Created attachment 832849 [details] System-monitor screenshot Description of problem: Boinc can't load all 4 cores on my system. Even on freshly installed Fedora 19 or 20 beta. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): Boinc-client version: 7.0.65 How reproducible: Steps to Reproduce: 1. Adjust Boinc settings to use all cores, all the time - 100%. 2. Run any single Boinc project. Actual results: One core is almost idle all the time. Expected results: All 4 cores loaded 100%. Additional info: Fedora 17 with Boinc 7.0.29 (Latest from its repository) loads processor cores much better. Almost 100% for all cores all the time. At least based on standard gnome system-monitor readings.
Created attachment 832850 [details] System-monitor screenshot 2
I cannot reproduce this bug. Please take a look in the first lines of the "Event log" (open boinc manager and press SHIFT+E). You should see a line starting with "max CPUs used:". What it says? Also, from the screenshots it seems you're running only one project (Poem) that has a multithreaded app, is that right? It seems there are 4 instances of that project running, so it seems everything ok (if you have a 4 core CPU).
I had the exact same problem running World Community Grid. Please also take a look at this thread, where there are a couple of users who experienced this bug, all using Fedora: http://boinc.berkeley.edu/dev/forum_thread.php?id=8715 To make it clear: The log does say "Number of CPUs: 4" and 4 tasks are started, but they only use about 75% of the total CPU time, so that when a task is finished, the figures "Elapsed time" and "CPU time" differ significantly more than usual.
Number of cores = number of active BOINC tasks. But, as you could see from my screenshots - 2 cores loaded almost 100%, but remaining 2 cores only ~50% each. I believe - those tasks using 1 core for both. Comparing with Fedora 17: its highly visible that Boinc crunch less tasks and CPU temperature is much lower for some cores. CPU usage graph also shows higher load. (always 100% for all cores) For now it is unachievable on Fedora 20.
I noticed that on my system I have high cpu usage by Ksoftirqd when I run boinc (I'm on KDE). This takes a lot of CPU, in F17 it didn't do that. Maybe it's the same problem for you, if you're using Gnome it's maybe some other process that controls IRQs that eats a lot of CPU. Can you please look in a console what 'top' command says? Do you see any process not boinc related that eats a lot of CPU (in my case ksoftirqd eats 7% of each core when GPU is not used and 16% of each core when using GPU apps....).
Created attachment 840027 [details] CPU usage diagram You could distinctly see, that most of the time 1 core is idle.
Of course some other running processes eats CPU ( 4% - 8% ). But anyway, even if this value is 25% - why BOINC doesn't load other 75% ???
Created attachment 840034 [details] CPU with/without GPU I don't know why, but as you can see from my screenshot I have your exact problem with GPU enabled (in the graph you can see that in the first seconds there is always a core idle and three at 100%), but as soon as I disable GPU all four cores become active at 100% and ksoftirqd does not eat CPU cicles anymore. I'm using boinc 7.2.33 available in updates-testing. Before updating (boinc 7.0.65) ksoftirqd had high cpu usage even with GPU disabled. Please try out the updates-testing version and see if it resolve the problem (but I still think this is something due to how kernel handles CPU load/interrupts rather than a boinc problem). I opened a bug against kernel about my problem, but seems not to be considered: #1016797
Didn't help me. I enabled "updates-testing" repo and installed all available updates. Also I added to Boinc "cc_config.xml" configuration file "<no_gpus>1</no_gpus>" line.
Can you try to remove CPUShares=2 from /lib/systemd/system/boinc-client.service ? Seems to me very low (according with systemd.exec man default is 1024) and I have removed it long time ago
Created attachment 842342 [details] CPU usage without "CPUShares=2" Seems that helped. Now all cores have ~ 100% load.
Just tried if the problem does still occur with the new BOINC 7.2.33 packages - it does. But: Removing CPUShares=2 from /lib/systemd/system/boinc-client.service (as suggested by Lorenzo Mastrogiacomi) indeed solved it for me. Thanks!
I've already applied the change in rawhide, it will be fixed in the next boinc build.
boinc-client-7.2.33-3.git1994cc8.fc20 has been submitted as an update for Fedora 20. https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/boinc-client-7.2.33-3.git1994cc8.fc20
Package boinc-client-7.2.33-3.git1994cc8.fc20: * should fix your issue, * was pushed to the Fedora 20 testing repository, * should be available at your local mirror within two days. Update it with: # su -c 'yum update --enablerepo=updates-testing boinc-client-7.2.33-3.git1994cc8.fc20' as soon as you are able to. Please go to the following url: https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2014-2160/boinc-client-7.2.33-3.git1994cc8.fc20 then log in and leave karma (feedback).
boinc-client-7.2.33-3.git1994cc8.fc20 has been pushed to the Fedora 20 stable repository. If problems still persist, please make note of it in this bug report.