WCG-TPU Cruncher's Hardware/Tech Support Discussion Thread

[Boatvan]

We all should have one...

@Bow there is a thread on the WCG forums where you can request one. All you need is your ID which can be found here on your World Community Grid "My contribution" page:

Then you can reply to SNURK's thread on the World Community Grid official forums found here:
https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/forums/wcg/viewthread_thread,29840
Post your ID and he will periodically add requesters to his signature generation script. He'll then post the link to your signature. It took him about a week for mine. Remember to omit the "www" when inserting it into your signature.

 

[W1zzard]

You the man! I was given the full URL, but it only let me put it in without the www. Thanks!

Is the official url with www? then i will allow www too

 

[Boatvan]

Is the official url with www? then i will allow www too

Yes, the www was in the signature URL I was given

 

[W1zzard]

Thanks! www.wcgsig.com has been white listed for signatures (in addition to wcgsig.com without www)

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

can anyone point me (hopefully) to an as few a clicks as possible way to install a crunching os on a box, it will have to be linux but im a noob so is there a noob way of converting a pc into a cruncher is i suppose what im asking

 

[thebluebumblebee]

Please use a USB drive.

• Download Linux. Mint with Cinnamon is designed to be easy for Windows users.
• Use a utility like Rufus to create a bootable USB drive. The Windows USB tool works as well.
• Install, then run the updates.
• All software on Linux installs from the Software Manager. Search for BOINC in the SM and install.

That's really all there is to it. Unless I forgot something, as it seems I'm prone to do.

 

[Norton]

I use pendrive Linux:

https://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/

Load whatever version of Linux you want through the software to create a USB install drive.

I use Ubuntu, Mint is also a good option, can have an OS loaded in 5-10 minutes and crunching a few minutes after that.

 

[infrared]

Well, the 1800x rig is kinda up and running. It didn't like the Kingston hyperX RAM though, so it's currently got one of the (same, but older) sticks from my 6700k which worked for some reason... I got linux mint and Boinc installed.. From what I can tell there's no way to monitor temps from Linux though, on this cpu anyway, so I need to install Win7 so I can overclock it. Looks like it's not boosting at all either, all cores at at 3.6ghz.

Partial success! lol

 

[twilyth]

so you're using ddr3 ram in ddr4 sockets? Very interdasting. I have some old ddr3 I could plug in if it doesn't like the Corsair Vengeance LPX sticks.

 

[infrared]

No, ddr4 Both kits are 3333mhz 2x8gb, for some reason the older kit works ok, the new kit doesn't even post, sits there with an '0d' code and the Dram LED illuminated. I'll try the new kit in the 6700k rig and see if it likes it, otherwise it's going back and I'll get some G.skill stuff.

Seems to be crunching along ok at stock settings, I can't wait to turn the wick up a bit!

 

[Norton]

Well, the 1800x rig is kinda up and running. It didn't like the Kingston hyperX RAM though, so it's currently got one of the (same, but older) sticks from my 6700k which worked for some reason... I got linux mint and Boinc installed.. From what I can tell there's no way to monitor temps from Linux though, on this cpu anyway, so I need to install Win7 so I can overclock it. Looks like it's not boosting at all either, all cores at at 3.6ghz.

Partial success! lol

Have you tried Psensor? Seems to work fine with my Ubuntu systems... not sure if it's updated for Ryzen though.

 

[T.R.]

Have you tried Psensor? Seems to work fine with my Ubuntu systems... not sure if it's updated for Ryzen though.

Psensor (lm_sensors) may not support it yet.

When running LM_Sensors' sensors-detect with the X370 motherboard, no onboard sensors were detected and thus no support for monitoring the board's fan speeds, voltages, temperatures, etc. Also on the sensor front, the Ryzen 7 1800X CPU temperatures were not exposed with the Linux 4.10 kernel.

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=ryzen-1800x-linux&num=2

 

[infrared]

Have you tried Psensor? Seems to work fine with my Ubuntu systems... not sure if it's updated for Ryzen though.

Yup, as T.R. said, it just doesn't show any sensors/fan speeds etc. Hopefully it won't be long until it's updated to work Thanks for the suggestion though.

 

[agent00skid]

Yup, as T.R. said, it just doesn't show any sensors/fan speeds etc. Hopefully it won't be long until it's updated to work Thanks for the suggestion though.

If you really want to get sensors, you could try and check what SuperIO chip the board has and force load the monitor driver for it. Will probably require a bit of terminal usage.

 

[infrared]

Thanks @agent00skid I'll give it a try.

I've totally had it with stupid computers at the moment! I was trying to get win7 installed from usb only to find i need to slipstream the amd usb3 driver, which i spent hours on and failed to do, much to my shame! Gave up and decided to install win 10 only to find Microsofts own usb media creator was crap and failed to see any usb sticks so i wasted more time formatting them and suspecting them of being broken! Ended up using Rufus which worked first try. Windows 10 installed ok and I played around with some oc'ing... went to boot back into linux only to find the sodding mbr had been overwritten! So more messing about re-making a linux usb stick to boot up and use terminal to fix the mbr..

Anyway, so after a most of a day wasted it's now crunching away @ 4.0ghz 1.40v It was close to stable at 4.1ghz but needed >1.45v so I decided to leave it as I wouldn't want it crunching at that voltage. It really doesn't seem to like this stick of hyperx ram, i gave up trying to get it stable at 3200 so now it's at 2933mhz. I'll try to get a really decent >3600 kit from g.skill/teamgroup or something soon.

I'm off, goodnight crazy people of tpu!

 

[xvi]

Gotta love Ubuntu, the install on the drive doesn't care what system I plug it into... it just goes right back to work!

That's actually not a bad idea. Has anyone had experience running linux off of a USB drive for the sake of crunching? I could get some extra rigs going if I could just boot off of USB. Should be able to pick up a 3-pack of drives at BestBuy for cheap.

 

[Norton]

That's actually not a bad idea. Has anyone had experience running linux off of a USB drive for the sake of crunching? I could get some extra rigs going if I could just boot off of USB. Should be able to pick up a 3-pack of drives at BestBuy for cheap.

James888 (now @Nordic ) tried using flash drives and had issues/problems with them iirc. Enough problems that I decided not to mess with it. YMMV though...

 

[thebluebumblebee]

@Nordic BTW. I think what happens with most USB drives is that crunching wears out part of the flash, with all of the write/erase it does as it works through WU's, and that creates errors. Don't know what would happen if you had one of the wear leveling USB drives though.

 

[infrared]

I was running my QX9650 rig on Linux Mint off an OCZ 16gb usb2 thumb drive from 2007 for months, I agree with thebluebumblebee that it'll eventually wear out the flash, but I think you'd still get a reasonable amount of life out of one. It boots up and works superbly for crunching, and seems to work no matter what you plug it into. You notice it's a bit slower when actually using the computer but boinc doesn't care about read/write speeds as far as I can tell.

 

[Nordic]

A USB 2.0 flash drive of mine did not last very long at all. I would have to go look at my old post, but it was no longer than a couple weeks before the OS would have critical errors.
A USB 3.0 flash drive of mine lasted several months before the OS began having critical errors.

I think there are flash drives that can do it, but my cheap ones did not. My USB 3.0 drive was a mushkin something. Cheapest one I could get on newegg at the time.

Both flash drives still work, and windows does not recognize any problems with them. The OS just failed after awhile. If I remember correctly, I was probably using linux mint mate back then. I did try to put an OS back on the drives again but it did not work for some reason I do not remember.

Others might have better luck.

 

[manofthem]

This thread seems more appropriate for the discussion of phone/mobile device crunching.

I don't think I'll be crunching on my android. Currently my Oneplus One is crunching, and while it may not have fully spooled up just yet, it only threw down like 550ppd yesterday. That's not worth the hassle of it all for me.

I think I'll give it another day, 2 tops, see what it levels out at, and call it quits because I know it won't be worth it.

 

[xvi]

I tried turning an old phone in to a dedicated cruncher once. I pulled the backplate off of it and let a heatsink rest on the battery. I like to think it helped get some extra PPD out of it since the Android client will throttle if battery temps get too high.

 

[Antykain]

This thread seems more appropriate for the discussion of phone/mobile device crunching.

I don't think I'll be crunching on my android. Currently my Oneplus One is crunching, and while it may not have fully spooled up just yet, it only threw down like 550ppd yesterday. That's not worth the hassle of it all for me.

I think I'll give it another day, 2 tops, see what it levels out at, and call it quits because I know it won't be worth it.

I actually have my old Samsung Note 5 running WCG right now.. just started recently just for giggles to see what it can crank out. Yesterday was the first full day with the Note 5 crunching and it cranked out 1,138 points. While it's nothing out of this world up there in terms of PPD output, I was kind of surprised that it was able to break the 1k mark. The Note 5 uses a Samsung Exynos octa-core in which 4 of the cores max at 2.1GHz, and the other 4 cores are 1.5GHz. While WCG is running it does not operate at those freqs due to thermal throttling.. but the Note 5 does not feel hot at all. Warm, yes, but not hot.

Going to let it run maybe a few days more and see how it does.

 

[Arjai]

Just set up my MOTOZ, the one with the better CPU. it's running 2 tasks. Only at night, 11pm to 5am. I will check in the morning to see what it did. It will eventually just be running Vina's. I set up the profile and then forgot to assign it to the phone, until after it had downloaded 4 jobs.

I will post again in a few days and update its progress.

 

[Arjai]

Ok. Well. I had a couple days of free WiFi! Looks like I will have to pay them. It was shutdown about 30 minutes ago. So, might be a couple of days before it gets turned on again. I will call them in the morning and see if they answer on a Saturday.