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Linux Version for Folding

D

dreadwing

[H]ard|DCer of the Month - March 2012
Joined
Sep 8, 2011
Messages
213
I have used Musky's guide with tremendous success with Linux 10.10. Since the Musky Ubuntu guide, has there been any updates, or newer BFS version we should use?

Also, any reason to install 11.10 or is 10.10 still the preferred choice. I've been dual booting my machines with Windows 7 and Linux. However, since folding, I rarely boot to windows these days.

Figured I'd take a poll to see what everyone is using.

-DW
 
10.10 is a better choice than 11.x. As for newer versions the tweaks, I'm not sure.
 
He updates the guide periodically. One of the more recent updates has been the addition of the kraken 0.6 which is the most current version.
 
Everything I have that folds still runs Ubuntu 10.10, and if I were setting up another machine tomorrow, it would also run 10.10. Versions 11.04 and 11.10 had periodic performance issues that I think were fixed with a kernel update, but even then they were no better/faster than 10.10. 12.04 I believe uses the 3.0 kernel, which I am also not sold on - at least in Arch, I had stability issues with overclock that went away completely going back to Ubuntu 10.10. Until there is a compelling reason the change, I still recommend 10.10. Once there is a compelling reason, I'll update the guide.

As UTO stated, I do updated it fairly frequently, mainly to catch updates/improvements tear does to his software. It is definitely not outdated yet. I still use it myself - the guide replaced my dozen Notepad docs I used to use setting up Linux.
 
Excellent. I wasn't sure if any updates have been made, but that clears it up. Its a wonderful guide and have used it on all my boxes. I liked some of the graphics on 11.10 but wasn't going to use it if the folding performance had suffered.
 
Thanks for posting this, dreadwing. Saved me posting the exact same thing as I'm (planning on) firing up my 2P G34 tonight. And thank you musky for keeping that guide up to date!

dreadwing said:
I have used Musky's guide with tremendous success with Linux 10.10. Since the Musky Ubuntu guide, has there been any updates, or newer BFS version we should use?

Also, any reason to install 11.10 or is 10.10 still the preferred choice. I've been dual booting my machines with Windows 7 and Linux. However, since folding, I rarely boot to windows these days.

Figured I'd take a poll to see what everyone is using.

-DW
Click to expand...
 
Lots of people use 11.04 or 11.10 without issue. If there is something about it you like, go for it. You aren't going to hurt anything. You just aren't going to help anything either.

Without a GUI, they all "look" the same to me.. :)
 
I run 11.04 without any problems. Performance is on par with other distro's. I had 3 systems on 11.04. Phenom 9600, dual x5570, and 8P 1207.
 
NP. I have been building a lot of new systems and wanted to make sure it was still the best version to use.
 
musky said:
believe uses the 3.0 kernel, which I am also not sold on - at least in Arch, I had stability issues with overclock that went away completely going back to Ubuntu 10.10.
Click to expand...

3.0 was more of a symbolic release, not much different than 2.6.39.

Has anyone compared Ubuntu to Fedora, CentOS, or Scientific for folding? I wouldn't expect it to make a difference.
 
Ubuntu Desktop has to be worst case scenario for a Linux install. When we were first messing with this, we compared it to Tobit's streamline Gentoo install and a base Arch install. We saw no difference in folding performance, even running Gnome with all the default crap that comes with Ubuntu Desktop. I believe MIBW tried Fedora, and still no difference.
 
lol .. laziness if always a good reason. I tried 11.04 and wasn't all that thrilled with it. 11.10 was a bit nicer from what I remember of it.
 
dreadwing said:
Do you personally use the server version then?
Click to expand...

I use Ubuntu Server 10.10 on two of my machines and Ubuntu Desktop 10.10 that does not boot to GUI on my third machine. I would use Ubuntu Server 10.10 if I were to set up a new machine now. The reason I use Server rather than Desktop is that I can configure Server quicker than I can Desktop, and since I don't use the GUI anyway, there is no reason to install it. I do not use Server because it performs better in any way. I use 10.10 mainly because I already have it downloaded and I have not seen any benefit in using a newer version.
 
If you like bare-bones... I'm a fan of Ubuntu Minimal cli install myself. :)

Edit: Link removed to avoid Musky IRC rage. :D
 
Last edited:
I'll have to give the minimal a try. Is it just a desktop install without any packages?
 
dreadwing said:
I'll have to give the minimal a try. Is it just a desktop install without any packages?
Click to expand...
No... it's command line with just the bare minimum to get to that command line. You have to install everything separately and it's beyond the scope of musky's Ubuntu guide.
 
I warned you, rm.....

The minimal install is fine, but you do need to know a little about CLI and installing Linux to use it. If you fall into this category, go for it. If not, you are much better off with either Desktop or even Server.
 
Gotcha. I think I will run server on the headless machines and desktop on my daily driver. I may try 11.10 just to see if the performance is the same as 10.10 as I like the enhanced graphics.
 
Yeah sorry about that dreadwing... My minimal recommendation was more for musky. If you're new to linux stick with the mainstream releases.
 
not a problem rm ... just figuring all this stuff out has been a blast.
 
I typically run a minimal Gentoo installation with the latest kernel (3.0.7 was the last latest kernel I was using). However, there are no performance gains to be had vs. Ubuntu by doing so. I choose to do so for a variety of reason but mainly because it's what I've been using for 10+ years.

Newbies should stick with Ubuntu.
 
Does anyone run the server version of Ubuntu? Also, I know Ubuntu is popular, but does anyone fold with OpenSUSE? When running without a GUI, I find OpenSUSE easier (in general... haven't tried folding).
 
I run Ubuntu Server 10.10 on two of my three machines, and will probably swap the third one over to Server this weekend. I use Ubuntu because I am used to it, it is by far the most heavily documented distro out there, and there is no performance benefit in any other distro. If you like openSUSE or any other distro better, by all means use it. If you know enough to actually have an opinion, you are ahead of most of the folders using Linux around here. My target audience are folks who have never installed or used Linux before. For these folks, I feel that Ubuntu Desktop is going to be the easiest.
 
musky said:
If you like openSUSE or any other distro better, by all means use it. If you know enough to actually have an opinion, you are ahead of most of the folders using Linux around here. My target audience are folks who have never installed or used Linux before. For these folks, I feel that Ubuntu Desktop is going to be the easiest.
Click to expand...

+1

Thanks Musky!
 
Thanks, musky. I don't think Linux is the best all around server, but it is the best at certain things. For example, I have a virtual single-core Ubuntu server with an 8GB HDD and 256MB of RAM running openfire (chat server). I normally prefer openSUSE, but I made myself use Ubuntu this time so I'd get used to it. My biggest complaint is how vi is set up by default. hehe. Second complaint is installing software.
 
Ubuntu 10.10 desktop vim was driving me crazy the other day but I am more of a Red Hat guy.

I was goofing around with Mint and couldn't get it to install to the old laptop I was working on so 10.10 was the fall back. Really unless you game there isn't anything you can't do a Linux desktop. The programs may have different names but the end result is pretty much the same and then you get more points under folding!
 
nwrtarget said:
The programs may have different names but the end result is pretty much the same and then you get more points under folding![Emphasis added]
Click to expand...
Whoa, whoa. What? Do you get bonus points just by your OS reporting a flavor of Linux?
 
He is talking about any Linux distro being more efficient than Windows.
 
I see. Well, that's because it's doing less things. What I should do is compare three setups on the same (virtual) hardware: Linux, Server Standard 2008 R2, and Server Core 2008 R2 (no GUI). I've never installed Server Core, so this would get my feet wet.
 
Is there somewhere one could get a cheap copy of server 8 R2? I would love to try it on a multi socket rig
 
Vaulter98c said:
Is there somewhere one could get a cheap copy of server 8 R2? I would love to try it on a multi socket rig
Click to expand...

Dreamspark if you are in school (or know someone who is), Technet (I think) if you are not in school.
 
Not that I know of. I have VMWare and MS licenses at work, so that's what I'm using. You could subscribe to MSDN for $700 upfront, $500 renewal. That gets you all the MS operating systems at your disposal.

Newegg is actually cheaper than our main sales rep, but still expensive for a home user. I love 2008 R2 by the way!
 
014 said:
I see. Well, that's because it's doing less things. What I should do is compare three setups on the same (virtual) hardware: Linux, Server Standard 2008 R2, and Server Core 2008 R2 (no GUI). I've never installed Server Core, so this would get my feet wet.
Click to expand...

That comparison has basically been done. May I Be Worthy runs a Linux VM on top of his Windows system because it yields more points than it yields running on Windows directly. Basically the FAH client for linux is true 64 bit where the windows client is only 32 bit and the performance gain created by running 64 bit more than offsets the losses of being virtualized. There is also the bigadv factor depending on your hardware.

In benchmarks run ages ago the same app compiled in 64 bit vs. 32 bit is generally 10% faster on 64 bit hardware.
 
nwrtarget said:
Ubuntu 10.10 desktop vim was driving me crazy the other day but I am more of a Red Hat guy.
Click to expand...

Been folding with Fedora for a 4 years. Currently running Fedora 16 x86_64 with no problems. I did have to build a custom kernel to turn off the PCIe hotplug babbling messages in syslog.
 
If you can, definitely go the Dreamspark route. It's the cheapest(free!).
 
nwrtarget said:
That comparison has basically been done. May I Be Worthy runs a Linux VM on top of his Windows system because it yields more points than it yields running on Windows directly. Basically the FAH client for linux is true 64 bit where the windows client is only 32 bit and the performance gain created by running 64 bit more than offsets the losses of being virtualized. There is also the bigadv factor depending on your hardware.

In benchmarks run ages ago the same app compiled in 64 bit vs. 32 bit is generally 10% faster on 64 bit hardware.
Click to expand...
Hmm. I wonder why I didn't think of spawning off a Linux VM instead of 2008 R2 for folding. If what you say is true, then it would be worth recreating the system as Linux since its only purpose is folding.
 
014 said:
Hmm. I wonder why I didn't think of spawning off a Linux VM instead of 2008 R2 for folding. If what you say is true, then it would be worth recreating the system as Linux since its only purpose is folding.
Click to expand...

What hardware are we talking about? If it is bigadv capable then there is no question that Linux will be better. Even if it isn't we have seen solid gains on the same work units. I would suggest popping in a different drive and installing linux per the Musky guide and see how she runs. That way is you have issues you can just swap back and be back to where you were.
 
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