Folding Forum

Hello!

I have a friend who has a Dell quad core he's not using since the hard drive crashed. He threw it in the closet, and got a new machine. I have a good hard drive, and he told me I could use his quad-core "until he needs it again"!?!?

I would use this machine solely for F@H. I wouldn't have a monitor on it, I would likely just look in on it from time to time with something like TeamViewer.

So my question is; Does the Operating System I load into this machine make any difference as far as F@H is concerned?

I had originally thought of loading Windows 7 on the machine ... but then I started thinking ... instead of spending the money to do that, why not just use one of the Linux distributions!?

I really don't know much about Linux, so that entire area is new to me! One good reason why I love YouTube! Plenty of "How-to" videos concerning Linux!!!

Are there any "Linux Experts" here in the Forum that might be able to lend me some advice as I put this project together?

Thank you Everyone!

Ryan

Welcome to the forum.

The Linux CPU core is actually faster than the Windows version right now. Pretty much everyone recommends Linux for a dedicated CPU-only folding box for this reason.

A mainstream Linux distro such as Ubuntu shouldn't be too hard to pick up. The OS installation is pretty straightforward, and the client installation guide is pretty good at walking you through each step. There are plenty of people who'd be able to help with any questions.

Installation of Ubuntu is pretty simple, for new users, the LTS is often a good starting point (http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/ ... rm-support). Once successfully installed, you may want to read through the Linux installation guide (http://folding.stanford.edu/home/guide/ ... all-guide/) before the actual installation to make sure that you have a clear picture beforehand.

bigtruck747 wrote:I had originally thought of loading Windows 7 on the machine ... but then I started thinking ... instead of spending the money to do that, why not just use one of the Linux distributions!? I really don't know much about Linux, so that entire area is new to me! One good reason why I love YouTube! Plenty of "How-to" videos concerning Linux!!! Are there any "Linux Experts" here in the Forum that might be able to lend me some advice as I put this project together?

Hey Ryan,

Linux is a great choice in my opinion and some of the more popular Linux distributions often don't require a lot of technical knowledge to install or run. It's a great time to learn too. My personal recommendation is Linux Mint. I find Mint 16 Cinnamon Edition to be really powerful, stable, and great for multitasking and in many ways superior to Windows 7, but of course there's pros and cons to everything. The choice of distro is yours (as is always the case with Linux) but that would be my recommendation. You can read all about it over at http://linuxmint.com/. A review of the latest release is here: http://mylinuxexplore.blogspot.com/2013 ... -mate.html

You might also check out http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major to help with your decision making.

I'd be very happy to further help you set up Linux if that's your decision. Let me know or ask in the forum. There are many other Linux users here would also could help you I'm sure. You can always ask /r/Linux too.

Install whatever OS you are comfortable running and supporting. I find Windows 7 to be superior to Linux in many ways. Linux is superior in other ways. Depends on your use of the OS. Win is easy to support, and works with both AMD and NV GPUs. Linux currently works with NV only. Linux SMP folding is slightly faster. Windows GPU folding is easier to overclock, which balances the scale. Pick what you like, it doesn't really matter in the long run.

You can monitor the machine with TeamViewer if you want, but you'll really need to connect a monitor to get through the installation of the OS and get the FAH client going (plus TeamViewer, if you use that). I'm not saying that it's impossible to build a headless system from scratch, but it does make it MUCH more challenging to get everything working initially, whether it's Linux or Windows.

FAH does contain the ability to monitor FAH clients on remote machines. Personally, I see no long-term need for TeamViewer especially since initially connecting a monitor is a good idea, it might not be needed long term. Given the price of TeamViewer (free), there's nothing wrong with having it too. That's up to you.

7im wrote:Win is easy to support, and works with both AMD and NV GPUs. Linux currently works with NV only. Linux SMP folding is slightly faster.

For folding. 7im is exactly right, but to clarify a tiny bit Ryan, Linux works with AMD and Nvidia GPUs just fine, it's just that folding for AMD cards in Linux is not supported at the moment.

I want to thank everyone for all the help!!!!

Jesse_V wrote:

7im wrote:Win is easy to support, and works with both AMD and NV GPUs. Linux currently works with NV only. Linux SMP folding is slightly faster.

For folding. 7im is exactly right, but to clarify a tiny bit Ryan, Linux works with AMD and Nvidia GPUs just fine, it's just that folding for AMD cards in Linux is not supported at the moment.

Just to clarify, the client supports folding on AMD GPUs on Linux, but the drivers do not, so that option is not available. Maybe in the next linux build...

bruce wrote:You can monitor the machine with TeamViewer if you want, but you'll really need to connect a monitor to get through the installation of the OS and get the FAH client going (plus TeamViewer, if you use that). I'm not saying that it's impossible to build a headless system from scratch, but it does make it MUCH more challenging to get everything working initially, whether it's Linux or Windows.

FAH does contain the ability to monitor FAH clients on remote machines. Personally, I see no long-term need for TeamViewer especially since initially connecting a monitor is a good idea, it might not be needed long term. Given the price of TeamViewer (free), there's nothing wrong with having it too. That's up to you.

Bruce,

You're correct, I was only planning to hook up a monitor to get through the OS, and FAH install. After that I was going to disconnect the monitor, and use TeamViewer from time to time to look in on that computer.

You mentioned; "FAH does contain the ability to monitor FAH clients on remote machines". Could you please tell me how to find/use this???

Thank you very much!

bigtruck747 wrote:You mentioned; "FAH does contain the ability to monitor FAH clients on remote machines". Could you please tell me how to find/use this???

Try https://fah-web.stanford.edu/projects/F ... oteClients

Thank you Jesse_V!

If you're going the Ubuntu Desktop route (did so myself 5 months ago and recommend it), just a heads up that you'll need to play around with some settings before it boots into the GUI without a monitor attached and on. It's odd, I know, and I TeamViewer too so it's annoying, I think this link got me started, but also google ubuntu boot no monitor or something like that.

Link: http://troylee2008.blogspot.com/2012/05 ... t.html?m=1

Interesting, when I did the Ubuntu LTS installation, I could reboot the system into the GUI with the system being headless. The only issue that I faced was I had to connect my monitor to my GTX 660 Ti instead of GTX 650. I also didn't have any issues using TeamViewer on the headless system.

PantherX,

My install was Ubuntu Desktop 12.04 LTS, and I have only an onboard (i5-3470T) graphics card, though not sure if that affects how it boots headlessly