Good Day. Created the app_config.xml file as described, saved it as an xml file (using Word), verified name/extension was correct, placed in the amicable sub-directory of the Boinc projects parent directory, had the Boinc manager read the config file, and received this notice/message:

Missing <app_config> in app_config.xml

Also checked and saw only once instance of amicable tasks running, not two as I wanted, and verified utilization was still in the 65%-75% range

Any suggestions?

Thank you for any assistance or insights offered.

Paste the following information into you're app_info.XML file in the project folder. If you want to only use one the CPU core to process 2 tasks change CPU usage from1 to .5 I think the reason why you were getting message missing <app_info> is because you are missing that tag of your file. Hope this helps

<app_config>
   <app>
      <name>amicable_10_20</name>
            <gpu_versions>
          <gpu_usage>.5</gpu_usage>
          <cpu_usage>1</cpu_usage>
      </gpu_versions>
    </app>
</app_config>

Did a copy and paste as posted in the reply, into the xml file and still no joy.

Is there more than one location for the file? I use the standard/default install and the directories exist where they are supposed to be so I'm not sure what I might be overlooking.

Hi The Sarge,

I do not believe that there are multiple locations for the file. Do you mind copying and pasting the contents of your app_config file here so that I can double-check everything? The most common reason an app_config file doesn't work properly is that it is not actually an XML file, but if you saved it as one then that is unlikely to be the problem.

To get the contents of the XML file, right click on it and select "edit" and that should open it with notepad. Opening it with Microsoft Word can sometimes hide text and that may be causing the issue.

Thank you,
Kellen

Per your direction I did the right click, edit option. When the file opened using Word, EditPad, and NotePad, each had several pages of text. Clearly that wasn't right.

Copied the config file again as listed on this page, did both the "right click/edit" and "open with" option using NotePad. Pasted the config file contents and saved.

Did the right click/edit again, and it looked good this time. Also did the "open with" NotePad option and it had just the config as listed below, so no excess stuff this time

Still getting an Missing <app_config> in app_config.xml error message...

Below is what was copied, directly from the file by right clicking on it, :

<app_config>
<app>
<name>amicable_10_20</name>
<gpu_versions>
<gpu_usage>.5</gpu_usage>
<cpu_usage>1</cpu_usage>
</gpu_versions>
</app>
</app_config>

Is the error message the same if it can't find or doesn't see the file as it would be if it was a faulty script? I'd like to verify Boinc can read/run "any" app_config file at this point. I run Amicable, GPUGrid, Rosetta, WCG, CG, NF, and Seti.

Is there a config setting in the Boinc manager where it sets where to look for any app_config files?

The mystery deepens. Decided to try this on another rig (running Widnows 7), and it works there. The rig running Windows 10 doesn't.

Going to try this on my other systems, which is a mix of Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 18.04, Win7, and Win10 to see if it OS specific or machine specific.

My guess would be the rig that doesn't work has show file extensions turned off. So it ends up being .xml.txt or something... Just a guess.

File extensions are viewable and the "file type" shows as an xml document. For all intents and purposes it's the exact same file, in the same directory as on the other Windows rig. I'll keep poking around.

This is quite the conundrum! I have never received that error before and from what you describe I can't think of any reason why the app_config wouldn't be recognized by BOINC. Everything you copied into the message checks out. The only possibility that I can think of is that one of the characters is some kind of Unicode weirdness and isn't being recognized properly. I would try deleting the contents of the file and then re-typing it all manually to see if that fixes it, or copying your functional .xml from the Windows 7 machine and replacing the old one on your Windows 10 machine with it.

I have tried it on Windows 7 Home and Professional and Windows 10 Home and Professional and did not encounter this error.

Good luck with it and keep us posted!

Regards,
Kellen

There is no way to tell BOINC to use different app_configs for different cards on the same host, right? For instance, one of my machines has an RTX 2070 and two GTX 1060 3GB and I'm getting screenlag with two tasks at the same time (screen connected to one of the GTXs), so it would be ideal to have the RTX crunch two and the rest only one.

Is it really necessary to assign a full CPU core to each task even with the decrease in usage more tasks entail?

There IS if you load up two different copies of Boinc itself into different locations on your harddrive. Then you just need to exclude one of the gpu's from each copy of Boinc and set the settings you want for that gpu.

The GTX 1080 ti and RTX 2080 ti both have 11GB RAM, but only 4GB shows up in BOINC data ;)

It's because Boinc is written as a 32bit program and that's the limit it can show, it USES all of the memory until some Project comes up with a greater than 4gb workunit itself, which SO FAR none have done yet. A 64bit version has been discussed but I don't know how far along it is.

Per your direction I did the right click, edit option. When the file opened using Word, EditPad, and NotePad, each had several pages of text. Clearly that wasn't right.

Copied the config file again as listed on this page, did both the "right click/edit" and "open with" option using NotePad. Pasted the config file contents and saved.

Did the right click/edit again, and it looked good this time. Also did the "open with" NotePad option and it had just the config as listed below, so no excess stuff this time

Still getting an Missing <app_config> in app_config.xml error message...

Below is what was copied, directly from the file by right clicking on it, :

<app_config>
<app>
<name>amicable_10_20</name>
<gpu_versions>
<gpu_usage>.5</gpu_usage>
<cpu_usage>1</cpu_usage>
</gpu_versions>
</app>
</app_config>

Is the error message the same if it can't find or doesn't see the file as it would be if it was a faulty script? I'd like to verify Boinc can read/run "any" app_config file at this point. I run Amicable, GPUGrid, Rosetta, WCG, CG, NF, and Seti.

Is there a config setting in the Boinc manager where it sets where to look for any app_config files?

Did you save the file as a txt type file but with the .xml extension? If so and it's in the Boinc/projects/ammicablenumbersproject folder then all you need to do is go into the boinc Manager and click on Options, Read config files and it will run it, any errors will show up in the Event Log under the Tools tab.

It's because Boinc is written as a 32bit program and that's the limit it can show, it USES all of the memory until some Project comes up with a greater than 4gb workunit itself, which SO FAR none have done yet. A 64bit version has been discussed but I don't know how far along it is.

Is that really the case? BOINC has been offering 64bit versions for years although a 32bit download is still available. Additionally many projects offer 32bit and 64bit applications although Amicable Numbers only offers 64bit applications. You can peruse the download offerings and see both x86 and x86_64 offerings: https://boinc.berkeley.edu/download_all.php OR https://boinc.berkeley.edu/dl/

Good day. I verified the file was saved as an xml extension and did get it to run on one of my rigs, though utilization rates where still on the low end (70% range).

Ultimately I decided to scale back running this project across most of my mini-farm for several reasons. As noted, credit for work is decreasing, due in part to an increase in work unit completion times, with no adjustment for credit given. It has also been stated that this project is, or may be finishing its run. None of this makes me angry or anything, projects come and go and I'll point my servers and other systems to other projects as needed.

I'd like to get to the 1 billion credit mark before this project ends (sitting at 922 mil now), just because, but getting there will take considerably longer than would have been normal for my output production since I am only going to be running the project on 1 or 2 systems now, instead of 10. So instead of 6-9 weeks, it may now take 10 months to get to that milestone. I'm ok with that. It's been a good run considering I've only been crunching work units since Nov 2017.

Appreciate the advice and if the project continues, and changes the credit ratios/allocation, I'll consider ramping up again. Take care, be well, and good fortune.

Anyone got a recommended configuration for RTX cards, number of tasks- and kernel-wise? I'm currently trying 10 tasks at once, with the lowest kernel size, but it's not even at 50% utilization.

Anyone got a recommended configuration for RTX cards, number of tasks- and kernel-wise? I'm currently trying 10 tasks at once, with the lowest kernel size, but it's not even at 50% utilization.

Hi , you must find ideal ratio betwen : number of cpu cores on your pc,/gpu ram/kernel...
Soo i dont crunch amicable on my 2080ti now but what i do before:
Turn on gpu-z for see how much gpu ram is actually reached/utilised ,, after set kernel 21 , and start decrease
<gpu_usage>X.X</gpu_usage> change x.x to for exemple 0.22 is four task ... and start decrease with steps "-2 " like 0.20,0,18... to reach full utilising of gpu ram or i recomended intil 10 gb on turing cards
If you have moaar cpu cores you can decrease little bit kernel and this will give you posiibility add more gpu tasks..with that "decreasing steps" but crunt time for every one gpu task will very increase ..i remember last time i have over 7 hours per task now maybe 10... Soo i think its not best in to get best ratio" .. also whole system will very laggy" and imposible do something on it .. also if you will restart maschine tou will lose all gpu task progres ..so be carefully with restarting, stop update if win 10..))
Soo brake is ammount of Gpu ram on rtx cards .. only 11 gb and expensive.. and amd app on amd cards are not so efective like on rtx nvidias ..
edit: and you must watch in gpu-z after weeks how much ram is utilised becouse it decreasing slowly, becouse project specification.. Soo you must be ready fro exemple every month add one gpu task.. to keep gpu utilised.. but this behavior you or everyone must watch occasionally.. sorry for english )

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It's because Boinc is written as a 32bit program and that's the limit it can show, it USES all of the memory until some Project comes up with a greater than 4gb workunit itself, which SO FAR none have done yet. A 64bit version has been discussed but I don't know how far along it is.

Is that really the case? BOINC has been offering 64bit versions for years although a 32bit download is still available. Additionally many projects offer 32bit and 64bit applications although Amicable Numbers only offers 64bit applications. You can peruse the download offerings and see both x86 and x86_64 offerings: https://boinc.berkeley.edu/download_all.php OR https://boinc.berkeley.edu/dl/

You are talking different parts of Boinc, there is a Server side the Projects run and Client side we crunchers run.

The reason for this is that each task requires all of the prime numbers in an ever-growing range to be calculated, and this calculation can only be performed by the CPU.

This is interesting. I looked into a prime sieve on GPU once, but never got anywhere. However, I have seen at least one implementation of a prime sieve on a GPU: mfaktc by Oliver Weihe. This is the CUDA version: https://mersenneforum.org/showthread.php?t=12827 There's also an OpenCL version, mfakto, but I'm not 100% sure it has the GPU sieve: https://mersenneforum.org/showthread.php?t=15646

Edit: I should point out that these programs do not work on Amicable Numbers. But they could be useful to the developers.