Kubuntu






	Kubuntu Linux, Dual Core Processors and Folding at Home

The new Dual Core processors use Symmetric Multi Processing technology. Trouble is, there ain’t that much software out there yet to take advantage of the extra horsepower.

However, Kubuntu Linux has a distribution (distro) that specifically was written for 64 bit SMP processors. It’s free to use, and Stanford University has developed a beta version of it’s Folding at Home console to take advantage of SMP.

Linux has progressed to the point of being within the grasp of the average user, with a little common sense. If you only read if you have to, like a supeona or indictment, then Linux is probably not for you. However, if you’ve read this far, read on, and I’ll do my best to show you how to install Kubuntu Linux on a dual processor machine, and almost triple your folding production.

The first step is to download the Kubuntu 64bit version. I used Oregon State University’s open source page (click here). The distro you want is the 6.06.1-desktop-amd64.iso, 696Kb. Click Here to download the ISO.

Save the ISO file to a folder on your hard drive. Next, burn the ISO to a CD-R, and you have your Linux 64 bit Install CD.

Windows explorer will not burn a bootable CD from an ISO file. You will need burning software like Nero, Norton Ghost, or a host of free utilities to do this. For more information and some free applications, click here

For an advanced user, there is a plug in you can download and install to use Windows to burn an ISO. I personally have not installed this plug in, so proceed at your own risk. Click Here for more information.

You can actually try Kubuntu running “live” from this CD, without installing it on your computer. Nothing will be permanently installed on your hard drive, and it will not affect your current operating system. It is a little slow, and all data will be lost on shutdown, but works fine for a “trial run”. If you decide to try folding from the live CD, it’s best to allow over 24 hours to complete a WU before shutting down, or the work done will be lost.

Using the live CD is also a good way to test your video and NIC to see if it was automatically detected by Kubuntu. On the taskbar at the bottom of the desktop, click on the blue land mine Earth looking thingy to launch Konqueror, Kubuntu’s web browser. Type gg: google in the address bar. The gg: is the command to use Google to search, and it works like a champ. In this case, we just Googled for Google.

If the search results pop up, you are online! If you get an error, your NIC may not be recognized or configured properly. My experience with ECS P4M800 Pro motherboard has been that the onboard NIC does not. However, any old system pull PCI NIC from the closet works just fine. Besides, if you are going to overclock, a PCI NIC is best, so you can lock the south bridge frequencies.

For a permanent install, a dual boot system is a snap with Kubuntu. The Install CD will give your the option of:

Installing Kubuntu on “unallocated” space of a hard drive with another OS already installed.
Formatting the entire drive and installing Kubuntu
Repartitioning a primary partition with and existing OS, and creating new partitions for Kubuntu
Manually partitioning the drive.

I usually save some unallocated space on a Windows install and install Kubuntu last, and have formatted an old 6GB or larger hard drive with the install CD, but have not tried repartitoning a Windows partition to make room for Kubuntu, so try that one at your own risk

Ready for a permanent install? “Mission Critical” screen shots have a red border, click for a full size screen shot.

After the Kubuntu Cd loads, the Desktop has an “install” icon in the to left corner. Simply click on that to begin a permanent installation.

The next screen asks you to select a language....

Then the county, and correct time zone.....

Next is the keyboard layout, which defaults to English..

Then select the disk you wish to install Kubuntu on. The install CD scans your computer, and will give you options for formatting and partitioning.
I have installed on “unallocated” space after a Windows install, and formated a used drive to install Kubuntu, but have not yet repartitoned a fully formatted drive, so proceed at your own risk on that one.

Next you select a User Name, Password, and computer name. In Linux, the username is always lower case, the password is case sensitive.

The next screen shows the partition table allocated to Kubuntu, either automatically, or your manual partition selections.

One last check of your settings and preferences, and click “continue” to begin the installation.

After several dialog boxes, the “install complete” dialog box give you the option of continuing with the live CD, or reboot to your new install. This includes a warning to remove the CD, or it will reboot to it, but just go Bill Clinton and DON’T DO ANYTHING, and you’ll be fine.

During the shutdown sequence, it will pause and remind you to remove the CD, and then press “enter” to reboot to the hard drive.

Alrighty then! We’re going to be folding like a duck on a June bug in about 5 minutes! Upon reboot, your username will be entered on the logon dialog box. Type your password (Case Sensitive, hope you remembered it) and press “enter”.

Now it’s time to tweak some settings. On the taskbar at the bottom of the desktop, click on the blue land mine Earth looking thingy, that’s Konqueror, a helacool web browser.

When Konqueror launches, go to settings, and select “configure toolbars”

In the configure toolbars dialog box, select “location toolbar”.

In the “available actions” window, scroll down to “open terminal”. highlight it, and click the right arrow to move it to “current actions”. This will give you a shortcut to the terminal, so you don’t have to type the complete path to an executable, namely fah5.exe, in this case.

Now let’s see if our NIC got recognized, and we got internet. My experience with the onboard NIC on an ECS P4M800Pro v2 motherboard is the onboard NIC is not recognized, but any old system pull NIC from yesteryear works lik a charm.
In Konqueror, type gg: google in the address bar and hit enter. The gg: is a command to use Google to search, BTW, and it works like a champ. In this case, we are going to google for Google.

If Google pops up, your online! Slide your mouse over bookmarks, and bookmark Google.

When you arrive at Google, type “folding at home download” and select “I’m feeling lucky”. You will probably get a prompt that your data is being sent unencrypetd, just select “send unencrypted”, and it will take you to the download page for FAH.
You could probably skip the above steps and simply “gg: folding at home download”, but what would be the fun of that?
Now you have the basic of Konqueror, anyways.

At the download page, select the Linux (x86, 64 bit only) SMP client console, currently 5.91 beta. Click “save as” and a dialog box will default to Home Folder, /home/username/

That download will be faster than an Appalousa Ape (ever seen one? Me neither, they are THAT fast!) so close Konqueror and mouseove ‘system menu’, selct home folder
Thar she blows! the FAH_SMP_Linux.tgz, a zipped tar file. I can’t explain what that is, but I can show you how to make it run.

First, right click the FAH tar, and select “properties”.

In the permissons tab, tick “is executable”, and click “ok”

Next, right click the FAH icon, select “Extract/Extract Here”. There’s nothing in my home folder at this point, so this is the simplest method. For some reason, when I tried “extract to Fah_SMP_Linux (thus creating a new folder) it wanted to install two instances, one in the home folder, and one in the new folder.
Probably the nut holding the mouse was the problem, but someting that can be figured out later.

I did recieve Ark_KDE Crash Handler error, but simply closed the box, and continued with the install.

Now for the fun stuff. From the Home folder, click on the Konsole icon (the little black screen we moved to the toolbar). The Konsole will open with the dialog “To run a command as administrator (user “root”), use “sudo <command>.
Basically, you are logged in as administrator, with some precautions built in. So to run any application from the Konsole it’s:
sudo(space)./appfilename

So to run FAH the first time type:
sudo (space)./fah5 -config [Enter]
You can also add additional flags, but will change everything you need from the config dialog, so don’t be to concerned with flags for now.
Type your password [Enter] Remember your password is case sensitive, and the cursor does not move as you type.

Configure FAH in the usual manner, with username, team number (36057), and change advanced options.
In the advanced options, change “allow WUs requiring more than 5MB to “yes”, and ‘set -advmethods always’ to “yes”. This will allow you to get the good stuff.
Upon reboot, you will only need the ‘sudo ./fah5” command, as your configuration preferences are saved.

Well, hope this helps. I’ll link the thumbnails to the full size screenshots when i get a round tuit.

You can expect a dual core E6300 or Pentium D945 to jump from 280 PPD (points per day) to around 900 PPD using Kubuntu and the beta console of FAH.