[R-sig-hpc] OpenMPI vs MPICH2 on debian system

[Jonathan Greenberg]

R-sig-hpc'ers:

I'm a big fan of the snow/Rmpi package, and we've recently tried to
get it running on a new debian system in our lab.  My sysadmin is not
too keen on non-debian package installs (you know, ./configure, make,
make install), although I can convince him to do an apt-get -b source
/ dpkg install.  We tried a straightforward binary install of
openmpi-dev, but it appears to be spawning the threads only on one cpu
(the same one the master is running on) when doing a:

require("snow")
cl <- makeCluster(4, type = "MPI")
# look at top/gkrellm or run some stuff, only 1 CPU lights up.
> mpi.universe.size()
[1] 1
stopCluster(cl)

Does this have to do with something within Rmpi/snow, or is this a
"bad" install of openmpi?  Would doing an apt-get -b source
openmpi-dev/dpkg install solve this?  Would mpich2 (or another mpi
flavor) be a better choice?

Thanks!

--j


-- 
Jonathan A. Greenberg, PhD
Assistant Project Scientist
Center for Spatial Technologies and Remote Sensing (CSTARS)
Department of Land, Air and Water Resources
University of California, Davis
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Phone: 415-763-5476
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