Questions and stuff

[vaughan]

Yes that should be OK here.

[gd_barnes]

Max, when you get a chance, can you post a new thread with an announcement for the rally? It should be virtually identical to the last one. Thanks.

[mdettweiler]

Originally Posted by gd_barnes

Max, when you get a chance, can you post a new thread with an announcement for the rally? It should be virtually identical to the last one. Thanks.

Announcements have been posted here, and at Free-DC, AMD Users, and PrimeGrid.

[vaughan]

I saw the post on our forum at AMD Users plus the hint/message to challenge Gary again

Don't think I could take on lennart however.

I hope to have every core available for this gauntlet, mwah ha ha

[Flatlander]

Gary,
last time I was paying any attention(!) you had ten quads @2.66GHz. You seem to be running faster than that now. Whatcha got!
(Is there a 'jealous' smiley?)

[gd_barnes]

Originally Posted by Flatlander

Gary,
last time I was paying any attention(!) you had ten quads @2.66GHz. You seem to be running faster than that now. Whatcha got!
(Is there a 'jealous' smiley?)

ROFL. When I took over the server from Ironbits, I got 2 more Intels; a quad that is now the server machine and an I7 as my new personal Windows machine, both running at ~2.9 Ghz, so I now have 12 machines crunching "something" all of the time if they are all working. The I7 is the equivalent of about 5-1/2 cores when running LLR/PFGW. Also for this rally for the first time in over a year, I put my slow dual-core laptop on it the whole time running at 1.66 Ghz. So that made a small dent in things. Since I can only run the server machine on 2 cores during a rally (3 cores otherwise), I had the equivalent of ~48-49 "fastish" cores on it.


Gary

[gd_barnes]

Originally Posted by vaughan

I saw the post on our forum at AMD Users plus the hint/message to challenge Gary again

Don't think I could take on lennart however.

I hope to have every core available for this gauntlet, mwah ha ha

Gotcha again. You'll have to bring 'em a few days early the next time but who knows, I might have to add a couple of more machines by then.

he he

[vaughan]

Yep you got me Gary. I tried to do "the tortoise and the hare" on ya but was too slow out of the blocks. Maybe next time I won't be travelling at the get-go.

[Flatlander]

Now that the kids' PC has an upgraded CPU I can justify the expense of running prime searches on it again. (To myself anyway!)

I would like to run LLRNet or PRPNet so that it just gets on with stuff. Is there any way of having either of them running stealthily like Prime95/LLR, and automatically restart if the PC is rebooted? (I'm doubting it with LLRNet but I've never used PRPNet.)

I'm trying to avoid reserving stuff and then getting bored after a short while. I also don't really want the hassle.

[mdettweiler]

Originally Posted by Flatlander

Now that the kids' PC has an upgraded CPU I can justify the expense of running prime searches on it again. (To myself anyway!)

I would like to run LLRNet or PRPNet so that it just gets on with stuff. Is there any way of having either of them running stealthily like Prime95/LLR, and automatically restart if the PC is rebooted? (I'm doubting it with LLRNet but I've never used PRPNet.)

I'm trying to avoid reserving stuff and then getting bored after a short while. I also don't really want the hassle.

I do exactly that with my quad (which belongs to another family member) since I don't have regular access to it, it is sometimes rebooted without my being readily available to restart clients, and the users wouldn't want crunching-client command windows hovering on their desktops all the time.

The trick is to set up LLRnet or PRPnet (it works just as well with either) as a service so that it will run, in the background, at system bootup (not login--this way, it will even run when nobody is logged in). As an added bonus, this method can even be used to set up Prime95 or manual LLR as a service on Windows Vista or 7, which don't let the usual method work because of new security features.

There are two ways to do this, one of which I've personally tried and the other which I've read about on this forum and actually sounds simpler, but since I haven't tried it I cannot guarantee success. I'll include both for completeness:

Method 1: courtesy of somebody on the Free-DC forum (the exact name escapes me, I didn't save it when I copied the instructions to my hard drive). The instructions were originally written for a project called EON, but I've rewritten them here for NPLB.

-Download instsrv.exe srvany.exe (attached to this post).

-Set up LLRnet or PRPnet clients (as many as you have cores) wherever you'd like. I put mine in subdirectories under a C:\Users\Public\prime\ folder to ensure that User Account Control privileges don't get in the way; this probably wouldn't be a big deal since it's running as a service but it's a good precaution nonetheless since Vista and 7 can get weird that way. On XP, the equivalent would be C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\prime\.

-Put a copy of srvany.exe in each of the client directories.

-Open an adminstrator command prompt to the first client directory and run:

instsrv.exe PRPnet1 c:\Users\Public\prime\prpnet1\srvany.exe

(modified appropriately to reflect PRPnet/LLRnet and wherever you put your clients)

-Repeat the last step for any additional clients: PRPnet2, PRPnet3, etc. depending on how many cores you have.

-Go to Start>Run, type "regedit" and press Enter. (If on Vista/7, you'll need to confirm admin privileges.) The Registry Editor will then open. Navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services key.

-Under the Services key in the left-hand navigation pane, you will see a key ("folder") entry for each service installed on your system. A lot of these will be abstruse gibberish, but if you look down the list you should see one for each of your clients (PRPnet1, PRPnet2, etc.) Right-click on the first and select New>Key. Type "Parameters" for the key name.

-Right-click on the new "Parameters" key and click New>String Value. Type "Application" for the name. Do it again to create a similar "AppDirectory" string value. (These string values will show up in the right-hand pane.)

-Double-click the Application string value you just made and enter for its value data, "C:\Users\Public\prime\prpnet1\prpclient.exe" (no quotes, IIRC). For LLRnet, substitute "do.bat" for "prpclient.exe". Click OK.

-Double-click the AppDirectory string value as before, but this time enter "C:\Users\Public\prime\prpnet1" (the directory the client is in). Click OK.

-Repeat the last four steps for each client (PRPnet2, PRPnet3, etc.) as needed.

-Close the Registry Editor.

-Now, go to Start>Run, type "services.msc" and press Enter. (Again, if on Vista/7, you'll need to confirm admin privileges.) The Services control panel will open. Scroll down until you see your clients (PRPnet1, PRPnet2, etc.)

-Double-click on PRPnet1. Set "Startup type" to Automatic to have the service run automatically at bootup. Click OK.

-Repeat the last step for additional clients as needed.

-All done! To start the clients, restart the computer, or double-click on each service's entry in services.msc and click "Start". Thereafter, the clients will automatically run at each bootup. Another quicker way is to open an administrator command prompt and run successively: "net start PRPnet1", "net start PRPnet2", etc.

-To change client settings (move to a different server, etc.), first stop the services (using services.msc or "net stop PRPnet1", "net stop PRPnet2", etc. from the command line), change your prpclient.ini or llr-clientconfig.txt as appropriate, and restart the services.

-If you ever want to stop the clients from restarting at system bootup (say, you want to temporarily switch from LLRnet to PRPnet, i.e. a separate set of services), set "Startup type" to Manual in services.msc.

Method 2: courtesy of NBtarheel_33 from this forum, originally written for Prime95 but rewritten by me for NPLB. This method should actually be somewhat easier than Method 1, and I'd recommend it since it doesn't require any messing with the Registry.

-Set up LLRnet or PRPnet clients (as many as you have cores) wherever you'd like. I put mine in subdirectories under a C:\Users\Public\prime\ folder to ensure that User Account Control privileges don't get in the way; this probably wouldn't be a big deal since it's running as a service but it's a good precaution nonetheless since Vista and 7 can get weird that way. On XP, the equivalent would be C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\prime\.

-Open an adminstrator command prompt to the first client directory and run:

sc create PRPnet1 binPath= C:\Users\Public\prime\prpnet1\prpclient.exe

Note that the space after the binPath= needs to be included exactly as shown. And, of course, if you're using LLRnet, you'll want "do.bat" instead of "prpclient.exe" and a more appropriate service name. The path to your client should also be modified if you put it somewhere else.

-If you just get silently dumped back to the command prompt (no output or errors), then it worked. Repeat the last step for additional cores/clients (PRPnet2, PRPnet3, etc.)

[Everything after this point is the same as the tail end of Method 1.]
-Now, go to Start>Run, type "services.msc" and press Enter. (Again, if on Vista/7, you'll need to confirm admin privileges.) The Services control panel will open. Scroll down until you see your clients (PRPnet1, PRPnet2, etc.)

-Double-click on PRPnet1. Set "Startup type" to Automatic to have the service run automatically at bootup. Click OK.

-Repeat the last step for additional clients as needed.

-All done! To start the clients, restart the computer, or double-click on each service's entry in services.msc and click "Start". Thereafter, the clients will automatically run at each bootup. Another quicker way is to open an administrator command prompt and run successively: "net start PRPnet1", "net start PRPnet2", etc.

-To change client settings (move to a different server, etc.), first stop the services (using services.msc or "net stop PRPnet1", "net stop PRPnet2", etc. from the command line), change your prpclient.ini or llr-clientconfig.txt as appropriate, and restart the services.

-If you ever want to stop the clients from restarting at system bootup (say, you want to temporarily switch from LLRnet to PRPnet, i.e. a separate set of services), set "Startup type" to Manual in services.msc.

Note that with both of these methods the clients will be completely in the background, i.e. you will not be able to see the console output at all. For PRPnet, this is not a big deal as all the console output is duplicated in prpclient.log. LLRnet has no such log, but lresults_hist.txt does contain a running list of all completed results. (PRPnet also has a similar test_results.log if you just want to see the results.)

If you ever want to delete any of the services that you created, you can either delete their registry keys (as per Method 1) or run "sc delete x" (where x PRPnet1, PRPnet2, etc.) Actually, the "sc delete" method will work even if you originally used Method 1 so I'd just use it as, again, it requires no messing with the registry.

Hope this helps,
Max

[Flatlander]

That's brilliant! I really didn't think it was do-able.

Thanks Max! I'll see if I can get my head around it tomorrow for the twin rally. Then I'll probably just leaving it running on NPLB.