Linux Folding Speed Question

[DR_K13]

OK I was wondering how much faster my Linux box would fold If I got out of init 5 and started folding in init 3. Is there any speed increase?

 

[unhappy_mage]

Maybe as much as 10%. Run "top" in a console, it shows how much CPU is being used by what program. X takes up around 10% on my machine, so if I killed it I'd gain that back.

On the other hand, the X on the server box only takes half a percent or so. It's not running KDE, that's why .

If it's your main box, then leave it graphical, posting to the [H] in links is confusing (believe me, I've tried it), but if it's just a folding box then go text-only.

 

[DR_K13]

Ya all my folding boxen are linux. So I will go text mode. I have a Micro$oft boxen the I run the F@H graphical client on to wow people with the pretty atoms on the screen, They like it so much that half the time I can Borg their rigs. I ran Top Via Putty , the next highest thing running was putty at 00.3% then top at 00.1% so init 3 looks better

 

[Carnival Forces]

mmk, i'm a noob at Linux, anyone want to tell me how to get to this mysterious "init 3" w/ Mandrake 10.0 ? ppppplllease!!

 

[unhappy_mage]

well well well.

to do it once, run "telinit 3" as root, that will switch you to init 3. then edit /etc/inittab and change a line like this :
id:3:initdefault:
to this:
id:5:initdefault:
and it'll do it forever after.

first post after the great forum outage, let's hope they stay up now!

 

[racercarl]

I am a little confused here (so what else is new) I run SUSE 8.2 and 9.1 and all are using KDE, when I run "top" i am at 98 to 99+ % FAH.

is the reason you are using 10% or so, because you have KDE running all sorts of stuff idling along so it is using more CPU keeping tabs of non used programs ? I checked about 8 of my boxes and all are at 98 to 99+ % FAH.

What is the difference here?

Or did I do something good and not know i even did it?

 

[dr_dirtnap]

My linux boxes actually fold faster with F@H running under WINE. Anyone experience this before? Something you may want to look into.

 

[unhappy_mage]

racecarl: 98-99% probably means accelerated video drivers rather than the generic ones. The server uses Xvesa because it's compatible with everything and small, but it's not fast. On my personal machine, FAH uses 99.5 percent. Nothing wrong.

dr_dirtnap: I've heard this, but a quick search on the f@h forums reveals this: it's no longer faster. This comes as somewhat of a surprise to me, i thought it was faster too. Oh well, that much easier for me, since I don't have to figure out how to get wine into 1.25mb free on the clients...

 

[Arkaine23]

My linux boxes actually fold faster with F@H running under WINE. Anyone experience this before? Something you may want to look into.

I notice the difference on tinker units. Gromacs seem to be too close to call, sometimes faster on linux, sometimes faster in wine, sometimes faster on a windows system. This is why the Overclockix live CD has switched to using wine for folding recently.

 

[racercarl]

So using a cheappy video card is a good thing, right, as it does not use up as much resources. which is why my boxen all are about the same ? and a good video card will use more cpu time because it uses more resources to operate.

Or am I lost again

 

[unhappy_mage]

Racecarl: Other way around, theoretically. A good video card will use less cpu, because it can do more in hardware. The reason the X server on my server is so slow is it's optimized for least space possible, not fastest. So it takes 10% of the cpu instead of .5% or whatever, but the whole server fits in 70 MB.

dr_dirtnap: Have you checked this recently? I just read on the folding forums that wine is no longer the preferred way to fold.