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RE: F@H our own guide

spike09 — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 02:34:52 GMT

link for all new official guides

http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegroup/cgi-bin/edit/English/Guide

RE: F@H our own guide

spike09 — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 17:37:20 GMT

New SMP guide's from the stanford site thanks to Xilixon for writing them:)

http://foldingforum.org/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=5057

RE: F@H our own guide

charcoal — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 23:49:45 GMT

So here goes with the SMP how-to:

The Best of Both Worlds – 64 Bit SMP and GPU Folding

This how-to explains how to make a Windows XP based machine with a x64-multi core instruction set processor run with the two best point generating folding clients. This guide can only cater for machines with 2 or more cores; whether that’s dual-core, dual dual-core or quad core.

Both the 64-bit SMP Linux client and the Windows only GPU client currently receive a higher level of points than WUs allocated to other clients; and this is because both of these clients are beta types. Stanford are kind enough to dish out bonus points to those of us who take the trouble to run with their beta clients and WUs. If you read that previous sentence again, you’ll notice the catch, the SMP client is Linux only, and the GPU client doesn’t have a Linux version.

All is not lost, there is a solution, you can run both versions of client on one machine at the same time. The handy solution comes in the guise of machine virtualisation; or in simple terms, the Linux operating system can be emulated within an emulator running on a XP platform.

Pre-Requisites

First lets check our pre-requisites, if you don’t match all of these, then you’re unlikely to successfully run the two big boy clients:

· A multi core x64 processor, i.e. AMD X2 or Intel Core 2 Duo

· At least 1 gig of RAM; virtualisation needs memory rather than virtual memory to operate at an efficient rate – plus the clients might want to run some memory intensive FAHCores.

· The machine to be running a copy of Windows XP, Home or Professional. I’ve not listed Vista, as I’m not entirely sure of compatibility.

· That you have an ATI X19xx class graphics card (I’ll not cover multi-GPU solutions here). Some X1800 are supported, see here for exact card support: http://folding.stanford.edu/FAQ-ATI.html

· That you have Catalyst Drivers 6.5 or 6.10 installed, these are the two current versions that provide F@H support.

If you’ve got all those checked off, then lets move onto the steps:

Step 1 – Running the GPU client

Download the GPU console client from here: http://folding.stanford.edu/download.html and copy the download file to your preferred folding directory. For example save file as http://folding.stanford.edu/release/FAH5.91beta2-console.exe to c:\folding.

Create a run.cmd file in this directory containing the following:

FAHxxxxxxx-console.exe –versbosity 9 –local –advmethods –forceasm

Remember to replace FAHxxxxxxxx-console.exe with the file you downloaded.

Now go to your folding directory and run FAHxxxxx-console.exe –configonly and enter your preferred details such as Username, Team (always 46590).

Now run run.cmd from your folding directory, the client will now download its first WU and start crunching away. For a X1900XTX class card, your first WU should be completed in about 12 hours.

I’d personally not recommend attempting to overclock the card from its default 2D clock speeds. It’s all too easy for the GPU client to fail with EARLY UNIT ENDs, which results in no points and lots of completed WUs listed against your name and team.

For the official FAQ on the GPU client see: http://folding.stanford.edu/FAQ-ATI.html

Step 2 – Running the 64-bit SMP Client

To get the SMP client running alongside the GPU client, we now have to setup your machine to run a copy of Linux within a PC emulator. For this how-to I’ll detail how to use VMWare Server, but possibly other products may be up to the task. From my own experience I have found that the current crop of Microsoft Virtual PC and Virtual Servers are unable to host a 64-bit operating system within a 32-bit operating system. I would recommend not using them, unless I’m incorrect in my findings.

You’ll also need to download one of the freely available copies of 64-bit Linux. You can pick which version of Linux you prefer, but make sure it has SMP support, not all 64-bit distro’s currently do. For this how-to I’ll be using Fedora Core 64; which supports x64, SMP and Linux wary users like myself.

2.1 Linux Distro

We need to download the ISO file for the DVD of Fedora Core 64 V6.0; it’s around 4Gb in size so prepare for a night long download. Alternatively you could purchase a DVD copy from those good chaps at a shop like the Linux Emporium. For now, one of the available places to download the DVD ISO is ftp://download.fedora.redhat.com/pub/fedora/linux/core/6/x86_64/iso/

You may find a better place to download this file from, so do please google for other places if you so desire.

Never fear if you don’t have a DVD burner, we won’t be burning this file onto a disc. We’ll just be attaching the ISO image to the virtual machine.

2.2 Virtual Machine

Go download VMWare Server from http://www.vmware.com/download/server/. It’s free, and despite the requirements, this server product will work sufficiently well on XP. There are some problems with the web based management tool; however there’s no need for us to use this feature, so it’s irrelevant.

Go through the installation process of the server, ignoring the server-product warnings. You will be emailed a registration key during the download/install process.

Once installed, you need to install a new virtual PC. Go to File->New ->Virtual Machine, and select Typical installation. On Guest operating system select Linux, and in the version combo, either select your preferred Linux distro, or Other Linux 64-bit. When prompted for Network connection select “Use Bridged Networking. For the disk capacity, I would recommend at least a 16Gb hard disk file to be created. The hard disk size is just a file created on your machine, it will not tamper with your partitions or destroy any data you currently have.

You’ll now have a virtual machine that can do nothing but perform its POST operations and fail to find an installed OS. This is all good, but if you haven’t got to this stage, then either PM me or its time for a spot of RTFM.

To install the OS we need to attach the ISO file we downloaded. Simply right click on the tab of your virtual machine (the default title would be “Other Linux 64 Bit” if you’re having trouble finding the tab). Click on settings, and highlight the CD-ROM item in the hardware list. You’ll now see to the right the option of using a physical drive or to use an ISO image. Select the ISO image option and point it to the Fedora Core 64 DVD ISO file you downloaded. Click on OK to close the settings dialog.

You can now return back to your virtual machine, which should be complaining bitterly that it doesn’t have an OS installed. Right click on the VM’s tab, and select reset. It should now perform a cold reset and then start to auto-boot from the attached DVD image.

I won’t detail the Fedora Core 64 installation – as it’s so user friendly there’s no point. You may have decided to install another Linux, which would then make my detailing of the installation redundant. Seriously, installing FC 64 is a piece of cake. Just make sure you respond that you want the OS to run across more than one processor.

Once you’re up and running with FC64 and are facing the logon screen, then use root for the username, and the password you specified for the root user during installation.

You should now be faced with a fancy graphical desktop, and a task/start bar at the top of the screen. Either from the start bar, or from the accessories select a web browser, and point it at:

http://folding.stanford.edu/download.html

Grab yourself a copy of the Linux x86-64 SMP Client (console only), and download it to your preferred folder (i.e. /folding). Unfortunately, in the weird world of Unix-a-like systems, we have to go and set the system flags on this file to let the OS know it’s an executable.

To do this, find Terminal in the start menus – it’s the equivalent of the command prompt in Windows. In there you’ll need to type the following:

cd /folding (go to your folding directory)

chmod +x fah5 (set the downloaded file to executable)

./fah5 –configonly (start the configuration of the client)

A better explanation of installing the Linux client can be had at: http://fahwiki.net/index.php/Running_the_FAH_client_on_Linux

You should now be able to run ./fah5 –verbosity 9 –local –forceasm –advmethods to kick off the Linux SMP client.

Other ways to download and install the client can be found here http://folding.stanford.edu/FAQ-SMP.html

That FAQ details the option of opening a terminal session to download and install the client by running the following commands:

[quote]mkdir ~/Library/Folding@Home
cd ~/Library/Folding@Home
curl -O http://www.stanford.edu/~kasson/folding/FAH_SMP_OSX.tgz
tar xzf FAH_SMP_OSX.tgz

Now you should have the SMP FAH client in place and you'll have to configure it. It can be done by running following command:

./fah5 -local -configonly

After setting the configuration there are couple of ways to start the SMP FAH client. One way is to start it is by typing in each time the following command

./fah5 -local -verbosity 9

OPTIONAL: To make it a little easier for yourself, one can make a little script by running following commands:

echo "./fah5 -local -verbosity 9" > FaH
chmod +x FaH[/quote]

Notes

· Let the VMServer processes in Windows grab as much processor time as they want, they’re being grabbed for the FAH clients running in the virtual machine. The beauty of running the GPU client within Windows at the same time is that it requires very little processor time.

· Beware of any Window tasks that hog the processor for a lengthy period, i.e. overnight system imaging software. They will severely affect the folding time in the virtual machine.

· I would avoid loading another folding client in windows (i.e. not a GPU client). It won’t get very far with the virtual machine running, as it’s request for idle time from the processor will result in very little time being given by the Windows scheduler.

· Running the SMP client outside of KDE or GNOME in the Virtual Machine results in some better folding times. On a X2-3800, I’ve found completing a WU has gone from 36 hours to 24 hours. So some considerable time and uppage of PPD.

· The SMP client will generate 4 processes, so ideally it runs best in a quad core environment. However this will work in a dual core, just a tad slower.

RE: F@H our own guide

FM — Mon, 03 Jul 2006 17:41:51 GMT

Want to add flags to the service? Here is the manual method:

In true MM Style:
EDITING THE REGISTRY IS NOT ADVISED UNLESS YOU
KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING, ALL ADVICE TAKEN HERE
IS DONE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Start regedit (click run on the start menu and type in regedit)
Navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE / SYSTEM / CurrentControlSet / Services / FAH@*wherever*

Now you can edit the ImagePath string, just double click and you can add your flags on the end.

As an example, mine reads: C:\Program Files\FAH\FAH504-Console.exe -svcstart -advmethods

RE: F@H our own guide

Tom Morton — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 17:56:52 GMT

Appendix C; MM Sig Source Files

I was updating the Micromart folding signature files the other day (I'm planning a version 2 release soon - see other thread) and I figured that it would be nice if the rest of you could see a) How they worked and b) How they could do something similar. So Ive posted the source files of the current sig as an attachment (in a zip file. There is a reamdme file as well telling you about it and all of the current.

You are welcome to reuse the codefor your own sigs / purposes too as long as there is a credit to me in the code and a link to www.tomnrob.com in the sig image. (PS I ve removed my Mysql access info for obvious reasons).

pps: If you want the png images they are available too at http://folding.tomnrob.com/final/png's

RE: F@H our own guide

Tom Morton — Thu, 09 Feb 2006 18:28:50 GMT

Appendix B; Folding on Dual core CPU's

EDITED: FM's guide is a little out of date. Spikes advice below is the better method...

A Dual core machine obviously has an advantage of being able to do 2 tasks at once - so why not get it folding 2 units at once?? Just in case you wondered the folding client does (as would be expected) only use one core so running 2 is fine and usually brings about no problems.

First a note from Spike:
Please rerun the config normally, do not edit the client.cfg file manually as it is not strictly a text file.
That means don't stop the client and edit the client.cfg file with notepad as it may cause problems...

If you want to install FAH for 2 cores then here's how:

1) First youneed to paste the console client (do not use the GUI one) into 2 different folders. The clients use default names for storing data and info so they [b]cannot be in the same folder[/b]. Now run the first console and set it up as suggested in the tutorial.

2) Whilst setting up the advice changes a bit. Edit the advanced options and set the Machine ID (1 for the first one 2 for the second). Once you have set up the first client correctly immediately close it down for now.

3) Now do the above for the second client and close it at the end.

4) Next go to the registry (not the services tab) and add the following switches (again check the tutorial): -local to each client. Now REBOOT your PC for each one to start running safely.

NOTE: I think you can not worry too much about the machine ID but still set it anyway. However you MUST SET THE -local FLAG. or it will not work!

If you already have one client previously running on your PC then the above guide applies - just stop the original client via the Services dialogue then skip to step 3 to setup the second client etc. (remember to set the Machine ID to 2 for that second client!)

UPDATED NOV2006: Thanks to Spike and Dr-Jon for all the updates etc. Sorry it didn't get sorted sooner

RE: F@H our own guide

Tom Morton — Sat, 28 Jan 2006 18:33:27 GMT

Appendix A; Getting A MM sig (and putting it in your Forum Signature

Ok I thought I'd add an extra bit at the end of this thread - basically I've had a few questions from people who are having difficulty adding the team sigs to their forum signature. So heres a short guide:

First you need to work out the right address for the sig: http://folding.livemeta.net shows all of the available sigs (with the addresses above each image) pick the one you want and make not of it. You should have something like this:

http://folding.livemeta.net/final/mm_fah_sig.php?user=TOMMORTON&team=46590&bg=teammm&nouser=1

Obviously you need to change the username to your own!

Now navigate to the forum control panel and click on "Message Signature". A text box will appear where the signature can be edited. Now you need to enter the following BBcode to display the sig, this has changed from the old forum! So anyone who used the old method please use this one now:

[center[b]][/b][img[b]][/b]http://folding.livemeta.net/final/mm_fah_sig.php?user=TOMMORTON&team=46590&bg=teammm[/img][/center]

[The center tags simply put the image in the middle of the sig - you can leave them out if you like] Now just hit 'Update' and your sig should contain the image!You will need to refresh the browser again though because for some reason it doesn't display correctly at the top of the screen. It should now look something like this:

[center][img]http://folding.livemeta.net/final/mm_fah_sig.php?user=TOMMORTON&team=46590&bg=teammm[/img][/center]

You may also like to do the same as the rest of us and add your PC's spec(s) to your sig. In this case once you have updated with the image then simply type in the spec below or above it in the text box and hit update again.

I hope this makes sense! Any queries PM me and I'll try to help.

Cheers,
Tom

[b]UPDATED: Thanks to Logicman for the tip to use bolding so we no longer need those spaces in the img code :D so now it can be copied and pasted![/b]

RE: F@H our own guide

Tippon — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 20:20:05 GMT

If you want it to use minimal 'excess' resources, when you initially install, download the console version, and set it to run as a windows service (under the advanced options, I believe). This way you don't get any flashy thing consuming resources, but you can check your stats at:

http://folding.stanford.edu/stats.html

BTW, if and when I can get my points transferred to Team MM, I'll have up to five machines folding at a time, so watch your backs!

Let's get some friendly competition going

RE: F@H our own guide

900i — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 11:59:00 GMT

Original posted at http://techreport.com/etc/folding/#Linux

Micro-Mart ammendments by self

You DO NOT need anyones permission to install these clients (Programs) or to join the Micro-Mart Folding@Home Team, All are welcome.

Folding under Linux

The Linux Folding@home client (Program) is command line-based only (no graphical client or screen saver).

The following instructions assume that you will be working from a command shell (terminal window). In most distros, you can launch a terminal window from the GUI by selecting System Tools - Terminal from the menus. If you are new to Linux, please note that command and file names in Linux are all case sensitive. On the other hand, if you're a Linux veteran, just bear with me (most of the following will probably be painfully obvious to you).

Basic client (Program) installation

To install the Folding@home client on a Linux system, you need to do the following:

Create a subdirectory in your home directory to put the Folding@home files in. I like to name the directory something descriptive... like folding.
Download the latest Linux client from Stanford's site and save it to the directory you created in step 1. The remaining instructions assume that you've downloaded the 5.02 client, FAH502-Linux.exe. If you have downloaded a newer client, substitute the appropriate file name in all of the instructions below.
Navigate to the folding directory (using the cd command), and enter the command: chmod +x FAH502-Linux.exe to mark the client as executable.
Run the client, and configure it. Assuming you are still in the folding directory, all you need to do is enter: ./FAH502-Linux.exe and the client should start. It prompts for your configuration options, just like the Windows console client does. Don't forget to enter 46590 as your Micro-Mart team ID! Once you have configured the client, it will continue to run in your terminal window. If you don't mind starting the client manually every time you log in, you're done. The client will stop when you log out; if you need to stop it manually for some reason, just hit ^C (control-C) in your terminal window. To start it up again, just navigate to your folding directory and enter: ./FAH502-Linux.exe If you'd like to automate things a bit more, read on...

Creating a script to launch the client in the background
You can easily create a script that will run the client as a background process. Using whatever plain text editor is bundled with your GUI (or vi if you're a seasoned UNIX hacker, or just plain masochistic), create the following text file:

#!/bin/bash
./FAH502-Linux.exe -forceasm >>folding.log 2>&1 &

I've included the -forceasm switch as an example; you can also specify any other switches you want to pass to the client. Save the above file to a short, easy to remember file name, like go. Also mark the file as executable, by entering the following command in your terminal window: chmod +x go. From now on, you can launch the client in the background simply by navigating to your folding directory, and typing: ./go

Running the client as a service
To have the folding client to start automatically when the system boots, you need to add it to your system's startup script. Under Redhat/Fedora, the startup script is located in the file /etc/rc.d/rc.local. This script is executed during system startup (well, actually during init level changes, but that discussion is beyond the scope of this article), after all other system initialization has been completed. Other distros may put it in a slightly different location, so if you don't see an rc.local script in the /etc/rc.d directory, you may need to poke around a bit, or do a little Googling to figure out where the appropriate file is located in your distro.

Once you've found the file, all you need to do is append the following line to the end of the rc.local script (you must be logged in as root to edit the rc.local script):

sudo -u joeblow sh -c "cd ~joeblow/folding; ./go"

(Substitute the actual name of the user under which the client is installed for joeblow.)

In a nutshell, this says "pretend we are user joeblow, go to his folding directory, and run the go script that is located there."

Odds and ends
OK, so you're running the Linux client in the background. Maybe you've even installed it as a service. How do you check on its status, or kill the client?

Checking on the status of the client is easy; just like the Windows version, everything the client does is logged in the FAHlog.txt file. You can examine the contents of that file to see what the client is doing. You can also use the tail -f command in a terminal window to continuously display the log file as it updates. The command:

cd ~/folding; tail -f FAHlog.txt

can be used in a terminal window to display a running log of what the client is doing, even if the client itself is running in the background.

The top command can be used in a terminal window to display a list of processes (similar to Windows' Task Manager). By default the display is sorted in descending order by CPU usage; unless the system is particularly busy, the Folding@home client should be near the top of the list.

To stop a client that is running as a background process or service, use the command:

killall FAH502-Linux.exe

You must be logged in as either the root user, or the user under which the client is running in order to kill it.

Overclockix and Folding@Home Console Client Howto

This is what I have discovered so far, Overclockix is based on Knoppix which is based on Debian Linux. Overclockix is running the KDE GUI, it can be installed to hard disk. Overclockix will setup your ethernet connection to the Internet. It will not setup wireless networking, this must be done manually, as I suspect so will modem connections. There are 2 Folding clients on the Overclockix distribution, one is the Windows commandline client running under Wine, which is supposed to be faster than the native linux client! and the other is the native Linux client. The following walkthrough is for the Windows console client under Wine. This will be followed by the native Linux walkthrough when and if it is required.

1. Place Overclockix CDrom in drive.
2. Ensure Computer is set to boot from CD drive.
3. Switch on Computer.
4. When Overclockix Boot screen appears, press "enter"
5. Wait a minute or so for CD to fully boot computer.
6. Single click on the little house icon, this is your home Directory, wait for CD to spin up to speed to process your keyclicks.
7. Your Home Directory is actually a ramdisk that is setup by Overclockix so that you can read/write files. If you turn your machine off you will loose all your data, it must be saved to USB pendrive or burnt to CD with K3B. If you need your USB pendrive to be detected by Overclockix just make sure it is plugged in at boot time.
8. Click on the Fold shortcut directory icon, the directory will open up, wait for the CD to spin up.
9. Click on client.cfg, it will open in a text editor called KWrite.
10. Change the "username" tag to your "username".
11. Change the "team" tag to 46590 (Micro-Mart Team number).
12. Click on the x in the top right hand corner, it will ask you if you want to save, click "save". Be patient as the CD has to spin up to speed.
13. Click on Fold Service.exe icon and in the window that pops-up highlight stop-Folding on server, then click OK. You will now have to repeat this step and highlight start-Folding on server, then click OK. This is neccesary because the restart-Folding on server button does not reload the correct config data for username and team id. Or it did'nt when I tried it.
14. If you now click on FAHlog.txt or unitinfo.txt from time to time you can see how the client is progressing you will also see your username and team id have changed from the default user (the guy who built this distro) to your details. This info comes from a file in the root directory of the Overclockix CD. And if you follow the details below you can change these details to your own.

You can now edit the client.cfg file on the top level of the CD without remastering.
You'll need to extract the iso using something like winiso, or you can do it by mount -t iso9660 in Linux.

Then just edit the client.cfg file that's in /KNOPPIX with a text editor. In order to keep the iso the same size as when you started, you'll need to add or delete some blank spaces.

For example, the default username is OC3d. If your username is 4 characters larger than this, you will need to delete 4 blank spaces on the same line. If your userID is only 2 characters, you'd need to add 2 blank spaces. Get the idea? The same is true for the Team line.

Once done with this editing, you'd put the iso back togther, or unmount it if you worked in linux. And then you should be able to burn it as normal, only now it will be permanently configured for your Folding@home username and team instead of OC3d's. There's also a client.cfg2 which is used as a second F@H client's config file- for duallies and Pentium 4's with Hyper-threading. You can edit it the same way.

Don't think I have missed anything, but if I have, please contact me.

F@H our own guide

Tom Morton — Mon, 28 Nov 2005 00:22:24 GMT

Micromart-UK FAH Team - The Tutorial!

The MM team was started in Spetember of 2005 by Dr-Jon a forum regular. Since then it has gone from strength to strength wth us soon to be breaking into the top 1000 teams. Not a bad record for 3 months work, especially considering there are thousands of other teams all folding away! As an established team rather than constantly posting links to other peoples tutorials that it was time we had our own. I wont claim for it to be conclusive and there are plenty of things I expect Ive missed out. So please feel free to let me know whats missing and it'll be added. Ive also uploaded the article I wrote for the magazine for anyone who wants a copy - or missed it both times :P (see attachment at bottom of post)

Just a note this is not a 'why should I fold?' thread, for that sort of info read Frosty's Sticky HERE
The other sticky (HERE) is Fridgemakers milestones table.

BeforeI begin I also feel that I should add something else: There has been alot of discussion recently, both in this forum and in other parts of the MM forum,about havinga regularF@H magazine feature and what it should contain. I'm not going to revisit the issue here, there are plenty of other threads for that. The point is that this discussion has caused divisons between team members and between the team and non-team forum users. Unfortunately this is causing what some would call a loss of focus. So here is some of advice for prospective team members (and possibly some current ones too).
-- It is important to remember that league tables arn't, at the end of the day, important. What is is that we are a team and a community which is in turn part of the bigger MM community. Please do not lose sight of this, competing is fun and it helps to encourage people to fold for a bit longer each day but if your personal opinion is that you do not wish to compete then there is no need to, everyone is just glad you are part of the team.
--Also remember thatF@H is a good cause and that is why we are folding - to help with all of the good the protein folding research group are doing. Again please don't lose sight of this.
Finally anyone with 20 3GHZ dual core rigs (etc) who wishes to go on a power trip, please don't! No one finds it impressive. The little guy who donates his struggling P3 to the cause will be more appreciated by the team.

Sorry to be a bore! Now on with the tutorial.....

OK peeps you can now get one of our very own MM folding sigs for your forum signature. Visit http://folding.tomnrob.com for more details.

(P.S. If you need a linux tutorial 900i has kindly posted one below this post becauseI forgot well done that man)

Ive now added 2 Appendices as well (as replies to the thread):
Appendix A - Getting a MM folding sig and adding it to your forum signature (Click Here)
Appendix B - Folding on Dual core CPU's (Click Here)
AppendixC - MM Folding Sigs Source Files (Click Here)

1a) What is FAH (an introduction)

F@His a distributed computinginitiative run bystanford university (in america).
You mayhave heard of the SETI project which is a similar thing. The search for extra terrestrial life includes the processing of millions of radio signals from outer space, a job that would take years on just one computer. The solution was distributed computing. Users all over the globe download a small program known asa client. This dowloads small chunks of data from the main server and processes it before sending the reults back. F@H employs the same principal but, instead of aliens, Stanford’s application researches the folding of proteins using simlations. The university developed a way of breaking up the simulations into smaller ‘work units’ which are distributed to millions of computers via the client. To make things more interesting all of the work units are worth points if completed on time, with larger units worth more than smaller ones. Users can also join teams where their points go towards the team’s total.

1b) The Client

To begin folding you need to decide whichclient to run. There are 2 options. The GUI version and the console version. The GUI client is a windows program which includes the main core (mostly GROMACS at the current time) and a graphical interface, this lets you view the current progress of your workunits, time remaining, WU name, no. of completed WU's and other things (including a graphical display of the folding protein). The Program runs in the system tray and has a configuration menu for setup. The disadvantages of using the GUI client are that there are the occasional issues with OPEN-GLthat cause freeze ups, and there is a school of thought that says it slows down the folding process.

The GUI Client with fancy graphics!!(thanks to Frosty15 for the Pic)

The console version is much simpler. The download is an .exe file which contains only the folding core and console. It is only configurable once when you first run the client andcan beinstalled as a service. which means it runs invisibly when your system starts. It has less overheads than the GUI version (obviously) and tends to have less compatibility problems.The disadvantage is that there is no way to see your current progress without a 3rd party program. We recommend the vers. 5.04 beta

Here is the link to the client download page.

new link http://folding.stanford.edu/English/Download

It's small but thats the point - The console client

2) Setup & Configuration

Once one of the clients is installed it is time to setup your configuration options to get the best out of F@H. The options for the GUI client are available by right clicking on the icon in the system tray and selecting configuration from the menu. For the console client you can set up the options when the client is first run, or change them in the client.cfg file in your folding directory.

User Name: This is the name to which you will be awarded points for your WU, don't worry about getting an individual name, you will be differentiated by the team you fold for.

Team Number: This is the number of the team you want to fold for, MicroMart team number is 46590.All of the points you score will also go towards the teams score!

Install as service (console version only): If you want the F@H console to start with windows select yes for this option.

Ask before sending / fetching work: If you want F@H to ask you when sending results or downloading new WU's the select this option. The only real useI can think of for this is if you are on dial-up or have patchy net access. Otherwise this option is best ignored because it will slow down your folding efforts.

Use Internet Explorer Settings: If you have an odd Internet connection then this option lets the F@H client connect to the server properly. Otherwise do not worry about this option.

Use Proxy Settings: same as above.

Allow receipt of work assignments greater than 5MB in size: If you have less than about 512MB of system memory then this option is best left alone because it will clog up your memory. Otherwise the larger sized and more complex WU will get you more points, so if you have more than 512MB then go for this option!!

Core Priority: [Idle or low] Default setting is idle which means the client will make use of any idle processing power. If you are having any problems with F@H crashing programs (especially games) then selecting low will probably solve these problems.

CPU usage: [5-100%]This is basically the maximum amount of CPU power the client is allowed to use. Generally it is fine to be left at 100% howeverI have mine set at 95% just to give my computer a bit of an overhead whenI am using it! If you are having problems with F@H slowing up your PC then setting this to around 70% or so may help.

Disable Highly optimized assembly code: Select If you are having problems with WU not completing or taking a long time.

Pause if battery power is being used: For laptops running off batteries.

Interval between checkpoints: [3-30Minutes] F@Hwill regularly save its calculations, this sets the interval between saves. The default is 15 minutes which should be fine. If you have a lot of trouble with your computer crashing then by setting this to 3minutes you can minimize data loss.

Memory in MB to use: The amount of Memory F@H can use. Like CPU %age this is best set to maximum unless you are having problems with the program slowing your computer down.

Request WU without deadlines: Wu's have a completion deadline by which they must be returned to score points. Normally this is about a month so this option should be left alone seeing as it is unlikely you will take that long to complete a unit! Especially as WU with deadlines score more points. NB no deadlineless WU's available for the forseeable future

Ignore deadline information: Only select this if your system clock has a nasty habit of resetting on occasions.

Machine ID: If you are using more than 1 clienton the same PC,you must give each client a unique ID (1 to 8) so that it can work properly.

3a) Console Client Configuration Options

Adding flag’s to the console client is best done by adding them to the path of the shortcut on the desktop. You do this by right clicking the console client and selecting create shortcut, you then drag the shortcut to the desktop. Right click on the shortcut and select properties, go to the end of the shortcut and add the flags you want i.e. –local, you will then have a shortcut somewhat like this.

"C:\Documents and Settings\kit\My Documents\Folding-2\FAH504-Console.exe" -local -verbosity 9. Click to apply the change then click OK. The next time you start the console client via this shortcut the flags will be in action.

CONSOLE AS A SERVICE

changing options

Don't regedit!
Stop the service.
From a command prompt navigate to the folding directory and type fah504-console -configonly.
Answer the questions as appropriate - they will default to whatever you have currently set.
Close the command prompt.
Restart the service.

There are certain flags you can add to the console client when running it as a serviceto improve performance. Adding them requires a registry edit thoughso before you start remember BE CAREFUL tampering with the registry can screw your PC if your not careful. In actual fact though this edit is quite easy (note: this only works if you have the client set up as a windows service). First you need to open regedit (start>run type regedit & click ok). Now in the left hand panel find the following:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> System -> CurrentControlSet -> Services -> FAH@C:+[FAH Directory]
A set of options should appear in the right hand panel. Right click on ImagePath and then add the flags you want to the end of the file path (ie: after the .exe bit). Remember to leave a space between the flags and the dash at the start of each one!

Here is a list of all the available flags, most of them are debugger / problem solving or for people setting up more than one client. The one I would recommend using is
-advmethods.

General Flags


-config: Allows users to change their configuration information. This includes user & team names (reflected in the stats), whether or not to ask before a network connection is made to fetch/send work, set up proxy servers, preferred work unit type (Folding/Genome), process priority, CPU usage requested (5-100%), whether or not to use assembly loops, whether or not to use deadline information, and Machine ID changes.
-configonly: Same as above, but quit following configuration instead of beginning work.
-delete x: Delete item #x from work queue. This option should only be used if there is a serious error with the current unit that the client does not automatically recover from (e.g. crash-inducing). This should not normally happen, and if it does, we would be grateful if you could send us the FAHlog.txt file from the unit that causes the error.
-license: Displays the end-user license agreement
-queueinfo: Get information on queued work units. Includes for each unit the status (READY/FINISHED/EMPTY), unit type (Folding/Genome), originating server, and date when the unit was received (local time in GMT), as well as deadline if the server sent that information.
-send x: Send result #x back to server. Exits after trying to send unit (successfully or unsuccessfully). Use "-send all" to send all results outstanding. If unit x is not a completed work unit then the client exits without doing anything.
-verbosity x: Sets the output level, from 1 to 9 (max). The default is 3. This option should be used if the user wishes to see more detailed client output, particularly useful if there is a problem which needs to be reported to the F@H client development team.
-oneunit: Instruct the client to quit following the completion of one work unit.
-forceasm: Instruct the core to use SSE/3DNow assembly instructions if possible, even if it has previously made the determination that the machine may not be handling this well.
-advmethods: Request to be assigned work units from new projects, before they are broadly released to the rest of Folding@home. As among the first to try out new advanced simulations, you may wish to post any observations (positive or negative), questions, or issues at the user Forum.
-local: Use configuration files from local directory. This option has no meaning on Linux, but is vital on Windows and Macintosh for running multiple clients on a machine. It instructs the client to read its config information from the client.cfg file in the current directory rather than, on Windows, from the installation directory specified in the registry, or, on Macintosh, the Library/Folding@home directory. Information such as the user name, team name, proxy information, machine ID are maintained in the client.cfg file. The flag ensures that work does not conflict. Use "-local" only if you are planning on running more than one instance of Folding@Home on the same machine (this is only useful if you are running on a multi-processor machine). Create as many directories as there are processors on the machine, copy the exe files and client.cfg file into each of these directories, run "FAH3Console -local -config" on each and specify unique machine IDs for each directory (under the Advanced Settings option). From then onwards you may run each copy by switching to its directory and running with the -local flag.
-help: Print out the command line flags available and then exit.

Linux Specific

-freeBSD: For use by those wishing to use the Linux client on a machine running FreeBSD. See our FAQ for details on how to do this, but with this flag, all Cores downloaded will automatically be branded as being a Linux executable.

Windows Specific

-pause: Pause after finishing and trying to send current unit. Allows a user to shut down after finishing a unit, by pressing Ctrl-C, without then getting new work to process. This is recommended if you are planning on shutting down your machine for a long time (e.g. for a vacation), or are planning to un/re-install F@H after finishing the currently processing work unit.
-service: Run in service mode (for programs such as firedaemon). This prevents the client from exiting when it detects the current user is logging out. If this option is used when the client is not run as a service then it will run normally, but will not shut down automatically if the user logs out, and a "Wait for program to close." dialog box will be displayed.
-svcstart: This flag is used if you configure the console client to be run as a service (through the standard client Configuration). The user should NOT give this flag manually, it is automatically given by the Windows scheduler and is just listed here for information.

3b)GUI Client Configuration Options

In writing the guide I completely forgot that the GUI client didnt install as a service so adding the flags has to be done differently! Thanks go to Yadda who spotted the omission and wrote the fiollowing section for us all.

"For those of you using the GUI client to fold, here's how to set the flags (-advmethods -forceasm etc) that are beneficial to folding.

Details on how to use these flags with the console version are detailed in the excellent guide (stickied post at the top of the forum), but the method described does not apply to the GUI client as the relevant registry entry doesn't exist.

For GUI client users, the flag(s) must be added to the Folding@home client shortcuts. By default, the GUI client creates 2 shortcuts from which the client can be launched. It's important to set the flags in each shortcut as this will mean they will be applied no matter how the client is launched:

one is in start/All Programs/Startup/
This is the shortcut that automatically launches the client each time Windows starts.

and another is in start/All Programs/Folding@Home
Used for maunally launching the client.

To apply the flags, right click on the Folding@home client shortcut (in each of the above locations) and choose properties. In the window that appears you'll see a "Target" box with something like this inside:

"C:\Program Files\Folding@Home\winFAH.exe"

Simply click in the box, add a space at the end of the original text (after the inverted commas)and add the flags, making sure to type a space inbetween each one.

For example, I have both my shortcut targets set to:

"C:\Program Files\Folding@Home\winFAH.exe" -local -verbosity 9 -forceasm -advmethods

Using the above amemdments to my GUI client shortcut, combined with enabling both deadlined and Large WU options (see the guide mentioned earlier) I recently obtained a 600 point Gromacs WU which my main PC is currently folding away.

Well,it's turned out a bit longwinded(!) but I hope thishas been of some use to fellow GUI client folders. Good luck, Merry Christmas and keep folding away!"

4)Other Tips and Tricks

Ok so you've got F@H installed, all well and good but there are several things you can do to get the most from your folding! This section is all about those tweaks that canhelp with your folding.....

Monitoring Utilities

If you have the GUI version of F@H then you get to look at the fancy display that tells you all about your folding successes! But for us console users we only get a text display Of course you could usthe official F@H stats page [http://folding.stanford.edu/stats.html] but thats boring too! Never fear though there are several options available. Below are two programs that you can use and guides to setting them up, and also a 2 websites with more in depth info!

NOTE: These programs can also be used with the GUI version as well (sorry for any confusion)

http://fahmon.silent-blade.org/ Fahmon is easy to setup and use. Just download the latest version (2.0.2) and extract to a directory. Then click on the .exe file to start the program. Then you need to tell it where your client is sat, right click anywhere on the blank window (it took me ages to find out how to do this!!! ) and fill in the dialog box [name can be anything to identify the client it doesn't matter, and the directory needs to be the one where you have the F@H client] I like FahMon because it is small and can handle multiple clients well. It has an easy to read interface that gives you just enough info but doesn't crowd you. The graphical %age bar is a nice touch!

FahMon in action - note the clean simple display

http://sourceforge.net/projects/fahstats/FAH logstats is another monitoring program. Again all you need to do is get the latest version and unzip the files to a directory. Setting up this is more obvious, just hit the settings tag and click 'add' to set up your client. I find logstats a bit harder to use and it doesnt look as good. It has all of the major stats but not much else and i have had some glitches with the 'overview screen'. Plus there is no fancy %age bar . One nice touch is that it does tell you all of the WU's that are currently available for download so you could play a "guess which one I'm getting next game".....

http://home.comcast.net/~wxdude1/emsite/index.htmlIve added Electron Microscope as per requested (byFM and others). EM is a monitoring program that combines the simplicity of FahMon and the fancy graphics of the GUI client! It can handle multiple clients nad even supports those over a network or VPN. Each client is shown with a wide range of information and tyhere is even a status bar as well. Also there is a view of the currently folding proteins for each client (much like the one on the GUI client)

EM in action - thanks to FM for the Pic

http://fahstats.com/This site takes the official stats info and takes it one step further. You there is a massive stats page for every team / user which includes current points, when you finished WU's and loads more! Best of all there is a radar screen showing which team members you are about to overtake (there is a team one as well) and when.

http://jmol.sourceforge.net/fah/JMOL is a java appplet made to display molecular structure! Sounds complicated! Some nice people have used it to display info about all of the available F@H workunits. It gives information about the unit code (ie Gromac or Tinker) the number of frames to the unit, its deadline, the project name and most importantly the credit you get for its completion!

Quick Tips

There are a few other tweaks you can make to your system as well to help get the most from your folding.

Screensaver or ScreenHogger
Having your screensaver enabled can eat up system memory and some processor time. So if you leave your computer to fold all day long you should get rid of any screensavers and just set your monitor to power down after a while (the option for this is in
'control panel ->power management'). It wont have a massive impact but every little helps!

Core Info
F@H uses several different cores to process the WU's (normally named FahCore_xx.exe) once downloaded they are stored for the next time a WU uses it, by deleting ones that are not in use (be very careful about this and check the log file which will tell you which one is in use) you ensure that the latest (read faster) versions are downloaded each time.

Forum Signatures

Once you've got a few WU's done obviously you want to show off! What better way than displaying your score in your forum sig.
We now have our own MM forum signatures available at http://folding.tomnrob.com anyone who wantstheir owndesign adding to the 5 we already have please feel free. PM me about it and I'll let you know what spec you've got to work with!
If that doesnt take your fancy (:crazy then through trial and error we've found the best place for a Sig ishttp://www.dcsig.com just create an account and then add yourF@H username and MM's team no! You can make your own skin for the image or use one that Dr-Jon has kindly created (its called MM-UK, just add it to your cached images). Once created just post it in your forum signature!!!

5) FAQ

Well they're hardly 'frequently asked' seeing as they've only been asked umm once! but even so:

System Overheads
Q. How much of a system and networkoverhead is folding? I use a work laptop and could leave it folding all day if it didn't render my laptop unresponsive. (posted by Yadda)
A. Network overhead is minimal just on the odd occasion when it transmits work etc. System overheads is up to you! You can set the max CPU usage that your client uses in the configuration options and F@H will use this max whenever it can

Folding - at home!
Q. Could I also "take units home" to continue folding offline? (posted by Yadda)
A. If you want to take units home you could zip the Folding@Home directory and send it as an email attachment... then unzip it when you get home and start running it then. (thanks to Fridgemaker for that answer).
A2. Theoretically it is fully possible to do this. You should only need to take the following files to get Wu's home:
queue.dat
fahlog.txt
unitinfo.txt
The folder called 'Work' and the F@H core (called FahCore_XX.exe)

I want it - NOW!!
Q. From the brief look at the fah discussion groups it appears the Dothan CPUs are particularily good at folding certain cores - namely QMD and Gromacs 14xx.TheWU I am currently folding is a 400 frame deadlineless Tinkercore which I am folding at around 5m35s per frame, is worth 261pointsand will take until Tuesday to complete but apparently the Gromacs and QMD cores can yield 500ppd+!!!. Is there any way I can dictate the nextworkunit core type? (posted by Yadda)
A. Good question! You cant request specific units but if you add the -advmethods tag to the console version which will give you access to the new beta WU's before they are released to rest of the community.They generally tend to yield more points! Of course there is the chance they will fail as well.... In general Gromac cores yield around200 - 600 points (600 is the most I've ever seen) and are generaly project no's 1000 - 1500, Double Gromac cores earn about 40 - 200 points. Tinker cores vary. I'm currently running project 1481 which is a Gromac Core and yields 364 points.You say that you are recieving deadlinless workunits, if you set the client to recieve WU's with deadlines you will recieve more points for these! Finally i believe that Stanford are phasing out Tinker coded workunits and replacing them all with Gromac, so you shouldnt get too many more of them, a quick check of Jmol shows that most of the later units haver been upgraded to Gromac.

Lots &Lots of folding!!!!!!
Q. I have read the guide in this forum and had a quick read of do's and dont's at stanford site and it seems fairly easy to set up. But I have some questions can I download multiple versions(or install the same version on multiple machines ) and install them on machines that do not have web access then transfer WU's to them via removable media or do the machines have to have direct web access.
A. If you want to install FAH on machines with no web access, you need toownload the program as normal into a folder. Run it once to set the config.Under the advanced options, you can tell FAH to get more than one unit at a time, to minimise networking. Set FAH to ask before sending / receiving work units. Let it connect to the internet to get work units. Exit the program once it has the work units. Repeat as many times as necessary (once per machine). Copy the entire folder / foldersto a removable device (CDRW, USB drive etc.). Copyone folder onto each machine you want to run FAH (different folder per machine). Create a shortcut to FAH and copy it to your startup folder. When FAH completes its work units and asks to send / receive, copy the folder back onto the removable device. Copy it back onto the machine with internet access and run FAH from its folder. It will then connect to the internet, send the completed units back, receive new units and be ready to start again.(thanks to Tippon for that answer).
A2. This seems a very complicated process but I dont see why it shouldn't work, much better to invest in a router!!
A3. The way I understand it is that if you want to run multiple copies you should run the console version from different directories. I would recommend that you then use monitoring software to monitor them... (In the setup you want to change the Machine ID number) (thanks to Fridgemaker for that answer).
A4. FM is correct. To run multiple clients on the same machine you need to install them in different directories. You also need to make sure the machine ID setting is different for each setting. Youa also need to remember this setting if installing on networked machines.

How is scoring worked out?
Q. How is scoring worked out? I have folded 4 work units and got a score of 612 but there are others who have folded 6 units but only scored 235. Whats that all about then?
A1. There are different types and sizes of WU the fastest to complete return the smallest amount of points the larger the unit (eg. the longer it takes to complete) the higher the points. so one person could do a tinker core in under 24 hours and get 76 points were as someone else could do a QMD core in a week and get 450 points. These times are hyperthetical but it will give you some idea. [Thanks to Dr-Jon]
A2. Points arn't actually worked out on time taken but on a combination the number of frames in the WU and the number of atoms in the unit. It is also worked out on the deadline limit. For example: Project 16 - p160_vill8MUre99p (a tinker coded unit) is deadlineless, has 100 frames and 392 atoms. It is worth 2 credits. However project 2360 - p2360_Coiled_Coil (gromacs coded) has 46366 atoms, 100 frames and a 237hr deadline and scores 1294 points. So it would seem that the no of atoms has the most effect on points. Unfortunately not. I think the code it is written in (Tinker, Amber, Gromacs, Double Gromacs) adds a factor. Basically as far as i can make out this is the points order for wu's (highest to lowest):
- Double Gromacs code, Very High number of atoms
- Gromacs code, High number of atoms
- Any Tinker coded (bar a few)
- Gromacs code, Low number of atoms
- Any Amber code (bar a few again)
- Double Gromacs code, High and low number of atoms
- The rest of the Amber and Tinker coded units (normally deadlineless)
PhewI think thats right but there may well be some exceptions (eg the QMD cores which Im not sure about). Generally speaking the top of the table ones take the longest but i have had a double Gromaacs before worth 10 points that took about 2 days!! There were loads of answers to this, check out the full thread located here

Ooops!
Q.Hi all just noticed PMD core try to send results before finished first 1% of WU also did it later on in the run, Help quick look at F@H faq did not bring up a result. Any ideas thanks. [Posted by Spike09 included his logfile in the post, located here]
A.Ok this is what I think is happening.
[19:05:47] - Connecting to assignment server
[19:05:47] + Attempting to send results
[19:05:48] - Successful: assigned to (171.65.103.158).
This part of ther logfile shows that the client is assigning the previous WU a server to upload to. Then the upload begins, as son as it does tho FAH can start D/L a new unit which is what has happened here. Then the previous unit has failed to be sent and put back in the queue to try again later.
If you check your queue.dat file there will probably be 2 entries, the current WU and the last one.
Its nothing to worry about evantually it'll get sent!

Config Hell
Q. This is a bit of a long question posted over time by Bez a new folding member. Basically he has been having trouble with having a corrupted configuration file. When he tried to do a copy and paste from a new client it messed up even further! He wanted to know what to do to fix the problem. (He's running console version)
A. If you try to do a copy and paste of the config file whilst the client is running then it detects the changes and resets the configuration file to a default setting! However rescuing it is fairly easy:
1) Stop the F@H console service (go to control panel - > administration tools -> services then scrolldown to the F's till you see your F@H client and right click to stop it) This will stop it automatically deleting the new config options.
2)Delete the rogue config file and take a copy of the folding client (just the .exe file) into another folder. Double cick to run and enter all your config options (including install as service) then when it benchmarks and starts to run clost it off. Next copy ther new config file back into your original directory.
3)Go back to the services page and find the new F@H client you installed (the one youve just nicked the config file from) and right click to disable it, this is so that it doesntstart as well with theother client- make sure you get the right one! Look for the folder path to be sure.
4) DO NOT restart the old F@H client in services. You need to reboot now to make absolutely sure F@H doesnt know that it's been modified. Once youve doen that it should be ok
I keep a backup of my config file anyway just to be sure! This is advisable for all folders to do just in case as it makes this rescue process really easy!

Glue Me
Q. Should this thread be made a sticky? (posted by Loads of peeps!)
A. YES! Many Thanks to Frosty15 for stickie-ing thethread, well done on making Mod!(posted by Loads of peeps!)

6)The MM Team

A new team news section!

100 Members, Top 1000 and then top 600 Well this is alot of celebrations in one! We made 100 members the other day after my article ;) we also made the top 1000 teams a few days before that. Then today we passed the 600 mark. Still going strong well done guys!

Top 1500 In my absence ity seems the amazing team MM has reached the top 1500 and on Xmas day no less. This means we should hopefully have our own sig soon hosted by ourselves.. watch this space. Being in the top 1500 means we also have our own individaul stats page http://vspx27.stanford.edu/teamstats/team46590.html

Lots &Lots of folderswell the mentions in the mag must have worked, as of the 31st of December we have 61 members in the team. Good to see you all

Lots &Lots More folderswell a few anyway, 66 at last count. every few helps tho and soo we should be inside the top 1000 teams. quite an achievment for aq team thats only 3 months old!

Top 1000 Well inside the top 1000 now peeps, well done all

7) Credits

Wow I almost forgot the credits!
Thanks go to:

DR-Jon for setting up the team and getting us going, and for the cool sig image
900i for posting the Linux guide
Fridgemaker For answering queries
Yadda for asking questions!
Oh and of course the Stanford University Website whereI got the list of console flags from!!

Additional credits spike09,charcoal,ricedg and FM

8) Bits & Bobs

THe section for the stuff that I wasnt sure where to put it! Like this excellent and useful post from captainCAD :

"If you're using Windows XP and like me you decided to try the FAH***-console.exe program first before running it as a service; there is a way to do it later.

I have made a compiled batch file to do it automatically for you. If you are interested at all you can download it here!"

There are loads of other points of note and I am sureI have missed no end, please post anymore you find!!