On Tasks window formatting of Use column

[Harri Liljeroos]

The default way of showing a long string when use CPU/GPU is defined as 1 is annoyingly long [1 CPU + 1 Nvidia GPU (device 1)]. If your app_config.xml defines a decimal number (like 0.9) the string is shortened to nice value [0.9C + 0.9NV (d1)]. I think this should be an user selectable formatting (short/long form).

Now the way the Use column displays it's values makes the BoincTasks window unnecessary wide and I am running out of space on my display although I have 2560x1440 display.

[fred]

Now the way the Use column displays it's values makes the BoincTasks window unnecessary wide and I am running out of space on my display although I have 2560x1440 display.

Extra->BoincTasks Settings -> Tasks select "Condense Use column".

[Harri Liljeroos]

Thanks for your reply, I had completely missed that option. That was already selected, but it doesn't seem to work correctly (BoincTasks 1.73).

I originally had cpu set to 1.1 and gpu to 0.5 in app_config.xml (Einstein@home) and the use column displayed short values. Then I edited my app_config.xml and set <avg_ncpus>1</avg_ncpus> and <ngpus>0.5</ngpus> and restarted Boinc. Now use column is displayed as long although the option your mentioned was selected in both cases.

Another oddity that is related to the CPU usage values: The CPU usage % number is calculated in BoincTasks differently if your CPU setting is 1 or 1.1 for a GPU task. The Einstein tasks require a complete CPU to support one Nvidia GPU task. If I set CPU usage to 1 or 0.99 the % value shows about 98.5% which is correct. If I set it to 1.1 the % value shows about 48.5% which is wrong and means that the 1.1 is rounded up to 2 and used in the calculation of the % value.

On a CPU task (LHC Atlas VirtualBox task) that is set to use 3 CPU cores always shows 100% usage after the initialization of the task is over.

[fred]

On a CPU task (LHC Atlas VirtualBox task) that is set to use 3 CPU cores always shows 100% usage after the initialization of the task is over.

Is on my to-do list, but it may take a while.
The usage value is normally not used, it's more an indication for the user.
Setting the usage to 1.1 wil most likely change nothing but the client seems to divide the value by 2. That is correct BOINC can't assign 1.1 CPU, its always the whole core 1, 2, 3.
The CPU usage is simple the number of CPU cycles the task reports in a certain time frame, so it shouldn't change at all.
If you want to allocate a certain portion to BOINC tasks go to BOINC Settings and in Processor set "On multiprocessor....." to e.g. 50% to use half of the CPU cores.
With a Virtual BOX anything can go wrong, but I will try to test it.

[Harri Liljeroos]

I was using the 1.1 value, or sometimes the 0.99 value, just to get the short version text on the Use column. I have set the Boinc preferences to 75% of CPUs (so 6 out of 8 cores), but sometimes Boinc doesn't follow this setting. I believe that happens when Boinc is switching between Seti and Einstein tasks, I run 1 Seti task per GPU (app_config= 1 & 1) and 2 Einstein tasks per GPU (app_config= 1 & 0.5). I will change now the 1.1 and 0.99 to 1 in my app_config.xml files to see if this makes things better.

[Harri Liljeroos]

Just to verify my finding: I changed the CPU usage in app_config.xml for Seti and Einstein to 1 (from 1.1 or 0.99) for GPU tasks and I get the long version of the Use column although "condensed" is selected in preferences.