Since there isn't an official BOINC client for the PS3, you will need the BOINC client files for the PS3 from a 3rd party source. I've made a file here:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=NPZZ5TX7

Download, and extract. Instructions are included. Please read, there is important information about not pausing/suspending workunits, and the minor issue with random-cpu benchmarking.

The main difference between this client and the PS3Grid/GPUGrid client is this one is setup to use 6 cpus (SPEs in this case). PS3Grid's client was locked to a lower number when it was compiled.

Note that for some reason, BOINC's cpu benchmark test may fail, don't worry, this will not change anything credit-wise.

Please use this thread for anything PS3 related, or PM me if necessary.

Thanks,
Bryan Little

Ok a small note was at the bottom of the readme file about you may need to ldd the binary files. You need the 64bit C++ Library installed (I have this installed by default because the distro was installed as "development install").

In your package manager, add/remove software, search for libstdc++. You should see 3 files, install the first two. (GNU standard C++ library) The main one you need is the ppc64 one for 64 bit support.

Future versions may be linked statically to avoid this issue.

Let me know how it works out for you.

Also, I would recommend only using this boinc with cc_config.xml saying 6 cpus with PrimeGrid.

This is because yoyo and GPUgrid workunits are made to be split up into pieces and run on the SPEs.

I decided to run a workunit on each spe because they are small enough.

So maybe have a directory for each boinc, and manually switch between the two to run other projects for now.

So far so good, didn't have to install any additional packages either, crunching of 6 AP26s has started, benchmark did not create any errors - looking perfectly fine so far. I'll keep you updated once the first batch has completed.
Really great work, mfl0p, thank you very much!

Edit: Would it make sense to also use the two PPEs for crunching if you're not doing anything else on your PS3? If so, how would I do that, just change the number of CPUs to 8 rather than 6?
____________

Using a PPE thread to crunch a workunit was the original plan, however until I find a good way to determine all SPEs are busy without special OS privileges given to the app, we're only using the 6 SPEs and part of the PPE at this time. The Cell processor's design intent was to have the PPE dispatch work to the SPEs, not actually do a lot of calculations itself.

Also, the PPE shows as two processors to the OS, but it's similar to Intel's HyperThreading, so maxing two threads on the PPE may be no faster than just one thread. I haven't tested this yet.. I'm already using the PPE for certain calculations the SPE is very slow at. Therefore, if I speed up the SPEs enough, the PPE will be loaded pretty good with no need for a new, dedicated crunching thread.

Increasing the # of cpus in the boinc config file will only cause each workunit to run much slower, the OS will be trying to schedule 8 spu threads on only 6 SPEs. Kinda like running 8 threads on a Q6600 machine, no advantage.

The PS3 app is a work in progress, expect some changes in the future to increase speeds.

Edit: Would it make sense to also use the two PPEs for crunching if you're not doing anything else on your PS3? If so, how would I do that, just change the number of CPUs to 8 rather than 6?

Looking fine here too. First 6 wu's completed and validated.
Tasks for my host are here.
It is PS3 with Ubuntu 9.04 installed to external (USB) disk.

Did take some time before I realised that the libspe2-library that I had was not the same as the ldd claimed "not found". It seems Ubuntu does not deliver the 64bit version at all, only 32bit. So I installed it from
Fedora rpm with "alien", and got everything finally running.
Speed is about 100min "wall time"/"6 wu's".

Thanks mfl0p, great work! Finally something useful to do with my PS3.

--
Lumiukko

Thanks mfl0p for the explanation.
I can now gladly report that also my WUs have validated and everything is fine. I confirm around 100min/6WUs. Excellent work, thanks again!
____________

You need to additionally install the 64bit version of the libstdc++ library.
By default only the 32bit libstdc++ is installed.

On command line do:

sudo yum install libstdc++.ppc64

I guess you're using an old PS3GRID boinc client 5.10.6, try a newer one with SPE support:
http://www.dotsch.de/boinc/boinc6219_10.linux-ps3.tar.gz
don't forget to add cc_config.xml
<cc_config>
<options>
<ncpus>6</ncpus>
</options>
</cc_config>

you can ignore this:

Unrecognized XML in parse_init_data_file: fraction_done_update_period
Skipping: 1.000000
Skipping: /fraction_done_update_period

SIGSEGV: segmentation violation
Stack trace (8 frames):
primegrid_ap26_1.00_powerpc64-ps3-linux-gnu[0x1000bb8c]
[0x100418]
/usr/lib64/libspe2.so.2(_base_spe_context_run-0x14804)[0x4000002602c]
/usr/lib64/libspe2.so.2(_event_spe_context_run-0x14464)[0x400000263dc]
/usr/lib64/libspe2.so.2(spe_context_run-0x1c9e4)[0x4000001d5bc]
primegrid_ap26_1.00_powerpc64-ps3-linux-gnu[0x10003cf4]
/lib64/libpthread.so.0[0x80fd37bd08]
/lib64/libc.so.6(clone-0xa825c)[0x80fd19f2ac]

The AP26 PS3 app uses mostly the SPEs, so using 'top' will only show PPE cpu usage, which is about 2% per thread. To view SPE usage, you can use 'spu-top', and all six SPEs should be busy. However, it should only take about 100 minutes to process 6wu. So make sure something else isnt hogging the SPEs.

Time to completion and final cpu time is wrong in BOINC because it only sees what the PPE thread is doing. BOINC doesn't know what a SPE is :) This is similar to what MilkyWay@home's ATI gpu app was showing, around 8 seconds per workunit when it first came out.

A new version has been released for public.
____________

The new version 1.01 is much faster, expect the PS3's RAC to more than double (will be around 2500).

The PS3 will complete 6 workunits in parallel in 45minutes.

A lot of modulo code was changed to spu 8x vector addition/subtraction/compare to achieve this speedup.

The 64bit C++ library is now linked static, so that shouldn't be an issue anymore for some users who don't have it installed by default.

A reminder, suspending boinc/workunit will cause the workunits to error with a signal 11. To avoid this, just exit boinc, then restart boinc when you want to continue. This has to do with the two threads being used for PPE/SPE. I hope to fix this in the future.

A new version 1.02 is coming soon.

Speed is right at 12 workunits an hour!

Almost as fast as my linux Intel quad (about 16wu an hour). And the PS3 only pulls 90watts from the wall while running (65nm cpu version).

RAC should be over 3000, my test machine has been climbing every day, about 2850 right now.

You will notice the PPE thread cpu usage has increased a bit, this is because i've moved the slow 64bit modulo calculations to the PPE, which is better suited to this kind of work.
____________

Version 1.02 is live.

Anyone interested in parallel computing processors such as cell/gpgpu/clusters should check out this interesting wiki article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amdahl%27s_law

It explains Amdahl's Law, which may help you better understand why I'm treating the PS3 as a 6 CPU computer, instead of a single CPU like other BOINC projects. The AP26 workunit has 3 test ranges, which theoretically I could run one range on each of 3 SPEs. This would allow computation of 2 workunits in parallel instead of 6. However, this is where Amdahl's Law comes in, each of the 3 AP26 test ranges take a different amount of time to compute. So, say 2 ranges are pretty fast, but the third range is a bit slower, so the other 2 SPEs are idle while the last range of the workunit completes. There are also portions of the code that cannot be computed in parallel at all.

We can avoid all of this wasted, unnecessary idle time by treating the PS3's CELL as a 6 CPU computer, even though it's only a single CPU. This can be done because of the small workunit size for AP26. Other projects like some LLR workunits that take days to complete on a modern Intel Core CPU would be good candidates to split into pieces and run one workunit at a time on the CELL.
____________

cool tool!
What would be the maximum RAC a PS3 or a Cell Blade could achieve?

My current PS3 RAC running AP26 is 2927 (23days uptime running boinc/primegrid)
EDIT: I forgot about the recent hot days: so 3 of those days where limited to 12 hours crunching only)
____________

not bad for a 280 Euro computer - should be in the region of a C2D with 2400 MHz.

cool tool!
What would be the maximum RAC a PS3 or a Cell Blade could achieve?

For distributed computing projects there are very few for the Cell that do useful things, which is the main reason I ported AP26 to the platform.

I'm sure you did this already, but being that the cc_config.xml is where you tell BOINC how many SPUs you have, did you change it to 16? I don't know if the boinc client will take a number that high. Would be interesting to know.

Distributed.net's client works very well for RC5 and OGR, they have a talented group of programmers for many exotic platforms. However, being that my ATI Radeon GPU does 435Mkeys/sec on RC5, it makes even the Cell look slow :) And, it seems like it will be a LONG time until the key is found at current rates.
____________

not bad for a 280 Euro computer - should be in the region of a C2D with 2400 MHz.

However, being that my ATI Radeon GPU does 435Mkeys/sec on RC5, it makes even the Cell look slow :) And, it seems like it will be a LONG time until the key is found at current rates.

However, being that my ATI Radeon GPU does 435Mkeys/sec on RC5, it makes even the Cell look slow :) And, it seems like it will be a LONG time until the key is found at current rates.

Wait, is there finally a public ATI client for RC5? Or are you just stating the rate of that pre-beta client?

Some info about the new PS3 firmware 3.0 update. There was some confusion about PS3 firmware 3.0 disabling otheros/linux support for all PS3s. This is not true.

Non-slim PS3s can update to 3.0 and still run otheros/linux with no problem. I updated one today.

The new redesigned PS3 (slim) with 45nm cpu CANNOT run otheros/linux at all, regardless of firmware version.
____________

Version 1.03 released today.

The main reason for the new version is to update the memory flow controller code to IBM specifications to ensure proper operation of the application. This is basically a "double check" operation in the memory copy code between application threads.

All MFC code was updated. As a result, PPE thread cpu usage % has dropped a bit due to the more efficient code. The workunits will only be about 21 seconds faster on average than version 1.02 so don't expect much of a change in RAC. The reason for the slight increase in speed is due to less MFC command overhead in this version.

Best of luck finding more APs!

-Bryan Little
____________

Re: AP26 work, the server will generate AP26 workunits very fast when work gets low enough. And, at this time, there is not any shortage of ranges to check with AP26 :) So there is plenty of work.

Going against BOINC's original design intent, I would not use this client with multiple projects, as yoyo's wrapped distributed.net application will try to take control of the PPE and all six SPEs with only one cruncher running. The AP26 application only uses one SPE per cruncher, that's why the client is setup for 6 cpus. I found this the best way to run the program, as none of the SPEs are idle if one workunit finishes before the other.

One thing to remember, since BOINC doesn't natively detect the SPEs, and now the PS3-Slim no longer supports Linux, I do not think many more PS3 or BOINC client applications will be made. BOINC wasn't originally designed for the PS3 and GPU applications, it gets confused since the actual processor (SPE or GPU) isn't being monitored directly like a CPU app.

Hi, I noticed that work for ap26 looked very low. Will this client work well with having two projects, for example this and yoyo. Has anyone tested? I would not want my machines run dry.

GPU-grid (former ps3grid) is closing down for ps3, so I have relocated. Great that this client exists!

According to Message 17879:

The boinc client is happy with 16 clients in cc_config.xml on the QS20 cell blade.

I've moved from Ps3grid here with 3 QS20 blades. Which client should I run to use all available SPE's on each blade?

Thank you!

--
Konstantin

Hi,

06-Oct-2009 01:27:02 [---] Contacting account manager at http://bam.boincstats.com/
06-Oct-2009 01:27:04 [---] Account manager: BAM! User-ID: 72641
06-Oct-2009 01:27:04 [---] Account manager: BAM! Host-ID: 187069
06-Oct-2009 01:27:04 [---] Account manager: This host connected 9 times to BAM!
06-Oct-2009 01:27:04 [---] Account manager contact succeeded
06-Oct-2009 01:27:04 [---] Attaching to http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/
SIGSEGV: segmentation violation
Stack trace (8 frames):
./boinc_client[0x10052a5c]
[0x100344]
./boinc_client[0x10006ff8]
./boinc_client[0x10035428]
./boinc_client[0x10014e00]
./boinc_client[0x10040068]
/lib/libc.so.6[0xfe5dc0c]
/lib/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0x144)[0xfe5de34]

Contacting account manager at http://bam.boincstats.com/

Application version 1.04 released today. Changes:

* Application is about 4 minutes faster per workunit than 1.03. PPE thread CPU usage will be about the same as 1.03. Avearge workunit time is about 27 minutes. Remember the PS3's Cell processor does 6 wu in parallel, so another way to look at the speed is the single PS3 Cell CPU is finishing a workunit in about 4m 30s. This time would be about 1m 42s on Cell Blades with 2 processors (16 SPEs total).
Expect a RAC over 4000 for the PS3 now.

* Application operation has been changed to work like the other x86 apps, you can start a manual search with the command line or with an ".ini" file. The PPE is handling the search range input and sending the info the the SPE via MFC. Previous versions were using a temporary file to transfer the search range data to the SPE.

* And now, the boring technical stuff. I previously thought the AP26 on Cell was about as fast as it was going to get, but I proved myself wrong again with this version. Increases were found by removing two vectors (and about 18 related vector operations) in rarely used areas. Also, by changing the 64bit OKOK arrays to vectors, they are naturally aligned to a quadword boundary for faster loads. But this required more memory on the SPE, since it effectively doubled the size of the OKOK arrays. More LS was found by moving the OK337-OK541 arrays out of the SPE totally. Version 1.03 setup the arrays and sent them to the PPE via MFC, wasting SPE LS. Version 1.04 creates the arrays in the PPE. And, finally, the global OK61 - OK331 char arrays were isolated to a function on the SPEs as temporay arrays to setup the OKOK vectors.

Bryan Little

Out of curiosity, did credits for 1.04 get fixed back to 12.61/wu instead of 13.61/wu? I'm seeing a lot of 12.61 credited tasts in my completed WU list and want to clarify...

Looks like there has been an error somewhere. Doubled credit, but work times are unchanged.


____________
141941*2^4299438-1 is prime!

Looks like there has been an error somewhere. Doubled credit, but work times are unchanged.

I noticed it now, i swapped over this morning while being frustrated not having found one lousy prime since the last challenge in ppsLLR and was pleasantly surprised by the credit throughput... ;)
But it is still very high.
____________

First, download the client in post #1.

Use the command line in a terminal to start the boinc client. You don't have to do anything with libraries or worry about libstdc++ with YDL 6.2. So really it's easier than you are thinking :)

The most easy way would be to extract the .tar to a directory, then open a terminal and go to the boinc directory. Then run:
./boinc_client
Then open another terminal, and go to the boinc directory and run:
./boincmgr

This will first start the main boinc client program, then the manager will attach to it so you can configure with a GUI. After you are done configuring, I suggest closing the boincmgr GUI because it uses quite a bit of CPU time on the PS3. Keep the other termial running (./boinc_client). When you want to stop boinc, just ctrl-c in the terminal window running the ./boinc_client.

If you really want to keep the GUI open, start it with command line:
nice ./boincmgr
this will keep it from hogging the CPU too much.

There are other ways to run the client, such as under a private user account, via "screen", as a daemon, and setting up via boinc_cmd but for the average PS3 user the "easy" way is the best I can think of.

--> Do not work, I only have
boinc_client
and
boinc_cmd
in that folder.
Should I dl some more or is my extraction faulty somehow?

I have identified a minor bug in the PS3 application.

Rarely, a workunit may hang after restarting boinc-client and resuming computation. This is due to the SPE handling the checkpointing. If the SPE was in the middle of a checkpoint write when the boinc-client was killed, then the state file may be blank upon resume. This will cause the task to appear to be running in boinc, but only 5 threads will actually be running.

I will fix this by moving the checkpoint code to the PPE thread. This way checkpointing will be safe inside a boinc_critical_section, and this will not be an issue.

Until I do this, if you find a hung workunit just abort it, and things will continue as usual.
____________

The checkpointing hang bug has been fixed in version 1.05 released now.

Also, the application will now use your boinc config settings on checkpoint/result write to disk time intervals. Previous apps wrote to disk whenever a result or checkpoint was reached while the program was running. One can imagine disk operation was very frequent.

The results are now buffered between checkpoints, so there will not be any duplicate results reported if boinc is stopped and resumed later (this could have happened in previous versions due to result file being updated before next checkpoint).

Checkpoint interval is now 7 times per K, or about every 1m 17s. This was changed from default 85 times per K because on PS3 every CPU is running at the same speed, so such a frequent checkpoint is not needed.

The only remaining issue I am aware of is the signal 11 error on all running workunits during a cpu-benchmark or if you suspend computation. This has been a "bug" since the first release. So avoid suspending or running cpu-benchmarks, if possible. I have tried a few things to avoid this problem, but was not successful.
____________

Version 1.05 erroring all workunits in my PS3: exceeded disk limits (I have 100GB reserved for Boinc in preferences):

Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:09:30 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Starting ap26_17795886_17795896_0_0
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:09:30 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Starting task ap26_17795886_17795896_0_0 using ap26 version 105
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:09:30 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Starting ap26_17795189_17795195_0_0
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:09:30 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Starting task ap26_17795189_17795195_0_0 using ap26 version 105
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:09:30 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Starting ap26_17795554_17795562_0_0
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:09:30 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Starting task ap26_17795554_17795562_0_0 using ap26 version 105
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:09:30 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Starting ap26_17796012_17796018_0_0
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:09:30 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Starting task ap26_17796012_17796018_0_0 using ap26 version 105
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:09:30 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Starting ap26_16134903_16134910_0_1
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:09:30 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Starting task ap26_16134903_16134910_0_1 using ap26 version 105
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:09:30 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Starting ap26_17789932_17789940_0_1
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:09:30 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Starting task ap26_17789932_17789940_0_1 using ap26 version 105
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:09:56 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Aborting task ap26_17795886_17795896_0_0: exceeded disk limit: 16.94MB > 9.54MB
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:09:56 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Aborting task ap26_17795189_17795195_0_0: exceeded disk limit: 14.10MB > 9.54MB
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:09:56 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Aborting task ap26_17795554_17795562_0_0: exceeded disk limit: 11.31MB > 9.54MB
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:09:56 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Aborting task ap26_17796012_17796018_0_0: exceeded disk limit: 16.61MB > 9.54MB
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:09:56 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Aborting task ap26_16134903_16134910_0_1: exceeded disk limit: 14.95MB > 9.54MB
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:09:56 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Aborting task ap26_17789932_17789940_0_1: exceeded disk limit: 16.31MB > 9.54MB
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:10:01 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Computation for task ap26_17795886_17795896_0_0 finished
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:10:01 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Computation for task ap26_17795189_17795195_0_0 finished
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:10:01 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Computation for task ap26_17795554_17795562_0_0 finished
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:10:01 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Computation for task ap26_17796012_17796018_0_0 finished
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:10:01 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Computation for task ap26_16134903_16134910_0_1 finished
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:10:01 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Computation for task ap26_17789932_17789940_0_1 finished
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:10:01 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Starting ap26_17795429_17795434_0_0
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:10:01 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Starting task ap26_17795429_17795434_0_0 using ap26 version 105
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:10:01 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Starting ap26_17795413_17795419_0_0
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:10:01 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Starting task ap26_17795413_17795419_0_0 using ap26 version 105
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:10:01 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Starting ap26_17795276_17795283_0_0
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:10:01 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Starting task ap26_17795276_17795283_0_0 using ap26 version 105
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:10:01 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Starting ap26_17795510_17795515_0_0
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:10:01 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Starting task ap26_17795510_17795515_0_0 using ap26 version 105
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:10:01 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Starting ap26_17795540_17795546_0_0
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:10:01 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Starting task ap26_17795540_17795546_0_0 using ap26 version 105
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:10:01 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Starting ap26_17795420_17795428_0_0
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:10:01 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Starting task ap26_17795420_17795428_0_0 using ap26 version 105
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:14:20 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Sending scheduler request: To report completed tasks. Requesting 0 seconds of work, reporting 6 completed tasks
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:14:24 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Scheduler request succeeded: got 0 new tasks
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:14:56 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Aborting task ap26_17795429_17795434_0_0: exceeded disk limit: 180.74MB > 9.54MB
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:14:56 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Aborting task ap26_17795413_17795419_0_0: exceeded disk limit: 183.09MB > 9.54MB
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:14:56 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Aborting task ap26_17795276_17795283_0_0: exceeded disk limit: 172.59MB > 9.54MB
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:14:56 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Aborting task ap26_17795510_17795515_0_0: exceeded disk limit: 169.05MB > 9.54MB
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:14:56 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Aborting task ap26_17795540_17795546_0_0: exceeded disk limit: 171.52MB > 9.54MB
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:14:56 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Aborting task ap26_17795420_17795428_0_0: exceeded disk limit: 192.20MB > 9.54MB
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:15:02 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Computation for task ap26_17795429_17795434_0_0 finished
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:15:02 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Computation for task ap26_17795413_17795419_0_0 finished
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:15:02 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Computation for task ap26_17795276_17795283_0_0 finished
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:15:02 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Computation for task ap26_17795510_17795515_0_0 finished
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:15:02 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Computation for task ap26_17795540_17795546_0_0 finished
Sun 01 Nov 2009 09:15:02 PM EET|PrimeGrid|Computation for task ap26_17795420_17795428_0_0 finished

--
Lumiukko

It's hard to tell at the moment if it's an app problem since most of the PS3s haven't switched over to 1.05 yet. The few PS3s I do see running 1.05 already seem to be running fine. However, they are all running a different version of Linux than your PS3. I have run this version for a few days on my test PS3 before submitting it.

I did some searching on that error, and it can be due to many things. Low disk space or allocation with BOINC settings, or possibly an error log (boinc logging or application stderr.txt) is getting huge for some reason.

If you can, check the slot folder while boinc is running to see if the stderr.txt is rapidly increasing in size, and if so, post what it contains.

If you can, check the slot folder while boinc is running to see if the stderr.txt is rapidly increasing in size, and if so, post what it contains.

Good, we found the problem. Something appears to be 'broken' in your linux spufs support. As I have no idea what distro, or how it was installed, this is about all the information I can give you.
____________

... As I have no idea what distro, or how it was installed....

Hi gang

A real newb question here.

Thanks to mfl0p I have Yellow Dog running on a PS3 and have downloaded his file. I'm even posting via the PS#So far all so good. I am running at very low res, 480i. The only problem at the moment is that when I come to try to attach to a project the nice graphical interface shows me a lovely picture of a cup of coffee but the unresizable box isn't big enough to show the data fields.

Can some one explain how I jump what I hope is the last hurdle? I am sure there must be a fairly simple way of doing this from a terminal but I don't know it. Bear in mind it would be difficult to under estimate my computer skills so really easy steps please!

Cheers!

T

ps Isn't swine flu a boar?

You can use the boinccmd program to attach to your account instead of the GUI, it's just a bit more complicated. ./boinccmd --help should get you started.

Or, turn off the PS3's firewall (or open BOINC's RPC port) and remotely attach to the PS3 with another computer's BOINC manager. You will need the GUI RPC key off the PS3.

Both aren't really "easy" if you are new to linux, but without having at least a 720p output monitor then the GUI is probably not going to look like it should, so you are left with these "harder" options.
____________

Thanks again for the help mfl0p, much appreciated.

I scrounged the use of an HD tv and reinstalled Yellow Dog. The user interface is certainly different! I managed to get BOINC running but is seems not to have up loaded results. I will look into it if I ever recover from this swine flu. I tried ringing the swine flu helpline but all I got was crackling.

Cheers!

T

For the project staging area, there's already a version of prpclient including phrot available for the PS3. Although they're not using the cell SPU.

I have genefer-2.2 working on the cell SPU's but the speed is as slow as on the PPC, so there is no advantage here.
(It might scale better on Cell-Blades with much more than 6 SPUs.)

At the moment I'm trying to port genefer to Cuda and Stream, but I have not much hope they will perform better. (because of slow double precision and memory transfers on GPU)

____________

It was just a matter of time until Sony did this:

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2010/03/28/ps3-firmware-v3-21-update/

Firmware 3.21 will disable OtherOS on the old (fat) PS3. They claim it's for security reasons. If you have a PS3, you'll have to update to keep playing your games/sign on to PSN. However, if you have a dedicated PS3 for number crunching only, you don't HAVE to update and remove a feature of your PS3.
____________

It was just a matter of time until Sony did this:

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2010/03/28/ps3-firmware-v3-21-update/

Firmware 3.21 will disable OtherOS on the old (fat) PS3. They claim it's for security reasons. If you have a PS3, you'll have to update to keep playing your games/sign on to PSN. However, if you have a dedicated PS3 for number crunching only, you don't HAVE to update and remove a feature of your PS3.

The first line of that page lists:

The next system software update for the PlayStation 3 (PS3) system will be released on April 1, 2010 (JST), and will disable the “Install Other OS” feature that was available on the PS3 systems prior to the current slimmer models, launched in September 2009.

It is official. At least the Cell Blades can still work on the AP26 project. IMO, Sony just killed the Cell processor by doing this. Most all websites teaching Cell programming were teaching people on the PS3 running linux. I'll bet the PS4 will have a processor a lot more similar to desktop PCs.

From Sony's PS3 website:

PlayStation®3 System Software Version 3.21
SettingsInstall Other OS / Default System

The [Install Other OS] and [Default System] features have been deleted. If you update your system software to version 3.21 or later, you will not be able to use [Install Other OS] or [Default System] under (Settings) > (System Settings).

Notice for customers who are using another operating system

Before performing the system software update, follow the steps below:

Back up data from the other operating system

If you install the system software update, you will not be able to use the hard disk partitions used by the other operating system. The data saved in these partitions cannot be restored after the system software has been updated. Back up all data to storage media before updating the system software.

Using the hard disk partition for the PS3™ system software

If you want to allocate all of the hard disk for use by the PS3™ system software, you must format the hard disk. In this case, follow the steps below:

1.Back up data
Back up the necessary data by selecting (Settings) > (System Settings) > [Backup Utility]. For details about the backup utility feature, select here .

2.Format the hard disk
Format the hard disk by selecting (Settings) > (System Settings) > [Format Utility]. During the format operation, you will be asked to select a hard disk partition. Select [Use All for the PS3™ System].
For details about the format utility feature, select here .
3.Update the system software
Perform the system software update.
4.Restore the data
Restore the data that was backed up in step 1 by selecting (Settings) > (System Settings) > [Backup Utility].
Notice for customers who want to continue using another operating system

Do not update the system software if you want to keep using the [Install Other OS] and [Default System] features. If you choose to continue using another operating system, the following features will no longer be available:

The ability to sign in to PlayStation®Network
The ability to use online features that require you to sign in to PlayStation®Network, such as chat.
The ability to use the online features of PlayStation®3 format software
Playback of PlayStation®3 format software or Blu-ray Disc videos that require PS3™ system software version 3.21 or later
Playback of copyright-protected videos that are stored on a media server (when DTCP-IP is enabled under (Settings) > (System Settings) > [Enable DTCP-IP])
Use of new features and improvements that are available on PS3™ system software 3.21 or later
.PlayStation®3PSP®(Playstation®Portable)