Remote desktop blocking GPU access
30 Jan 2024 21:11:53 UTC
Topic 230697
(moderation:
I'm new to BOINC in general. I've just installed it on a headless Windows Server system which has access to an NVIDIA GPU. I've been remoting in to this system using Microsoft Remote Desktop for a couple of years and using it to crunch data as part of the GIMPS project.
I'm getting the commonly documented issue about not being able to run GPU tasks in BOINC if you connect to the target system using RDP. I get the underlying conflict with the native display driver and the RDP display driver, but I'm still confused. Connecting to a system using RDP does not block access to the underlying GPU hardware or device drivers. I've been remoting in and running GPU tasks from command line for ages (using mfaktc), and it works just fine. It looks much more that the issue is BOINC, not Windows' handling of RDP sessions.
Is there a way to run BOINC tasks from the command line, if the issue is with the BOINC application?
the problem is RDP, not
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the problem is RDP, not BOINC. remoting in via command line (SSH) is not the same thing as RDP.
if you want to preserve the GPU compute function while having a GUI desktop experience on windows, you'll need to use something else like VNC.
might also be possible to install a smaller/weaker GPU to use only as a video output device for RDP, but I'm not positive on that.
yes you can run the boinc client via command line, but you'll have the same problem with an RDP session interrupting the GPU. you can also do this (run boinc client only on the host, with it configured for remote managment), then use the BOINC manager (or some 3rd party software like BOINCTasks) to access it remotely over the network. your locally running BOINC Manager will be able to connect to the client on the host PC over the network provided you give it the correct IPaddress:Port and the gui_rpc_auth password.
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I'm not remoting in via
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I'm not remoting in via command line. In both scenarios, I'm remoting in via RDP. If I launch a command window from the GUI session and run mfaktc, it can access the GPU without any issues. I launch BOINC from the same session, and it can't.
I'm not very familiar with
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I'm not very familiar with mfaktc but looking at the github page seems that it has some ability to use CPU also. are you certain it's not failing over to using CPU during your RDP sessions?
in any case. this is a known issue with RDP under a variety of circumstances and applications, not just BOINC. it's an RDP issue not a BOINC issue. you can workaround or otherwise solve the issue with any of the other options I provided. I like VNC. controlling remotely via BOINC Manager or third party manager is equally as valid.
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Yes, it's definitely using
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Yes, it's definitely using the GPU, not the CPU. The NVIDIA software sees the mfaktc process utilising the GPU, and GPU-Z shows the GPU load up around 100%.
It's just strange being on an RDP session with one process happily using the GPU, and BOINC complaining that the GPU isn't available.
I know this thread is a few
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I know this thread is a few months old, but I would like to provide some additional information.
I noticed that BOINC was still disabling GPU tasks during RDP sessions, even after I explicitly enabled using the GPU for remote desktop in the Windows group policy. I took a look at the BOINC client source code, and there is a function (check_coprocs_usable), which checks if there is an active remote desktop session and sets the coproc_missing flag on each result.
However, there is light at the end of the tunnel: as of BOINC 7.22.2 there is a new cc_config.xml option <no_rdp_check> to disable this check. If you set this option to 1, then you will still be able to run GPU tasks while using RDP.