This client is an application only, not a screen saver. You can launch it manually from the Terminal at any time, or arrange for it to launch automatically from a crontab.

Download Link:   CLI client (105 KB)

1. Download the client. If the file did not unstuff automatically, unstuff it by dropping it on either Stuffit Expander or OpenUp. Experienced users can also unstuff it with the command line utilities. After unstuffing, you might want to change the client's name to something shorter and easier to type, like "folding".
2. The client arrives with it's mode bits set incorrectly. Attempting to launch it will fail with a "Permission denied" message. To fix this, launch the Terminal and type the following command: "chmod +x ". No quotes of course, and do not press Return yet. Instead, drag the client file and drop it in the Terminal window, this will set the file path. Now click in the Terminal to make it active again, and finally press Return. The client will now be executable.

3. Place the client in a new folder of it's own, perhaps called "fold". When the client is launched, it will place it's data files in ~/Library/Folding@home, your User folder, or whatever folder it is itself in, depending on how it is launched. Placing it in it's own folder will keep things orderly. To force the client to place it's files within it's own folder, add the -local launch tag to the launch command. This option is needed when running multiple clients on the same machine to take advantage of multiple CPUs.
4. Open a new Terminal window. Type "cd " (change directory in unix-speak). Drag and drop the client's folder into the Terminal window to set the folder path. Click in the Terminal window, then press Return.

5. Type "./folding -local" (or whatever you named the client as) to launch the client with a self-contained install.
6. When Folding@home launches, the first thing it does is to benchmark your system. This is apparently to make sure you have enough free CPU available. It might be a good idea to have an otherwise idle system the first time you start up Folding.
7. Upon the first launch, it will bring up the client config options, to allow you to enter your name and team number. You can reach these again at any time by launching the client with the -config tag.

8. Enter a suitable name or email address in the Name field. If you enter an email address, only the user name will show in Folding stats. The "@" symbol and everything after it will not be shown.
9. Be sure to enter "16" as the team number for Team MacNN. Once Folding units are returned, you cannot change the team that they are assigned to. The default "0" is a null team. Unlike most other projects, Folding@home does not allow you to crunch individually and later assign the units to a team of your choice. They have to be assigned before they are returned. If you allow a work unit to be returned with the "0" team setting, it will be permanently assigned to the null "0" team.

Note: This is the way to join Team MacNN on Folding@home. Return a work unit on our team number 16, and you will appear on the team. Also, you can modify these settings later if you wish. They are not final for a particular work unit until the finished unit is actually uploaded.

10. If you can only connect to the internet manually, tell it to ask before connecting.
11. You may want to enter proxy settings if you are behind a firewall, otherwise you can ignore the proxy line.
12. Folding@home will connect to the project server to obtain an agent ID code. It will also download a work unit, along with a crunching core called "core_65.exe".
13. You are now crunching on the Folding@home project. Note that the current client does not report anything further in the Terminal window until it has finished the work unit. To check the progress on a work unit, you must open the log file for that unit. See below.

Folding@home crunches 50-400 "Frames" per work unit. Results are saved to disk only when a frame finishes. When it comes time to quit the client, it would be a good idea to do so right after it finishes a frame. Otherwise, you will lose the work already done on the next frame.

To make it more convenient to always launch the client with the -local tag, you may want to set up a launcher script, which does nothing but launch the client with that tag. Using a text editor, enter the following lines, then save the file as fold in the same folder as your client.

#!/bin/sh
./folding -local

If your client is not called "folding", change the name in the script. You may need to chmod +x the script file before it will execute. Afterwards, you can safely start the client by launching the new script, the real client will always be launched with the -local tag. Note: do not create this launch script in TextEdit set to rtf mode. BBEdit Lite is recommended, or a Terminal editor, or TextEdit in txt mode.

The client can be quit by typing Control-c or Control-x in the client's Terminal window. Try to avoid quitting it by closing the Terminal window, or by issuing a kill command to the folding process. Doing either of these things will kill the client's user interface, but will leave the crunch core (core_65.exe) running. This process would then have to be killed separately.

The client app folder can be moved to any location. Data and config files are stored in the client's folder along with the client itself, assuming that you are using the -local tag when launching the client. If you open that folder, you will see several new files.

folding is the client. client.cfg is the preferences file. You can edit it with BBEdit if you like. FAHlog.txt is a log of the current session startup to shutdown. It does not include the work unit progress, which is separately logged inside the Work folder. Core_65.exe, despite the name, is a PPC crunching core. queue.dat contains a log of completed units, along with completed units that have not been uploaded yet. Work contains the actual work units until they have finished being crunched.

The Work folder contains a variety of files, which will change over time. The most interesting is the logfile_01.txt - the number varies by what unit you are crunching. This file shows your progress on the current work unit.