Forgive me if this is a silly question. I am not very tech savvy.

I have an old computer with an Nvidia GTS 250 gpu. I want to use the gpu for BOINC but am having horrible luck. Nothing works.

Look here:

https://imageshack.com/i/p85Vfnfhp

Do you see those listed Nvidia drivers? I've tried each. Upon rebooting, each returns the same result: a blank black screen.

What is going on?

How is it that all the drivers "black out" my screen upon reboot?

Does this mean I can't use my gpu?


My "box" includes:
- 64bit Kubuntu 14.04
- 4 gb ddr3 system ram
- Nvidia GTS 250 gpu (g92 based)
- AMD A6-7400k cpu

You have two GPUs, GTS 250 and an integrated one in A6 CPU. Presumably your computer has two (or maybe more) monitor connectors, one that GTS 250 drives and one that A6 drives. Which one are you using for your monitor? Switching connectors might help.

The problem with GPUs from more than one vendor is that in order to use them both in X you need to use the open source drivers. But those drivers are not compatible with CUDA or OpenCL.

If you don't need the AMD GPU you might be able to disable it in BIOS.

Or it might be possible to use only one GPU to drive monitor and use another for only computing. Or it might even be possible to run two X servers (basically two desktops) with one GPU for each X server. I doubt the Driver Manager would be able to set up either one which means you'd need to edit configuration files by hand. If you are interested in such more complicated setup you'll probably find better help (and faster) from some Ubuntu forum.

I am only interested in the gts 250.

So, do I correctly understand that the computer is basically "confused" because there are technically 2 detected GPU?

Thus, I might be able to work around the issue by disabling the integrated GPU.

Correct?

To answer your question, I run my VGA cable from the gts 250. When I run it from the A6 CPU (motherboard) nothing happens.

So, do I correctly understand that the computer is basically "confused" because there are technically 2 detected GPU?

Thus, I might be able to work around the issue by disabling the integrated GPU.

I would start with that. Far easier than creating the necessary configuration files by hand.

And I don't think I would use the word 'confused'. It's more like a design limitation in X.