How do I stop FAHClient from adding an unwanted GPU slot?

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fangfufu
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How do I stop FAHClient from adding an unwanted GPU slot?

Post by fangfufu »

I have a Geforce GT 730M. I am on Debian. FAHclient is configured to run as a service. I recently upgraded my FAHClient to 7.6.21. Now FAHClient automatically adds a GPU slot when I reboot. I don't want to use my GPU for folding, as it is a really weak GPU. It barely complete the task within the deadline a few years back, and it creates a lot of heat. I have tried manually removing the slot, but it gets added back every time I reboot. I have manually paused it for now. This was not a problem before I did the upgrade. Is there any ways to revert to the old behaviour?
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gs60
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Re: How do I stop FAHClient from adding an unwanted GPU slot

Post by gs60 »

If you add pause-on-start true to the gpu slot, that should stop fah from running on that gpu. I use it for the cpu, but I assume it would work the same for gpu.
Last edited by gs60 on Tue Dec 08, 2020 1:45 am, edited 2 times in total.
fangfufu
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Re: How do I stop FAHClient from adding an unwanted GPU slot

Post by fangfufu »

gs60 wrote:If you add <pause-on-start v="True"/> to the gpu slot, that should stop fah from running on that gpu. I use it for cpu, but I assume it would work the same for gpu.
As I mentioned, I manually paused it, so it is okay for now. I just don't like seeing that slot. Is there any ways to remove it permanently?
Folding with 4 cores on Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8700K

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gs60
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Re: How do I stop FAHClient from adding an unwanted GPU slot

Post by gs60 »

One thing you could try is remove the gpu slots and add <gpu value="false"/> to the config.xml. This may keep it from being readded.
Last edited by gs60 on Tue Dec 08, 2020 2:23 am, edited 1 time in total.
fangfufu
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Re: How do I stop FAHClient from adding an unwanted GPU slot

Post by fangfufu »

gs60 wrote:One thing you could try is remove the gpu slots and add<gpu value="false"/> to the config.xml. This may keep it from being readded.
That did the trick, thanks!
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bruce
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Re: How do I stop FAHClient from adding an unwanted GPU slot

Post by bruce »

setting GPU=false disables all gpus. if you have several and want to use less that all of them, the pause-on-start=true is the only way I know.

One disadvantate of pause-on-start is that one CPU thread will be allocated for each GPU, whereas with gpu=false, all of your CPU threads will be useable.
MFicek
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Re: How do I stop FAHClient from adding an unwanted GPU slot

Post by MFicek »

Thanks for that post, I have even weaker nvidia geforce gt 630m and wanted to ask the same question, but now I don't need.

May the power be with You all.
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Re: How do I stop FAHClient from adding an unwanted GPU slot

Post by fangfufu »

MFicek wrote:Thanks for that post, I have even weaker nvidia geforce gt 630m and wanted to ask the same question, but now I don't need.

May the power be with You all.
Did you start getting the problem after the upgrade? Or has the problem always been there?
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MFicek
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Re: How do I stop FAHClient from adding an unwanted GPU slot

Post by MFicek »

fangfufu wrote:
MFicek wrote:Thanks for that post, I have even weaker nvidia geforce gt 630m and wanted to ask the same question, but now I don't need.

May the power be with You all.
Did you start getting the problem after the upgrade? Or has the problem always been there?
I installed Folding@home recently and it was already in version 7.6.21 so I cannot tell because it is already latest version.
bruce
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Re: How do I stop FAHClient from adding an unwanted GPU slot

Post by bruce »

When FAHClient initializes, its first task is to identify any GPU which is capable of being used by FAH. Once that list is constructed, it can proceed to make a rational guess of what slots should be constructed so that FAH can use the hardware you're providing. Most (all?) geforce GT xxx GPUs (as opposted to GTX xxx GPUs) are comparatively slow yet can produce useful work if the right projects are assigned to them. The same an be said for the UHD Intel iGPs, so FAHClient is going to prepare itself to use them. (You cn choose not to use them, however.)

If the configuration variable GPU is set to FALSE, it will skip these initialization steps so the GPU will no longer be (re-)detected.
MFicek
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Re: How do I stop FAHClient from adding an unwanted GPU slot

Post by MFicek »

In my case someone recently said on that forum that my GPU is too slow to finish work unit in non-expiring time even working 24/7 so I don't fold with it because it would be waste of energy.
bruce
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Re: How do I stop FAHClient from adding an unwanted GPU slot

Post by bruce »

The words "too slow" are sometimes used in an absolute sense when they really apply in a relative sense. It also depends on whether your computer folds 24x7 or a few hours per day.

The slowest hardware SHOULD be able to finish projects if it runs 24x7. If you do run 24x7 and you find you're being assigned projects that cannot be completed, please describe your hardware and the specific project and we'll get that corrected.

I'd vote in favor of an enhancement method to disable the-allocation of a CPU thread to a slow GPU that's on a system that only runs a few hours a day, but that's a subtlety that may not fixed promptly.
MFicek
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Re: How do I stop FAHClient from adding an unwanted GPU slot

Post by MFicek »

bruce wrote:The words "too slow" are sometimes used in an absolute sense when they really apply in a relative sense. It also depends on whether your computer folds 24x7 or a few hours per day.

The slowest hardware SHOULD be able to finish projects if it runs 24x7. If you do run 24x7 and you find you're being assigned projects that cannot be completed, please describe your hardware and the specific project and we'll get that corrected.

I'd vote in favor of an enhancement method to disable the-allocation of a CPU thread to a slow GPU that's on a system that only runs a few hours a day, but that's a subtlety that may not fixed promptly.
Thanks for interest but I'm not folding 24/7, I fold circa 9-10 hours a day. I will fold with GPU when I will have newer computer in the future. I'm also encouraging my friends with better PC's to install folding at home, but so far I'm unsuccessful in that field.
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Re: How do I stop FAHClient from adding an unwanted GPU slot

Post by M&M_Dutch »

fangfufu wrote:
gs60 wrote:One thing you could try is remove the gpu slots and add<gpu value="false"/> to the config.xml. This may keep it from being readded.
That did the trick, thanks!
As it did for me too,thank you.
impala454
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Re: How do I stop FAHClient from adding an unwanted GPU slot

Post by impala454 »

I arrived here with the same issue. I do not appear to have a `config.xml` (or any xml files for that matter) in my FAHClient directory on windows. Any suggestions?
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