crafty23.5 freezes in opening on fics

[skoony]

hi all,
i've found the latest crafty has a tendency to not freeze just not move
and lose on time.both jims and peters compiles do this.
this happens in the opening,some times on the first move.
it does'nt happen a lot but enough to cost my comp account(siliconc)
on fics over 100 points since it was released.
i'll post the log file below.previous versions did'nt do this.
my hardware.sony vpceb26x,intel i5 m430 2.27 ghz,
windows 7 home premium,4 gb ram.
winboard 4.2.7 x unnofficial version.
log file below.hope someone can figure out whats going on.
regards
mike

Warning-- xboard 'cores' option disabled
max threads set to 4.
Warning-- xboard 'memory' option disabled
hash table memory = 2048M bytes (128M entries).
Warning-- xboard 'memory' option disabled
pawn hash table memory = 128M bytes (4M entries).


Crafty v23.5 JA (4 cpus)

feature done=1
White(1): xboard
White(1): protover 2
feature ping=1 setboard=1 san=1 time=1 draw=1
feature sigint=0 sigterm=0 reuse=1 analyze=1
feature myname="Crafty-23.5 JA" name=1
feature playother=1 colors=0 memory=0
feature smp=0
feature variants="normal,nocastle"
feature done=1
White(1): accepted done
White(1): accepted ping
White(1): accepted setboard
White(1): accepted san
White(1): accepted time
White(1): accepted draw
White(1): accepted sigint
White(1): accepted sigterm
White(1): accepted reuse
White(1): accepted analyze
White(1): accepted myname
White(1): accepted name
White(1): accepted playother
White(1): accepted colors
White(1): rejected memory
ERROR. feature memory rejected by xboard
White(1): rejected smp
ERROR. feature smp rejected by xboard
White(1): accepted variants
White(1): accepted done
White(1): new
parallel threads terminated.
White(1): random
White(1): post
White(1): hard
pondering enabled.
White(1): ping 1
pong 1
White(1): force
White(1): ping 2
pong 2
White(1): quit

[Peter Skinner]

Can you also post your crafty.rc file contents? I highly recommend upgrading to the latest version of Winboard as well. It's at 4.6.2, so your 4.2.7 is a very old version.

Peter

[skoony]

ok peter,
the newer rc has a lot of stuff i dont reconize.

xboard
egtb
#adaptive 750K 24M 192M 24M 48M
tbpath=c:\usbwb\tb
cache=32M
ponder on
mode=tournament # (for use use with ponder on)
swindle on # (Allows Crafty to try to win drawn games (according to Endgame Tables))
learn 0 # (default)
noise 50000
book random 1 # (default)
bookw freq 0.7
bookw ratio 0.8
bookw eval 0.6
bookw learn 0
bookw cap 0.5
book width 4
book on #(default = book on)
log=on
mt=4 # (Increases Crafty's MaxThreads to 2 for a dual CPU computer )
#smpnice=1 # (Make Crafty not use cpu on opponents time)
#timebook 80 8 # (Makes crafty use a lot more time on the first 8 moves out of book)
#adaptive NPS a
hash=2048M
hashp=196M
exit


whats the difference between cache and hash/
regards
mike

[skoony]

on another interesting note;
all my previous versions of crafty now
exit unespactently on startup in winboard.
heres a winboard debug

recognized 'normal' (-1) as variant normal
WinBoard 4.3.15m + crafty-233-64-ja
Reset(1, 0) from gameMode 0
recognized 'normal' (-1) as variant normal
GameEnds(0, (null), 2)
shuffleOpenings = 0
TC string = '+20/3'
mps=20 tc=180000 inc=0
TC string = '+20/3'
mps=20 tc=180000 inc=0
StartChildProcess (dir="c:\wb.4.3.15\crafty") crafty-233-64-ja
650 >first : xboard
protover 2
659 <first : EPD Kit revision date: 1996.04.21
659 <first : found computer opening book file [./bookc.bin].
659 <first :
659 <first : Initializing multiple threads.
659 <first : System is SMP, not NUMA.
659 <first :
659 <first : tellicsnoalias set 1 Crafty v23.3 JA (1 cpus)
659 <first : tellicsnoalias kibitz Hello from Crafty v23.3 JA! (1 cpus)
660 <first : choose from book moves randomly (using weights.)
660 <first : choose from 4 best moves.
660 <first : Warning-- xboard 'cores' option disabled
660 <first : Warning-- xboard 'memory' option disabled
Fatal Error: Error: first chess program (crafty-233-64-ja) exited unexpectedly
GameEnds(38, Error: first chess program (crafty-233-64-ja) exited unexpectedly, 2)
4209 >first : result 0-1 {Error: first chess program (crafty-233-64-ja) exited unexpectedly}
4209 >first : force
4209 >first : quit

log file

Warning-- xboard 'cores' option disabled
max threads set to 4.
Warning-- xboard 'memory' option disabled

regards
mike

[skoony]

well i removed the crafty rc from the engine file.
they all run know.
the last thing i remember doing was increasing the hash table and pawn hash size.
now i've forgotten the old correct sizing.i thought crafty ajusted either up or down to a size it could use automatticly/
i'll see if i cann find an older rc without all the new stuff in it.
regards
mike

[skoony]

ok i found this older uncluttered rc file .
doesnt work with previous versions.
newest still working though.

mt=4
log off
hash=2048M
hashp=196M
learn=0
ponder on
swindle off
resign 0
book random 1
book width 5
egtb
tbpath=c:\usbwb\tb
cache=8M
exit


regards
mike

[bob]

ok peter,
the newer rc has a lot of stuff i dont reconize.

xboard
egtb
#adaptive 750K 24M 192M 24M 48M
tbpath=c:\usbwb\tb
cache=32M
ponder on
mode=tournament # (for use use with ponder on)
swindle on # (Allows Crafty to try to win drawn games (according to Endgame Tables))
learn 0 # (default)

That's not the default. That disables learning completely, where the default is to have learning enabled.

noise 50000
book random 1 # (default)
bookw freq 0.7
bookw ratio 0.8
bookw eval 0.6
bookw learn 0
bookw cap 0.5
book width 4
book on #(default = book on)
log=on
mt=4 # (Increases Crafty's MaxThreads to 2 for a dual CPU computer )

Do not know what that comment means. mt=4 says use FOUR threads, period. If you have just two processors, that will NOT work correctly and can cause some VERY slow searching.

#smpnice=1 # (Make Crafty not use cpu on opponents time)
#timebook 80 8 # (Makes crafty use a lot more time on the first 8 moves out of book)
#adaptive NPS a
hash=2048M
hashp=196M
exit


whats the difference between cache and hash/
regards
mike

Cache is for egtb accesses. hash is the usual transposition/refutation table size.

Crafty (current version) has been running on ICC for almost a year now, absolutely no hangs of any kind. FICS had a bug a while back that ruined a CCT event. Because it would lose (somehow) the "output side" of the socket connection and no longer send moves to the chess engine.

[bob]

ok i found this older uncluttered rc file .
doesnt work with previous versions.
newest still working though.

mt=4
log off
hash=2048M
hashp=196M
learn=0
ponder on
swindle off
resign 0
book random 1
book width 5
egtb
tbpath=c:\usbwb\tb
cache=8M
exit


regards
mike

What do you mean "doesn't work?" NOTHING in the crafty.rc file should cause the program to exit, unless, perhaps, you ask for way too much memory for hash or something.

[skoony]

hi prof hyatt.
i found the problem,hash table size 2048 M.
they dont like that,went back to 1024M.
using a core i5,has 2 proccessers but runs two threads on each.
verified with task manager.crafty also announces 4 cores on fics.

i thought you had disabled learning and book learning?
if not i have a crafty instruction file from you explaining them all
and how they work.no-p there.
i'll run the leaner version of the rc file and
see if the newest still wants to stop on fics intermittently and post back here.

regards
mike

[Peter Skinner]

hi prof hyatt.
i found the problem,hash table size 2048 M.
they dont like that,went back to 1024M.
using a core i5,has 2 proccessers but runs two threads on each.
verified with task manager.crafty also announces 4 cores on fics.

i thought you had disabled learning and book learning?
if not i have a crafty instruction file from you explaining them all
and how they work.no-p there.
i'll run the leaner version of the rc file and
see if the newest still wants to stop on fics intermittently and post back here.

regards
mike

This is my rc file and Crafty works just fine:

mt=4
egtb
hash=2048M
hashp=256M
phash=64M
cache=32M
resign=6
smpnice=0
exit

Are you still using Winboard 4.2.7? If so, here is a link to the latest version that supports the cores and memory errors that you are seeing: http://hgm.nubati.net/WinBoard-4.6.2.exe

Based on your rc file (comments marks in bold)

mt=4 (use all 4 cores. Your i5 might be a dual core with hyperthreading)
log off
hash=2048M
hashp=196M
learn=0 (turn learning off? Just remove this line completely to enable)
ponder on
swindle off (You don't want Crafty to try and break up blocked positions?)
resign 0
book random 1
book width 5
egtb
tbpath=c:\usbwb\tb
cache=8M
exit