HD5XXX on linux with cgminer HW errors

[Subw]

Hello fellow miners  

I have some troubles with 5870 cards running with cgminer 3.3.0 under linux (ubuntu 12.10, 3.5.0-28-generic kernel).
I setup drivers from AMD site for HD5*** series and tried different SDK version ( 2.5, 2,7, 2.8 ) but only got HW errors in cgminer, zero valid shares (tried various pools).
Interesting thing is i got it to work somehow yesterday and it was hashing bitcoins OK for several hours but after poweroff cycle for night, thing refuse to work again only generting HW errors...

Does someone know what combination of software required for this old cards?

[Zanatos666]

I have a 5870 I use on Windows.  I never have dealt with an SDK, just drivers version 11.12.  Anything higher than that screws up my hashrate terribly.

[Subw]

Thanks, but I don't care for/need windows.

[philips]

Q: Which AMD SDK is the best for cgminer?
A: At the moment, versions 2.4 and 2.5 work the best for R5xxx and R6xxx GPUS.
SDK 2.6 or 2.7 works best for R7xxx. SDK 2.8 is known to have many problems.
If you are need to use the 2.6+ SDK or R7xxx or later, the phatk kernel will
perform poorly, while the diablo or my custom modified poclbm kernel are
optimised for it.

Q: Which AMD driver is the best?
A: Unfortunately AMD has a history of having quite a few releases with issues
when it comes to mining, either in terms of breaking mining, increasing CPU
usage or very low hashrates. Only experimentation can tell you for sure, but
some good releases were 11.6, 11.12, 12.4 and 12.8. Note that older cards may
not work with the newer drivers.

[Subw]

Yeap i read cgminer manual first, but it does not help me running this card.

I need advice from someone who has already done this successfully.

[Zanatos666]

Thanks, but I don't care for/need windows.

Wasnt suggesting you use Windows, but was telling you that older drivers/SDK work best for 5870's. So, if SDK 2.4 doesnt work, why not try installing Catalyst 11.12 in Linux and see if that works.

[philips]

Yeap i read cgminer manual first, but it does not help me running this card.

I need advice from someone who has already done this successfully.

I've done this successfully. You asked for a working combination of software to run 5XXX cards, cgminer readme gave you several.

If you want me to spoon fed you, here: SDK 2.4 and Catalyst 11.6, the same successful combination used by BAMT.

http://www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/ati-driver-installer-11-6-x86.x86_64.run
http://developer.amd.com/Downloads/AMD-APP-SDK-v2.4-lnx32.tgz

[Subw]

What kernel have you used?
Catalyst 11.6 does not compile on modern kernel...

[philips]

Code:

root@bamt-miner0:/# uname -r
2.6.32-5-686

You can try newer drivers but with a SDK no higher than 2.5.

[Subw]

your kernel is quite ancient... what is your distribution?

ok i see, it's BAMT.

[slarty]

Hello fellow miners  

I have some troubles with 5870 cards running with cgminer 3.3.0 under linux (ubuntu 12.10, 3.5.0-28-generic kernel).
I setup drivers from AMD site for HD5*** series and tried different SDK version ( 2.5, 2,7, 2.8 ) but only got HW errors in cgminer, zero valid shares (tried various pools).
Interesting thing is i got it to work somehow yesterday and it was hashing bitcoins OK for several hours but after poweroff cycle for night, thing refuse to work again only generting HW errors...

Does someone know what combination of software required for this old cards?

For sure you have to take care that the SDK and the driver are compatible, there is somewhere an compatibility matrix on the AMD pages.

I had the same issue with an 5850 running Ubuntu 12.04.
If you let cgminer choose the settings HW errors may occur, because of a too low thread-concurrency
1) make sure to issue
    export GPU_USE_SYNC_OBJECTS=1
    export GPU_MAX_ALLOC_PERCENT=100
in the console
2) start cgminer with worksize 256 and thread-concurrency of at least 4096 ( I think you can start right away with 8192)

RGDS

[Subw]

thanks i already figured it out and even managed to make them run scrypt but only at 320Kh/s

[Insane_Paradox]

What versions finally worked for you? I am trying different combinations now on CentOS 6.4 with a downgraded xorg to come up with a working set for a 5850 now as well.

[Subw]

none.
linux sucks for scrypt mining at least with cgminer.
i tried LOTS of settings:
different distros (bamt 0.5c, ubuntu 12.10, debian 7), different drivers/SDKs, different cgminer version...
i even made scripts to cycle cmd line settings (like intensity) and frequencies for cgminer trying to find best and still have only ~320Kh max with scrypt.
also installed dual channel 8Gb kit, disabled CPU freq scaling...
i gave up on this

[Subw]

i believe now i have 13.4 drivers for 5*** series and 2.8 SDK on ubuntu 12.10
older drivers does not work on this kernels. maybe 13.1 would work also

[philips]

none.
linux sucks for scrypt mining at least with cgminer.
i tried LOTS of settings:
different distros (bamt 0.5c, ubuntu 12.10, debian 7), different drivers/SDKs, different cgminer version...
i even made scripts to cycle cmd line settings (like intensity) and frequencies for cgminer trying to find best and still have only ~320Kh max with scrypt.
also installed dual channel 8Gb kit, disabled CPU freq scaling...
i gave up on this

I had no problem going well above 400Kh/s with 5870 cards (425Kh/s to be exact) with BAMT.
Other than upgrading cgminer to a scrypt supporting version and fixing the cgminer restart issue with the latest fix, you need nothing much to do.

[Subw]

don't know, maybe my cpu/mobo does not play well.
i have same poor result on the same platform but 7970 card (scrypt).

sha256 is doing well but scrypt don't show full performance

what's your platform?

btw your 5870 have 1Gb or 2Gb of VRAM?
Mine are 1Gb.

[Zanatos666]

You hit on your problem earlier and didnt even realize it.  Sad to say, but if you want to run 5xxx cards you will need to roll back to a version of Linux that will support 11.12 drivers.  Any drivers above that are junk for 5xxx cards and you will lose performance.  That is the reason why BAMT ran fine with 5xxx cards, even after updating cgminer, the SDK and drivers remained the same and you got optimal performance.  The only reason to update the SDK and drivers beyond 11.12 is if you have 6xxx or 7xxx cards that you need to get supported and mining.

I am running a 5870 and 5830 in a BAMT box with cgminer 3.1.1 and with OC'ing I am getting 430+ out of my 5870 and 300+ out of my 5830. 

I used to have them running in Windows and running 12.6 drivers and I lost about 20% or more performance.  Did a driver sweep, installed 11.12, and my hash rate went up.