ChromiumOS Folding integration?

[bdwilson]

For who who haven't heard about it, Google has released an open source OS that is essentially designed to be focused entirely on web applications. It has a few apps built-in but the overhead is minimal. The OS is open source, meaning anyone can modify it and create their own custom builds, and several popular mods have already been released. It is also designed to recognize most PC hardware easily and to go from a powered off state to being online in a matter of seconds.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium_OS
http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os

It occurred to me that this type of thing would be a PERFECT way to set up multiple folding machines without the hassle of installing a full fledged OS. If any programmer could find a way to integrate the FAHClient.exe into the OS, it should be possible to mirror those OS files on to any hard drive (or USB stick), set a computer to boot from it, and start folding instantly with no additional configuration needed! This would simplify things a great deal for those who don't have the technical knowledge to set up "network boots" and other fancy configurations, but still have multiple systems they would like to turn into folding machines.

I just wanted to get this idea out there. If anyone knows anyone who might be able to tinker with a free open source OS, please pass this idea on to them.

[MtM]

How about this -? http://www.google.nl/search?sourceid=ch ... stribution

You're looking for something which is already there.

Also, Chromium is android based and Google Chrome OS is Gentoo based. Gentoo is supported by the smp client -> http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Folding_at_Home

Not sure how stripped down Chromium is, but I assume it will be possible to fold on it ( CPU clients for sure ). The 3rd party gpu wrapper seems to work on Gentoo as well -> viewforum.php?f=54 Again, depending on how stripped down Chrome OS is, it will be easy or hard to get folding@home to work on it ( hey, maybe Google has not stripped anything and it will be just as easy as it is now, idk ).

Edit:

I used this for vm folding, it will do what you want ( turn pc's in folding machines without needing to pay for an os ) -> http://reilly.homeip.net/folding/

[bruce]

I can say with certainty that FAH will not be supported on android-based phones. Laptops/netbooks/etc which are x86-based have potential, though, with support for SSE.

Folding on battery powered devices is pretty close to impossible. Google is clearly aiming itself at the growing market share of battery-powered devices for internet connectivity.

[MtM]

I made an error in my above post

Not sure how stripped down Chromium is, but I assume it will be possible to fold on it ( CPU clients for sure ).

Chromium in that sentence should be Chrome OS, should be apparent through the rest of the post though.

Edit:

It's buried pretty deep but ( from the wiki )

The two operating systems are built using entirely different processes. Chrome OS is built using Portage[53] from Gentoo with a specific overlay called the Chromium OS portage overlay,[54] while Android was created entirely by the developers at Android Inc and later Google, albeit based on a modified version of the Linux kernel.[55]

[MtM]

Afraid of passing on wrong information I wanted to ask for com question to the linux guru's here;

http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/how ... -build-faq

This indicates to me that Chrome OS is indeed build from the Gentoo repository, but I'm not familiar enough with linux to be sure it will mean folding@home will be able to run on it ( maybe Chrome OS does not include needed packages? ). Is anyone who is familiar with Gentoo able to judge from this info ( or personal experience with Chrome OS ) if folding will be possible, and if so if it will require additional packages to be installed?

Edit:

Chrome OS is based on the x86 repository if I'm reading this correctly, this is bad news since you will not be able to run the smp client.

Edit2:

Seeing how many edits I need, and the doubt I have, I pm'd someone who I hope will be willing and able to supplement/correct anything I've said so far

[7im]

...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium_OS
http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os

It occurred to me that this type of thing would be a PERFECT way to set up multiple folding machines without the hassle of installing a full fledged OS.

When one can do this already with existing Live Linux builds, there probably isn't that much demand for it, even if it would actually work. Good idea, hope someone at least tries it to see if it would work or not.

For those who want to do it right now instead of waiting, try the Notfred Diskless fah, or Notfred CD fah.

http://reilly.homeip.net/folding/

[bdwilson]

I was actually hoping for something a little more user friendly than the current linux "live" builds. Notfred's folding program requires entering a command prompt and doing a few different things that are not clearly explained step by step. Despite downloading the correct files, I could not get to work. The others require at least a basic understanding of Linux which I don't have either. I guess what I'm looking for is a universal folding .exe that configures itself automatically, connects to the web, and doesn't require inputting DNS, IP addresses, and the other stuff most distros need entered manually before they start folding. User friendly should be the name of the game..and Chromium seems to fit the bill. Even if it can't do SMP, a uniprocessor client would still be very convenient and I'm betting casual users won't mind running it if it can be released as a simple add-on.

[MtM]

This is what I did in the past;

Use the liveCD generator -> http://reilly.homeip.net/folding/cd.html

Set the user options as needed, don't use windows networking ( easiest but folding runs from the usb stick which means limited lifetime due to limited read/write's ), leave all network options blank for DHCP.

Use Unetbootin to create a bootable usb stick from the iso.

Put the usb stick in, boot the pc from usb, you're folding ( no prompt interactions needed ).

Most prominent downside is that usb sticks have limited read/write cycles, and that for monitoring you do need to check your dhcp logs and use a browser pointed at the leased IP.

You could set network options before generating, but this means you can't clone the iso generated for multiple machines. If you don't have a problem with having to monitor through a browser and checking dhcp lease information for the correct addresses to use, your other objections are covered I think?

[7im]

I was actually hoping for something a little more user friendly than the current linux "live" builds. Notfred's folding program requires entering a command prompt and doing a few different things that are not clearly explained step by step. Despite downloading the correct files, I could not get to work. The others require at least a basic understanding of Linux which I don't have either. I guess what I'm looking for is a universal folding .exe that configures itself automatically, connects to the web, and doesn't require inputting DNS, IP addresses, and the other stuff most distros need entered manually before they start folding. User friendly should be the name of the game..and Chromium seems to fit the bill. Even if it can't do SMP, a uniprocessor client would still be very convenient and I'm betting casual users won't mind running it if it can be released as a simple add-on.

This is where I get confused. You want to geek out on custom hardware builds, but you don't want to geek out on software? Actually just the opposite... you want dead simple software? These two ideas do not seem to be congruent. Please explain how this works. Where does this target audience exist that can build dedicated diskless folding boxes that doesn't know how to install linux? And if there is such an audience, is it really large enough to warrant that kind of development work?

The other 99% of us already have an OS installed and don't need a Fah/Chrome hybrid. And Pande Group does understand the need for user friendly... hence the V7 client rewrite from the ground up. The FAH installer is becoming dead simple to use.

Don't get me wrong, I like the concept. But I'm pretty sure Chromium is not the way to get there.


P.S. Notfred is well supported, and has good documentation... just visit their forum. It has a dedicated thread to answer all questions. I'm sure you'll figure it out while you wait for someone finish tweaking Chromium.

[bdwilson]

Thanks for the help yall. I'm gonna give Notfred another try. What I was really wondering about but didn't explain well in the OP is whether it would be possible to integrate F@H into Chromium as a "widget", or simple extension, similar to the Firefox extensions that are so easy to download and integrate with the browser. I didn't mean to make this thread about my particular setup problems, but more to suggest a bigger idea idea that could benefit the Folding project as a whole. It would be pretty darn cool if a super lightweight version of the uniprocessor client could be made an extension for the OS, because of I have a suspicion Chrome/Chromium OS will become very popular in the coming years, given the fact that it is a very flexible, fast, and (most importantly) FREE OS. The idea of a folding add-on becoming as popular as the Adblock add-on just seemed pretty darn interesting. I dunno if it's possible, but if it is I hope someone tries to create it.

[MtM]

Well even if you add a plugin for Chrome OS ( I don't think the client will run on Chromium as it's an android kernel as noted above ) you will have to configure the plugin before it will work, which isn't the plug and play suggestion you asked for in your first post. Notfred matches that request more then a plugin for Chrome OS, unless you want to create a NotFred's based on Chrome OS in the same manner as the web based generators do now.

[7im]

...would be possible to integrate F@H into Chromium as a "widget", or simple extension, similar to the Firefox extensions that are so easy to download and integrate with the browser.

Maybe. But again, fah is not a light weight widget type application. As bruce mentioned, fah is not an app for mobile (battery operated) devices which would be running chromium. Fah wants to use 100% of your processing power to find cures as quickly as possible. So that eliminates that market regardless of how popular chromium becomes.

Have you tried the V7 FAH client for Windows? You run the installer, and click next a few times, and you are up and folding. Just that simple. And not much harder than trying to find the right one widget out of thousands.

[kg4icg]

A diskless folding box is nothing but a pc with the os installed on a USB thumb drive, did that, no big deal, what's next? Depending on the os depends on what size thumb drive you use.

[bdwilson]

After doing more reading, I found something similar to my idea was already done..a Folding@home app was built in to the Google toolbar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Too ... le_Compute

It basically asked users "do you want to contribute", they would click yes, and then start folding away while the browser was open. This was an easy, unobtrusive application that sadly was discontinued. I think if something like this were re-released for any browser today, it could greatly increase the number of people participating in he project.

[7im]

So as you can see, the project is familiar with the concept.

But can you also see how running a client for 1-2 hours a day, only while you surf, is not that productive to folding?

For those who want to fold 24/7, running the V7 installer isn't that much different than installing that older Google Compute client.