Apex Community Forums - View Single Post - Folding behind the scenes in Windows XP and Vista

drougnor · 18-July-07, 11:53 AM

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10/10/07 Note from the author: There's an addition at the bottom. Give it a check!

In two previous posts, I’ve detailed how to perform a simple setup of and all of the options available to the Console Only version of the Folding @ Home software. This is an extension of both in a way. In this one, I specifically walk you through how to set up the Console Only version as a service in both XP and Vista, as well as teaching you about the FahMon utility that I use to monitor all of my folding cores.

In some tests over the last couple of days and some searching of the official Folding @ Home forums, I’ve discovered that anyone who’s wanting to fold on Windows Vista may have some issues with the current versions of the software (the 5.03 Standard Graphical version won’t run through the setup process on most installations of Vista, and you need to adjust some settings to get the 5.04 Console Only version to run fully). Sn0wMan asked some questions which got me really digging, and the end result is this post.

The first thing you need to do is to go to the Official Stanford F@H site and download the latest current version of the Console Only program (As of the writing of this post, it is version 5.04 (edit::now it's version 6 beta 1 - Am reinstalling vista to see if it makes a difference in how the setup works)).
You need to decide where you want the program to live. On one machine (My dual core computer) I have a folder called ‘FAH’ in the root of the D: drive. My other folding desktop has a folder on the C: drive. You can put them anywhere, but I do suggest leaving them someplace simple to get to in the command line. This is also when you decide if you are sharing the folder over your network so you can track the work progress on another machine.
Once you have created the folder, copy the .exe file into that folder.
- For Vista, you need to now right-click on the .exe and go to properties. In the Compatibility tab, make sure you put a check mark in the ‘Run this program as an administrator’ option under ‘Privilege Level’. You will also have to click OK a couple of times when Windows asks for permission to run the .exe in later steps.
Go to your start menu, to the run option and type in ‘cmd’ and hit enter.
Navigate in the dos window to the directory where you copied the .exe
Once here, type the name of the .exe followed by ‘-configonly’ (fah504-console –configonly)
- In Vista, you will notice that at this point a second command window opens. This is because Windows is actually opening a second copy of the program SPECIFICALLY under full administrative privileges now. There’s nothing to worry about.
Enter your information as I have detailed in the first post above, and make sure that when you get to the third question (Launch automatically at machine startup, installing this as a service (yes/no) [no]?) that you type ‘yes’ without the quotes. You will get a message that says ‘the next time the computer is starts up(yes, that’s how they typed it) you should see work automatically continue there. Note that when this service is running, you should not try to manually run F@H from the directory at the same time.’
Adjust the rest of the settings to fit your needs, making sure to go into the advanced settings.
When you reach the end of the choices, it should kick back out to a plain command prompt.
Close the command window.
To start the service without rebooting your computer, please do the following:
- Go back to your run menu (Start button, Run) and type in ‘Services.msc’ without the quotes. This works for both XP and Vista.
- When the services window opens up, find the FAH@whatever service. With it highlighted, just click where it says “Start the service”. That’s it. Your computer is now folding in the background.
If you haven’t downloaded FahMon yet, now is the time to go grab a copy. It is a zipped folder, so just unzip it into its own folder and keep the FahMon folder intact.
On your first run of FahMon, you will be presented with a window asking for you to download the current projects. This is so the program can show you the correct points each project you are working on is worth.
When you click ok on that screen, the main window shows up. There is a large white area in the middle where your folding cores will be displayed once you set them up. To do so, right-click that spot and choose ‘Add a new client’. From there a window pops up where you navigate to the folder that you are working from. Once you have that chosen properly, hit Ok and it should show you the percentage done on that current work unit, the name you chose for that core, and approx. how long it’s going to take to finish.
Repeat that for however many cores you are tracking.

::Edit::
As an extra note of interest, if you dual boot between XP and Vista, you can set up the same folding core as a service in both. Just make sure that you only change the 'Start as a service' option when running the .exe with the -configonly flag. As long as your system is stable in both versions of Windows, you can switch back and forth and your folding happens uninterrupted. How's that for cool?
::End Edit::

::Extra Edit 10/10/07::
Well, after some time poking and prodding, I've added Mac OSX(or OSx86, if you prefer) to my multi boot and fold laptop.

I'm still working out automating the startup of a folding console at boot in OSx86 (it depends on if my NTFS drive is able to mount properly (aka, I haven't locked it by only hibernating Windows) and if it's mounted, getting Automator to pass the right commands.). And since you have multiple options to get it running (I'm using Darwine, but there are other emu's too) I'm not going to get into a specified how to just yet. This means that you can access the same unit under Wine in Linux, BSD or Unix too!

Just thought you'd like to know that it IS possible to have the same WU worked on by all four of the major OS's now.
::End update edit::

::additional 10/10/07 edit::
Alright, so for the systems that have Wine implementations, here's the base skeletal walkthru to get the same WU to fold using the basic windows console.

First, here are some assumptions that I have made:

You either have your Windows partition on a FAT32 partition that all the major OS's can read and mount, and have mounted that partition OR you have Windows on an NTFS partition and know how to mount that partition as a read/write partition, and have done so.
You already have Wine downloaded and installed.
You are running the 5.04 version of the Folding @ Home Console

The key to get F@H to work as if it were still running under your copy of windows is the 'nice' command.

In a terminal, you navigate to where your folding@home console.exe program is stored (for me, it is /Volumes/WinXP/folding) and would execute the following command 'nice -n 20 /path/to/wine/executable/wine /path/to/folding/executable/fah504-console.exe' (without the quotes, of course)

And voila, you are folding on the same WU you were in windows. Automating that process at boot should be a scripting cinch. Enjoy!
::End update edit::

This is a fairly simple process that I’m certain ANYONE can use to get folding.

Thanks for your time and attention. Now, get folding!!

d

Note from admin: If you found this guide useful, please give it a Digg.

18-July-07, 11:53 AM		#1 (permalink)
drougnor PCApex Review Editor	Folding behind the scenes in Windows XP and Vista - the quick and dirty way. Note from admin: If you found this guide useful, please give it a Digg. 10/10/07 Note from the author: There's an addition at the bottom. Give it a check! In two previous posts, I’ve detailed how to perform a simple setup of and all of the options available to the Console Only version of the Folding @ Home software. This is an extension of both in a way. In this one, I specifically walk you through how to set up the Console Only version as a service in both XP and Vista, as well as teaching you about the FahMon utility that I use to monitor all of my folding cores. In some tests over the last couple of days and some searching of the official Folding @ Home forums, I’ve discovered that anyone who’s wanting to fold on Windows Vista may have some issues with the current versions of the software (the 5.03 Standard Graphical version won’t run through the setup process on most installations of Vista, and you need to adjust some settings to get the 5.04 Console Only version to run fully). Sn0wMan asked some questions which got me really digging, and the end result is this post. The first thing you need to do is to go to the Official Stanford F@H site and download the latest current version of the Console Only program (As of the writing of this post, it is version 5.04 (edit::now it's version 6 beta 1 - Am reinstalling vista to see if it makes a difference in how the setup works)). You need to decide where you want the program to live. On one machine (My dual core computer) I have a folder called ‘FAH’ in the root of the D: drive. My other folding desktop has a folder on the C: drive. You can put them anywhere, but I do suggest leaving them someplace simple to get to in the command line. This is also when you decide if you are sharing the folder over your network so you can track the work progress on another machine. Once you have created the folder, copy the .exe file into that folder. For Vista, you need to now right-click on the .exe and go to properties. In the Compatibility tab, make sure you put a check mark in the ‘Run this program as an administrator’ option under ‘Privilege Level’. You will also have to click OK a couple of times when Windows asks for permission to run the .exe in later steps. Go to your start menu, to the run option and type in ‘cmd’ and hit enter. Navigate in the dos window to the directory where you copied the .exe Once here, type the name of the .exe followed by ‘-configonly’ (fah504-console –configonly) In Vista, you will notice that at this point a second command window opens. This is because Windows is actually opening a second copy of the program SPECIFICALLY under full administrative privileges now. There’s nothing to worry about. Enter your information as I have detailed in the first post above, and make sure that when you get to the third question (Launch automatically at machine startup, installing this as a service (yes/no) [no]?) that you type ‘yes’ without the quotes. You will get a message that says ‘the next time the computer is starts up(yes, that’s how they typed it) you should see work automatically continue there. Note that when this service is running, you should not try to manually run F@H from the directory at the same time.’ Adjust the rest of the settings to fit your needs, making sure to go into the advanced settings. When you reach the end of the choices, it should kick back out to a plain command prompt. Close the command window. To start the service without rebooting your computer, please do the following: Go back to your run menu (Start button, Run) and type in ‘Services.msc’ without the quotes. This works for both XP and Vista. When the services window opens up, find the FAH@whatever service. With it highlighted, just click where it says “Start the service”. That’s it. Your computer is now folding in the background. If you haven’t downloaded FahMon yet, now is the time to go grab a copy. It is a zipped folder, so just unzip it into its own folder and keep the FahMon folder intact. On your first run of FahMon, you will be presented with a window asking for you to download the current projects. This is so the program can show you the correct points each project you are working on is worth. When you click ok on that screen, the main window shows up. There is a large white area in the middle where your folding cores will be displayed once you set them up. To do so, right-click that spot and choose ‘Add a new client’. From there a window pops up where you navigate to the folder that you are working from. Once you have that chosen properly, hit Ok and it should show you the percentage done on that current work unit, the name you chose for that core, and approx. how long it’s going to take to finish. Repeat that for however many cores you are tracking. ::Edit:: As an extra note of interest, if you dual boot between XP and Vista, you can set up the same folding core as a service in both. Just make sure that you only change the 'Start as a service' option when running the .exe with the -configonly flag. As long as your system is stable in both versions of Windows, you can switch back and forth and your folding happens uninterrupted. How's that for cool? ::End Edit:: ::Extra Edit 10/10/07:: Well, after some time poking and prodding, I've added Mac OSX(or OSx86, if you prefer) to my multi boot and fold laptop. I'm still working out automating the startup of a folding console at boot in OSx86 (it depends on if my NTFS drive is able to mount properly (aka, I haven't locked it by only hibernating Windows) and if it's mounted, getting Automator to pass the right commands.). And since you have multiple options to get it running (I'm using Darwine, but there are other emu's too) I'm not going to get into a specified how to just yet. This means that you can access the same unit under Wine in Linux, BSD or Unix too! Just thought you'd like to know that it IS possible to have the same WU worked on by all four of the major OS's now. ::End update edit:: ::additional 10/10/07 edit:: Alright, so for the systems that have Wine implementations, here's the base skeletal walkthru to get the same WU to fold using the basic windows console. First, here are some assumptions that I have made: You either have your Windows partition on a FAT32 partition that all the major OS's can read and mount, and have mounted that partition OR you have Windows on an NTFS partition and know how to mount that partition as a read/write partition, and have done so. You already have Wine downloaded and installed. You are running the 5.04 version of the Folding @ Home Console The key to get F@H to work as if it were still running under your copy of windows is the 'nice' command. In a terminal, you navigate to where your folding@home console.exe program is stored (for me, it is /Volumes/WinXP/folding) and would execute the following command 'nice -n 20 /path/to/wine/executable/wine /path/to/folding/executable/fah504-console.exe' (without the quotes, of course) And voila, you are folding on the same WU you were in windows. Automating that process at boot should be a scripting cinch. Enjoy! ::End update edit:: This is a fairly simple process that I’m certain ANYONE can use to get folding. Thanks for your time and attention. Now, get folding!! d Note from admin: If you found this guide useful, please give it a Digg. Last edited by drougnor; 26-December-07 at 01:09 PM..