Installing lubuntu 17.10 LTS with Boinc / nVidia drivers

[Alez]

Push as much air through the systems as you can. If the case can take more fans then fit them. I've ended up modifying cases ( ie cutting holes in them ) to fit more fans. Some of my systems run outside the house so they are easier to cool. Sometimes it's better to run without the case lid if noise is not an issue.
I don't know about the GTX1080 as I don't have one , maybe [mention]Megacruncher[/mention] can comment as he does, but my GTX 980's run at 75C all day with the fan profile at 50%. The newer nVidia drivers seem to favour quietness over cooling and they don't really kick in until 60C. Great for a PC sitting around all day, not so much use if it's crunching 24/7.
On linux you can also install or enable coolbits where you can set a custom fan profile. I've never had to do that but I believe you still can.

see here for running coolbits.

also here for far more detailed overview. Note that the first answer is wrong. You can only pass one argument to coolbits, in this case you want to set Option "Coolbits" "4"

[Alez]

SO ... I pulled the nVidia from the self-build and put it into a Dell T7910 with slower (but official) CPUs. That has been crunching good-o on GPU GRID without a single problem.

What I do not, however, is that software versions have changed too

• Dell is Boinc 7.9.3, nVidia 390.48 and Linux Mint 19
• self-build is Boinc 7.6.31, nVidia 384.13 and Linux Mint 18.3

I'll get around to pinning down the root cause at some point but, for the moment, I am in a mood to try something radically different for Boinc on the self-build i.e. freeBSD, AMD rx580

The Boinc version should not matter neither should the cpu, however I believe only certain drivers are compatible with the 1080 card.

Also if you do this :

CTRL-ALT-t ( open terminal window)

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sudo add-apt-repository ppa:costamagnagianfranco/boinc
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

You should get Boinc 7.12.0.

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sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa
sudo apt-get update

Will also give you the latest nVidia drivers available for Mint. Be cautious with this though as they can be beta drivers.

[davidbam]

How do you keep your nVidia GPU cool? I've been seeing run times increase by 50% which I am putting down to the card throttling back to as to generate less heat.

The backplate of the card (GTX 1080) surely is hot. Airflow is pretty good in the Dell, I was wondering if passive heatsinks might be a good (and low cost) solution?

Problem wasn't being caused by heat at all, rather I had failed to provide allocation for the single CPU which the GPU uses This was leading to contention from the WCG crunching on the CPU side. Run times on GPU grid are now back to what they were originally

I also found that psensor DOES report nVidia temperature when it is displaying locally. I had been using psensor after remotely logging in with "ssh -Y" and, for some reason, this drops the nVidia from the display. GPU temperature is very very stable at 69-70°C, GPU utilisation is 65-80%, GPU fan speed circa 55%

[Alez]

Sounds like all sorted now. Good job.

[davidbam]

Yes, thanks for your help.

I am beginning to see that a single GPU can earn 10 times as many boinc points as my assembled array of multi-core Xeon-based machines. That said, I do like to crunch on WCG as three of our good friends have had their lives affected by cancer within the past few months,

[Alez]

Yes, thanks for your help.

I am beginning to see that a single GPU can earn 10 times as many boinc points as my assembled array of multi-core Xeon-based machines. That said, I do like to crunch on WCG as three of our good friends have had their lives affected by cancer within the past few months,

Yes, GPU's will rack up the points far quicker than CPU's and some projects pay more than others, collatz for instance. That said, as you point out, there are many varied reasons for crunching a project or a group of projects. It's your equipment and electricity so you should always crunch what interests or motivates you .

[davidbam]

Hmmmm - just when it seemed to be going so well. BANG ... every GPU wu from GPUGRID fails with a computational error (within a few seconds).

I wonder if this might be related to the automated system software updates I did yesterday - that had some nVidia stuff in it.

ETA : nVidia driver now reported as 390.77. I see from earlier post that 390.48 was working okay (glad I posted that info). How do I get back to that version please, or can anyone confirm please that that version is okay to use?

[davidbam]

How bizarre - as if by magic, it has started working again.

I am baffled but happy

[Alez]

Glad it's working. Got me thinking how to revert and to be honest I'm not sure. The issue is that both are 390 drivers.

For instance to remove 390 and install 387 you can do in terminal ( technically you could miss out the sudo apt-get remove nvidia* as installing a version should un-install previous versions. )

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sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa

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sudo apt-get remove nvidia*

or

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sudo apt-get remove --purge nvidia-390

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sudo apt install nvidia-387

not 100% sure if you can change version numbers between main versions.

You could try looking in the software update center or synaptics package manager if you use it and see if different versions of drivers are available

not sure whether the following code would work or not to install specific drivers, never been something I've had to do.

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sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa

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sudo apt-get remove nvidia*

or

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sudo apt-get remove --purge nvidia-390

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sudo apt install nvidia-390.48

[Alez]

Initial post has been updated slightly.

[Bryan]

Shoved the 1080Ti into the 2990WX. Looked at the Driver Manager (Mint 19) and it suggested Nvidia 390 so I selected that. It did its thing and said to restart which I did. It came up and I looked at BOINC and it was showing the card - kinda. It shows CUDA capability but it doesn't mention OpenCL. Should it?

2. If I go to the Nvidia control panel it shows the temp at 72C and the clock at 1900 w/ fan running 58%.

So how do I force the fan to 100%?

WU are finishing in 232s but none have validated yet so I don't know if they are good or not.

EDIT: 1 just validated so I'm up and running.

EDIT 2: Looking at the "top computers w/ 1080Ti" I'm guessing folks are running them 2 at a time.

EDIT 3: Switched to 2 WU at a time. Load now 100% (up from 61%), temp at 75, fan at 75%. 2 WU time = 339s

[Alez]

[mention]Bryan[/mention] not sure about driver in Mint, seems different versions have linux have different drivers in their repo's. I would have thought that boinc event log would show OpenCL if available. Maybe [mention]davidBAM[/mention] can comment. Can't check just now as only have windoze systems up and running.

Follow this Link for installation and use of coolbits to change fan speed.

[Bryan]

Thanks Alez. As long as it is running Cuda I'm content for the moment.

It calculates to 1.8M/day and I can live with that. If I get the fan speed up to 100% I should gain about 150MHz clock rate.

The only thing I need to do now is start bringing up the CPUs on WCG and see how many threads I need reserve to keep my PG times the same.

For once something was actually a painless install - knock on wood

[davidbam]

Hi

I do notice that PPS-Sieve is the only PrimeGrid nVidia sub-project specifying CUDA - all the others are OpenCL. Perhaps I'll try some of them after the sprint is over but I am loathe to change anything on my 1080 which is my best earner at the moment.

I only have the 1080 rather than the 1080Ti so 232 secs sounds about right as mine is taking variously 321 - 370 seconds

[Alez]

[mention]Bryan[/mention] To monitor GPU usage, you should be able to see it under nVidia control panel - powermizer option unless it's changed.

You can also run this from terminal

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Sudo nvidia-smi -l 2

Alternatively install gpustat from package manager or terminal.

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sudo apt-get install gpustat

Alternatively install glances

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sudo apt-get install -y python-pip; sudo pip install glances[gpu]; sudo pip install nvidia-ml-py3

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sudo glances

[Alez]

[mention]Bryan[/mention] , [mention]davidBAM[/mention] I think the driver versions available as standard in mint are old. You are both running 390 drivers and the latest by nVidia is 410.73 at the moment. nVidia linux drivers.
I've seen lots of people reporting issues with mint19 and 390 drivers.
I strongly recommend you both have a look at Lubuntu.

[davidbam]

Okay, I have an Ubuntu machine ready and waiting to try the cards. I'll pull the card from whichever one finishes its downloaded WU first. I don't like aborting work

[Alez]

Okay, I have an Ubuntu machine ready and waiting to try the cards. I'll pull the card from whichever one finishes its downloaded WU first. I don't like aborting work

Lubuntu I hope

[Alez]

Thanks Alez. As long as it is running Cuda I'm content for the moment.

Your drivers on Mint are probably missing the openCL libs same as [mention]davidBAM[/mention]

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sudo apt-get install ocl-icd-libopencl1

should solve your issue and give openCL support.

[davidbam]

Actually the GTX960 is in an Ubuntu 18.04.1 machine and that has still loaded 390.77 drivers. ... NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 (4095MB) driver: 39077 Linux Ubuntu
Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS [4.15.0-38-generic|libc 2.27 (Ubuntu GLIBC 2.27-3ubuntu1)]

It is a pretty slow machine though - I'll be moving it to something much faster

[davidbam]

downloading iso for lubuntu now

[Bryan]

As much as it pains me to say this; "You're a friggin genius!"

That gave me OpenCL and Collatz gives me work now. I'll finish a single WU and then start running PG full time.

I'm a happy camper. The only thing left is to figure out how to adjust the GPU clock although that isn't that high on my priority list.

FYI - running 390.77 driver.

[Alez]

As much as it pains me to say this; "You're a friggin genius!"

I know
I'll have a look but I'm certain there is no easy way to adjust clock speeds in Linux. Wish we could just run afterburner ....
I seem to remember there is a way to issue the commands via terminal, but unless you write a bash script it goes away every time you reboot.

[Alez]

downloading iso for lubuntu now

Lubuntu is brilliant for giving older systems a new lease of life.

[Bryan]

I'll have a look but I'm certain there is no easy way to adjust clock speeds in Linux. Wish we could just run afterburner ....

you can use --coolbits=12 and it will give you the ability to control the clock speed from the Nvidia xserver app. I haven't done it but that is how it done.

BTW the 2990WX running 60 threads and the GTX 1080Ti running 100% draws 715W at the wall!

[Alez]

BTW the 2990WX running 60 threads and the GTX 1080Ti running 100% draws 715W at the wall!

Toasty beast

[davidbam]

draws 715W at the wall!

Yours will be the house with no snow on the roof then !!

[Bryan]

The one nice thing is that it is 32F - 0C outside so I have the window open slightly in the computer room

[Dirk Broer]

draws 715W at the wall!

Yours will be the house with no snow on the roof then !!

It's all relative. Having 15 AMD FM1 quad cores running also gives 60 cores, but the total Watts-from-the-wall is significantly higher.
Residing in a house without snow during the winter, 52°N, 4.5°E

[davidbam]

Has anyone got a Zotac Geforce GTX 1080 Ti Blower?

I was wondering if they were noisier than comparable cards because the fan looks a bit smaller than usual

(Yes, have now progressed to sourcing hardware especially for crunching. Previously it was a case of putting existing idle systems to work )

[Bryan]

(Yes, have now progressed to sourcing hardware especially for crunching. Previously it was a case of putting existing idle systems to work )

All I can do is laugh ... addictive isn't it Welcome aboard!

[davidbam]

Happy to be able to keep you amused

[Alez]

(Yes, have now progressed to sourcing hardware especially for crunching. Previously it was a case of putting existing idle systems to work )

All I can do is laugh ... addictive isn't it Welcome aboard!

You're conversion to the dark side is complete Soon you'll be demanding the notorious black coloured name of the pirates

[davidbam]

Has anyone got a Zotac Geforce GTX 1080 Ti Blower?

I guess not

[Alez]

Has anyone got a Zotac Geforce GTX 1080 Ti Blower?

I guess not

GPUBoss site is quite good for comparing GPU's

Did a quick goggle search for reviews but there doesn't seem to be much about it.

[Alez]

For 18.10 some changes include

in terminal

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sudo apt-get install ocl-icd-libopencl1

as this is sometimes missing.

Lubuntu 18.04 comes with Synaptic and Software Updater, both under ‘System Tools’ in the menu or it should. Additional Drivers is a tab on software updater.


If 18.10 then Software updater is now called Discover Software Center and Synaptic is now muon. You will need to use one of these to get the nVidia drivers and the mentioned packages ( psensor etc. )

How to Launch

> System Tools ->Muon Package Manager -> Settings-> Configure Software Sources

> System Tools ->Discover Software Center -> Settings -> Ubuntu (Default) -> Settings (Gear icon) -> Software Sources

Lubuntu 18.10 short manual here

[davidbam]

Sounds like you are not getting bootable media from the burn and so any hassles from Unix are yet to follow.

I've only ever copied the .iso to a USB stick and even then I used another unix machine to do it. Where are you? I'd be happy to mail you a known bootable USB stick.

[davidbam]

I have been banished to Australia

I didn't know they still did that

A bootable unix USB stick is strange beast with specific partitioning and non-FAT file systems. The .iso has to copied absolutely raw in order for it to work. I feel sure that there are Windows utilities out there to do it but I've never used one, Nero looks promising but will of course have a proliferation of options unknown to we two. This is definitely step 1 and hence my offer to send you a known working stick. Please PM me an address if you want a Lubuntu stick - you can buy me a meat pie sometime as payment (Australia has the BEST pies of anywhere)

Step 2 will be persuading your BIOS to boot from that instead of any other bootable disks it can see on your system

PS : We have family in NSW so some of my favourite people in this world are Australian. You might yet become another favourite if I can help rescue you from Windows

[Bryan]

Pete for creating ISO images on a USB stick I use a program called "ISO to USB". I've never had a problem with it.

When you have the ISO on the USB stick you will need to either go into BIOS at boot or press the correct function key" to get into the boot menu. Then you select the USB drive and go from there.

When you have the ISO on the USB stick I'd personally consider doing the actual install onto the USB HDD you mentioned. That would give the ability to play with the Linux without any worry of screwing up your Win10 installation. Once you get familiar with it then you can put it onto the internal HDD.

[davidbam]

... and you around 10 days to try it out before your Airmail package arrives - I am just back from the Post Office

[Alez]

A bootable unix USB stick is strange beast with specific partitioning and non-FAT file systems. The .iso has to copied absolutely raw in order for it to work. I feel sure that there are Windows utilities out there to do it but I've never used one, Nero looks promising but will of course have a proliferation of options unknown to we two.

From the instructions ......

Burn iso to USB. Use Universal USB installer https://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal ... -as-1-2-3/

So simple to use it's embarrassing and works every time...... I don't know why I bother writing instructions that no one follows I'll get my coat now ..

[davidbam]

Anyone doing Collatz on a GTX1070 of any brand? Wondered how they compared to the 1080

[Alez]

Anyone doing Collatz on a GTX1070 of any brand? Wondered how they compared to the 1080

Yes. Beagle has a 1070 installed and on Collatz. 525 secs on average for a collatz task using optimisation.

[davidbam]

Thanks, obviously lubuntu in your case?

[Alez]

No this one is on doze 7

[davidbam]

[Alez]

It was an AMD 7970 hence why it is one of 3 systems I have that are doze. 7 is acceptable. Pulled AMD, stuck in 1070, installed drivers and went offshore.

[davidbam]

I assume no keyboard, mouse or monitor. So BoincTasks and PC Anywhere type software? And do you BUY Win 7?

I'd be lost without "ssh -Y"

[Alez]

Keyboard, mouse and hdmi splitter box to monitor.