It's been brought to my attention that the client is out-dated and lacking in many key areas. I've come up with a solution. I'm still testing this but I'd like your early feedback.

Basically, I've reverse engineered GIMPS Primenet server using their helpful documentation:
http://v5.mersenne.org/v5design/v5webAPI_0.97.html#8.0

And from their specification, I've created a 197 line php "server" which is handing out real tests that can be delivered and returned DIRECTLY to SB using the standard GIMPS client.

Here is how you can test this new SB client / server.

1) Download a client from ftp://mersenne.org/gimps/

for win32: ftp://mersenne.org/gimps/p95v259.zip
for win64: ftp://mersenne.org/gimps/p64v259.zip
there are clients in this directory for linux, Mac OS X, and NT as well.

2) Unzip and run the client

3) Tell it you want to use Primenet and do GIMPS testing.... set it up however, but once it downloads a test and starts crunching, close it.

4) Delete "worktodo.txt"

5) Open "prime.txt" and add this line to the bottom

MersenneIP=www.seventeenorbust.com

and update the V5UserID line like so

V5UserID=louie

where you put your own SB username there.


6) Run the client again... ta da! You're doing tests for SB.




So what are people's thoughts on this? I *just* finished putting together the new server to handle these requests so several things aren't supported (like saving progress reports, saving P-1 factors, etc) but it should actually work in other ways. This gives you the GIMPS client which has faster, more recently optimized code, and better features (multi-core, battery settings, etc).

Some specific feedback I'd like are:

* Benchmarks for the same (or similar) tests in SB v2.5.0 vs GIMPS v25.9. Several computers would be nice if someone or multiple people can provide this. I'm curious what the raw gain in efficiency would be from helping people upgrade through this path.

* Bug reports - This procedure to setup the client works on my MacBook and my gfs Toshiba. I think I fixed a problem with the client misinterpreting the test key as the k value but I'm not positive. It should also actually start adding those of you who test this way to the results / checkouts db. So this running for a bit and checking out a test or two will help even if you don't finish them or otherwise give feedback.



If we actually roll this out, I'll find a far less disruptive way to install it. For GIMPS so we don't check out their tests and for SB users so it's not so clumsy. But assuming it didn't require so many steps, would using this client be a net positive? Let me know your results. Thanks!

-Louie