I ran into a few gotchas getting the GPU compute to work with folding@home on Ubuntu. Here is a quick rundown on how to get it working.
Install your GPU graphics drivers
This depends on your GPU and there’s a good chance you have this done already. If not, I recommend using the pop!_os PPA to get the latest version automatically through apt. With your new found interest in high performance computing you may consider installing CUDA using the same PPA (optional).
# set up sources
sudo echo "deb http://apt.pop-os.org/proprietary bionic main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pop-proprietary.list
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-key 204DD8AEC33A7AFF
sudo apt update
## install the driver
sudo apt-get install system76-driver-nvidia
## optional! install CUDA
sudo apt install system76-cuda-latestSources
https://support.system76.com/articles/cuda/
https://support.system76.com/articles/system76-driver/
Install OpenCL
sudo apt install clinfo sudo apt install ocl-icd-opencl-dev
Install Folding@Home
Go to the folding at home and install all 3 deb packages you find there. https://foldingathome.org/start-folding/
Fix the config file!
For some reason the default config file disables GPU compute and I haven’t found a way to enable through the GUI so we need to fix it manually.
sudo gedit /etc/fahclient/config.xml
find the line that says
<!-- Folding Slot Configuration -->
<gpu v='false'/>
and set gpu to true!
Now you need to restart the client:
sudo /etc/init.d/FAHClient stop
sudo /etc/init.d/FAHClient start
Configure and start folding
Open FAHControl. Click configure. Click slots tab. Click add. Select gpu. Click ok then save.
Now you you should see your folding slot on the FAHControl main page. If it looks good click the “fold” button.