NotFred now available for -bigadv

T

Tobit

[H]ard|DCer of the Month - March 2010/May 2011
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Dec 12, 2005
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Who wants to be a guinea pig? :rolleyes:

Hello, fellow folders!

For those of you who are used to working with NotFred, I came up with a series of changes that allows NotFred to run -bigadv work units. I'm putting this up as an alternative to the virtual appliances mentioned here. Like a regular NotFred, this is very lightweight - it can be run from a USB drive, a CD, or even a TFTP network boot - but unlike regular NotFred, this can run -bigadv units. Here are the changes I made from regular NotFred:

* Updated the client install to 6.24beta.
* Added in the drop-in client binary necessary to run -bigadv units.
* Added additional configuration options to the web interface:
o Additional parameters (to pass to the client)
o Hostname (the name of the VM on the network)
* Using the remote reboot script now backs up the WU data files before shutting down.


I'm looking for a few people willing to help me test this VM. You can find the *.vmx and *.vmdk files here:
http://www.blueshiftlabs.net/remote/downloads/folding/latest.zip

Give it a shot - try to break it. If you manage to get it to break, post about it here.

A few things to keep in mind:

* If you have any spaces in the "additional parameters" box (for example, if you pass -bigadv -verbosity 9), you will need to surround it with "quotes".
* To run bigadv work units, put -bigadv in the additional parameters box. Also, make sure that the checkbox for advmethods units is turned OFF.
* The VM is configured to use 5GB of memory. If you have more memory to dedicate to folding, feel free to increase this number; likewise, if you don't plan on running -bigadv work units (for whatever reason), you can turn that value back down.
* You will need VMWare Player 3 to run this. DO NOT use VMWare Workstation - it chokes on anything above 4 processors. I haven't tried it in Server, but I imagine the results may be similar.
* As always when running -bigadv, keep an eye on your temperatures.


I'll keep this thread updated as I make updates to the VM. Let me know about any issues you encounter - be as specific as you can.

Thanks for taking part in my beta! Happy folding!
Click to expand...
 
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If my true comes in I'll try this out. Can I still make a bootable cd of this version? I'll have to see if true came in
Posted via [H] Mobile Device

Woo it came in, ill try this out first thing tomorrow morning
 
Am having some issues with the other client so I'll give yours a try now.
 
It seems that the VM is set with 1GB RAM, which is easily fixed, but it also only has two CPUs and I'm not sure how to force 8 CPUs in Player 3.
 
Choder said:
It seems that the VM is set with 1GB RAM, which is easily fixed, but it also only has two CPUs and I'm not sure how to force 8 CPUs in Player 3.
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I think you can edit the .vmx file in notepad...

Change numvcpus and maxvcpus respectively.

I don't have it downloaded so can't be sure if that's the fix.
 
You'll need to edit the VMX file and change the number of processors to 8. To do this, go to the folder with the VM and find a file with the .vmx extension. Right click on it, go down to edit and open with wordpad.. Locate the line with numvcpus in it and change the value to 8 and save the file. This is what the code looks like in mine. I also changed the memsize there as well.

Code: 
# Number of virtual CPUs. Your virtual machine will not
# work if this number is higher than the number of your physical CPUs
numvcpus = "8"

# Memory size and other memory settings
memsize = "5600"
MemAllowAutoScaleDown = "FALSE"
MemTrimRate = "-1"

Oh look when I posted this there were some answers already...
 
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rmdashrrootsplat said:
I think you can edit the .vmx file in notepad...

Change numvcpus and maxvcpus respectively.

I don't have it downloaded so can't be sure if that's the fix.
Click to expand...

Dont use notepad cause it can mess up the formatting and vmware will not read it properly.
Use WordPad instead.
 
nitrobass24 said:
Dont use notepad cause it can mess up the formatting and vmware will not read it properly.
Use WordPad instead.
Click to expand...


yeahthat.gif
 
I've switched my couple VM's to the EVGA one and I'm happy with it; don't even have to bother editing a .vmx.
 
I'm looking forward to running this off a CD-ROM headless on a 16 thread box. Wonder what size thumb drive I'll need for backups :p
 
OK, It wont let me put more than 3600mb for RAM. This is going to be an issue for -bigadv.
 
I going to try this as well. The single EVGA VM running -bigadv is giving me problems with random client crashes. I lost several WUs because of it. The regular SMP EVGA VMs are running OK but slower than my regular distro for some odd reason. So, this can't be any worse (hopefully).
 
APOLLO said:
I going to try this as well. The single EVGA VM running -bigadv is giving me problems with random client crashes. I lost several WUs because of it. The regular SMP EVGA VMs are running OK but slower than my regular distro for some odd reason. So, this can't be any worse (hopefully).
Click to expand...

I guess I've been lucky so far as to not have any EVGA VM bigadv WUs crash on me.

Probably jinxed myself, didn't I?
 
tjmagneto said:
I guess I've been lucky so far as to not have any EVGA VM bigadv WUs crash on me.

Probably jinxed myself, didn't I?
Click to expand...
No, it might be my system. I'll be honest that I'm not sure because the standard SMP clients in the other EVGA VMs aren't crashing. However, they are performing less than than they should be. If I install regular Ubuntu in a VM, I will get better performance. Can't figure out the reason why except that the EVGA VM may have processes running that could be affecting performance? :confused:
 
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A little while after I posted my reply some HP printer application decided to update itself and then shutdown the system w/o asking me first. :eek:

Lucky for me VMWare player suspended itself during the shutdown process and everything looks good. since I resumed the VM :)

Anyway back to NotFred I'd be interested to see how it works versus the EVGA VM.
 
some HP printer application decided to update itself
Click to expand...

How often do those things have to get updated anyway? My network printer setup seems to require updating more often than windows. It's a printer for goodness sakes.
 
Kendrak said:
OK, It wont let me put more than 3600mb for RAM. This is going to be an issue for -bigadv.
Click to expand...

Having the same issue. However, I found a workaround by creating a new VM with the resources I want and then adding Tobit's/FredNotFred's vmdk virtual disk to it.

I 'm still not sure how to edit the machine for my username, team and passkey.
 
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flogge said:
How often do those things have to get updated anyway? My network printer setup seems to require updating more often than windows. It's a printer for goodness sakes.
Click to expand...

With my HP all-in-one there's some application called HP Updater which looks for updates for the various applications to scan and whatever. From now on I'm doing that job myself so I'm removing that program and telling it to reboot this!
 
Choder said:
Tobit's/FredNotFred's vmdk virtual disk to it.
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LOL - I have nothing to do with this image. I merely cross-posted the announcement for those who hadn't seen it. :D

I am working on something VM related but it is progressing much slower than I'd like. :rolleyes:
 
Without the bump in RAM this image is worthless for anything over 6 threads running bigadv.

That is unless SMP2 uses less RAM on -bigadv. However would it not require a new release when SMP2 shows up?
 
I downloaded he latest notFred last night and haven't had any time to play with it. At first glance I saw that the file size is way smaller than the EVGA VM.

If I have time this evening I'll see if I can configure it and light it up as long as I can get it to recognize a decent amount of RAM. By the time I get that all sorted out and ready to go my latest bigadv WU should be done.
 
I don't think my backup script will be needed on a notfred release, it should be doing it for you. I havn't tried this but if anyone wants to see if their notfred resumes, it would be a big help.
 
Tobit said:
LOL - I have nothing to do with this image. I merely cross-posted the announcement for those who hadn't seen it. :D

I am working on something VM related but it is progressing much slower than I'd like. :rolleyes:
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HA I should try actually reading AND comprehending some time.. lol

Kendrak said:
Without the bump in RAM this image is worthless for anything over 6 threads running bigadv.

That is unless SMP2 uses less RAM on -bigadv. However would it not require a new release when SMP2 shows up?
Click to expand...

Or just take the virtual disk and put it in a VM with 8 CPUs and 5GB RAM.. :) Now if only we could change the username/team/passkey. :(
 
Kendrak said:
Without the bump in RAM this image is worthless for anything over 6 threads running bigadv.
Click to expand...
I don't understand why you are having an issue. In the release notes, he says it is configured out of the box for 5GB but you are saying you can only configure it for 3.6GB? I'm confused here. :confused:
 
Tobit said:
I don't understand why you are having an issue. In the release notes, he says it is configured out of the box for 5GB but you are saying you can only configure it for 3.6GB? I'm confused here. :confused:
Click to expand...

Have you loaded it?

Thing only sees 3.6 for me.
 
I can't get past 3.6 either. I'm going to post our dilemma on the folding forum and see what notfred sez.
 
Fred has replied:

As far as the RAM issue goes, that would be my mistake. Oops! I shipped the wrong version of the .vmx file, which used older virtual hardware that couldn't handle any more than 3600 MB. The newest release fixes this - you should be able to just replace the .vmx file. The default .vmx allocates 5GB to the VM - more than enough to run -bigadv units. If you are not running -bigadv, or have more memory, feel free to change this.
Click to expand...

The download link I posted above in my OP is a link to the latest version.
 
Just a few minutes ago, Fred uploaded a new version of the image.. same link as before.
 
Does this have the new update stanford just put out in the client?
 
Tobit said:
Just a few minutes ago, Fred uploaded a new version of the image.. same link as before.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the heads up. I'll be giving this a trial run as soon as my WU is completed. :cool:
 
Anyone get this to work? It all looks good and the VM starts up, but never really starts. CPU usage is 0 , and the log stops with it still downloading at

[20:08:46] + 1771520 bytes downloaded
[20:08:46] + 1781760 bytes downloaded
[20:08:46] + 1792000 bytes downloaded


I've rebooted it, dumped the VM twice (and re-downloaded it).
 
I was never able to get the -bigadv argument to stick

I'm running the EVGA one.... going to do a native linux install soon.
 
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