BT4 (pre)final ATI guide

[KMDave]

Ok, since pureh@te already created a guide for NVIDIA/CUDA, I decided that I should write also a small guide for ATI/Stream.

It should explain how to get the Ati driver installed as well as ATI Stream and the pyrit extension for Stream.

Please be aware, that the steps won't work for older ATI cards not supporting at least version 9.5 of the Catalyst driver.

The guide

Please leave comments and questions in this thread.

Thanks

[freemymind]

Thanks for posting this.

I hope it will eliminate some of the repeated questions in the forums. I like how it is simple and to the point.

[imported_masteroc]

Dang, I believe for my X200 I had to use the 9.3 driver

[pr0xibus]

Great tutorial very easy for beginners too, might as well post this here anyway.

I have installed pyrit, Ati-Drivers and CPyrit-stream.

I have a Mobility HD 34xx Series, it looks like it is supported. Running BT4

When i try pyrit list_cores it gives this error
Here is the error.

root@Backtrack:~/ATI# pyrit list_cores
Pyrit 0.2.3-dev (C) 2008, 2009 Lukas Lueg http://pyrit.googlecode.com
This code is distributed under the GNU General Public License v3

The ESSID-blobspace seems to be empty; you should create an ESSID...

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/pyrit", line 948, in <module>
    Pyrit_CLI().init()
  File "/usr/bin/pyrit", line 159, in init
    }.setdefault(commands[0] if len(commands) > 0 else 'help', self.print_help)()
  File "/usr/bin/pyrit", line 192, in list_cores
    import cpyrit
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/cpyrit.py", line 224, in <module>
    print >>sys.stderr, "Failed to load Stream-device '%s': '%s'" % (device[0], e)
NameError: name 'device' is not defined

I have tried removing pyrit and CPyrit-stream and building from source, they install fine and show the same error.

Any help appreciated

[purehate]

It clearly says on the pyrit google code site what your problem is:

AMD-Stream

* If you have a AMD/ATI card 38xx and up, you can use Pyrit's Stream-core for a similar effect as with CUDA.
* Install the AMD-Stream SDK. brcc should be available from $PATH.
* You probably need to apply a series of workarounds for common bugs in the Stream-SDK. See here, here and here.
* Change to the directory "cpyrit_stream" and modify setup.py to your needs
* Run "setup.py build" to compile the Stream-core. Run "setup.py install" as root.

[Korupt]

Quick question, is it supposed to identify the the type of card I have (4870), like in purehate's CUDA tutorial screen shot, this is what I'm getting:

# pyrit list_cores
Pyrit 0.2.3 (C) 2008, 2009 Lukas Lueg http://pyrit.googlecode.com
This code is distributed under the GNU General Public License v3

The ESSID-blobspace seems to be empty; you should create an ESSID...

The following cores seem available...
#1:  'CPU-Core (x86)'
#2:  'AMD-Stream device #0'

[KMDave]

Korupt: Perfectly fine.

You are good to go. Try running a

pyrit benchmark

.

[jalind]

Even though I cannot use it (x1250 mobility; 9.3.1 Catalyst), thanks for the PDF . . . it at least saved me the time and effort to discover it wouldn't work on my laptop. However, I've got a desktop on which it will work (pair of HD3870's in Cross-FireX).

Note:
Downloaded the PDF using my WinXP /x64 machine. Got dire warnings from Avast! about the file hosting site you used. I believe it's ad banners being served up on the site, not the site itself (based on the warning). First attempt crashed Firefox . . . second attempt started popping up additional browser windows like rabbits (finally was able to kill them off . . . but had to do it quickly to catch up). You might consider another site to host the download.

[jalind]

Here's my experience getting this working . . . on a USB hard drive connected to my desktop machine which has an AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ and a pair of HD3870 single-slot graphics cards.

1. Had to do a "clean" non-persistent install of BT4 Pre-Final on the USB drive (great tutorial on how to do a non-persistent elsewhere in the forum . . . just need to pay very close attention to step 7 and where the grub goes!!).
2. Before doing anything else after it reboots to the USB hard drive, login as su, turn on the Ethernet port and get an IP address, mask, gateway, etc:
   ifconfig eth0 up
   dhclient eth0
3. Then install the entire ati-stream set of packages:
   apt-get install backtrack-ati
   This will install everything including the ATi drivers. You might have to go to the lib/modules/fglrx, execute the make and modprobe fglrx to load it. After that, pyrit's list_cores command line option should show the graphics card core(s).
4. With my ATi cards, startx will not work until these ATi drivers are installed (returns all manner of error messages). Had to boot the Live DVD in "safe graphics mode" to get startx to work so I could get to the installer.
5. Do not install the "ati-driver" package! Use the backtrack-ati to get all the stuff at once. Apparently, the ATi drivers it gets are different from the other, stand-alone "ati-driver" package!
6. Found if one installs the other ATi driver package, it doesn't work, and the list of error messages posted by pr0xibus ensues.
7. Also, don't do an apt-get update/upgrade either. The upgrade will include the newer ATi driver package (ati-driver) which proceeds to "break" ati-stream (I verified this tonight . . . worked before the upgrade with 10x benchmark improvement, but was broken afterward).
8. Symptoms of broken ati-stream . . . at the bash just after boot, but not starting the "xorg" stuff, the pyrit list_cores only lists the main CPU cores, not the graphics card's. After starting "xorg" and opening a console window, the "pyrit list_cores" command returns the same exact errors pr0xistream posted!
9. The update alternative is selective upgrading using the synaptic manager . . . or using "apt-get install" one package at a time to avoid/omit updating the ATi drivers with the automagic update/upgrade.

I apologize if I got some of the Ubuntu Linux jargon wrong . . . I'm a real n00b to Linux . . . only been doing anything beyond booting a "Live CD/DVD" for a couple weeks now (other than figuring out how to fix BT3 Live CD to handle the laptop's ATi graphics). I would like to know how to force the ATi drivers backward to the "bt1" version of them that was downloaded and installed using the "apt-get backtrack-ati" and dump the "bt2" version that broke ati-stream when I did the "apt-get update" and "apt-get upgrade."

Edit 1:
Also . . . I do not recommend trying to enable crossfire . . . that also apparently "breaks" ati-stream. Haven't tested that thoroughly yet . . . a stab at trying to get crossfire running after getting ati-stream working broke everything . . . and had to completely start over again.

Edit 2:
Well . . . found out what else will "break" ati-stream . . . updating Pyrit will too . . . as it installs the "dev" version. So . . . back to a clean install again. This time I updated everything except the ati-driver and the pyrit package. "list_cores" and the "benchmark" still work . . . also added a few things like the larger dictionaries.

root@D34th5t4r:~# pyrit list_cores
Pyrit 0.2.3 (C) 2008, 2009 Lukas Lueg pyrit - Project Hosting on Google Code
This code is distributed under the GNU General Public License v3

The ESSID-blobspace seems to be empty; you should create an ESSID...

The following cores seem available...
#1:  'CPU-Core (x86)'
#2:  'AMD-Stream device #0'
root@D34th5t4r:~# pyrit benchmark
Pyrit 0.2.3 (C) 2008, 2009 Lukas Lueg pyrit - Project Hosting on Google Code
This code is distributed under the GNU General Public License v3

The ESSID-blobspace seems to be empty; you should create an ESSID...

Running benchmark for at least 60 seconds...

AMD-Stream device #0: 2656.37 PMKs/s, 94.68% occupancy
CPU-Core (x86): 283.43 PMKs/s, 98.60% occupancy

Benchmark done. 2939.79 PMKs/s total.

I'm going to test it with Gerix now to see if that works. Only thing that puzzles me a little is the "list_cores" doesn't see both CPU cores or both HD3870 cores, just one of each . . . unless it's holding back one of each so it doesn't hijack the entire processing power of the computer.

Edit 3:
Doh! Yes, it must pair a CPU core with a GPU core, and will use a max of one less than the number of CPU cores . . . so . . . if I want to employ both GPU cores, it requires upgrade to a tri-core or quad-core processor . . . already have one in mind too (time to get the Phenom II X4 955 I've been wanting to replace the Athlon X2 6400+).

Ran a test with Gerix WiFi-Cracker using Pyrit with Aircrack-ng on my "honeypot" AP loaded with an abysmally poor passphrase. Works well. Found that the PMKs/second builds up once it starts and continues increasing until it starts to plateau at just under the benchmark. With smaller dictionaries it won't reach the benchmark before it's finished, but with larger dictionaries it will get much closer.



Bottom Line:
Apt-get update/upgrade that automagically upgrades Pyrit and the ati-driver "broke" ati-stream, and it didn't work. Using apt-get to specifically install the entire "backtrack-ati" package got it working. Selective updates/upgrades omitting upgrading "pyrit" and the "ati-driver" (I used Synaptic) kept it working (quite well) . . . including with Gerix WiFi-Cracker.

[jalind]

. . .
Please leave comments and questions in this thread.

Thanks

Got the ATi-Stream up and running, in conjunction with Gerix as well. Until yesterday, the desktop box had an Athlon X2 6400+ and a pair of HD3870s (single GPU cards with 16x Crossfire straps across the tops). Last night I dropped in a Phenom II X4 955 which doubled the number of cores.

Was thinking the additional cores would allow it to use both HD3870s. It doesn't. While Pyrit does use 3 of 4 CPU cores in the Phenom II, it still only uses a single GPU core in the "master" card (the one with monitor attached). Some of the odd Pyrit behavior:

• Pyrit's "list_cores" option only shows one CPU and one GPU core available.
• Pyrit's "benchmark" option shows three CPU, but only one GPU core were used to calculate the benchmark.
• The resulting benchmark was credible; a little higher than a single core of the Athlon X2 + one GPU core. The delta between the two was what one would expect with two additional CPU cores.

Ran through some options using "aticonfig" to reconfigure how "fglrx" uses the pair of cards:

1. Ensured they were unchained and Crossfire turned off. Used three CPU but only a single GPU core.
2. Chained the pair of cards together but left Crossfire turned off. Same result; 3 CPU cores and 1 GPU core.
3. Turned on Crossfire (unlike the previous experience enabling it, Pyrit still worked). Same result; 3 CPU cores and 1 GPU core.

So . . . now I'm left wondering how I can get Pyrit ATi-Stream to use both of the GPUs. Using "aticonfig" and reconfigure chaining of the cards and turn Crossfire on/off doesn't do it.

Is there something that must be reconfigured in ATi-Stream? If so . . . how would that be accomplished? Has anyone gotten Pyrit ATi-Stream to use more than one GPU core? If that's possible, it should roughly double what I was getting before making a dramatic improvement over the current 3300 PMKs/second (a little over 3000 now).