How can I enable more GPUs in Ubuntu for poclbm?

Question

I have an Ubuntu set up (11.10) and 2 ATI Radeon HD 6870 cards. It detects one, but not the other for some reason when I try to run poclbm.

When I run lspci, it finds both cards.

Any help?

Answer 1

lspci lists PCI devices. ./poclbm.py lists OpenCL devices. If the former finds the device but the latter does not, your second GPU must not be registering as an OpenCL device.

Ubuntu 11.10 has a notorious reputation for multiple-GPU bugs. (See here and here.) I personally have had issues with 11.10 mining that were resolved simply by switching to another release. I would suggest you instead use Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal); it is generally regarded to be the most reliable Ubuntu version for mining.

If that is not an option, or installing 11.04 doesn't fix the problem, try the following steps:

1. Uninstall whatever version of Catalyst/SDK you have (make sure to remove all configuration files) and install Catalyst 11.6 and SDK 2.4.
2. Run aticonfig -f --initial --adapter=all again. Make sure it runs without errors.
3. Run aticonfig --list-adapters. You should see two.

Those steps should fix any configuration issues. If your problem persists, it's either a hardware issue (or an Ubuntu 11.10 issue).

Answer 2

Try not booting into graphical mode at all, just command line. Leaving compiz/gnome/gdm/drivers off should alleviate most confusion, as the cards should both be in default modes (and one in VESA/VGA) and for the most part will be untouched by system specifics (more like normal PCI devices)