FAH linux centos

here's how I managed to run Folding At Home on a Centos 8 ( and 7) system where few tricks needs to be done

For supported OS : Windows, Mac, supported Linux distribution, just follow https://foldingathome.org/support/faq/installation-guides/

about

Folding@home (FAH or F@h) is a distributed computing project for simulating protein dynamics, including the process of protein folding and the movements of proteins implicated in a variety of diseases. It brings together citizen scientists who volunteer to run simulations of protein dynamics on their personal computers. Insights from this data are helping scientists to better understand biology, and providing new opportunities for developing therapeutics.

From https://foldingathome.org/about/

reference

Centos 8 particularities

get RPMs

from https://foldingathome.org/start-folding/ get latest RPMs

# wget https://download.foldingathome.org/releases/public/release/fahclient/centos-6.7-64bit/v7.6/fahclient-7.6.9-1.x86_64.rpm
# wget https://download.foldingathome.org/releases/public/release/fahcontrol/centos-6.7-64bit/v7.6/fahcontrol-7.6.9-1.noarch.rpm
# wget https://download.foldingathome.org/releases/public/release/fahviewer/centos-6.7-64bit/v7.6/fahviewer-7.6.9-1.x86_64.rpm

As those packages need python2 and python gtk libs and others (freeglut) , we need to install with –nodeps, ref https://foldingathome.org/support/faq/installation-guides/linux/manual-installation-advanced/

#rpm -i --nodeps fahclient-7.6.9-1.x86_64.rpm 
#rpm -i --nodeps fahcontrol-7.6.9-1.noarch.rpm 
#rpm -i --nodeps fahviewer-7.6.9-1.x86_64.rpm 

after installation

#  /etc/init.d/FAHClient status
fahclient is running with PID 25624

dependencies

pygtk2

initially FAHControl script fail to start because gtk python module is missing

$ /usr/bin/FAHControl 
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/FAHControl", line 25, in <module>
    from fah import FAHControl, load_fahcontrol_db
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/fah/__init__.py", line 25, in <module>
    import util
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/fah/util/__init__.py", line 26, in <module>
    import gtk
ImportError: No module named gtk

add gtk python module for FAHControl to work

# yum install pygtk2

then FAHControl python script might complain about missing python

$ /usr/bin/FAHControl 
bash: /usr/bin/FAHControl : /usr/bin/python : mauvais interpréteur: Aucun fichier ou dossier de ce type

you can force it to your installed version by editing the 1st line of the script , here /usr/bin/python2.7 (installed aside pyhton3 also on centos 8 )

# head -1 /usr/bin/FAHControl
#!/usr/bin/python2.7

config is stored in /etc/fahclient/config.xml

FAHViewer and freeglut

because we installed it with –nodeps !

$ FAHViewer
FAHViewer: error while loading shared libraries: libglut.so.3: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

the add freeglut for FAHviewer

# yum install freeglut

processes

when everything Runs

[root@localhost ~]# ps auwx | grep FAH
root     25624  0.0  0.0  99060  3872 ?        Ssl  13:03   0:00 /usr/bin/FAHClient /etc/fahclient/config.xml --run-as fahclient --pid-file=/var/run/fahclient.pid --daemon
fahclie+ 25626  0.3  0.2 778184 44640 ?        Sl   13:03   0:05 /usr/bin/FAHClient --child /etc/fahclient/config.xml --run-as fahclient --pid-file=/var/run/fahclient.pid --daemon
fahclie+ 25635  0.0  0.0  86720  1636 ?        SNl  13:03   0:00 /usr/bin/FAHCoreWrapper /var/lib/fahclient/cores/cores.foldingathome.org/v7/lin/64bit/avx/Core_a7.fah/FahCore_a7 -dir 00 -suffix 01 -version 706 -lifeline 25626 -checkpoint 15 -np 3
jproc    25655  1.3  0.3 899548 57408 pts/12   Sl+  13:03   0:22 /usr/bin/python2.7 /usr/bin/FAHControl

log and files

a lot is stored here

# ls -ltr /var/lib/fahclient/
total 100
drwxrwxrwx 3 fahclient root    37 24 avril 18:57 cores
-rw-rw-r-- 1 fahclient root 92126 24 avril 18:59 GPUs.txt
drwxrwxrwx 2 fahclient root    74 25 avril 13:01 configs
drwxrwxrwx 2 fahclient root   130 25 avril 13:03 logs
drwxrwxrwx 3 fahclient root    58 25 avril 13:03 work
-rw-r--r-- 1 fahclient root  7786 25 avril 13:30 log.txt

log

# tail -f /var/lib/fahclient/log.txt 
11:06:31:WU00:FS00:0xa7:Completed 55000 out of 500000 steps (11%)
11:13:12:WU00:FS00:0xa7:Completed 60000 out of 500000 steps (12%)
11:19:19:WU00:FS00:0xa7:Completed 65000 out of 500000 steps (13%)
11:25:02:WU00:FS00:0xa7:Completed 70000 out of 500000 steps (14%)
11:30:39:WU00:FS00:0xa7:Completed 75000 out of 500000 steps (15%)