Ubuntu Natty Narwhal 11.04 Mining Guide / HOWTO

[minerX]

Alright, minerX!

What parameters are you using for poclbm?

No this is terrible news.   I was able to flash but the same problem occurred.  At stock overclock settings I'm getting 370 mhash.   Once I overclock in ATIconfig _OR_ RBE bios flash, the MHASH goes down drastically.   So 370 mash @ 880 speeds, 340 @ 1000.   It's god damn mind boggling.   I was just using the 6950 on my windows system and getting 400 mhash @ 940 clock speed.


Here is my settings:

 --device=0 -v -w 128

[minerX]

go to the terminal (once AMDOverdriveCtrl is installed) and type

AMDOverdriveCtrl -i0 <- for adapter 0
AMDOverdriveCtrl -ix <- for adapter x

AMDOverdriveCtrl is case-sensitive. You can get the index from the terminal output of any of them, use the index of those that are marked 'active'

Is there a how to install AMDOverdriveCtrl? I tried building from source, but it wouldn't compile? binaries somewhere or docs on how to build yourself?

thanks.

This please.  I have no idea how to install it.  You would think they would it it in the readme or something.

[supa]

I'm sure you can get a bit more oomph.

Fiddle with the clock settings with aticonfig until you find a sweet spot.  It's a bit of a fiddle game (unless you know someone with an identical card...) and sometimes it doesn't always make sense....

I get *less* MHs at 900,400 than I do at 875,1125

Current settings are 1005,225 and it took me a while to figure that out - I was getting less at 1005,325 than 775,1125!

For the people asking for an AMDOverDriveCtrl howto - if you look at the sourceforge project, I believe they have prebuilt .deb packages.  No reason to rebuild it unless you're trying to set it up on Fedora or some other distro.

[CubedRoot]

I feel your pain MinerX!
I have not been able to get myt ubuntu setup to perform worth a damn either. I have swapped HDD's and tried Debian Squeez with same results. I have modified BIOS's till I am blue in the face.  I even tried the BIOS that Inaba had sent, and it mined for about an hour before GPU locking, in both my Ubuntu install and my fresh Debian install using SDK 2.1.

I cannot get these stupid cards to perform in linux as well as they do in Windows and stay stable. Its highly frustrating since I want to use Linux to mine with.  

Here is the BIOS I am using for my HD5850's right now:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/417019/Sapphire%20HD5850.rom

At this point, I am frustrated at not being able to find a single root cause as to why I cannot get these cards to perform the way the do in Windows.  For sake of integrity, I am going to reinstall Ubuntu Natty 32 bit and then follow the directions in this guide one last time to the letter and then post results.

I would offer someone a bounty of 2 BTC for a modified BIOS for a Sapphire HD5850 Xtreme that was overclocked and STABLE that I could try.  I can mine on these cards in Windows using Trixx and/or Afterburner at 950 core 325 RAM with 1.187 volts and they will hash at 366 Mhash all day long.  If someone can give me a BIOS file that I can flash that will allow me the same results in Linux without have to mess with AMDovrdrvctrl or aticonfig, the 2 BTC will be headed your way. LOL

[dudel42]

For the people asking for an AMDOverDriveCtrl howto - if you look at the sourceforge project, I believe they have prebuilt .deb packages.  No reason to rebuild it unless you're trying to set it up on Fedora or some other distro.

found the deb, thanks that worked just fine.

now I just need to find some info on how to use it from the command line... calling it with --help shows me the adapter indexes to use, but not much more, and the pdf documentation only shows the gui.

what commands would I use on a 6970 to raise the limit (I guess it throttles, because when I set the clock higher with aticonfig it actually slows down)?

[supa]

#1 Stop wasting your time reinstalling.  The GPU operations are independent of the OS.

I'm using Fedora 32, but that shouldn't really matter.  The only difference is the driver software from AMD.

I'm using Catalyst 11.5 with SDK 2.4, but others suggest 2.1.  I think the phoenix creator suggests 2.4.  Either way, I'm not sure you even need this....

I would send you my HD5850 BIOS, but it's probably no different than what you have with the exception of a few numbers changed that you can change yourself in RBE.

My changes -
"Additional Changes" tab, method 2, CPU to 1200
CPU 0 through CPU 3 in the profiles thing with Memory clocks to 125 (I think you can skip this step if you're using AMDOverDriveCtrl).

Use aticonfig to set my clocks on the cards.

Run phoenix.  I just recently switched to phoenix+phatk from poclbm, but either will work.

A few other mentionable changes -
I boot into run level 3 (no GUI) and manually start X with "xinit -e metacity" (not sure how much/if this actually helps, but it's more stable than booting say..... Gnome3).
You can use twm or any other default if you want, I just happen to like metacity and it's on my machines, anyway.

@dudel42 - Once AMDOverDriveCtrl is running, you're free to use aticonfig to adjust clocks.  If you decide to use AMDOverDriveCtrl, make sure you hit the "set" button.  When the miner starts cranking away, it should automatically switch to whatever you've set the "High" profile to.

[minerX]

I'm sure you can get a bit more oomph.

Fiddle with the clock settings with aticonfig until you find a sweet spot.  It's a bit of a fiddle game (unless you know someone with an identical card...) and sometimes it doesn't always make sense....

I get *less* MHs at 900,400 than I do at 875,1125

Current settings are 1005,225 and it took me a while to figure that out - I was getting less at 1005,325 than 775,1125!

For the people asking for an AMDOverDriveCtrl howto - if you look at the sourceforge project, I believe they have prebuilt .deb packages.  No reason to rebuild it unless you're trying to set it up on Fedora or some other distro.

No offense man.  But you aren't listening.   I'm getting 370 mhash BEFORE overclocking.   Any attempt at overclocking so far DECREASES my hash rate.  There is "no fiddling" to be had.  Something is serious bonkers with these 6xxx cards.


@CubedRoot.

I'm running two other systems with 5850s on the same Ubuntu setup and love it.  I haven't figured out how to overvolt them yet but they still are more stable then my windows counterpart.  SSH tunnel is 100000% faster then using logmein.    Not that I need to use it very often because of how stable it is.

[CubedRoot]

MinerX,
What clocks and Hashrates are you getting on your 5850's?  Are you using Phoenix and phatk or poclbm?  What driver and SDK version are you using?

I amtrying to find something that is freaking stable   its driving me insane.

[supa]

No offense man.  But you aren't listening.   I'm getting 370 mhash BEFORE overclocking.   Any attempt at overclocking so far DECREASES my hash rate.  There is "no fiddling" to be had.  Something is serious bonkers with these 6xxx cards.

No worries about offense, but if you meant that in a passive aggressive way.... I'm trying to help you, bro.

I'm trying to tell you there is a relationship to overclocking the GPU and the memory clock.  There is a correlation between the two.  You can't just try one single value and give up the goose.

So again.... have you tried fiddling around a bit?  The last aticonfig dump I saw had a single value for memory that wasn't adjustable.....    It took me a whole day to find the happy-spot on my 5850s - and one stupid one hates running at 1005 and only seems to work at 995.  The final outcome was 1005,225 for 395MHs with phoenix - something I could never get in Windows (I did try, though, quite a bit....).  The weird card only runs at 995, 300 for 360MHs - still 70MHs more than I got in Windows.

I'm in no way promising you'll win the game with Linux.... I'm just trying to help you out.  Linux is a bit like a paintbrush that requires a bit of finesse, patience and pre-built skillsets to produce something beautiful.... Windows is a bit like a steam roller covered in paint - guaranteed to paint "something" pretty broadly.

ssh does beat the pants of managing stuff through a GUI - but did you know you can get tools like Cygwin and sshd for Windows?  You can even get screen - then you can detach the session from the Windows console and recover it from an ssh session.

If it's such a big deal - go back to Windows.  No hard feelings here.

[dudel42]

@dudel42 - Once AMDOverDriveCtrl is running, you're free to use aticonfig to adjust clocks.  If you decide to use AMDOverDriveCtrl, make sure you hit the "set" button.  When the miner starts cranking away, it should automatically switch to whatever you've set the "High" profile to.

I guess I'm not quite getting something here

Do I have to run AMDOverDriveCtrl in the GUI and configure in the GUI before I can use it? I can get access to the gui, but I'm basically ssh only, and when calling it there it just resets fan speed to default and nothing else...

[Dusty]

Is there a how to install AMDOverdriveCtrl? I tried building from source, but it wouldn't compile? binaries somewhere or docs on how to build yourself?

This please.  I have no idea how to install it.  You would think they would it it in the readme or something.[/quote]
Just click on the download button here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/amdovdrvctrl/
If you are using Natty firefox should ask you to open it with the package manager. Then just press ok and the program is installed

Otherwise you can download it and then install the package (.deb) from the commandline this way:
sudo dpkg -i amdoverdrivectrl_1.2.0_amd64.deb

[minerX]

MinerX,
What clocks and Hashrates are you getting on your 5850's?  Are you using Phoenix and phatk or poclbm?  What driver and SDK version are you using?

I amtrying to find something that is freaking stable   its driving me insane.

I'm using POCLBM.   My hashrates go from 330-350 depending on the computer.   My clock rates range from 850-925 depending on stability.  All at stock voltage.  My 7x PCIexpress board with 4x 5850s seems to have the lowest clock rates, ranging from 850-875.   I was running it on windows for awhile so I wouldn't be surprised if that affected the stability.  It was a 400$ board too that I originally got for Folding@Home.   My 80$ motherboard has the 5850s running between 900-925 clockrates.

@Supa:

Nah I'm not trying to offend you.  But I still think you aren't listening!  

For example:

CLOCKSPEED: 800
MEMSPEED: 1300
HASH RATE: 370

OVERCLOCK:   1
CLOCKSPEED: 801
MEMSPEED: 1300
HASH RATE: 330


Do you see? It has nothing to do with memory and/or fiddling.  Something is broken somewhere.  I feel like this can be solved but we first need to realize what we are dealing with.  It's not a tweaking issue by any means.

I'm downloading Fedora right now.  I want to see if this is a Ubuntu issue!   So I'll probably need your help getting it to work in Fedora.  I'm a complete linux noob.  I was going to try CentOS but the damn thing is 4GB.  What did they put on that madness?  I'm pretty sure the Windows 7 install is smaller...

[minerX]

Is there a how to install AMDOverdriveCtrl? I tried building from source, but it wouldn't compile? binaries somewhere or docs on how to build yourself?

This please.  I have no idea how to install it.  You would think they would it it in the readme or something.

Just click on the download button here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/amdovdrvctrl/
If you are using Natty firefox should ask you to open it with the package manager. Then just press ok and the program is installed

Otherwise you can download it and then install the package (.deb) from the commandline this way:
sudo dpkg -i amdoverdrivectrl_1.2.0_amd64.deb

[/quote]

Ahh.  Yea I'm using SSH at the moment.  I can hook up the monitor but a bit of a pain for the multi computers.  So how did you know how to do it the command line way?  Is there some list somewhere?    Also how does it know to go to the website to get it?   

and thanks

[Inaba]

MinerX, can you show me the output of "aticonfig --odgc --adapter=all"

Give me the output when the computer first boots and then when it's running your miners.

For both overclocked and not overclocked.

[minerX]

MinerX, can you show me the output of "aticonfig --odgc --adapter=all"

Give me the output when the computer first boots and then when it's running your miners.

For both overclocked and not overclocked.

Sure.   Here is first reboot.

aticonfig --odgc --adapter=all

Adapter 0 - AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series
                            Core (MHz)    Memory (MHz)
           Current Clocks :    250           150
             Current Peak :    800           1250
  Configurable Peak Range : [500-840]     [1250-1325]
                 GPU load :    0%

Adapter 1 - AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series
                            Core (MHz)    Memory (MHz)
           Current Clocks :    250           150
             Current Peak :    880           1375
  Configurable Peak Range : [500-950]     [1375-1450]
                 GPU load :    0%

Adapter 2 - AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series
                            Core (MHz)    Memory (MHz)
           Current Clocks :    250           150
             Current Peak :    880           1375
  Configurable Peak Range : [500-950]     [1375-1450]
                 GPU load :    0%
:~$



aticonfig --od-setclocks=840,1250 --adapter=0
aticonfig --od-setclocks=950,1375 --adapter=1
aticonfig --od-setclocks=950,1375 --adapter=2


Adapter 0 - AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series
            New Core Peak   : 840
            New Memory Peak : 1250


Adapter 1 - AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series
            New Core Peak   : 950
            New Memory Peak : 1375

Adapter 2 - AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series
            New Core Peak   : 950
            New Memory Peak : 1375

:~$ aticonfig --odgc --adapter=all

Adapter 0 - AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series
                            Core (MHz)    Memory (MHz)
           Current Clocks :    250           150
             Current Peak :    840           1250
  Configurable Peak Range : [500-840]     [1250-1325]
                 GPU load :    5%

Adapter 1 - AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series
                            Core (MHz)    Memory (MHz)
           Current Clocks :    250           150
             Current Peak :    950           1375
  Configurable Peak Range : [500-950]     [1375-1450]
                 GPU load :    0%

Adapter 2 - AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series
                            Core (MHz)    Memory (MHz)
           Current Clocks :    250           150
             Current Peak :    950           1375
  Configurable Peak Range : [500-950]     [1375-1450]
                 GPU load :    0%
:~$

 

Here is after mining for 10+ hours.

aticonfig --odgc --adapter=all

Adapter 0 - AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series
                            Core (MHz)    Memory (MHz)
           Current Clocks :    800           1250
             Current Peak :    800           1250
  Configurable Peak Range : [500-840]     [1250-1325]
                 GPU load :    98%

Adapter 1 - AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series
                            Core (MHz)    Memory (MHz)
           Current Clocks :    880           1375
             Current Peak :    880           1375
  Configurable Peak Range : [500-950]     [1375-1450]
                 GPU load :    97%

Adapter 2 - AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series
                            Core (MHz)    Memory (MHz)
           Current Clocks :    880           1375
             Current Peak :    880           1375
  Configurable Peak Range : [500-950]     [1375-1450]
                 GPU load :    97%



aticonfig --od-setclocks=840,1250 --adapter=0
aticonfig --od-setclocks=950,1375 --adapter=1
aticonfig --od-setclocks=950,1375 --adapter=2

Adapter 0 - AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series
            New Core Peak   : 840
            New Memory Peak : 1250

Adapter 1 - AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series
            New Core Peak   : 950
            New Memory Peak : 1375

Adapter 2 - AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series
            New Core Peak   : 950
            New Memory Peak : 1375

aticonfig --odgc --adapter=all

Adapter 0 - AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series
                            Core (MHz)    Memory (MHz)
           Current Clocks :    840           1250
             Current Peak :    840           1250
  Configurable Peak Range : [500-840]     [1250-1325]
                 GPU load :    98%

Adapter 1 - AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series
                            Core (MHz)    Memory (MHz)
           Current Clocks :    950           1375
             Current Peak :    950           1375
  Configurable Peak Range : [500-950]     [1375-1450]
                 GPU load :    97%

Adapter 2 - AMD Radeon HD 6900 Series
                            Core (MHz)    Memory (MHz)
           Current Clocks :    950           1375
             Current Peak :    950           1375
  Configurable Peak Range : [500-950]     [1375-1450]
                 GPU load :    97%
:~$

[darkpandora]

You screen buffer is too small, you need to increase it in PuTTY.  Don't ask me how to do that, because I don't use PuTTY (I use SecureCRT).

I set my buffer to 32000 lines of scrollback.

i set mine to 50000 lines. this is what i got: http://pastebin.com/rRr105GP
and i reinstalled ubuntu to be 100% sure it was not the updates that was causing this.

Based on your lspci output, it looks like the drivers are not installed properly.  You may want to go back and review the output of installing fglrx.  If nothing else, reinstall and on the line that installs fglrx, leave that out, then do it manually with apt-get install fglrx and see if it comes back with an error.

ok i really need help. i tried to install the driver again using your guide but nothing happened:

~$ screen -S update sudo apt-get install fglrx vim openssh-server g++ libboost-all-dev subversion git-core python-numpy
[screen is terminating]

do i need to reinstall ubuntu? please help:(

[supa]

I guess I'm not quite getting something here

Do I have to run AMDOverDriveCtrl in the GUI and configure in the GUI before I can use it? I can get access to the gui, but I'm basically ssh only, and when calling it there it just resets fan speed to default and nothing else...

Here's what happens for me -

From ssh, without AMDOverDriveCtrl running, my memory clock floor is 1175 (or something like that).

Trying to use aticonfig --odsc 1005,225 will not work (it says make sure values are valid).

After running AMDOverDriveCtrl (you can do this from ssh - export DISPLAY=0:0 ; AMDOverDriveCtrl &) and not touching it in the GUI, my memory floor becomes 150.

Trying to use aticonfig --odsc 1005,225 works.

[minerX]

I just spent 5 hours messing with Ubuntu on one of my rigs.   Only to find out it's been fucking up because for some reason PCI_16 Extension bridges don't work. 

What the fuck    $400 motherboard with 7x PCI and can't even use ribbons?   Fucking shenanigans.

[Dusty]

Ahh.  Yea I'm using SSH at the moment.  I can hook up the monitor but a bit of a pain for the multi computers.  So how did you know how to do it the command line way?  Is there some list somewhere?    Also how does it know to go to the website to get it?   

ok, here the two steps:

wget -O amdoverdrivectrl_1.2.0_amd64.deb "http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/amdovdrvctrl/deb%20binaries/amdoverdrivectrl_1.2.0_amd64.deb?r=http%3A%2F%2Fsourceforge.net%2Fprojects%2Famdovdrvctrl%2F&ts=1307967653&use_mirror=switch"

sudo dpkg -i amdoverdrivectrl_1.2.0_amd64.deb

That's all

[dudel42]

After running AMDOverDriveCtrl (you can do this from ssh - export DISPLAY=0:0 ; AMDOverDriveCtrl &) and not touching it in the GUI, my memory floor becomes 150.

Trying to use aticonfig --odsc 1005,225 works.

thanks for your patience, but it's still not working for me...

I run it from ssh just like you showed, and it outputs the following:

Code:

INF: Adapter index 0 choosen.
INF: Nr. of Performance Levels: 3
INF: Perf Level 0: GPU 250MHz Memory 150MHz Voltage 0.9V
INF: Perf Level 1: GPU 500MHz Memory 1375MHz Voltage 1V
INF: Perf Level 2: GPU 899MHz Memory 1375MHz Voltage 1.175V
ACT: Set fan speed to default
INF: Nr. of Displays to check 6
WRN: color temperature setting not supported.

resets fan speed to default, which I then change back to my fixed setting, but there is no change in the allowed clock speeds for me at all, whether it's running or not.

which brings me back to one of my earlier questions: do I need to configure something (profiles?) in the gui first for it to work? never had a screen attached to the box after the initial ubuntu setup, everything done in ssh, so i've not run AMDOverDriveCtrl or any other utility in the gui.