Hello everyone,

Prevent BOINC requesting Nvidia work ?

a way to prevent BOINC requesting Nvidia work ?

on 29 Jun 2012 - in Message 444888

MarkJ wrote the following:

<quote>

<snip> ...

If you are running BOINC 7.0.25 or later there is a way to prevent it - [BOINC] -
from requesting ATI and/or Nvidia work (on a per-project basis)
which it will never get and then backing off for an hour before it can ask again.
If the BOINC server software was more up to date the project could do it as well, but they run a pretty old version.

If you'd like to know how just ask

... </snip>

</quote>

So I guess I'm asking.

Windows 7

BOINC 7.0.28 (x86) - running as a single instillation - (not as a service) -

on this computer # 1167855 my fastest Computer -

I'm only running one project and no GPU apps - on this computer - only Climate Prediction.net - 24/7

so ... does anyone know how I can prevent BOINC from requesting ATI and/or Nvidia work (on a per-project basis) ?

thanks for any hints, suggestion or help.

Byron

I think that you need to use a cc_config file.

See the list of options in: How do I configure my client using the cc_config.xml file?. (The really long line.)

There's supposed to be a prefs option in people's Account page, but I think that the server software is not sufficiently up to date for that.

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Backups: Here

Projects that provide GPU work also provide one or two editable GPU options on the project's preferences page. These are enforceable on BOINC versions subsequent to 6.10. You won't see those options on your climateprediction.net preferences page since CPDN doesn't provide work for GPUs

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"Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for survival of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet."
- Einstein

There are projects that don't have GPU work, but indicate that they don't have GPU work to the BOINC client (they must have a newer server code). You can see this in the project properties, scheduling section as "Don't fetch work for ATI/NVIDIA GPU -> Project has no apps for ATI/NVIDIA GPU".

I would also like to know how to do this manually for projects that don't upgrade their server code.

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Professor Desty Nova
Researching Karma the Hard Way

I'm only running one project and no GPU apps - on this computer - only Climate Prediction.net - 24/7

so ... does anyone know how I can prevent BOINC from requesting ATI and/or Nvidia work (on a per-project basis) ?

As others have stated, I don't think it can be done on a per project basis with the current version of boinc at cpdn. Based on the info on the page that Les linked to, this is what I have in my cc_config.xml file that keeps my boinc version (7.0.28) from requesting GPU apps. I'm not trying to run GPU apps on other projects.

  <cc_config>
  <options>
  <no_gpus>1</no_gpus> 
  <ignore_ati_dev>0</ignore_ati_dev> 
  </options>
  </cc_config>

You use an <exclude_gpu> in your cc_config file. It allows you to prevent a gpu from being used by a particular project. Its a client side things, doesn't require any change on the server.

My cc_config file:

<cc_config>
    <options>
	<http_1_0>1</http_1_0>
	<http_transfer_timeout>120</http_transfer_timeout>
        <exclude_gpu>
            <url>http://climateprediction.net</url>
        </exclude_gpu>
        <exclude_gpu>
            <url>http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu</url>
        </exclude_gpu>
    </options>
    <log_flags>
        <sched_op_debug>1</sched_op_debug>
        <work_fetch_debug>0</work_fetch_debug>
    </log_flags>
</cc_config>

You can see I have excluded my one and only GPU from being used by both Climate Prediction and Einstein. This particular machine uses the GPU for GPUgrid work. You can have multiple <exclude_gpu> statements.

If you don't already have a cc_config.xml file you'll need to create it in the BOINC data directory. Use a text editor such as Notepad and make sure its an .xml file (notepad likes to put .txt on the end of the file names). After doing this either re-read the config file (on the menu bar Advanced -> Read config file) or shut it down and start it up again.

Details about the config file can be found here

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BOINC blog

Thanks. I've now excluded all projects I have that don't have updated server code.

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Professor Desty Nova
Researching Karma the Hard Way

exclude_gpu doesn't work on 6.10... and the Wiki does not say what version you must have for it to work. :(

You use an <exclude_gpu> in your cc_config file. It allows you to prevent a gpu from being used by a particular project. Its a client side things, doesn't require any change on the server.

My cc_config file:

<cc_config>
    <options>
	<http_1_0>1</http_1_0>
	<http_transfer_timeout>120</http_transfer_timeout>
        <exclude_gpu>
            <url>http://climateprediction.net</url>
        </exclude_gpu>
        <exclude_gpu>
            <url>http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu</url>
        </exclude_gpu>
    </options>
    <log_flags>
        <sched_op_debug>1</sched_op_debug>
        <work_fetch_debug>0</work_fetch_debug>
    </log_flags>
</cc_config>

You can see I have excluded my one and only GPU from being used by both Climate Prediction and Einstein. This particular machine uses the GPU for GPUgrid work. You can have multiple <exclude_gpu> statements.

If you don't already have a cc_config.xml file you'll need to create it in the BOINC data directory. Use a text editor such as Notepad and make sure its an .xml file (notepad likes to put .txt on the end of the file names). After doing this either re-read the config file (on the menu bar Advanced -> Read config file) or shut it down and start it up again.

Details about the config file can be found here

I see no reason to exclude GPU work. I am using it both on SETI@home and Einstein@home. None of my six other projects uses GPU, only Virtual Box.
Tullio

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exclude_gpu doesn't work on 6.10... and the Wiki does not say what version you must have for it to work. :(

BOINC Source code, checkin_notes 2011 wrote:

David 23 Jun 2011
- client: add per-project GPU exclusion.
If you put an element of the form
<exclude_gpu>
<url>http://project_url.com/</url>
<device_num>1</device_num>
</exclude_gpu>
in your cc_config.xml, that GPU won't be used for that project

Which translates to around 6.12.34

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Jord.