mfakto: an OpenCL program for Mersenne prefactoring

[Viliam Furik]

Originally Posted by birtwistlecaleb

They both instantly close when they find that, so I can't see that. Am I supposed to manually add the file?

Yes. Add the file and fill it with work. If it's empty but present, the program will still quit on start.

[James Heinrich]

Originally Posted by birtwistlecaleb

They both instantly close when they find that

Especially when debugging, it's very useful to open a command prompt first at the location of the file you're trying to run and then run it from the command prompt rather than just double-clicking the executable, that way you can see what output it is giving.

[kriesel]

Originally Posted by birtwistlecaleb

They both do not have a worktodo.txt, and it seems like they are broken because of that.

Something's malfunctioning, but it's clearly happening elsewhere than the software. Check between the furniture (chair or whatever) and the keyboard; do whatever maintenance needed there.

Use the readme that comes included with the software. Read it. Understand it. Follow its plain directions.

Mfaktc:

################################
# 3.1 Running mfaktc (Windows) #
################################

Similar to Linux (read above!).
Open a command window and run 'mfaktc.exe -h'.


####################################################################
# 4 How to get work and report results from/to the Primenet server #
####################################################################

Getting work:
    Step 1) go to http://www.mersenne.org/ and login with your username and
            password
    Step 2) on the menu on the left click "Manual Testing" and then
            "Assignments"
    Step 3) choose the number of assignments by choosing
            "Number of CPUs (cores) you need assignments for (maximum 12)"
            and "Number of assignments you want for each core"
    Step 4) Change "Preferred work type" to "Trial factoring"
    Step 5) click the button "Get Assignments"
    Step 6) copy&paste the "Factor=..." lines directly into the worktodo.txt
             in your mfaktc directory

Mfakto is similar:

Open a terminal window and run 'mfakto -h' for possible parameters. You may
also want to check mfakto.ini for additional settings. mfakto typically fetches
work from worktodo.txt as specified in the INI file. See section 3 on how to
obtain assignments and report results.

A typical worktodo.txt file looks like this:
  -- begin example --
  Factor=[assignment ID],66362159,64,68
  Factor=[assignment ID],3321932899,76,77
  -- end example --

########################################
# 3 Getting work and reporting results #
########################################

You must have a PrimeNet account to participate. Simply visit the GIMPS website
at https://mersenne.org to create one. Once you've signed up, you can get
assignments in several ways.

From the GIMPS website:
    Step 1) log in to the GIMPS website with your username and password
    Step 2) on the menu bar, select Manual Testing > Assignments
    Step 3) open the link to the manual GPU assignment request form
    Step 4) enter the number of assignments or GHz-days you want
    Step 5) click "Get Assignments"

...

    Once you have your assignments, copy the "Factor=..." lines directly into
    your worktodo.txt file. Start mfakto, sit back and let it do its job.
    Running mfakto is also a great way to stress test your GPU. ;-)

Use the mfakto or mfaktc reference info. "Create a worktodo file and put some assignments in there. Start with few, in case your gpu or igp does not work out. Get the type you plan to run the most. Get them from https://www.mersenne.org/manual_gpu_assignment/"
"Create a Windows batch file or Linux shell script with a short name.
Set the device number there.
Consider redirecting console output to a file or employing a good tee program."

Stop wasting other people's time, and apply some of your own intelligence and time.

[Uncwilly]

And MISFIT can handle all of the work filling a worktodo and submitting results.
https://www.mersenneforum.org/forumdisplay.php?f=103

[birtwistlecaleb]

Originally Posted by Viliam Furik

Yes. Add the file and fill it with work. If it's empty but present, the program will still quit on start.

Thanks! I got it working now.
This is what I got if you find something else that happened.

got assignment: exp=219633173 bit_min=73 bit_max=74 (8.71 GHz-days)
Starting trial factoring M219633173 from 2^73 to 2^74 (8.71Ghz-days)
Using GPU kernel "[Just to be safe, censored.]"

There were no extra lines for a couple minutes and none now.
Edit: No lines for around 30 minutes. Does it only make a line when you finish a tf assignment/1 bitlevel?