Folding@Home New Client Available

[Nick Name]

If I have some time this weekend I'm going to give the latest 7.6.13 a try and see if it fixes the OpenCL assignment problem I'm having with my Radeon VII. I've got both Nvidia cards working in that system except for setting up the FAHAdvanced control for the 2nd client but the OpenCL assigning is nonsensical.

 

[Vester]

On the Folding@home forum, bollix47 suggested opening a terminal and entering the code below:

sudo apt install ocl-icd-opencl-dev

 

[Nick Name]

On the Folding@home forum, bollix47 suggested opening a terminal and entering the code below:

sudo apt install ocl-icd-opencl-dev

Thanks, that's a frequently necessary fix on Linux. The VII is in my Windoze box, the F@H client just can't seem to get the OpenCL assignment correct as I keep getting errors. Work downloads but immediately fails. Everything works as expected in BOINC so I feel the fault is in the F@H client. I mostly wanted to get it working out of curiosity. If I have time and energy I'll try setting up a Linux boot drive. I've been running AMD and Nivdia in Windoze systems for years but never tried it in Linux.

Seems like I posted somewhere else, I've had a pretty busy weekend. I did install 7.6.13 over the top and had no problems, but it didn't fix this particular issue.

 

[Vester]

I tried Ubuntu 18.04 LTE with kernel 5.6 again this morning and still have problems installing amdgpu-pro-17.40-514569. I get to the last step, and it says that the command is not correct when I enter amdgpu-install etcetera. I have also tried using ./amdgpu-install. I have followed directions here.

I need step-by-step directions from someone who can be 100% thorough! I may get my son, Vic, to help me if he has time. He is a *nix nerd.

Edit: I will try the instructions from AMD again when I have time. I am getting closer...

Edit 2. SteamOS has amdgpu-pro drivers in the installation package, BUT it will only run on hardware newer than mine. There is no support for AMD HD 7000 series or earlier, and it runs only on motherboards that support UEFI. My mining rig would run SteamOS if I had newer AMD video cards that will boot UEFI.

 

[Nick Name]

Here's what worked for me. You may run into a problem because of the age of your GPU. Searching for a driver for the 7970 lists Ubuntu 14 as the last supported OS. That doesn't mean you can't get it working but the normal install procedure may not work.

Here's a post on the Einstein forum about a script that extracts the necessary files from the AMD download package. It's intended for unsupported distros and GPUs. You can give it a try.

 

[Vester]

I am getting there with gDebi, but the driver installation did not like my Linux kernel 5.6, so I have reinstalled Ubuntu 18.04 LTE on my clunker with the AMD HD 7790. Hope to be running FAH soon.

 

[Nick Name]

Oh. 7790 instead of 7970. D'oh! I've said it before, AMD GPU driver install on Linux is way more complicated and fragile than it should be. Hopefully you get it working.

 

[Vester]

GDebi Package Manager worked for the install of AMDGPU-PRO with Linux kernel 5.6, but the drivers did not like the kernel and gave error messages during the installation. I did a fresh installation of Ubuntu 18.04 and successfully installed the pro drivers by following the steps in AMDGPU-PRO Driver for Linux® – Release Notes. However, when got to the login screen and I entered my password, the login screen reappeared. I tried for about four hours to get past that hurdle without success.

My installations of Ubuntu and Windows are on two different hard drives, so I am back on Windows 10 while I think about the solution. I may be the one who writes the definitive installation instructions someday.

I may be a novice Linux user, but I am persistent.

 

[Nick Name]

GDebi Package Manager worked for the install of AMDGPU-PRO with Linux kernel 5.6, but the drivers did not like the kernel and gave error messages during the installation. I did a fresh installation of Ubuntu 18.04 and successfully installed the pro drivers by following the steps in AMDGPU-PRO Driver for Linux® – Release Notes. However, when got to the login screen and I entered my password, the login screen reappeared. I tried for about four hours to get past that hurdle without success.

I've been there, along with the black screen instead of no login screen, at times with Nvidia systems too and I never have been able to get it fixed. Everything I read said to modify the GRUB bootloader, but nothing ever worked.

Did you use the -nodkms parameter? That seemed to be the breakthrough for me.

 

[Vester]

I tried -nodkms but the command was not recognized. However, the installation was successful with a comment in terminal saying that dkms was not installed using:

./amdgpu-pro-install -y --opencl=legacy, pal --headless

I think my desktop is ready to go. I have to wait for work because I am getting the following in my log:

18:44:57:WU02:FS01:Connecting to assign4.foldingathome.org:80
18:44:57:WU02:FS01:Assigned to work server 13.82.98.119
18:44:57:WU02:FS01:Requesting new work unit for slot 01: READY gpu:0:Bonaire XT [Radeon HD 7790] from 13.82.98.119
18:44:57:WU02:FS01:Connecting to 13.82.98.119:8080
18:44:58:ERROR:WU02:FS01:Exception: Server did not assign work unit

Persistence pays, but I do not want to write the tutorial!

 

[Vester]

Nick Name, which amdgpu-pro download did you get and what is the OS? I tried to install amdgpu-pro-18.20-673703-ubuntu-18.04 and got "OS not supported" when I tried to install with ./amdgpu-pro-install -y --opencl=legacy,pal --headless on Pop!_OS. I must have missed something along the way in this topic.

 

[Nick Name]

OS = PoP!OS 19.10 for AMD/Intel. I'm using the 19.50 AMD driver for Ubuntu. PoP is now offering 20.04 LTS and as far as I can tell there's no archive of past versions available to download. The latest AMD driver is 20.10 but you should get some links to older drivers here.

https://www.amd.com/en/support/previous-drivers/graphics/radeon-500-series/radeon-rx-500-series/radeon-rx-590

Pop has two versions, the Nvidia version and the AMD/Intel version. The difference is the proprietary drivers. If you downloaded the Nvidia version, maybe that's what caused your problem. I think that should still work in theory but the installation process would likely be somewhat different as you'd need to install everything, not just the OpenCL component.

 

[Vester]

I have installed Pop!_OS 20.04 LTS for AMD and will wait for 20.04 AMD driver while I continue to crunch on Windows 10.