Why can't I get a GPU to work on this system?

It seems that a lot of GPU problems revolve around specific versions of drivers. Though NVidia has their own support structure, you can often learn from information reported by others who fold.

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Roadpower
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Why can't I get a GPU to work on this system?

Post by Roadpower »

Had a AMD GPU and FAH wouldn't see it no matter what advice I followed to attempt to get it to work (A lot of people had issues with AMD on FAH so I gave up). I get a nVidia GPU and now it won't see that either :evil: Both GPU's worked or work in every other application such as gaming and benchmarking. I tried numerous times to add the slot but FAH won't have it. "On client "Roadpower" 127.0.0.1:36330: No available GPUs"

https://ibb.co/rFtGspQ

https://ibb.co/6ZsDMSb

PS: I uninstalled both client and control, wiped out AMD drivers, cleaned everything and rebooted at least ten times already.
JimboPalmer
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Re: Why can't I get a GPU to work on this system?

Post by JimboPalmer »

There is a file GPUs.txt that should have info about your RTX 2070 Super. I am guessing yours doesn't. if you delete your copy, it should redownload

Here is info about sending us the first 200 lines of your log.

viewtopic.php?f=24&t=26036
Tsar of all the Rushers
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Roadpower
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Re: Why can't I get a GPU to work on this system?

Post by Roadpower »

JimboPalmer wrote:There is a file GPUs.txt that should have info about your RTX 2070 Super. I am guessing yours doesn't. if you delete your copy, it should redownload

Here is info about sending us the first 200 lines of your log.

viewtopic.php?f=24&t=26036
Thank you. I just reinstalled the client this afternoon so I don't know why it didn't include the GPUs.txt file at the time of installation. Doing research I found that the file is supposed to be in var/lib/fahclient. It wasn't there and nor any other place. So I found the download and put it there. The GPU is now seen and being utilized.

Just for my own sanity check, why might have the installer failed to do that or is that normal operation? Thanks again.
JimboPalmer
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Re: Why can't I get a GPU to work on this system?

Post by JimboPalmer »

I am a mere Windows user, so I am not experienced in Linux, but almost always it is file permissions. The user you are folding as lacks write permissions.

I am just a Windows user, don't take me too literally. (I have not used Solaris Unix since 2002, and have never used Linux.)
Tsar of all the Rushers
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Roadpower
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Re: Why can't I get a GPU to work on this system?

Post by Roadpower »

JimboPalmer wrote:I am a mere Windows user, so I am not experienced in Linux, but almost always it is file permissions. The user you are folding as lacks write permissions. I am just a Windows user, don't take me too literally. (I have not used Solaris Unix since 2002, and have never used Linux.)
Okay thank you Jim. Stay well.
Rel25917
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Re: Why can't I get a GPU to work on this system?

Post by Rel25917 »

Gpus.txt is always changing so it is downloaded after the install.
Roadpower
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Re: Why can't I get a GPU to work on this system?

Post by Roadpower »

Rel25917 wrote:Gpus.txt is always changing so it is downloaded after the install.
That makes sense but then the question becomes why doesn't the client fetch it or check or prompt for it? You would think that it not even being included with a fresh install of the client that some sort of prompting should be going on. Is the current behavior the same on the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS sides as well?
Rel25917
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Re: Why can't I get a GPU to work on this system?

Post by Rel25917 »

Same on all, if I remember right its possible fahclient can get loaded before the network is up and running resulting in the client failing to download it. Restarting the client should cause it to get it. Failure to get it could be handled better but it is rarely a problem. Lots of the network functions need work unfortunately.
Roadpower
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Re: Why can't I get a GPU to work on this system?

Post by Roadpower »

Rel25917 wrote:Same on all, if I remember right its possible fahclient can get loaded before the network is up and running resulting in the client failing to download it. Restarting the client should cause it to get it. Failure to get it could be handled better but it is rarely a problem. Lots of the network functions need work unfortunately.
I restarted the client plenty of times and and reinstalled it twice, it never got the GPUs.txt file on its own. In fact it seems like the safe assumption is that it never gets the file on its own. Oh well, thank you for the feed back. Hopefully this will either get fixed or I will remember it the next time I install the client or update to recently released GPU.
Joe_H
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Re: Why can't I get a GPU to work on this system?

Post by Joe_H »

Most people have no problem with the client downloading the GPUs.txt file on its first startup. Where it has been a problem is mostly on Linux installs or installs where the GPU and its drivers are not fully installed. If the GPU is not detected at all, the installer sets that GPU folding is not to be set up at all.

As also mentioned, if the network is not up, the file also might not get downloaded.
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bruce
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Re: Why can't I get a GPU to work on this system?

Post by bruce »

The client does download it but according to some rather strange rules. You probably could have restarted the FAHClient daemon or something like that but the rules are different on all three platforms.
Roadpower
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Re: Why can't I get a GPU to work on this system?

Post by Roadpower »

Joe_H wrote:Most people have no problem with the client downloading the GPUs.txt file on its first startup. Where it has been a problem is mostly on Linux installs or installs where the GPU and its drivers are not fully installed. If the GPU is not detected at all, the installer sets that GPU folding is not to be set up at all.
Hmm, I suspect that between AMD GPU driver installation issues on a *nix platform and the sheer quirkiness of getting the GPUs.txt file it now makes sense why there were crucial stumbling blocks for a novice *nix user like me.

However once I switched over to an nVidia GPU and installed the official (closed source..) driver the issue with GPUs.txt still got in the way. Thankfully at that point it wasn't a compounded issue and being reminded of the GPUs file was enough of a prompt to get me started on the final step.
Joe_H wrote:As also mentioned, if the network is not up, the file also might not get downloaded.
It seems like there needs to be a sanity check built in, IE the client looks for the file and either fetches it or warns the user that it is missing. Oh well, thank you Joe for explaining this, it was pretty vexing when stupid me was dealing with it. :[

Thanks Bruce as well.
jpineda
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Re: Why can't I get a GPU to work on this system?

Post by jpineda »

Hi,
This also happened to me, the client never downloaded the GPUs.txt file even though I restarted the client multiple times, It took me a long time to figure this out, I think this should get checked, thanks
bruce
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Re: Why can't I get a GPU to work on this system?

Post by bruce »

Roadpower wrote:
Rel25917 wrote:Gpus.txt is always changing so it is downloaded after the install.
That makes sense but then the question becomes why doesn't the client fetch it or check or prompt for it? You would think that it not even being included with a fresh install of the client that some sort of prompting should be going on. Is the current behavior the same on the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS sides as well?
Because it worked automatically on all the systems that were tested by the developer ... but not on your system.


Start by finding where FAH is placing it's work files. By default, that's probably whereever the "CWD" entry points in FAH's log. Is GPUs.txt there? Does it have permission to download into that directory? Can you copy it from https://apps.foldingathome.org/GPUs.txt to that location?
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