HOWTO: Local v8 Web Control

[calxalot]

HOWTO: Local v8 Web Control v8.3

What?

Use a local Web Control served by the client.

Why?

• Want to use Safari to direct connect to local client
• Have problems accessing https://v8-3.foldingathome.org
• Want to use remote or mobile (phone/tablet) browser to direct connect to a client on LAN

Why not?

• Must be manually updated
• Insecure if allowing remote direct connection
• May still access servers at foldingathome.org. This is not an offline solution.

Prerequisites

• Administrator account so you can use sudo
• Comfortable using the command line in Terminal

Download and install pre-built Web Control

https://download.foldingathome.org/rele ... l/release/

Unarchive and rename extracted directory to just "fah-web-control".

Move it into the fah data directory.
On macOS, the data directory is

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/Library/Application Support/FAHClient/

On Linux it is

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/var/lib/fah-client/

The latest alpha may only be in bleeding edge builds.
Note that these builds might be broken and have a wrong version number.
https://master.foldingathome.org/builds/fah-client/

Note: fah-web-control.zip is being built on macOS, but the files are identical for all platforms.


Optional: Allow direct remote control of local client

WARNING: This is a security risk.

See HOWTO: Allow v8 Client Remote Control


Optional: Add hostname as an allowed origin to config.xml (versions 8.3 only)

Replace my-computer wherever it appears in this document with output of command hostname. Use lowercase.

The hostname must end with ".local".

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  <allowed-origins v='https://app.foldingathome.org http://localhost:7396 http://my-computer.local:7396'/>

Restart client

macOS

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sudo /bin/launchctl stop org.foldingathome.fahclient
sudo /bin/launchctl start org.foldingathome.fahclient

Linux

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sudo /usr/bin/systemctl restart fah-client

Windows

Use sys tray fah client icon menu to quit. Then relaunch via Start menu > Folding@home.


Enjoy

To access local Web Control, open

http://localhost:7396/machines

If you use http://localhost:7396 you may get redirected to the online site.

For remote browser connection to a local Web Control (requires optional steps above), open

http://my-computer.local:7396/machines


Edited for v8.3.17 on 2024-06-28
v8.4 Web Control does not support remote browser connection to a local Web Control.

[daiko]

Thanks, calxalot. I appreciate the option to run local on MacOS (Ventura 13.2.1). I’m back to using Safari for folding control.
I downloaded and installed the latest beta from the given link, and it picked up where the previous version left off, no problems.

[calxalot]

I have recently been asked for terminal commands to install the local web control.
You are encouraged to use your desktop GUI instead.

But if you must, this works on ubuntu 22.04 for the release version:

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cd /tmp
wget  https://download.foldingathome.org/releases/public/fah-web-control/macos-12-universal/release/latest.zip
unzip latest.zip
rm latest.zip
mv fah-web-control_* fah-web-control
sudo /usr/bin/rm -f /var/lib/fah-client/fah-web-control/
sudo /usr/bin/mv fah-web-control /var/lib/fah-client/.

Open http://localhost:7396/machines

If it won't load, restart the client and reload the web page.

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sudo /usr/bin/systemctl restart fah-client