New Members Welcome & Advice Thread

[XRogerX]

so it not going to show my GPU's ?

Confused

[MikeB12]

fahmon will monitor all your clients, all you have to do is point it to the dir where the fahlog.txt file is located. why dont you install it and try... you can read the post I linked, it explains it pretty well.

see above posts fahmon monitoring http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...&postcount=607

[XRogerX]

ok i get something like this in the message window


[17/12/08 - 19:12:02] Finished Reloading cpu
[17/12/08 - 19:17:02] Reloading cpu
[17/12/08 - 19:17:02] cpu is on frame 4
[17/12/08 - 19:17:02] cpu [ETA] | avg=00:11:06 | ref=00:10:44 | adj=00:06:18 | left=17:04:06
[17/12/08 - 19:17:02] Finished Reloading cpu
[17/12/08 - 19:19:07] Reloading GPU
[17/12/08 - 19:19:07] X Error while reading C:\Documents and Settings\Roger\Application Data\Folding@home-gpu\unitinfo.txt!
[17/12/08 - 19:19:07] GPU is stopped (The line "Folding@Home Client Shutdown." was found)
[17/12/08 - 19:19:07] Finished Reloading GPU
[17/12/08 - 19:22:02] Reloading cpu
[17/12/08 - 19:22:02] cpu is on frame 5
[17/12/08 - 19:22:02] cpu [ETA] | avg=00:10:55 | ref=00:10:56 | adj=00:00:43 | left=17:17:57
[17/12/08 - 19:22:02] Finished Reloading cpu
[17/12/08 - 19:22:51] Reloading GPU
[17/12/08 - 19:22:51] X Error while reading C:\Documents and Settings\Roger\Application Data\Folding@home-gpu\unitinfo.txt!
[17/12/08 - 19:22:51] GPU has an unknown state (Unable to find a complete frame)
[17/12/08 - 19:22:51] Cannot determine frame number for GPU (this isn't a problem)
[17/12/08 - 19:22:51] GPU [ETA] | avg=N/A | last=N/A
[17/12/08 - 19:22:51] Finished Reloading GPU

[MikeB12]

why don't yall start a new thread for whatever client you're having an issue with. post your issue with your log.

then you can localize all your responses in the single thread for that specific client and problem. this bouncing around in this thread from different issues with different clients and users is not very clear.

[Nemon]

Completely reinstalled both smp's and followed the tutorial exactly and still the same thing , only one smp running, but i was able to get the FAHMON to monitor the gpu.

maybe an issue with these new core i7's

I'm clueless how to fix this.

ok, the ppd on that smp looks like a single core unit.
stop the clients, delete the work folder and queue.dat file from your smp install directories to get rid of the single core untis.
you need to follow that walkthru to the letter, including adding the flags in the shortcut. http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=199283

make sure you have typed the smp and local flags with a space between in the desktop shortcuts,

Win32-x86.exe -smp -local

this tells the client to run in smp mode, instead of single core mode.. then when you launch the smp clients you should have 8 instances of fahcore_a1 in taskmgr. 4 per client.

[MikeB12]

i7 should run it fine.. I know 2 users here on them and have run dual smp's in windows and linux..

make a new thread and post the bigginning 50 lines or so of your fahlog.txt files... and maybe a screenshot of taskmgr sorted by cpu column..

I'm sure it's doable, we just need to figure out what's going on. and it's better to get it in it's own thread, instead of buried in here with a bunch of other posts and problems and hellos in the new user welcome thread.

[Oc-Ghost]

Hello everyone!

Started folding now that I got a somewhat decent card again(Asus 4830) , while I wait for my sapphire 4870 rma

I got fah tray client and fahmon setup, is there something else I need to know e.g. optimized clients, tweaks or startup parameters?

According to fahmon my ppd is about 2k-2,1k(proj 5733), clocking from stock 575 to 700 only changes ppd by about 200-300.

edit: seems to have gone up now 2,5k-2,7k

[MaK2000]

I am not familiar with AMD but they do get less points and points are down for everything right now so that is probably right.

[OldChap]

I'm thinking of trying to build up an asrock p35 board with a spare q6600. I only have 2gig spare just now but will get 4 later if need be. The Plan is to move 2 gx2's to it and have a go at learning some way of using these a2 units. So whilst I have work to do trying to overclock on a 4core twins board, the bit I'm less sure about is which operating system to use. so folders what do you think? get another copy of windows (which one?) and then learn what? VMware and a linux within? or a Linux (which?) and ...well frankly I'm not at all clear what else I would need to do to run 4 GPU's.

I want my x38 back for day to day use and to try out some new toys including some watercooling trials.

I'd appreciate your views guys

[Shadowtester]

Well if your not terrified by a terminal window for some setup and configuring and having to manually install some of the required software you could get more point out of a Linux setup and currently I would recommend Mepis 8 beta 6 64bit. Its a Debian (Lenny) base distribution which uses the KDE desktop and seems to work very well and seems to be kept up to date very well. Most of the setup for the SMP and GPU2 client using wine for Ubuntu will be the same and they also have a easy script to install the Nvidia video drivers which were a pain previously. The a2 smp core is a thing of beauty ppd wise on 3.6ghz E8400 C2duo with 2 gig of ram a 2665 a1 wu 1920pts will give me a ppd about 2.1kppd where a 2669 a2 wu 1920pts will give me a ppd about 3.2kppd. Its been shown that the GPU2 client running with wine is pretty much equal on ppd to a GPU2 client running in windows. Also it does not take a core to feed the GPU2 client and no dummy plug is needed for multiple cards and GPU2 clients on the same machine. Another thing going native Linux vs VMware will require less ram as well so your two gig should be good.

[OldChap]

Of course I'm terrified...I'm pretty useless with windows but I muddle through by following the knowledge of others...so I'm hoping someone like yourself will help me through this when the time comes. Anyway, first problem solved ...no windows to buy!!!

Next problem: I've got 8 of these: http://www.delta.com.tw/product/ps/s...PS-600DB_A.pdf They can be included in two's or three's in this build if someone can help me connect a normal 24 way connector (which I don't even know the pinouts for) so I guess that's what I need first...can anyone link me to info on 24 way connector (which pin does what) to see if I can match the "signal" pins shown above

Edit after many times looking I found a diagram...now to see what matches

[WFO]

Well if your not terrified by a terminal window for some setup and configuring and having to manually install some of the required software you could get more point out of a Linux setup and currently I would recommend Mepis 8 beta 6 64bit. Its a Debian (Lenny) base distribution which uses the KDE desktop and seems to work very well and seems to be kept up to date very well. Most of the setup for the SMP and GPU2 client using wine for Ubuntu will be the same and they also have a easy script to install the Nvidia video drivers which were a pain previously. The a2 smp core is a thing of beauty ppd wise on 3.6ghz E8400 C2duo with 2 gig of ram a 2665 a1 wu 1920pts will give me a ppd about 2.1kppd where a 2669 a2 wu 1920pts will give me a ppd about 3.2kppd. Its been shown that the GPU2 client running with wine is pretty much equal on ppd to a GPU2 client running in windows. Also it does not take a core to feed the GPU2 client and no dummy plug is needed for multiple cards and GPU2 clients on the same machine. Another thing going native Linux vs VMware will require less ram as well so your two gig should be good.

I tried installing mepis twice in Vmware. I let grub install in the default location and the system wouldn't boot. It said "Kernel Panic" Yada.Yada.Yada. Should I have installed grub to "root" instead?

[Shadowtester]

Yes grub has to be installed in the boot partition to work if you installed it in the VMware partition it will not work very well Grub is a great boot manager I use it to do a quadruple boot on my Shuttle I need to reduce that some since I never use one of the os's and I replaced a second. I have Grub managing Mepis8 beta 6 64 bit, Kubuntu 8.04 64 bit, Kubuntu 7.10 32 bit, and Windows XP 32 bit. I need to remove the two Kubuntu installs after I get all the info I want to save off them to free up some hdd space.

And OldChap I would be glad to try to help you but over the holidays my time around the forums will be very limited at best and depending on the winter weather I could be really busy at work as well since I am a Auto Body repair and painting tech and winter can lead to some very long days at work with bad weather.

[OldChap]

Thanks shadow, beggars can't be choosers and besides I have the physical build to deal with first...then the overclock that should take most of the holiday as case modding is a first for me too.

Maybe when I'm ready and if you have the time......

[Shadowtester]

No problem I will be watching for your cries for help

On a related side note Mepis Linux just released their first Mepis8 RC1 for both 32 and 64 bit so I guess I will get to upgrade from the beta over the holiday I would expect a final release in early January.

[coo-coo-clocker]

I'm quite interested in trying this myself. My assumption is that VMware would be unnecessary if installing native Mepis...then just run multiple instances of the SMP and GPU clients?

[Shadowtester]

I'm quite interested in trying this myself. My assumption is that VMware would be unnecessary if installing native Mepis...then just run multiple instances of the SMP and GPU clients?

That is true if you do not mind setting up wine to run the GPU2 client its not really that hard to do the hardest part is getting the Nvidia driver installed and there is a script you can use with Mepis to do that for you with minimal problems.

[shadowwind]

im also wanting to trying out wine i got crossfire on my ubuntu box doing nothing at all does wine support the ati gpu2 client ,

[Shadowtester]

im also wanting to trying out wine i got crossfire on my ubuntu box doing nothing at all does wine support the ati gpu2 client ,

As far as I know not currently they were working on it over on the Stanford Folding Forum but I do not think they got it working yet you might check out that forum in the GPU ati sub forum for more info on the status of using wine with the ati card and gpu2 client.

[shadowwind]

i found a closed beta looks like its going to be released after the holidays so things are looking good for ati and wine.
to every one have a merry xmass and may god be with all of you peace.... from zozo101

[=[PULSAR]=]

is there a benchmark utility for F@H I plan on setting up several higher end folding machines and would like to see what little tweaks help out and also is there a single setup guide for cpu and gpu clients?

[MikeB12]

fahmon is what we use to get a fah benchmark PPD (points per day) reading on our clients http://fahmon.net/
there are several guides depending on what hardware and OS you're using. fah also has guides linked next to their dl's.

if you need some guidance, post a new thread with your hardware/os, and we can help you get setup on a client combo that will produce max points; it'll take the guesswork out of the process for you. but it's best to post a new thread instead of burying it in here in a welcome thread..
************************************************** *****************************
for example:
New thread: I need help on a client setup for this machine, here's my hardware/os?
OS=Vista
CPU=Q6600@3.33ghz
GPU=8800gt

reply:
1. run dual smp for your Q6600 per these instructions http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=199283
2. and the gpu systray for your gpu http://folding.stanford.edu/English/DownloadWinOther (first one on the pg)
after you get these setup post back with questions or problems
************************************************** ****************************
here is what fahmon data looks like

[OldChap]

Up till now I've only ever used the console version of GPU .....is there any advantage in using systray? (I'm currently re-installing everything)

[Trunks]

fahmon is what we use to get a fah benchmark PPD (points per day) reading on our clients http://fahmon.net/
there are several guides depending on what hardware and OS you're using. fah also has guides linked next to their dl's.

if you need some guidance, post a new thread with your hardware/os, and we can help you get setup on a client combo that will produce max points; it'll take the guesswork out of the process for you. but it's best to post a new thread instead of burying it in here in a welcome thread..
************************************************** *****************************
for example:
New thread: I need help on a client setup for this machine, here's my hardware/os?
OS=Vista
CPU=Q6600@3.33ghz
GPU=8800gt

reply:
1. run dual smp for your Q6600 per these instructions http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=199283
2. and the gpu systray for your gpu http://folding.stanford.edu/English/DownloadWinOther (first one on the pg)
after you get these setup post back with questions or problems
************************************************** ****************************
here is what fahmon data looks like

How much ppd do you lose if you use xp instead of vista?
My idea is to run dual SMP and a gpu client.
but i heard that in xp you need to free 1 core to feed the gpu client. But what about vista?
How big is the loss in ppd?

[MikeB12]

if you have to lock smp down to 3 cores, then dual smp is a no go. you'll lose about 1-2k ppd...
last time I used xp I had to run 1 smp with no affinity changer, lock it to 3 cores and run one gpu.
that's why I switched to vista last summer... I can run dual smp with AC on all 4 cores, and still run a gpu without it getting bottlenecked.. it only uses about 3-5% cpu in vista. 25% in xp.
but if I tried to run smp on 4 cores and a gpu in xp, then smp only allowed the gpu to have about 12% cpu and it choked the gpu ppd.
one of the xp guys needs to input here though, I haven't used xp in 6 months. and I heard nvidia came out with a new xp driver that allows gpu to turn full ppd without hogging a core to itself.

you'll have to try for your self to see... or else one of the xp guys here can chime in.
when I tried to run smp with gpu in xp, gpu turned low ppd unless you fed it an entire core.

but it's been 6 months since I tried, all the ppd you see in my sig is on vista.
(3 Q6600's below in Vista on dual smp w/AC and one gpu each- machines labeled x4,x5,x6)