Total Lack of Linux Software

[fulepp]

First i tried to use linux for mining. I tried to go through on almost every how to manual what i found here on the forums but every time there was missing peace and the install failed or the app couldn't started.

To get the 2.4 SDK package up and running was impossible after 1 day. I decided to use 2.3 and the 10.4 driver for my ATI HD 5870  card. 1/2 day later i gave up and put windows on the HW.

It is much quicker and easier to manage everything on Windows. If you are not familiar with unix don't try to use it for mining.

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[Zagitta]

...

To those saying Linux users don't want GUIs, you're wrong. While the stereotypical Linux user is too much of a macho power user to use a GUI, the average technically challenged user definitely does and I get requests for it all the time.

...

Sorry to burst your bubble but those who request GUI's for linux are either people who are honest and can't afford windows or simply use linux for the wrong reasons...

I see a lot of noobs, to say the least, try to use linux and fail misserable... why? because they think of it as windows and for some reason are incapable of searching for knowledge without resorting to asking on an online forum.
Remebering a few commandline args isn't that hard... hell i was a complete linux retard 1 week ago and now i got SSH, apache, mysql, php, mining and over(down)clocking @ 1000 core 300 mem and 1,18 Vcore running stable on my reference ASUS 5850 and all i did was search on google and try out stuff on my own...

Bottomline is that technically challenged users shouldn't attempt to run linux and then whine about it being difficult.

/rendrant

Also the whole point in running mining on linux is that you can avoid having a GUI and thus make the overclocking more stable, for example my card couldn't get over 350 mhash/s on windows without being unstable and now i'm rocking 388 mhash/s because the linux box have no GUI

Thanks for that, but more useful would have been HOW you got over 900 Mhz on linux. Everyone on these boards is using aticonfig or for the noobs that like a GUI AMDOcerdriveCtrl, neither of which go over 900. For fun I stuck my 5850 into windows and used Guiminer, and Sapphire Trixx. Turns out my card can clock way over 900, in fact Im running at 1015 @408Mhashes/s .  So obviously us noobs are missing something and it may be obvious to others, we went through the searching, couldnt find an answear so:  How can I properly overclock my 5850 on linux over 900Mhz?
 This is why people come to these forums, to learn from others.

1) install 2.4 sdk, drivers, AMDOverdriveCtrl, aticonfig and RadeonVolt (only works on reference cards like my ASUS)
2) make stock AMDOverdriveCtrl profile with only memory speed changed to 300 and then load it
3) aticonfig --od-enable ./radeonvolt --vcore 1.125 aticonfig -odsc 980,300
4) ?!?!??!
5) Profit

[Jaccubin]

This mostly seems to confirm the old addage that linux is only free if your time is worthless to be quite honest. How much performance do you tangibly lose if you just use a windows box that works to whatever extent it works, but reliably so?

[Smalleyster]

I write the noob gui program GUIMiner

To those saying Linux users don't want GUIs, you're wrong. While the stereotypical Linux user is too much of a macho power user to use a GUI, the average technically challenged user definitely does and I get requests for it all the time.

But here's why I don't have Linux support as my first priority: packaging.

I can throw four miner backends and the GUI frontend into a little self-extracting EXE and have confidence that anyone can get my program going just by double-clicking the EXE.

On Linux... people have to figure out how to get the drivers working (which is confusing, which one do you pick) and then the hassle is just beginning because people have to figure out how install dependencies like PyOpenCL and wxPython and compile the backends, etc etc.

In fact GUIMiner works pretty well on Linux but I don't advertise it because I don't want to have to troubleshoot people's problems where their PyOpenCL install is linked against the wrong proprietary driver or some such nonsense.

I'm hoping there will be a nice solution to this in the future like bundling it pre-installed with LinuxCoin or something but until then, Windows has superior usability.

If you really want to see robust Linux support for the miner, put up a bounty and we'll talk Otherwise there's not much motivation for me to boot my Linux partition when I have a perfectly good Windows install right here.

I'm currently bashing my brains out trying to get GUIminer to work in LinuxCoin.

I wish I were smarter.

[ellipsis]

This mostly seems to confirm the old addage that linux is only free if your time is worthless to be quite honest. How much performance do you tangibly lose if you just use a windows box that works to whatever extent it works, but reliably so?

However, that is untrue. For the slow kids who have trouble using Linux, or using it without a windowing system, the time they lose would surely be made up during CHKDSK, waiting for Windows to boot, reinstalling software, reinstalling the entire OS when the registry is trashed, or reinstalling from whatever else is certain to go wrong.

Anyway, the amount of time it takes to install, update, and manage even a small cluster of Linux boxes is miniscule compared to the same task with Windows. You don't need some fancy ghost imaging software, sysprep, or waiting to do manual installs. You just PxE boot everyone off of a single image, or dd a single image onto each machine and you're running when you finish your beer. Sure, you can mostly do that with Windows, but it's not going to be free and neither is all of the time it will take. Setting up a single machine takes the same things it takes on a Windows machine: drivers, ATI Stream SDK, and a miner. You don't even need AMDOverdriveCtrl or RadeonVolt.