Folding Forum

Well, all the bits have arrived…

I've been reading the NVidia guides which to a Linux newbie like me are more than somewhat intimidating, but I infer from PantherX's comment earlier that Mint contains all the necessary source files etc and that the NVidia installer does all the hard work.

I've obtained a copy of the NV 319.49 drivers that ChristianVirtual seems happy with, so I'll use them.

I've outlined what I think I need to do, some reassurance before I start would be appreciated! (No great rush- I probably won't have time to do it until the weekend at the earliest, and doing something unfamiliar like this in a hurry is usually a good way to ensure that whatever can go wrong, will)

1) Set client to 'finish', 'pause-on-start', when it stops set 'cpu' to 3.

2) Shut down, install the hardware, connect spare monitor to GPU and reboot. (I intend to use the motherboard graphics for the primary display rather than the GPU, but I'll sort that out when it's all working)

3) Now a couple of bits I'm not sure about- do I need to stop the X server (init 3 ?) and do I need to do anything about the /etc/inittab file to prevent it restarting on a reboot until I want it to? Because I can't find a file called inittab, in /etc or anywhere else! (Although there is an 'inittab.5.gz' archive in another folder)

4) Run the installer and do as it tells me.

5) Sort out any bits (like primary displays) to my satisfaction and start FAHControl, which I assume should have detected the GPU automatically and set its defaults appropriately?

6) If all looks OK, right-click and select fold, and watch the points pile up

A general question- how (or if) does Mint's Driver Manager come into it? I ran it but (not surprisingly) it came up with no proprietary drivers. Is that only of use after I've installed the drivers as above?

Thanks in advance.

If you mostly use Windows, then Mint will make you feel very comfortable with the GUI interface as opposed to Ubuntu.

2) My initial set-up was Wubi Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 64-bit and I had a GTX 660 Ti and GTX 650 in the same system. On Windows, I had attached my monitor to the second GPU, GTX 650 and the display was fully functional. However, when I booted into Ubuntu, I just received a black screen. I figured out the issue, I had to connect my monitor to GTX 660 Ti instead of GTX 650. Am not sure why that would be.

3) I never had to manually stop the X Server or anything, just had to reboot the system when I was promoted to after all the installation of the updates and drivers were done.

5) Just remember that depending on your GPU Model, you may need to download and place the GPUs.txt file in the correct location.

The Driver Manager comes in Step #4 so it checks your hardware and suggests any propriety drivers that it can find. However, if you are doing a manual installation of the driver, I think you can skip the Driver Manager. Generally, you use the Driver manager before any installation of propriety drivers as it manages them.

In essence, the steps are:
1) Install Mint/Ubuntu on system
2) Install Mint/Ubuntu updates
3) Install Drivers from Driver manager
4) Install F@H and configure it

Unfortunately, Step 3 is now tricky with Nvidia GPUs since the latest version causes a significant PPD drop in non GK110 GPUs. Thus, you may have to install a previous version, something that I haven't done.

PantherX wrote:
In essence, the steps are:
1) Install Mint/Ubuntu on system
2) Install Mint/Ubuntu updates
3) Install Drivers from Driver manager
4) Install F@H and configure it

Unfortunately, Step 3 is now tricky with Nvidia GPUs since the latest version causes a significant PPD drop in non GK110 GPUs. Thus, you may have to install a previous version, something that I haven't done.

OK, I think I understand it better now, thanks.

When I've got the card in I'll try the Driver Manager and see what it can find. If it can't find a suitable one I'll have to try a manual install. If it all goes seriously wrong it doesn't take long to re-install the OS, a task I'm not unfamiliar with

I didn't know about GPUs.txt, there isn't one currently installed. I've downloaded the latest copy, where do I put it?

PantherX wrote: 2) My initial set-up was Wubi Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 64-bit and I had a GTX 660 Ti and GTX 650 in the same system. On Windows, I had attached my monitor to the second GPU, GTX 650 and the display was fully functional. However, when I booted into Ubuntu, I just received a black screen. I figured out the issue, I had to connect my monitor to GTX 660 Ti instead of GTX 650. Am not sure why that would be.

Not sure if this may be relevant, from a comment at http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/1484

This tutorial is useless for everyone with a CPU with an onboard GPU (which is almost all of them now...). Please write in BIG LETTERS the following warning:

If running with a CPU having an onboard GPU - enter BIOS and disable the integrated GPU!

Until the integrated GPU is disabled, ubuntu/mint will not autodetect the nvidia gfx card.

If, for "integrated GPU" you read "first GPU" it might explain it?

I've not run multiple GPUs, so I can't help there.

nvidia driver versions for Linux are not in line with Windows. My 660Ti runs OK with 310.44. You will need to set the fan speed (after each reboot ) in the nvidia x server settings app.

I don't think you will need the newest gpus.txt. But if you do, it goes in /var/lib/fahclient and then reboot.

David

I have attempted to run multiple GPUs on ubuntu and I've had troubles. I have finally decided that my only option is to do a complete reinstall. My problem is that I get a black screen no matter where I connect the monitor. (I can get to grub. The system runs FAH-SMP but not FAH-GPU and there's neither a GUI or an CTRL_ALT_F1 screen.)

davidcoton wrote:You will need to set the fan speed (after each reboot ) in the nvidia x server settings app.

Not heard that before, I'd have to write down what to do- my machines feel hard done by if they're rebooted more than about once a month

Hopefully the Linux drivers won't need it.

davidcoton wrote: I don't think you will need the newest gpus.txt. But if you do, it goes in /var/lib/fahclient and then reboot.

It was the first one I found… thanks.

billford wrote: Not heard that before, I'd have to write down what to do- my machines feel hard done by if they're rebooted more than about once a month

That's why I keep forgetting, too. But I seem to remember there's more to it -- something else needs configuring to get the fan speed to be controllable.
Try viewtopic.php?f=89&t=25075

David

There's a good link in there to another by bollix, giving instructions of the sort I can understand- ie one syllable!

Thanks… I've got a feeling I'm going to come back at some point with a lot more questions

billford wrote:...If it all goes seriously wrong it doesn't take long to re-install the OS, a task I'm not unfamiliar with ...

Haha... while setting up my Wubi installation, I had to reinstall a combination of Windows/Ubuntu or Windows/Mint a couple of times since I learnt the hard way that RAID 0 works great in Windows but not in Ubuntu/Mint. Nonetheless, it was a fun week... something that I am not very keen to repeat in the near future.

billford wrote:...Not sure if this may be relevant, from a comment at http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/1484

This tutorial is useless for everyone with a CPU with an onboard GPU (which is almost all of them now...). Please write in BIG LETTERS the following warning:

If running with a CPU having an onboard GPU - enter BIOS and disable the integrated GPU!

Until the integrated GPU is disabled, ubuntu/mint will not autodetect the nvidia gfx card.

If, for "integrated GPU" you read "first GPU" it might explain it?

Humm, it could be possible that since my GPUs weren't in SLI mode, only the first GPU would was used for the monitor output. I think that was how it was in Windows when dual GPUs were first being used. Nonetheless, thanks for that.

Wish you all the best!

It seems to be working…

Downloaded project: 8900 (Run 338, Clone 10, Gen 4), TPF just over 9 minutes, PPD ~30,000 (which I can live with ), temperature around 52ºC and showing a touch of yellow on the bar graph, I assume I can ignore that unless I start to see some red? (I haven't yet attempted to adjust the fan speed, I think I may have a couple of questions then)

Does all that sound reasonable?

I realise it's only 30% fan speed, but I'm very impressed with the lack of noise. It's the Gigabyte version of the card with twin fans and a heat pipe, seems to be doing its job.

billford wrote:It seems to be working…

Shhh. Don't provoke it.

billford wrote: Downloaded project: 8900 (Run 338, Clone 10, Gen 4), TPF just over 9 minutes, PPD ~30,000 (which I can live with ), temperature around 52ºC and showing a touch of yellow on the bar graph, I assume I can ignore that unless I start to see some red? (I haven't yet attempted to adjust the fan speed, I think I may have a couple of questions then)

Does all that sound reasonable?

Yes 52ºC is not a problem (in most circumstances no problems below 90ºC

billford wrote:I realise it's only 30% fan speed, but I'm very impressed with the lack of noise. It's the Gigabyte version of the card with twin fans and a heat pipe, seems to be doing its job.

Enjoy!

David

davidcoton wrote:

billford wrote:It seems to be working…

Shhh. Don't provoke it.

With a little trepidation, I started up the cpu slot, that seems to be OK too. A bit down on PPD, but it's only got 3 cores now so hardly a surprise.

That one card has just about doubled my PPD… it's a good thing the mobo only has one PCI-E slot, or I might get tempted

billford wrote:It seems to be working…

Downloaded project: 8900 (Run 338, Clone 10, Gen 4), TPF just over 9 minutes, PPD ~30,000 (which I can live with ), temperature around 52ºC and showing a touch of yellow on the bar graph, I assume I can ignore that unless I start to see some red? (I haven't yet attempted to adjust the fan speed, I think I may have a couple of questions then)

Does all that sound reasonable?

I realise it's only 30% fan speed, but I'm very impressed with the lack of noise. It's the Gigabyte version of the card with twin fans and a heat pipe, seems to be doing its job.

My 650 Ti with single fan (50%) shows the 54C (room 18C) on p8900. If you receive a WU from p7622-27, the temperature may exceed 60-64C. There is no reason for concern, but is better fans to operate at 45-50%. If Linux allows.

artoar_11 wrote:There is no reason for concern, but is better fans to operate at 45-50%. If Linux allows.

I think it can be persuaded, but I haven't looked into that very far as yet. Thanks.