SPCR

hey guys -

So I downloaded FAH and joined team spcr after lurking this forum for a few days. ...Now folding part time with a Q6600.

My question is, what happens if you are folding in the background (with the GUI console) and someone shuts down the PC?

I'm curious because I'd like to run this FAH on mom's old P4, but don't want it to mess up when she shuts the PC down. (and she doesn't need one more thing to remember regarding knowing how to use the computer, she gets mad if I have a defrag or something else running b/c she doesn't know what to do and thinks it'll blow up.)

advice?

oh and will the P4 actually fold enough to matter? Or do you really need 2+ cores...

thanks -
Rewdoalb

Welcome.

Rewdoalb wrote:My question is, what happens if you are folding in the background (with the GUI console) and someone shuts down the PC?

Next time folding starts on that PC it resumes from the previous checkpoint. It checkpoints every 30 mins (IIRC) by default but it is a configurable parameter.

Rewdoalb wrote:oh and will the P4 actually fold enough to matter? Or do you really need 2+ cores...

Yes. No. None of my points came from a dual core! But if the PC is only going to be on for 2 or 3 hours a day then it may be a poor idea.

ok thanks,

yea both the PC's are on for about 12 hours of the average day, and will be folding whenever on.

dukla2000 wrote:It checkpoints every 30 mins (IIRC) by default but it is a configurable parameter.

It's 15 minutes on my system, and I'm not aware of having changed any settings since the install (Linux here)

And a Q6600, especially if you set up two linux appliances to split the cores, should have no trouble finishing a 1760 point WU inside the deadlines, if it is running 12 hours/day.

okay I've been reading... (like all 20-something pages of that one post)...sounds like the SMP client might be a good idea. Couple clarifications:

1. People mention its buggy-ness. Is there a threat to my hardware? (I won't be overclocking) Is there a threat to any disk storage? FWIW, I'm not so worried about using a xxx-point work unit, I'm just concerned about messing up the PC in any way.

2. Dutchmm just mentioned using linux/splitting, I really can't do anything linux at this point. Windows XP-32.

3. I'd prefer to use about 75% of my CPU cycles. Don't want to run this at full load, on this particular PC.

4. With (2) and (3) in mind, would folding SMP be worth it over the non-SMP if the PC is on for about 12-13 hours most days, and left on overnight a couple days a week?

5. finally, how bad is the learning curve for installing/running SMP? Using the GUI version of regular FAH, I got tired of seeing the little pictures so I tried out the text-based and hated it. (still learning the software side of PC's...) I guess if it's doable, I'll just post any questions I don't see answers to anywhere else.

Rewdoalb wrote:1. People mention its buggy-ness. Is there a threat to my hardware? (I won't be overclocking) Is there a threat to any disk storage? FWIW, I'm not so worried about using a xxx-point work unit, I'm just concerned about messing up the PC in any way.

No, any bugginess would only affect the folding client itself.

Rewdoalb wrote:2. Dutchmm just mentioned using linux/splitting, I really can't do anything linux at this point. Windows XP-32.

It shouldn't be too hard to get running: Install VMWare, and then get a pre-made disk image with Ubuntu or something else from http://www.vmware.com/appliances/ But it's your choice, I think the windows SMP client has matured a bit as well, so might not be as big a difference now as it used to be.

Rewdoalb wrote:3. I'd prefer to use about 75% of my CPU cycles. Don't want to run this at full load, on this particular PC.

Any particular reason? It'll run on lowest priority, meaning anything else will get as many CPU cycles it wants, with F@H using what's "left".

Rewdoalb wrote:4. With (2) and (3) in mind, would folding SMP be worth it over the non-SMP if the PC is on for about 12-13 hours most days, and left on overnight a couple days a week?

I'm not sure how tight it would be with deadlines, I know SMP has very short ones that dual cores can have trouble meeting if not folding 24/7.

Rewdoalb wrote:5. finally, how bad is the learning curve for installing/running SMP? Using the GUI version of regular FAH, I got tired of seeing the little pictures so I tried out the text-based and hated it. (still learning the software side of PC's...) I guess if it's doable, I'll just post any questions I don't see answers to anywhere else.

I think there are good guides at the F@H website.

I would suggest you download one of the console only versions of ubuntu .. there is no graphical SMP for linux, so you would be wasting cycles

Floffe wrote:

I'm not sure how tight it would be with deadlines, I know SMP has very short ones that dual cores can have trouble meeting if not folding 24/7.

The deadlines for the 1760 pointers are about 4 days. My wife's E2160 takes about 42 hours of processing to complete one of these units, providing she doesn't leave any zombie Acroread processes lying around after the latest visit to Ikea's web site. So if you folded 12 hours/day, you should be able to meet the deadlines with reasonable ease.

As to the load question, if you associate the VM with two of your CPUs, you can insulate the other two from folding, so you should see very little impact on your Windows work.

I hope this is helpful. If you need more help, feel free to PM me, or send an email to mike you_know_what mikemurphy.nl

Regards

Mike

do I need to uninstall the GUI f@h before downloading and installing SMP Client? I was planning to install SMP today on the Q6600.

Thanks for all ya'lls help towards a noob

If you install the linux SMP, you would do so inside the VM. It would not interfere with, nor be interfered with by, the Windows GUI client.

I'm straight Windows XP-32bit for now. Haven't figured out Linux yet, and I know nothing about VM or VMWare. Like I said

So to download f@h Windows SMP, do I uninstall the Windows GUI, disable it, or continue running it?

Uninstalling it would probably make for least problems.

I'm back

First, the good news. After some research I have FahMon up and running, it's monitoring my 2 GUI clients. Combined they are listed at over 240 ppd.

Now to my question. I uninstalled the Windows GUI off my main PC, and prepared to install the Windows SMP client.

Microsoft .NET 2.0 was already installed.

I ran the install.bat yesterday with no (known) problems.

I went through the config part where you set up stuff like CPU use percent, etc. Wasn't sure of everything to do. After looking around the forums, one potential mistake I made was to answer "no" under whether I want to download larger than 5MB files or whatever. But I'm not sure how to fix that (by re-running config.)

So anyway, when I ran the icon called fah, it pulls up the black box with text like it's going to start working, but it hits an error. Here's something I found under a file called logfile_02:

*------------------------------*
Folding@Home Gromacs SMP Core
Version 1.74 (March 10, 2007)

Preparing to commence simulation
- Ensuring status. Please wait.
- Looking at optimizations...
- Working with standard loops on this execution.
- Previous termination of core w- Expanded 2407668 -> 12890749 - Expanded 2407668 -> 12890749 (decompressed 535.4 percent)
- Starting from initial work packet

Project: 2653 (Run 6, Clone 80, Gen 97)

Entering M.D.
Could not open Sas file

Folding@home Core Shutdown: FILE_IO_ERROR
Finalizing output

So basically I keep getting similar errors. This last time I did it, it said it was unable to open teh work unit and was downloading a new one. Then it went right back to this FILE_IO_ERROR problem. Any advice?

BTW it does list the 2 lines that say "if you see this twice, MPI is working." Also it said 4 cores detected. So those aren't the problem.

...

I've been back on the GUI client for 8 days now.

Rewdoalb wrote:I went through the config part where you set up stuff like CPU use percent, etc. Wasn't sure of everything to do. After looking around the forums, one potential mistake I made was to answer "no" under whether I want to download larger than 5MB files or whatever. But I'm not sure how to fix that (by re-running config.)

Just curious, but did you ever correct that? Those parameters are stored in the installation path in the file "client.cfg". You can either update the line that says "bigpackets=no" and change it to yes or just delete the client.cfg file. That may have been part of the problem right there, but I'm not sure if you're interested in going back to try the SMP client again at this point or not.

after reading your post, I uninstalled GUI and reinstalled SMP. Unfortunately, even after inputting "yes" to download large files, I still get this error.

*------------------------------*
Folding@Home Gromacs SMP Core
Version 1.74 (March 10, 2007)

Preparing to commence simulation
- Ensuring status. Please wait.
- Looking at optimizations...
- Working with standard loops on this execution.
- Previous termination of core w- Expanded 609646 -> 3260933 (d- Expanded 609646 -> 3260933 (d- Expanded 609646 -> 3260933 (decompressed 534.8 percent)
- Starting from Entering M.D.
Couldn't open Go file

Folding@home Core Shutdown: FILE_IO_ERROR
Finalizing output


Folding@home Core Shutdown: FILE_IO_ERROR

Folding@home Core Shutdown: FILE_IO_ERROR

So that's the state of my SMP attempts. I'd like to fix this and run SMP, but not waiting with baited breath - the GUI will be running at all times unless I'm actually trying an SMP solution.