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BOINC 7.0.28 - To use or not to use?

BOINC 7.0.28 - To use or not to use?

Questions and Answers : Macintosh : BOINC 7.0.28 - To use or not to use?
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Dave Roberts

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Message 44540 - Posted: 20 Jul 2012, 16:09:42 UTC

Just wondering if there are any real advantages (or problems) in upgrading to BOINC 7.0.28. I've been using 6.10.58 since I joined and never changed since there seemed to be some minor glitches in later versions which could be annoying.
Anyone have any ideas??

DaveRoberts
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Les Bayliss
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Message 44545 - Posted: 20 Jul 2012, 20:42:12 UTC - in response to Message 44540.  

I think that the main reason for the complete rebuild know as version 7.*, is to do with the use of the display processor(s) for calculations, i.e. GPU crunching.

As it's very unlikely that this will ever apply to this project, version 6 is fine.
But there are some new ideas included in the new versions which may eventually get used here. If they do, then plenty of warning time will be given.

I'm using 6.2.18, and 6.10.18 without problems.


As for problems, one has to take special precautions before the upgrade if there is a possibility of needing to downgrade again.


Backups: Here
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Profile Iain Inglis
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Message 44546 - Posted: 20 Jul 2012, 20:42:20 UTC

My Mac's been happy with 7.0.25 for a while. The BOINC 7 changes seem to be relevant to crunchers on other or many projects (GPU, scheduling etc.), so you won't get much advantage here from upgrading, but no harm either.
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Profile mo.v
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Message 44547 - Posted: 20 Jul 2012, 21:20:03 UTC

The BOINC 7 release notes page is here:

http://boinc.berkeley.edu/wiki/Release_Notes

Notice what it says about it being difficult to return from v.7 to v.6 and the need to make a backup of the BOINC Data folder. That means a backup of all the contents.

Before you upgrade, notice (or find out) where your BOINC Data folder is. Be careful because both the BOINC and the BOINC Data folder have the same folder name, BOINC. So you need to check the contents to see what's in it. Your climate models will be there. If you want to find your climate models still there in BOINC Manager after upgrading, you'll need to make sure that the new BOINC Data folder is installed in the same place. Another way to identify the BOINC Data folder is that it contains two subfolders called Projects and Slots.

And here are the BOINC FAQs with an article about v.7 in section 3:

http://boincfaq.mundayweb.com/index.php

Mind, I'm still happily crunching with both CPU and GPU (for Einstein) with BOINC 6.12.34.
Cpdn news
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Profile Iain Inglis
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Message 44555 - Posted: 21 Jul 2012, 9:33:00 UTC - in response to Message 44547.  

... Notice what it says about it being difficult to return from v.7 to v.6 and the need to make a backup of the BOINC Data folder. That means a backup of all the contents. ...
... which raises a related issue. There is a permissions problem with BOINC/CPDN on Mac, which manifests itself after a BOINC install or after restoring from backup. This problem will cause models to fail very shortly after starting. Hundreds of Macs are crashing thousands of CPDN models because of this.

The solution is described here - i.e. reset the project before upgrading.
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Dave Roberts

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Message 44557 - Posted: 21 Jul 2012, 10:09:06 UTC

Thanks very much for all your comments - they confirmed my impressions , so I'll stick with my current version.

David
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Questions and Answers : Macintosh : BOINC 7.0.28 - To use or not to use?

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