• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

[O/C]A Detailed Step by Step Guide to Folding@Home Under Linux

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.

sno.lcn

Senior2 Member
Joined
Nov 21, 2005
Location
Atlanta, GA, USA
A Detailed Step by Step Guide to Folding@Home Under Linux
by Sydney


This guide describes the process to get Folding@Home running under Linux on your CPU as well as on your Nvidia Graphics card.

This works on Ubuntu 9.04 as of October 1st, 2009. This guide will only work for Nvidia cards, 8×00 cards or newer. I’ve heard about a wrapper for ATi cards, but seeing as I don’t own one I can’t really test it out.

This guide was done using Ubuntu 9.04 64-bit, and should work without any modification on other Debian based distros. To get SMP folding on the CPU client, you must have a 64-bit system.

Click here to continue reading.


Discuss this article below. If you are interested in contributing to the front page (www.overclockers.com), please feel free to contact me.


Thanks,
sno.lcn
 
Nice work Sydney, very detailed. ;)

Looks complicated, but hopefully this will help those interested in getting this working.
 
Thanks :)

The guide only requires absolute minimal Linux knowledge, it's mostly just copying and pasting terminal commands.

edit: I can also confirm it still works perfectly as of December 2nd ;)
 
Thanks Sydney, I actually put in a note about that now.

If you want to test it out 6 months down the road, I'd be happy to update it again.
 
You did a fantastic job Sydney. I think I'll switch my rig from OpenSUSE 11.1 to Ubuntu this weekend because of this guide. I can't wait!
 
So sydney how is Slackware for folding? Been thinking about gettin my slack on when this Mobo comes back from RMA. Also if you don't like slack for reasons of folding please let me know what they are. I've been itching to install the OS backed by The Church Of The Sub Genius

:salute::salute::salute:

BTW I'm sure I said it before but sweet guide Sydney.
 
Last edited:
I too can confirm this guide rocks!

Looks complicated but its just like he said, copy and paste.
Set up both of my rigs using his guide.

:thup: :thup: :thup:
 
So sydney how is Slackware for folding? Been thinking about gettin my slack on when this Mobo comes back from RMA. Also if you don't like slack for reasons of folding please let me know what they are. I've been itching to install the OS back by The Church Of The Sub Genius

:salute::salute::salute:

BTW I'm sure I said it before but sweet guide Sydney.
Well, I did try it on Gentoo, and surprisingly enough, the performance was lower than in Ubuntu.

So far, Ubuntu 9.04 is the best performing distro I've tried.
 
Another :thup: from me... the guide is straight and to the point. Excellent write up! :clap:

The only thing that saddens me somewhat is that the HFM install instructions didn't make this guide revision for the FP. :(
 
Hehe... I knew you were gonna say that! :D

I need to take some time and do it... I've been working on some support materials over in the HFM Google Group. I'll manufacture some time... I swear... in fact I'm about to manufacture some new features right now. ;)
 
Developers are typically bad at one of two things at least:

Documentation
Marketing

At least your doing the documentation part! ;)
 
Hey Guys,

Having a little trouble here... Says couldn't find package. Any ideas? :-/

Code:
joe@joe-desktop:/$ sudo apt-get install ia32-libs
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
E: Couldn't find package ia32-libs
joe@joe-desktop:/$
 
You don't need ia32-libs in any ubuntu version 9.xx and higher. I believe the guide to be in error. You do need ia32-libs in earlier versions.
 
Yeah, Dave, I should have said you don't need to install them. It would appear they are no longer in the repository.
 
Back