BOINC Pentathlon 2020

[leadeater]

2 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

@leadeater This is a little off topic (really off topic) but do you have any experience with network switches kind of boot-looping/resetting every 20~30 seconds?

 

Dead forever or is it a common fault where it's in the rhelm of fixable?

Depends why its rebooting, monitor the serial management port for console events. If you're lucky it's something simple like overheating and a re-paste will fix it.

[Gorgon]

Seems to me the way to win at Javelin is to guarantee NO ONE is throwing for 2 of the days and bunker like crazy and throw once. I won't be participating in Javelin with my GPUs as these days I'm not taking them off F@H unless there is a project with COVID GPU WUs.

 

I'll probably just stick on Rosetta for the duration.

[leadeater]

5 minutes ago, Gorgon said:

Seems to me the way to win at Javelin is to guarantee NO ONE is throwing for 2 of the days and bunker like crazy and throw once

The expiry times make that hard and there's still 3 other events to contend with. We got screwed last year, as it's your 3rd best throw, so we ended up making 2 really good ones and a 3rd half decent one which meant the 2 good ones went to waste. Getting a not useless one right off the bat while not overlapping with City run I think would help a lot. More concurrent events happening harder it is to score well, first throw is only overlapping with Marathon and City bunkering.

[Windows7ge]

15 minutes ago, leadeater said:

Depends why its rebooting, monitor the serial management port for console events. If you're lucky it's something simple like overheating and a re-paste will fix it.

Dismantled the entire thing already, completely dusted out. CPU is so low power all it has is a glued on heatsink and nothing I could spot appeared damaged or blown.

 

It does have a RS232 port. I don't have a COM cable though. Will have to look into getting one and how to connect using the Terminal.

[Gorgon]

Had to dial back one of the 16-thread systems with 2 GPUs folding from 13 threads on BOINC to 9 threads as it would occasionally spaz out and the Load average spike to 30-40 with an uncomfortable amount of swap consumed. Suspect it was likely some funky F@H WUs which are known to spike the CPU load occasionally.

 

Picked up another set of 2 x 8GB DDR4-3200 today for that system to replace the 12GB it had and upped the other 16-thread system with 12 to 16GB and the Pentium G5500 got bumped from 4 to 8GB.

 

All over the systems all seem happy. I've upped their swap to 8GB each (was at 2) just in case but all are showing a couple of GB free and little or no swap usage and their load averages are sticking around 1 under their thread-count.

[Gorgon]

38 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

Dismantled the entire thing already, completely dusted out. CPU is so low power all it has is a glued on heatsink and nothing I could spot appeared damaged or blown.

 

It does have a RS232 port. I don't have a COM cable though. Will have to look into getting one and how to connect using the Terminal.

They're all pretty much 9600-baud,8-bit,no parity,1-stop bit (9600,8,N,1). If it's a Cisco you'd need a roll-over cable.

 

I just use 2 DE9 to RJ45 adapters and cat5 cable and I have a 3rd adapter with the Tx & Rx reversed for the Ciscos. That way you can use 1 Straight through adapter to Hardware with a RJ-45, the roll-over with a Cisco Blue Cable and another straight-through adapter to Cisco Gear and two straight-throughs and the Cat5 for other gear. That way all I need is the 3 adapters in my laptop case and a Cat5 cable which I can usually find.

[leadeater]

1 hour ago, Gorgon said:

I just use 2 DE9 to RJ45 adapters and cat5 cable and I have a 3rd adapter with the Tx & Rx reversed for the Ciscos. That way you can use 1 Straight through adapter to Hardware with a RJ-45, the roll-over with a Cisco Blue Cable and another straight-through adapter to Cisco Gear and two straight-throughs and the Cat5 for other gear. That way all I need is the 3 adapters in my laptop case and a Cat5 cable which I can usually find.

So glad most modern things now have a USB port on them and that provides USB-Serial function directly so all you need is a USB cable. Wish that happened much sooner than it did.

[Windows7ge]

1 hour ago, Gorgon said:

They're all pretty much 9600-baud,8-bit,no parity,1-stop bit (9600,8,N,1). If it's a Cisco you'd need a roll-over cable.

 

I just use 2 DE9 to RJ45 adapters and cat5 cable and I have a 3rd adapter with the Tx & Rx reversed for the Ciscos. That way you can use 1 Straight through adapter to Hardware with a RJ-45, the roll-over with a Cisco Blue Cable and another straight-through adapter to Cisco Gear and two straight-throughs and the Cat5 for other gear. That way all I need is the 3 adapters in my laptop case and a Cat5 cable which I can usually find.

It's a Dell PowerConnect 3524P and I do believe as luck may have it the RS232 to Ethernet adapters you speak of. They're old AF but they may get the job done and I THINK (don't quote me) that my laptop has a RS232 port.

 

Will update you if I find the adapters.

[Gorgon]

1 minute ago, Windows7ge said:

It's a Dell PowerConnect 3524P and I do believe as luck may have it the RS232 to Ethernet adapters you speak of. They're old AF but they may get the job done and I THINK (don't quote me) that my laptop has a RS232 port.

 

Will update you if I find the adapters.

I believe Dells are re-branded HPs so likely straight-through. Good luck

[Gorgon]

31 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

It's a Dell PowerConnect 3524P and I do believe as luck may have it the RS232 to Ethernet adapters you speak of. They're old AF but they may get the job done and I THINK (don't quote me) that my laptop has a RS232 port.

 

Will update you if I find the adapters.

There is a password recovery option on the startup menu that you could try using.
When the auto-boot message appears, press <Enter> to get the Startup menu. The Startup menu
procedures can be done using the ASCII terminal or Windows HyperTerminal.

[1] Download Software
[2] Erase Flash File
[3] Password Recovery Procedure
[4] Enter Diagnostic Mode
[5] Set Terminal Baud-Rate
[6] Back

The password recovery procedure can be called from the Startup menu. The procedure enables entry to the device once without password. To recover a lost password when entering the local terminal only:

1 From the Startup menu, type [3] and press <Enter>. The password is deleted.
Enter your choice or press ESC to exit
Current password will be ignored!
 

Option [2] will erase the current config which can be useful if it was a non-master member of a stack and is confused.

 

Once you get in to the CLI first type "enable" to elevate your privileges then

console# delete startup-config

to reset to factory defaults. You likely have to:

copy run start

to save the default config

 

To add an IP for management via telnet or http:

Console>enable	

	Console#config	

	Console(config)# interface vlan 1	

	Console(config-if)# ip address 192.168.1.xx 255.255.255.0	

	Console(config-if)# exit	

	Console(config)# exit	

	Console#copy run start

 

Luser Guide CLI Guide Latest Firmware

 

In some cases if the firmware is borked there is usually a recovery method where you place the firmware on a tftp server (Pumpkin on a laptop connected via a cross-over cable) and hold down reset or something while booting to get the switch to load the firmware via tftp. Hopefully it's not that borked but if it is ping me and I'll see if I can help. - Yup, there's a pdf in the firmware zip that explains how to download new firmware via Xmodem.

[Windows7ge]

20 minutes ago, Gorgon said:

I believe Dells are re-branded HPs so likely straight-through. Good luck

Luck is already not on my side. I didn't have a use for those RS232 to Ethernet adapters so I did something with them and cannot find them.

 

I did find what I believe is a RS232 cable for my server UPS's but it's some sort of proprietary where it's RS232 on one end and the other looks like VGA.

 

I'll have to fork-over some bones and get a USB to RS232 adapter/cable. I believe you're right about the 9600,8,N,1 as those markings are next to the RS232 port.

 

Is anyone aware of a Linux Terminal application that can connect over Serial? On windows I use to use HyperTerminal.

[Windows7ge]

@Gorgon I know that procedure and those commands work on CISCO switches but are they the same on Dells?

 

Also the switch has a Reset button. Don't know if that wipe the running config or not but hitting it has not changed the situation.

 

I should mention I know how this switch was used in the office. It was a simple PoE switch be used as a dumb switch for a small network of thin clients and PoE phones. It should not have been running any adv configuration. This doesn't bode well for me fixing it. I need to get into the console and see what it's saying.

[leadeater]

38 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

On windows I use to use HyperTerminal.

I use Putty, on linux just use cu or screen

[Gorgon]

39 minutes ago, Windows7ge said:

@Gorgon I know that procedure and those commands work on CISCO switches but are they the same on Dells?

 

Also the switch has a Reset button. Don't know if that wipe the running config or not but hitting it has not changed the situation.

 

I should mention I know how this switch was used in the office. It was a simple PoE switch be used as a dumb switch for a small network of thin clients and PoE phones. It should not have been running any adv configuration. This doesn't bode well for me fixing it. I need to get into the console and see what it's saying.

Bummer, I keep one of every serial cable in a tote that's well-buried but it's saved my ass on a number of occasions. I also have pins, shells, wires and a crimper worst case.

 

Those commands are straight from the Dell support forums.

 

Linux should have terminal emulation built-in.

[Windows7ge]

4 minutes ago, Gorgon said:

Bummer, I keep one of every serial cable in a tote that's well-buried but it's saved my ass on a number of occasions. I also have pins, shells, wires and a crimper worst case.

 

Those commands are straight from the Dell support forums.

 

Linux should have terminal emulation built-in.

If I don't feel like waiting or spending money on something that honestly doesn't have a great chance of recovery I do have spare Ethernet cable and I know my way around a soldering iron.

[wings2004]

Anyone else getting this error on Numbers - 

Can't create account

Invalid email address: please enter a valid address of the form name@xxx.yyy

Click your browser's Back button to try again.

 

I also can't create an account through BOINC. I'm using a gmail.com address.

[Eschew]

16 minutes ago, wings2004 said:

Anyone else getting this error on Numbers - 

Can't create account

Invalid email address: please enter a valid address of the form name@xxx.yyy

Click your browser's Back button to try again.

 

I also can't create an account through BOINC. I'm using a gmail.com address.

Hm. Odd. You can't create an account through the NumberFields@home site or through the BOINC Manager?

 

How about signing up for the NumberFields@home project through BAM! on BOINCstats?

[wings2004]

Looks like BAM was able to get it working for signup, but it's not syncing as a project or able to login.

 

Edit - Okay working very very slowly now...

 

I forgot BAM existed so now trying to link Rosetta@Home there but BAM is saying R@H is down... 

 

Just peachy...

[wings2004]

No response from project on Universe@Home either. Was able to add that through the client but my system is a bit of a mess right now with all sorts of different settings.

[leadeater]

Thunder and lightning, welp glad I have a UPS at home 

[Windows7ge]

4 hours ago, leadeater said:

Thunder and lightning, welp glad I have a UPS at home 

Quick. Stand on the roof with a long metal pole we'll harness the power of nature to take first place!

[Windows7ge]

@Gorgon Would you happen to know if the pin-out on something like a Dell switch going to a PC does any kind of cross-over or would it be strait through? Would you happen to have a diagram because Google can't seem to make up its mind as to how its wired.

[GOTSpectrum]

And now we are at 30 teams signed up!

 

P.S. I'm not about as much as I'd like right now but I'm hoping to still help however I can!

[Gorgon]

 

1 hour ago, Windows7ge said:

@Gorgon Would you happen to know if the pin-out on something like a Dell switch going to a PC does any kind of cross-over or would it be strait through? Would you happen to have a diagram because Google can't seem to make up its mind as to how its wired.

The Dell support sites for other series of switches all reference a cross-over or null-modem cable so I'd start with that. Hang on - let me get on work laptop #3, VPN in, RDP to the other laptop still at work and connect to my NAS and get the cheat sheet.

[Gorgon]

1 hour ago, Windows7ge said:

@Gorgon Would you happen to know if the pin-out on something like a Dell switch going to a PC does any kind of cross-over or would it be strait through? Would you happen to have a diagram because Google can't seem to make up its mind as to how its wired.

Sent you a PM with the PDF. It shows how to make the DE to RJ45 adapters but you should be able to figure out the pin-outs from it.

 

I'd start with a Straight-through adapter to a null adapter pin-out.

St	Null
1	N/C
2	3
3	2
4	6
5	5
6	4
7	8
8	7
9	N/C