FAH on ubuntu 17.04

[Crazy-Logic]

Has anyone managed to get the client running on Ubuntu 17.04 yet? I've installed it in the same way as on previous versions 14.04 and 16.04, but it doesn't seem to work on 17.04. Any idea's on how to trouble shoot this would be great.

[toTOW]

Does it complain about missing dependencies ?

[PS3EdOlkkola]

I'm working to move some systems from Win x64 to Ubuntu 17.04 and I'm running into issues getting it installed. Admittedly, I'm not a Linux guru, but I'm also sure I'm not unique in that regard. Is there a definitive Ubuntu 17.04 installation procedure, or is an update to the documentation and dependencies (and process for resolving those dependencies) coming soon? Ideally it would cover FAH installs for both CPU and GPU installations.

[bruce]

I think your answer is here

I think you need python 2.x packages but latest releases of Ubuntu only includes python 3.x ... I don't know how to fix it, but there's probably a manual way to do so (maybe a search on the forum will help).

[SteveWillis]

The easy fix for python that worked for me:

Code: Select all

#fah folding at home python fix
   wget http://launchpadlibrarian.net/109052632/python-support_1.0.15_all.deb
   sudo dpkg -i python-support_1.0.15_all.deb

[PS3EdOlkkola]

bruce & SteveWillis, thanks for the assistance. I'll give it a try tonight.

If an FAHClient install was done first without installing the python dependencies, will the existing install work once python is added? I attempted an uninstall of FAHClient, but now run into errors when running a Ubuntu update which indicates a "failure to uninstall FAHClient". I'm assuming it's necessary to have python dependencies installed before the FAHClient is installed. Is it generally easier to simply reinstall Ubuntu to start with a clean system?

I'm using a couple of new hardware builds as test environments to understand exactly what the install procedure needs to be, maintenance intervals, and 3rd party tool sets (i.e. "coolbits") to manage these systems. First build is a Xeon E5-2699-v4 processor (22 cores/44 threads, so likely dedicate 32 on one slot and 8 on another CPU slot, with 4 dedicated to a GPU). Also configuring a system with dual Xeon E5-2695-v4 (18/36 cores/threads x2) and will run Ubuntu on that system too (64 cores/threads on one CPU slot, rest for GPU). Once I'm sure of the maintenance time needed per system, and assuming it's less than Win x64, I'll begin migrating over the other dozen or so system units.

As I work through the process on these two systems, I'll work on documenting the step-by-step process and post the results here.

[bollix47]

AFAIK installing the missing python version was a fix for FAHControl not FAHClient. So don't be surprised if that doesn't help with the problem you're seeing. It probably will help with installing FAHControl.

@PS3 when you tried to install FAHClient what exactly didn't work? Were there no messages?

Although I tend to stick with LTS versions I will try a fresh install of 17.04 on one of my systems asap.

[PS3EdOlkkola]

Thanks bollix47 - to the point of LTS, would you suggest using version 16.04 instead?

[bollix47]

I am using 16.04 on most ... some are still on 14.04 ... and yes I do advise using LTS versions whenever possible.

I will still try 17.04 to see if I have similar problems installing it.

[bollix47]

Okay, I am up and folding on 17.04 but so far I'm seeing tpf's that are around 17% slower than when I was using 16.04. Part of that was caused by nv drivers. I was using 370.28 on 16.04 but they would not install on 17.04 ... lots of search results about problems installing drivers from nvidia when using kernel 4.10. The only way that I can see so far is to use the ppa. There is a 370.28 version in that repo but there's no evidence that it has been patched so I haven't tried it yet but will eventually to try and get my production on this card back up.

I actually had to install 17.04 twice before I got it to behave. The problems trying to install the drivers and a login loop pretty much hosed my first attempt. The second attempt was much more successful.

1. used the desktop installer (amd64)
2. updated
3. added ppa as explained in the above link

Code: Select all

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa
sudo apt-get update

4. went into software & updates > Additional Drivers
5. tried 384.59 but thought it was too slow so after removing as many compiz animations as I could I then switched to 375.82 ... helped a bit but still needs work/testing. (reboot after installing the driver)
6. installed gdebi which I like to use when installing .deb files.

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install gdebi dkms

7. downloaded and installed folding@home software and right clicked on them so I could use gdebi to install them ... also for fahcontrol I installed the earlier version of python as explained in posts above
( at some point during the install of fahclient I copied a version of my config.xml from backup to /etc/fahclient )

Other than being a bit slower than I'm used to it appears to be working fine so far.

[bruce]

So is there a good reason not to install either 14.04 or 16.04 along with the back-version of the drivers? (Unless you happen to have a GPU that wasn't supported on the earlier driver version) ?

[bollix47]

I don't think 14.04 is a problem. It's EOL is 2019 and I'm fairly certain it will never see the 4.10 kernel.

16.04's EOL is 2021 and very likely will see 4.10 so those running it may be forced to upgrade their drivers at some point to a version that works. I have a number of setups using 16.04 and they are up-to-date ... none have seen 4.10 ... I suspect installing from 16.04.3 or later installation media might result in running 4.10 but if it was installed with the original 16.04 media it may not end up with 4.10.

17.04 comes with the 4.10 kernel and unless the drivers are patched they won't work. Patches are available but I doubt they will create a patched version for older drivers like 370.28, although I'd be quite happy to be wrong on that one. The ppa I referred to above has 4 versions that have been patched (assumption on my part). I've tried two of them and they both worked.

I'm hoping that nvidia and/or ubuntu will come up with a more elegant solution.

[QuintLeo]

Almost all of my folding systems were set up on XUbuntu 14.04 with just the normal "client gets slots confused" type issues.
I have not tried it on 16.04 LTS or 17.04 and at this point I'm not inclined to do so as I am pulling OUT of Folding over the continuing issues from Stanfard and their "don't care" attitude about most of those issues.

[v00d00]

This may be a slightly dumb question. But do you actually have any need for a 4.x kernel?

If you dont have hardware that specifically needs it then downgrade to 3.x either by trying an earlier release or compiling it yourself.

As for your clients get slots confused issue, QuintLeo. Their is a simple solution. Don't use one client with multiple slots. Use one client per slot and use taskset to assign each client to its own cpu/core. It requires a little configuration on the backend, but it's by no means hard. I've run FAH this way for years and never had any slots confused issues, because each client only handles one slot. It's also useful when the client crashes, since it only takes out one gpu/smp instance, as opposed to dropping everything. If you want a rundown on how to do it, shoot me a PM.

[SteveWillis]

Just a suggestion: Linux Mint. The only issues I've ever had were the Python dependency and I had to manually download the current GPUs.txt file. Since I don't even know what you mean by the client going down I assume it has never happened to me. Mint is very user friendly.