Newbie problems/questions help needed please, thank you.

I would like to help and run mprime on a few boxes but I have encountered a number of problems/questions to do so.
I hope all this in one post isn't too overwhelming :/
Thank you :)

1. ONE PROCESS?:
How to have only one process of mprime running?
I killed mprime process.
I then added to prime.txt (as per this post http://www.mersenneforum.org/showthread.php?t=13078 ):

WorkerThreads=1
ThreadsPerTest=1

I restarted mprime and it still shows 3 instances:

ps x
44971 35 IN+ 0:00.03 /home/user/g/mprime -m
45061 35 IN+ 0:00.14 /home/user/g/mprime -m
52770 35 RN+ 604:20.80 /home/user/g/mprime -m

2. TEMPERATURE TOO HIGH:
Regarding the above, and also I have set it to 8MB day and night:

SrvrPO4=8
SrvrPO5=8

Information: I have tried running mprime on a total of 3 different machines (1 Windows, 2 Linux).
ALL 3 of those machines within 30 minutes temperature is increasing by at least 30F+
Since the 2 Linux boxes I only have remote access to I can't risk running them and overheating the box to the point it shuts it down and or damages something. My Windows box within a few minutes the alarm goes off beeping until I stop it. I opened the case, cleaned it, left case open and put a fan on the floor pointing at it, it does help but not enough.
btw I have read the post/information here which is very informative.
http://www.mersenneforum.org/showthread.php?t=1755

Question: My question is how to run mprime in such a way where it doesn't heat up the computer so much - and not focus on doing something to my computer which runs every other software I have without heating up the computer so much.
Also the 2 Linux boxes I don't have an option to mess around with the physical box since I remote in only and these are well established servers.


3. RUN IN BACKGROUND?:
How to start mprime in the background even if not logged in?
Once I start mprime

mprime -m

I have to leave that shell window open and then open another window to carry out any other work.
The moment I log off my shell mprime is killed.
The only method I have come up with is:

screen ~/g/mprime -m

BUT again this is yet another process running (screen).
Is this correct?

5. QUIET OPTION:
How to run it quietly without prompting me to answer any questions?
mrpime -m always presents the main menu then I must select an option (4) before it will continue.
If I just run mprime without a switch it seems to be waiting there for another command.
I want to add mprime to contrab but without an option to run independently how?
I did read on the same post that states to:

sudo echo "@reboot cd ~/gimps ; ./mprime & " | crontab -

Why would this cmd work './mprime as I stated when I do that it just sits there waiting, ps x does not show it running, nor does it take any cmds. I have to Ctrl + c to get out of that state.

Thank you soooo much :))

P.S. Thank you for letting peeps post here without registering! :)

[paulunderwood]

To run mprime in the background use:

./mprime -B

Check your "worktodo.txt" -- maybe joining all your sections under "[Worker #1]". (I am no expert with how mprime works.)

As far as your heat problem goes, maybe running one instance of mprime will help, but are you absolutely sure the heatsink and its fan are dust free? Perhaps you need to mod your box with a beefier heat-pipe CPU cooler. Please post your idle and mprime-loaded temperatures. Also get back to us with unresolved issues and more detail on your box such as processor details.

With that cron entry, mprime will (re)start after a reboot.

[paulunderwood]

Another thing is: mprime will not run on Windows -- you need Prime95.exe instead.

To keep it running after a session log out, you need too put "nohup" in front of the command,

[Keldor]

To reduce the heat, you can use the 'Throttle' option:

Quote from undoc.txt:

If you are running on a laptop or in a hot room and you want to slow the
program down to reduce heat, then you can add this line to prime.txt:
Throttle=n
where n is the percentage of time the program should run. For example,
Throttle=40 means the program will run 40% and be idle 60% of the time.

Thank you for the replies and the help.
paulunderwood the switch -B (./mprime -B) is obsolete in the latest version, it doesn't work.

./mprime -B
Invalid switch
Usage: mprime [-cdhmstv] [-aN] [-wDIR]
-c      Contact the PrimeNet server, then exit.
-d      Print detailed information to stdout.
-h      Print this.
-m      Menu to configure mprime.
-s      Display status.
-t      Run the torture test.
-v      Print the version number.
-aN     Use an alternate set of INI and output files (obsolete).
-wDIR   Run from a different working directory.

Check your "worktodo.txt" -- maybe joining all your sections under "[Worker #1]".

cat worktodo.txt
[Worker #1]
Test=C3D69C66DA8EFD4CD82A358E98A60528,60786337,73,1

That is all that it has.

As far as your heat problem goes, maybe running one instance of mprime will help, but are you absolutely sure the heatsink and its fan are dust free?

As far as the 2 Linux boxes that I remote into that I can not verify of course.
My WinXP box, yes, I cleaned and vacuumed that little guy very well :).

Please post your idle and mprime-loaded temperatures. Also get back to us with unresolved issues and more detail on your box such as processor details.

Windows XP SP3 x32, Intel Core 2 Duo E6850, LGA 775, 2833.15MHz
Before running prime95.exe Core1 temp is 110F Core2 101F.
The room the CPU is in is about 95F.
After running prime.95.exe for about 1 minute the heat alarm goes off.
Core1 temp is showing 169, 171, 174, 176F and climbing. Core2 is 171F.
I stop prime95 after about 2 minutes, immediately my heat alarm stops and temperature starts to drop.

Linux box 1-
Debian 6, AMD Sempron(tm) Processor 2600+, cpu MHz 1599.842
Before running mprime:
Temperature Core0 96.8°F
After running about 2 minutes 136.4F

btw at what temperature do you think should be the maximum on the Linux box before I shutdown mprime?

With that cron entry, mprime will (re)start after a reboot.

(sudo echo "@reboot cd ~/gimps ; ./mprime & " | crontab - )
./mprime & will sit idle waiting for my input - '4'.


As for the Windows version paul thank you, yes I am running 'Prime95.exe' sorry I didn't mention that :)

And for the nohup cmd paul I didn't use 'nohup' to launch it as when I do it just hangs there again, like waiting for input but won't take it.
When I view nohup.out the size of the file is growing very fast with 'Invalid choice' errors over and over - awaiting my input:

nohup ~/g/mprime -m &
appending output to nohup.out

I launch a new window and the file is filled with 100's and growing:

cat nohup.out
Your choice:         Invalid choice

         1.  Test/Primenet
         2.  Test/Worker threads
         3.  Test/Status
         4.  Test/Continue
         5.  Test/Exit
         6.  Advanced/Test
         7.  Advanced/Time
         8.  Advanced/P-1
         9.  Advanced/ECM
        10.  Advanced/Manual Communication
        11.  Advanced/Unreserve Exponent
        12.  Advanced/Quit Gimps
        13.  Options/CPU
        14.  Options/Preferences
        15.  Options/Torture Test
        16.  Options/Benchmark
        17.  Help/About
        18.  Help/About PrimeNet Server
^C
killall -9 mprime

---------
Keldor, thank you. I did miss that in the undoc.txt. I have added it as Throttle=40.

[Dubslow]

Hmmm... running `./mprime &` should start it in the background without it waiting for you. At least it does for me. What happens if you run `./mprime -d`? That should start it (in the foreground) with detailed output -- if it doesn't immediately start on the current work, then something's configured wrong (presumably).

Thank you Dubslow.
I think I misinterpreted the 'mprime &' as it not running fully because
after issuing that cmd when I issue ps x (in a new window) it only showed 1 instance.
Where as when I do mprime -m it always showed at least 2 instances.
Now when I do mprime -m or -d it only shows 1 instance also.

On the other Linux box 'ps x' for all (-m, -d, &) it still shows 3 instances.
So I'm thinking maybe when the program first starts for x hours it runs a few instances.
I don't know, it's a mystery :D
I will now use -d or &, once I resolve the temperature issues.

Thank you again.

[paulunderwood]

Please show us the results of "ls -l" on the mprime directory.

Post the contents of "prime.txt" and "local.txt".

Your E6850 should be running at 3GHz.

Check in the BIOS that the cooling/throttling options are all turned on.

mprime will heat up your machines. I will leave it to others to say what is the maximum temperature for a Sempron 2600 should be. 136.4F is 58C.

[markr]

Welcome to the forum & GIMPS!

Originally Posted by Stephanie

And for the nohup cmd paul I didn't use 'nohup' to launch it as when I do it just hangs there again, like waiting for input but won't take it.
When I view nohup.out the size of the file is growing very fast with 'Invalid choice' errors over and over - awaiting my input:

nohup ~/g/mprime -m &
appending output to nohup.out

Try it without the -m option. The -m option is for getting into the menu. It's an inconvenient method for normal work & not needed. Exit the menus / mprime before starting a "regular" instance. Stop any other instance first before using the -m option, too, if you want to change any settings.

I'm with Dubslow: I use "./mprime &" or the equivalent with full path, for manually starting mprime. It works as long as I end the terminal window / ssh session with "exit" rather than just closing it. Using nohup might be safer, I suppose.

Originally Posted by Stephanie

How to have only one process of mprime running?
I killed mprime process.
I then added to prime.txt (as per this post http://www.mersenneforum.org/showthread.php?t=13078 ):

WorkerThreads=1
ThreadsPerTest=1

WorkerThreads and ThreadsPerTest control the number of workers & threads per worker within an instance. Most people run one instance. (Mistakes excepted!)

2. TEMPERATURE TOO HIGH:
Regarding the above, and also I have set it to 8MB day and night:

SrvrPO4=8
SrvrPO5=8

Information: I have tried running mprime on a total of 3 different machines (1 Windows, 2 Linux).
ALL 3 of those machines within 30 minutes temperature is increasing by at least 30F+

Starting mprime/prime95 makes my home computer's temperatures go up by about 15C too. Fortunately it has a good heatsink, so idle temperatures are only 10C to 15C above ambient. And summer's finally over here! Good luck with the heat!

The memory settings only affect stage 2 of P-1 factoring (and stage 2 of ECM factoring?), not LL tests. If you want to change the memory settings manually rather than through the menu, look for a line like "Memory=300" or "Memory=900 during 7:30-23:30 else 900" in local.txt. And don't change any of the SrvrP.. lines; my guess is they're for the client to keep track of what it's told the server or vice versa, or something like that.

I hope not too much of this was obvious & already known!

(More posts have appeared since I started this but I'll let this stand, so there might be some discontinuity & doubling-up of answers, pardons.)

[Dubslow]

There should not be more than one instance running, even with multiple work threads.