Folding Forum

The GPU disabled situation happens to many people using Linux or Windows. Eventually it gets fixed, one way or another. Does anybody understand the FAHcontrol or client well enough to point to the "whys" and "hows"?

I know that some GPUs just don't get detected, and that inserting the latest GPUs.txt fixing that[usually]. But, why is it that a working GPU gets disabled say, upon a reboot?
What is the likely cause of this?
Can it be prevented?

Any insight into this would be most welcome.

I thought I gave a pretty good answer to this last week.
viewtopic.php?t=38093

hrsetrdr wrote: ↑Wed Jun 22, 2022 12:50 amBut, why is it that a working GPU gets disabled say, upon a reboot?

I'll give a couple of my thoughts on this specific query.

1). Linux uninstalls the proprietary drivers during major upgrades. It can also do this during background silent upgrades but won't appear until the computer has been rebooted. That's been my experience from running Ubuntu for periods of time. I've never drilled down into the why, I just learned to re-install the proprietary drivers at the last part in a scheduled maintenance.
Note:-The command "apt -update" is issued to update the software repositories (the local lists of software available to the operating system), the command "apt -upgrade" is what actually initiates the software update process. This is why my use of update/upgrade may seem a little confusing.

2). The GPU.txt fie has been updated and the GPU is now blacklisted. FAH don't normally remove a GPU listing, they assign it to "0:0" which is essentially a no manufacturer and no GPU species assignment. Over 60% of the list is currently blacklisted. GPUs are typically blacklisted because they are too underpowered and/or they don't support the features required to run FAH.
When the client starts it sometimes downloads a new copy of the GPU.txt file. It doesn't do this every time, just when the current GPU.txt file is either missing or has crossed a threshold for age, I think someone else had said it was roughly 4 weeks to a month but I don't really know.


This is part of the reason I always try to clear my current workload before doing maintenance on my machines.

Do you have a specific GPU you are having trouble with that is prompting you to ask about disabled GPUs?

Thanks for your reply, I had been viewing the "GPU disabled" in the wrong perspective. I forgot about the background silent upgrades being a potential issue, that's an Ubuntu thing,

aetch wrote: Do you have a specific GPU you are having trouble with that is prompting you to ask about disabled GPUs?

This machine machine runs an RTX 2060 and a GTX 1080ti. Both using the 510 driver.

If Microsoft downloads graphics driver's during Windows Update, they 'never' have OpenCL support. You have to redownload the latest driver's from AMD/Nvidia afterwards.

This has happened to me several times. Microsoft should leave well enough alone if you have different drivers, and they seem better about it now. But if your GPU stops functioning, check the drivers first.

rbpeake wrote: ↑Wed Jun 22, 2022 2:15 pm Microsoft should leave well enough alone if you have different drivers, and they seem better about it now. But if your GPU stops functioning, check the drivers first.

I take Nvidia drivers the day they come out. These 'never' change my Folding speed, but at least Microsoft always sees my drivers as newer than the ones that will cripple my Folding.

I know Microsoft is notorious for pushing software revisions against the user's wishes, apparently Ubuntu thinks that OK too now. There's a way to deal with that, found this solution in google-search:

How to disable Automatic Updates from command line

Open and edit the /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/20auto-upgrades as follows:

$ sudo nano edit /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/20auto-upgrades

Change content:
FROM:

APT::Periodic::Update-Package-Lists "1";
APT::Periodic::Unattended-Upgrade "1";

TO:

APT::Periodic::Update-Package-Lists "0";
APT::Periodic::Download-Upgradeable-Packages "0";
APT::Periodic::AutocleanInterval "0";
APT::Periodic::Unattended-Upgrade "1";

https://linuxconfig.org/disable-automat ... ossa-linux

I had a problem with GPU's disabled at one of my sites. It turned out that the firewall licensing had expired, and some kind of validation for DNS servers or DNS hosts was not passing DNS requests through. When I turned off the DNS protections to allow the DNS requests to be satisfied the GPU's at that site all returned to normal operation.

The funny thing is that the CPU work units continued to run normally, so there must be different requests for GPU (nvidia) configurations vs. CPU.

All of the systems are running Windows, but given the problem seemed to reside with the firewall, I expect the same problem occurs on systems running linux.

I hope this helps.

91Notch wrote: ↑Sat Jul 02, 2022 9:11 pm I had a problem with GPU's disabled at one of my sites. It turned out that the firewall licensing had expired, and some kind of validation for DNS servers or DNS hosts was not passing DNS requests through. When I turned off the DNS protections to allow the DNS requests to be satisfied the GPU's at that site all returned to normal operation.

The funny thing is that the CPU work units continued to run normally, so there must be different requests for GPU (nvidia) configurations vs. CPU.

All of the systems are running Windows, but given the problem seemed to reside with the firewall, I expect the same problem occurs on systems running linux.

I hope this helps.

Thanks, that makes sense for sure, although not sure what the distinction is between the CPU and GPU, in the Client's network set up.

I had another "GPU disabled" episode last week. I upgraded to the Nvidia 515.xx.xx driver, ended up deleting / re-installing FAHcontrol.

The CPU client can detect the capibilities of the CPU on its own, SSE2, AVX, or AVX2.

The GPU uses a GPU.txt file downloaded from a server monthly. There are just too many flavors of GPU.