XP vs Linux

EvilAlchemist

2[H]4U
Joined
Jan 11, 2008
Messages
2,730
Evil needs a little team help

In the begining, Evil ran all his boxen diskless ...and it ran very well...for the most part ...

I decided to install hard drives in my systems, so i could get rid of the flash drives ..
(Flash is great but they fill up fast, which ment if i rebooted my boxen after 10 days of running i lost a WU)

Was also harder to overclock - no way to monitor temps and such ..

I have XP on most of my boxen .... which has been running very well ..
Running two SMP clients native with affanity changer

I know that Linux client is faster .. but I have 0 knowledge of how to use it - never have ..

Can any reccomend a good linux distro to use for folding boxen.....

I only have to requiremnts .. since they are headless .. have to learn / install so sort of remote resktop .. (I use RADMIN for my XP boxen now - awesome program) .. read that VNC might work .... not sure ...

Also, I know with XP 64 my PCI video Cards (ATI Rage 8MB) does not work .. not sure if Linux 64 will have same problem?

Stick with XP ... or go Linux ... or what ...

Thoughts .... Help ... Please
 
My knowledge of linux = yours

What size flash drives where you using that where filling up?

Just wondering.... I have a bunch that run on flash and I don't want to lose WU :eek:

 
I'd be interested in this information as well. All of my clients are on XP / Vista machines. I tinker with Linux just enough to claim basic knowledge (Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS, SUSE) and I use all graphical interfaces.

Time for all you Linux Guru's out there to weigh in on the benefits, advantages, and tutorials on how to properly set up under Linux. I'd really like to know more aboutn VM under Linux too once you guys help Evil out with a few of his questions.


 
The major distros today are quite user friendly. If you don't have any specific needs/wants on your install, its really just clicking next over and over.

As far as a recommendation, at this point its really just a matter of personal preference. One is not really any better/easier than another. From what I see, most use Ubuntu, but theres also a lot of happy folders on CentOS, OpenSuSE, Fedora, Gentoo, and others.

VNC is the way to go in a mixed environment. I use it on all my boxes, windows and linux, works both ways.

Hardware support is very good with a modern distro, especially with older hardware like that. A piece of hardware losing support is rare.

What I would suggest is download a live cd or two. It runs off the CD (as the folding cd does) and lets you work in linux without having to install it. Try it out, see what you think. If its not for you, stick with XP. If you do go with linux, theres plenty of us around that use it and can help.

 
Prior to our putting affinity changer into place there was an absolute difference between Linux and Windows anything.

I currently have and XP- Pro box set up with dual VM with Linux, Linux by itself and of course XP by it self.

What I have found is pretty simple, with AC, once it has kicked in the folding time difference between all three is a few seconds in favor of Linux, but not the roughly 15% we once had.

So, do to ease of use, ability to monitor temps etc BillR stuck with all Windows. Bill can live with a few seconds slower as opposed to 2 or 4 minutes slower without AC.

Bill found this to hold true on both 32 and 64 bit Windows.

On the other hand, if you lack enough legal copies of Windows then Linux is hard to beat but allow Bill to point out that you need to know nothing about Linux to use it. You need to know less to install the clients.

How is that you ask? Glad you did. If you go to the download site you will see, right next to the down load icon and icon for, and hang on now, HELP.

From within this HELP file Bill has found that if you scroll down to the Linux install section Stanford has cleverly pointed out that you can actually cut and paste each and every command you need from the help file right into a Linux Terminal window. The Linux Terminal window is clearly labeled, you got it, Terminal. Think of it as a dos box.

The only thing you will need to type is your name and team and config options.

Bill likes Open Suse because it assumes you are a noob and automatically asks you questions and offers the right option if you don’t have the answers.

Bill’s personal preference for a Suse install is the KDE option for a GUI which is an awful lot like Windows. It also preinstall’s the latest version of Firefox which is where you will go to the download section on Stanford and cut and paste those instruction commands I mentioned above.

Hope that helps ;):p


 
256MB .... The current SMP client does not delete it work files ...

The current, the past, probably the future. Linux or Windows, it doesn’t matter sooner or later they almost always leave junk behind.

Tis the way of the SMP;)


 
Bill, do you always talk in third person? ;) Reminds me of Blac*inches in Genmay last year....

I do run a couple PCLinuxOS clients (32 bit) on a couple of 2Ghz P4's, and its' very simple to run once you've downloaded the client. I've never bothered clocking the PPD since it only runs the console, though. It runs flawlessly though, knocking down WU's and grabbing another one without fail. :)


 
I had a good friend tell me that you should never trust anyone that refers to themselves in the 3rd person.........


That looks like some good stuff.

I'm looking to combine the info from here with the thread that is talking about untangle ;)

 
I like the SuSE Linux also. I have to run windows on my 32 bit cpus though. Linux is super stable. Kinda wish I knew the uptime on my box at home. Leme call and check.

edit: NM. Linux+GF=FAIL!
 
Seems like a step back to me. Is it still supported?

ON the install page for SMP ... XP and Windows 2000 are listed together ...

Gonna see if I can use XPlite to streamline install
Also gonna d/l a few distros and see how i like it
 
Meant more towards Microsoft support. I just like getting security updates. Makes me feel warm and fuzzy someone is looking out for me.
 
I'm not even close to bein' a Linux guru :rolleyes: , but I have to agree with BillR with the use of the Affinity Changer program the time difference for frame completion has narrowed significantly :) . Like BillR said, if your short of XP legal copies, Linux is free. I just "dual" booted every machine I had a Linux OS on. ;)

I tried the XP 64 bit program also, just briefly though.(I went back to 32 bit XP) :( I can honestly say in my brief experiences with the latest kernel of Linux I have never had any problems with a videocard or any peripheral.

As far as any experience with Linux, if your just folding the setup disk(s) and operation is very simple, you just follow the clear instructions on the Stanford folding page. The only thing I can think of that's different than windoze is you have to go to the command line to activate folding (at least I do)

While I think Linux (any flavor) is teriffic, IMO it's just not ready to take the windoze claim as being a superior desktop operating system. :D

 
Fore a beginer into the linux realm I would suggest ubuntu it is pretty straight forward..... if you hare looking for a little more advanced distro look into Fedora. If those do not wet your appetite then go for gentoo :D if you have questions we have answers.......... lets us know
 
I think that Xubuntu is a bit lighter in resources than Ubuntu so give it a try. I'm also a linux noob but as others said, you can copy and paste command lines in the Terminal window to configure everything. I configure my clients by just running ./finstall smp then use the Ubuntu Samba setup guide, which is very straigthforward for monitoring.

Some boxes is Vista or XP for certain reasons (Like the 610i box who doesn't like Ubuntu for a unknown reason, will retry later now that i have swapped for a 650i).

 
Ah, the classic Windoze vs Linux folding thread...

As most people know, SmokeRngs' personal preference for folding rigs and everyday use rigs is Linux. The openSUSE flavor to be specific. Over the last year, SmokeRngs has messed around a bit with different versions of Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Fedora, PCLinuxOS and openSUSE. For a daily use machine, SmokeRngs will only use openSUSE 10.3 at this point in time due to ease of use and the mostly amazing Yast2 which is used similar to "Control Panel" in Windoze. SmokeRngs will say openSUSE is a bit bloated on the install and a little resource heavy but runs rather well on systems ranging from a P3 800 up to a [email protected].

Ubuntu and it's "offshoots" do not impress SmokeRngs at all. Something about those distros annoy him to no end. SmokeRngs does have Ubuntu currently installed on a P3 1Ghz machine with 256 meg of RAM crunching away on WCG with no trouble. As a folding only OS, it does work fine.

SmokeRngs over the weekend installed PCLinuxOS on an XP1700+ machine with 256 meg of RAM for running WCG. The machine has been running well and crunching along just fine. The menu system seems to need work as it is very cluttered with multiple entries for some things. However, this may be due to how the OS was installed by SmokeRngs. SmokeRngs previously had another distro installed and decided during the install of this distro that he did not want to wipe the home partition in order to save a couple of things. Initially there were some problems with this which did not take SmokeRngs long to figure out and fix but these problems should not come up when doing a clean install. PCLinuxOS does have a nice settings manager for configuring hardware and stuff like that. It was a breeze for SmokeRngs to get the wireless network card (graciously donated to SmokeRngs by digital_exhaust) working using ndiswrapper and the proper Windows drivers from Linksys' site. The option to use ndiswrapper was automatic when configuring the wireless card in PCLinuxOS's configuration manager. On the whole, SmokeRngs believes PCLinuxOS is a nice distro, especially for people newer to Linux. The only caveat to the OS is that it is 32 bit only. There is currently no 64 bit version of the distro.

Fedora is a distro SmokeRngs has not run for a while. He initially started out with Fedora Core 6 as his first venture into Linux (not counting his messing around with Redhat about 10 years previously). He ran this distro for a while and while nice, it was replaced by openSUSE once that distro was tried. SmokeRngs has not done any real testing with this distro in about a year and is not sure how it has evolved since Fedora Core 6.

A VNC program is normally installed or easy to install via a distro's package manager and is probably the best way for monitoring the boxen. SmokeRngs makes sure to install and configure it on all of his boxen as he only runs 3 monitors at a time normally and has up to eight boxen running. Configuring the VNC program should not be too difficult although someone familiar to the distro may need to help you with it.

Also, Samba shares will need to be setup so you will be able to monitor your clients on the headless boxen. This is normally not a difficult thing to do although you will need to speak to someone who is fluent in the distro you choose.

There seem to be several people fluent in Ubuntu and its different flavors, they shall need to speak up to be identified. Tigerbiten seems to be the resident expert for CentOS 5. SmokeRngs is the most vocal in regards to openSUSE and has a decent grasp on the OS and should be able to help you out if you decide to choose it.

You may choose your poison in regards to Linux distros. Some of them come on a single CD and are likely live CDs. Other distros are the size of a DVD (openSUSE & Fedora) and require a bit more for the download although SmokeRngs knows that openSUSE live CDs are available for a little testing.

Also, most recent Linux distros are very good in regards to hardware detection of older hardware. SmokeRngs has found that detection and support of older hardware is much better with Linux than Windows for at least basic functionality of the hardware. The main exception to this rule is wireless cards and it depends on the chipset used for the wireless card.

If you have any more questions, SmokeRngs is more than willing to type out a lot more to put you to sleep with his boring rants and practically useless information.

 
Meant more towards Microsoft support. I just like getting security updates. Makes me feel warm and fuzzy someone is looking out for me.


Yes, the updates still roll out, although they are fewer and farther between. Alan has recently put a fresh copy of Win2k on a box before sending it along to the inlaws and the updates were there to be had. Another of Alan's boxes still on 2k got its last updates a couple weeks ago.

Also, most everything still runs on 2k except for the latest DX, IE and WMP from MS.
 
Nephelim likes Ubuntu. He also likes setting up folding boxen to not run X. It's installed in case it is needed, but it is not running.

Nephelim keeps intending to set up notfred-style thumbdrive image for people to use, but Nephelim is a lazy bastard.
 
Pocatello thinks that this thread contains more Third Person talking than any other thread.


.

SmokeRngs thinks that Pocatello obviously wasn't around for the days of black"es time in Genmay. black"es always spoke in the third person. :p

 
Pocatello thinks that this thread contains more Third Person talking than any other thread.

.

If continuing to beat a dead horse is wrong, then Alan doesn't ever want to be right!

 
Xilikon think that some people is jealous of #000000 inches :D

 
If continuing to beat a dead horse is wrong, then Alan doesn't ever want to be right!


I appologize if this deal about "beating a dead horse to death" :rolleyes: is referring to me. I WAS NOT trying to start any, IMO, dumb thread war between the likes or dislikes of many people concerning windoze or Linux because in all honesty I could care less what OS you use.

I have read and heard that LinuxSMP folds the fastest, so..., that's what I've been using. I just wanted to point out that the AC program caused F@H to fold faster under WinXP w/SP2 (at least for me with a E6600, OC'ed to 3.0 GHz) :)

What I was merely stating is, after "dual " booting a few Linux flavors, I wouldn't give up the overall convienience or wide spread acceptance of Windows. (enough said)

Now, after waking up :eek: (thanks SmokeRngs) I would like to know the difference between SUSE and openSUSE :confused: I have both of the online bought DVD versions of Fedora (7 in this instance) and SUSE. I also have a DL'ed version of Fedora 8 (talk about zzzz's, I only have a 1.5 MB DSL connection)

Edit: You seem to be correcto' SmokeRngs, I think most of the larger Linux distros have "live" CD's so you can check them out. Does Slackware have a live CD?

 
Bill, do you always talk in third person? ;) Reminds me of Blac*inches in Genmay last year....

I do run a couple PCLinuxOS clients (32 bit) on a couple of 2Ghz P4's, and its' very simple to run once you've downloaded the client. I've never bothered clocking the PPD since it only runs the console, though. It runs flawlessly though, knocking down WU's and grabbing another one without fail. :)



I had a good friend tell me that you should never trust anyone that refers to themselves in the 3rd person.........


That looks like some good stuff.

I'm looking to combine the info from here with the thread that is talking about untangle ;)


I was simply following the lead of the first post. As a rule homey don’t play dat:rolleyes:



 
Well, as I've made fairly apparent in my threads around the forums, my distro of choice is Fedora; mostly because I learned on Red Hat distros, and the organization of system files in a Debian install rankles me.

That said, anything you like will work... but if you want any help what so ever, you'd better pick Fedora! :D Just kidding of course, there's lots of help here for any distro you might be tempted about. I'll just finish by pointing one thing out (which may have already been stated, if I skimmed something I shouldn't have... :rolleyes: ) --
For your quads, the taskset option we use from a native linux CLI definitely allows you to run two SMP instances without a problem, but your proc is still detected as a quad and you therefore get the quad WUs. The new quad WUs folding on half a quad make Charlie cry, especially when one or two bum WUs hit the pike.

Above can of course be avoided with the use of vmware... but then you're kinda back where you started.

Anywho, back to aimlessly browsing directcanada and ncix, to see where my first paycheck from the new job is going :D



 
The difference between openSUSE and SUSE is that openSUSE is the free version of the distro which does not require any type of purchase such as a support contract and is more bleeding edge for the most part. SUSE is technically referred to as SUSE Enterprise Linux or SEL. It is Novell's "official" distro for business or enterprise class use which SmokeRngs' believes requires a purchase of a support contract to get the distro. It's also supposed to be more stable but not have as complete support for newer hardware and stuff as openSUSE does.

As stated, Linux can run two SMP clients natively with no trouble. That's how SmokeRngs runs it on his main quad system. SmokeRngs does run VMs on his quads used mostly for folding even with Linux for the best PPD as the quad is recognized as two dual cores.

SmokeRngs has no trouble with the dual Linux clients on his main system returning the work units in time which may have something to do with the quad running 3.6Ghz.

 
Hey SmokeRngs thanks very much for the information. :)

I was very confused when I saw posts that had both SUSE and openSUSE in them :confused:

Because of my non patients to DL'ing and burning a DVD I took the easy way out and purchased a DVD from one of the online stores. One of the online stores listed on Distrowatch, I think.

I didn't buy any support and I didn't use it on a business machine (production machine, just for 24/7 folding). So I guess I've got the openSUSE version (no big thang :rolleyes:)

Are the SUSE (SEL) and Red Hat Linux (REL) commercial versions with online paid support and the openSUSE and CentrOS (for REL) versions the free ones with no paid online support?:confused: (I think forums like this are better for support)

I guess I'll just be a dummy and stick to a Ubuntu version (Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu) or any apt-get Debian version of Linux. IMO it's a toss up between KDE and Gnome desktop interfaces so I've been using the Xubuntu flavor, the desktop GUI uses less of the system resources than KDE or Gnome. I don't care for the other "lighter" GUI's like midnight whatever, JVM or Fluxbox. (when your machine is a dedicated folder a desktop interface isn't that important anyway :rolleyes: )

 
The key here isn't going for a distro aimed at out-the-box desktop setup


I know it sounds odd but the likes of: Ubuntu,SuSe,Mandriva,Fedora start up a load of CRUD its ridiculous Oh great for desktop users but WTF does a headless server need HAL/DBUS/AutoMounter for (and they are just some of the simpler things) they just eat RAM and CPU-time

Phoronix did a nice ubuntu power usage history a few blogs back and each release has got more hungry for battery-power and CPU-time. EVEN when the release that came out that had the tickless kernel (which should of reduced power usage during idle) the usage was the highest

Sure you can take one of these and strip them down a bit but meh


A better option is to take a lighter to start with distro (and add later on)
Archlinux is very nice and is very light
Or... get the server edition of ubuntu and install that - ironically a server install of Ubuntu and then apt-get xfce4 is lighter then Xubuntu


Why linux? well its lighter thus providing alot more resources for your applications (seriously wtf XP for this o_O, win2000 sure you have a case...). When you start getting a load of box's headless-linux becomes really easy to manage
Esp if they are identical - ssh ftw

There is a great application you can run from yr controlling PC that will log into all the machine (Listed in the config) via ssh and run whatever command you type in yr ONE shell on ALL of them

ie: apt-get update in the main shell... it gets done on all 100 machines
 
Are the SUSE (SEL) and Red Hat Linux (REL) commercial versions with online paid support and the openSUSE and CentrOS (for REL) versions the free ones with no paid online support?:confused: (I think forums like this are better for support)


Yep, that's the basic difference. It's one of the ways the companies can get around requiring a mandatory purchase of the software. They are still releasing the OS for free under a different name but still get to charge for the OS at the same time.

 
The key here isn't going for a distro aimed at out-the-box desktop setup


I know it sounds odd but the likes of: Ubuntu,SuSe,Mandriva,Fedora start up a load of CRUD its ridiculous Oh great for desktop users but WTF does a headless server need HAL/DBUS/AutoMounter for (and they are just some of the simpler things) they just eat RAM and CPU-time

Phoronix did a nice ubuntu power usage history a few blogs back and each release has got more hungry for battery-power and CPU-time. EVEN when the release that came out that had the tickless kernel (which should of reduced power usage during idle) the usage was the highest

Sure you can take one of these and strip them down a bit but meh


A better option is to take a lighter to start with distro (and add later on)
Archlinux is very nice and is very light
Or... get the server edition of ubuntu and install that - ironically a server install of Ubuntu and then apt-get xfce4 is lighter then Xubuntu


Why linux? well its lighter thus providing alot more resources for your applications (seriously wtf XP for this o_O, win2000 sure you have a case...). When you start getting a load of box's headless-linux becomes really easy to manage
Esp if they are identical - ssh ftw

There is a great application you can run from yr controlling PC that will log into all the machine (Listed in the config) via ssh and run whatever command you type in yr ONE shell on ALL of them

ie: apt-get update in the main shell... it gets done on all 100 machines

I can only agree with you partially.

I pefer to install an operating system that recognizes all my hardware from the jump. I don't want to f*ck around recompiling kernels or waiting on an answer from some forum. Sometimes waiting and recompiling kernels is necessary. I have to thank many forum members to solutions to my problems and I have recompiled a few kernels myself, although it's been a while. With the newest kernels I think recompiling kernels is old hat.

I know how to use the command line after a server install, but why should I when there's already a distro out there waiting to be installed. :rolleyes:

Oh yeah, I thought xfce4 was the desktop enviorment for Xubuntu v8.04? I've been using v8.04 since alpha 4 :confused:

First off I thought we were talking about using the LinuxSMP client. To use the LinuxSMP client I was under the impression you had to have a 64 bit OS in Linux and have the 32 bit librarys available because the client itself was a 32 bit program? I have used Archlinux, Ark Linux, PCLinOS, DSL, Puppy Linux, etc, but I didn't think they had a 64 bit flavor? I don't myself and I doubt if very many people do know about servers. You are probably right about HAL, DBUS and whatever.(not bein' a Linux guru I could be wrong <shrugs shoulders>, plus I only use desktop machines) :)

Edit: I was under the impression you could use some command in the "run" box in WinXP and disable some of the services you don't need. That'd be kinda' like "lightening up on the resources"? (probably gots something like that in VISTA?)

Edit again: SmokeRngs said it so much more eloquent than me (in his post below). I think SmokeRngs is 100% right about most people, myself included, should just stick with the more mainstream and "bloated" distros. If you have an interest in learning more about Linux or the command line more power to you. ATM I just use Linux to fold with using the LinuxSMP client. Being lazy, I just want to fold with Linux using the Linux flavor that's the easiest and the least hassle to use.

 
The key here isn't going for a distro aimed at out-the-box desktop setup


I know it sounds odd but the likes of: Ubuntu,SuSe,Mandriva,Fedora start up a load of CRUD its ridiculous Oh great for desktop users but WTF does a headless server need HAL/DBUS/AutoMounter for (and they are just some of the simpler things) they just eat RAM and CPU-time

Phoronix did a nice ubuntu power usage history a few blogs back and each release has got more hungry for battery-power and CPU-time. EVEN when the release that came out that had the tickless kernel (which should of reduced power usage during idle) the usage was the highest

Sure you can take one of these and strip them down a bit but meh


A better option is to take a lighter to start with distro (and add later on)
Archlinux is very nice and is very light
Or... get the server edition of ubuntu and install that - ironically a server install of Ubuntu and then apt-get xfce4 is lighter then Xubuntu


Why linux? well its lighter thus providing alot more resources for your applications (seriously wtf XP for this o_O, win2000 sure you have a case...). When you start getting a load of box's headless-linux becomes really easy to manage
Esp if they are identical - ssh ftw

There is a great application you can run from yr controlling PC that will log into all the machine (Listed in the config) via ssh and run whatever command you type in yr ONE shell on ALL of them

ie: apt-get update in the main shell... it gets done on all 100 machines

Resource usage for folding is normally something which is not worried about too much as long as there is enough RAM for the machine to fold with. However, many people building dedicated folding boxen don't know jack about Linux (like most people) and don't have the time or desire to learn it. That's one of the main reasons to suggest going with some of the more mainstream "bloated" distros. They are a lot easier to setup and then get folding running on with little to no experience with Linux. Also, it's generally easier for the people to do updates with as needed with the GUI. That's one of the reasons SmokeRngs doesn't recommend doing without the GUI for most people. SmokeRngs can get around with a CLI just fine for the most part but a lot of the people here don't want to mess with that or learn it.

The vast majority of the resources used are for folding and the GUI doesn't really take up much in the way of resources since most of the time the box is just sitting there crunching away. Also, being able to easily monitor the clients (VNC) is almost necessary due to the beta nature of the SMP client as well as the beta nature of one of the new cores and some of the work units. For the Linux newbies in here, the GUI with VNC is one of the better ways to go until they learn a bit more in regards to Linux.

SmokeRngs is not going to spend any extra on MS licenses for his machines so he's using Linux no matter what since it works perfectly for what he's doing outside of some games. SmokeRngs also runs some other software on his mostly folding machines which requires a GUI and therefore runs a GUI on the systems. SmokeRngs is still a Linux n00b even after more than a year of using it and has much to learn yet.

SmokeRngs is not trying to bash you; just point out that many of the people in here may be better off staying with the more mainstream and bloated distros for their use right now. If some want to learn to go GUIless and whatnot, that's great and more power to them.

 
I've wrassled with Linux of and on since bld 0.92. I think it was a 10 floppy install, When Xubuntu came along I rejoiced at first but quickly found it lacking and switched to Kubuntu.

I had samba and vnc working, but in an attempt to get to console 0 I messed up something and now can't get VNC to work. They've put to much darn security crap in it.



 
I appologize if this deal about "beating a dead horse to death" :rolleyes: is referring to me.


No, no reference to you at all. I was referring to the whole talking in the third person thing.
 
I WAS NOT trying to start any, IMO, dumb thread war between the likes or dislikes of many people concerning windoze or Linux because in all honesty I could care less what OS you use.

War? I thought we were just chiming in with the metric asston of distributions that we could help with.
 
I've wrassled with Linux of and on since bld 0.92. I think it was a 10 floppy install, When Xubuntu came along I rejoiced at first but quickly found it lacking and switched to Kubuntu.

I had samba and vnc working, but in an attempt to get to console 0 I messed up something and now can't get VNC to work. They've put to much darn security crap in it.




ahh yes, all those floppies, and they had such descriptive names. a1,a2,d1,d2,f1,etc. And in hindsight once you finally had it up and running, you still couldn't do shit with it.

 
Yup, between us you'll get distro-specific help with just about anything you could hope to dig up online, and general help from everyone else :D

Also Smoke - I wasn't saying the systems have problems with the deadlines, just that some of the quad WUs are slower, and that I absolutely hate the duds :p

 
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