OpenCL and Linux
7 Apr 2013 21:02:46 UTC
Topic 196894
(moderation:
I am curious if anyone can give some feedback on using AMD GPUs under Linux and insights into the stability of the OpenCL drivers. Once I find a working CUDA driver and kernel combo, I tend to not upgrade the two unless there is some serious security concern. I have no brand loyalty, but NVidia cards have tended to work fairly reliably for me under Linux.
I have to say that my Linux builds have been working for longer and longer without any kind of intervention (good), which means I fall out of the loop for technical information (bad). I like to run *Buntu variants, so if there is some reliable PPA for AMD-OpenCL drivers, that would be perfect!
Sorry if this question has been answered elsewhere...
OpenCL and Linux
)
Hi!
Actually not everyone is satisfied with NVIDIA's support for Linux (ask Linus Torvalds ...). As for AMD, several of the Top hosts in the Einstein@Home statistics use AMD cards under Linux, so it can't be that bad. I have one Linux host (not Ubuntu, tho) that runs both, NVIDIA and AMD cards, side by side, no problem. The only major issue I have is that I always have to start BOINC from within an X session so that OpenCL works for the AMD card. I'm not sure if there is a workaround.
Just my 2 c
Cheers
HBE
NVidia works well for me,
)
NVidia works well for me, across a diverse mix of AMD and Intel linux hosts. The same driver supports all reasonable recent cards (all those that'll work as GPUs anyway) and compatibility seems pretty good. It also has the advantage that you don't even need to be running X; just build the kernel module and away you go.
I have less experience with AMD GPU's (only in use on 1 host), though it's clear they currently have best performance edge at the high end. I've found building the driver module more fiddly, and don't like having to run X just to do GPU work. Also the installer writes to /usr, which for diskless hosts with a shared /usr is a pain (plus IIRC you have to remove the old driver before installing a new one - unlike nvidia). The whole driver set-up seems more fragile than nvidia's; sometimes the GPU isn't recognised by BOINC, even if the module is reloaded, and only a reboot sorts it out.
Also worth noting that OpenCL and CUDA are new(ish) technology, so e@h apps may well benefit from later drivers; for instance, I've just had to upgrade nvidia drivers (295.75 -> 310.40) because the ones I was using don't provide the required OpenCL support for an upcoming e@h application (FGRP v1.05, in test over at albert@home).
loading the amd gpu driver
)
loading the amd gpu driver with linux at run level 3, running boinc as root will do the trick. this way you can crunch amd opencl jobs on gpu without an active xserver.
Linux with AMD GPUs has been
)
Linux with AMD GPUs has been running very stable via my systems. I rarely get invalid tasks in recent times. I have had a few errors or invalids but that was primarily due to power outages at my location.
If you are going to go with AMD cards in Linux, I would suggest installing at least driver 12.11 Beta 8. This driver is in the range of 20-30% faster than driver 12.10 with BRP4. Make sure to install the AMD APP SDK for OpenCL support.
If you plan to run multiple AMD cards, make sure to enter this before starting BOINC otherwise only the first card will support OpenCL tasks.
export DISPLAY=:0
You can also run the above command in a SSH session for remote management of your AMD cards using aticonfig. The aticonfig command is console based and supports many control features including fan control, overclocking, and temperature monitoring.
For Linux distribution, I personally run Slackware64 14.0 with a more recent kernel. The 12.11 drivers will compile with up to kernel version 3.6. For kernel 3.7 or 3.8 you may need to go to a newer 13.x driver. Other distributions like Ubuntu should work as well.
Thank-you all for your
)
Thank-you all for your feedback. I appreciate the insights.
Yes, I know that neither NVidia nor AMD are particularly good about releasing driver information to the open source community. I have used NVidia cards because they work fairly well for me, as a consumer. However, I would happily support whichever one of them first chooses to make Linux a first-class citizen. Perhaps with Valve working on the Steambox, we might see some progress.