Boinc + Linux + GPU = pain

[Maxwell]

Oh, and Dandasarge, how is that different than the rest of the women?

+1 to that. Why do you think joker's mom and I get along so well? She's the only one dumb enough to sleep with me...

[Dandasarge]

Sadly, male penguins incubate the eggs while the females are off gathering food. Who chose that mascot anyways?

Oh, and Dandasarge, how is that different than the rest of the women?

Different then what woman? There are 2 kinds of woman in this world, Woman who want me and Lesbian's? Its pretty cut and dry . I'm just so likeable. (this is all sarcastic)

[Cruncher Pete]

Different then what woman? There are 2 kinds of woman in this world, Woman who want me and Lesbian's? Its pretty cut and dry . I'm just so likeable. (this is all sarcastic)

According to your statement, logic tell me that you must be a Lesbian...Although I am a man, I must also be a Lesbian for I like the same things as they do...

[Dandasarge]

According to your statement, logic tell me that you must be a Lesbian...Although I am a man, I must also be a Lesbian for I like the same things as they do...

Yes I'm undoubtedly lesbian.

[Fire$torm]

Altough this thread focused on nVidia, I could really use some help with ATI.

System
Intel P4@2.8Ghz w/HT (Socket 478)
ATI HD 4850 (Ref. design)
Ubuntu 10.04 LTS x86
BOINC Manager 6.10.58
GKrillM
AMDOverdriveCtrl (Open Source ATI GUI OC Utility - sorta like Afterburner w/o the frills)

ATI Software
AMD Catalyst Proprietary Display Driver - Linux x86 & Linux x86_64
Catalyst Version: 11.11
Driver Packaging Version: 8.911-111025a-128237C-ATI
CCC Version 2.13

After mucking around I was able to get BOINC to recognize the 4850 using the following How-To's

3D Acceleration for your ATI card (Link)
Debian/Ubuntu/Mint/Derivatives - GPU recognition fixes (Link)

Then I attached the box to MW@H......... nothing but computation errors like the following

Stderr output

<core_client_version>6.10.58</core_client_version>
<![CDATA[
<message>
process exited with code 193 (0xc1, -63)
</message>
<stderr_txt>
Error loading Lua script 'astronomy_parameters.txt': [string "number_parameters: 4..."]:1: '<name>' expected near '4'
Error reading astronomy parameters from file 'astronomy_parameters.txt'
Trying old parameters file
Using SSE3 path
Found 1 CAL devices
Chose device 0

Device target: CAL_TARGET_770
Revision: 2
CAL Version: 1.4.1607
Engine clock: 625 Mhz
Memory clock: 993 Mhz
GPU RAM: 1024
Wavefront size: 64
Double precision: CAL_TRUE
Compute shader: CAL_TRUE
Number SIMD: 10
Number shader engines: 1
Pitch alignment: 256
Surface alignment: 256
Max size 2D: { 8192, 8192 }

Estimated iteration time 282.310000 ms
Target frequency 30.000000 Hz, polling mode 1
Dividing into 8 chunks, initially sleeping for 0 ms
Integration range: { nu_steps = 640, mu_steps = 1600, r_steps = 1400 }
Using 8 chunk(s) with sizes: 192 208 192 208 192 208 192 208
SIGSEGV: segmentation violation
Stack trace (15 frames):
../../projects/milkyway.cs.rpi.edu_milkyway/milkyway_separation_0.82_i686-pc-linux-gnu__ati14(boinc_catch_signal+0x120)[0x80a1e47]
[0xc18400]
/usr/lib/libaticaldd.so(+0x4a896)[0xfe8896]
/usr/lib/libaticaldd.so(+0x4ded4)[0xfebed4]
/usr/lib/libaticaldd.so(+0x4df30)[0xfebf30]
/usr/lib/libaticaldd.so(+0x2cc224)[0x126a224]
/usr/lib/libaticaldd.so(+0x2c1417)[0x125f417]
/usr/lib/libaticaldd.so(+0x2ee94f)[0x128c94f]
/usr/lib/libaticaldd.so(+0x2e429c)[0x128229c]
/usr/lib/libaticalrt.so(calCtxRunProgram+0x9c)[0x19b95c]
../../projects/milkyway.cs.rpi.edu_milkyway/milkyway_separation_0.82_i686-pc-linux-gnu__ati14(integrateCAL+0x8ab)[0x8069ffb]
../../projects/milkyway.cs.rpi.edu_milkyway/milkyway_separation_0.82_i686-pc-linux-gnu__ati14(evaluate+0x1b3)[0x8061e73]
../../projects/milkyway.cs.rpi.edu_milkyway/milkyway_separation_0.82_i686-pc-linux-gnu__ati14(main+0x3ff)[0x8060e3f]
/lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xe6)[0x5dcbd6]
../../projects/milkyway.cs.rpi.edu_milkyway/milkyway_separation_0.82_i686-pc-linux-gnu__ati14[0x80608a1]

Exiting...

</stderr_txt>
]]>

One last thing, I did (at least I think I did) add boinc to the group video. No change.

HELP!!!!

[trigggl]

Then I attached the box to MW@H......... nothing but computation errors like the following


One last thing, I did (at least I think I did) add boinc to the group video. No change.

HELP!!!!

I assume you're using Ubuntu? Gentoo has pretty much the same boinc home structure as Ubuntu. I'm thinking that Ubuntu also probably uses a similar startup script. The startup script uses

su -m ${USER} -c boinc (options)

to start boinc. Which means, the script uses su from root to run boinc as user boinc. For some reason on radeon cards 'su -m' causes {USER} to lose their priviledges to use video.

To make a long, confusing, boring story short, I had to change the ownership of /var/lib/boinc* to greg and just run boinc from the user account without the 'su -m'.

So, whatever your username is (root if you want to live dangerously), make sure they're in the video group and run this from a terminal.

boinc_client --dir /var/lib/boinc-client --allow_remote_gui_rpc --daemon --redirectio

I made an action in my Applications bar to do it so I don't have to remember it and type it every time. I also created an action to stop boinc.

boinccmd --quit

Obviously, if you do this, you need to disable the init script.

Don't know if this is the cause of the problem you're having, but it's something to be aware of if it does become your problem.

[Cruncher Pete]

I am glad you guys are having fun trying to run a GPU on Ubuntu. I gave up long time ago for I could not find a fix. At that stage, I was happy with Ubuntu but because of the Proprietary Drives running BOINC GPU's became a nightmare and eventually I gave up and returned to Win.

[Fire$torm]

I assume you're using Ubuntu? Gentoo has pretty much the same boinc home structure as Ubuntu. I'm thinking that Ubuntu also probably uses a similar startup script. The startup script uses

su -m ${USER} -c boinc (options)

to start boinc. Which means, the script uses su from root to run boinc as user boinc. For some reason on radeon cards 'su -m' causes {USER} to lose their priviledges to use video.

To make a long, confusing, boring story short, I had to change the ownership of /var/lib/boinc* to greg and just run boinc from the user account without the 'su -m'.

So, whatever your username is (root if you want to live dangerously), make sure they're in the video group and run this from a terminal.

boinc_client --dir /var/lib/boinc-client --allow_remote_gui_rpc --daemon --redirectio

I made an action in my Applications bar to do it so I don't have to remember it and type it every time. I also created an action to stop boinc.

boinccmd --quit

Obviously, if you do this, you need to disable the init script.

Don't know if this is the cause of the problem you're having, but it's something to be aware of if it does become your problem.

Yeah, Ubuntu. Not ready to tackle Gentoo, but maybe next time.

Thx for the info. I give it a shot.
Which init script? This one ---> /etc/init.d/boinc-client

BTW: That ATI OC Utility I mentioned works very well, at least on Ubuntu. If your interested in a GUI tool have a look see (here)

I am glad you guys are having fun trying to run a GPU on Ubuntu. I gave up long time ago for I could not find a fix. At that stage, I was happy with Ubuntu but because of the Proprietary Drives running BOINC GPU's became a nightmare and eventually I gave up and returned to Win.

Ha. I was just happy to get as far as I did.

[trigggl]

I am glad you guys are having fun trying to run a GPU on Ubuntu. I gave up long time ago for I could not find a fix. At that stage, I was happy with Ubuntu but because of the Proprietary Drives running BOINC GPU's became a nightmare and eventually I gave up and returned to Win.

That would be singular (guy). Besides the email server, I haven't messed with Ubuntu in years. I'm Gentoo all the way.

[Duke of Buckingham]

I am Ubuntu but I don't know a ***** . You that are the best could you explain what is the difference and how can we change for the best?

Very ignorant Duke.

That is for real I really don't know why I should change between Linux systems. But I would like to understand that.