Lofty
05-10-06, 08:33 AM
Section 3: Controlling & Monitoring Folding@Home 5.04 beta
You should still have the console open from the previous section of the tutorial. With Folding@Home set up to run as a service, it should run in the background with no console apparent. However, we need to reboot the computer before this occurs. DO NOT CLOSE THE CONSOLE BY CLICKING THE X IN THE TOP-RIGHT CORNER. This can lead to loss of data. Instead, hit Ctrl + C on the keyboard to safely, manually close the console. Now reboot your computer, and you'll notice there's no trace of Folding@Home anywhere.
This is a good thing - Folding@Home happily runs quietly in the background, with no trace, using up every idle CPU cycle, but allowing you to use your computer with no distraction. By default, Folding@Home has the lowest priorty for CPU use, and uses 100% of idle CPU cycles. That means that while idle, Folding@Home uses up all of the CPU to fold. As soon as you start any other program however, they all have higher CPU priority over Folding@Home and therefore they take as many CPU cycles as they need. Thus, Folding@Home simply folds less when the CPU is being used for other programs, and has no effect on the normal running of your computer.
But if Folding@Home is running with no trace, how do you track how it is progressing? The answer lies in the fact Folding@Home creates a text file log. You can find this in the folder you originally downloaded the Folding@Home console to. Navigate to that folder, and open "FAHlog.txt"
http://www.d12clan.org/d12downloads/lofty/pics/fah-tute/fah-tute-3_1.jpg
Here you will find a complete log of what Folding@Home is doing. This log is extremely useful when you have problems, and can be posted here at the overclockers.com forums to help members identify and solve your issues. An example log is shown below.
There may be a lot of text in the log you don't understand - don't worry about this. However, the log can be used to track the progress of the current work unit. Look for a series of lines that say "Completed XXX out of YYY steps (Z)" - the X and Y values are not important, but the Z value is the percentage of work unit that has been folded so far. Thus, in the example below, at 01:23:40, 14% of the work unit had been folded.
http://www.d12clan.org/d12downloads/lofty/pics/fah-tute/fah-tute-3_2.jpg
Using the log, you can track the progress of the work unit. When it is complete, the work unit is sent to Stanford, you get a certain amount of points added to your stats depending on the work unit, and Folding@Home downloads a new work unit to fold.
If you want to see how many points you have folded and how you stack up against other folders, there are stats sites out there dedicated to the tracking of your stats. One of the best can be found at http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/team_list.php?s= - which is updated every three hours. Simply enter your Folding@Home username into the "Name Search" box and hit "Search" and the site will find your Folding@Home stats.
http://www.d12clan.org/d12downloads/lofty/pics/fah-tute/fah-tute-3_3.jpg
Advanced stat tracking isn't covered in this tutorial - I'll leave you to experiment with the stats tracking site, it's pretty easy to use.
There is only one more issue to cover here: how to shut Folding@Home down if it's causing serious problems with your PC. There should be no need to do this if Folding@Home is running normally, and should not be done unless needed, as shutting down Folding@Home in this way can lead to loss of data.
Since Folding@Home runs in the background in a service install, it's slightly trickier to shut down. To find it, you need to bring up the Windows Task Manager by hitting Ctrl+Alt+Delete. Then hit the "Processes" tab.
http://www.d12clan.org/d12downloads/lofty/pics/fah-tute/fah-tute-3_4.jpg
It's very helpful at this point to sort the list of processes by their name. Hit the "Image name" tab to sort the list of processes by name.
http://www.d12clan.org/d12downloads/lofty/pics/fah-tute/fah-tute-3_5.jpg
Once sorted by name, scroll down to the F's and you will find two processes that are related to Folding@Home. One is the console - named "FAH504-Console..." and the other is the core (the part of Folding@Home that actually does the folding), named "FahCore_XX.exe".
To shut down Folding@Home completely, you need to select both processes with a single left-click, and then left-click on "End process".
http://www.d12clan.org/d12downloads/lofty/pics/fah-tute/fah-tute-3_6.jpg
That will shut down Folding@Home - but only until you next reboot your computer, where the program will start again. If you do have serious problems, shut down Folding@Home as shown above, locate the Folding@Home log, and post your problem here at the overclocking forums. The friendly and helpful folders here, who know their stuff, will do everything they can to help.
Thank you for folding, for our team, and for the greater cause.
Enjoy the folding.
You should still have the console open from the previous section of the tutorial. With Folding@Home set up to run as a service, it should run in the background with no console apparent. However, we need to reboot the computer before this occurs. DO NOT CLOSE THE CONSOLE BY CLICKING THE X IN THE TOP-RIGHT CORNER. This can lead to loss of data. Instead, hit Ctrl + C on the keyboard to safely, manually close the console. Now reboot your computer, and you'll notice there's no trace of Folding@Home anywhere.
This is a good thing - Folding@Home happily runs quietly in the background, with no trace, using up every idle CPU cycle, but allowing you to use your computer with no distraction. By default, Folding@Home has the lowest priorty for CPU use, and uses 100% of idle CPU cycles. That means that while idle, Folding@Home uses up all of the CPU to fold. As soon as you start any other program however, they all have higher CPU priority over Folding@Home and therefore they take as many CPU cycles as they need. Thus, Folding@Home simply folds less when the CPU is being used for other programs, and has no effect on the normal running of your computer.
But if Folding@Home is running with no trace, how do you track how it is progressing? The answer lies in the fact Folding@Home creates a text file log. You can find this in the folder you originally downloaded the Folding@Home console to. Navigate to that folder, and open "FAHlog.txt"
http://www.d12clan.org/d12downloads/lofty/pics/fah-tute/fah-tute-3_1.jpg
Here you will find a complete log of what Folding@Home is doing. This log is extremely useful when you have problems, and can be posted here at the overclockers.com forums to help members identify and solve your issues. An example log is shown below.
There may be a lot of text in the log you don't understand - don't worry about this. However, the log can be used to track the progress of the current work unit. Look for a series of lines that say "Completed XXX out of YYY steps (Z)" - the X and Y values are not important, but the Z value is the percentage of work unit that has been folded so far. Thus, in the example below, at 01:23:40, 14% of the work unit had been folded.
http://www.d12clan.org/d12downloads/lofty/pics/fah-tute/fah-tute-3_2.jpg
Using the log, you can track the progress of the work unit. When it is complete, the work unit is sent to Stanford, you get a certain amount of points added to your stats depending on the work unit, and Folding@Home downloads a new work unit to fold.
If you want to see how many points you have folded and how you stack up against other folders, there are stats sites out there dedicated to the tracking of your stats. One of the best can be found at http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/team_list.php?s= - which is updated every three hours. Simply enter your Folding@Home username into the "Name Search" box and hit "Search" and the site will find your Folding@Home stats.
http://www.d12clan.org/d12downloads/lofty/pics/fah-tute/fah-tute-3_3.jpg
Advanced stat tracking isn't covered in this tutorial - I'll leave you to experiment with the stats tracking site, it's pretty easy to use.
There is only one more issue to cover here: how to shut Folding@Home down if it's causing serious problems with your PC. There should be no need to do this if Folding@Home is running normally, and should not be done unless needed, as shutting down Folding@Home in this way can lead to loss of data.
Since Folding@Home runs in the background in a service install, it's slightly trickier to shut down. To find it, you need to bring up the Windows Task Manager by hitting Ctrl+Alt+Delete. Then hit the "Processes" tab.
http://www.d12clan.org/d12downloads/lofty/pics/fah-tute/fah-tute-3_4.jpg
It's very helpful at this point to sort the list of processes by their name. Hit the "Image name" tab to sort the list of processes by name.
http://www.d12clan.org/d12downloads/lofty/pics/fah-tute/fah-tute-3_5.jpg
Once sorted by name, scroll down to the F's and you will find two processes that are related to Folding@Home. One is the console - named "FAH504-Console..." and the other is the core (the part of Folding@Home that actually does the folding), named "FahCore_XX.exe".
To shut down Folding@Home completely, you need to select both processes with a single left-click, and then left-click on "End process".
http://www.d12clan.org/d12downloads/lofty/pics/fah-tute/fah-tute-3_6.jpg
That will shut down Folding@Home - but only until you next reboot your computer, where the program will start again. If you do have serious problems, shut down Folding@Home as shown above, locate the Folding@Home log, and post your problem here at the overclocking forums. The friendly and helpful folders here, who know their stuff, will do everything they can to help.
Thank you for folding, for our team, and for the greater cause.
Enjoy the folding.