600.18 MB
Total diskspace 111.01 GB
Free diskspace 67.11 GB
Measured 'floating point' speed 2099.47 million ops/sec
Measured 'integer' speed 3784.07 million ops/sec

CPU type AuthenticAMD AMD Athlon(tm) 5350 APU with Radeon(tm) R3 [Family 22 Model 0 Stepping 1]
OS Linux 3.13.0-53-generic
BOINC version 7.4.23
Memory 14913.64 MB
Cache 2048 KB
Virtueel memory 8152 MB
Total diskspace 101.61 GB
Free diskspace 71.64 GB
Measured 'floating point' speed 2311.72 miljoen ops/sec
Measured 'integer' speed 8987.59 miljoen ops/sec
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#17 Re: Linux with AMD

Post by Bryan »

Yes Dirk, I'm well aware of what the benchmarks are on Windows versus Linux. All of my machines are dual boot. The benchmarks mean nothing except on the same OS! On SRBase, my Windows machines perform a little better than Linux. My integer benchmark on WIndows is 14333 and on Linux it is 26770. Those numbers are from the same machine (I7-3930K @ 4.2GHz).

When you start a new project you need to run a machine on WIndows for 5-6 hours until Credit New has finished screwing with you. Then run the same machine (or an identical machine) on Linux for the same period of time. Then check to see which will give you the bigger bang for the buck.

The executable is the difference and not the OS. Universe for example will pay about 30% higher on Linux than WIndows (the admin said they did more "tweaking" on the Linux app). LHC pays 50% higher on Linux. Denis right now on Windows is paying about 1000% higher than Linux because there is an optimized WIndows app.

EDIT: I will add that if I had to chose 1 OS for crunching I'd pick Linux. There are more projects where it has a "slight" edge on credits. But then there are those where Linux "always" request less credits for a WU than a WIndows machine does ... by a factor of 2 or more.
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#18 Re: Linux with AMD

Post by Dirk Broer »

Bryan wrote:Yes Dirk, I'm well aware of what the benchmarks are on Windows versus Linux. All of my machines are dual boot. The benchmarks mean nothing except on the same OS!
At least I can hope for better results for my Raspberry Pi2 then. By installing some extra libraries supporting armhf and/or integer calculations I managed to change the benchmarks from the original (out-of-the-box Raspbian Wheezy)
292 MIPS floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU and
1143 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU
to
489 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU and
1944 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU
But now on Raspbian Jessie and with added libraries...
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#19 Re: Linux with AMD

Post by Bryan »

Dirk Broer wrote:
Bryan wrote:Yes Dirk, I'm well aware of what the benchmarks are on Windows versus Linux. All of my machines are dual boot. The benchmarks mean nothing except on the same OS!
At least I can hope for better results for my Raspberry Pi2 then. By installing some extra libraries supporting armhf and/or integer calculations I managed to change the benchmarks from the original (out-of-the-box Raspbian Wheezy)
292 MIPS floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU and
1143 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU
to
489 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU and
1944 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU
But now on Raspbian Jessie and with added libraries...
Now that will make a difference. On the same machine w/ the same OS then the benchmarks are real!

You guys are all running these small machines ... when I get back from our winter home next spring I've got to look into that!!!

Here is a link I found and bookmarked a while ago for doing BOINC on a PI. HERE I have a PI B that I got with some bitcoin miners but I've never powered it up.
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#20 Re: Linux with AMD

Post by Dirk Broer »

A word for the wary:

Ubuntu 16.04 LTS does not have a fglrx driver, nor will it work when you try to install the AMD fglrx driver of a previous version.
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS now works with an open source driver.
The good: it recognizes the GPU and it's OpenCL capabilities upon boot.
The bad: it will -for the moment- only crunch when using GCN 1.2 and later -the very latest in Radeon.
My Athlon 5350s have a GCN 1.1 IGP (Kalindi, aka AMD RAdeon HD 8400) and give CL file build failures.
OpenCL-wise the open source driver is a -hopefully temporary- step back, from OpenCL 2.0 under the fglrx driver to OpenCL 1.1 under Mesa.
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#21 Re: Linux with AMD

Post by Dirk Broer »

I decided to transfer my HD 7790 -that was banned by the admin while running Xubuntu 15.10- to my main Win10 box, retiring my trusty HD 4770 there. I must have an able Amicable Number cracker then :twisted:.
I'll also update the Xubuntu 15.10 box to Kubuntu 16.04, to see whether the OpenCL problems I experienced with my Ubuntu 16.04 box were caused by the bad support for the internal R3 of the Athlon 5350. :evil:
I do have a Lubuntu 16.04 system running it's internal GPU of an older FM1 APU without problems... :angry-banghead: An APU of likewise vintage is in the Xubuntu box... :pray:

That sounded like a nice experiment, but installing BOINC on Kubuntu 16.04 gave 'no usable gpu'...and everything I tried to change that resulted in 'check cable connection' and a black screen.
Trying a terminal then gave a system where I couldn't login to :angry-screaming:
I think I've had it with the 16.04 release of Ubuntu and related distro's, I'll try FreeBSD next Image
Well, I've found an OS that sucks even worse with AMD cards than Ubuntu 16.04 releases: FreeBSD. It may have to do with the (video connector-less) ASUS F1A75 in combination with both an APU and a HD 6670, but I'll be dipped in dogs**t if I ever get this working the way I want it, with both Radeon GPUs crunching BOINC....
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