How to setup a headless F@H machine (V8.3.5)

[ETA_2025]

What exactly does one need to do, to setup a headless Folding@Home machine, running the V8.3.5 Beta software?

I've installed V8.3.5 on a Raspberry Pi, but it's not folding (based on CPU frequency).

Prior to installing it, I deleted the folding slot (under V7.6.21), so config.xml doesn't have any folding slots in it.

[calxalot]

Create an account with Web Control
https://beta.foldingathome.org/

Set user/team/passkey/cause as desired.

Copy the account token.

Click save button.

On the headless computer create
/etc/fah-client/config.xml
Add the account token you copied to the xml.

Example config.xml:

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<config>
<account-token v=“your token”/>
</config>

Install the fah-client deb package, if you haven’t already.

Restart client service if you previously installed it.

The headless machine should show up in web control when you are logged in.

[calxalot]

The machine may become disconnected at zero hours UTC until the client or computer is restarted. This is a known bug.

[calxalot]

From web control, you can configure the resources to use and start folding.

[calxalot]

An updated user guide is being worked on.
Install guides will come later.

[calxalot]

Ah. Please see https://github.com/FoldingAtHome/fah-cl ... ssions/214

[ETA_2025]

Thanks, I got it working, but I'm still confused about the config.xml file. Does V8 support all the V7 options, or should the config.xml file basically be blank?

Also, for Raspberry Pi OS, apt install /<directory>/fah-client_8.3.5_arm64.deb worked.

[calxalot]

All v7 options in config.xml are not supported.

V8 mainly reads config.xml to import v7 user, team, passkey, cause.
account-token and machine-name are first-run settings for configuring headless machines and for mass deployment.

Any options exposed in Web Control get stored in client.db, which then overrides those options in config.xml.

A few options are read only from config.xml.
These currently include log options, allow, deny, http-addresses, allowed-origins.

To see most options, use

Code: Select all

fah-client --help

V8 currently never writes to config.xml.

[calxalot]

For a new install of v8, with no previous fah install, config.xml is just

Code: Select all

<config/>