LHC@home

I noticed an interesting issue while running Sixtrack for FreeBSD. Although my account says I am running the FreeBSD SSE2 version of the application, if I check the corresponding workunit slots they show the application as sixtrack_lin64_50205_sse2.linux. If I do a readelf on the program it does show OS type as 0x03, or GNU/Linux. That isn't the FreeBSD app. The app that runs for FreeBSD AVX is, in fact, the FreeBSD version and is named sixtrack_freeBSD64_50205_avx.exe, with the corresponding OS type as 0x09 or FreeBSD. I checked the types with readelf to ensure it wasn't just a mislabeled application name.

So my question is does the FreeBSD SSE2 version of the application exist, and how do I get the server to give me that application instead of the linux version? Since I have the Linux compatibility layer loaded for FreeBSD for me it runs the tasks without an issue. However, if another FreeBSD user without the Linux compatibility layer loaded tries to run the FreeBSD SSE2 tasks, they would get segfaults and may not understand why, as the slot is usually cleared before they can check it's contents.

Hi,
thanks for the question. Yes, we have a genuine sse2 FreeBSD executable:
https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/apps.php
and your computer did use it:
https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/results.php?hostid=10571128

The stats suffer from too few tasks being crunched (both with sse2 and avx) for different reasons:
https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/host_app_versions.php?hostid=10571128
In one case you had very short tasks, simulating a very unstable beam, hence they are not used to update the performance of the exe on your host. For the other exe, the tasks look like fully stable beam, hence making the performance estimate of the exe sensible; nevertheless, no validation has taken place yet - and we need to validate results first before updating figures on performance.

Concerning the users with FreeBSD without Linux compatibility layer, I guess they will get the true FreeBSD exes. Do you want to switch it off and git a trial to the setup?

Hope it helps,
Cheers,
A.

Thanks for the response.

and your computer did use it:

No, that's what I'm trying to say. The account page says my computer is using the FreeBSD SSE2 application, but as we speak if I look at the slots the workunits are in, it is the Linux executable that is running right now.

sixtrack_lin64_50205_sse2.linux

And the project folder for lhc@home does not have a FreeBSD version of the SSE2 app, just the Linux version.

What I am sure about is that:
1. we did compile SixTrack for FreeBSD, both with avx and sse2 instruction sets;
2. we did put the executables in the BOINC DB for distribution and use.
Both of them can be found on the apps page:
https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/apps.php

With the statistics on your host presently available, your host did run 3 tasks with FreeBSD - I cannot claim that your host is running the FreeBSD app right now, as there might be some latency in all the update operations of the BOINC DB.
https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/host_app_versions.php?hostid=10571128

At the time of writing, I do see you have 2 tasks in progress, both with a FreeBSD exe:
https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/result.php?resultid=250082076
https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/result.php?resultid=250091388

I am not sure you will be able to check the exe of these two tasks right now due to the difference in time zone between you and the project.
Nevertheless, to better understand the issue, could you please point me to a case where you find a linux exe for a task which is recorded in the BOINC DB as to be run with the FreeBSD exe?
You should find the task name in both the init_data.xml and boinc_task_state.xml files - e.g. one of mine:

$ grep -ir result 1
1/fort.6:BEAM> tical results to this one.
1/fort.6:BEAM> the standard output in a text diff tool like meld. If the results are not identical,
1/init_data.xml:<result_name>workspace1_hl14_HighResNominal_B1__15__s__62.31_60.32__4.2_4.3__6__31_1_sixvf_boinc216889_1</result_name>
1/boinc_task_state.xml:    <result_name>workspace1_hl14_HighResNominal_B1__15__s__62.31_60.32__4.2_4.3__6__31_1_sixvf_boinc216889_1</result_name>

Thanks a lot in advance,
Cheers,
A.

From what I can tell, if I stop using my cc_config.xml to set the alternate platform for BOINC to use 64 bit Linux, LHC@home will send me tasks that use FreeBSD applications, both the SSE2 and AVX plan classes. If I use the cc_config.xml file to set my BOINC alternate platform, LHC@home sends me the 64 bit Linux version of the SSE2 application. It seems cc_config.xml doesn't like LHC@home. In any case, it isn't a big deal. It just limits the BOINC projects I can run with LHC@home to projects that offer FreeBSD applications. So yes, there is a SSE2 FreeBSD application, and LHC@home does send it to FreeBSD hosts that don't set the alternate platform to something else.

So I will have to use BOINC without the cc_config.xml file when I'm running LHC@home.