Folding Forum

Hi there,

I have work units assigned, but as I've set FAH to only be folding when the computer is idle, it sits there on "Waiting for idle" for an extensive period of time. In fact, after having been sitting there and listening for my computer GPU fans (which I can definitely hear when it kicks up, as if I set it to full power and always, it's very audible) for nearly an hour, there's nothing.

Could anyone explain to me how the idle detection works, and if there's any way of adjusting the thresholds for it to count as "idle"? I'm coming from having been a long-time user of BOINC, so I'm used to having a fair degree of customisation over when and how the software uses resources - it's a bit of a new experience using something as relatively pared down as FAHControl

Thanks very much!

Curtis

How idle is detected depends on the OS you are running on and the way it considers it being "Idle".

From https://foldingathome.org/faqs/fah-v7/v ... er-slider/

Note: The software uses several different methods to determine if the system is idle. In Windows, if there’s no user input on the mouse or keyboard for a while (the exact timing depends on the system’s configuration) the power management settings can turn off the monitor, or Windows can decide that it’s in “away mode”, whichever comes first, and folding while idle starts. In Mac OS X, the system is idle if there’s no user activity for around five minutes. In Linux, the screensaver and a lack of user input are used to determine idleness.

There is a note on the page about more detail on the V7 Intermediate page, but that page was removed or lost during one of the site migrations.

Some hardware and their settings can interfere with a system reaching the "Idle" state. For example one person posted a few years ago about problems with their system never going to Idle. Later posted that it was a mouse set to high sensitivity and just the vibration from his PC's fans was just enough to keep it being seen as active. Put the mouse on something to damp out the vibration an no more problem.

Thanks very much for the reply. I did try having a look through the FAQ, but to be honest I found it virtually impossible to traverse; the number of dead links and pages that apparently exist but don't appear in any of the navigation menus makes it rather confusing.

My mouse is on the lowest DPI setting, and sits on a separate mousepad on a desk which the computer is not connected to, so I don't think it's that. Most if not all Linux distros today don't come with screensavers in the first instance, so I'm not sure what determination it would use there.

Is it at all possible to adjust the timeout period for lack of user input? I looked through the source code of FAHControl, but it's not in there, so I can only assume that the code controlling the idling is in the closed-source part of FAH.

It's your OS determines when it reports that it's idle, not FAH. Does a screensaver come on?

Screensavers aren't built into Linux, they're provided by separate software. The monitor will sleep, but that's provided by the desktop environment and not by the kernel either. I think the kernel has some ACPI features built into it, I'm not sure how those work on desktops rather than laptops though - what is it you're actually checking to determine idle state?

Bump I know you're all busy at the moment - quite understandably! - but it'd be great to get a look at this when someone has a moment.

Hi, Curtis!

I am a Manjaro Linux user.
I use FAHClient w/ CLI software and FAHControl w/ GUI as AUR packages. I use FAH since March, 15, 2020. And folded only about 50-60 WUs but I make it able on fan-less mini pc, made several experiments and shared that info. Yes, fan-less PCs are weak, but what if it will be connected many of mini PCs? May be it can be helpful, yeah?

My experience in context of your thread, as I it is on my old and fresh installation of OS (both are KDE desktop environment):

Idle state on Manjaro Linux is the timeout then you during which you did not touch keyboard and mice (you can test it by pull out their cords/USB receivers to be sure that you prevent signal receiving from them)
I setup setup idle mode timeout via FAHClient via terminal argument: As common for CLI software you can use offline help for each executable: (user manual)

and It is common, not always, but pretty close to 100% probability.

I believe that FAHControl GUI also be configured without CLI arguments of FAHClient, but I do not search info about it.

How it goes now? Any questions?

Thank you that you tried and if you and other will stay it can be helpful to others and to all of mankind.

Thanks very much for the pointer wezh, I hadn't thought about checking the actual service executable.

I'm running FAH as a daemonized process using systemctl with the foldingathome AUR package, and after setting idle-seconds as a test to 2, it works perfectly if running FAHClient from a desktop terminal inside the DE; however, the systemctl process doesn't idle detect correctly, and instead sits forever. Likewise, if I start the FAHClient process in a virtual terminal, then switch back to the DE, the idle detection doesn't work.

This is why it would be good to know exactly how the idle detection is working - so that I can take a look as to why the service isn't working for idle detection at a deeper level. A workaround for anyone else experiencing this issue for now is simply to run on loading into the DE, but the service *should* work - so I'll see what I can find out about why it's not. I have a sneaking suspicion it's going to end up being connected to the runlevel the service is operating at, but let's see.

For reference, it's also worth noting that (at least on my install from the AUR!) FAHClient doesn't have a manpage - it only has the documentation you access from the --help argument.

Best,

Curtis

Does anybody have any new updates on this issue?
I'm on Manjaro Cinnamon (5.0.4) with Kernel 5.10.49 and am experiencing the same issue with the foldingathome (7.6.21-1) AUR package. I have additionally fahcontrol & fahviewer built from AUR.

@curtispf:
Could you please explain how your workaround should work?
I only dont have FAHClient under /opt/fah, only FAHViewer.

Cheers