Running v7 GUI on Linux Mint 11

Discussion in 'Folding@Home - Join Team Guru3D !' started by k1net1cs, Nov 14, 2011.

  1. k1net1cs

    k1net1cs Ancient Guru

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    GPU:
    Radeon HD 5650m (550/800)
    Now, before you read on in hopes of running GPU folding in Linux easily, here's a few caveat emptor :
    • v7 still doesn't support GPU folding (yet), both Nvidia & AMD; at the moment, ETA is still unknown.
    • GPU folding support (v6) on Linux is mostly third-party which involves Wine and wrappers, and no I wasn't talking about a New Year's Eve party.
    • AMD cards users are basically farked since (currently) the only available and working third-party wrappers for GPU folding is for Nvidia cards.
      And the fact that the only thread that was leading to its development eventually derailed into an AMD OpenCL support argument; classic.

    And...oh, yeah, this thread is basically a step-by-step guide for running the v7 GUI.
    Yes, boo all you want, until you try to run the GUI and nothing shows up. =b
    Of course, this only applies to any of those whose exposure to Linux is still minimal and not for you Linux wizards. ._.

    Anyway, to make it short.

    First, download the v7 Beta client from here.
    Since we're going to use Linux Mint 11, in which it's based on Ubuntu, in which it's based on Debian, pick the one with the .deb extension.
    Obviously, X86-32 is for 32-bit, X86-64 is for 64-bit.

    Next, here's the guide for installing the .deb file you just downloaded.

    ...or you could just double-click the Home folder on your Desktop, go to the 'Downloads' folder, and then double-click the .deb file. =b
    Don't forget to set your username, team and passkey (if there's any) at installation time.
    You could edit this later via the GUI, though.

    That is, if you could get the GUI running. ;)

    Now try running the GUI.
    Click 'Menu' (yes, the left-most one in the taskbar a.k.a. Mint's 'Start Menu'), then click 'All applications' on the top-right corner of the menu window.
    Look for 'Science', then click 'FAHControl'.

    If nothing shows up, which is to be expected, open up 'Package Manager' from the 'Menu'.
    If you're being asked for a password (which it usually does), it's the same password for your Mint account login.
    While the category is selected to 'All' on the left column, type 'python2.6' in the 'Quick filter' textbox.
    Click the checkbox beside the 'python2.6' package, then click 'Mark for installation'.
    It will then tell you that it also needs to install the 'python2.6-minimal' package; just trust the damn manager.

    After you're done installing those packages, you're good to go!

    ...we~ll, not really. =b
    You still need to do the geekiest step ever in this guide : editing FAHControl source code!

    Now you need to open up 'Terminal'.
    No, it's not an app that'd make your system crash, that's 'Linux Command Prompt' to you Windows users.
    If you've noticed it when you look for the 'Package Manager', yep, that's the one just under it.
    Click that, and you'll see an ASCII animal with a quote; it's random, if you're wondering.

    Now type ...
    Code:
    cd /usr/bin
    ... and Enter, which should take you to the /usr/bin directory.

    Next, type ...
    Code:
    sudo chmod 777 FAHControl
    ... and, yep, Enter again.
    You'll be prompted to enter a password, so enter your login password like when you opened 'Package Manager'.
    And yes, it's normal if you don't see anything as you type the password.
    Press Enter again, but don't close the terminal window just yet.

    Now double-click the 'Computer' icon on your Desktop, then double-click the 'File System' icon.
    Navigate to the same /usr/bin directory, and find 'FAHControl'.
    You could just type the name to quick find it.

    Next, double-click the 'FAHControl' file.
    Click 'Display' (not 'Run'), and a text editor will show up, showing the source code.
    Ooo~hh...

    Now, see that first line of the source code?
    Edit it so that it reads ...
    Code:
    #!/usr/bin/python2.6
    ... then save the file and close the editor.

    ...what?
    I just told you that you'd edit FAHControl source code, not how much you'd need to edit. =b

    In any case, go back to that terminal window, and now type ...
    Code:
    sudo chmod +x FAHControl
    ... and then Enter.
    You can now either type 'exit' and then Enter or just simply close the terminal window.

    Then, you can finally try and see whether your "hard" work paid-off by running FAHControl via 'Menu'.


    The short technical explanation.
    Current v7 GUI (Open Beta 4, or 7.1.38, at the time of this writing) was built against python 2.6 libraries.
    Linux Mint 11, or Ubuntu 11.04, has python 2.7 installed as a default.
    That first line of FAHControl source code basically instructs the script to use 'python', but in Mint 11 (thus Ubuntu 11.04) 'python' is an alias for 'python2.7' parser (or executable).
    The edit simply tells the script to specifically call 'python2.6' directly instead.

    Well, that's it, I guess.
    This is not so much of a guide per say, but I hope this helps anyone curious enough to try v7 on Linux Mint; it's probably also applicable to running v7 on Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal, IIRC).

    If there's any mistakes regarding anything in the guide, feel free to correct it.
    If there's any suggestions to make the guide more concise, feel free to contribute.
    This guide is based on the steps I did, which is probably way inefficient. =b
     

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