VMware Linux bigadv

Biffa · 29 Mar 2011 at 13:25

Ahh back to the good ole days.. before A3 on winders.

So the linux vmware image has been updated to 6.34 and A5 clients for Linux.

Ok so on my main windows (2600K) box I've managed to shave 2 minutes per frame off the average for a bigadv. Jumping it from 38K to 42K PPD and thats with my GTX460 running with zero effect on its output.

So everything you need is here: http://www.linuxforge.net/docs/crunching/fah-vmware.php

But a few tips.

1. Download the Zip not the 7z file as the 7z file is incomplete.
2. You will definitely need a process manager if you are running a Fermi card on the same box, if you are not then you don't.
3. Depending on your setup you may have problems with the Langouste client, I did so just set it up to download direct by turning off the proxy in the client.cfg after initial setup.
4. You *must* use the 3.0 version of Vmware Player otherwise you won't get the option to use 8 vcpus in the image. Vmware removed the option from later versions.

Affinity:
I'm using Bill2's Process Manager but you could use WinAFC or something, I just find Bill2's more intuitive to setup.

I also setup the Vmware image to use 7 threads instead of 8 so I save one for the GPU, your mileage may vary on this, and for my setup the jury is still out but for now its working, if I get some more time I will try different settings.

Any questions give me a holler in there. But free extra points aint bad.

And before anyone asks, yes I tried the VirtualBox setup on my dual Xeon box with 24 threads and it wasn't good.

I don't think the VirtualBox setup is able to match the Windows client at this time

dekez · 29 Mar 2011 at 14:26

Nice, I will add to the sticky.

I'd like to move back to windows if I can get hold of a copy of server 2008, or if whs vail looks good when it comes out. I'm not conviced the backups in ubuntu work at all!

Speed · 29 Mar 2011 at 15:35

Interesting... What version of Windows did you use Biffa?

Biffa · 29 Mar 2011 at 15:50

Windows Pro 7 SP1 - 64bit

Speed · 29 Mar 2011 at 15:52

Ok good, very similar to what I'm running, will have to give it a go!

Biffa · 29 Mar 2011 at 22:43

Note if you are using the latest version you don't need the fix below:

There is a fix for the Langouste error. It involves defining the USER variable before Langouste loads

At the console window:

root@FAH:~# _

Type: pico /etc/rc.d/rc.M

Then scroll down until you find the following lines:

Code:

# Start Langouste if enabled
. /etc/rc.d/rc.fah.conf
LPORT=8080
etc
etc

And before the first line add:

Code:

# Hack to define USER variable for Langouste
export USER=fah

So in the end it looks like this:

Code:

[B]# Hack to define USER variable for Langouste
export USER=fah
[/B]
# Start Langouste if enabled
. /etc/rc.d/rc.fah.conf
LPORT=8080
etc
etc

Delboy · 31 Mar 2011 at 11:53

Biffa, you are THE man.

I'm now running this on my 2600k @ 4.5Ghz and it went from ~42k PPD to ~49kPPD. ~7k free PPD!

I'm also running this on my i7 930 @ 4.0Ghz at home which went from ~33k PPD to ~37k PPD. ~4k free PPD.

That's a nice increase of 11k PPD for simply running this VM Linux image.

I salute you s'ah. Thanks for the information.

Biffa · 31 Mar 2011 at 18:42

De nada my friend

BrownSparrow · 1 Apr 2011 at 12:52

Are there any comparisons between running a VM and installing Linux natively?

Biffa · 1 Apr 2011 at 13:38

If the box is a dedicated folder not being used for anything else, then just use Linux, one of the boot CD's made from the same image as the VMWare images would probably be best.

Only reason to use VMware setup like this is if its a regular windows box that you want to optimise bigadv output on.

Speed · 1 Apr 2011 at 14:34

BrownSparrow said:
Are there any comparisons between running a VM and installing Linux natively?

Would be interesting, I doubt there would be much between them tbh.

Biffa said:
If the box is a dedicated folder not being used for anything else, then just use Linux, one of the boot CD's made from the same image as the VMWare images would probably be best.

Only reason to use VMware setup like this is if its a regular windows box that you want to optimise bigadv output on.

Or the fact you can't stand Linux like me lol.

dekez · 1 Apr 2011 at 21:56

Q

Argh just tried to install 2008 R2 to move back to windows and it doesn't recognise any of the drivers

Win 7 or vista drivers from Asus don't work and Asus hasn't got any drivers for 2008 :mad:

. I had similar issues when trying to install whs (which is based on 2003) on this P8P67-M pro but managed to get it working using XP drivers.

Real pain in the backside. I don't really want to go back to whs as it's 32bit, the only copy on 2003 I can get is 32bit as well. Looks like I'm stuck with ubuntu for a while.

Biffa · 1 Apr 2011 at 22:50

2008 R2 = Windows 7

Which drivers are yuo having problems with? Don't use the ones on the CD apparently.

Did you get the Intel drivers first?

dekez · 2 Apr 2011 at 00:16

To be honest I don't know, it just says it's missing drivers when installing from dvd and it won't go past that point. I guessed it was the lan driver which could have prevented it from looking online, as at the moment it only lets me search attached media for drivers. I will give the intel drivers a go and see how that goes.

Speed · 2 Apr 2011 at 00:23

If you have another system can't you just get them off the Asus site and put them on a USB drive? The W7 64bit ones should work.

dekez · 2 Apr 2011 at 09:05

Ok bit weird it is installing now, it seems it didn't like that I had the external DVD drive plugged into the USB 3 ports, even though it loaded and started the setup fine. Oh well, cheers guys panic over

didgemaster · 3 Apr 2011 at 11:50

Morning all

At about 4:30 this morning I thought that I would introduce my 3 week old daughter to folding as nothing else I was doing seemed to make her happy. So we setup a Linux virtual machine (thanks Biffa). However it is only returning ~19000 PPD.

Everything seems to be OK. The project I'm running is 2684 (Run 9, Clone 7, Gen 64) on [email protected].

Should I be seeing more PPD? or is it just this work unit?

**Edit** TPF 46:16

Speed · 3 Apr 2011 at 12:59

Well 2684 units are far from quick but I would have thought you'd be getting more PPD. I'm currently doing a 2684 on normal Windows 7 with a 4GHz i7 920 and getting 21k. What flags are you using?

didgemaster · 3 Apr 2011 at 16:00

After 7% done 19592 PPD which, by my calculations, isn't far off if you are getting 21K @4GHz

no flags entered according to VM its using -bigadv -smp

in task manager all 8 cores are at 100%

Speed · 3 Apr 2011 at 16:18

didgemaster said:
After 7% done 19592 PPD which, by my calculations, isn't far off if you are getting 21K @4GHz

no flags entered according to VM its using -bigadv -smp

in task manager all 8 cores are at 100%

Yes but my 21K is just pure Windows 7, I think you should be getting more in VMware, regardless of it being 200MHz slower. What is your memory set to?