Mint 19.1 vs NVIDIA drivers (396, 410, etc.)

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Profile ralphw
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Message 1974958 - Posted: 12 Jan 2019, 20:59:03 UTC

Started with Linux Mint 19.1 on a new computer:
Installed boinc, set clients, and the boinc manager from the default repos. Every startup process ignores the fact that there is an NVidia 1070 GPU installed. That's because nouveau drivers are still in charge, I suspect, but even CPU-only work units abort in computation errors.

I'm ready to downgrade to 18.something else at this point. Nothing including the graphics ppa seems to work as expected, either - I can never switch to any NVidia driver version.

The noveau drivers keep getting in the way: Now I have to edit my grub config and get the noveau driver blacklisted, boot into single-user mode and run the NVidia .run file again.

I've downloaded and used the .run file from NVidia, but it complains about the lack of an ncurses6 library. (ncurses 5 is current on this Linux box) Can I ignore this error?

If I give up on Ubuntu & Linux mint, what other Linux distro are folks with GPUs running? I'm perfectly happy to switch.

Comment from a recent contributor here: "I've recently found Ubuntu is making it very difficult to use the driver downloaded from nVidia with the newer systems". I completely agree with this statement, and would rather run "Any other version of Linux" that will let me use a proper NVidia driver with minimal hassle.
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Message 1974961 - Posted: 12 Jan 2019, 21:11:55 UTC

I never could get any version of Mint to properly install and allow Nvidia drivers.

Never had any issues at all with any version of Ubuntu. I've installed Ubuntu 14, 16 and 18 LTS versions with no issues. Either run the Nvidia .run installer from tty terminal without a display manager running or the easier way to just add the graphics-drivers ppa and simply select whichever version of the drivers that suit your fancy. I have the choice of the 390, 396, 410 or 415 drivers for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. Just use the Software&Updates utility to select the Additional Drivers tab and then select the Nvidia driver you want.

Why doesn't the graphics-driver ppa not work for you.
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Message 1974964 - Posted: 12 Jan 2019, 21:20:42 UTC - in response to Message 1974958.  
Last modified: 12 Jan 2019, 22:14:13 UTC

I went for it and ignored the warning about ncurses:

Here are the steps take to get the nouveau blacklist made permanent:

    As root:
    # NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-410.78.run
    # echo options nouveau modeset=0 >> /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nvidia-nouveau.conf
    # sudo update-initramfs -u



Here's what the boinc manager event log startup looks like now:
Sat 12 Jan 2019 04:11:56 PM EST | | CUDA: NVIDIA GPU 0: GeForce GTX 1070 (driver version 410.78, CUDA version 10.0, compute capability 6.1, 4096MB, 3984MB available, 6463 GFLOPS peak)
Sat 12 Jan 2019 04:11:56 PM EST | | OpenCL: NVIDIA GPU 0: GeForce GTX 1070 (driver version 410.78, device version OpenCL 1.2 CUDA, 8118MB, 3984MB available, 6463 GFLOPS peak)
Sat 12 Jan 2019 04:11:56 PM EST | SETI@home | Found app_info.xml; using anonymous platform
Sat 12 Jan 2019 04:11:56 PM EST | | [libc detection] gathered: 2.27, Ubuntu GLIBC 2.27-3ubuntu1
Sat 12 Jan 2019 04:11:56 PM EST | | Host name: trigun
Sat 12 Jan 2019 04:11:56 PM EST | | Processor: 12 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8700K CPU @ 3.70GHz [Family 6 Model 158 Stepping 10]
Sat 12 Jan 2019 04:11:56 PM EST | | Processor features: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc art arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc cpuid aperfmperf tsc_known_freq pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 sdbg fma cx16 xtpr pdcm pcid sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm abm 3dnowprefetch cpuid_fault invpcid_single pti ssbd ibrs ibpb stibp tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid fsgsbase tsc_adjust bmi1 hle avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid rtm mpx rdseed adx smap clflushopt intel_pt xsaveopt xsavec xgetbv1 xsaves dtherm ida arat pln pts hwp hwp_notify hwp_act_window hwp_epp flush_l1d
Sat 12 Jan 2019 04:11:56 PM EST | | OS: Linux LinuxMint: Linux Mint 19.1 Tessa [4.15.0-43-generic|libc 2.27 (Ubuntu GLIBC 2.27-3ubuntu1)]

So now it sees the NVidia card , and just needs a proper client to use the GPU.


    app_info.xml needs work

    Need the optimized CUDA 9 client (I've downloaded it, I need to build an installer for it)


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    Message 1974966 - Posted: 12 Jan 2019, 21:35:59 UTC

    I found both ncurses 5 and ncurses6 on my hosts.
    If you use the TBar All-in-One packages the app_info is already written for you.
    Also make sure you have OpenCL support in the Nvidia drivers for the AP app.
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    Message 1974972 - Posted: 12 Jan 2019, 22:14:27 UTC - in response to Message 1974958.  

    Comment from a recent contributor here: "I've recently found Ubuntu is making it very difficult to use the driver downloaded from nVidia with the newer systems". I completely agree with this statement, and would rather run "Any other version of Linux" that will let me use a proper NVidia driver with minimal hassle.
    Actually, it's even worse than I was experiencing at the time. I started using some disks with just a single system installed instead of multi-systems. With just a single system even getting to the recovery mode is a PITA. You end up having to edit etc/default/grub to comment out the lines GRUB Hidden... and place nomodeset in the quotes GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="nomodeset". Then you can get to the recovery mode. It seems nouveau has been designed to counter your every move to try to install the nVidia drivers. I lost count of how many times I installed and uninstalled the repository NV driver and the Downloaded driver before I got it to work with the downloaded driver. Even with the nouveau driver blacklisted I still had to install the repo driver then drop into the console and remove the repo driver and immediately install the downloaded driver. It seems to have started around 16.04, and it's worse with 18.04.
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    Message 1974977 - Posted: 12 Jan 2019, 22:34:09 UTC

    Just curiosity, why you instead of Mint not use Ubuntu like the vast majority of SETI Linux does?
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    Message 1974981 - Posted: 12 Jan 2019, 22:56:25 UTC - in response to Message 1974977.  

    Just curiosity, why you instead of Mint not use Ubuntu like the vast majority of SETI Linux does?
    Not to hijack the question, but I personally chose Mint because I read some random test concluding that it was the best version for n00bs like myself.
    And it looks like it's all Ubuntu inside.
    I haven't had any real trouble getting it to run on three of my hosts....
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    Message 1974983 - Posted: 12 Jan 2019, 23:00:25 UTC

    with mint you can still add the ubuntu ppa for the nvidia drivers. I did run mint for a while but I switched to lubuntu, as it is very lightweight and leaves more resources for computing
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    Message 1974986 - Posted: 12 Jan 2019, 23:18:50 UTC - in response to Message 1974981.  

    Just curiosity, why you instead of Mint not use Ubuntu like the vast majority of SETI Linux does?
    Not to hijack the question, but I personally chose Mint because I read some random test concluding that it was the best version for n00bs like myself.
    And it looks like it's all Ubuntu inside.
    I haven't had any real trouble getting it to run on three of my hosts....

    The main reason Mint is recommended to noobs is because it supposedly bears the closest resemblance to Windows. I never really liked Windows, I tolerated it, so no thank you. I will go with something else that doesn't have the same faulty UI as Windows.
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    Message 1974998 - Posted: 13 Jan 2019, 0:31:38 UTC

    I wouldn’t expect a PPA aimed at and intended to be used with Ubuntu to work with other distributions.
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    Message 1975008 - Posted: 13 Jan 2019, 1:26:17 UTC - in response to Message 1974998.  

    I wouldn’t expect a PPA aimed at and intended to be used with Ubuntu to work with other distributions.

    Ubuntu is a Debian based distribution.

    So is Mint.
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    Message 1975015 - Posted: 13 Jan 2019, 2:13:07 UTC
    Last modified: 13 Jan 2019, 2:18:49 UTC

    True. But they are still different. Seems to be a problem with Mint at large regarding nvidia drivers based on your previous comments/experience. Especially if even the nvidia run file doesn’t work.

    I’ve only ever used Ubuntu and Fedora versions of Linux at length for home use. And some very short bouts using things like Xubuntu and Mythbuntu more than 10 years ago.
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    Message 1975051 - Posted: 13 Jan 2019, 9:49:13 UTC

    On my Mint 18 install i had to replace Ubuntu with Mint in the run file to get it work.
    That`s all.


    With each crime and every kindness we birth our future.
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    Message 1975071 - Posted: 13 Jan 2019, 16:29:48 UTC
    Last modified: 13 Jan 2019, 16:30:09 UTC

    Running Mint 18.3 and Nvidia PPA, works just fine.
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    Message 1975086 - Posted: 13 Jan 2019, 20:03:20 UTC

    Last April I got a Mint 18.1 test rig up and crunching within an hour without any driver problems, though it did take me 30mins or so to get BOINC actually working.

    Cheers.
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    Message 1975099 - Posted: 13 Jan 2019, 23:40:59 UTC - in response to Message 1974972.  
    Last modified: 13 Jan 2019, 23:43:36 UTC

    I found the workarounds and accomplished the goal of nuking nouveau from my grub config AND getting the module blacklisted.

    I did fell like I was fighting the system the entire way - it's frustrating when there is a "driver manager" script that purportedly lets you switch, but that doesn't work.

    I've been running SAH on Linux Mint for > 2 years, and it's gotten more frustrating with each new release.
    The new system is only going to run Mint 19.1 (until 2023).

    Now I just have the question of where to unpack the .7z file contents.

    Do the new binaries and .cl files go into /usr/lib/boinc-app-seti?


      root@asimov /usr/lib/boinc-app-seti # ls -l
      -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 3405264 Oct 14 2014 ap_7.05r2728_sse3_linux64
      -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 82 Aug 21 01:24 ap_cmdline_7.08_x86_64-pc-linux-gnu__opencl_nvidia_100.txt
      -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2814 Aug 27 16:57 app_info.xml
      -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2508192 Sep 18 2015 astropulse_7.08_x86_64-pc-linux-gnu__opencl_nvidia_100
      -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 120992 Sep 18 2015 AstroPulse_Kernels_r2751.cl
      drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Aug 27 17:07 docs
      drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Nov 23 2017 For AMD CPUs
      drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jan 12 23:21 Linux_Pascal+0.97b2_Special
      -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 73308207 Jan 12 03:38 Linux_Pascal+0.97b2_Special.7z
      -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 5678784 Nov 14 2017 MBv8_8.22r3711_sse41_x86_64-pc-linux-gnu
      -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1027656 Feb 2 2016 setiathome_v8
      -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 132283048 Aug 27 18:46 setiathome_x41p_V0.97b2_Linux-Pascal+_cuda92



    The app_info.xml file seens to have only one place to go:

    /usr/share/boinc-app-seti/app_info.xml


      root@asimov /usr/lib/boinc-app-seti # find / -name 'app_info.xml' -exec ls -l {} \;
      -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2814 Jan 12 23:32 /usr/share/boinc-app-seti/app_info.xml
      -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2814 Aug 27 16:57 /usr/lib/boinc-app-seti/app_info.xml
      -rw-r--r-- 1 ralphw3 ralphw3 2814 Aug 27 16:57 /var/lib/boinc-client/ralphw/Linux_Pascal+0.97b2_Special/app_info.xml
      lrwxrwxrwx 1 boinc boinc 38 Jan 12 03:54 /var/lib/boinc-client/projects/setiweb.ssl.berkeley.edu/app_info.xml -> /usr/share/boinc-app-seti/app_info.xml
      lrwxrwxrwx 1 boinc boinc 38 Jan 12 03:54 /var/lib/boinc-client/projects/setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/app_info.xml -> /usr/share/boinc-app-seti/app_info.xml
      lrwxrwxrwx 1 boinc boinc 38 Jan 12 03:54 /var/lib/boinc-client/projects/setiathome.berkeley.edu/app_info.xml -> /usr/share/boinc-app-seti/app_info.xml


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    Message 1975517 - Posted: 17 Jan 2019, 1:08:12 UTC - in response to Message 1975099.  

    Conclusion: The run file method is working for me in 19.1, as it did in Mint 18.
    I have installed 4.10 and 4.15 NVidia drivers this way.

    I have other, older Ubuntu distributions that were LTS long-term support.

    I'm taking a break from crunching WUs for a few days, I'm going to rearrange my GPUs so they are more similar across machines, and try an 8-core 16-thread Ryzen chip at the same time.
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    Message boards : Number crunching : Mint 19.1 vs NVIDIA drivers (396, 410, etc.)


     
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