It seems that a lot of GPU problems revolve around specific versions of drivers. Though AMD has their own support structure, you can often learn from information reported by others who fold.
I've installed every package I could find to get my GPU to work, I can get FAH to detect my GPU and it even downloads work for it but it says "BAD_WORK_UNIT" and "FAULTY project". It also says, "ERROR:No compute devices matched GPU #0 AMD:5 Ellesmere XT [Radeon RX 470/480/570/580]. You may need to update your graphics drivers." I'm sure this has to do with "ERROR:exception: Error initializing context: clGetDeviceIDs (-1)" but even after trying to set the gpu-index and opencl-index in my config, this is as far as I can get.
It looks like there is a problem with your install of OpenCL support. There have been some posts about needing to install both the runtime and dev kit for OpenCL on Linux systems. I am mentioning it to bump your post where someone familiar with the issue will see it, or so I can come back if I find the other posts and add that information.
iMac 2.8 i7 12 GB smp8, Mac Pro 2.8 quad 12 GB smp6
MacBook Pro 2.9 i7 8 GB smp3
Hi, Did you set yourself to the video group? Also I've just found a link that states * Caveats:In Ubuntu 20.04 /dev/kfd is owned by root.render, not by root.video. Add user intended to use OpenCL to render group.
Did the latest Buster make that change too ?
DarkFoss wrote:Hi, Did you set yourself to the video group? Also I've just found a link that states * Caveats:In Ubuntu 20.04 /dev/kfd is owned by root.render, not by root.video. Add user intended to use OpenCL to render group.
Did the latest Buster make that change too ?
Nice find! That was the page that I used to install everything, but I didn't notice the /dev/kfd note... It looks like in Buster, it is also the 'render' group, but unfortunately, I tried adding fahclient to the render group (adduser fahclient render), and then restarted it, but it still doesn't seem to work, same issue. I tried also to make the /dev/kfd device mode from 0760 to 0770, so it was also group executable, but that didn't change anything.
Thanks. I have a feeling that little change will trip a few people up over the coming months.
Aren't you supposed to add your username to the render group not fahclient btw ?
I don't have my linux system running to check, but on the Mac OS X install it uses user fahclient to run the background FAHClient process and the processes it starts that run the actual folding cores which process the WU's. The linux and OS X installs are very similar, Darwin which underlies the rest of OS X descended from FreeBSD Unix by way of NeXTSTEP. So you may run FAHControl or Web Control to monitor folding under your username, but the rest is running on another username set up with as few privileges as possible, as I recall less than a normal user.
iMac 2.8 i7 12 GB smp8, Mac Pro 2.8 quad 12 GB smp6
MacBook Pro 2.9 i7 8 GB smp3
Joe_H is right. The normal Linux installation creates a new user called "fahclient" which runs the FAHClient daemon in the background and owns FAH's work files. "He" should have permission to use OpenCL.
Joe_H wrote:I don't have my linux system running to check, but on the Mac OS X install it uses user fahclient to run the background FAHClient process and the processes it starts that run the actual folding cores which process the WU's. The linux and OS X installs are very similar, Darwin which underlies the rest of OS X descended from FreeBSD Unix by way of NeXTSTEP. So you may run FAHControl or Web Control to monitor folding under your username, but the rest os running on another username set up with as few privileges as possible, as I recall less than a normal user.
Ahh Thank you. I'd completely forgotten about Web Control, it may come in handy!
I haven't made the move to a newer Linux yet still trying to document potential trip ups just seen 3 so far. Other than kfd there is also the removal pf python2 https://github.com/FoldingAtHome/fah-control/issues/46 User didn't specify what version(s) the --ignore-depends= works on . The removal of an older Openssl FAH depends on from the upcoming distro's being the biggest hurdle so far. The last resulting in requests for Snap/Flatpack/Docker clients on github https://github.com/FoldingAtHome/fah-issues/issues
My current Linux is just a bit too Frankenstein to bother with.
Mine is an Ubuntu 16.04 install on a separate drive in my hackintosh. Mostly leave it booted into OS X, sometimes switch to Ubuntu for folding or other work.
iMac 2.8 i7 12 GB smp8, Mac Pro 2.8 quad 12 GB smp6
MacBook Pro 2.9 i7 8 GB smp3
I've run into this with my RX 480s and RX580s. You've probably done everything right. There's a weird permissions issue, where the FAH Client just can't access the open CL libraries.
See this thread...it's a long read.
viewtopic.php?f=81&t=31293&start=15
In summary, the key bit is a workaround based on this other thread
viewtopic.php?f=74&t=31096
Basically you need to tweak the startup script for the client (/etc/init.d/FAHClient), changing the username from "fahclient" to "root". The client can then see Open CL devices and fold correctly. This seems like a problem unique to AMD GPUs on Linux, since Nvidia GPUs work fine (once open CL is installed).
Others have posted that some of the newer Linux versions out need the fahclient user added to the video group, and on even newer ones added to the render group. If you can take a look for those posts and see if they apply to your setup.
iMac 2.8 i7 12 GB smp8, Mac Pro 2.8 quad 12 GB smp6
MacBook Pro 2.9 i7 8 GB smp3
I tried to add the fahclient to the video and render group (see above posts).
However, what *did* actually end up working was to make fahclient run as root! I had to change the initscript to run as root, and then adjust it because it expects configs and logs etc. to be triggered off of the user's directory... but now my graphics card is finally working! Time to turn off the heater, and let this thing warm my office!
Thanks everyone who replied...this took me days of trying things every day, so I'm happy to finally have it working.
rantoie wrote:I tried to add the fahclient to the video and render group (see above posts).
However, what *did* actually end up working was to make fahclient run as root! I had to change the initscript to run as root, and then adjust it because it expects configs and logs etc. to be triggered off of the user's directory... but now my graphics card is finally working! Time to turn off the heater, and let this thing warm my office!
Thanks everyone who replied...this took me days of trying things every day, so I'm happy to finally have it working.
Glad that fixed it. I keep hoping someone comes up with a better fix, but this seems to be the only way at the moment for AMD cards on Linux (at least Ubuntu). Now, if only I could figure out how to switch the card into "compute" mode. AMD Drivers in windows have an option to change the GPU workload from Graphics to Compute within the GUI, and this can give you an extra boost. I've been poking at this in Linux for a while but haven't found a way to pull it off.
