Linux box ?

[TouchuvGrey]

i used to play with Linux a few years ago. i'm thinking
of building or buying a 2nd hand rig and setting it up
for Debian Ubuntu. How well does MW run on linux ?

[chooka03]

Sorry I don't use Linux so can't help with that question.

[tazzduke]

Greetings

There is a few of us here that a running linux boxes, but I not to sure if anyone is running AMD GPU cards though.

I myself and rebooting a box with Linux Mint with an NVIDIA GPU, just found this one so easy.

But our Captain, Dingo, well he might have some more info, as he has delved into the nuts and bolts of runnings Linux boxes.

Cheers

[TouchuvGrey]

What i was thinking of doing was using my NVidia card in the
Linux box and getting another RX580 to put in the Windows rig.

[Dataman]

All of mine are nVidia. I think  Chooka and Tazz have AMD cards. I think Chooka has one or more in Windows machines.

[NudgeyNR]

My only Linux box with a GPU is running an Nvidia GTX-750. Installing the correct drivers was very easy.

I have tried Linux with an AMD R7 260X and had no luck with getting the driver to work. Boinc couldn't see the GPU even though the OS was using it with no problems.

[tazzduke]

Well then Linux and a NVIDIA card are a good start.

[Dingo]

I always use Ubuntu now as I have been using it for a couple of years and find it the easiest to find answers on.  If you download the new Ubuntu 20 version the NVIDIA CUDA drivers are available to download out of the box.

## The command line syntax is:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade  -----> If the update said there were new packages to download and install.
sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall

##OR  if you know the driver number you want:

sudo apt install nvidia-driver-440

## Reboot the machine

sudo reboot

## To check for the currently used graphics driver execute:

sudo lshw -c video

##Another alternative could be to use mesa utils:

sudo apt install mesa-utils
glxinfo -B

## If you wish to know what graphics card your system is using execute the following command:

lspci -nn | grep -E 'VGA|Display'
OR
sudo lshw -c video

That should be it

[chooka03]

Speaking if Linux, I discovered yesterday that running Linux with Universe@Home yields more than DOUBLE  the amount of credits! (My 3950X does almost 400K/day vs another 3950X running Linux doing 1.3Mil/day) 
I'm pretty gutted by this news actually as I like Universe@Home and I don't run Linux (nor do I have any wish to run it)
I'm a bit torn now whether I should bother crunching U@H any more with such woeful credits for Windows users

[tazzduke]

Hey Chooka03

If one of the machines is a spare, ie just a cruncher, its not that hard these days to setup a linux cruncher.

There are plenty of people here now, that run Linux, majority Ubuntu

Especially with your Threadrippers, it would be a blast to crunch.

Happy Days
Regards

[chooka03]

Yeah...not going to happen mate. I really can't be bothered with Linux.
It will DEFINITELY not happen on my main rig 3950X. I'll probably just crunch somewhere else other than Universe@Home. Plenty more projects that are more Windows friendly.

[Dingo]

Yeah...not going to happen mate. I really can't be bothered with Linux.
It will DEFINITELY not happen on my main rig 3950X. I'll probably just crunch somewhere else other than Universe@Home. Plenty more projects that are more Windows friendly.

You can run Linux on VirtualBox.  It would be a little Linux machine on your Windows machine.  These are the directions for Windows 10  https://www.c-sharpcorner.com/article/how-to-install-ubuntu-on-windows-10-using-virtualbox/

[chooka03]

Hmmm thanks Dingo. I read through all those instructions. I might try it on my threadripper at some stage.

Question.... is Linux better than Win10 for most BOINC projects? I'm not talking about Linux specific projects like MLC........ just generally whether the credits are better for most/some/all projects if you run Linux instead of Win10.
I could install Linux on my crunchers which I don't have a monitor hooked up to but I guess I'll also then have to install BOINCTASKS and relocate them again.
The difference in credit for Universe is just staggering. It may not be worth the effort if it only benefits 1 project. I'd hate to have to switch between the 2 O/S depending on the project I'm crunching. A VM would make it a bit easier though because I could continue to use my PC with Windows 10 but run BOINC with the VM.

Thanks for the link Dingo.

[Daniel]

Long ago I used to sometimes set up my computer to dual boot Linux & Windows, but in recent years, I have been downloading virtual machines from this website ...
https://www.osboxes.org/

They have virtual machines for lots of different Linux distributions that you can just download and start using.

I downloaded an Ubuntu VM recently that I'm using for Gaia@home and a few other projects at the moment.

I think virtual machines are really good for learning & experimenting.

In VirtualBox you can take snapshots of your virtual machine at any time, so if you mess something up, you can easily revert back to a previous state.

It's nice to be able to have both Windows & Linux - you can keep using the Windows programs that you're used to, but you also have access to lots of useful Linux software as well.

Edit :
I read that there is an important limitation to running BOINC in a VM though.
If you take a look at this website : https://boinc.berkeley.edu/trac/wiki/VboxApps
It says ...

Currently you can't run GPU applications in VirtualBox VMs.

[TouchuvGrey]

OK, if i understand correctly i can download an Ubuntu VM
to this W10 computer and continue to run MW on the GPU's
in Windows and at the same time run Universe ( or something else )
on the CPU's using Linux ?

i already have VirtualBox on this rig.