Changed my GPU type, how do I make BOINC recognize ?

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Richard de Lhorbe
Richard de Lhorbe
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14 Aug 2013 23:01:20 UTC
Topic 197141
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    i just swapped out my ATI GPU (openCL) for a new Nvidia (CUDA) card in my Mac Pro. Of course BOINC is still expecting to see the old card .... I was hoping it would know it had to download the right app for this, but it seems to appear I have to do something manually. I ran all the openCL work units before the swap was done so there are none in my cache, I now just need to be able to download new CUDA ones. Any suggestions as to how to handle this ?

    Cheers
    Richard

    Jord
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    Changed my GPU type, how do I make BOINC recognize ?

    14 Aug 2013 23:10:12 UTC
    Message 118359
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      As per the BOINC developer for the Macintosh:

      Charlie Fenton wrote:

      BOINC currently does not support CUDA on dual-GPU MacBook Pros. This is because the way the CUDA drivers work, testing for the GPU's presence at BOINC startup causes the NVIDIA GPU to remain selected even when the computer is running on batteries, rapidly running down the battery. This happens even if BOINC suspends operation when running on battery power.

      Testing for OpenCL does not have this problem, so we still support GPU computing using OpenCL on these computers. You will notice that your Event Log says:

      Fri Apr 26 11:18:19 2013 | | BOINC does not support CUDA on this computer.
Fri Apr 26 11:18:19 2013 | | OpenCL: NVIDIA GPU 0: GeForce GT 650M (driver version CLH 1.0, device version OpenCL 1.1, 1024MB, 1024MB available, 29 GFLOPS peak)

      I filed a bug report with NVIDIA on October 23, 2012, requesting a way to release the NVIDIA GPU so that it can switch back to the power-efficient integrated Intel GPU. Despite repeatedly contacting them, I am still waiting for them to do something about this. Because we have had so many complaints from users about BOINC running down their batteries, we have no choice but to disable CUDA support on MacBook Pros until NVIDIA provides a solution.

      Cheers,
      --Charlie

      Richard de Lhorbe
      Richard de Lhorbe
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      Thanks for the assist

      14 Aug 2013 23:40:17 UTC
      Message 118360 in response to message 118359
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        Thanks for the assist attempt, but that reference you posted refers to the Macbook Pro (a laptop), not to the Mac Pro (tower desktop) that I am talking about. I just have a single GPU that needs to be now recognized by BOINC. The Macbook Pro laptop has both an Intel GPU and an Nvidia GPU, so it is a different issue.

        Cheers
        Richard

        Richard de Lhorbe
        Richard de Lhorbe
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        I seem to vaguely recall

        15 Aug 2013 0:15:08 UTC
        Message 118361 in response to message 118360
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          I seem to vaguely recall reading somewhere long ago, that if you trash your configuration file that BOINC uses, when it starts up and can't find it, it will simply create a new one .... if this is so, would this new file then capture the new GPU card and download the right CUDA app ? Or tell me if I remember this wrong ....

          Or ... is it a matter to reset the project, would that cause the config file to be regenerated ?

          Or ... do I have to trash the BOINC folder and then reinstall BOINC from scratch ? I have already tried just installing BOINC again without trashing the BOINC folder first, and that didn't work.

          Some ideas to comment on.

          Cheers
          Richard

          Gary Roberts
          Gary Roberts
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          The first thing you should do

          15 Aug 2013 0:44:20 UTC
          Message 118362 in response to message 118361
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            The first thing you should do is check through the BOINC startup messages to see if your new GPU is properly listed there. It would appear not - but check anyway and if there is any mention of it, post the relevant lines here.

            If not, it would appear that your OS is not properly detecting the card. Maybe there is some missing OS component to give the required CUDA compute capability. If the OS is properly configured, a restart of BOINC should be all that is needed to detect and use your new hardware.

            Cheers,
            Gary.

            Richard de Lhorbe
            Richard de Lhorbe
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            Here is the first part of the

            15 Aug 2013 0:59:46 UTC
            Message 118363 in response to message 118362
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              Here is the first part of the start-up messages :

              Wed Aug 14 16:13:18 2013 | | No config file found - using defaults
              Wed Aug 14 16:13:18 2013 | | Starting BOINC client version 7.0.65 for x86_64-apple-darwin
              Wed Aug 14 16:13:18 2013 | | log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task
              Wed Aug 14 16:13:18 2013 | | Libraries: libcurl/7.26.0 OpenSSL/1.0.1c zlib/1.2.5 c-ares/1.9.1
              Wed Aug 14 16:13:18 2013 | | Data directory: /Library/Application Support/BOINC Data
              Wed Aug 14 16:13:18 2013 | | Processor: 24 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5645 @ 2.40GHz [x86 Family 6 Model 44 Stepping 2]
              Wed Aug 14 16:13:18 2013 | | Processor features: FPU VME DE PSE TSC MSR PAE MCE CX8 APIC SEP MTRR PGE MCA CMOV PAT PSE36 CLFSH DS ACPI MMX FXSR SSE SSE2 SS HTT TM PBE SSE3 PCLMULQDQ DTES64 MON DSCPL VMX SMX EST TM2 SSSE3 CX16 TPR PDCM SSE4.1 SSE4.2 POPCNT AES PCID
              Wed Aug 14 16:13:18 2013 | | OS: Mac OS X 10.8.4 (Darwin 12.4.0)
              Wed Aug 14 16:13:18 2013 | | Memory: 12.00 GB physical, 912.44 GB virtual
              Wed Aug 14 16:13:18 2013 | | Disk: 930.71 GB total, 912.19 GB free
              Wed Aug 14 16:13:18 2013 | | Local time is UTC -7 hours
              Wed Aug 14 16:13:18 2013 | | OpenCL: NVIDIA GPU 0: GeForce GTX 680 (driver version 8.12.47 310.40.00.05f01, device version OpenCL 1.1, 2048MB, 2048MB available, 135 GFLOPS peak)
              Wed Aug 14 16:13:18 2013 | | app version refers to missing GPU type ATI
              Wed Aug 14 16:13:18 2013 | Einstein@Home | Application uses missing ATI GPU
              Wed Aug 14 16:13:18 2013 | | app version refers to missing GPU type ATI
              Wed Aug 14 16:13:18 2013 | Einstein@Home | Application uses missing ATI GPU
              Wed Aug 14 16:13:18 2013 | Einstein@Home | Missing coprocessor for task PA0012_009D1_158_0
              Wed Aug 14 16:13:18 2013 | rosetta@home | URL http://boinc.bakerlab.org/rosetta/; Computer ID 1638889; resource share 100
              Wed Aug 14 16:13:18 2013 | Einstein@Home | URL http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/; Computer ID 8295131; resource share 100
              Wed Aug 14 16:13:18 2013 | Einstein@Home | General prefs: from Einstein@Home (last modified 21-Jun-2012 16:12:03)
              Wed Aug 14 16:13:18 2013 | Einstein@Home | Computer location: work
              Wed Aug 14 16:13:18 2013 | | General prefs: using separate prefs for work
              Wed Aug 14 16:13:18 2013 | | Reading preferences override file
              Wed Aug 14 16:13:18 2013 | | Preferences:
              Wed Aug 14 16:13:18 2013 | | max memory usage when active: 12288.00MB
              Wed Aug 14 16:13:18 2013 | | max memory usage when idle: 12288.00MB
              Wed Aug 14 16:13:18 2013 | | max disk usage: 100.00GB
              Wed Aug 14 16:13:18 2013 | | (to change preferences, visit a project web site or select Preferences in the Manager)
              Wed Aug 14 16:13:18 2013 | | Not using a proxy

              It seems to recognize the Nvidia card, but still has the ATI app loaded from the old card so it does not work right.

              Cheers
              Richard

              Gary Roberts
              Gary Roberts
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              RE: Wed Aug 14 16:13:18

              15 Aug 2013 1:31:50 UTC
              Message 118364 in response to message 118363
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                Quote:

                Wed Aug 14 16:13:18 2013 | | OpenCL: NVIDIA GPU 0: GeForce GTX 680 (driver version 8.12.47 310.40.00.05f01, device version OpenCL 1.1, 2048MB, 2048MB available, 135 GFLOPS peak)

                ....

                Wed Aug 14 16:13:18 2013 | Einstein@Home | Missing coprocessor for task PA0012_009D1_158_0


                I've selected two lines from your log. The first shows that your new card is OpenCL capable but is NOT being seen as CUDA capable so I think that means there is a missing OS component (I'm no expert about Mac OSX). Find and install that and I think you will be OK.

                The second shows that you still have a task in your cache that expects to be crunched on your previous ATI card. If you have no intention of reinstalling that card, you should abort that task.

                Cheers,
                Gary.

                Richard de Lhorbe
                Richard de Lhorbe
                Joined: 15 Dec 05
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                The task is a completed one

                15 Aug 2013 2:03:27 UTC
                Message 118365 in response to message 118364
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                  The task is a completed one that only has to be reported, which is stalled because of the current Einstein@home upload problem.

                  Otherwise, I will see if there is something that needs to be loaded in the OS, although there is a CUDA driver installed already, maybe it needs either an update or downgrade ....

                  Cheers
                  Richard

                  Richard de Lhorbe
                  Richard de Lhorbe
                  Joined: 15 Dec 05
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                  Well, I reinstalled the two

                  15 Aug 2013 3:16:07 UTC
                  Message 118366 in response to message 118365
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                    Well, I reinstalled the two required packages ... the driver from the EVGA website, and the CUDA package from the NVIDIA website. This time, I rebooted the computer after each install (i.e. once after the EVGA package, and then again after the NVIDIA package). This time around, it seems to have taken, and BOINC has now happily downloaded the proper CUDA app and also CUDA work units. Really don't know why the first install of the two packages (one reboot after both installed) didn't work .... computers, gotta love 'em.

                    Thanks to all who suggested solutions.

                    Cheers
                    Richard

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