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New release of diskless folding suite

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 10:15 pm
by notfred
Now posted to my website http://reilly.homeip.net/folding/

11 January 08: Moved source and bug / feature tracking to SourceForge. Fixed a couple of issues in the SMP hang check - now supports multiple SMP instances (if you have more than 4 processors) and still does the kill if the Autosend text happens after the hang. Also added a check that the download from Stanford didn't error and if it did print troubleshooting suggestions and stop there.

SourceForge code and bug / feature tracking is at http://sourceforge.net/projects/foldingcd/

Edit: fix date

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2008 10:31 pm
by jeffry55
You da man!! :P

Re: New release of diskless folding suite

Posted: Sat Jan 26, 2008 1:47 pm
by Valenti
notfred, this is awesome!

I've been folding for ~18 months and just ran across this yesterday. (I try not to spend too much time in the folding forums since it can become a real time sink for me.. 8) ..)

I stuck the CD in an old Celeron box and it started folding immediately. I'll try to find some fresher hardware to boot up, this certainly makes it easier.

Oh, you might consider putting a link to your http://reilly.homeip.net/folding/ page in the web page the client serves up.

Re: New release of diskless folding suite

Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 7:18 am
by VeixES
1st Thank you for the folding CD.

2nd I wanna recommend some settings that i and maybe everyone else could use.
As you might know v6 beta version indroduced passkey function. Could your online configurator add that also. Or is it too much of a security risk.
Also... could you add "force 32bit" function to online configurator. For slow dualcore machines its better to get fast results of single cpu folding client.

Best regards.

PS. I know these things could be done manually editing some config files, so some tips could be useful.

Re: New release of diskless folding suite

Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2008 4:05 pm
by notfred
Passkey is a little tricky, you aren't going to be able to edit that one in quickly. I do have a feature request to support it, so it should come eventually, just may take a little time.

Forcing the 32bit version should be pretty easy to hack up. If you extract the ISO out, then edit isolinux.cfg in the boot directory and remove the "DEFAULT64 fold64" option, then rebuild it as a bootable CD you should be good to go. I'm currently working on sorting out the boot selection menu so that should be available in the next version I release.

Re: New release of diskless folding suite

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 7:55 pm
by RAH
Been doing a little playing with your USB stick folding.
Got it to work (boot) OK. Tried it on my C2D machine. Booted 64bit, but DL'd a normal work client.

Is this normal, or error, any way to force "-smp"

This was set up on a XP machine.

Re: New release of diskless folding suite

Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2008 8:29 pm
by notfred
It should be running the SMP one. Can you please point a web browser at the IP address it reports and copy and paste that here, plus if it doesn't show "Processor type: x86_64" and "Found 2 processors", then please add "cpuinfo.txt" to the end of the URL e.g. http://192.168.1.187/cpuinfo.txt and "dmesg.txt" like http://192.168.1.187/dmesg.txt it's also worth taking a look at the folding log which would be linked off the IP address page.

Re: New release of diskless folding suite

Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 2:06 am
by EvilAlchemist
NotFred: 1st off - thanks for all your work. This has saved me so much time.
I am also the one that requested the passcode addition to the CD-GENERATOR.

The mod to the cfg file you stated is correct. I did this mod to a few systems to force (2) consoles on dual core machines instead of SMP.
Original: ISOLINUX.CFG
PROMPT 0
DEFAULT fold
DEFAULT64 fold64
TIMEOUT 0

Change to: ISOLINUX.CFG
PROMPT 0
DEFAULT fold
TIMEOUT 0

And Rebuild ISO

One Question: In the new build, you mention a boot menu of sorts. How will this affect head-less systems. Currently, I just insert the CD and boot the system. Will the new changes prevent me from doing this? or will there be a time-out / default selection made of nothing is done?

Also, In ref to USB backup (Which works great) , after the WU complets - any way to have the drive wiped or at least the work folder cleaned. Sometimes, a WU will finish, send and new one download, but will error before hitting 1%, system will hang. So, I reboot system, the backup loads but it is back to 98% and the WU has to complete it again. Any Ideas?

Re: New release of diskless folding suite

Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 11:10 am
by notfred
EvilAlchemist wrote:
One Question: In the new build, you mention a boot menu of sorts. How will this affect head-less systems. Currently, I just insert the CD and boot the system. Will the new changes prevent me from doing this? or will there be a time-out / default selection made of nothing is done?
It will default to the current option of folding either 32bit or 64bit (potentially SMP) based on processor detection with a 15 second timeout. The main reason for adding this is to support benchmark off the same CD / USB / PXE image.

EvilAlchemist wrote:
Also, In ref to USB backup (Which works great) , after the WU complets - any way to have the drive wiped or at least the work folder cleaned. Sometimes, a WU will finish, send and new one download, but will error before hitting 1%, system will hang. So, I reboot system, the backup loads but it is back to 98% and the WU has to complete it again. Any Ideas?
You would need to take the USB stick to another system and delete the backup manually, from memory (I'm currently at work) I think the backup directory is 1,2 etc for each instance. Just remove the whole 1 directory and it will boot up without doing a restore.

Re: New release of diskless folding suite

Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 12:47 pm
by RAH
OK! I set it all up again. DL'd a SMP WU, and is crunching. Set it up a spare MB with P4 630.
Must of been something I did wrong the first time. I did edit out the 32bit client.

I think the problem that I had originally, was the MBR wasn't getting installed on the stick through windows.

All done on Windows XP:
I used "bootflashdos" to install a MBR.
Unzipped the "USB.zip" to the stick.
Then ran syslinux.exe through cmd prompt.

Worked like a charm. :P

I will add this to my main forum, in case someone wants to do it too.
Of course if they have any problems, I'll send them here. :D
Thanks for the work to get it done.

Now back to my project. Trying to get the Vista SMP service install finalized. Still has
a few bugs.

Thanks again.

Re: New release of diskless folding suite

Posted: Tue Jan 29, 2008 1:29 pm
by Flying Fox
When we have more info may be we should put it up on SourceForge's wiki?

Re: New release of diskless folding suite

Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 1:18 am
by EvilAlchemist
Okay .. Good to know the Boot Menu will have a time out.

On the Pass key note .... I know it will take some time to edit that in.

In the mean time, is there a way to modify the lsolinux.cfg file to get the passkey on the system?

Re: New release of diskless folding suite

Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 10:41 am
by notfred
It needs more than just editing isolinux.cfg - that just passes parameters to the kernel which then passes them on to the init script. The init script then needs editing to create the client.cfg correctly as well.

All the source code is available, so I await your patch. ;-)

Re: New release of diskless folding suite

Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 4:24 pm
by EvilAlchemist
LOL ... If i could patch it, I would. You are the expert here, not I...

Re: New release of diskless folding suite

Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2008 8:29 pm
by digital_exhaust
notfred... thank you very much for your work on this.... it's great.

So far I have three machines using this, and two are working beautifully. The third, however, not so much so, and I hope you can help.

I have an Asus A8N-Sli Deluxe, AMD 4400+, 4x512 PQI memory and a Pioneer DVD drive running the disc. It picks up the processors correctly, and is shows as x86_64 as it should. It's running the SMP client, and successfully downloaded the following packet..

Project: 2653 (Run 4, Clone 82, Gen 49)


Completed the unit no problem, well ahead of the deadline, but once it did, I was left with this...

[23:41:28] Completed 500000 out of 500000 steps  (100 percent)
[23:41:28] Writing final coordinates.
[23:41:29] Past main M.D. loop
[23:41:29] Will end MPI now
[23:42:29]
[23:42:29] Finished Work Unit:
[23:42:29] - Reading up to 3722208 from "work/wudata_02.arc": Read 3722208
[23:42:29] - Reading up to 1775176 from "work/wudata_02.xtc": Read 1775176
[23:42:29] goefile size: 0
[23:42:29] logfile size: 16912
[23:42:29] Leaving Run
[23:42:32] - Writing 5518696 bytes of core data to disk...
[23:42:32]   ... Done.
[23:42:32] - Shutting down core
[23:42:32]
[23:42:32] Folding@home Core Shutdown: FINISHED_UNIT
[23:57:48] - Autosending finished units...
[23:57:48] Trying to send all finished work units
[23:57:48] + No unsent completed units remaining.
[23:57:48] - Autosend completed


It's been well over an hour with no activity what so ever, and I have no idea what's wrong. I have backed up the WU, and have until 2/2 to turn it in, but I don't know if I should do so or not.... And in all honestly, if I should try and upload it from a different machine, I really have no idea how to do that...

Any help or advice here would be very much appreciated, and again, thank you very much for your work on this, it's brilliant.

Re: New release of diskless folding suite

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 9:30 am
by notfred
That looks like the bug I fixed in the 11 Jan 08 version (see the post at the start of this thread).

I would pop in a USB stick and leave it for at least half an hour to ensure that it has backed up the WU to the USB stick, then reboot (when the light on the USB stick is not flashing!). It should restore from the USB stick and send it. If you upgrade to the new version it shouldn't hit this again.

Re: New release of diskless folding suite

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 4:43 pm
by EvilAlchemist
NotFred - New Beta out
Linux (x86-64 bit, only) SMP client console version 6.00 beta2

Hope you can get an update out when you have the free time!

Re: New release of diskless folding suite

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 4:47 pm
by notfred
Thanks for the head's up, I'll take a look at it, but I have family flying in this weekend for the next 2 weeks.

Re: New release of diskless folding suite

Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2008 4:57 pm
by digital_exhaust
Thanks for the reply notfred... unfortunately, it looks like the wu is gone. I backed it up to a flash drive, restarted the machine and it promptly downloaded a new work unit and began working. There was no sign of life on the drive until it triggered a timed backup, and that is the only activity I've seen out of it all day, every thirty minutes it backs up, and that's it.

Oh well, I suppose it could be worse...

Thanks again.

Re: New release of diskless folding suite

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2008 4:57 am
by theMASS
digital_exhaust wrote:
Thanks for the reply notfred... unfortunately, it looks like the wu is gone. I backed it up to a flash drive, restarted the machine and it promptly downloaded a new work unit and began working. There was no sign of life on the drive until it triggered a timed backup, and that is the only activity I've seen out of it all day, every thirty minutes it backs up, and that's it.

Oh well, I suppose it could be worse...

Thanks again.


As notfred mentioned the latest version fixed the issue of hanging when the autosend kicks on a hung client before the kill script is triggered, but if this happens again and you haven't upgraded back the file up through the web interface then you can copy it to a USB stick without having to wait for the timed checkpoint to run.

Re: New release of diskless folding suite

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2008 6:06 am
by VeixES
Q1: When i use boot cd atm, will it get the beta1 client or beta2 ? Should it be easy to just change that download url a litte from beta1 to beta2 ?

Q2: If i have passkey enabled on my account, then when i use client without passkey (id and team same)... am i getting the credit or not ? For time being i have set up temp user for without passky operation.

Re: New release of diskless folding suite

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2008 7:11 am
by Flying Fox
VeixES wrote:
Q1: When i use boot cd atm, will it get the beta1 client or beta2 ? Should it be easy to just change that download url a litte from beta1 to beta2 ?
The file name seems to be embedded with initrd so it probably needs a recompile.

VeixES wrote:
Q2: If i have passkey enabled on my account, then when i use client without passkey (id and team same)... am i getting the credit or not ? For time being i have set up temp user for without passky operation.
IIRC I asked that question. As long as either one is specified you should get the credit I think.

Edit: found it, for now it is optional since there is no "bouns credit with passkey" yet. And I don't see that in the foreseeable future.

Re: New release of diskless folding suite

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2008 1:12 pm
by notfred
Flying Fox wrote:
VeixES wrote:
Q1: When i use boot cd atm, will it get the beta1 client or beta2 ? Should it be easy to just change that download url a litte from beta1 to beta2 ?
The file name seems to be embedded with initrd so it probably needs a recompile.

Yes, it's embedded so it will be a rebuild, shouldn't be too bad though, I just need to get an afternoon or evening to do it.

Re: New release of diskless folding suite

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2008 1:20 pm
by theMASS
notfred wrote:
Flying Fox wrote:
VeixES wrote:
Q1: When i use boot cd atm, will it get the beta1 client or beta2 ? Should it be easy to just change that download url a litte from beta1 to beta2 ?
The file name seems to be embedded with initrd so it probably needs a recompile.

Yes, it's embedded so it will be a rebuild, shouldn't be too bad though, I just need to get an afternoon or evening to do it.

I haven't rebooted yet :) But I'm getting reports already that people can't get the CD to fold. I seem to have become the "folding forum" notfred tech support... lol

Re: New release of diskless folding suite

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2008 8:12 pm
by EvilAlchemist
I just did a reboot of one of my Folding Systems (using CD BOOT)
--- Opening Log file [February 2 01:07:20]


# SMP Client ##################################################################
###############################################################################

Folding@Home Client Version 6.01beta2

http://folding.stanford.edu

###############################################################################
###############################################################################

System came up and started folding.
Been using the same cd for the last 3 weeks?
Did the client somehow update??

Re: New release of diskless folding suite

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2008 8:49 pm
by theMASS
EvilAlchemist wrote:
I just did a reboot of one of my Folding Systems (using CD BOOT)
--- Opening Log file [February 2 01:07:20]


# SMP Client ##################################################################
###############################################################################

Folding@Home Client Version 6.01beta2

http://folding.stanford.edu

###############################################################################
###############################################################################

System came up and started folding.
Been using the same cd for the last 3 weeks?
Did the client somehow update??


hmmmm....

Maybe Stanford kept the same location. Which makes sense ;) I'll see if I can get more info from the few who reported problems.

I'll try rebooting a VMwared version after I take a snapshot, when I get home.

Anyone else???? Either yes or no?

Re: New release of diskless folding suite

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2008 8:57 pm
by EvilAlchemist
I just preformed it on two more of my boxes ... all same result. Linux 6.01beta 2
Since all my boxes are identical .. at least it was not a fluke on one of them.

Good news it look like .....

I also want to know if other users can reproduce this....

If so, gives notfred a little more time to get the update out ...

Curious
Webpages calls it 6.00 Beta2
F@H Log states 6.01 Beta 2

Maybe stanford forgot to add the .01 to the site when they up'ed the new client!

Re: New release of diskless folding suite

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2008 9:03 pm
by theMASS
EvilAlchemist wrote:
I just preformed it on two more of my boxes ... all same result. Linux 6.00beta 2
Since all my boxes are identical .. at least it was not a fluke on one of them.

Good news it look like .....

I also want to know if other users can reproduce this....

If so, gives notfred a little more time to get the update out ...


I see notfred is working on a new release anyway as SourceForge shows a new isolinux.cfg file as of this post 41 minutes old.

2 February 08: Fixed install after move to SourceForge. Added autoreturn to homepage after reboot. Added the Benchmark CD as a boot option. Changed to FAH version 6 Beta 2.

Looks like we're close ;)

Re: New release of diskless folding suite

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2008 9:31 pm
by theMASS
Yes it works here too.

--- Opening Log file [February 1 18:29:25] 


# SMP Client ##################################################################
###############################################################################

                       Folding@Home Client Version 6.01beta2

                          http://folding.stanford.edu

###############################################################################
###############################################################################

Launch directory: /etc/folding/1
Executable: ./fah6
Arguments: -local -forceasm -verbosity 9 -smp

Re: New release of diskless folding suite

Posted: Fri Feb 01, 2008 10:33 pm
by EvilAlchemist
I am still getting a weird hang out the end of some work units
WU will colplete

Core will shut down .. then not do anything.
One was the auto send problem.
The second wasn't.

It just started happening yesterday.
I shut down all my diskless folders - wiped the thumb drives and rebooted.

Maybe this is just because of the new version.
Not sure yet .... will keep you posted