Einstein: Linux vs Windows

[Megacruncher]

Finally, a way guilt free way that we can chase maximum individual credits while working towards team goals. Einstein credit used to be excellent then they became meagre in the extreme. Now it's excellent again, but for how long?

99th place is a little too close to the edge so it makes sense to use the current bonanza to get ourselves into a rather safer position.

[Nightlord]

Guilt Free???? ......but I like finding triples: they're cool, and sexy and......and worth a lot

...but seriously folks, this looks pretty solid, so I've just set that quad to fetch no new tasks on ABC. In a couple of days it should be 100% Einstein. I'll run the same experiment on the other ABC linux boxes and make dispositions as appropriate.

Looks like Einstein could be in for a wee boost 8)

[Megacruncher]

I installed Ubuntu on my AMD 6000+ last night. I ran Einstein and got a great heap of computation errors. After a reset it started running stabily. The first has not long uploaded. It took 14.5 hrs and I've got the usual 237Credits pending. So with both cores working flat out that will be a very poor 770 Credits/day on what is a very fast PC. It was doing 10%better under Windows XP.

I'm in the process of putting Ubuntu on to the vista Q6600. Hopefully it will do a little better.

[Nightlord]

That's odd. Looking at the box it seems to have been seriously under performing.

OK, so the Boinc benchmarks are not exactly a full picture, but these are your's from the AMD 6000+.

Ubuntu
Measured floating point speed 872.64 million ops/sec
Measured integer speed 2726.61 million ops/sec

Windows XP
Measured floating point speed 1826.19 million ops/sec
Measured integer speed 4098.18 million ops/sec

and these are mine from an o/c'd E4300.

Fedora FC6-64
Measured floating point speed 2657.57 million ops/sec
Measured integer speed 7684.2 million ops/sec

Your 6000+ should beat the pant's of my E4300 even if mine is overclocked. So it appears that something is not right.

[Megacruncher]

That's odd. ... it appears that something is not right.

Oh dear. Any idea what?

And to make it worse I can't get Ubuntu to install on the Q6600. It doesn't seem able to find the hard drive. I remember I had the same problem with version 7 of Ubuntu & this machine but I rather hoped it would be fixed for 8.

[Nightlord]

Oh dear. Any idea what?

hmmm, the obvious things are other processes. Open a command prompt and run top. It should tell you there are two WU's running consuming pretty much all your CPU resource. Anything else substantial is bad.

The other thing is to look into why so many WU errors. I looked at one or two that you had on that box and found error code 255, but couldn't find a real world meaning for that. Strange it should suddenly start working though. Is this a 64 bit ubuntu distro or 32bit.....if 64bit, do you ia32libs installed?

Maybe try Fedora and see if that makes a difference. Also, is the Boinc client pre-installed on Ububtu8? Maybe try a clean install by downloading from Berkeley?

And to make it worse I can't get Ubuntu to install on the Q6600. It doesn't seem able to find the hard drive

Sounds like drivers. Is it a Sata Drive? I recall problems with 7.04 recognising a Sata drive here once. Sorry, can't recall the work around - time for a Fedora download?

[Nightlord]

Aha....just found this thread on the Einstein boards:

http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu//forum_thr ... 609&sort=6

Looks like Ubuntu/Kubuntu might be throttling your CPU. Maybe try the fix they suggest or switch to another distro.

[Megacruncher]

Could be, although I've got all that "cool n quiet" nonsense disabled at Bios level.

Anyhoo the 6000+ is going to be retired as soon as it's finished its current windows and linux workload. The weather is getting hotter and it's up to 30degC in the Boinc greenhouse already. I'll sell the 6000+ and maybe one of the E6600s (The 4 quads and the phenome, Jo's E6600 (overdue an upgrade methinks) and the 2 laptops will just have to do over summer :) )

A bigger worry is not being able to install Linux on the Q6600. I'll try Fedora & see if that works.

[Megacruncher]

Nope, Fedora didn't work. Like Ubuntu it couldn't find the hard disk to install it on. Strange. Oh well it's not as if Einstein really needs extra help from me to keep afloat. :)

[ianmbaker2]

Hi,
It sounds like it may be a SATA drive not being rcognised when the controller goes into native mode. Have you tried (is there a setting on your BIOS) setting it to legacy mode in the BIOS. It may not run as quickly without the SATA native advantages, but should allow you to install it.
There is a similar problem installing windows when the SATA controller is in native (AHCI) mode. It will boot off the CD, look like it is going to install, then quit with a 7B blue screen error.

Hope this is useful.

Ian

[Megacruncher]

Thanks, I'll have a look tomorrow. I didn't have any problem installing vista on this machine with the SATA drives but oddly enough it couldn't find IDE ones (which the BIOS reported accurately).