For Ubuntu 8.10:

1. As mentioned in the previous post, put a link to libcudart.so in the BOINC client's data area - for me this is /var/lib/boinc-client

2. See what group the video card is in: ls -l /dev/nvidia*. For me this was owner=root, group=video

3. Add the group of the video device to the user boinc: sudo usermod -G video boinc

4. Restart BOINC: sudo /etc/init.d/boinc-client stop then sudo /etc/init.d/boinc-client start

As metioned check the messages in the manager window - you should hopefully see CUDA Devices Found

Hmmm...

My method doesn't survive a reboot. On logging on I not the message say I have no CUDA devices. If I then stop/start boinc I do. Any ideas why? Couldn't see anything in the log files

Perhaps BOINC is started too early in the init process.

Gruß,
Gundolf

Make sure the /etc/security/console.perms.d/* file that sets the /dev/nvidia* devices to root.video is setting the mode as 0660 in both cases. If it is, I'd also check the group and mode set in /etc/udev/rules.d/* for the nvidia devices.

Under Ubuntu I don't have the console.perms.d in /etc/security.

I had a look in an old bootchart image I had (when I was trying to sort out slow booting) and I note that boinc starts up pretty early so I guess that may be an issue however within /etc/udev the nvidia device is set in 40-permissions.rules, but there's no mode set. Boinc is in 50-boinc-client.rules. I thought that the sequencing of these was monotonic - that is 40-* would be read before 50-*? I tried to add a MODE="0666" to the nvidia* line but nothing changed

Hi! I am running Arch Linux & was facing the same problem.
I tried your suggestion regarding boinc starting too early.

So i Put in my /etc/rc.d/boinc
[ ! -z $1 ] && [ $1 = "start" ] && sleep 60

This only delay's the startup & not while shutting down
The Boinc is started Background process so that the rest of processes can start.
Also copied the libcudart.so to /var/lib/boinc Directory

Now on every reboot the messages Say the golden words!
"Mon 13 Apr 2009 11:45:36 PM IST||CUDA devices found
Mon 13 Apr 2009 11:45:36 PM IST||Coprocessor: GeForce 8400 GS (1)"

Well this worked for me

Thanks!

I can add to the boinc starting too early issue under Linux too. Im running Kubuntu 9.04 on my server with a GTX 280. It seems to do things a little different to Arch Linux. I found a /etc/rc5.d/boinc_client entry and tried to add that line with the result the whole boot pauses 60 seconds and i still end up needing to restart boinc to pick up the CUDA device.
Can anyone help me out on a way to load boinc dead last after the GUI fires up? Thats the only solution i can see and im not as great at Linux as id like to be and dont have a great deal of time to hunt this down outside of work.
Thanks Clownius

Never mind my last post just used a little program that was suggested to me called Boot Up Manager. Works great :)

In my v9.04 Ubuntu machines and the one v8.04 Xubuntu machine I did this:

cd /etc/rc2.d
sudo mv -v S20boinc-client S32boinc-client

This seems to resolve the problem MOST of the time on MOST of the machines.

On the Xubuntu Hardy machine (but not the Jaunty boxes) I had to do a manual video driver install using the script from nvidia website and also do the video group thing from Mark, below:

sudo usermod -G video boinc

The two of these resulted in:

Tue 18 Aug 2009 04:14:46 PM CDT||Not using a proxy
Tue 18 Aug 2009 04:14:47 PM CDT||CUDA devices found
Tue 18 Aug 2009 04:14:47 PM CDT||Coprocessor: GeForce 9600 GSO (1)

Finally, Thanx all

---

- da shu @ HeliOS,
"A child's exposure to technology should never be predicated on an ability to afford it."