Mac 10.6 CUDA app "Ready to Start" not starting
18 Feb 2010 14:48:11 UTC
Topic 194777
(moderation:
So I've got the BOINC manager prefs set to "use GPU always" and "run always" and my prefs at einstein@home are set to run GPU whenever even if there is activity but both of my systems which have run GPU units in the past are just running CPU jobs only. Einstein@home is my only project. I have a boatload of CUDA APB2cuda23 jobs sitting in my queue "ready to start". I'm using BOINC 6.10.33 on OS X 10.6.2.
Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
-DougB
Office of CyberInfrastructure/National Science Foundation
Mac 10.6 CUDA app "Ready to Start" not starting
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How many GPU memory is available? The newer BOINC clients don't start GPU tasks if there's not enough free. During download the total memory is checked.
Gruß,
Gundolf
Computer sind nicht alles im Leben. (Kleiner Scherz)
RE: How many GPU memory is
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Interesting. I'll check that out. When you say "newer" which versions do you mean?
RE: RE: How many GPU
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I believe this feature was first added in 6.10.25 - so quite recent.
Check out the CUDA app sticky thread. I think you'll find other reports of Mac users being caught by this - enough total memory to download but not enough available to start crunching because of what the system is using. Maybe you can somehow shut down the GUI when you finish normal use and free up enough graphics memory to allow the memory requirement to be met. Before 6.10.25 I believe the tasks would immediately error out rather than simply not ever start.
EDIT: Here is a message in the sticky thread which comes from a user with a Macpro who had the same problem. If you read on from that point you will get further thoughts about the problem, including a post from Oliver, one of the Devs.
Cheers,
Gary.
Oliver's post in the ABP1
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Oliver's post in the ABP1 thread (now unsticky) was even more explicit.
Hi Doug, There are two
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Hi Doug,
There are two things you want to check to find out whether the amount of available GPU memory might be the problem as suggested by Gundolf:
1) Does the BOINC client log contain the following message?
Can't get available GPU RAM:If yes, the client can't determine the available memory in which case it won't use the GPU.
2) Please enable [pre][/pre] in the BOINC client configuration, restart the client and check whether the log contains the following message:
[cpu_sched_debug] : insufficient GPU RAM (MB MB)If this is the case please report back the x-value.
Cheers,
Oliver
Einstein@Home Project
RE: Hi Doug, There are two
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Yes, this looks like to be the issue, on the Imac I'm using the following comes back.
Fri Feb 19 08:36:08 2010 Einstein@Home [cpu_sched_debug] p2030_54024_84455_0105_G69.60-01.71.C_1.dm_72_1: insufficient GPU RAM (387MB < 400MB)
The card is an 8800GS with 512Mb of video ram (reported in profiler)
on the 8 core mac pro we have with an 8800GT and 512Mb of GPU memory the error is similar:
Fri Feb 19 08:44:57 2010 Einstein@Home [cpu_sched_debug] p2030_54024_82624_0090_G66.00-01.98.C_2.dm_164_0: insufficient GPU RAM (365MB < 400MB)
RE: RE: Hi Doug, There
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Hi Doug, RE: Oh and
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Hi Doug,
You don't have to as both cases are (well, should be) mutually exclusive.
Anyway, unfortunately your standard desktop setup consumes too much memory such that there's not enough free memory available for our CUDA app which currently requires the 400 MB stated in the error message. Are the GPU cards concerned used as (desktop) display devices? If so, I'd recommend to use only dedicated cards for crunching purposes - using display cards will also affect their performance, leading to a sort of sluggish graphics response.
Out of curiosity: if you use them as display devices, are they used in a dual-head setup and which resolutions do you run? Does the problem persist after a fresh reboot?
Thanks,
Oliver
Einstein@Home Project
RE: Hi Doug, RE: Oh and
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Well, it's a fairly vanilla Imac. The only thing the card is doing is providing display on the primary Imac monitor. I'm not using any GL or GPU applications other than what MacOS uses for display acceleration (not even a 3d screensaver).
The current memory requirements are going to exclude many people who only have one GPU and are looking to number crunch opportunistically with it while they are not using it for anything other than typical 2d display stuff.
I'll have to do a reboot to see if the problem persists and how long it persists.
RE: RE: Hi
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The Cuda app started after a reboot. I have not a clue what could be taking up GPU memory inbetween the time a cuda app ends and a new one begins. Should it release all the memory it was using before proceeding onto the next app?