Can't Run Multiple Instances of mprime with HT

[Duo Secundus]

In the past, I was able to have 2 instances of Prime95 running simultaneously under RedHat Linux 9 on a Pentium 4 system with Hyperthreading. I'm trying this again, under a different system, still with Linux, and so far, no go.

What I have now:
Pentium 4 3.2ghz (Northwood)
Intel D875PBZ
1GB Crucial PC3200 DDR RAM

I'm not sure if my problem is due to the way I compiled the kernel. I am running 2.4.31 under Slackware 10.1. I compiled the kernel using the .config from bareacpi.i, but added SMP and Highmem = 4GB. I also tried compiling a 2.6 kernel (2.6.12.3) the same way, with the same results...

I can run "mprime -d" fine, but when I try running "mprime -d -A1" on another console, I get a "Another mprime is already running!" error.

I am already aware that one doesn't get double the work done by running two instances of mprime, but I am curious as to why it isn't working. Have I forgotten an option in tweaking the .config file? If anyone wishes to see it, I can post it here.


eə


P.S. In case you're wondering, (1) Hyperthreading is "On" in the BIOS, and (2) Linux sees two "CPU's", from looking at "dmesg", from looking at "/proc/cpuinfo", and from looking at a couple of other processes under "top", where such processes appear twice, with a "/0" and a "/1" appended (just not mprime).

[Xyzzy]

Maybe "./mprime -B2" is what you want, instead of starting each process individually...

[Duo Secundus]

No dice. Though two processes are shown on "ps -aux", the second one isn't doing any work. Also, looking at "top", only one instance is shown, with no "/0" or "/1" appended.


eə

[geoff]

Originally Posted by Duo Secundus

No dice. Though two processes are shown on "ps -aux", the second one isn't doing any work. Also, looking at "top", only one instance is shown, with no "/0" or "/1" appended.

If you start with the -A or -B options you need a second copy of the prime.ini local.ini and worktodo.ini files, called prim0001.ini loca0001.ini and work0001.ini.
If you already have these, check that there is not a PID= line left over from a previous process in local.ini/loca0001.ini before starting (that is what causes the 'another mprime is running' message).

Another way is just to run two copies of mprime in different directories, no -A or -B option needed then.