Looking for a gentoo-specific HOWTO to get the above card working with boinc.

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Not specific, but something to keep an eye on: Skip's post #34659.

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Thanks Jord

I've got the same problem - from a shell boinc detects the gpu - but the xhost local:boinc doesn't work - the gentoo init script has some differences - anyway I'll keep digging and write up when I get it running so that others can benefit too.

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Ok I'm now at the point where I can run boinc_client from a root terminal or sudo boinc_client from a user terminal (within Gnome) and BOINC will recognise the GPU. I'll post all the steps I've taken so far to get to this point - whether they are all required I don't know.

Step 1 - emerge radeon-ucode

# emerge radeon-ucode

Step 2 - Follow the X Server Configuration HOWTO

Reconfigure your kernel

Device Drivers ---> 
  Graphics support ---> 
    Support for frame buffer devices ---> 
    (Disable all drivers, including VGA, Intel, nVidia, and ATI) 

    (Further down, enable basic console support. KMS uses this.) 
    Console display driver support ---> 
      <*>  Framebuffer Console Support 
  

(Setup the kernel to use the radeon-ucode firmware) 
Device Drivers ---> 
  Generic Driver Options ---> 
  [*]  Include in-kernel firmware blobs in kernel binary 

() External firmware blobs 

For RadeonHD 2000, 3000, and 4000 series cards:

radeon/R600_rlc.bin radeon/R700_rlc.bin 

For RadeonHD 5000, a.k.a Evergreen, and newer cards:

radeon/CEDAR_me.bin radeon/CEDAR_pfp.bin radeon/CEDAR_rlc.bin radeon/CYPRESS_me.bin radeon/CYPRESS_pfp.bin radeon/CYPRESS_rlc.bin radeon/JUNIPER_me.bin radeon/JUNIPER_pfp.bin radeon/JUNIPER_rlc.bin radeon/REDWOOD_me.bin radeon/REDWOOD_pfp.bin radeon/REDWOOD_rlc.bin) 

change

(firmware) Firmware blobs root directory 

to

(/lib/firmware/) Firmware blobs root directory 

Do not enable Radeon KMS support.

Edit /etc/make.conf

VIDEO_CARDS="fglrx"

Re-emerge all packages with new USE flags

emerge -avDN world

Reconfigure X (not sure if this step is necessary - would like some feedback)

# Xorg -configure 
# X -retro -config /root/xorg.conf.new 
# cp /root/xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf 

Step 3 - Set openGL to ATI

# eselect opengl set ati 

Step 4 - Configure X for fglrx

# aticonfig --initial 
# aticonfig --initial=check 

Step 5 - Add boinc to video group

# usermod -a -G video boinc 

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Slightly OT but to crunch with the primegrid gpu app you need libOpenCL.so this is available in the ati-stream-sdk-bin package from the pentoo overlay.

Steps invloved are

1. Install layman and subversion

2. Install the pentoo overlay

layman -L 
layman -a pentoo 
echo "source /var/lib/layman/make.conf" >> /etc/make.conf 

3. Install ati-stream-sdk

emerge ati-stream-sdk-bin 
eselect opencl set ati 

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Success - I'm now able to have BOINC start automatically on boot from within X - having it recognise the GPU. These instructions are Gnome specific and require that the user is auto logged in by gdm.

1. Stop BOINC starting as a service

# rc-update del boinc default 

2. Make your user owner of all BOINCs files

 
#chown -vR trogdog /var/lib/boinc 

3. Create a Startup Application

Gnome Menu Bar - System/Preferences/Startup Applications

Click Add
Name: BOINC Autostart
Command: gnome-terminal -x boinc_client --dir /var/lib/boinc
Comment: Runs BOINC in terminal window

4. Reboot

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Success - I'm now able to have BOINC start automatically on boot from within X - having it recognise the GPU. These instructions are Gnome specific and require that the user is auto logged in by gdm.

1. Stop BOINC starting as a service

# rc-update del boinc default 

2. Make your user owner of all BOINCs files

 
#chown -vR trogdog /var/lib/boinc 

3. Create a Startup Application

Gnome Menu Bar - System/Preferences/Startup Applications

Click Add
Name: BOINC Autostart
Command: gnome-terminal -x boinc_client --dir /var/lib/boinc
Comment: Runs BOINC in terminal window

4. Reboot

The driver setup instructions above were well written and got me finally with a graphical interface. I actually followed it from the Gentoo Forum post. It was a brutal experience to get the ati-drivers working, but I've learned from it and hopefully it will all go smoother when I do the install on another computer.

Since then, I've been determined to get the default boinc init script to work, whether by modification or finding some environment variable to change. I don't know why ati has DISPLAY problems with su when nvidia doesn't.

I think I may have a cleaner way than the quoted. I need to do more testing, though. I think I may be able to get things working by changing the variables in /etc/conf.d/boinc.

The gentoo init script for boinc, references the variables in /etc/conf.d/boinc. When you run it, it resets the owner and group of the entire /var/lib/boinc directory based on the owner and group specified in /etc/conf.d/boinc. So, make your typical user the owner. When the init script is started you will become owner of the files.

Now, what I don't know is if boinc needs to be started manually after signing in, or if it will just work with the default runlevel script. I guess I'll know more after a reboot. I've done a lot of troubleshooting today, so I'm not totally sure that there was one thing that fixed it.

I'll get more specific about what got me going when I'm relatively sure what the changes were that got me GPU crunching. I am using the standard init script, though.

Please post if you have success, because the above is a not very elegant work around.

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