Lighthouse for novice Mac participation volunteers (interim)
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I write this for those who are intending to participate CPDN with Mac computer.

First of all, you should check if your system meet the requirements against the CPDN’s page titled “Recommended System Requirements” as found:

[Home] > [Taking part in CPDN] > [Getting Started] > [technical requirements]

As you see there, presently, Mac is not listed. When I started, Mac was listed and, acording to my memory, telling that:

CPDN’s settings: HW: G3, Disk: 600MB; Will keep run for a week.

Based on this, I started and now I’m knowing the truth.

My experience: HW: G4 1.5GHz, Disk: 6GB; Will run for 160 days.

Also, no visualization program is provided right now for Mac; in order to enjoy your completed result, you may have to port it for yourself to Linux(x86 only) or Windows environment.

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Regarding applications, CPDN sends one appropriate for your computer environment; you have no chance to choose a particular one.

After registered, your computer may be loaded immediately, or simply kept waiting, for years. It is not clear if CPDN server computer is busy or out of service, or there\'s no applications/data at all. So, waiting for a week and your computer is not loaded, then think about joining other BOINC sites in parallel. Note that LHC@home now doesn\'t have applications for Mac.

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Neither does WCG or SIMAP@Home at the moment. Both have stated that they are planning on them ... but ...

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1. please download and install the prerequisite application library first.

http://climateapps2.oucs.ox.ac.uk/cpdnboinc/download/libcpdn.zip

2. Make sure you are running the latest version of BOINC.

http://climateapps2.oucs.ox.ac.uk/cpdnboinc/download.php

Firewall and port settings:-
Rom walton says Boinc needs the following:?BOINC Manager needs to be able to open outbound connections to either 1043 or 31416.?BOINC Screensaver needs to be able to open outbound connections to either 1043 or 31416.?BOINC needs to open an inbound connection to either 1043 or 31416, and an outbound connection to port 80 for downloads and uploads of workunits, results, and science packages.?Plus, BOINC may also need port 43. CPDN Trickle\'s may need https on port 443.

There is a lot of help and support. Here is a good place to start:- http://boinc.berkeley.edu/participate.php and which gives mac instructions as required.

Be aware that developement of BOINC and BOINC projects and their servers, is ongoing; so problems may occur. If they do happen to you, take the time to look around the project boards, read the Wiki pages and BOINC Help menu.

On my Mac G5 Quad running four (4) CPDN work units I am currently using 5.22 GB of Disk, so they can use a lot of disk space.

If you are running multiple CPDN wu\'s make sure that you have a long time gap between wu\'s. I am using around 36 hours. I say this as I have had problems uploading more than one wu at the same time. WU\'s take a long time to run, 1400 to 1500 CPU hours is not uncommon.

Make sure that your \'permissions\' are in good repair. Run the disk utility from the drop down menu on the OS install disk. (Take care).

In the Work tab, if you highlight a wu that has been running a little while and then hit the \'show graphic\' button, the graphics should display ok for that wu only.

K.

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My report might lead a misunderstanding. I\'d rephrase:

My experience: HW: G4 1.5GHz
Disk Usage: expect to grow upto 6GB.
Will run for 160 days with the current workunit.

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As a matter of course, I installed the cpdnlib, but after the installation finished, I couldn\'t locate it.
So, I retried the installation processs. The result was the same.
I\'ve been wondering where it is installed; where it is now...

Do you mean that sulphur422 can run without cpdnlib, and that\'s why my work is so slow going ?

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I should have said at the beginning the intent of this \"Lighthouse for novice.\"

If a novice read this before starting, one will know that it may take half a year for a Mac_mini to deal with a single workunit, may be frightened and hesitate to start.

But, most novice will start without reading this, like myself.

If a novice had started without knowing the situation, one may wonder if things are going right... Now, reading this, one can either reset and leave, or can stay here relaxed.

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Though I can\'t confirm yet, libcpdn would produce three files:

/opt/ibmcmp/lib/libxlf90.A.dylib,...

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> no visualization program is provided right now for Mac;

I\'m using OSX 10.3.9, a 900mhz G3 \"Pismo\" (aftermarket CPU). I have the visualization.

First select the Work tab.
Next select the line of text in the window that begins under \"Project\"
Now click to the left on the button \"Show Graphics\"

I\'m using Boinc Manager 4.43.

Now, my questions:
My CPU use is just reaching 500 hours
My Progress is at 7.38 percent
To completion: 6208 hours
Report deadline: Dec. 7th

I leave it running most of the time, but I don\'t think I\'m going to be done with this run by the report deadline.

Is what\'s running going to be of any use to CPN, even if it doesn\'t finish by the deadline?

And I\'ve got to tell you, looking at the globe in the visualization window is darned spooky -- mine is showing areas that are upwards of 40 degrees C plus and minus, per the bar chart. It has a distinct \"wrong planet\" feel about it.

Is this an odd thing to be seeing at this point?
(feel free to point me to another thread, I don\'t visit the forums often enough).

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The completion \'deadline\' doesn\'t matter much. Provided that you let BOINC trickle regularly to let the server know that the model is still alive, you can finish way past the deadline.
Whether or not the results will still be of use then is another matter.
Only time will tell.

As for the appearance of your model, I\'m just the opposite; I visit the forums often, but don\'t take much notice of my models. If they are still running OK, that\'s fine.

> no visualization program is provided right now for Mac;

What I mean by \"visualization program\" is such one told under the section \"Watching your Modelled World\" on the page:

CPDN Home > Taking part in CPDN > Getting Started.

On the contrary to other boinc sites, cpdn seems trying to have us understand the science and modelling - maybe British way.

Naturally one would like to visualize the result after spending several months for one whole model.

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> My report might lead a misunderstanding. I\'d rephrase:

> My experience: HW: G4 1.5GHz
Disk Usage: expect to grow upto 6GB.
Will run for 160 days with the current workunit.

Today, roughly one month since started, at about 20% Work Completed, I got the message:

\"Phase over, going into post_processing()\"

and Phase 2 started.

The disk usage flipped back from 1GB to 500MB. This seems suggesting that the disk usage wouldn\'t grow ceilinglessly.

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The disk usage flipped back from 1GB to 500MB. This seems suggesting that the disk usage wouldn\'t grow ceilinglessly.

Each Phase will add more zipped files, though not as much space as the first Phase. (I have no Mac experience would be surprised at 6GB for a single Model, though a pair of Models can easily push close to that.)

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"We have met the enemy and he is us." -- Pogo
Greetings from coastal Washington state, the scenic US Pacific Northwest.

Yesterday, at 40% Work Completed, the phase 2 ended, results archived, phase 3 started, and trickle-up sent; disk usage flipped back from 1.6GB to 818MB. Single phase appears taking one month plus several days.

It seems phase-take-over will take place at every 20% work completed. I will report hereafter only when something unexpected take place.

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