Personal computing discussed
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slugbug wrote:I notice the diskless appliance has an option for 4 processors. Which VMWare product would I need to use to be able to use 4 cores per virtual appliance?
Francois Blais wrote:If it is a single CPU, then the single core Folding client will be launched. Mind you though these days the single core client does not produce a whole lot of points for the power the CPU consumes. The choice is yours.I managed to boot on it, but I'm not sure it worked correctly.
My PC has a single CPU.
Should it work?
Francois Blais wrote:What you see on screen is known as the "shell" prompt and this is for more advanced users (you need to know how to navigate and peek at files with the command line). For you I would suggest to use the handy mini-web-server of the diskless folder setup. Pay attention to the IP address that is assigned to the folding box, and then from another computer, fire up your favourite browser and type in that IP address. That should get you to a simple page with a bunch of links. IIRC click on the one that says "Folding log file" (or something similar) and you will basically see the FAHlog.txt file where you can determine if the thing is running.At the end of the boot sequence, I saw a few things about the folding setup, and then a prompt to login. (it said that no password was requires to login as root IIRW)
So I entered "root".
After that I got a # prompt, nothing else.
Can someone help me, please?
Francois Blais wrote:As I said, that's just a shell, more like a "debug mode" if you have worked with enterprise class network switches or infrastructure-type equipment. To see real progress you should use the browser-based interface (unless you know how to navigate *NIX command-line style). When it is booting, pay attention to what IP the machine is assigned. Go to another machine, and type "http://[IP address]" and you should see the "home page" with links where you can do several things.Thanks!
It seems to work ok.
I did a new boot with the USB stick, and that time I didn't logon, I left it there.
After a few minutes, I got a message saying "set_rtc_mmss: can't update from 59 to 1".
That was written several lines on the monitor.
I then logged on with root.
I was under the impression the progression was shown on the screen.
Did I miss something?
Eastrider wrote:IIRC this has something to do with the Folding client failing to delete the previous work files in the queue. The queue has like 10 slots (0-9?) and when enough slots have been filled (if same slot is used it will overwrite the files, just the unused slots), all the work files run over whatever diskspace you gave it. My solution, given the fact that you are not running totally diskless (Windows 7) on the host, is to sacrifice a bit more disk space and use real VMs where you install real Linux on them (and give up the nice admin stuff with notfred's system ).The point is, sometimes, I'm getting "Attept to access beyond the end of the device" errors. And really don't know what's causing them. Sometimes they appear randomly, and today it appeared when restoring the checkpoint after a VMW-P reset. My checkpoint time it's every 5 minutes. Does it have something to do?
Eastrider wrote:VMware Workstation can only do 2 CPUs as well. Your only choice is ESX Server or up for >2 cores anyway. So 2x 2-core clients is the best points you can wring out of SMP clients. To get more points you you will need a decent GPU and you can go 1 GPU + 1 SMP + 1 single core. Of course 1 GPU + 1 WinSMP may be ok as well, but definitely less points.Also, what's the best option for PPD, 2 Clients x2 Cores, or 1 Client x 4 Cores? Anyway it's not like I'm having the option due to how high is the price of VMWare Workstation, but's something good to know.
Flying Fox wrote:Eastrider wrote:IIRC this has something to do with the Folding client failing to delete the previous work files in the queue. The queue has like 10 slots (0-9?) and when enough slots have been filled (if same slot is used it will overwrite the files, just the unused slots), all the work files run over whatever diskspace you gave it. My solution, given the fact that you are not running totally diskless (Windows 7) on the host, is to sacrifice a bit more disk space and use real VMs where you install real Linux on them (and give up the nice admin stuff with notfred's system ).The point is, sometimes, I'm getting "Attept to access beyond the end of the device" errors. And really don't know what's causing them. Sometimes they appear randomly, and today it appeared when restoring the checkpoint after a VMW-P reset. My checkpoint time it's every 5 minutes. Does it have something to do?Eastrider wrote:VMware Workstation can only do 2 CPUs as well. Your only choice is ESX Server or up for >2 cores anyway. So 2x 2-core clients is the best points you can wring out of SMP clients. To get more points you you will need a decent GPU and you can go 1 GPU + 1 SMP + 1 single core. Of course 1 GPU + 1 WinSMP may be ok as well, but definitely less points.Also, what's the best option for PPD, 2 Clients x2 Cores, or 1 Client x 4 Cores? Anyway it's not like I'm having the option due to how high is the price of VMWare Workstation, but's something good to know.
Shinare wrote:However, I get this message on the console that reads: Clocksource tsc unstable (delta = 4686729312 ns)
It seems to be plugging through the work unit but I am worried this might cause the folding@home server to throw away my results?
notfred wrote:Don't worry about the "Clocksource tsc Unstable" messages. That's the kernel saying it was using the processor timer for a clock but it has detected that it isn't reliable (VMs do lots of odd things with virtual CPU clock cycles) so it is falling back to another method.