two instances of fah6?, both running _a3 cores...

[xairbusdriver]

Had to force shutdown the iMac a few minutes ago, still not sure what caused that problem. When I got it started up again, however, I got the usual "FahCore... wants to connect to the interwebs..." alert. Not until after I clicked to "Sure, fine, do it" button did I realize that the core asking to start up was _a1, not the _a3 that had been working just before the shut down. It's a 475 pt, GRO-A3 wu at 91% complete.

Other info: The Groups list shows three entries; ~/Library/Folding@home, ~/Library/InCrease and ~/Library/InCrease/unit1. The a3 wu is in the /unit1 folder, as it should be, I think.

Not sure when or why the Folding@home folder got created and it doesn't even have an fah6 or mpiexec file in it. I suspect because I never started InCrease with that folder and had it download anything. :???:

There are two "unit" folders in the other path. The unit1, of course, and a unit11 folder! That "11" folder got created when I accidentally "created" a local group with InCrease after a complete re-install.

Both of those folders have the newest fah6 and mpiexec files. Both have wu folders.

The unit1 has a completely empty "data" folder. The unit11 folder has no "data" folder.

unit1 has no reference to the wu #8 which seems to be the one in progress.
unit11 does have several wu #8 files; logfile.txt, _prev.cpt, .ckp, .cpt, .dat, .edr, .etc., etc.

My first attempt to stop the higher point, Gromacs SMP, _lamda5_ wu resulted in all work being stopped, including the _a3 wu. Increase greyed out all the Start/Stop/Pause/Continue buttons. Attempts to "Remove" a Group were unsuccessful, since the only one available to Quit/Remove was the one doing the _a3 wu!

Quit and restarted InCrease and the Start button (and the rest) were available so I selected the unit1 group and clicked Start. Activity Monitor still showed four _a1 cores running. And soon indicated that an _a3 core had started up. Of course, the a3 core now indicated only ~95% cpu usage instead of the 190+ when it runs alone.

I decided to use the 'kill' processes function of AM and stopped/killed/removed the four a1 cores. Now the a3 core started goggling up the cycles again.

But wait! There also appeared another fah6 and then, another a3 core! Apparently, it is being used to work on the stuff in the ~/Library?InCrease group where there is a Gromacs SMP2 wu. Now both a3 cores are working but at half the speed (which is already well below what the a1 points pre minute used to be).

I think I can safely use AM to shut down one of the two fah6 processes. But I want to make sure it's not the one that is nearing completion. I assume that the process with the smaller PID is the older process. One is 3235 and the other 3975.

1. Am I correct in my assumptions?
2. Is my plan appropriate?

Thanks for any help. Hope my epistle is not too full of irrelevant stuff.

[jackrabbit]

Sorry man, you've completely lost me. I'd say:
- stop using InCrease
- kill anything that's still running after a minute
- remove all extraneous client/WU folders
- start using InCrease

[calxalot]

Do you have the pref pane client installed? Is it running?

[xairbusdriver]

Hey, jackrabbit, if I wanted to do things easily, I wouldn't be Folding! Of course, you're probably right...

Yes, cal, I do have it installed. Not that I even noticed that it was. I assume something (InCrease?) installed that at the same time it created the ~/Library/Folding@home folder.

I just get frustrated when things go along smoothly for a while and then, BAM everything falls apart at once. I feel like an idiot running over here and whining about my problems!

Early last year I did have Folding going via the pref panel. Then it broke. Then some said I shouldn't use that because it was not the correct location for stuff. All the files should be here, or there, or where ever I didn't have them. Now, don't go searching for my posts, this is just my (quickly) fading memory! ;) Fact is, if one knows what he's doing, I suspect Folding will run quite well in several different set ups. I even tried helping a young lad who had a Java-based set up in progress. Unfortunately, that was a class project and I assume he passed that with flying colors and is now more interested in other studies or young ladies!

It appears that the wu that was close to finishing has and is just now beginning another. So it's probably a good time to make major changes without losing any work for Stanford.

I'll try my Activity Monitor 'kill' method and see if I pick the correct process to annihilate! But I still may do a complete re-install, since I learned my lesson last time and kept the original downloads!

So, thanks for the suggestions and the quick response. I'll report back if I can figure out a simpler way to get Folding started and keep it running. Hopefully, someone will get some help from that.

[calxalot]

If folding is running from the pref pane, you must use the pref pane to stop that instance of fah6. You cannot stop it via Activity Monitor. It will just respawn.

BUT FIRST you should stop any folding you can via InCrease.
When you stop via the pref pane, it will kill ALL FahCores running on your machine, which is not what you want.

[xairbusdriver]

While I had the Pref Panel installed, I was not using it to Fold. Frankly, I hadn't even noticed it was installed....nothing gets by me!

I did try using it, after I managed to get InCrease to stop it's folding control. But I don't think I ever got fah6 to stop! I could never get the second instance to 'die.' When I did get something going again, it was the a1 cores. And the Pref Panel 'start' button never changed to "stop" as I thought it should/would. By that time, I was getting things really messed up and started seeing 12 iterations of a1.exe. That convinced me that I was nowhere in control and I went to get a bigger hammer! I basically trashed everything (except the plist, which I forgot, again!) and started out with fresh files. Of course, InCrease now downloads the newest versions of fah6, which is also very handy. Thanks!

At any rate, the Pref Panel method seemed to have very few controls and I don't even see how one would enter one's passkey without manually opening Terminal. While I know it will run the same script that InCrease would, it is still somewhat scary for many to even open Terminal, much less actually try to start a process in it. Having it done through InCrease is much less frightening. Most won't even know they are actually using Terminal!

I have now done re-installs several ways and I have described what I think is the simplest and easiest. I'll write it up in another post and let you guys pick it apart. I'm not asking that it ever be published, I'm just showing how I did it and that it made sense to me. I just wish I'd known a little more about the words/methods/processes and such when I first started. It's only thanks to you "guys" (absolutely have to include susato, ravage, phantom, et al) and so many more, for putting up with my continued trials and stupid questions.

Have a great week!  

[susato]

I agree with the advice you've read upthread about stopping the prefpane client and then deleting it.  

As describe here:

To completely uninstall the prefpane client, delete these 4 things...

  1. /Applications/Folding@home.app/
  2. /Library/LaunchDaemons/Folding@home.plist
  3. /Library/PreferencePanes/Folding@home.prefPane/
  4. ~/Library/Folding@home/

I usually don't try to finesse a reinstall -- I set the -obneunit flag, wait until the desired work unit finishes, then shut down and  scrub out everything Folding-related and start from scratch. If a parasite work unit bites the dust, I don't mourn for it.  The only thing I'd consider saving is the client.cfg file, to save myself the trouble of typing in a 32 digit passkey.  

Having said all that though, I'm interested in reading your tutorial on reinstalls and learning some new ways go go about it.

[xairbusdriver]

2. /Library/LaunchDaemons/Folding@home.plist

Ah, yes! Those "daemons!" I'd cleaned out the other stuff. Now even that plist is history. I'm sure it would be harmless without anything to do, but better safe than whining...er, somethin' like that.

It's probably better that I just clean up my text and send it to you or anyone that might be interested. I'd certainly not want to post anything where a NooB might read it and do something wrong and become frustrated and quit.

I see a "Your Messenger" link, so I assume this forum has a Private Message capability. Others I've used had an option to send those via a link on each members name along side their posts. If that is available, it would keep the thing out of sight (which is probably the best place for it, anyway!) [ ]

Thanks, again, for your help!