LinuxQuestions.org
Help answer threads with 0 replies.
Go Back   LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Hardware
User Name
Password
Linux - Hardware This forum is for Hardware issues.
Having trouble installing a piece of hardware? Want to know if that peripheral is compatible with Linux?

Notices


Reply
  Search this Thread
Old 03-02-2017, 07:56 AM   #1
VolumetricSteve
Member
 
Registered: Mar 2011
Posts: 90

Rep: Reputation: 7
3-way GTX 970 system won't boot - works fine with 2-way


I have an EVGA X58 Classified motherboard, which, as far as I can tell was designed to do 3-way SLI (while SLI doesn't matter in my particular case, I think it's worth noting) I'm running Crux 3.2 which is a from-source distro. With Kernel 4.10 and an nvidia driver that's no more than a month old, I'm running into a boot issue only when I have all 3 gpus in. Though all of it's regular boot output, it'll halt on "Booting the Kernel." and it just never does.

I've discovered that any two cards can work in any two slots....so it seems there's some issue specifically with having 3 cards in, I'm thinking something along the lines of an insufficient number of PCI-E lanes, but I'm not sure and I wouldn't know how to check anyway.

To anyone doing multi-gpu in linux, how'd you do it? What kernel are you using? How could I troubleshoot something like this?
 
Old 03-05-2017, 05:07 AM   #2
business_kid
LQ Guru
 
Registered: Jan 2006
Location: Ireland
Distribution: Slackware, Slarm64 & Android
Posts: 16,144

Rep: Reputation: 2308Reputation: 2308Reputation: 2308Reputation: 2308Reputation: 2308Reputation: 2308Reputation: 2308Reputation: 2308Reputation: 2308Reputation: 2308Reputation: 2308
Nobody has had a guess at this, so allow me.

It sounds like a kernel or hardware problem. One thing you could try is to download Slackware's latest 'huge' kernel. Packages are in tar.xz format. My local mirror is
ftp://ftp.heanet.ie/mirrors/slackwar...2/slackware64/

You need the kernel-huge & kernel-modules txz packages which are tar.xz and located in the 'a' directory. Open them in a tmpdir, and copy it all into place & set it as an extra kernel. That has everything you mightn't have in your kernel, and will eliminate the kernel. Then you're down to hardware issues. I imagine you need to find someone who has done 3 GPUs running.

It may also be power supply limitations. GPUs suck power. How big is your power supply? There's a 'power good' line from the psu which monitors voltage. 5V or 3.3V could be low if overloaded. Or the tracking on the motherboard could be dropping too much voltage.
 
Old 03-06-2017, 08:34 AM   #3
VolumetricSteve
Member
 
Registered: Mar 2011
Posts: 90

Original Poster
Rep: Reputation: 7
Thanks for the reply. I'll give slackware a try, it's been a while.

I have a pretty serious PSU in there, 1200 watts I think, and these are the mini Asus GTX 970s, I can't imagine they're pulling enough power to bring that PSU down.

What's interesting is with 3 gpus, the system will POST just fine. If I remove bootable media, it'll happily sit with a "no bootable media found" type message. It feels like a software issue, so I'll try your slackware suggestion. Maybe some other OS could play nice too? I guess if I want to be really sure I should try windows to rule out hardware.
 
  


Reply


Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off



Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Nvidia Geforce GTX 970 15 degrees warmer under Linux Mint than on Windows kneejo Linux - Hardware 6 10-09-2016 04:58 PM
GTX 970 Driver Installation, Can't run Ubuntu Mate, or Mint edencorbin Linux - Hardware 5 06-23-2016 01:31 AM
Invalid format installing manjaro 15.12 on LG TV HDMI - GTX 970 i5-6600k r39 Linux - Newbie 3 02-08-2016 01:31 PM
waiting for /dev to be fully populated when gtx 970 installed XZIllA Linux - Hardware 4 07-25-2015 10:48 AM
X won't start at boot, startx works fine though TLV Debian 15 01-03-2007 08:10 AM

LinuxQuestions.org > Forums > Linux Forums > Linux - Hardware

All times are GMT -5. The time now is 04:35 PM.

Main Menu
Advertisement
My LQ
Write for LQ
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute content, let us know.
Main Menu
Syndicate
RSS1  Latest Threads
RSS1  LQ News
Twitter: @linuxquestions
Open Source Consulting | Domain Registration