Paul's GTX 295 Adventure

Message boards : Graphics cards (GPUs) : Paul's GTX 295 Adventure

Author	Message
Paul D. Buck Send message Joined: 9 Jun 08 Posts: 1050 Credit: 37,321,185 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 5935 - Posted: 24 Jan 2009 \| 4:15:42 UTC
	Well, I ordered a GTX 295 ... another symptom of more money than brains. The plan was to put it into the Linux system I have and to see what the CPU load was and compare to the XP systems and decide where to go from there ... Well, The Linux system did not see the card at all, as a GPU ... tried the 9800 GT and it was not seen as one either ... attempts to update the drivers defeated my limited linux abilities though I may take another shot at it when I have the energy to tackle something frustrating ... So, back to the situation where I have the 9800 GT in the Q9300 consuming 22% CPU ... I also have the GTX 280 and 295 in the i7 box and it is happily moving 3 tasks along ... I have compled a couple that had many restarts and they ended well ... if you look at them they have a mix of segments where part was done on one then the other processor. Not sure where they will come out when the two cards start pumping out results where the task runs all the way through on only the one class. Had one Blue Screen when I tried to open the NVida utilities control panel ... not sure why, I installed the drivers from the GTX 295 CD ... later I updated to the latest driver off the support site, but have not tired again because I want to see if a couple tasks run to completion well ... So, now I see 7% load on 3 CPUs to keep the three GPUs fed ... Later I will try the utilities again to see if the newest drivers/utilities still fail .. or not ... But it does seem that the 295's are not as well supported as one might like. But, that is the risk for the very latest and greatest cards ... In a couple hours I should have three more tasks to report and we shall see how they go, they all should, or at least two should be "pure" runs on just one of the processors ... ____________
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Paul D. Buck Send message Joined: 9 Jun 08 Posts: 1050 Credit: 37,321,185 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 5936 - Posted: 24 Jan 2009 \| 5:41:54 UTC
	I jus ttried an expirement that was suggested by ETA (I think) where the actual process prioirty is changed. I manually changed it to low on all three process on the i7 and yet the CPU load on the XP machine does not change ... Which suggests that the raising of the priority is not the cause of my woes and may have little effect on the system performance .... ____________
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Curt Timmerman Send message Joined: 24 Dec 08 Posts: 13 Credit: 17,931,283 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 5940 - Posted: 24 Jan 2009 \| 7:42:49 UTC
	attempts to update the drivers defeated my limited linux abilities though I may take another shot at it when I have the energy to tackle something frustrating ... Here is how I updated the nvidia drivers on Fedora 10 (there are most likely better ways): 1. download the latest driver - in my case 'NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-180.22-pkg2.run'. 2. Edit (as root) /etc/inittab and change the line 'id:5:initdefault:' to 'id:3:initdefault:'. Do not comment out the existing line and make a separate updated line, init has a problem with this. 3. Reboot - you will be in the non-graphics mode. 4. Go to the directory with the driver file and (as root) enter: 'sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-180.22-pkg2.run' to run the updates. 5. I answered yes/ok to everything. 6. Edit (as root) /etc/inittab and change the line 'id:3:initdefault:' to 'id:5:initdefault:'. 7. Reboot - you will be in the graphics mode. 8. Log in, Run the nvidia configuration tool (In Fedora it's under 'System Tools') to check out the gtx 295. The rebooting is not strictly necessary but when I switched runlevels directly, there was some flaky behaviour. I could not change the clock settings without a system lockup. Curt
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Paul D. Buck Send message Joined: 9 Jun 08 Posts: 1050 Credit: 37,321,185 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 5948 - Posted: 24 Jan 2009 \| 10:23:57 UTC
	Curt, I did about that ... The final failure told me I did not have the right libraries on the system and I need to get those packages. Something about re-compiling the kernal ... Ubuntu does not use init to turn off the x system and I did manage to do that ... but as I said, I needed the sources to do that ... My ability to struggle ran out and without the energy to struggle I had to abandon the effort for this day. I still have the driver down and I can try again for the Nvidia card I have in that system so I can try again and maybe get a build later ... Now all i have to figure out is how to get the needed libraries with the package manager ... ____________
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Curt Timmerman Send message Joined: 24 Dec 08 Posts: 13 Credit: 17,931,283 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 5951 - Posted: 24 Jan 2009 \| 11:45:06 UTC
	The final failure told me I did not have the right libraries on the system and I need to get those packages. Something about re-compiling the kernal ... This is a little misleading - you are not compiling the kernel, it is a module that links directly with the kernel. What is needed are the kernel 'c' header files and maybe some other stuff. In your package installer, if you search for 'kernel', there should be a package (rpm?) that includes just these header files for compiling modules. This is based on Fedora 10, your results may vary. Curt
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STE\/E Send message Joined: 18 Sep 08 Posts: 368 Credit: 322,347,298 RAC: 528,826 Level Scientific publications	Message 5952 - Posted: 24 Jan 2009 \| 13:03:16 UTC Last modified: 24 Jan 2009 \| 13:26:27 UTC
	I also have the GTX 280 and 295 in the i7 box and it is happily moving 3 tasks along I moved the 295 I have to a older Q6600 Box, Updated to the latest Drivers (181.22 -- What Driver Version did you use ??? for Windows XP Pro) but still can't get it to run 2 WU's @ once for more than a few seconds & then 1 of them will give a computation error. But @ least in the Q6600 Box 1 WU is running & is up to 40% done. When that WU gets done I'm going to move the 295 back to the I7 Box & try it again. When it was in the I7 Box the longest a WU would run was 20 Minutes. Paul, do you have the PhysX GPU acceleration Enabled or Disabled in the NVIDIA Control Panel. I have it Disabled for now and also multi-GPU configuration set to Do not use the multi-GPU mode. Also I see your running Service Pack 3, I'm still using 2 so maybe I need to Update to 3 ??? < Scratch that, I also see your running x86 while I'm running 64-Bit an all my Box's @ theres no Service Pack 3 for the 64-Bit XP Pro OS's. On your Linux Box are you running Ubuntu 8.04 or 8.10, if your running 8.10 I can give you the instructions that work for me to install the Video Drivers & Client ... Ubuntu does not use init to turn off the x system Well it does in a round about way, at least on my Box's it does anyway: sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop < is the proper command to stop the X system/server use start to re-start thr X system/server
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mike047 Send message Joined: 21 Dec 08 Posts: 47 Credit: 7,330,049 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 5955 - Posted: 24 Jan 2009 \| 14:23:20 UTC
	If you will boot to recovery mode[press esc during boot]you don't have to do the init thing. When prompted go to root shell and install drivers.[ubuntu 8.04] You need IA32-libs[synaptic] and "build essential"; in a terminal... Do this Before Nvidia driver installation sudo apt-get install build-essential, it will ask for pass word and then install. mike ____________ mike
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J.D. Send message Joined: 2 Jan 09 Posts: 40 Credit: 16,762,688 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 5957 - Posted: 24 Jan 2009 \| 15:38:07 UTC - in response to Message 5951.
	The final failure told me I did not have the right libraries on the system and I need to get those packages. Something about re-compiling the kernal ... This is a little misleading - you are not compiling the kernel, it is a module that links directly with the kernel. What is needed are the kernel 'c' header files and maybe some other stuff. But yes, there will be blood... er, compiling. But only for system distributions that are not kept up to date with the latest third party drivers. Surely a system like Ubuntu can have pre-compiled kernel packages ready by now to match your Linux configuration. Two weeks have passed since the 180.22 driver release. After all, we have systems like Ubuntu or Redhat so we don't have to compile. :-)
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Paul D. Buck Send message Joined: 9 Jun 08 Posts: 1050 Credit: 37,321,185 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 5960 - Posted: 24 Jan 2009 \| 19:27:07 UTC
	Thanks for the suggestions and tips. Sadly these days I can only do so much before I have to rest for a couple days... but I am going to give it another whack to see what I can get on the linux box. I may be able to fiddle with it later today, I still have the download and I will try to suggestions on the getting the new drivers built. I don't mind the compiling, I am just annoyed the system is not smart enough to be able to go get what it needs without me having to fumble with it ... @PoorBoy, The major difference tween us is that I am running 32 bit and you are doing 64 bit. I tried the drivers that came with the 295 card (not sure the exact version, one of my major annoyances with Nvidia the external driver version number is not the one you look up when you examine the drivers installed, GRRR). But since then I installed the 181.22 and it seems to be cranking along ... Most interesting, I still get BSOD when I try to use the Nvidia control panel. I suspect that it is because of one or two causes, A) I have a 295 card, or B) I have it AND the 280 card and Nvidia never expected that someone would run with a mixed configuration. Yeah, MS tells me the device driver had STOP thread stuck in device driver ... blah, blah, blah ... idiots, I already have the latest drivers ... Also interesting, it seems that tasks never run end to end on just one of the cards. The always seem to run on the 295 then on the 280 ... I am pretty sure that at least two of them should have run end to end on one card or the other. Most odd. ____________
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Paul D. Buck Send message Joined: 9 Jun 08 Posts: 1050 Credit: 37,321,185 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 5963 - Posted: 24 Jan 2009 \| 21:26:35 UTC
	Well, take two ... I did an upgrade to the latest version of Ubuntu (8.10) which seemed to complete correctly. At least the system changed. I then found this set of directions to install the drivers ... I went through the steps to get success at each sub-step only to get to the end where the nvidia control panel tells me that I am not using the nvidia drivers. I appear to be still using the installed restricted drivers. The Nvidia card I have in there at the moment is an 8500GT and SHOULD show up as an accellerated/GPU capable card (if I read the list correctly) but the second try seems to be a strike out too ... ____________
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STE\/E Send message Joined: 18 Sep 08 Posts: 368 Credit: 322,347,298 RAC: 528,826 Level Scientific publications	Message 5966 - Posted: 24 Jan 2009 \| 21:57:14 UTC Last modified: 24 Jan 2009 \| 22:00:52 UTC
	Try this Paul, it's worked for me every time I've tried it on Ubuntu 8.10 ... LINUX Ubuntu 8.10 CUDA Video Card Driver Installation Procedure: Download the drivers from the NVIDIA website set the Permissions through the Properties & Permissions of the installer Then put the installer into a directory (for instance /tmp) Then Press ctrl-alt-F1, a text login screen will appear * login (Username > enter Password > enter) * login as root (sudo -i > enter > Username > enter Password > enter) * type > sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop < to stop the X server * type > sh /tmp/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-180.06-pkg2.run < to install the driver from the directory where you had downloaded it (Modify the Driver name to the one you Downloaded) * answer yes/ok to all questions from the installer (Make sure your answering yes/ok to all questions, this is where I had a hard time & goofed up until I got it right) * type > sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start < to start the X Server again NEXT THE TOOKIT & SDK INSTALLATION: 1. You don't need to install the Toolkit or SDK Files for the WU's to run !!!
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Paul D. Buck Send message Joined: 9 Jun 08 Posts: 1050 Credit: 37,321,185 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 5967 - Posted: 24 Jan 2009 \| 22:18:14 UTC
	NOpe ... Same error ... I get the steps where it looks like it is building the package/driver ... I am carful about the Ok and yes answers ... it tells me it succeeded ... but then when I try to start gdm it tells me that there is no driver and will start in low res mode ... If I then try the nvida control panel that has been installed, it too tells me that there are no Nvidia drivers installed. running nvidia xconfig does not help ... I double checked and the drivers should be good for the 8500GT card so it should in theory install correctly ... not sure if I have some driver remnant that needs to be removed or what ... I wonder if because I am running the restricted driver already if that is causing an issue. I will try that next I guess ... Turn that off and try again ... ____________
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STE\/E Send message Joined: 18 Sep 08 Posts: 368 Credit: 322,347,298 RAC: 528,826 Level Scientific publications	Message 5969 - Posted: 24 Jan 2009 \| 22:58:16 UTC
	Hmmmmm, okay, I'm going to install Linux Ubuntu 8.10 on my i7 (Something I need to do anyway) & see what happens with the Video Driver installation, it'll take me a few hours to get everything installed so I'll let you know then ...
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J.D. Send message Joined: 2 Jan 09 Posts: 40 Credit: 16,762,688 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 5971 - Posted: 25 Jan 2009 \| 0:18:49 UTC - in response to Message 5960.
	I don't mind the compiling, I am just annoyed the system is not smart enough to be able to go get what it needs without me having to fumble with it ... Actually, with Debian 5.0 beta and an older video card, I recall that system automatically setting up the display for the Nvidia card. The catch is that it used the open source driver, rather than the proprietary and closed driver that Nvidia develops, the only driver that supports the latest cards along with CUDA and 3D acceleration. Debian GNU/Linux has a habit of favoring free and open software for the default system. So... we end up having to go to the "non-free" section of Debian for the Nvidia drivers released by Nvidia. Since Nvidia appears to not directly support Debian in the form of easy to install packages, the latest drivers supporting the latest cards are not always available in the easy form. Sometimes walking away for a time, gives the solution an opportunity to present itself without so much annoyance. But for the impatient... With packages built, I will confirm that the Nvidia Linux drivers 180.22 include support for the GeForce GTX 295, even though the card is not included in the official support list. It's so fast! :-o Look! Today my test machine is already number one on GPUGRID! ;-) (Tops hosts on GPUGRID)
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STE\/E Send message Joined: 18 Sep 08 Posts: 368 Credit: 322,347,298 RAC: 528,826 Level Scientific publications	Message 5972 - Posted: 25 Jan 2009 \| 0:42:56 UTC
	J.D. are you running 32 or 64 Bit Linux ??? I'm begining to think thats where my problem is that I'm using 64-Bit Windows & Linux & can't get the 295 to finish a WU all error after just a few minutes at the most ...
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J.D. Send message Joined: 2 Jan 09 Posts: 40 Credit: 16,762,688 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 5973 - Posted: 25 Jan 2009 \| 0:52:44 UTC - in response to Message 5972.
	J.D. are you running 32 or 64 Bit Linux ??? 64-bit, what else? :-) I also used nvclock_gtk (0.8 Beta4) to increase the duty cycle of the fan to 80% to keep the GTX 295 cores below 70 C. Since the GTX 295 install I noticed one failed task, but the history of that work unit indicated it was also failing with errors on non-GTX 295 systems.
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Paul D. Buck Send message Joined: 9 Jun 08 Posts: 1050 Credit: 37,321,185 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 5974 - Posted: 25 Jan 2009 \| 1:33:48 UTC
	@JD Ubuntu is the same. BUt you can click on a "Restricted Driver" button to get a pre-built driver that is usually "better" than the open driver. However, that driver is also usually pretty old and in this case seems to pre-date the onset of CUDA capability. Though I do not recall ever trying the 8500GT (1G VRAM) with XP and a late driver it is in the list in the Q&A section as a barely passable card. It is not that I think that it would be that suitable as a processor for this project I was just going to use it at this time to verify that the updated drivers installed and then try one of my better CUDA cards there ... As to fast, well, it does look like I am going through lots more work It looks to me like it is the same speed, maybe slower, than the 280, but it does two tasks at the same time ... so ... but it is hard to tell for sure as it seems that every task get partly done on the 295 card and partly done on the 280 card... no idea why ... ____________
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Paul D. Buck Send message Joined: 9 Jun 08 Posts: 1050 Credit: 37,321,185 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 5979 - Posted: 25 Jan 2009 \| 10:37:35 UTC
	if I am reading the numbers right there seems to be two basic types of task Ascme and SH ... My threee cards seem to be doing about like this Ascme SH 295 52ms 34ms 280 28ms 31-34ms 9800 73-78ms 96ms Not sure if this is meaningful for anyone ... no overclock beyond what the mfgr put on the cards ... Not a hard data point in that I did not try to go back and collect specific data, but 6.61 is no faster than 5.55 ... I think I read that ETA said that the problems are harder, in which case then there is a speed up, but it is swamped by the increased complexity ... Or he is just feeding us a line to keep the peoples satisfied ... :) On a lighter note, 81 more cosmology tasks and I can move on to concentrating on ABC until the end of the month when it is SIMAP time again ... ____________
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STE\/E Send message Joined: 18 Sep 08 Posts: 368 Credit: 322,347,298 RAC: 528,826 Level Scientific publications	Message 5981 - Posted: 25 Jan 2009 \| 10:44:55 UTC
	Paul, I have the GTX 295 running 2 WU's in Linux Ubuntu v8.10 @ the moment, so far it hasn't erred out any WU's. I had to use the 180.60 Video Drivers because the 181.22 Drivers didn't take I guess when I installed them so I tried the 180.60 Drivers & they worked. I ran a GTX 260 overnight & then this morning I put the GTX 295 in the Box. It booted up with the Video Drivers that were installed so I tried running some GPU WU's, 1 @ first & then I started another one & their both running now & have been for 40 min's so far. So @ the moment I'm running 2 GPU WU's & 8 PrimeGrid Sieve WU's on the i7 Box, Video Temps seem to be holding @ 77c to 78c but that will go up I'm sure as the Temps in the house go up. I don't know how to install the nvclock Beta4 & the nvclock Beta3 doesn't do anything but give you a little information on the Card. Since the 180.60 Drivers worked in Linux I'm going to try some older Drivers in Windows & see if they will work later today, more like tonight as I want to run a little in Linux to make sure it stays running 2 GPU WU's without erring any WU's.
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Paul D. Buck Send message Joined: 9 Jun 08 Posts: 1050 Credit: 37,321,185 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 5982 - Posted: 25 Jan 2009 \| 11:16:55 UTC - in response to Message 5981.
	Paul, I have the GTX 295 running 2 WU's in Linux Ubuntu v8.10 @ the moment, so far it hasn't erred out any WU's. I had to use the 180.60 Video Drivers because the 181.22 Drivers didn't take I guess when I installed them so I tried the 180.60 Drivers & they worked. I ran a GTX 260 overnight & then this morning I put the GTX 295 in the Box. It booted up with the Video Drivers that were installed so I tried running some GPU WU's, 1 @ first & then I started another one & their both running now & have been for 40 min's so far. Well, this stinks ... they have the 171 driver archived but not the 180.60 ... hmmm, found a 180.06 ... Maybe the version numbers are different for 64 bit? ____________
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Paul D. Buck Send message Joined: 9 Jun 08 Posts: 1050 Credit: 37,321,185 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 5983 - Posted: 25 Jan 2009 \| 11:30:35 UTC Last modified: 25 Jan 2009 \| 11:46:00 UTC
	WAY cool ... Ok, I tried what I suggested I may have messed up ... Note for you Linux guys ... you cannot have the restricted driver installed/selected in the system ... or you will get a "silent fail" ... I removed the restricted driver and now the NVIDIA control panel says I have 180.22 installed ... have not rebooted yet, so not sure if it will stick ... more to follow ... {edit} Ok, the drivers survived a re-boot ... but the BOINC Manager still says no co-processors ... I guess I have to canabalize the 9800 GT to see if it will see that with the new drivers ... {edit 2} Put the 9800GT in, The systems sees it, Nvidia says it is the active card (only one plugged in), BOINC says no coprocessors ... I am using 6.2.14 BOINC, is there a better version for Linux? ____________
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STE\/E Send message Joined: 18 Sep 08 Posts: 368 Credit: 322,347,298 RAC: 528,826 Level Scientific publications	Message 5984 - Posted: 25 Jan 2009 \| 11:52:15 UTC - in response to Message 5983. Last modified: 25 Jan 2009 \| 11:53:58 UTC
	WAY cool ... Ok, I tried what I suggested I may have messed up ... Note for you Linux guys ... you cannot have the restricted driver installed/selected in the system ... or you will get a "silent fail" ... I removed the restricted driver and now the NVIDIA control panel says I have 180.22 installed ... have not rebooted yet, so not sure if it will stick ... more to follow ... {edit} Ok, the drivers survived a re-boot ... but the BOINC Manager still says no co-processors ... I guess I have to canabalize the 9800 GT to see if it will see that with the new drivers ... {edit 2} Put the 9800GT in, The systems sees it, Nvidia says it is the active card (only one plugged in), BOINC says no coprocessors ... I am using 6.2.14 BOINC, is there a better version for Linux? Try the 6.4.5 Version, thats what I used. I still can't get the 180.22 Drivers to install even by De-activating the restricted Drivers ...
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Paul D. Buck Send message Joined: 9 Jun 08 Posts: 1050 Credit: 37,321,185 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 5985 - Posted: 25 Jan 2009 \| 12:19:16 UTC - in response to Message 5984.
	Try the 6.4.5 Version, thats what I used. I still can't get the 180.22 Drivers to install even by De-activating the restricted Drivers ... Well, I downloaded it, when I run the script it unfolds into a folder ... the problem is that I have the package install and I can't figure out how to get the "new" boinc to go where the old one is, or if I stop the old boinc to get the new one to run ... I am sure if they worked at it this could be made harder ... I know Linux guys love to play on the terminal and type madly away ... or something ... much as I hate windows, most of the time you just have to plug it in and it runs ... SO, I have the video drivers installed and they seem to be recognized, but the version of BOINC that the package manager knows about is only 6.2.14 and though it says that it sees no coprocessors I don't think that is because the driver is not right ... it is the latest 180.22 ... all I am left to wonder if the version of BOINC is too early to be able to detect c-processors ... I mean, I could see that the 8500GT might not be recognized, but the 9800GT should have been when I moved it ... Nvidia knew that it was the other card ... heck, it even now knows that I have a NEC LCD 2010 display ... Well, I have used up my quota of effort for the nonce ... time to think on something else ... ____________
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STE\/E Send message Joined: 18 Sep 08 Posts: 368 Credit: 322,347,298 RAC: 528,826 Level Scientific publications	Message 5986 - Posted: 25 Jan 2009 \| 12:51:31 UTC - in response to Message 5985. Last modified: 25 Jan 2009 \| 13:05:38 UTC
	Try the 6.4.5 Version, thats what I used. I still can't get the 180.22 Drivers to install even by De-activating the restricted Drivers ... Well, I downloaded it, when I run the script it unfolds into a folder ... the problem is that I have the package install and I can't figure out how to get the "new" boinc to go where the old one is, or if I stop the old boinc to get the new one to run ... Un-install the old one first, the new one v6.4.5 won't go where the old one is anyway and they would/will conflict with each other. Then put the v6.4.5 file in the tmp directory, then set the Permissions & Execution through the Properties of the v6.4.5 file. Then Type > /tmp/boinc_6.4.5_x86-pc-linux-gnu.sh < or whatever your file is to perform the installation **Note > if that don't work then try > sh /tmp/boinc_6.4.5_x86-pc-linux-gnu.sh Then when you want to run BOINC you can do it 2 ways: 1. Using the Terminal just type > sudo /root/BOINC/run_manager & hit enter, you will be asked for your password & once entered BOINC will start up & the BOINC Manager will appear on the Desktop ... 2. Or do it the lazy way like I do & create a shortcut/link on the Top Panel from the run_manager in BOINC Directory. The BOINC Directory should be in the Root Directory now instead of where ever the old one was ...
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Paul D. Buck Send message Joined: 9 Jun 08 Posts: 1050 Credit: 37,321,185 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 5987 - Posted: 25 Jan 2009 \| 13:24:09 UTC - in response to Message 5986.
	Try the 6.4.5 Version, thats what I used. I still can't get the 180.22 Drivers to install even by De-activating the restricted Drivers ... Well, I downloaded it, when I run the script it unfolds into a folder ... the problem is that I have the package install and I can't figure out how to get the "new" boinc to go where the old one is, or if I stop the old boinc to get the new one to run ... Un-install the old one first, the new one v6.4.5 won't go where the old one is anyway and they would/will conflict with each other. Then put the v6.4.5 file in the tmp directory, then set the Permissions & Execution through the Properties of the v6.4.5 file. Then Type > /tmp/boinc_6.4.5_x86-pc-linux-gnu.sh < or whatever your file is to perform the installation **Note > if that don't work then try > sh /tmp/boinc_6.4.5_x86-pc-linux-gnu.sh Then when you want to run BOINC you can do it 2 ways: 1. Using the Terminal just type > sudo /root/BOINC/run_manager & hit enter, you will be asked for your password & once entered BOINC will start up & the BOINC Manager will appear on the Desktop ... 2. Or do it the lazy way like I do & create a shortcut/link on the Top Panel from the run_manager in BOINC Directory. The BOINC Directory should be in the Root Directory now instead of where ever the old one was ... Geeze ... The heck with it ... too hard for now ... I have not found where they stashed the data directory ... ____________
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STE\/E Send message Joined: 18 Sep 08 Posts: 368 Credit: 322,347,298 RAC: 528,826 Level Scientific publications	Message 5988 - Posted: 25 Jan 2009 \| 14:00:42 UTC Last modified: 25 Jan 2009 \| 14:05:08 UTC
	I have not found where they stashed the data directory How did you install BOINC in the 1'st place, through the Synaptic Package Manager ??? If so just use the Package Manager to Un-install it again. Do a Search for BOINC with the Package Manager and the Installations should come up, Mark them for Deletion & Delete ... If you installed BOINC some other way then all you could do is maybe use the Add-Delete Program, or do a Complete File Search for BOINC & Delete everything that comes up in the Search except for files you Downloaded ...
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localizer Send message Joined: 17 Apr 08 Posts: 113 Credit: 1,656,514,857 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 5990 - Posted: 25 Jan 2009 \| 14:27:48 UTC - in response to Message 5988.
	...... looks like you guys have had time to grow a Goatee and wear sandals whilst going thru this (.... hang on, wait the Goatee is good!) so, apart from the fact the GTX295 doesn't work under windows do we now all believe that it is easier to use the MS road! Flames are good - it's cold here today ...!
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mike047 Send message Joined: 21 Dec 08 Posts: 47 Credit: 7,330,049 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 5991 - Posted: 25 Jan 2009 \| 14:55:12 UTC - in response to Message 5990. Last modified: 25 Jan 2009 \| 14:57:40 UTC
	...... looks like you guys have had time to grow a Goatee and wear sandals whilst going thru this (.... hang on, wait the Goatee is good!) so, apart from the fact the GTX295 doesn't work under windows do we now all believe that it is easier to use the MS road! Flames are good - it's cold here today ...! I have 7 units running virtually flawlessly that are on Ubuntu 8.04. Granted my gpus are not the calibre being discussed here. The initial learning curve for Linux was tedious but I can put a Linux box online crunching GPU and another boinc project in less than 15 min. It is not that tough. edit, cpu usage is 9% or less. ____________ mike
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J.D. Send message Joined: 2 Jan 09 Posts: 40 Credit: 16,762,688 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 5993 - Posted: 25 Jan 2009 \| 15:12:56 UTC - in response to Message 5987.
	I have not found where they stashed the data directory ... You mean .../BOINC/projects? so, apart from the fact the GTX295 doesn't work under windows do we now all believe that it is easier to use the MS road! Ha! So much easier when you accept as a given fact that your software just doesn't work. Why worry? ;-)
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ExtraTerrestrial Apes Volunteer moderator Volunteer tester Send message Joined: 17 Aug 08 Posts: 2705 Credit: 1,311,122,549 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 5997 - Posted: 25 Jan 2009 \| 15:50:44 UTC
	Paul, I remember this "user has to be added to group "video", otherwise BOINC can't see the GPU as co-processor". Did you already do this? And, BTW, I'm also running BOINC on some Ubuntu boxes. They keep updating all the time and like to be restarted, but I don't want to do this because after a restart I have to search where BOINC is installed.. which I have usually long forgotten when I need to do it again :p but 6.61 is no faster than 6.55 ... I think I read that ETA said that the problems are harder, in which case then there is a speed up, but it is swamped by the increased complexity ... Some (or all?) of the new WUs with differt credits are more complex and hence the time per step increases, so you can only compare times for similar WUs. 6.61 is no magic bullet and in 3+1 mode it's likely as fast as 6.55, but it does help a bit in 4+1 mode under win due to the higher cpu use.. but we probably shouldn't discuss this issue in this thread again :D MrS ____________ Scanning for our furry friends since Jan 2002
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Alain Maes Send message Joined: 8 Sep 08 Posts: 63 Credit: 1,438,609,959 RAC: 72,819 Level Scientific publications	Message 5999 - Posted: 25 Jan 2009 \| 17:03:04 UTC
	Remember that BOINC added CUDA capability the first time to the 6.3.x series, followed by the 6.4.x series. The 6.2.x family was not yet CUDA capable. So under Linux you have to make sure to install a 6.3.x or above. Kind regards Alain
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Curt Timmerman Send message Joined: 24 Dec 08 Posts: 13 Credit: 17,931,283 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 6000 - Posted: 25 Jan 2009 \| 17:46:40 UTC
	I have more problems with the 'packaged' boinc installs. Because of this I use the install script from the official boinc site. I know where everything is installed and controlling the version is easier. The docs state that linux 6.4.5 was the first version to support GPU's. When installing boinc from the install script (I'm on Fedora 10). 1. Place the install script in the directory you want boinc to reside. Your home directory works just fine. 2. 'cd' to the directory you have chosen. 3. Run the install script, boinc will be extracted/created in your CURRENT path. 4. A new directory will be created called 'BOINC'. All files boinc uses will be located here. 5. cd to 'BOINC' and use './run_manager' to get things started. 6. To upgrade to a new version of boinc, shut down boinc from the manager or 'boinccmd --quit' and follow the above procedure. You can copy the BOINC directory to a new location but rerun the boinc install script at the new location after the copy. This is needed because there are scripts generated (e.g. run_manager) that cd to the directory boinc was originally installed. After installing the nvidia driver (downloaded from nvidia) correctly, I didn't have to change any permissions or groups for boinc to see the GPU. Except... I was trying to start boinc from cron (the linux scheduler) at boot time but it failed to see the GPU. I believe this was because boinc was starting before linux entered run level 5 (graphics). It doesn't appear the nvidia divers are initialized until run level 5. Curt
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Paul D. Buck Send message Joined: 9 Jun 08 Posts: 1050 Credit: 37,321,185 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 6009 - Posted: 25 Jan 2009 \| 21:49:10 UTC Last modified: 25 Jan 2009 \| 22:04:03 UTC
	I am just going to stream of consiousness here rather than try to cite and attribute. I appreciate the feedback and when I have the energy built up again I will take another whack at it ... I do appreciate ya'll hanging in there with me through this adventure ... I am built kinda funny so I hate to waste work that I have signed up to do ... so that is why it was important for me to find the place where they stashed the work. I would have thought the Linux script did the sandbox thing similarly to the way it was done on OS-X or Windows. Apparently that is not the case for the "Official" install ... that is why it is/was important for me to find the data directory. The 295 card I have is working nicely thank you very much ... of course I am using XP Pro 32-bit while I know PoorBoy for example is using 64-bit which explains some of the differences / difficulties. I also have a GTX 280 and 9800GT working too ... the only card that is NOT working seems to be because of unrelated issues with Linux. Though what exactly the problem is I am still not sure. The 6.2.x I have says that it looked for co-processors and did not find any so I was assuming (bad idea maybe) that it was capable of running or at least of detecting the Card. I do know that I can un-install using the package manager, again, I was hoping to do more of a migrate. The package install does seem to have been more inline with what I desire with my set-up with a nice menu option to load the GUI and the automated startup on boot. Two more things the official script does not seem to handle. Ok, I need to, it looks like, do at least two more things to get CUDA to work, uplevel to a newer version and possibly add / change group permissions. Though when I just looked, there was no group video in my system. I just tried adding myself to the BOINC group to see if that makes a difference. Other wise I will try to add the group video and see if that makes a change. As to the software not working. I have not had any troubles with the GPU Grid application. So far all my troubles have been with the OS or video drivers ... not the application itself. I think I have only had one task error our, a couple re-called and I dont feel that this is too bad of an effort on the part of the project. Especially for a new technology addition to BOINC. That does not mean tjhat I am happy with the way the application executes, but I am not that thirlled with FreeHAL issuing about 10K tasks that all failed and only updating the application after we blew through the whole string of tasks ... {edit} Well, I fiddled some more ... new stop ... I tired the install script again just to see if the 6.4.5 would work and so I let it create a directory and in terminal watched the running of the script. It runs and makes the folder... cd to BOINC ... run the command line as prompted and I get "cannot execute binary file" error ... all the scripts and the binary files in the directory have the execute (+x) set for all three classes ... sigh ... SO, until I get another bright idea I am stuck again ... why it cannot run a binary that has run permissions set is past me for the moment. ____________
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J.D. Send message Joined: 2 Jan 09 Posts: 40 Credit: 16,762,688 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 6013 - Posted: 26 Jan 2009 \| 0:30:42 UTC - in response to Message 6009.
	I tired the install script again just to see if the 6.4.5 would work and so I let it create a directory and in terminal watched the running of the script. It runs and makes the folder... cd to BOINC ... run the command line as prompted and I get "cannot execute binary file" error ... all the scripts and the binary files in the directory have the execute (+x) set for all three classes ... sigh ... SO, until I get another bright idea I am stuck again ... why it cannot run a binary that has run permissions set is past me for the moment. For reference, I used the "boinc_6.4.5_x86_64-pc-linux-gnu.sh" install package while signed in as the regular user who would eventually run BOINC on the system. The user install puts everything into a single folder under the user's home folder. Don't move the folder after the install, because "run_manager" depends upon the location that you specified during the run of the install script. My working system also has that user added to the system's "video" group. So for example, "/etc/group" could contain "video:x:44:cudauser,myself", where both myself and cudauser are allowed access. Use your favorite Users and Groups utility to add your users to the video group, or feel free to call up your favorite text editor as admin. Just don't accidently delete or corrupt this file, because it's important for functioning of the entire system. :-) Also when you first add a user to a group, that user may have to sign in again for the updated group permissions to take effect.
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STE\/E Send message Joined: 18 Sep 08 Posts: 368 Credit: 322,347,298 RAC: 528,826 Level Scientific publications	Message 6014 - Posted: 26 Jan 2009 \| 2:28:52 UTC
	I'm RMA'ing the GTX 295 I have tomorrow, I talked to TigerDirect & they okayed the RMA and said they would ship out another 1 to me as soon as they got confirmation the one I have was shipped back to them. That's unusual a Company would ship a new item when they don't have the old part in their hands but if they do it's okay with me & I should have a different one by mid to the end of the week. I did manage to run 4-5 Wu's with the 295 in Linux Here but wasn't happy with the way it was running. The system was very sluggish, so I switched back over to Windows. The 181.22 Drivers seems to be the only Driver that works with Windows right now as I've tried to install other Version but they wouldn't install. Anyway I couldn't even get the 295 to start 2 Wu's in Window's and it erred 1 WU shortly after starting it so I made the decision to just RMA it, I already had the RMA Confirmation yesterday & was going to ship it out today but delayed trying to get it to work right, I'll ship it tomorrow.
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Paul D. Buck Send message Joined: 9 Jun 08 Posts: 1050 Credit: 37,321,185 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 6016 - Posted: 26 Jan 2009 \| 7:18:15 UTC - in response to Message 6014.
	I'm RMA'ing the GTX 295 I have tomorrow, I talked to TigerDirect & they okayed the RMA and said they would ship out another 1 to me as soon as they got confirmation the one I have was shipped back to them. That's unusual a Company would ship a new item when they don't have the old part in their hands but if they do it's okay with me & I should have a different one by mid to the end of the week. I did manage to run 4-5 Wu's with the 295 in Linux Here but wasn't happy with the way it was running. The system was very sluggish, so I switched back over to Windows. The 181.22 Drivers seems to be the only Driver that works with Windows right now as I've tried to install other Version but they wouldn't install. Anyway I couldn't even get the 295 to start 2 Wu's in Window's and it erred 1 WU shortly after starting it so I made the decision to just RMA it, I already had the RMA Confirmation yesterday & was going to ship it out today but delayed trying to get it to work right, I'll ship it tomorrow. Tiger Direct is my current Go To for parts by "mail" ... I have never (to this point) have seen anyone beat their prices and things like this also help even if they were a little more expensive. Cross my fingers, but, to this point I have been humming right along with my GTX295 and 280 in the i7 with XP 32-Bit... three GPU Grid tasks in flight and they seem to run at about the same speed. The two "cores" in the 295 seem to be the same speed as the 280 it is kinda hard to say for sure with the variability in the task lengths and the high CPU loads ... but, at the moment ... working fine ... I don't really do much on my systems, sometimes play a game, though the ones I play are not that intense on graphics speed as my ability to do things like first person shooters is long gone ... heck I had to give up EverQuest because I could not react fast enough for many situations ... Only 17 more COsmology tasks to go ... then it is on to ABC@Home ... ____________
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Paul D. Buck Send message Joined: 9 Jun 08 Posts: 1050 Credit: 37,321,185 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 6017 - Posted: 26 Jan 2009 \| 7:21:30 UTC - in response to Message 6013.
	For reference, I used the "boinc_6.4.5_x86_64-pc-linux-gnu.sh" install package while signed in as the regular user who would eventually run BOINC on the system. The user install puts everything into a single folder under the user's home folder. Don't move the folder after the install, because "run_manager" depends upon the location that you specified during the run of the install script. Same script/package I downloaded. I got the folder and it had the applications and the binaries were all tagged as executable both in the window level properties tab and when using "ls -l" to list the directory ... which is why I am puzzled by the message that I cannot run the binary file. My working system also has that user added to the system's "video" group. So for example, "/etc/group" could contain "video:x:44:cudauser,myself", where both myself and cudauser are allowed access. I did not have a "video" group, so I added one and added myself to it ... Use your favorite Users and Groups utility to add your users to the video group, or feel free to call up your favorite text editor as admin. Just don't accidently delete or corrupt this file, because it's important for functioning of the entire system. :-) Also when you first add a user to a group, that user may have to sign in again for the updated group permissions to take effect. Rebooted too, no joy ... ____________
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J.D. Send message Joined: 2 Jan 09 Posts: 40 Credit: 16,762,688 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 6019 - Posted: 26 Jan 2009 \| 7:43:43 UTC - in response to Message 6017. Last modified: 26 Jan 2009 \| 7:59:53 UTC
	I am puzzled by the message that I cannot run the binary file. How weird! Okay, here's more info from my working installation. When I type "ls -l /dev/nvidia*", I get: crw-rw---- 1 root video 195, 0 2009-01-24 09:58 /dev/nvidia0 crw-rw---- 1 root video 195, 1 2009-01-24 09:58 /dev/nvidia1 crw-rw---- 1 root video 195, 2 2009-01-24 09:58 /dev/nvidia2 crw-rw---- 1 root video 195, 3 2009-01-24 09:58 /dev/nvidia3 crw-rw---- 1 root video 195, 255 2009-01-24 09:58 /dev/nvidiactl From BOINC, when I do "whoami; ls -l run_manager", I see: jd -rwxr-xr-x 1 jd jd 57 2009-01-02 01:24 run_manager With "ls -l boinc boinccmd boincmgr", -rwxr-xr-x 1 jd jd 1955608 2008-12-09 19:06 boinc -rwxr-xr-x 1 jd jd 230176 2008-12-09 19:07 boinccmd -rwxr-xr-x 1 jd jd 6754744 2008-12-09 19:06 boincmgr Also, what do you see with "pwd; cat run_manager"? Does "ldd boincmgr \| grep found" show any output?
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Paul D. Buck Send message Joined: 9 Jun 08 Posts: 1050 Credit: 37,321,185 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 6020 - Posted: 26 Jan 2009 \| 8:16:38 UTC
	J.D. a step forward, several back ... I found the data directory used by the package install in /var/lib/boinc-client I had the 64 bit bianry which is why it did not execute ... lord only knows how I got that ... anyway, with the correct binary installed, I could get it to start ... ANd 6.4.5 did see the 8500 ... 6.2.14 does not ... so, whomever said that this was too early a version was spot on ... BUT, a couple problems still remain ... When I tried to copy the current data directory over to the home/BOINC dir the permissions on the files are farbled so that it does not compute with the local install ... Second, on start up I have also seen a message of connection denied which when I look up the error mitt sir Google it tells me I have to create a different run_bonicmgr file which eventually will somehow use the above listed directory ... and that I can put THAT file into the start up lists ... so ... for the moment I am back to thinking about it for a bit ... ____________
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J.D. Send message Joined: 2 Jan 09 Posts: 40 Credit: 16,762,688 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 6022 - Posted: 26 Jan 2009 \| 9:42:29 UTC - in response to Message 6020. Last modified: 26 Jan 2009 \| 9:51:52 UTC
	it tells me I have to create a different run_bonicmgr file which eventually will somehow use the above listed directory ... and that I can put THAT file into the start up lists ... so ... for the moment I am back to thinking about it for a bit ... I found that to move the BOINC folder required editing run_client and run_manager such that the full path of BOINC is updated to reflect the new location. There's even a script that updates the run_* scripts. From the folder containing BOINC, I can type ". ./BOINC/binstall.sh" and the change is done. :-) I then update my menu with the new location of BOINC/run_manager and all is good and friendly. Well... at least as friendly as BOINC can be. :-o {edit} Woo! My GTX 295 machine has broken past the 30,000 mark of recent average credit! Who can say when the first computer hits 40,000? :-)
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Paul D. Buck Send message Joined: 9 Jun 08 Posts: 1050 Credit: 37,321,185 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 6023 - Posted: 26 Jan 2009 \| 9:50:21 UTC - in response to Message 6022.
	I found that to move the BOINC folder required editing run_client and run_manager such that the full path of BOINC is updated to reflect the new location. There's even a script that updates the run_* scripts. From the folder containing BOINC, I can type ". ./BOINC/binstall.sh" and the change is done. :-) It is not that I want to move anything necessarily ... I am running down my tasks on the machine so that if'n I figure this out I can abandon as few tasks as possible. The goal here is to come up with a configuration that is as painless as possible and works. I am not sure how much I need the handy icon in the menu, nice, but dispensable if I can get an easy command t run ... Additionally, I need for it to be automatic on start as I do not always look at some of the systems so the package install is nice because it does work that way. But I am not at all sure that if I try the current set-up to use the package's data directory that it won't have problems with sub directory permissions as some things seem to have been made with root ... So, I guess the question is, now that i have a "working" 6.4.5, though I did not try to attach to anything, how do I make the last connections so that on boot the /home/paul/BOINC version will start up and start running ... Once I have that recipe and my cache is run down I can make the change to the new version and then I can see if I can actually run a GPU Grid task there ... Then comes the hard decision ... how do I distribute my cards ... :) ____________
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J.D. Send message Joined: 2 Jan 09 Posts: 40 Credit: 16,762,688 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 6024 - Posted: 26 Jan 2009 \| 10:06:54 UTC - in response to Message 6023.
	But I am not at all sure that if I try the current set-up to use the package's data directory that it won't have problems with sub directory permissions as some things seem to have been made with root ... Why mess with permissions or a system wide copy? A user-installed copy of BOINC in the user's home folder works just fine. So, I guess the question is, now that i have a "working" 6.4.5, though I did not try to attach to anything, how do I make the last connections so that on boot the /home/paul/BOINC version will start up and start running ... I admit, I've never actually tried running BOINC entirely from a command line. Anyone?
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Paul D. Buck Send message Joined: 9 Jun 08 Posts: 1050 Credit: 37,321,185 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 6026 - Posted: 26 Jan 2009 \| 10:37:42 UTC - in response to Message 6024. Last modified: 26 Jan 2009 \| 11:21:31 UTC
	I admit, I've never actually tried running BOINC entirely from a command line. Anyone? Not interested in running it from the command line ...but how do I launch BOINC Manager automadically? That is the 64 dollar question. I mean, I did get it to start, though I did not attach to projects ... the test was to see if 6.4.5 would see the 8500GT, which it did ... I was trying to salvage the work, though I can just run down the queue (in progress) and abandon it when it is pretty low ... But, when I ran the ./run_manager (or whatever the script was) it started the BOINC Manager, now, how do I get that script to run automagically? WIth that in hand I can uninstall the package and move on with the tests ... I mean, I finally got past: - the video driver not installing (silent fail fixed by turning off the restricted driver), and, - The install not running the binary (got the right binary), and, - the card not being seen (added video group, has to be number 44, and added self to that group), and, - running down work I signed up for (I know, abandon it, the project does not care, except I do, I hate to waste tasks when there is no real need to do so), and, - ran the task on the Q9300 to completion so that I can remove the 9800GT to move it to the Linux box, and YET, - I still need to be able to have autostart of the BOINC Manager on boot ... {edit} Who in their right mind wants, in this day and age, to run things on a command line? I certainly don't ... I have other things to do with my spare time ... {edit} I may have that fixed too ... it certainly works with a log out and in ... I added the startup task with ./BOINC/run_manager and it starts up the 6.4.4 (I think they blew the update on the number) BOINC Manager against the running 6.2.14 BOINC Client that is still working down the tasks I have ... I will run that list down till morning and when it is light I think I will abandon the remainder and reboot and see if I can make the 6.4.5 side work as a new install ... {edit #2} Well, I decided to abandon all hope and try the new local install ... and the SUM of all the changes and beating on the system and it now seems to be working as I would expect ... still a little fooling about I suppose to get the ability to re-open BOINC Manager if I close it for one reason or another ... but the add to the start up programs list worked, attach to projects worked (though it did not recover my "lost" tasks (sadly) so I have a new crop that I will be working through now. The GPU IS detected, but I am getting the no work for your processor message ... so I don't know if the server is snubbing me because of the 8500GT is not considered fast enough (though it should be barely qualified) or if there is no work for linux systems ... time will tell ... when Nancy gets up and I can make more noise I think I will move the 9800 GT over there to see if it is picked up and what happens then ... The adventure continues ... ____________
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J.D. Send message Joined: 2 Jan 09 Posts: 40 Credit: 16,762,688 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 6030 - Posted: 26 Jan 2009 \| 12:55:16 UTC - in response to Message 6026.
	Who in their right mind wants, in this day and age, to run things on a command line? I certainly don't ... I have other things to do with my spare time ... Ha! Maybe some people have other things to do with their spare time than design graphical user interfaces. ;-) Your words about running BOINC "on boot" inspired the curious thought about command-line BOINC. :-) Before the graphical interface comes up, there's nothing but commands. Really, it's a curiosity, not something to get excited over. ;-) Now a version of BOINC that plays nice with a system by actually honoring requests _not_ to use a specific GPU devices allocated to other purposes, or that doesn't make boneheaded decisions like estimating the number of GPU devices with the CPU core count... _That_ would be more exciting. :-) The adventure continues ... BOINC manager just finished grabbing another work unit about 10 minutes ago here, so the GPUGRID server's good. Hopefully, BOINC will run happily with your new GPU!
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Paul D. Buck Send message Joined: 9 Jun 08 Posts: 1050 Credit: 37,321,185 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 6032 - Posted: 26 Jan 2009 \| 13:44:10 UTC - in response to Message 6030.
	BOINC manager just finished grabbing another work unit about 10 minutes ago here, so the GPUGRID server's good. Hopefully, BOINC will run happily with your new GPU! I think the initialization of the new install put BOINC into deadline panic and so because the CPU / GPU resource shares are still killing me ... it also may be a issue with the 8500GT ... not sure yet ... It is working down the initial load of work and we shall see in an hour or two ... When it gets more light here in a couple hours I will pull the 9800 GT and put it in the Linux boxx and see what happens then ... in the mean time I am also coping with a spate of additional tasks from my detaching from the Account Manager BAM! when I used it to connect all my boxes to all my basic projects (to save typing in the e-mail and password) ... not a big issue ... I suspended most tasks on the i7 in that I am trying to get Cosmology over the hump so I can start to work on the next project on my list of goals ... no big deal, just some more care and feeding ... I DID note that on the Q9300 the 9800GT while processing a SaH task was only using 1 to 3% CPU ... and the new application for that project seems to be much better behaved ... but that is a decent load, well, I would prefer 1% or less ... but that is just me ... :) ____________
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Curt Timmerman Send message Joined: 24 Dec 08 Posts: 13 Credit: 17,931,283 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 6034 - Posted: 26 Jan 2009 \| 14:07:09 UTC
	Not interested in running it from the command line ...but how do I launch BOINC Manager automadically? This is a Zen koan, a paradox worthy of a true master! Are you trying to run boinc at boot time or automatically when you log in? ../BOINC/run_client runs boinc without the graphics interface (manager). ../BOINC/boinccmd allows you send commands to the boinc process (boinccmd --help). This works even if the boinc manager is running. Curt
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Paul D. Buck Send message Joined: 9 Jun 08 Posts: 1050 Credit: 37,321,185 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 6035 - Posted: 26 Jan 2009 \| 15:26:38 UTC - in response to Message 6034.
	Not interested in running it from the command line ...but how do I launch BOINC Manager automadically? This is a Zen koan, a paradox worthy of a true master! Are you trying to run boinc at boot time or automatically when you log in? ../BOINC/run_client runs boinc without the graphics interface (manager). ../BOINC/boinccmd allows you send commands to the boinc process (boinccmd --help). This works even if the boinc manager is running. Curt No zen, though I suppose you could see it that way ... I wanted and want the GUI to come up on log in with BOINC started ... I figured it out, I think, and so far it has survived one re-boot so I think I have it... I will feel better about it after I have run it for a little while ... and, tehe best of all I don't have to open terminal to run the command line command ... ____________
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Paul D. Buck Send message Joined: 9 Jun 08 Posts: 1050 Credit: 37,321,185 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 6038 - Posted: 26 Jan 2009 \| 21:06:37 UTC Last modified: 26 Jan 2009 \| 21:07:20 UTC
	and so the adventure comes to an end, at least for the moment ... What I DID seem to discover is that Linux, even with the latest drivers does not seem to like two GPUs ... or it sure prettends to not like two GPUs ... when I had either the 9800GT or the 8500GT installed I could get the system to boot, when I had both installed it would not start the graphics engines. That was me ... someone smarter might be able to get other results... Sadly, during the 47 reboots and the inability to get work I reluctantly put the 9800 GT back in the Q9300 and it is back to work there ... silently stealing my CPU cycles ... Even sadder, the 8500GT stopped working during the last shuffle ... so now I have to run the Linux box with an ATI card I had laying about ... And I am worn out again ... Though during one of the last go rounds I did reinstall the last of the restricted drivers (177 something) and BOINC came up with it recognizing the 9800 GT as a CUDA processor ... sadly GPU Grid insisted that there was no work for the Linux world ... so ... back to the other plan ... when I look at the server display, and assume that it is accurate I should have been able to get work ... no idea why I couldn't ...worse I couldn't process it anyway now ... sigh ... {edit} The best news of the day is I hit goal for Cosmology this morning and am on to the next project to push ... ____________
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STE\/E Send message Joined: 18 Sep 08 Posts: 368 Credit: 322,347,298 RAC: 528,826 Level Scientific publications	Message 6039 - Posted: 26 Jan 2009 \| 22:35:16 UTC Last modified: 26 Jan 2009 \| 22:35:53 UTC
	Could be that Linux needs both Cards to be the same in order to work but I could be wrong on that, UL1 probably knows more about that than I do ???
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J.D. Send message Joined: 2 Jan 09 Posts: 40 Credit: 16,762,688 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 6041 - Posted: 26 Jan 2009 \| 23:05:57 UTC - in response to Message 6039.
	Could be that Linux needs both Cards to be the same in order to work I recently swapped out a GTX 260 for a GTX 295, with no issue. The graphical interface always attaches to the card in the first PCI-E slot. Again, version 180.22 packages for nvidia-kernel and nvidia-glx are installed. Attempting to install a weak 8500GT as a second GPU device for BOINC does seem to push the borderline of practicality. Even so, I'm cool with trying weird combinations. Just don't wear yourself out. ;-) BOINC came up with it recognizing the 9800 GT as a CUDA processor It seems Paul had nearly everything working. I can only imagine why BOINC refused to play.
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koschi Send message Joined: 14 Aug 08 Posts: 124 Credit: 486,454,198 RAC: 1,657,845 Level Scientific publications	Message 6045 - Posted: 27 Jan 2009 \| 0:55:37 UTC Last modified: 27 Jan 2009 \| 0:57:22 UTC
	In my opinion the easiest way to a nice BOINC installation that starts automatically is using the BOINC package from the repository. Once installed you can pin that release in the apt configuration and it won't be automatically upgraded. As these 6.2.xx releases don't support coprocessors you'll now need to update your installation manually. Download and execute BOINC, stop the running processes: # [add boinc user to group video] # [download latest BOINC] # sh boinc_6.4.5_x86_64-pc-linux-gnu.sh # cd BOINC # invoke-rc.d boinc-client stop Copy some files and restart BOINC: # cp boinc boinccmd boincmgr /usr/bin/ # maybe cp libcudart.so to /var/lib/boinc-client/ # invoke-rc.d boinc-client start done. Thats how I do it for quite some time now. Altogether not that complex and you can enjoy the advantages of proper start and stop scripts as well as separating BOINC from user data. Imagine someone breaks into a poorly managed BOINC project, cancels all WUs and sends CopyUserDataToServerInRussia.exe as new application version to your host. Better not having BOINC running as your user then ;-) Regarding BOINC on the console. Well, BOINC itself is just a console tool, its the BOINC manager that gives you a GUI. BOINC works without it, the manager isn't needed at all. You can manage the whole thing with boinccmd as well.
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UL1 Send message Joined: 16 Sep 07 Posts: 56 Credit: 35,013,195 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 6050 - Posted: 27 Jan 2009 \| 6:30:35 UTC - in response to Message 6039.
	Could be that Linux needs both Cards to be the same in order to work but I could be wrong on that, UL1 probably knows more about that than I do ??? Sorry, can't help on that, because I never tried running different types of cards in one box...
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Paul D. Buck Send message Joined: 9 Jun 08 Posts: 1050 Credit: 37,321,185 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 6052 - Posted: 27 Jan 2009 \| 9:46:30 UTC
	Well, it is moot at this time ... I don't have a spare CUDA card with the apparent death of the 8500GT ... and it did not make sense to me to spend 24 hours futilelly trying to get when I kept getting the no work for your platform and I was able to get work without trouble on Windows ... sigh ... I had hoped that I could cache some work with the 8500 and then swap in the 9800GT to see if the CPU usage was as low as I hoped at which point I could have made a decision on which card to try to run there ... I guess I will have to wait in that I can't really see buying another 9800 card even though the price is right when I know it will only have a short life ... I would prefer to wait till I can afford another GTX 295 at which point I will bump the 280 down to the Q9300 system and then that 9800GT would be free to put into the linux box and my productivity will still be higher than otherwise and the "loss" of production on the 9800GT being idle would be easier to bear ... Heck I have been here just a little over a month and already I am over 500K ... so, one cannot quibble over production ... ____________
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STE\/E Send message Joined: 18 Sep 08 Posts: 368 Credit: 322,347,298 RAC: 528,826 Level Scientific publications	Message 6054 - Posted: 27 Jan 2009 \| 11:03:46 UTC
	I took the Time to pull a 8800GT OC Card from another Box & throw it in with the GTX 260 I have running in my i7 until I can get another GTX 295. Anyway the Box (i7) did Boot into Linux, Nvclock 0.8 Beta4 did see both Cards & I could adjust the Fan settings on both cards too. But BOINC Manager showed just 2 Cuda Processors & would only run 2 WU's @ 1 time even though there was 3 Cuda Processors in the Box. That's why I said I think that both cards have to be the same earlier but still could be wrong on that. The Box (i7) wouldn't Boot into Windows at all with the 2 different Cards in the Box, it would get to the Point of where it should go into the Desktop & just sit there. I would see Hard Drive activity but it wouldn't go into the Desktop. I switched the Video Cable between the 2 Cards but it didn't make any difference. I don't really have any urge to run more than 1 Video Card in a Box anyway, it just creates more heat in the Box, more expensive to run because you need a bigger PSU & the Electricity you use. But that's the way some of these Projects seem to be going, make it as expensive as possible for the Participants because it isn't their money (the Projects) that their spending.
	ID: 6054 \| Rating: 0 \| rate: / Reply Quote

Paul D. Buck Send message Joined: 9 Jun 08 Posts: 1050 Credit: 37,321,185 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 6055 - Posted: 27 Jan 2009 \| 11:35:08 UTC
	YOur experience is 180 out from mine ... I easily got the 295 and 280 or the 280 and 9800 to work in the windows box with no issues. I could get Linux to see the 9800 or the 8500 or not to boot at all ... maybe it is because it is a much older system? It is like 4-5 years old I think ... well ... no matter, it is running with an ATI card until I can get up the energy to try to see if the 8500 is really dead, or just pretending ... Well, I did the upgrades and expensive cards for my own pleasure ... gotta have something to keep my brain cells rubbing together ... Well, the next major move will be to get another i7 I guess ... with that I can shoot the two old Dells with dual xeon HT processors ... only 4 virtual CPUs each but they are so old and slow that even the q9300 beats them for production ... ____________
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Chris S Send message Joined: 18 Jan 09 Posts: 21 Credit: 3,950,530 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 6056 - Posted: 27 Jan 2009 \| 12:12:38 UTC
	only 4 virtual CPUs each but they are so old and slow that even the q9300 beats them for production ... And there is me with a P4 D 3.2 with HT as the best machine I got...... Fancy sending 'em over the pond if you don't want 'em? :-)))))
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Jack Shaftoe Send message Joined: 26 Nov 08 Posts: 27 Credit: 1,813,606 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 6216 - Posted: 30 Jan 2009 \| 16:10:49 UTC - in response to Message 6056.
	Is the 295 comparable to a 260 in terms of noise or is it louder?
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Paul D. Buck Send message Joined: 9 Jun 08 Posts: 1050 Credit: 37,321,185 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 6223 - Posted: 30 Jan 2009 \| 19:29:58 UTC - in response to Message 6216.
	Is the 295 comparable to a 260 in terms of noise or is it louder? As far as I can tell they are the same ... Of course I have the two cards in the same system at the moment and my computers are all pretty close to one another ... so ...
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J.D. Send message Joined: 2 Jan 09 Posts: 40 Credit: 16,762,688 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 6235 - Posted: 31 Jan 2009 \| 0:15:18 UTC - in response to Message 6216.
	Is the 295 comparable to a 260 in terms of noise or is it louder? At maximum speed, the fan of the 295 sounds louder with a slightly higher pitch than that of the 260. This isn't unexpected, as the fan of the GTX 295 maxes out at 1000+ RPM, while the GTX 260 fan maxes out at 800+ RPM. At full load, there's a very noticeable difference in noise when I set the fans to maintain a reported temperature of 69 to 70 degrees C on each card, because I can set the GTX 260 at a quiet 400 RPM while the GTX 295 requires 950 RPM.
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J.D. Send message Joined: 2 Jan 09 Posts: 40 Credit: 16,762,688 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 6247 - Posted: 31 Jan 2009 \| 12:01:07 UTC - in response to Message 6038.
	BOINC came up with it recognizing the 9800 GT as a CUDA processor ... sadly GPU Grid insisted that there was no work for the Linux world ... By the way Paul, did you have work units for other BOINC projects at the time you attempted to fetch work units for GPUGRID? After adding another BOINC project and receiving some CPU work units, I noticed some weirdness where the BOINC manager (6.4.5 x86_64 Linux) would refuse to fetch additional GPUGRID work units to replace completed GPU work units until the CPU work units from the added BOINC project completed.
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Paul D. Buck Send message Joined: 9 Jun 08 Posts: 1050 Credit: 37,321,185 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 6251 - Posted: 31 Jan 2009 \| 14:17:43 UTC - in response to Message 6247.
	BOINC came up with it recognizing the 9800 GT as a CUDA processor ... sadly GPU Grid insisted that there was no work for the Linux world ... By the way Paul, did you have work units for other BOINC projects at the time you attempted to fetch work units for GPUGRID? After adding another BOINC project and receiving some CPU work units, I noticed some weirdness where the BOINC manager (6.4.5 x86_64 Linux) would refuse to fetch additional GPUGRID work units to replace completed GPU work units until the CPU work units from the added BOINC project completed. Ye, but that has not been a problem in the past ... Well, I am back to having 3 in flight and a couple three four queued. I sure will be glad when we get a reasonable version working that separates the running and fetching for CPU vs. GPU ... I was hoping that 6.6.3 would be it so I could start testing it ... every time I make a note on behavior of 6.5.0 that I am pretty sure will survive into the 6.6.x series I get chastized with the "But you aren't running the latest version..." brushoff ... yet the latest versions have been so bad that they are unusable for reasonable production use ... I mean, I am doing wok for 40 some projects from newest alphas to the most established production projects ... and I can't afford to have my systems run dry because the developers can't code their way out of a wet paper sack ... :) Oh, nuts, you meant for the linux system ... Yes I did have some work queued ... not sure that I had just added a project or not ... well, it has been stable though I still have GPU Grid in the mix their is no GPU in the system. Wednesday when the the new GTX 295 card shows up I will be "bumping" cards down and the Linux box will get the 9800 GT ... I will see then if it will fetch any work for the GPU Grid ... if not, I will point it SaH Beta and see if it will pick up work in the rotation or not ... anyway ... early days for CUDA ...
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Curt Timmerman Send message Joined: 24 Dec 08 Posts: 13 Credit: 17,931,283 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 6265 - Posted: 31 Jan 2009 \| 17:35:04 UTC
	I noticed some weirdness where the BOINC manager (6.4.5 x86_64 Linux) would refuse to fetch additional GPUGRID work units to replace completed GPU work units until the CPU work units from the added BOINC project completed. I am running seti and gpugrid and to get around this problem I wrote a short cron job script that runs every 2 hours. The script: issues a suspend to seti issues an update to gpugrid sleeps 15 seconds issues a resume to seti The process doesn't get a download every time it should but it seems to keep my machine running at the max. Curt
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J.D. Send message Joined: 2 Jan 09 Posts: 40 Credit: 16,762,688 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 6413 - Posted: 4 Feb 2009 \| 23:09:37 UTC - in response to Message 6251.
	I sure will be glad when we get a reasonable version working that separates the running and fetching for CPU vs. GPU ... It happened again. CPU-only work units blocked GPU work units from being fetched, due to so many seconds of CPU work units already present. No more. I've removed all CPU-only projects. They can run in their own private BOINC, away from the GPU tasks. ... and I can't afford to have my systems run dry because the developers can't code their way out of a wet paper sack ... :) Oh, nuts, you meant for the linux system ... Ha! Apparently, the wet paper sack applies regardless of the system of deployment. :-o
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Paul D. Buck Send message Joined: 9 Jun 08 Posts: 1050 Credit: 37,321,185 RAC: 0 Level Scientific publications	Message 6414 - Posted: 4 Feb 2009 \| 23:53:44 UTC
	@J.D. I have "forced" my systems to run GPU tasks by simply figuring out a high enough resource share that the GPU tasks even when run continually can't solve the LTD build up... not the way it is supposed to work ... And even sadder, it is entirely possible that the changes being made to the fetch algorithms may not make this better anytime soon ... But, I will admit that I am basking in being back in the running to have a reasonable production per day ... even though I am down to 6 computers and three of them are very decripid ... Well, the Linux box is just cranking on a couple of my low end projects for the heck of it ... while I try to get my scores up on a few of the "bigger" projects that I contribute to ... I have long wanted to have a bunch of them with more done than I did for SaH ... now if one or two of those other low end projects had a secret CUDA project ... :)
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Message boards : Graphics cards (GPUs) : Paul's GTX 295 Adventure

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