What I've got so far. Far from a how to as with the nVidea's as it seems different things needed with different cards. Any other knowledge or tricks / tips post them up. There must be an easier way than jumping through all these hoops. Anyhoo this is a total work in progress and is not intended as a definitive step by step yet. More work is required. The guide as it is ....
Here is a step by step guide for installing Ubuntu 14.04 lts with boinc and AMD gpu's.
Written by an idiot so it should work. Have computer built as you want it, GPU on Mobo etc.
Download Ubuntu 14.04 lts
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop use the 64bit version unless you really have to use 32bit ( really old computer ) Don't use 12.04 LTS or you are on your own. I'm never touching that again.
Burn iso to CD / DVD
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/ ... -on-ubuntu
or bootable USB
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/ ... on-windows
Make sure boot from CD ( or USB ) is set in bios as 1st option. Stick disc in cd drive, boot and
install Ubuntu.Remember to input a password as you will need one. When finished system will reboot.
Upon reboot let system update install updates if it is required. Reboot if required.
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Select system settings from the launcher bar.
Brightness and lock - turn screen off -> never
lock -> off
Power management
suspend when inactive for -> never
select software updater and enable partner repo's in SETTINGS -> OTHER SOFTWARE and select all 4 options.( use file manager to search for it if it is not on your launch bar )
Select software center from launcher bar and search / install the following packages
Sysinfo
Psensor
Freeglut3 ( freeglut3-dev )
Virtualbox
7zip
java ( open JDK java7 runtime )
select additional drivers from the software updater ( SETTINGS -> ADDITIONAL DRIVERS )
this will search and give options for amd drivers, install amd propriatory drivers
Reboot when finished
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Select software center from launcher bar and search / download the following packages
boinc ( boinc 7.2.42 ( ancient but it will do at first ))
metapackage for boinc client and manager
(both found by searching boinc)
metapackage for openCL savvy boinc client and manager.
(this will install all the libraries needed for GPU crunching, both found by searching amd )
next we need to install the 32 bit libraries ( this list will do all the projects on boinc ( it
can be installed from software center, but installing 32bit, removes 64 bit, go figure )). This will
require the terminal i'm afraid, but dont worry. Either copy and paste or type exactly the commands in red. Linux is reliant on syntax
open terminal -> Ctrl-Alt-T
sudo apt-get install gcc-4.7-multilib
sudo apt-get install lib32z-dev
sudo apt-get install lib32ncurses5 lib32bz2-1.0 libstdc++6 libstdc++5
add the following ppa's
sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:webupd8team/java
sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:webupd8team/y-ppa-manager
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates
ppa:webupd8team/java will update java
ppa:webupd8team/y-ppa-manager gives you a ppa manager
ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa and ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates give you updated nvidia drivers
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Finally we update boinc to a up to date version by adding this PPA to your system
( You can update your system with unsupported packages from this untrusted PPA by adding
ppa:costamagnagianfranco/boinc to your system's Software Sources.There is a PPA repository available for Ubuntu.
This is a "testing" PPA, that typically is rebuilt with the newest Boinc version as they are released.
You may experience bugs with the version changes, but if you want the current boinc version installed the easy way from a repository: type these commands in a terminal CTRL-ALT-t)
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:costamagnagianfranco/boinc
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
(will bring you to current version 7.4.34 (as of 19/12/14))
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select additional drivers from the software updater -> additional drivers ( use file manager to search for it if it is not on your launch bar )
this will search and give options for amd drivers, install propriatory plus updates
Reboot when finished
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Boinc should now be running but no usable gpu will be found.
in terminal ( ctrl-alt-t )
sudo usermod -a -G video boinc
( this adds the unprivalidged boinc account to the video group )
sudo update-rc.d -f boinc-client remove
sudo update-rc.d boinc-client defaults 99
( move BOINC start-up to the end of start-up processing )
sudo service boinc-client restart
( restarts the boinc client )
Thats it, check boinc now see's a usable gpu in the start up log. Select boinc from launcher bar, ( advanced view -> advanced -> view log ( at the start of the log it should now have entries for your GPU with openCL versions )) .
Once you have completed and have a GPU available to BOINC, running and controlling Boinc is exactly as you would under windows.
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launch Bam manager as per usual for new install or attach to project as per your preferences. Boinc will autoboot on startup of computer. Set all your preferences on boinc as you usually would.
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If you have problems check that the fglrx drivers are installed.
fglrxinfo
this should give an output similar to this
fglrxinfo
display: :0 screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: AMD Radeon HD 6300M Series
OpenGL version string: 4.2.11733 Compatibility Profile Context
I found that installing from the repo didn't work so I installed through the command line.
Save a backup copy of xorg.conf in case this doesn't work.
sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.BAK
Remove/purge current fglrx and fglrx-amdcccle (If you have used a method outside of aptitude, apt, Software Center or Synaptic, follow the other party's instructions for removal). You will need to deliberately remove both the normal and -updates versions in recent releases of Ubuntu because it seems that attempting to remove one installs the other:
sudo apt-get remove --purge fglrx fglrx-amdcccle fglrx-updates fglrx-amdcccle-updates
Reboot.
You may need to install the linux generic headers
sudo apt-get install linux-headers-generic
Install the driver:
sudo apt-get install fglrx fglrx-amdcccle
or
sudo apt-get install fglrx-updates fglrx-amdcccle-updates
Generate a fresh xorg.conf BEFORE REBOOTING!
sudo aticonfig --initial
or:
sudo amdconfig --initial
If you are using multiple AMD graphics cards or AMD dual graphics (i.e.: notebook users), use:
sudo aticonfig --adapter=all --initial
or:
sudo amdconfig --adapter=all --initial
Reboot again.
To confirm the drivers are working open a terminal and type:
fglrxinfo
You should get an output similar to the following:
fglrxinfo
display: :0 screen: 0
OpenGL vendor string: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: AMD Radeon HD 6300M Series
OpenGL version string: 4.2.11733 Compatibility Profile Context
Use the Catalyst Control Center to make final adjustments to your monitor setup. If, after rebooting, you are presented with the message "Could not apply the stored configuration for monitors", do not be alarmed. It simply means that you will have to use the Catalyst Control Center to configure your monitors as you should even in the case where this warning is not shown. This most likely to happen with multiple monitor applications (particularly if the monitors are of different sizes) and multiple graphics card applications.
more info here
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/AMD
Boinc still would not recognise my card. I tried inserting the sleep command as per .......
That didn't work either.
I also tried most of the fixes below
ISSUE #2 (ATI Only): ATI Driver / X-session can not be accessed by user “boinc†results in GPU not found with Hdxxxx series cards (this may have started with v10.04 of Ubuntu).
See history here:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... bug/587426
FIX #1 (recommended one):
(a)Do not apply this fix without first having applied one of the delay BOINC fixes above.
(b)By default the user “boinc†does not have access to the x-session and therefore the ATI driver that is installed (Proprietary v10.x driver from AMD site).
(c)After multiple attempts at fixing this, the following line added right after the sleep 6 (see issue #1) will give you a work around solution. A permanent fix will require changes in the ATI drivers.
xhost local:boinc &> /dev/null
(d)This will allow user “boinc†access to the x-session and therefore the ATI drivers.
(e)You will have to restart boinc after you've logged in from a cold start or reboot with:
sudo /etc/init.d/boinc-client restart
(f)You will have to leave the machine logged on.
(g)The credit for this fix really goes to gfarmerfr
FIX #2 (the first one I tried & tested):
(a)Edit the file /etc/default/boinc-client with sudo gedit /etc/default/boinc-client.
(b)Change the line
BOINC_USER="boinc"
to be
BOINC_USER=â€rootâ€
.
(c)This has some security risks that would not normally be tolerated on a linux system because BOINC will now be running with root privileges and a malicious task could destroy your system.
(d)I'm not sure of this (bad memory installed in the unit writing this) but I believe you will still have to restart BOINC as in steps f and g above.
FIX #3 (I don't think I ever tested this one but it should work and has been reported as such):
(a)Same as FIX #2 but instead of running BOINC as root set it to run as your user id.
(b)So (see (b) above) change it to
BOINC_USER=â€skipâ€
instead (obviously, I hope, use your user id here not mine).
(c)Change the directory /var/lib/boinc-client and everything under it to be owned by your user id. See man chown. This should be something like:
sudo chown -R skip: /etc/var/lib/boinc-client.
ISSUE #2, FIX #1 addendum:
(a)One person reported that this will get rid of the need for a restart and to remain logged in but it didn't work for me.
(b)It did buy me one thing. A GPU WU that was in progress when a machine was restarted will start up again after the restart and seems to finish OK. I say “seems to†because I only tested this on one project. However another new GPU WU didn't start up for me, instead the application reported errors finding threads and/or devices for the WU (two different projects did this). There are some security issues around this. However here's all it is if you want to give it a try.
(c)Create or Modify /etc/gdm/custom-conf with sudo gedit /etc/gdm/custom-conf adding the following lines:
# to allow user "boinc" to connect prior to log on [xdmcp] Enable=true
(d)Modify /etc/init.d/boinc-client to include an additional line AFTER the sleep 9 from issue #1, fix #1 and BEFORE the
issue #2, fix #1 xhost local:boinc line so your start-up script now has the following in it:
else sleep 9 export DISPLAY=:0.0 xhost local:boinc &> /dev/null start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --background --pidfile $PIDFILE \ --make-pidfile --user $BOINC_USER --chuid $BOINC_USER \ --chdir $BOINC_DIR --exec $BOINC_CLIENT -- $BOINC_OPTS
http://boinc.berkeley.edu/dev/forum_thr ... 307&sort=5
I also tried
here's a bug in the 13.8 beta driver which means access rights to the device are not set correctly and so for example the AMD Catalyst Control Centre program does not start unless you are root. We don't like being root, so you need to enable access to /proc/ati with a chmod -R 777 /proc/ati
To allow this to happen, and to make sure the video drivers are there before boinc starts I amended /usr/lib/systemd/system/boinc-client.service with the following lines...
ExecStartPre=/bin/sleep 20
ExecStartPre=/usr/bin/chmod -R 777 /proc/ati
i.e. changed the sleep from 1 to 20, and added the line to change permissions.
I also added the following line to allow the Xserver realise that boinc is allowed access to the GPUs
ExecStartPre=/usr/bin/xhost local:boinc
Boinc now starts up and says I have a GPU ...
http://boinc.berkeley.edu/dev/forum_thread.php?id=8571
What worked for me in the end was to issue the command
xhost +si:localuser:boinc
or just disable access restrictions altogether.
xhost +
after that
sudo service boinc-client restart
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if you wish to use Linux for more than just a cruncher, take a look here to install VCL, photo editors, MP3/4 plugins etc.
http://howtoubuntu.org/things-to-do-aft ... rusty-tahr
Hope it helps
Alez