F@H Installation
From Hak5
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A step by step guide on installing the Folding@Home Client on a Windows pc by request. There is now also linux installation instructions. If you have successfully installed it on another OS, feel free to post instructions here. Also, I am not reliable for any damage you may do to your equipment here. I have changed the default options to allow my computer to fold at a faster rate. This may not be good if you do not have adaquet cooling.
Contents |
Windows Installation
When you first open the program, you should get a window with a box in the center that looks like this:
Click Next to continue...
Read the agreement and click Yes to continue...
Click Next...
Enter in your Nickname and click Next...
Click Next unless you want to install this in another directory. The default one is fine, though...
Click Next once more...
And Click Next again to finally commense installation...
You should have seen a glimpse of an installation status bar followed by this screen. Click Next To start the application now, and leave the "View Readme" box selected if you want to view it...
After you clicked the next button, you should have gone back to your desktop and now have a red flower in your app tray. right clcik it and select Configure to get the screen above. Make sure your nickname is in here, along with the Hak.5 Group number: 51258 . Next, Click the Connection Tab.
Some people have problems with Folding@Home not connecting to servers. The best way to go around and fix that is to check the "Use Internet Explorer Connection Settings" checkbox. If you need a proxy to connect, enter that here as well, but most people will not. Next, click the Display Tab at the top of the box.
MAKE SURE, FOR BEST FOLDING RESULTS that the "Molecule Draw Rate" is all the way to the left, and "Logos Enabled" is unchecked. Also be sure that the "Turn On ScreenSaver" box is unckecked. Finally, click on the Advanced Tab.
Check the Core Priority "Slightly Higher" check box, and move the percentage up to 100% (The Right). Adjust the Checkpoint frequency to your liking. The longer it takes (30 minutes) the faster your folding will be, but I like to play it on the safe side and tone it down to 3 minutes, the lowest setting. Lastly. (If you have a legacy box (Windows ME and lower) be sure to choose Folding@Home from a drop-down list containing it as a chocie. Do not select Genome@Home
General Optimization
Whether you want to fold faster, or have a dedicated amchine, here are a few ways to get more out of folding, that you can't do by customizing the program.
- Disable Your Screen Saver, System Standby, and Hibernation.
- Get rid of spyware and adware
- Destroy all Viruses
Intel Optimization
1. Locate your shortcut to the folding @ home program or create a new one.
2. Right click it and press "Properties". It should look like this:
3. Under the "Shortcut" tab, find the "Target:" box. Add -advmethods -forceasm to the end of the target outside of the quotes so that it looks something similar to:
"C:\Program Files\Folding@Home\winFAH.exe" -advmethods -forceasm
4. Click "Apply", and close the window.
(NOTE: AMD processor users, however should not use "-forceasm")
AMD Optimalization
1. Locate your shortcut to the folding @ home program or create a new one.
2. Right click it and press "Properties". It should look like this:
3. dd "forceSSE" to the end of the target outside of the quotes so that it looks something similar to:
C:\Program Files\Folding@Home\winFAH.exe" -advmethods -forceSSE
4. Click "Apply", and close the window.
(The "-forceSSE" flag makes a big difference for AMD's. Watch your temps, though, it does seem to get a little warmer. Make sure the "SSE" part is capitalized.)
Linux Installation
Installation
Firstly, F@H needs to be it's own folder, so create a new folder, wget the F@H Client, and finally make it executable:
mkdir folding/ cd folding/ wget -q http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegroup/release/FAH504-Linux.exe chmod +x FAH504-Linux.exe
Now, run the client:
./FAH504-Linux.exe
Setup
Now it will ask a few questions:
User name [Anonymous]? (Enter any username - default is "Anonymous") Team Number [0]? (Enter the Hak.5 team number here "51258") Ask before fetching/sending work (no/yes) [no]? (Basically - entering no makes the client run without any user interaction, and entering yes prompts the user to allow the sending/receiving of work) Use proxy (yes/no) [no]? (Self explanatory - if you use a proxy to access the internet - select yes and enter the details) Allow receipt of work assignments and return of work results greater than 5MB in size (such work units may have large memory demands) (no/yes) [no]? (Basically, if you select yes you will recieve larger Work Units) Change advanced options (yes/no) [no]? (some advanced tweaks in here, the defaults are generally okay so best to select no here)
Now your client is up and running! To exit, push CRTL+C, to reconfigure at any time, just use the -config when you start the client.
Making the client run in the background
The best way to do this is to use Gnu Screen. Almost all distros will have this installed by default or it will be available in whatever package management system your distro uses (Yum/Apt/Portage/Pacman etc.)
Now screen allows many terminals inside one window, but the feature we will use is it's ability to "detach" a terminal - running it in the background - even if the user logs out or closes the shell , and being able to "reattach" at a later time.
To start, run screen:
hakling@devoid:~/folding$ screen
You may get a short message on startup of screen - it depends on your screenrc configuration (which can be found at /etc/screenrc or ~/.screenrc) . Now just run F@H as normal:
hakling@devoid:~/folding$ ./FAH504-Linux.exe
Now the client has started, push CRTL+A , then push "d", ctrl+a tells screen to listen for a command, and "d" "d"etaches the screen - you will now be back at the shell, but F@H is still running!, to get back to the client just run the command:
hakling@devoid:~/folding$ screen -r
And you have the client back! Hope this tutorial helped and happy folding!
Subhuman