Please help!

2006-03-27, 08:29

I recently heard about the search for Mersenne Primes and am very interested in this quest. However, I am not very computer savvy, and the information has not been helping me. I have an iBookG4, and I downloaded MlucasXLC_G4 2, but am not sure what to do from there. I would like the program to run continuously, and this one just says enter exponent and then almost imediately spits out whether it is a prime or not, so I do not think I am doing this correctly. If you are willing to help me out, please get back to me either on here, by email at kohler2@tcnj.edu, or by screen name on aol or on yahoo (I have the same screen name on both): xxlaceyxx66
Thank you very much!
Larissa J Kohler

Uncwilly · 2006-03-27, 16:46

You need to get an exponent (number to be tested) from the main GIMPS site. Go to: http://www.mersenne.org/range2.htm select a number and use that for testing. When you are done, send the results to the same email address that you useed to reserve the number. Those numbers on that page should keep your computer tied up for several weeks each.

Others may come along and give you better and more full info.

ewmayer · 2006-03-27, 17:08

Hi, Larissa:

instead of invoking the program in command-line mode and manually entering an exponent at the resulting prompt, you want to paste the exponent into a file named 'worktodo.ini' and then invoke the program in background mode, e.g. 'Mlucas &' (or whatever your executable is named, followed by &). The full usage instructions can be found at

http://hogranch.com/mayer/README.html

If you started the program with a valid exponent in command-line mode and it ran long enough to create a pair of redundant restart files named p{exponent} and q{exponent}, you can still switch to background mode by killing the current run and performing the above steps - when you restart the code again (this time in background mode, so your command window isn't tied up as a result) it will detect that there are savefiles for the exponent in the first line of worktodo.ini, restart the run from those, and now print all but the diagnostic-on-startup informational data to a p{exponent}.stat file, so you won't have 2000-iteration interim timings popping up in your command shell every few minutes, as is the case when running interactively.

You can also queue up more than one exponent in worktodo.ini .

Cheers and happy hunting,
-Ernst

2006-03-27, 08:29	#1
lacey006 1110011100110₂ Posts	Please help! I recently heard about the search for Mersenne Primes and am very interested in this quest. However, I am not very computer savvy, and the information has not been helping me. I have an iBookG4, and I downloaded MlucasXLC_G4 2, but am not sure what to do from there. I would like the program to run continuously, and this one just says enter exponent and then almost imediately spits out whether it is a prime or not, so I do not think I am doing this correctly. If you are willing to help me out, please get back to me either on here, by email at kohler2@tcnj.edu, or by screen name on aol or on yahoo (I have the same screen name on both): xxlaceyxx66 Thank you very much! Larissa J Kohler

2006-03-27, 16:46	#2
Uncwilly 6809 > 6502 """"""""""""""""""" Aug 2003 101×103 Posts 2²·23·107 Posts	You need to get an exponent (number to be tested) from the main GIMPS site. Go to: http://www.mersenne.org/range2.htm select a number and use that for testing. When you are done, send the results to the same email address that you useed to reserve the number. Those numbers on that page should keep your computer tied up for several weeks each. Others may come along and give you better and more full info.

2006-03-27, 17:08	#3
ewmayer ∂²ω=0 Sep 2002 República de California 19·613 Posts	Hi, Larissa: instead of invoking the program in command-line mode and manually entering an exponent at the resulting prompt, you want to paste the exponent into a file named 'worktodo.ini' and then invoke the program in background mode, e.g. 'Mlucas &' (or whatever your executable is named, followed by &). The full usage instructions can be found at http://hogranch.com/mayer/README.html If you started the program with a valid exponent in command-line mode and it ran long enough to create a pair of redundant restart files named p{exponent} and q{exponent}, you can still switch to background mode by killing the current run and performing the above steps - when you restart the code again (this time in background mode, so your command window isn't tied up as a result) it will detect that there are savefiles for the exponent in the first line of worktodo.ini, restart the run from those, and now print all but the diagnostic-on-startup informational data to a p{exponent}.stat file, so you won't have 2000-iteration interim timings popping up in your command shell every few minutes, as is the case when running interactively. You can also queue up more than one exponent in worktodo.ini . Cheers and happy hunting, -Ernst