Folding Forum

As the title says -

This is for a Ubuntu 14.04 LTS rig, so file locations/names, etc. need to be applicable to that OS.

Background:
I just upgraded my GTX 660 ti to a GTX 980 Kingpin (sorry, king - not gonna type your l33t name, it's a pita).
Unfortunately, I wasn't aware of some caveats and just thought I'd "finish" the current WU, swap cards, update the slots, and be off and running. Well...nope
On top of that, the larger new card needed a better ventilated slot than the 660 ti had, so I had to rearrange the other cards (2 GTX 970s) - mistake # 2 ><.

I'll leave out the powering down/rebooting verbiage to save repetition and word clutter. Assume I know to turn off the computer before messing with video hardware.

So: I finished the current 660 ti WU just fine, then rearranged the cards to make room for the 980. But without the 660 ti present, FAHControl wouldn't display any slots whatsoever (but did show the WUs section, with the CPU still active).
Meaning, I had to reinstall the 660 ti in order to delete its slot from FAHClient.
So I reinstalled the 660ti, stopping the slots ASAP to keep a new WU from starting (I don't know the trick to cold boot linux without any startup apps, if there is one).
I did notice there was a new WU present without a slot assigned to it. Maybe the 980 started something from the previous install? I don't know.
I did the card swap, removing the 660 ti, rearranging the cards and installing the 980 in the 1st x16 slot (closest to the CPU), and fired it back up again.
Now, there were 2 new WU's, both at 0%, and no apparent slot linked to them. Huh?
I added a new GPU slot for the 980, but the FAHClient misidentified the new card with a 970, so I manually indexed the GPUs to get FAHClient to identify them properly.
I then folded each slot separately to verify that their identities were correct, which leaves me where I am now:



FAHClient shows 2 WU's ("Ready") with no apparent related slot. I have a feeling this is not a good thing. Note that the image implies that that WU 01 belongs to slot 03, but that is misleading - FAHClient does not UN-highlight the last highlighted slot if a WU with no slot is selected. Slot 03 is actually running WU 0, not 01.


So my questions are:
1) Is there a way to move the languishing WU's to one of my current slots and finish them like they should be, w/o wasting the servers time waiting for them? or
2) do I now I have 2 WU's that will be ignored until they are finally past their deadline, and then removed by the client? or
3) do I now have 2 WU's that will be listed forever because I can't access them to remove them?

I would really like to finish them somehow, but failing that, I would like to remove them from the WU list.

Thanks in advance for your help!

- Pete

Short.
1 Yes.
2 Yes.
3 See #2.

Long.
1 The client may move the unfinished WU to the next slot that finished a WU, and finish the partial from before. But it may not. Best bet is to set each slot to finish, then uninstall the client, removing data. Then reinstall again so FAH can autodetect the new hardware changes. FAH only auto detect changes at install, not after.

In the future, the best bet for upgrades is to finish and pause all slots before making changes. Then make changes, then install again.

Full finish on all? It's not sufficient to:

1) finish the GPU to be removed
2) remove its slot
3) remove the GPU
4) add the new GPU
5) add the new GPU slot

I only ask because when I'm assembling the rig, I've been adding the GPUs in 1 at a time, making sure they're working, then adding the next, etc. until they are all in.

If removing only one, then adding a new one in causes problems, maybe I should be initially installing them all at once instead of one at a time.

By the way, 1 of the WU's was reassigned, the other is being ignored - you were right twice, lol.

Thanks for the info!

- Pete

Full finish on all is the most assured way to have it work well. The method of adding one gpu at a time also works, until the slots start getting moved around.

FaH does not always handle adding/subtracting/moving video cards very well, a fresh install of FaH if you add/remove a card is best if they end up confused in the software, unless you enjoy playing around with the gpu index settings to sort them out. If you add a card then add a slot and it works then feel free to carry on that way just be aware it can go wrong easily.

I like your setup, I wish I had even ONE GTX 970. But, the GTX 980 **TI** is completely DIFFERENT than the 980, with almost as many cores as the newest Nvidia Titan X. Why not get the TI version?