I've had it..

[Xrillo]

This is a really nice project, and damnit I really like it.

However the client needs constant babysitting to make sure it hasn't crasched or stalled. This simply won't do! I'm sorry...until there's a new version of sb.exe (without the need for babysitting) , I'm devoting the idle power of my computer to other things.

I know there's another version that restarts the client if it stalls. But to cure the symptoms of an illness and not the illness itself is the wrong way of doing things. I'm not going to lecture anyone about programming since I can only guess how much hard work it takes to maintain a project such as this. But I urge you to please do something soon!

[Joe O]

So come join the sieving side of the house for a while.

There are currently two sieving efforts. The first is 3M < N < 20M, and the second is 1 < N < 3M. They use the same programs but different SOB.DAT files.

The programs and 3M < N < 20M SOB.DAT can be found here. with an updated program here. With it's coordination thread here.

The 1 < N < 3M SOB.DAT can be found in this coordination thread.


More info can be found here and here.

There will be a new client. When it is released, you can go back to that side of the project.

[Mystwalker]

Sure, MathGuys installer is just a workaround, but it helps while we're waiting for the new client version - which sure is a lot of work to write...

I don't think that not using it will change a lot - maybe the new version will be released earlier, but with more bugs in it. I guess Louie made closed work for this client version, as there probably are more things than those mentioned in this forum. Not client-sided, but from an administraticve point of view, for example extensibility.

[MathGuy]

Certainly, I wouldn't want to discourage anyone from sieving...that's also an extremely important part of the project...but a lot of people are able to run the SB client with no manual babysitting using either my service handler or any one of several linux scripts.

I've posted before on this, so I'll (try to) be brief: you're absolutely right that the client should be fixed, and I think it will be soon. However, it can be run, trouble-free, right now in many, many configurations. Team ORU (not my team, but the current daily production leader), for example, is running hundreds of clients unattended in university computer labs with no babysitting at all.

I understand your frustration, Xrillo, and I agree with you philosophically - I've written commercial software and I know the importance of writing bulletproof code. But, I just couldn't let this thread stand without someone mentioning that there are practical (though not necessarily philosophically elegant) ways around the current problems.

Edit: didn't see Mystwalker's post before doing mine...

[Xrillo]

I'm sorry if my post sounded negative against your service installer, that was not my intention. I think it's great that someone has done something to ease the pain for the desperate babysitters.

I was just sooo frustrated when SB froze for the gazzillionth time yesterday (stopped at 0.0% for no apparent reason). I just felt I had to make my voice heard.

btw, I've started sieving...so I haven't left the project.

[Slatz]

I have to throw my two cents in with xrillo..the client freezing has become a major issue of late. I have had my client freeze 3 times in the past 5 days. Several members of my team, Anandtech, are also complaining of freezes a lot more often the past week or so.

And no I don't use the service install and I have no plans to. I do this project because I have an interest in numbers as an engineer, and don't plan on installing a bunch of work arounds, there are other projects out there that don't need baby sitting.

If someone can just give an update about the current status of any fixes or next gen clients, that would go along way.

Slatz

[shauge]

I don't know if it will work, but I have just switched of the "transmit intermediate blocks" in the config dialog. I guess it would help because all of my hangs has occured when a block was finished.
As far as I understand the blocks are just an artificial way of reporting progress for the stats anyway. You would have to finish the complete proth test within 10 days though, else the test would be reassigned to someone else.