Installing FAH v7 client in FatDog_521

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Sunny
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Joined: Tue 20 Oct 2009, 23:11

Installing FAH v7 client in FatDog_521

#1 Post by Sunny »

I used the following steps to install version 7 of the FAH CPU client on Fatdog-521 today. There is no linux version of a GPU client, so I would still recommend using v6 of the Windows GPU client with wine (as detailed in my previous post) ... it will run concurrently with this version 7 CPU client just fine.

Step 1) Installation of FAHControl
FAHControl is used to configure/monitor/control the version 7 CPU client. It can be installed locally, or you can use it from a remote computer. If you want to install it locally on Fatdog-521, then it requires python. I installed the python-2.6.4-amd64.pet (Note that python is also included in fd64-devx_521.sfs, so you may not need the pet file if you always boot with this sfs file loaded.)

Download fahcontrol_7.3.6-1_all.deb from Folding@home website and click on it to install it.

After I had installed python-2.6.4-amd64.pet & fahcontrol_7.3.6-1_all.deb, I had to go into the /usr/shared/pyshared directory and copy/move the two directories (fah & FAHControl-7.3.6.egg-info) to the /usr/lib64/python2.6/site-packages directory.

I then went into /usr/share/applications and edited FAHControl.desktop to add an appropriate Category so that it would show up in my menu (use terminal command "fixmenus" to update the menu). At this point, you should be able to select FAHControl in your menu and it should open up correctly.

Step 2) Installation of FAHClient

FAHClient (and FAHViewer) requires a newer version of libstdc++ than the one in Fatdog-521 (/usr/lib64/libstdc++.so.6.0.13). To get a newer version, I downloaded libstdc++6_4.7.2-5_amd64.deb from Repository: Debian Main amd64. I then used the undeb command on this package to unpack it. This unpacking yields the file libstdc++.so.6.0.17 which I copied to /usr/lib64/ and made executeable. I then created symbolic links to this file in /usr/lib64 as indicated here:

chmod +x libstdc++.so.6.0.17
ln -s /usr/lib64/libstdc++.so.6.0.17 /usr/lib64/libstdc++.so
ln -s /usr/lib64/libstdc++.so.6.0.17 /usr/lib64/libstdc++.so.6


Next, download fahclient_7.3.6_amd64.deb from Folding@home website and click on it to install it.

I disconnected from the web at this point so that I could get the FAHClient configured before it downloaded any WUs. I then edited the file /etc/init.d/FAHClient ... I changed USER=fahclient to USER=root and I changed HOME= to the directory I wanted it to use for the work directory. Save the file and then start the client from the /etc/init.d directory by typing: "./FAHClient start"

The client should start, and you can now configure it using FAHControl (installed in Step 1). Type in your identity and hopefully you will be using Team Puppy Linux (157623). Also set the slider to full if you want to use all your cores for folding. Save the configuration, and you are now ready to start folding. You can just reconnect to the web at this point to grab a WU.

One minor detail ... the config.xml file gets saved in your work directory initially. This seems to work fine, but I noticed that /etc/init.d/FAHClient points to /etc/fahclient/config.xml You could either change the entry in /etc/init.d/FAHClient to point to your work directory, or you could move config.xml to /etc/fahclient

Step 3) Installation of FAHViewer
This is mostly eye candy, so it is not really needed. (Don't think it works with the vesa driver as it probably needs to be run with direct rendering ... works fine on my machine once I configured the intel driver for the onboard graphics).

Download fahviewer_7.3.6_amd64.deb from Folding@home website and click on it to install it.

Then, go into /usr/share/applications and edited FAHViewer.desktop to add an appropriate Category so that it will show up in the menu (use terminal command "fixmenus" to update the menu). At this point, you should be able to select FAHViewer in your menu and it should open up correctly. Normally, this is opened from FAHControl by clicking on "View".

Just a couple of additional comments:

FahMon 2.3.99.3 can be used to view v6 CPU clients and v6 GPU clients ... it can not view the log files of v7 CPU clients.

FAHControl 7.3.6 can be used to monitor v7 CPU clients on linux, but it can not control/view v6 CPU or GPU clients.

With v6 of the CPU client, my machine was using the Gromacs SMP2 core FahCore_a3. With v7 of the CPU client, it uses GB Gromacs core FahCore_a4. With the different cores, you get different Projects assigned.

In my current configuration with FatDog-521, I run the v6 GPU client using wine and monitor it with FahMon. Concurrently, I run the v7 CPU client and control/monitor it with FAHControl.

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