Re: [Dorset] Donating computing power

[Hamish McIntyre-Bhatty]

Ah thanks. I have successfully completed some work then, phew :)

Hamish

On 02/04/2020 11:11, Tim Waugh wrote:
> The stats.foldingathome.org  search
> doesn't find me, no.
>
> But the web UI gives me this link, which (eventually!) works:
> https://stats.foldingathome.org/donor/Tim_Waugh
>
> There are also 3rd party stats e.g.:
> https://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/user_summary.php?s==929041
>
> Tim.
> */
>
> On Thu, 2 Apr 2020 at 09:20, Hamish McIntyre-Bhatty
> mailto:hamis...@live.co.uk>> wrote:
>
> So it seems that while I'm computing for Folding@Home, I'm not on the
> contributors list. I only care because I want to check that its
> working.
>
> I imagine this might be because the system's overloaded rather than
> because I'm failing jobs or anything, but are any of you on the list
> (https://stats.foldingathome.org/donors)?
>
> Hamish
>
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Re: [Dorset] Donating computing power

[Tim Waugh]

The stats.foldingathome.org search doesn't find me, no.

But the web UI gives me this link, which (eventually!) works:
https://stats.foldingathome.org/donor/Tim_Waugh

There are also 3rd party stats e.g.:
https://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/user_summary.php?s==929041

Tim.
*/

On Thu, 2 Apr 2020 at 09:20, Hamish McIntyre-Bhatty 
wrote:

> So it seems that while I'm computing for Folding@Home, I'm not on the
> contributors list. I only care because I want to check that its working.
>
> I imagine this might be because the system's overloaded rather than
> because I'm failing jobs or anything, but are any of you on the list
> (https://stats.foldingathome.org/donors)?
>
> Hamish
>
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Re: [Dorset] Donating computing power

[Hamish McIntyre-Bhatty]

So it seems that while I'm computing for Folding@Home, I'm not on the
contributors list. I only care because I want to check that its working.

I imagine this might be because the system's overloaded rather than
because I'm failing jobs or anything, but are any of you on the list
(https://stats.foldingathome.org/donors)?

Hamish



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Re: [Dorset] Donating computing power

[Hamish McIntyre-Bhatty]

On 31/03/2020 13:54, Hamish McIntyre-Bhatty wrote:
> On 30/03/2020 22:01, PeterMerchant via dorset wrote:
>> On 30/03/2020 15:59, Tim Waugh wrote:
>>> On Mon, 30 Mar 2020 at 14:51, Patrick Wigmore  wrote:
>>>
 I thought I'd told it to abort the current tasks before shutting it
 down, but I've since found they sitll show as "In progress" on my
 Rosetta account.
>>> I'm sitting on some work units for Rosetta@home as well, mostly
>>> because I'm
>>> waiting for Folding@home to be idle waiting for work before resuming
>>> them.
>>>
>>> But fear not: with BOINC tasks a single work unit can be assigned to
>>> multiple clients, and the results are cross-checked.
>>> https://boinc.berkeley.edu/trac/wiki/JobReplication
>>>
>>> Tim.
>>> */
>> Mi Computer hasn't done  much work on this for the last couple of days
>> because my daughter, a senior sister at Winchester Intensive Care
>> Unit, put out a call for 3D printed face masks as they are running out
>> of NHS shields, and I and a couple of other guys have been printing
>> away. If anybody else wants to help,  Please print the European
>> version of this:
>>
>>
>> 3D-printed protective visor - 3DVerkstan - Quick to print, easy to
>> assemble 
>>
>> I have done about 10 so far, and they need hundreds because they can
>> only be used for about a week, and her ICU is expanding from 9 to
>> about 120 beds.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Peter
> I know Penri from the model town got stuff 3D printed before. I've asked
> him who did it in case they'll do it for free for you. I'll reply again
> when I have their details.
>
> Hamish
>
Okay, so this is a one-man band, and his website is at
http://cobnut3d.co.uk/ if you want to get in touch.

Penri says he seems to be a decent guy, so he might do it for free or
very cheap for the ICU.

Hamish



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Re: [Dorset] Donating computing power

[Hamish McIntyre-Bhatty]

On 30/03/2020 22:01, PeterMerchant via dorset wrote:
> On 30/03/2020 15:59, Tim Waugh wrote:
>> On Mon, 30 Mar 2020 at 14:51, Patrick Wigmore  wrote:
>>
>>> I thought I'd told it to abort the current tasks before shutting it
>>> down, but I've since found they sitll show as "In progress" on my
>>> Rosetta account.
>>
>> I'm sitting on some work units for Rosetta@home as well, mostly
>> because I'm
>> waiting for Folding@home to be idle waiting for work before resuming
>> them.
>>
>> But fear not: with BOINC tasks a single work unit can be assigned to
>> multiple clients, and the results are cross-checked.
>> https://boinc.berkeley.edu/trac/wiki/JobReplication
>>
>> Tim.
>> */
>
> Mi Computer hasn't done  much work on this for the last couple of days
> because my daughter, a senior sister at Winchester Intensive Care
> Unit, put out a call for 3D printed face masks as they are running out
> of NHS shields, and I and a couple of other guys have been printing
> away. If anybody else wants to help,  Please print the European
> version of this:
>
>
> 3D-printed protective visor - 3DVerkstan - Quick to print, easy to
> assemble 
>
> I have done about 10 so far, and they need hundreds because they can
> only be used for about a week, and her ICU is expanding from 9 to
> about 120 beds.
>
> Thanks,
> Peter

I know Penri from the model town got stuff 3D printed before. I've asked
him who did it in case they'll do it for free for you. I'll reply again
when I have their details.

Hamish



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Re: [Dorset] Donating computing power

[PeterMerchant via dorset]

On 30/03/2020 15:59, Tim Waugh wrote:

On Mon, 30 Mar 2020 at 14:51, Patrick Wigmore  wrote:


I thought I'd told it to abort the current tasks before shutting it
down, but I've since found they sitll show as "In progress" on my
Rosetta account.


I'm sitting on some work units for Rosetta@home as well, mostly because I'm
waiting for Folding@home to be idle waiting for work before resuming them.

But fear not: with BOINC tasks a single work unit can be assigned to
multiple clients, and the results are cross-checked.
https://boinc.berkeley.edu/trac/wiki/JobReplication

Tim.
*/


Mi Computer hasn't done  much work on this for the last couple of days because 
my daughter, a senior sister at Winchester Intensive Care Unit, put out a call 
for 3D printed face masks as they are running out of NHS shields, and I and a 
couple of other guys have been printing away. If anybody else wants to help,  
Please print the European version of this:


3D-printed protective visor - 3DVerkstan - Quick to print, easy to assemble 


I have done about 10 so far, and they need hundreds because they can only be 
used for about a week, and her ICU is expanding from 9 to about 120 beds.

Thanks,
Peter
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Re: [Dorset] Donating computing power

[Tim Waugh]

On Mon, 30 Mar 2020 at 14:51, Patrick Wigmore  wrote:

> I thought I'd told it to abort the current tasks before shutting it
> down, but I've since found they sitll show as "In progress" on my
> Rosetta account.


I'm sitting on some work units for Rosetta@home as well, mostly because I'm
waiting for Folding@home to be idle waiting for work before resuming them.

But fear not: with BOINC tasks a single work unit can be assigned to
multiple clients, and the results are cross-checked.
https://boinc.berkeley.edu/trac/wiki/JobReplication

Tim.
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Re: [Dorset] Donating computing power

[Patrick Wigmore]

On Mon, 30 Mar 2020 09:51:20 +0100, Tim Waugh wrote:
> Nice article here, folding@home the main focus, which mentions
> back-offs when requesting new work

Back-offs were what I was seeing on my machine with the Core 2 Duo 
T7250. It was assigned work to do, but in 24 hours it was never able 
to download any of it, so I gave up because it was hogging space in 
the dining room doing nothing, and it has always had the most annoying 
fan whine under practically all load conditions. (An embarrassing 
laptop to bring into a library quiet study room.)

I thought I'd told it to abort the current tasks before shutting it 
down, but I've since found they sitll show as "In progress" on my 
Rosetta account. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any way to 
release them so they can be assigned to some other machine, except by 
aborting them from the instance of BOINC that was processing them. I 
can't do that because I already re-formatted the USB stick that had 
the root filesystem on it, thinking I was done with it. I guess the 
tasks will get reassigned once they exceed their deadline. I hope none 
of them contains the key to curing COVID-19!

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Re: [Dorset] Donating computing power

[Hamish McIntyre-Bhatty]

On 30/03/2020 10:22, Ralph Corderoy wrote:
> Hi Hamish,
>
>>> https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/cpu_list.php
>> For a really slow CPU, look up the AMD E1-1200 APU in that list :)
>> That's the CPU in my old laptop. It's basically the bottom of the pile!
> I trump that.  My daily PC is a ‘Atom(TM) CPU D525’.
>
Kinda, cos while each core is slower, the fact that you have 4 of them
instead of 2 means overall you have more GFLOPS :)

Does make me wonder why they bothered making it a quad core when each
core is even slower than my E1-1200, and that's really hecking slow.
Apparently it's about the same as a 7-year-older mid-spec Pentium 4!

Hamish



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Re: [Dorset] Donating computing power

[Ralph Corderoy]

Hi Hamish,

> > https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/cpu_list.php
>
> For a really slow CPU, look up the AMD E1-1200 APU in that list :)
> That's the CPU in my old laptop. It's basically the bottom of the pile!

I trump that.  My daily PC is a ‘Atom(TM) CPU D525’.

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Re: [Dorset] Donating computing power

[Hamish McIntyre-Bhatty]

On 30/03/2020 09:51, Tim Waugh wrote:
> On Sat, 28 Mar 2020 at 10:25, Ralph Corderoy  wrote:
>
>>> Unfortunately, that machine seems to be stuck waiting for the
>>> server(s) to let it download anything. I presume they are prioritising
>>> higher-specification machines.
>> Maybe.  One snippet of #dorset says
>>
>> > folding@home ran out of work for me. I resumed boinc telling it to
>> > only work when idle (f@h runs regardless when there's folding to
>> > be done)
>>
>> That's one nice thing about WCG, you can set it to only do the
>> project/s you want, but to give you work for any others if they
>> don't have any.  I'm not sure if BOINC its self can do that.
>>
>> I don't use any of them so have no insight.
>>
> (The 'I resumed boinc' was me)
>
> I've not seen rosetta@home waiting for work units yet so I'm not sure what
> would cause it. Although, I'm only running it when folding@home is idle. I
> only have a single fairly low powered dual-CPU (Turion) machine spare to
> use, which I notice comes very far down this list:
> https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/cpu_list.php
>
> Nice article here, folding@home the main focus, which mentions back-offs
> when requesting new work:
> https://www.extremetech.com/computing/308332-foldinghome-crushes-exascale-barrier-now-faster-than-dozens-of-supercomputers
>
> The Folding@home project definitely seems better at publicity. :-)
>
> Also WCG is World Community Grid, not currently researching COVID-19
> specifically:
> https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/research/viewAllProjects.do
>
> Tim.
> */

For a really slow CPU, look up the AMD E1-1200 APU in that list :)
That's the CPU in my old laptop. It's basically the bottom of the pile!

Hamish



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Re: [Dorset] Donating computing power

[Terry Coles]

On Monday, 30 March 2020 09:51:20 BST Tim Waugh wrote:
> The Folding@home project definitely seems better at publicity. :-)

BOINC has a Twitter feed.  I don't have a Twitter Account, so I only paid a 
quick visit, but I did notice that data computed for COVID-19 was used to 
develop recent treatments that are currently in testing.  That was posted 
about a month ago.

In their news section, they also mentioned that the number of people 
volunteering computing power had leapt in the past few months (I think they 
said doubled) and, at the time of writing, the six best days computing ever 
had all occurred over the past ten days.

-- 



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Re: [Dorset] Donating computing power

[Tim Waugh]

On Sat, 28 Mar 2020 at 10:25, Ralph Corderoy  wrote:

> > Unfortunately, that machine seems to be stuck waiting for the
> > server(s) to let it download anything. I presume they are prioritising
> > higher-specification machines.
>
> Maybe.  One snippet of #dorset says
>
> > folding@home ran out of work for me. I resumed boinc telling it to
> > only work when idle (f@h runs regardless when there's folding to
> > be done)
>
> That's one nice thing about WCG, you can set it to only do the
> project/s you want, but to give you work for any others if they
> don't have any.  I'm not sure if BOINC its self can do that.
>
> I don't use any of them so have no insight.
>

(The 'I resumed boinc' was me)

I've not seen rosetta@home waiting for work units yet so I'm not sure what
would cause it. Although, I'm only running it when folding@home is idle. I
only have a single fairly low powered dual-CPU (Turion) machine spare to
use, which I notice comes very far down this list:
https://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/cpu_list.php

Nice article here, folding@home the main focus, which mentions back-offs
when requesting new work:
https://www.extremetech.com/computing/308332-foldinghome-crushes-exascale-barrier-now-faster-than-dozens-of-supercomputers

The Folding@home project definitely seems better at publicity. :-)

Also WCG is World Community Grid, not currently researching COVID-19
specifically:
https://www.worldcommunitygrid.org/research/viewAllProjects.do

Tim.
*/
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Re: [Dorset] Donating computing power

[Ralph Corderoy]

Hi Patrick,

> Inspired by this thread, I decided to try running Rosetta@home on 
> BOINC.

At least one person on IRC's #dorset is doing that.

> Unfortunately, that machine seems to be stuck waiting for the 
> server(s) to let it download anything. I presume they are prioritising 
> higher-specification machines.

Maybe.  One snippet of #dorset says

> folding@home ran out of work for me. I resumed boinc telling it to
> only work when idle (f@h runs regardless when there's folding to
> be done)

That's one nice thing about WCG, you can set it to only do the
project/s you want, but to give you work for any others if they
don't have any.  I'm not sure if BOINC its self can do that.

I don't use any of them so have no insight.

-- 
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Re: [Dorset] Donating computing power

[Terry Coles]

On Thursday, 26 March 2020 11:30:33 GMT PeterMerchant wrote:
> Virtually the same problem, except that I got through the _all install ok,
> and it is only the Viewer that failed dependencies, so I wonder if I need
> that. The web site is a bit short on help on this. I couldn't see what
> dependencies I was missing, but going by what Terry said, It's probably the
> same as I am also on Kubuntu 18.04

Peter,

I'm actually on 19.10 and it was the dependency python-gnome2 that it couldn't 
find, which is apparently in 18.04.

This meant for me that the *all package failed to install, but the viewer 
worked, presumably because it was able to pull in one of its dependencies from 
the 19.10 repository.

Looking at the install log, the only package that I didn't explicitly install 
on that day was libwxgtk-webview3.0-gtk3-0v5 (3.0.4+dfsg-12).  Maybe that's 
not in 18.04 or maybe it came with the Client package but wasn't compatible 
with something on your system.

Without the viewer you won't be able to see what's going on, but (presumably) 
since you have the control package you will at least be able to select what 
projects to focus on.

-- 



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Re: [Dorset] Donating computing power

[PeterMerchant]

On 25/03/2020 10:53, Terry Coles wrote:

On Monday, 23 March 2020 16:47:37 GMT Tim Waugh wrote:

In case you haven't seen stories about this elsewhere, I thought I'd share
a couple of projects which may help us all out of this mess by harnessing
otherwise-idle CPU/GPU time.

https://foldingathome.org/covid19/
http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/

Well I tried Folding at Home first (mainly because that was what Tim was
using).  However, I ended up with dependency issues and the installation
process wasn't straightforward either.

Initially, I checked my package manager but folding wasn't there, so I
downloaded the three .deb packages on the Folding website.  I then attempted
to install each of the three .deb packages in turn by clicking on them.  This
launched the Qapt installer, which worked for the client, but not for the *all
or viewer package.  When I tried installing in a console it turned out that
apt couldn't find the package that I was trying to install, presumably because
the directory wasn't on the PATH.  Once I fixed this, I found that the
dependency python-gnome2 was missing.  Apparently that hasn't been in
(K)Ubuntu since 18.04 and I'm running 19.10.  Your mileage will undoubtedly
vary as our American cousins say.

I then decided that life was too short and installed  boinc from the package
manager.  This is now running and the current task is expected to take 5
hours.  All four cores (8 threads) are shown as running at 100% in KSysGuard;
that might put my  son off running this.  Apart from that I am running the
Rosetta@Home Biology task and according to the BOINC site they have been
focusing on coronavirus since the 6th March.


Virtually the same problem, except that I got through the _all install ok, and 
it is only the Viewer that failed dependencies, so I wonder if I need that. The 
web site is a bit short on help on this. I couldn't see what dependencies I was 
missing, but going by what Terry said, It's probably the same as I am also on 
Kubuntu 18.04

Peter m


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Re: [Dorset] Donating computing power

[Terry Coles]

> On Wednesday, 25 March 2020 10:58:56 GMT Tim Waugh wrote:
> > Do you have the boinc-manager installed? There is a graphical interface,

Alas, I don't think my Dell Optiplex 790 is ideal for this work.  When I first 
fired off the Rosetta@Home Biological Project in BOINC the CPU usage rose to 
100% immediately, as reported earlier.  At the same time, the fans wound up to 
full speed which is pretty noisy.

Using lm-sensors and a suitable Module in KSysGuard I monitored the CPU 
temperatures and was extremely perturbed to find them just under 90 Deg C!  
According to Overclockers, this CPU (Intel i7-2600) shouldn't be allowed to go 
above 70 Degs, so I turned the max CPU % and Time down until I could get below 
70 Degs) I found that I had to reduce CPU % to 20% and Time to 50% to get 
anywhere near that!  The fans are much quieter though.

Needless to say, the estimated compute time for each task has increased quite 
a bit.

BTW.  This exercise would have been much easier had I realised that the engine 
part of Folding@Home *had* in fact installed correctly and was running in the 
background.  I had no control over it's CPU usage, because the control module 
hadn't installed.  However, every time the BOINC software reduced it's usage, 
the FAH software grabbed it.  In the end I found it by looking at max CPU 
when BOINC was supposedly suspended.

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Re: [Dorset] Donating computing power

[Terry Coles]

On Wednesday, 25 March 2020 10:58:56 GMT Tim Waugh wrote:
> (Oh yeah, this is another advantage of containers, in that the dependencies
> all come with it...)

:-)

> Do you have the boinc-manager installed? There is a graphical interface,
> where you can find Options → Computing preferences with inputs like:

I hadn't found that, but it may be the way to get him onboard.

> Further down there is also:
> 
> Request tasks to checkpoint at most every [ 60 ] seconds
> 
> which answers your question about how much work might be lost when
> switching off.

Thanks.

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Re: [Dorset] Donating computing power

[Tim Waugh]

On Wed, 25 Mar 2020 at 10:53, Terry Coles  wrote:

> dependency issues
>

(Oh yeah, this is another advantage of containers, in that the dependencies
all come with it...)


> I then decided that life was too short and installed  boinc from the
> package
> manager.  This is now running and the current task is expected to take 5
> hours.  All four cores (8 threads) are shown as running at 100% in
> KSysGuard;
> that might put my  son off running this.  Apart from that I am running the
> Rosetta@Home Biology task and according to the BOINC site they have been
> focusing on coronavirus since the 6th March.
>

Do you have the boinc-manager installed? There is a graphical interface,
where you can find Options → Computing preferences with inputs like:

Use at most [ 100 ] % of the CPUs
Use at most [ 100 ] % of CPU time
[x] Suspend when computer is on batter
[ ] Suspend when computer is in use

Further down there is also:

Request tasks to checkpoint at most every [ 60 ] seconds

which answers your question about how much work might be lost when
switching off.

Tim.
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Re: [Dorset] Donating computing power

[Terry Coles]

On Monday, 23 March 2020 16:47:37 GMT Tim Waugh wrote:
> In case you haven't seen stories about this elsewhere, I thought I'd share
> a couple of projects which may help us all out of this mess by harnessing
> otherwise-idle CPU/GPU time.
> 
> https://foldingathome.org/covid19/
> http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/

Well I tried Folding at Home first (mainly because that was what Tim was 
using).  However, I ended up with dependency issues and the installation 
process wasn't straightforward either.

Initially, I checked my package manager but folding wasn't there, so I 
downloaded the three .deb packages on the Folding website.  I then attempted 
to install each of the three .deb packages in turn by clicking on them.  This 
launched the Qapt installer, which worked for the client, but not for the *all 
or viewer package.  When I tried installing in a console it turned out that 
apt couldn't find the package that I was trying to install, presumably because 
the directory wasn't on the PATH.  Once I fixed this, I found that the 
dependency python-gnome2 was missing.  Apparently that hasn't been in 
(K)Ubuntu since 18.04 and I'm running 19.10.  Your mileage will undoubtedly 
vary as our American cousins say.

I then decided that life was too short and installed  boinc from the package 
manager.  This is now running and the current task is expected to take 5 
hours.  All four cores (8 threads) are shown as running at 100% in KSysGuard; 
that might put my  son off running this.  Apart from that I am running the 
Rosetta@Home Biology task and according to the BOINC site they have been 
focusing on coronavirus since the 6th March.

-- 



Terry Coles



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Re: [Dorset] Donating computing power

[Tim Waugh]

On Wed, 25 Mar 2020 at 10:07, PeterMerchant 
wrote:

> I would like to help, but my computer is not very powerful
> -Computer-
> Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) CPU G3420 @ 3.20GHz
>

I don't think that's necessarily a huge drawback. The overall computing
power comes from numbers of CPUs/GPUs as well as individual processing
power. My system is dual core but each CPU is slower than that (2.2GHz).


> The usual questions: which of these two methods uses the least
> power/resources?
>

Not sure which two methods you might mean:
* bare vs container
  - No difference. Containers are not virtualized, they run directly on the
CPU. Probably not work bothering with containers for this unless you're
already used to them (or fancy playing).

* BOINC vs folding@home
  - I think either can use as much idle CPU as you want to give it. For
folding@home there is a slider on the web interface for power:
'light-medium-full', and also defaults to doing work only when the computer
isn't otherwise in use.

Tim.
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Re: [Dorset] Donating computing power

[Tim Waugh]

On Wed, 25 Mar 2020 at 09:56, Terry Coles  wrote:

> > It's all fine, they're built to be pretty resilient to that sort of
> thing.
> > I do see the completion ETA fluctuate wildly after switch-on, but really
> I
> > should stop staring at the stats and get on with work anyway :-)
>
> Thanks.
>

Actually on the subject of stats for folding@home specifically, I found
this site has better information that the one you get from the link in the
web interface:

https://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/user_summary.php?s==929041

Tim.
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Re: [Dorset] Donating computing power

[PeterMerchant]

I would like to help, but my computer is not very powerful
-Computer-
Processor        : Intel(R) Pentium(R) CPU G3420 @ 3.20GHz
Memory        : 8037MB (4978MB used)
Machine Type        : Desktop
Operating System        : Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS
User Name        : peterm (Peter Merchant)
Date/Time        : Wed 25 Mar 2020 10:02:24 GMT

The usual questions: which of these two methods uses the least power/resources?
I have not used Containers , though I did use VMware  a while ago.
What would be the best route to follow, stick it on the machine, or somehow 
learn about containers/the best virtual machine ware to use?

Help.
Peter M.


On 25/03/2020 09:56, Terry Coles wrote:

On Wednesday, 25 March 2020 09:51:33 GMT Tim Waugh wrote:

I only run mine for about 15-16 hours a day.

I guess that's pretty much what we would do.
  

It's all fine, they're built to be pretty resilient to that sort of thing.
I do see the completion ETA fluctuate wildly after switch-on, but really I
should stop staring at the stats and get on with work anyway :-)

Thanks.


BTW.  What are the benefits of running these tools in a container as
opposed to
just installing them?

Just convenience really. I don't like to install anything 'bare' on the
system and much prefer everything to be containerized, so that I know
exactly what's on it and can recreate it if needed. Speaking of which...

For simplicity I think I'll do it bare, especially since I'd have to work out
how to containerise the software on two Windows machines as well as this
desktop.


Anyone who is not an ansible geek like me can stop reading here. :-)

I'm not an ansible geek so I ignored the rest :-)

Thanks for the info.




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Re: [Dorset] Donating computing power

[Tim Waugh]

On Wed, 25 Mar 2020 at 09:56, Terry Coles  wrote:

> For simplicity I think I'll do it bare, especially since I'd have to work
> out
> how to containerise the software on two Windows machines as well as this
> desktop.
>

Yes, I imagine that's how the majority of people install it.

Set it to support research fighting 'Any disease' -- they are prioritising
the SARS-CoV-2 work units.

\o/

Tim.
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Re: [Dorset] Donating computing power

[Terry Coles]

On Wednesday, 25 March 2020 09:51:33 GMT Tim Waugh wrote:
> I only run mine for about 15-16 hours a day.

I guess that's pretty much what we would do.
 
> It's all fine, they're built to be pretty resilient to that sort of thing.
> I do see the completion ETA fluctuate wildly after switch-on, but really I
> should stop staring at the stats and get on with work anyway :-)

Thanks.

> > BTW.  What are the benefits of running these tools in a container as
> > opposed to
> > just installing them?
> 
> Just convenience really. I don't like to install anything 'bare' on the
> system and much prefer everything to be containerized, so that I know
> exactly what's on it and can recreate it if needed. Speaking of which...

For simplicity I think I'll do it bare, especially since I'd have to work out 
how to containerise the software on two Windows machines as well as this 
desktop.

> Anyone who is not an ansible geek like me can stop reading here. :-)

I'm not an ansible geek so I ignored the rest :-)

Thanks for the info.

-- 



Terry Coles



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Re: [Dorset] Donating computing power

[Tim Waugh]

On Wed, 25 Mar 2020 at 08:48, Terry Coles  wrote:

> However, only one of these machines could possibly be run 24/7 and
> unfortunately that's the ancient laptop.


I only run mine for about 15-16 hours a day.


> What  happens to the calculations with these tools if the host is
> shut-down for the
> night?  Is everything lost, only the current calculation lost or do they
> cache
> the partial result and carry on from there?
>

It's all fine, they're built to be pretty resilient to that sort of thing.
I do see the completion ETA fluctuate wildly after switch-on, but really I
should stop staring at the stats and get on with work anyway :-)


> BTW.  What are the benefits of running these tools in a container as
> opposed to
> just installing them?
>

Just convenience really. I don't like to install anything 'bare' on the
system and much prefer everything to be containerized, so that I know
exactly what's on it and can recreate it if needed. Speaking of which...

Anyone who is not an ansible geek like me can stop reading here. :-)

FWIW I used this ansible snippet to make the container itself:

---
- name: folding@home client is running
  docker_container:
recreate: true
image: "{{ folding_image_name }}"
name: fahclient
state: started
published_ports: 7396:7396
volumes:
  - "{{ folding_mnt }}:/tmp:Z"
restart_policy: always
  tags: [foldingathome]

Here, folding_image_name is quay.io/redhat-emea-ssa-team/fahclient-container
and folding_mnt is the mount-point on the logical volume I made for it to
store whatever it needs (not strictly necessary, I just like to know what's
stored where).

Tim.
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Re: [Dorset] Donating computing power

[Hamish McIntyre-Bhatty]

Shutting down isn't a problem - it saves checkpoints and you can set how
often (by default you'll lose no more than 15 mins work). Presumably you
get extra security in a container? I'm just running it as installed by
the deb files.

I have given up with GPU computing, especially since the drivers I need
break my games. Those of you with NVIDIA cards will probably fair better.

Hamish

On 25/03/2020 08:48, Terry Coles wrote:
> On Monday, 23 March 2020 16:47:37 GMT Tim Waugh wrote:
>> In case you haven't seen stories about this elsewhere, I thought I'd share
>> a couple of projects which may help us all out of this mess by harnessing
>> otherwise-idle CPU/GPU time.
>>
>> https://foldingathome.org/covid19/
>> http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/
>>
>> I'm running the folding@home client in a Docker container on the
>> Linux-based microserver I have at home, using this Dockerfile:
>> https://github.com/RedHat-EMEA-SSA-Team/fahclient-container
>>
>> You can 'docker run' it with '-p 7396:7396' to be able to see its (simple)
>> web interface.
> Hi,
>
> I have three PCs here which could run either of these tools; one Linux 
> desktop, one Windows Gaming Machine and one Windows Laptop, now sadly slowly 
> dying from mechanical failures.
>
> However, only one of these machines could possibly be run 24/7 and 
> unfortunately that's the ancient laptop.  The other two are in bedrooms.  
> What 
> happens to the calculations with these tools if the host is shut-down for the 
> night?  Is everything lost, only the current calculation lost or do they 
> cache 
> the partial result and carry on from there?
>
> I control two of the above machines and although the gaming one belongs to my 
> son, I should be able to persuade him to run one or the other of the tools, 
> since AIUI, they don't use CPU cycles when the machine is actually being used.
>
> I did a search of the FAQs on both sites but couldn't find the answer to the 
> shutdown question.
>
> BTW.  What are the benefits of running these tools in a container as opposed 
> to 
> just installing them?
>


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Re: [Dorset] Donating computing power

[Terry Coles]

On Monday, 23 March 2020 16:47:37 GMT Tim Waugh wrote:
> In case you haven't seen stories about this elsewhere, I thought I'd share
> a couple of projects which may help us all out of this mess by harnessing
> otherwise-idle CPU/GPU time.
> 
> https://foldingathome.org/covid19/
> http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/
> 
> I'm running the folding@home client in a Docker container on the
> Linux-based microserver I have at home, using this Dockerfile:
> https://github.com/RedHat-EMEA-SSA-Team/fahclient-container
> 
> You can 'docker run' it with '-p 7396:7396' to be able to see its (simple)
> web interface.

Hi,

I have three PCs here which could run either of these tools; one Linux 
desktop, one Windows Gaming Machine and one Windows Laptop, now sadly slowly 
dying from mechanical failures.

However, only one of these machines could possibly be run 24/7 and 
unfortunately that's the ancient laptop.  The other two are in bedrooms.  What 
happens to the calculations with these tools if the host is shut-down for the 
night?  Is everything lost, only the current calculation lost or do they cache 
the partial result and carry on from there?

I control two of the above machines and although the gaming one belongs to my 
son, I should be able to persuade him to run one or the other of the tools, 
since AIUI, they don't use CPU cycles when the machine is actually being used.

I did a search of the FAQs on both sites but couldn't find the answer to the 
shutdown question.

BTW.  What are the benefits of running these tools in a container as opposed to 
just installing them?

-- 



Terry Coles



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Re: [Dorset] Donating computing power

[Hamish McIntyre-Bhatty]

Thanks. I had another go at getting OpenCL working, but still no dice.
Apparently this is a known problem with AMD GPUs and Linux hosts though,
so probably not much I can do.

I have my old laptop (the Toshiba) computing at the weekends, which uses
an older driver and graphics chipset, so perhaps I'll have more luck
with that.

Hamish

On 24/03/2020 06:22, James Gordon wrote:
> Linux for everyone has a video and in it he explains how to fix GPU
> issues. May fix your problem.
>
> https://youtu.be/SPDvisvymPQ
>
> James.
>
>
> Sent from ProtonMail mobile
>
>
>
>  Original Message 
> On 23 Mar 2020, 22:10, Hamish McIntyre-Bhatty < hamis...@live.co.uk>
> wrote:
>
>
> Hi Tim,
>
> Good idea. I'm already running Folding in the background on my
> desktop,
> but I may be able to run rosetta on my Pi 3 with is on all the time
> anyway. Hopefully it will run on arm.
>
> Has anyone had luck getting GPU computing to work with Folding on AMD
> GPUs? I've had no luck at all so far, but my CPU is pretty powerful so
> I'm not too worried.
>
> If we all do what we can, mostly meaning stay at home except for maybe
> countryside walks and drives where no ones there, this will
> hopefully be
> over soon.
>
> Hamish
>
> On 23/03/2020 16:47, Tim Waugh wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > In case you haven't seen stories about this elsewhere, I thought
> I'd share
> > a couple of projects which may help us all out of this mess by
> harnessing
> > otherwise-idle CPU/GPU time.
> >
> > https://foldingathome.org/covid19/
> > http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/
> >
> > I'm running the folding@home client in a Docker container on the
> > Linux-based microserver I have at home, using this Dockerfile:
> > https://github.com/RedHat-EMEA-SSA-Team/fahclient-container
> >
> > You can 'docker run' it with '-p 7396:7396' to be able to see
> its (simple)
> > web interface.
> >
> > Tim.
> > */
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Re: [Dorset] Donating computing power

[Hamish McIntyre-Bhatty]

Hi Tim,

Good idea. I'm already running Folding in the background on my desktop,
but I may be able to run rosetta on my Pi 3 with is on all the time
anyway. Hopefully it will run on arm.

Has anyone had luck getting GPU computing to work with Folding on AMD
GPUs? I've had no luck at all so far, but my CPU is pretty powerful so
I'm not too worried.

If we all do what we can, mostly meaning stay at home except for maybe
countryside walks and drives where no ones there, this will hopefully be
over soon.

Hamish

On 23/03/2020 16:47, Tim Waugh wrote:
> Hi,
>
> In case you haven't seen stories about this elsewhere, I thought I'd share
> a couple of projects which may help us all out of this mess by harnessing
> otherwise-idle CPU/GPU time.
>
> https://foldingathome.org/covid19/
> http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/
>
> I'm running the folding@home client in a Docker container on the
> Linux-based microserver I have at home, using this Dockerfile:
> https://github.com/RedHat-EMEA-SSA-Team/fahclient-container
>
> You can 'docker run' it with '-p 7396:7396' to be able to see its (simple)
> web interface.
>
> Tim.
> */


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