Few beginner questions

[kieferr]

Hi everyone!

Wanted to post on the subreddit but it's restricted (only approved users) so here I am!

I just discovered Folding@Home today, and have 2 macbooks from 2015 sitting idly at home, so I decided to download it on both of them and make them work (electricity cost is not a problem).

I know those two computers wont do much, but i figured that 0.1 is still better than 0.

First, i cant register. The error: (API call PUT /register failed
HTTP_BAD_REQUEST)

Second, if I can register, is there a way to link both computers (more points), and to make sure both work on the same Project?

Third, I've always wanted to do something of a Homelab when I can afford it (not yet and for some years, but If i can do it, i'd like to do something for folding@home). How would you recommend someone assembling CPU (or GPUs, just looking for efficiency and affordability) all together and putting them to work on folding? (And I'm kind of out of my depth so if you take the time to answer, please do it in a way that a random person on the street with two hands can understand).

Fourth and last (promise), I'd like to know for older intel macbooks if there are ways to disable throttling, or just small adjustements to maximize the capacity of the CPUs inside to do some work.


Thanks a lot for your answers, your patience, and your work!

[calxalot]

Easier if you don't try to register before configuring first client.
If you configure a client, then values will auto fill in the register form.
Be sure to copy the password for when you login later (after getting the validate email).

Please read the user guide first:
https://foldingathome.org/v8-3-client-guide/

Once registered, you should be able to just login on the other machine and the client will pick up the account settings (user, team, passkey, cause).

[Joe_H]

Second, if I can register, is there a way to link both computers (more points), and to make sure both work on the same Project?

This is not possible to do for a single WU from a project, any network connection would be too slow. But at times they could be working on different WUs from the same project or a related project. That will depend on WU availability.

Fourth and last (promise), I'd like to know for older intel macbooks if there are ways to disable throttling, or just small adjustements to maximize the capacity of the CPUs inside to do some work.

I don't currently fold all of the time on my older MacBook Pro, just occasionally for testing purposes on new software or projects. It is running Mojave, and I have the Energy Settings as never sleeping on the power adapter. They changed the control panel in one of the later OSs, I would have to look up when and how that changed the settings needed.

Experimenting I found I got the best results setting the number of CPU threads to use at the number of actual cores, and do not use the extras provided by HT. So on this 2012 MBP with a 2.9 GHz i7 that is 2 out of the total of 4 threads the i7 supports. Also I keep the laptop slightly elevated so air can circulate under the bottom case and help with cooling. I also occasionally clean out the fan and cooling fins, dust and lint can accumulate. When I did that about a month ago I did get a couple small dust bunnies out that were partly blocking the airflow.

[kieferr]

Thanks a lot for the same project question, i just had hoped it could be doing it as to finish tasks faster instead of spending days on each separate.

The macbooks are Air 2015 so i should reduce from the 3 CPU used to 2 (as I believe the other 2 are virtuals?)

Any way still I could register? The error i get make it impossible to register and the points i'll get will be for each computers and not as a whole.

Thanks for the reply!!

[calxalot]

A register error is caused by an invalid value in the form.
Usually this is an invalid passkey.
Do not put your passphrase in the passkey field.
Do not make up a passkey. Get it here:
https://apps.foldingathome.org/getpasskey

You might get a better error message if you use the 8.4 web control:
https://v8-4.foldingathome.org/machines

Points are not attached to an account.
They are permanently recorded with the user, team, passkey used when work was assigned.
You can and should be using the same values on both machines.

[kieferr]

So i use the generator built in for the pass phrase, and passkey is just a random generated password (through 1Password, so long and complicated).
I just tried with the 8.4 web control, and the error is still:

API call PUT /register failed
HTTP_BAD_REQUEST

Using a passphrase generated by the web control and making sure everything was alright.

EDIT: in the long term, it is not really an issue as I'm doing it for fun and helping a tiny bit, but would have liked to register

[calxalot]

passkey is a hash of your folding username and any email you control.
It is 32 hexadecimal characters. It is not random.

NO NOT let 1Password fill in the passkey.
It is likely that 1Passkey and your browser will be confused about what is a password to save.

[calxalot]

Make passkey blank before you click register.
You can fill it later if you want to.

[kieferr]

Thanks a lot, just had to let it blank and everything works.

I was kind of confused as for me the passkey sounded like password, so i need an email, passphrase, password, and it did not make sense why it was not working.

Thanks a lot for the help!
If anyone has any idea on small budget rig for folding or other projects (probably cpu oriented)?

All the best

[calxalot]

If you found anything in the client user guide confusing, please tell us what.