[Lofty]

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Installing and Using Folding@Home
By dXII][Lofty


Introduction
This guide will take you through installing Folding@Home version 5.04 beta on a single computer. This is an idiot's guide (for people like me!) with extra detail and lots of pwetty pics, so hopefully it should be clear and concise. The whole process should not take any longer than 5-15 minutes.

Folding@Home will be installed as a service, meaning that it loads up with Windows and folds automatically in the background, with no input required from you. I will however show you a quick way near the end of monitoring F@H's progress so you can see what's going on.

The guide assumes you have Windows NT/2000/XP, and that you have (very) basic working knowledge of a computer.

Good luck, and be sure to post any comments or questions...I'll refine the tutorial if necessary, and don't forget the folders who post on these forums are knowledgable, friendly and more than happy to help.


Contents

Section 1: Downloading Folding@Home 5.04 beta
- Navigating the Stanford Folding@Home Website
- Choosing a folding username
- Checking for matching usernames
- Downloading the correct version of Folding@Home

Section 2: Installing Folding@Home 5.04 beta
- A step-by-step guide to setting up the console

Section 3: Controlling & Monitoring Folding@Home 5.04 beta
- Using the Folding@Home log
- Tracking your folding stats
- Shutting down Folding@Home in an emergency


Section 1: Downloading Folding@Home 5.04 beta

First we need to download Folding@Home, which can be found on Stanford's website, at http://folding.stanford.edu/ - the home page contains an excellent summary of what the project is about, so it's a worthwhile read. Once you're finished reading, click the "Download" link from the list of links on the left.



Before starting the download, you'll want to come up with a username to fold under. This can be literally anything. You can either come up with a new, personal name if you wish to track your own folding stats, or fold under an existing username if you wish to contribute to someone else's stats. If you wish to fold under someone else's username, you can skip this username check.

If, however, you wish to fold under your own name, you'll need to check that no-one else is already using the name. There's a handy tool to do just that on the download page. In the box under the bold print "How do I choose a username", enter the name you wish to fold under, and hit the "Search" button.

NB: Usernames can only contain numbers and letters, with no spaces, although underscores are allowed.



If you get a page like the one below, then no-one is using the username you have entered, and you can use the username later, when we set up Folding@Home, as a unique name to fold under. If you get any names listed below the yellow box, then the username has already been taken. Hit the back button on your browser to enter a different name.



Once you've got a unique username, hit the Downloads link on the left hand side to go back to the Downloads page. Now scroll down past the username entry box, and you'll get a list of avaliable versions of Folding@Home to download. It's important to choose the right one. Look for the field "Windows NT/2000/XP "No-nonsense" text-only console (Version 5.04 beta), then click on the "download" link just across from it.



The program you download is the actual Folding@Home console - it's not a setup program, so when you choose a location for the download, ensure it's in the actual folder that you want Folding@Home to run in. (Or you could move the program to the correct folder after downloading, but before you run the console).

Next up - setting up Folding@Home.

[Lofty]

Section 2: Setting up Folding@Home 5.04 beta

Once Folding@Home is sitting in the folder on your hard disk that you wish to run it from, double-click the program to run it. A text-based console pops up, and begins methodically asking you setup quesitons step-by-step. We're going to go through them in a similar process.



First up, Folding@Home asks you what username you wish to fold under, as shown below. Simply enter the username you decided to choose earlier, be it your own which you checked was unique on the downloads page, or someone else's username if you wish to contribute to their folding. After entering your username hit enter.



Next up is the team number you wish to fold under. Overclockers.com's team number is 32, so enter 32 on your keyboard and hit enter.



Then Folding@Home asks you if you want to run the program as a service. Running Folding@Home as a service is advantageous, because it'll run quietly in the background, making no appearance in windows except in the task manager. It will automatically start folding when your PC starts, and automatically stop when you shut your PC down. So, for the minimal-fuss option, enter "yes" under this field and hit enter.



Folding@Home then tells you it will start as a service next time you restart your computer, which we will do anyway after finishing the setup. Folding@Home then asks you if you would want the program to ask you before sending and fetching work units.

Folding@Home is pretty secure, and therefore it's unlikely you'll need to interrupt the sending/receiving process. On this note, now is a good time to enable internet access for the Folding@Home if you are sitting behind a firewall. Since most firewalls ask you if you want to allow a program to access the internet when it tries to, you can wait until then to allow Folding@Home access if you like. As firewalls differ slightly, details of how to do this are not avaliable in this tutorial.

Back to the setup program, enter "no" on your keyboard to allow Folding@Home to automatically send and receive work units. (We're trying to set the program up as automated as possible, so you have to do pretty much nothing for Folding@Home to run).



The next question details whether you would like Folding@Home to use the same internet settings as Internet Explorer. I can't think of a situation where you would want Folding@Home to use different settings, so type "yes" for this field and hit enter again.



Folding@Home then asks you if you wish to receive large work units. Unless you have a fairly modern CPU and a reasonably large amount of RAM, I would suggest answering "no" to this, as even then you'll still get work units (of highly varying sizes) that can take up to days to fold. Few work units are considered the large variety. However larger work units tend to have points bonuses attached to them, and thus if you have a modern PC you'll get more credit for your folding. Type in either "yes" or "no" (the choice is yours), and hit enter.



Folding@Home then asks you if you want to change the advanced options. The advanced options are really only there to optomize your folding, which you may wish to do if you were an advanced user and had a good knowledge of Folding@Home. However, this is an idiot's guide to using Folding@Home, so we're not going to touch the advanced options. Enter "no" and hit enter.



This completes the setup, and folding begins. First Folding@Home tries to connect to the internet to retrieve a work unit to process. (It will pop up a little message box as shown above if you answered "yes" to the program asking you for permission before sending and receiving work units. Hit OK and let the program do it's stuff.) If you have a firewall, and haven't enabled Folding@Home access already, your firewall will probably choose this point to ask if you want to allow the program access. Make sure you enable permanant access for the program, not just a one-off access. Shown below is an example with ZoneAlarm.



Once Folding@Home has access to the internet, it will download a work unit to process. (If the dialogue box confirming "Ready to connect to network" appears again, simply click OK and Folding@Home will proceed.) After a few moments, you should end up with a line saying "Completed 0 out of XXXXX steps" (where XXXXX is a number). Congratulations, Folding@Home is now processing your first work unit.



Now to get Folding@Home running as a service, completely in the background, whilst being able to monitor it and track stats...

[seadave77]

Good guide. One thing I see.

Back to the setup program, enter "yes" on your keyboard to allow Folding@Home to automatically send and receive work units. (We're trying to set the program up as automated as possible, so you have to do pretty much nothing for Folding@Home to run).

I always put no so it doesn't ask me to get a work unit. If you put yes it will ask you to get a new work unit defeating the purpose of being automatic.

[Lofty]

ROFL, well put, I made a mistake. Thanks for pointing it out!

[EDIT: fixed.]

[WarriorII]

Just give it a quick EDIT there Lofty & you're good to go !


Thanks !!!

Smells like some sort of STICKY to me.

[Lofty]

Yes, I'd like to see this post stickied, it took quite some time to compose, and I've already had some very positive feedback off a new member (put a link to another, see if they find it just as useful.) - however, I'll leave it up to the admins to decide whether they want to sticky it or not.

[Captain Newbie]

You should probably add some information on *why* people should fold, too.

Like this, which would get some interest right off the bat. As in "Ooh, wow, I can use my computer to help cure cancer/alzheimers/BSE? Sweet!"

[Karbon]

Personally I think it's a lot faster to use the run prompt and do
sc stop fah1
sc stop fah2

than go into the task manager before doing something that I might need to stop folding for. (nothing really, only if a WU is close and I don't want to lag for a few seconds while uploading.)

[ChasR]

Two things. Stopping FAH with task manager is not a good idea. You'll lose lots of work units. FAH run as a service should be stopped by running services.msc and stopping FAH, or as Karbon describes. You can create a batch files with Karbons stop command and a similar start command and avoid using run to stop and restart the client. You should NEVER stop any version of FAH using task manager.

You should answer no to use IE settings and no to proxy (unless you're using a proxy).

[hibner]

YEAH Someone finally wrote a guide just for me. I got a couple questions though.

Are there any advantages of 5.04 vs. Wedo's one click (5.02)?
Can I expect different WU's or better ppd?
Why is our Team32 homepage not back up yet, huh DAVID???

@ChasR - the best way I have found to stop FAH is from the command line. Just type 'net stop FAH' or 'net start FAH'

[ChasR]

net and sc do the same things. The really best whay to start and stop FAH is with a batch file so you don't have to type anything but when creating the batch file. You can take this a step farther if you download Win Serv 2003 tools. THe tools run under XP (maybe w2k) and contain the sleep command. So you can make a batch file like this:

sc stop FAH
sleep 3600
sc start FAH

FAH will restart one hour after stopping automatically, as long as you don't close the window the batch file runs in. You can minimize it if need be. If you turn on FAH before the sleep command countdown expires it won't make any difference as Windows won't start the service a second time. You can create a FAH reset batch file by making sleep 15 secs.

Performance under 5.04 is identical to 5.02. All Windows clients use the same cores and the cores do all the work so performance is the same. The graphical clients lose some cpu cycles when the GUI is open but otherwise perform identically to the Console installs and service install of the console.

There are two differences between 5.04 and 5.02. 5.04 allows you to set the memory available to FAH at less than all the memory. This is usefull on HT, Dual Cores, and Duallies running multiple instances to prevent each instance from beleiving it has all the memory, but really only on QMDs and future high memory requirement WUs. It allows you to download bigpackets that are large downloads and not get bigpackets that are high memory usage. An example would involve QMDs on sig rig # 2. The ram bandwith bottleneck makes the best production occur with one QMD and 3 non-QMD -advmethods bigpackets. With 5.02 if 4 instances are set to -adv/big you'll get 4 QMDs (assuming they come back). With 5.04 you can set one instance to report 512MB and the other 3 to report 500MB and you'll get one QMD and 3 -adv/big non-QMD WUs (Client must report 504 MB of available ram to qualify for QMD assignment). This feature isn't quite as important with current WUs except on machines with small amounts of ram. The ram requirements of the WUs on each server can be found on the server status page.

The second difference is that in 5.04 -advmethods is set in client.cfg (type=3) where in 5.02 it must be in the registry for a service or the shortcut target line for the console or GUI.

[Audioaficionado]

Originally Posted by ChasR

Two things. Stopping FAH with task manager is not a good idea. You'll lose lots of work units. FAH run as a service should be stopped by running services.msc and stopping FAH, or as Karbon describes. You can create a batch files with Karbons stop command and a similar start command and avoid using run to stop and restart the client. You should NEVER stop any version of FAH using task manager.

You should answer no to use IE settings and no to proxy (unless you're using a proxy).

I think he was stopping it with the Task Manager before it was configured as a service but I agree that using TM to stop FAH is a bad idea. Why do you think it always gives you a pop-up warning you that the data can be lost.

[Wedo]

Great guide! I answer no to the IE question as well since we have clients that use proxy's and such.

Thanks for your time and effort to put this together. Well done!

[ChasR]

The guide can't be considered great while it still has the glaring error of recommending stopping the client using task manager. Folks killing a service in task manager is the same using the red X, which lofty recommends agaisnt.

If you don't beleive me, try shutting down the service using sc stop FAH or services.msc to stop the client. The log will record this:

[05:36:08] Timered checkpoint triggered.
[05:51:48] Writing local files
[05:51:48] Completed 35000 out of 500000 steps  (7)
[06:21:48] Timered checkpoint triggered.
[06:38:02] Writing local files
[06:38:02] Completed 40000 out of 500000 steps  (8)
[07:06:17] 
[07:06:17] Folding@home Core Shutdown: INTERRUPTED
[07:06:20] CoreStatus = 66 (102)
[07:06:20] + Shutdown requested by user. Exiting.***** Got a SIGTERM signal (2)

Folding@Home Client Shutdown.


--- Opening Log file [May 11 07:07:40] 


# Windows Console Edition #####################################################
###############################################################################

sigterm is present indicating a proper shutdown.




If you kill the process in task manager it looks like this:

[05:36:08] Timered checkpoint triggered.
[05:51:48] Writing local files
[05:51:48] Completed 35000 out of 500000 steps  (7)
[06:21:48] Timered checkpoint triggered.
[06:38:02] Writing local files
[06:38:02] Completed 40000 out of 500000 steps  (8)


--- Opening Log file [May 11 07:07:40] 


# Windows Console Edition #####################################################
###############################################################################

No sigterm=improper shutdown. If you kill the process during a disk write, the WU dies. The client doesn't erase the lock file and leaves you open to the dreaded conflict message. It's not good to improperly close the client. You may get away with it sometimes but eventually it will bite you, probably on the biggest point WU you ever did.

[Captain Newbie]

Originally Posted by ChasR

The guide can't be considered great while it still has the glaring error of recommending stopping the client using task manager. Folks killing a service in task manager is the same using the red X, which lofty recommends agaisnt.

If you don't beleive me, try shutting down the service using sc stop FAH or services.msc to stop the client. The log will record this:

[05:36:08] Timered checkpoint triggered.
[05:51:48] Writing local files
[05:51:48] Completed 35000 out of 500000 steps  (7)
[06:21:48] Timered checkpoint triggered.
[06:38:02] Writing local files
[06:38:02] Completed 40000 out of 500000 steps  (8)
[07:06:17] 
[07:06:17] Folding@home Core Shutdown: INTERRUPTED
[07:06:20] CoreStatus = 66 (102)
[07:06:20] + Shutdown requested by user. Exiting.***** Got a SIGTERM signal (2)

Folding@Home Client Shutdown.


--- Opening Log file [May 11 07:07:40] 


# Windows Console Edition #####################################################
###############################################################################

sigterm is present indicating a proper shutdown.




If you kill the process in task manager it looks like this:

[05:36:08] Timered checkpoint triggered.
[05:51:48] Writing local files
[05:51:48] Completed 35000 out of 500000 steps  (7)
[06:21:48] Timered checkpoint triggered.
[06:38:02] Writing local files
[06:38:02] Completed 40000 out of 500000 steps  (8)


--- Opening Log file [May 11 07:07:40] 


# Windows Console Edition #####################################################
###############################################################################

No sigterm=improper shutdown. If you kill the process during a disk write, the WU dies. The client doesn't erase the lock file and leaves you open to the dreaded conflict message. It's not good to improperly close the client. You may get away with it sometimes but eventually it will bite you, probably on the biggest point WU you ever did.

David diked out that portion until it is corrected.

[khiloa]

Very nice guide!

[the garynator]

good guide lofty!

I'm working on an in-depth shutdown guide for services and consoles...if you'd like, I can post it up here and you can add it to one of your posts if you'd like.

[z0n3]

How do I tell FAH not to download anymore work units after the current one is done?

[pscout]

Originally Posted by z0n3

How do I tell FAH not to download anymore work units after the current one is done?

use the -oneunit flag and the console will stop and exit when the current one is finished and sent.

or use -pause which will leave the console running waiting for you to stop it after the WU is completed and transmitted.

I generally only use them when i am running the console from a desktop shortcut. If you are running as a service I expect -oneunit would operate as described, not exactly sure what -pause would do or why you would want to use it for a service since there is no visible window to see.

The reason i always use these from a desktop shortcut is that it is a lot easier (and safer) to edit the flag in the target string of the shortcut, than to edit the registry entries where the flags are obtained by the console running as a service. Plus, you could have multiple shortcuts setup with different flags without modifying your normal usage. Just make sure only 1 is launched at a time tho so you don't corrupt the WU.

If you normally run as a service, you can just stop the service, go into the FAHx directory and create a shortcut to the fah-consolexxx-exe.
Then right click the service and select properties , then add the -oneunit flag to the end of the target string separated by a blank.

If you want the brute force method, you can open a command prompt, cd to the fah directory, and type in the target string and flags.


... or you could create a bat file to execute the target string from the fahx directory

is that enuf different ways to confuse you?

[harlam357]

Originally Posted by pscout

use the -oneunit flag and the console will stop and exit when the current one is finished and sent.

or use -pause which will leave the console running waiting for you to stop it after the WU is completed and transmitted.

I generally only use them when i am running the console from a desktop shortcut. If you are running as a service I expect -oneunit would operate as described, not exactly sure what -pause would do or why you would want to use it for a service since there is no visible window to see.

Yes, if running a service the -oneunit flag is preferable. Both flags will stop the client from downloading anymore WUs, but using the -pause flag will cause the client to just 'stall'. Where using the -oneunit flag will cause the client to completely shutdown. Either way, to get it back up and running again you will need to stop and restart the service.

[z0n3]

Thanks. I needed to uninstall FAH from a comp. It was just getting these little 44 pointers, although it put out about 2 of them a day. Also it has HT and I only had it running one WU at a time. So I just wanted to stem the flow of WU so I that I could make the machine produce more points.

[Mr.Guvernment]

maybe i missed it, but how do i get this to run and use dual cores?

[pscout]

Originally Posted by Mr.Guvernment

maybe i missed it, but how do i get this to run and use dual cores?

Just run 2 instances ... EXCEPT if you are running the graphical (5/03) client .. if you run the grahical client and want a second instance, you have to add a second directory with the non-graphical console ... you cannot run 2 instances of the graphical client.

Wedos 1 click for dually/ht will get you 2 going quickly as services on a new install ... or if you run the 5/02/5/04 desktop console already just have 2 directories with the non-grahical folding console of your choice (ie. 5.02 or 5.04) ... make sure 1 instance (directory) has machine id=1 in client.cfg and the other instance has machineid=2 and you will will have 2 folding instances.

if using wedo's 1 click, you probably want the advmethods version. And you probably want bigpackets=yes.

I am assuming you already have some familiarity with the console setup.

/edit If you need more help, start a thread (i miss the sticky posts sometimes) describing what folding you already have installed on the rig if any. It will make it easier to give you a simple method for setting up a second instance.

[Squashky]

after you have downloaded a F@H how do you go back and change a setting.


Also is there away to have it only on when the computer is idle?


nice guide

[mkorpal]

Two questions... First, how do I change the settings to have it running as a service. I started folding on my laptop (my second folding computer) when my laptop was not running well. I was planning on taking it in to have work and I did not wan't to start folding immediately. Well, I got it back and wan't to change it so it is a service. Second, can I connect to the internet at the beginning to get a WU and at the end to send the WU and not be connected at all times. I ask this because I will probably have three computers folding in my apartment in a few months and I was planning on sharing the internet connection there between the computers. Thanks.

Matt

[harlam357]

First of all... to teh Fold!

Secondly, I fear your questions might be getting over looked because you're posting in this sticky. Next time try starting a thread with your question.

@Squashky: Two places to changes settings. Here's a thread by the garynator on editing startup flags -> http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=443998 Also, you need to find the client.cfg file in the FAH install directory. I like to use metapad to edit the client.cfg file. It's a unix binary format file, so be careful if you try and edit it with notepad. Thread by THF on the client.cfg options -> http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=435860

@mkorpal: I like Wedo's One-Click for service installs... very clean. Much cleaner than the standard Stanford service install IMO. -> http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=231247 It's best to have your FAH machines "plugged-in" at all times... but by all means if you have to disconnect and reconnect to obtain WUs, do it! With a little clearer info about your setup and machines I and others could give you some better advice regarding the network/WAN setup.

[mkorpal]

Thanks. I'll play around with it tomorrow. If all goes as planned. I will have my current desktop in a new case. It's my 2.8 Northwood in my sig. I will also have my laptop which is a 3.33 Prescott. And I will have a new conroe system. The problem will be space, as I will be in a very small space in a few months and I don't want to live in a sauna. But if I get the apartment I want, utilities will be included in the rent, so I can use as much power as I wan't. I might also spend a few hundred more and get another 805 with a powersupply, good motherboard, and some memory and put together a sweet diskless folder, but money and space will be a big factor plus I am a weak person and easily addicted.

[dfonda]

Does the guide suggest a place to put the downloaded client before starting it? EDIT: Went back and read thru it again,its there I just missed it.

[David]

Unstuck as this is now linked to from Dark_15's thread.

[N1NJA]

Is there a way to not show in the taskbar? Maybe show a little icon by the clock instead?