WorkUnits on external HDD?

FAH provides a V7 client installer for Debian / Mint / Ubuntu / RedHat / CentOS / Fedora. Installation on other distros may or may not be easy but if you can offer help to others, they would appreciate it.

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sciencelover
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Joined: Fri May 22, 2020 9:55 pm

WorkUnits on external HDD?

Post by sciencelover »

Hello, i successfully installed Folding@home on Arch Linux from the AUR repository and everything is fine, but how can i make it to use an external HDD to store and process WorkUnits since my stystem is installed on a SSD?
jrweiss
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Re: WorkUnits on external HDD?

Post by jrweiss »

FINISH the current work units. Uninstall F@H. Reinstall F@H using the Custom Installation option. Set the Data Folder to your external HDD.

FWIW, unless you have a very small SSD, it is unlikely you will use up all the write cycles of the SSD before you want to upgrade it anyhow...
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sciencelover
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Re: WorkUnits on external HDD?

Post by sciencelover »

jrweiss wrote:FINISH the current work units. Uninstall F@H. Reinstall F@H using the Custom Installation option. Set the Data Folder to your external HDD.

FWIW, unless you have a very small SSD, it is unlikely you will use up all the write cycles of the SSD before you want to upgrade it anyhow...
Thank you very much, i will make a try.
JimboPalmer
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Re: WorkUnits on external HDD?

Post by JimboPalmer »

Warning:
when you uninstall F@H, it deletes the working directory.

So do not set it to D: unless you mean to wipe out all of D:
Set it to something VERY specific so you don't put other data in the same directory.
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sciencelover
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri May 22, 2020 9:55 pm

Re: WorkUnits on external HDD?

Post by sciencelover »

JimboPalmer wrote:Warning:
when you uninstall F@H, it deletes the working directory.

So do not set it to D: unless you mean to wipe out all of D:
Set it to something VERY specific so you don't put other data in the same directory.
Sure, i'll make a dedicated diredtory for it.
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Re: WorkUnits on external HDD?

Post by Joe_H »

JimboPalmer wrote:Warning:
when you uninstall F@H, it deletes the working directory.

So do not set it to D: unless you mean to wipe out all of D:
Set it to something VERY specific so you don't put other data in the same directory.
That was a bug with the Windows Uninstall, this topic is about Linux where I don't think the same issue existed.

On Windows that is one of the fixes listed for the current version, listed as fixed in 7.6.10 as a followup to the fix on creating the data directory as a separate FAHClient folder when a non-default location was chosen in 7.6.4.
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sciencelover
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri May 22, 2020 9:55 pm

Re: WorkUnits on external HDD?

Post by sciencelover »

How do i run a custom installation? The FAQ show only the tutorial for windows.
Should i ran FAHClient with some option to make it read a different working directory? Because in FAHControl i can't find anything about it and running FAHClient --configure is the same.
bruce
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Re: WorkUnits on external HDD?

Post by bruce »

The Windows installer will ask you if you want to put your programs in the standard directory for programs and if you want to put your work files in one of their standard locations for work files (probably a standard back in the days of Win98, but still functional).

Once you make those selections, the shortcuts should be reconfigured to work with your selections but I have not tested that personally with the latest client version(s).

As has already been said or implied, putting the programs in the standard windows directory is recommended since they get mostly read/only access. FAH is not especially disk intensive but putting the working files in a special location is acceptable as long as you won't mind if the uninstaller will remove that location and everything in it when you decide to use it.
sciencelover
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri May 22, 2020 9:55 pm

Re: WorkUnits on external HDD?

Post by sciencelover »

bruce wrote:The Windows installer will ask you if you want to put your programs in the standard directory for programs and if you want to put your work files in one of their standard locations for work files (probably a standard back in the days of Win98, but still functional).

Once you make those selections, the shortcuts should be reconfigured to work with your selections but I have not tested that personally with the latest client version(s).

As has already been said or implied, putting the programs in the standard windows directory is recommended since they get mostly read/only access. FAH is not especially disk intensive but putting the working files in a special location is acceptable as long as you won't mind if the uninstaller will remove that location and everything in it when you decide to use it.

Mmh ok but as i reported on the firs post i'm running Arch Linux ^^
bruce
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Re: WorkUnits on external HDD?

Post by bruce »

Sorry. I didn't scroll back to the top and I should have.

Before COVID, about 90% of the support requests were from Windows. Recently there are really a lot of Linux folks. I need to retrain my brain to verify before answering.

I think there's a command line parameter string telling FAHClient where to look for the work files.
uyaem
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Re: WorkUnits on external HDD?

Post by uyaem »

Not tried it, but I think this is it:

Code: Select all

OPTIONS:
  --chdir <string>
      Change directory before starting server. All files opened after this
      point, such as the configuration file, must have paths relative to the new
      directory.
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sciencelover
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri May 22, 2020 9:55 pm

Re: WorkUnits on external HDD?

Post by sciencelover »

uyaem wrote:Not tried it, but I think this is it:

Code: Select all

OPTIONS:
  --chdir <string>
      Change directory before starting server. All files opened after this
      point, such as the configuration file, must have paths relative to the new
      directory.
I think this did the trick. Now i have only to understand how to manually configure everything :S
bruce
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Location: So. Cal.

Re: WorkUnits on external HDD?

Post by bruce »

sciencelover wrote:Now i have only to understand how to manually configure everything :S
FAH does a pretty good job of automatically configuring everything when it's installed. You shouldn't need to manually configure anything unless you encounter a problem. Proceed cautiously.
bruce
Posts: 20824
Joined: Thu Nov 29, 2007 10:13 pm
Location: So. Cal.

Re: WorkUnits on external HDD?

Post by bruce »

sciencelover wrote:Now i have only to understand how to manually configure everything :S
FAH does a pretty good job of automatically configuring everything when it's installed. You shouldn't need to manually configure anything unless you encounter a problem other than the three lines shown below. Proceed cautiously.

Code: Select all

<!-- User Information -->
<passkey v="(your passkey)"/>
<team v="(your team number, if any)"/>
<user v="(your FAH stats account name)"/>
The user name is not unique. Do get a passkey and use it together with your user name to make your account unique.
sciencelover
Posts: 8
Joined: Fri May 22, 2020 9:55 pm

Re: WorkUnits on external HDD?

Post by sciencelover »

bruce wrote:
sciencelover wrote:Now i have only to understand how to manually configure everything :S
FAH does a pretty good job of automatically configuring everything when it's installed. You shouldn't need to manually configure anything unless you encounter a problem other than the three lines shown below. Proceed cautiously.

Code: Select all

<!-- User Information -->
<passkey v="(your passkey)"/>
<team v="(your team number, if any)"/>
<user v="(your FAH stats account name)"/>
The user name is not unique. Do get a passkey and use it together with your user name to make your account unique.
Yep i did, I also changed the number of core usage and disable gpu if i'm using the computer. Do you know if is it possible to set to work only on covid projects or by default is already doing that?
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