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Ubuntu Linux & SMP Client Install Guide

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Adak

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 9, 2006

Adak's Install Guide For​

Ubuntu 64 bit Linux

&​

The FAH SMP Client​

From a CD to a Hard Drive with Windows​

1) Download Unbuntu 64 bit Linux:
2) Burn the Image File You Downloaded:
  • Download the free utility program ImgBurn, from http://imgburn.com/ (click the download tab at the upper left
    hand corner of the page), and install it.

  • Open the ImgBurn program, and click on the Mode tab at the top of the window. Now select "Write".

  • In the lower right side of the window, select a slow write speed; 2 X is recommended for a Live CD burn. It's very important that the area around the CD is free of floor or loud music vibration, while the Live CD is being written.

  • Insert a writable blank CD, and click on the "Browse for File" (Open folder), icon (not the one with
    a plus on it)

  • Select your CD drive in the "Destination" dialog line.

  • Click on the BIG button surrounding the green >> arrow. (has a HD and CD icons on it as well), and burn your "LIVE" Ubuntu CD.

  • ImgBurn has it's own support forum with a link to them on it's home page, if you need it.
3) Setup the CD:
  • Set the Live CD into the CD Drive, and reboot. If you see a Ubuntu logo before you reboot, just ignore it; go
    ahead with the reboot.
4) Answer the Set Up Questions.
  • Ubuntu will reboot your rig when done. Remember your username and password! Everything in Linux is case sensitive, including passwords and filenames.

  • If set up fails, be sure to write down the error message. The Ubuntu forums are helpful and found here: http://www.ubuntuforums.org/, and of course, both our forum and the FAH forum can help with both Ubuntu
    Linux 64 bit and the SMP client. The FAH forum is at: http://forum.folding-community.org/f...-linux-64.html

  • If you can't boot up from the CD drive , you may need to change your boot up sequence in your BIOS. You need
    the CD drive to boot *before* the HD.
5 ) Get Ubuntu Updates:
  • Connect the rig to the internet and be patient. Ubuntu will discover that connection, shortly. Below and inside the date/time display in the upper right hand side, you'll see a balloon message appear in a few minutes, telling you "updates are available". Click on the update icon to install them. Click on the update icon, and let Ubuntu, do it's updating.
6) Get the 32 bit Libraries:
  • Click on the Ubuntu Desktop "Applications" tab, and choose "Accessories", then "Terminal" to open a terminal window to work in. Carefully keyboard in at the prompt: "sudo apt-get install ia32-libs", with no quotation marks, and press enter. You will be asked to log in, with your username and password. You'll be asked about specific
    32 bit libraries, and using up disk space. Just answer yes to those questions.

  • If you have installed the 32 bit version of Ubuntu by mistake, you'll get the error: "This client only supports
    64 bit Linux machines. Your machine was detected as i686 (or whatever)." You'll need to go back and d/l the
    correct 64 bit version mentioned in step #1, above.
7) Create and Change into, the FAH Directory:
  • Open a Terminal Window (click on the "Applications" tab, then select "Terminal"). Enter each of these lines in the terminal window, exactly:

    mkdir -p ~/FAH
    cd ~/FAH

    Now your /FAH directory is made, and you are in the FAH directory.
8) Get the FAH SMP Client:
9) Extract the Compressed File:
  • Click on "Applications", "Accessories", then "Archive Manager". Double click on the FAH directory. Select the FAH compressed file icon; then click on the "Extract" button to extract it into that directory.
10) Start the FAH SMP Client:
  • In the terminal window, enter: "./fahN -smp -forceasm -verbosity 9", where "N" is the number of fah's smp client (fah6, etc.), (with no quotes - this is Stanford's recommended flags for their SMP client). SMP should not be capitalized in the startup string. Linux is totally case sensitive, so -SMP won't work.

  • Enter your name, team number 32, etc. You must choose "yes" to the big packets question to participate in the project, since all the WU's are large. There are no WU's w/o deadlines, available, so you must answer no to deadlineless WU's if you want to fold.

  • If you get an error message about not having permission to run that file, then enter this in the terminal window:

    chmod +x fahN (where N is the number of the fah client version).

    Then press the up arrow key, and your previously typed command will reappear in the terminal window. Hit enter.
11) Stopping the SMP Client:
  • Click anywhere on the Terminal Window, then press Ctrl + c (hold down Ctrl and press c). This is the safe way to stop the SMP client and prevent possible loss of work. Always give the client a dozen seconds or so, to stop the core threads. You'll see a few error messages from those threads - just ignore them.

  • Next time you want to fold, (like from a reboot), you will be in your home directory. Just open a Terminal Window,(click on the Applications tab, and select Terminal), and change to the /FAH directory (folder), with the entered command: "cd ~/FAH" (no quotes), and then enter:"./fah6 -smp -forceasm -verbosity 9" (again, don't type the quotation marks).
12) SMP Note:
  • You must add the -smp startup option, if you want to fold SMP work units.
13) Power Saving Settings for Folding:
  • Turn off four power saving settings, to keep your Ubuntu system folding.

  • In the BIOS: the ACPID (sometimes they have other "Green" or "power saving" options, as well. I turn them off and save that setting.)

  • In Ubuntu: System >> Preferences >> Power Management. Shows two slider controls, one is for the monitor, and the second one for the computer system. Slide the one for the computer system, to "Never".

  • System >> Service Settings >> CPU. Make sure to uncheck these two service boxes: Frequency Monitor and Power Management (ACPID).

    As long as Ubuntu runs great w/o the updates, I don't bother updating much.
Important Notes:
  • If you want to dual boot Windows and Ubuntu, you must always install Windows before Ubuntu.

  • If your keyboard doesn't work during boot-up, turn on legacy USB support in your BIOS.

  • On some mobo's, the IDE HD settings are "cranky". If your IDE HD has problems booting up in Ubuntu, (e.g.: the CD drive *will* boot OK, if it has the Live CD, but the HD won't boot up, even when the CD drive is empty) - First, check your boot sequence in your BIOS. Make sure the HD is second or third on the list of boot up devices, but that it IS on the list. Then, try switching the jumper settings on the HD to "slave" and be sure the IDE HD is on the "master" connector of the IDE cable.

    Subsequent reboots are then fine, just leave the HD IDE jumper settings on "slave", even though it's the only device now on the IDE cable (in my two Linux SMP rigs), and it's on the "master" connector of the IDE cable.

    SATA HD's, had no such annoying problem - clean all the way through the install. I have learned this is due to the weird way the 965 and 975 chipsets handle IDE device detection.
 
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when launching the client inside the terminal window, if you follow the command with an "&", then you get a command prompt back afterwards since it runs the related proces in the background.

so it would look something like this:

./fah5 -forceasm -verbosity 9 &

Some process control information here
 
Great guide! One thing though, I think on step 11 with the wget that url will give people the older client that's expired. At least, when I installed SMP through vmware and used that link (a few months ago) it said the client had expired. The URL that the download is now is
Code:
http://folding.stanford.edu/release/FAH_SMP_Linux.tgz
 
Mustanley:
That's interesting. Without a text window, how do you monitor the progress of your Linux SMP folders?

Adak

You still get the messages in the terminal window like usual. Or you can refer to the unitinfo.txt file.

"less ./unitinfo.txt"

Honestly it's not terribly useful unless you aren't using a GUI (Gnome, KDE).
If using the terminal only then it is handy to be able run other commands without having to kill the folding client with a ctrl-C. Some useful ones being the "top" command (shows process and cpu/memory usage) or the "free" command (overall system memory usage).
 
@inkfx

Make it easier for yourself.

Move your fah folder into the home directory shortcut on your desktop.

Then you only need to type cd fah in the terminal and then starting ./fah6 -smp -verbosity 9

Your desktop is actually in your home directory too.
 
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