Einstein@Home GPU/APU Application for AMD/ATI Graphics Cards: discussion thread

Thanks for your suggestions but unfortunately things haven't worked. Although I can get things working immediately after I install BOINC (only after installing the ATI drivers first), as soon as re-boot, it no longer sees the GPUs.

Issues & Solutions:

ISSUE #1: BOINC starts before GDM can finish getting up and running. This makes the BOINC think the video card is absent. This can occur with both ATI and Nvidia cards but I first found it on Nvidia card equipped machines. If your GPU is recognized after you restart BOINC but doesn't find the card right after a reboot this is likely your problem. This can be a bit sporadic on some machines where it'll find it after one reboot but not another. If this is the only problem it'll find it every time after a restart of just BOINC.
sudo /etc/init.d/boinc-client restart

See history here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/boinc/+bug/414244

FIX #1: My fix was to add a delay into the start-up script so that GDM/X has a chance to have drivers fully loaded. This solution inserts a 6 second delay in the boinc start-up script which allows ample time for the driver to be available on all machines tested to date.
(a)Edit the start-up script file /etc/init.d/boinc-client with sudo gedit /etc/init.d/boinc-client.
(b)Find this function code and add the line “sleep 6†where it's shown here:
start() { log_begin_msg "Starting $DESC: $NAME" if is_running; then log_progress_msg "already running" else sleep 6 start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --background --pidfile $PIDFILE \ --make-pidfile --user $BOINC_USER --chuid $BOINC_USER \ --chdir $BOINC_DIR --exec $BOINC_CLIENT -- $BOINC_OPTS fi log_end_msg 0 if [ "$SCHEDULE" = "1" ]; then schedule fi }

FIX #2: Modify the start-up sequence of the /etc/init.d/boinc-client script.
(a)I got this from gfarmerfr an ATI/Ubuntu user on the DNETC forums after telling him how I was putting the delay in. I haven't actually tried it. It worked for gfarmerfr and he knows what he's doing. I believe this was tested on v9.10. In many ways this is a better fix but I was already into the script for other reasons (adding fan speed control) so I stuck with my sleep 6 version.
(b)Execute the following two commands to move BOINC start-up to the end of start-up processing:
sudo update-rc.d -f boinc-client remove sudo update-rc.d boinc-client defaults 99

Quote:

Thanks for your suggestions but unfortunately things haven't worked. Although I can get things working immediately after I install BOINC (only after installing the ATI drivers first), as soon as re-boot, it no longer sees the GPUs.

How about:

Debian/Ubuntu/Mint/Derivatives - GPU recognition fixes

Quote:

Issues & Solutions:

ISSUE #1: BOINC starts before GDM can finish getting up and running. This makes the BOINC think the video card is absent. This can occur with both ATI and Nvidia cards but I first found it on Nvidia card equipped machines. If your GPU is recognized after you restart BOINC but doesn't find the card right after a reboot this is likely your problem. This can be a bit sporadic on some machines where it'll find it after one reboot but not another. If this is the only problem it'll find it every time after a restart of just BOINC.
sudo /etc/init.d/boinc-client restart

See history here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/boinc/+bug/414244

FIX #1: My fix was to add a delay into the start-up script so that GDM/X has a chance to have drivers fully loaded. This solution inserts a 6 second delay in the boinc start-up script which allows ample time for the driver to be available on all machines tested to date.
(a)Edit the start-up script file /etc/init.d/boinc-client with sudo gedit /etc/init.d/boinc-client.
(b)Find this function code and add the line “sleep 6†where it's shown here:
start() { log_begin_msg "Starting $DESC: $NAME" if is_running; then log_progress_msg "already running" else sleep 6 start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --background --pidfile $PIDFILE \ --make-pidfile --user $BOINC_USER --chuid $BOINC_USER \ --chdir $BOINC_DIR --exec $BOINC_CLIENT -- $BOINC_OPTS fi log_end_msg 0 if [ "$SCHEDULE" = "1" ]; then schedule fi }

FIX #2: Modify the start-up sequence of the /etc/init.d/boinc-client script.
(a)I got this from gfarmerfr an ATI/Ubuntu user on the DNETC forums after telling him how I was putting the delay in. I haven't actually tried it. It worked for gfarmerfr and he knows what he's doing. I believe this was tested on v9.10. In many ways this is a better fix but I was already into the script for other reasons (adding fan speed control) so I stuck with my sleep 6 version.
(b)Execute the following two commands to move BOINC start-up to the end of start-up processing:
sudo update-rc.d -f boinc-client remove sudo update-rc.d boinc-client defaults 99

Claggy

Quote:

One follow-up question. I notice that E@H is displaying the notation (0.5cpu and 0.25ati Etc.) after the gpu units. I know how to adjust the GPU Wu's but can't find where to change the CPU fraction to increase it since E@H no longer uses app_info.xml files.

Can someone point me in the right direction?

Projects never use app_info.xml files - they exist for users with non-standard applications or platforms to create if they wish. I wouldn't recommend it, though, unless you have a pressing need.

You can change the declared CPU usage if you wish with an app_config.xml file (see Application configuration), but I'm not sure that's what you really want. It only affects how many CPU tasks are scheduled to run alongside your AMD/ATI task - it doesn't directly affect the running of the AMD/ATI task itself.

In your previous post, you mentioned "going back and forth between normal processing and "suspended CPU busy'". That suggests that you have your global computing preferences set too low: visit Computing preferences, and verify

Quote:

Suspend work if CPU usage is above
0 means no restriction
Enforced by version 6.10.30+

(or if you are one of the people who prefers over-riding the web preferences via local settings set by BOINC Manager, check the local version of the 'processor usage' figure instead)