Page 1 of 1

Setting to stop CPU slot being re-added?

Posted: Fri May 20, 2022 7:54 am
by Lamberto Vitali
I currently use the setting "gpu false" to stop it detecting a new GPU, how do I do this for a CPU? I have a very slow CPU with 4 GPUs connected to it. I want the CPU to only be a helper for the GPUs. It manages this well, but not if it's doing it's own work.

Re: Setting to stop CPU slot being re-added?

Posted: Fri May 20, 2022 8:13 am
by aetch
I don't believe a similar option exists for the CPU.
I would suggest adding "pause-on-start true" to your config. This will pause all slots in your system until you are ready to manually start them.

Note:- this also sounds like the client worked correctly. When you removed your GPUs the client basically started to a blank slate, so it added the CPU.

Re: Setting to stop CPU slot being re-added?

Posted: Fri May 20, 2022 8:27 am
by Lamberto Vitali
You have a funny idea of "correctly", but I guess it won't happen again if the GPUs remain. If the user deleted something, he probably wants it to stay deleted.

I've tried "CPU false" just in case, which didn't produce an error. Is there a page listing all these parameters?

I don't like pause-on-start, it only has "off" or "on", I want "the same as before", like the setting in the BIOS for a power failure. Sometimes I'm folding and want a reboot (eg. Windows update) to allow it to continue, sometimes I'm not folding and don't want it to download tasks to run and start them without me asking.

Re: Setting to stop CPU slot being re-added?

Posted: Fri May 20, 2022 8:47 am
by aetch
you can use the command line to get each executable to print out every option it can use

https://foldingathome.org/support/faq/i ... on/?lng=en

Re: Setting to stop CPU slot being re-added?

Posted: Fri May 20, 2022 9:24 am
by Lamberto Vitali
Those are for running under the command line? I looked through the output of "fahclient --help" and it didn't include "gpu false".

Re: Setting to stop CPU slot being re-added?

Posted: Fri May 20, 2022 9:57 am
by aetch
It's complicated.
Most options will work in both command line and config. Some options are exclusive to one or the other, it's a game of trial and error trying to figure out which. Someone might have a definitive list, I don't. If you're using the option in command line you need to prefix it with --, the config does not require this.

We'll take the option you're looking for as an example

Code: Select all

gpu <boolean=true>
    Enable or disable auto-confiugration of GPU slots, requires appropriate
    hardware.
"gpu" is the option
"<boolean=true>" this is a combination of both the type of option as well as the default
boolean = true OR false
true = the default value applied to this option
When you enter the option you simply enter the option name "gpu" and the value "true", you don't need to enter the brackets or the value type.
I do not know if this option can be set from the command line.

I think something worth noting is that the options only appear in your config when they are valid AND they deviate from the default values.

Re: Setting to stop CPU slot being re-added?

Posted: Fri May 20, 2022 10:17 am
by Lamberto Vitali
Ah, I went back into the settings and it's deleted "cpu false", so that must be an invalid thing to ask of it.
I've also seen them deleted before when I changed gpu to true, quite annoying as it's handy to remember what that setting was!
I guess one day they'll make all this intuitive....

Re: Setting to stop CPU slot being re-added?

Posted: Fri May 20, 2022 2:15 pm
by toTOW
If deleted, the CPU slot is not recreated like the GPU ones.

It might be recreated if there are no other slots, but I'm definitely not sure about this.

Re: Setting to stop CPU slot being re-added?

Posted: Fri May 20, 2022 3:38 pm
by Joe_H
toTOW wrote: Fri May 20, 2022 2:15 pm If deleted, the CPU slot is not recreated like the GPU ones.

It might be recreated if there are no other slots, but I'm definitely not sure about this.
If there are no other slots, a CPU slot will be created. The assumption in the client configuration code is that if it is installed, folding is supposed to occur somehow. In the absence of a configurable GPU, then a CPU slot is configured.

Re: Setting to stop CPU slot being re-added?

Posted: Fri May 20, 2022 3:49 pm
by Lamberto Vitali
Argh! Assumptions! The computer has no idea what I plan for it.

Re: Setting to stop CPU slot being re-added?

Posted: Fri May 20, 2022 4:13 pm
by Joe_H
Neither do the developers. There was only one, now two, developers for the client and server software. You can not make the assumption they can read your mind either.

Re: Setting to stop CPU slot being re-added?

Posted: Sat May 21, 2022 7:45 am
by Lamberto Vitali
Contrarywise, I'm saying they and the client should NOT try to read my mind. No assumption should be made. It's like everything these days, computers, phones, even cars assume because you did X you're now wanting Y.

Re: Setting to stop CPU slot being re-added?

Posted: Sat May 21, 2022 10:07 am
by aetch
The vast majority of folders run their machines 24/7 without issue. They don't stop them mid-fold to completely reconfigure them.
The client does not know what you might do to your folding machine, only what you have done to it.
You are the only person complaining about the client deleting slots when you remove the respective physical hardware.
You are expecting the client to do things it was not designed to do.

You have talked before about your system crashing and burning every few days, now that's something worth looking at. Start another thread.