Weird behavior with multiple kernels in CUDA 1.0

Hi there,

I’m currently porting my CUDA 0.8 application to CUDA 1.0 and ran into some problems invoking multiple kernels using the driver API.

With CUDA 0.8 everything was working fine and we even used the program in a production system where it was running for hours without any problems.

Now with CUDA 1.0 however my kernels start to crash semi-randomly. (they always crash with error 2bc (launch failed) on cuLaunchGrid)

I have prepared a little example that roughly does what my program does:

   CU_SAFE_CALL(initCUDA());

	// copy data from host to device

	CUarray cu_array;

    CUDA_ARRAY_DESCRIPTOR desc;

	desc.Format  	= CU_AD_FORMAT_UNSIGNED_INT8;

    desc.NumChannels	= 1;

    desc.Width      = width;

    desc.Height  	= height;

    CU_SAFE_CALL( cuArrayCreate( &cu_array, &desc ));

    CUDA_MEMCPY2D copyParam;

    memset(&copyParam, 0, sizeof(copyParam));

    copyParam.dstMemoryType = CU_MEMORYTYPE_ARRAY;

    copyParam.dstArray  = cu_array;

    copyParam.srcMemoryType = CU_MEMORYTYPE_HOST;

    copyParam.srcHost  = image;

    copyParam.srcPitch  = width * sizeof(unsigned char);

    copyParam.WidthInBytes	= copyParam.srcPitch;

    copyParam.Height  = height;

    CU_SAFE_CALL(cuMemcpy2D(&copyParam));

    int block_size = 8;

     int offset = 0;

    CUmodule module;

    CUdeviceptr d_data = (CUdeviceptr)NULL;

     CU_SAFE_CALL( cuMemAlloc( &d_data, width * height * sizeof(float)));

    // load module and kernel

     CU_SAFE_CALL(cuModuleLoad(&module, "somemodule.cubin"));

     CUfunction func;

      CU_SAFE_CALL(cuModuleGetFunction(&func, module, "some_kernel"));

     // set texture parameters

      CUtexref cu_texref;

      CU_SAFE_CALL(cuModuleGetTexRef(&cu_texref, module, "tex"));

      CU_SAFE_CALL(cuTexRefSetArray(cu_texref, cu_array, CU_TRSA_OVERRIDE_FORMAT));

      CU_SAFE_CALL(cuTexRefSetAddressMode(cu_texref, 0, CU_TR_ADDRESS_MODE_WRAP));

      CU_SAFE_CALL(cuTexRefSetAddressMode(cu_texref, 1, CU_TR_ADDRESS_MODE_WRAP));

      CU_SAFE_CALL(cuTexRefSetFilterMode(cu_texref, CU_TR_FILTER_MODE_LINEAR));

      CU_SAFE_CALL(cuTexRefSetFlags(cu_texref, 0));

	CU_SAFE_CALL(cuTexRefSetFormat(cu_texref, CU_AD_FORMAT_UNSIGNED_INT8, 1));

	// setup first kernel

      CU_SAFE_CALL(cuFuncSetBlockShape( func, block_size, block_size, 1 ));

      CU_SAFE_CALL(cuParamSeti(func, offset, d_data)); offset += sizeof(d_data);

      CU_SAFE_CALL(cuParamSeti(func, offset, width));  offset += sizeof(width);

      CU_SAFE_CALL(cuParamSetSize(func, offset));

      CU_SAFE_CALL(cuParamSetTexRef(func, CU_PARAM_TR_DEFAULT, cu_texref));

     CU_SAFE_CALL( cuCtxSynchronize() );

     // execute the kernel

      CU_SAFE_CALL(cuLaunchGrid( func, width / block_size, height / block_size ));

      CU_SAFE_CALL( cuCtxSynchronize() );

     // load second kernel

      CUfunction func2;

      CU_SAFE_CALL(cuModuleGetFunction(&func2, module, "another_kernel"));

     // create another texref

      CUtexref tex;

      CU_SAFE_CALL(cuModuleGetTexRef(&tex, module, "tex2"));

      CU_SAFE_CALL(cuTexRefSetArray(tex, cu_array, CU_TRSA_OVERRIDE_FORMAT));

      CU_SAFE_CALL(cuTexRefSetAddressMode(tex, 0, CU_TR_ADDRESS_MODE_WRAP));

      CU_SAFE_CALL(cuTexRefSetAddressMode(tex, 1, CU_TR_ADDRESS_MODE_WRAP));

      CU_SAFE_CALL(cuTexRefSetFilterMode(tex, CU_TR_FILTER_MODE_POINT));

      CU_SAFE_CALL(cuTexRefSetFlags(tex, 0));

      CU_SAFE_CALL(cuTexRefSetFormat(tex, CU_AD_FORMAT_UNSIGNED_INT8, 1));  

      // setup the kernel

       CUdeviceptr dest_dev;

       CU_SAFE_CALL(cuMemAlloc(&dest_dev, width * height * 4));

      offset = 0;

       CU_SAFE_CALL(cuFuncSetBlockShape(func2, block_size, block_size, 1));

       CU_SAFE_CALL(cuParamSeti(func2, offset, dest_dev));

       offset += sizeof(dest_dev);

       CU_SAFE_CALL(cuParamSeti(func2, offset, width));

       offset += sizeof(width);

       CU_SAFE_CALL(cuParamSetSize(func2, offset));

      CU_SAFE_CALL(cuParamSetTexRef(func2, CU_PARAM_TR_DEFAULT, tex));

      CU_SAFE_CALL( cuCtxSynchronize() );

       // launch the kernel

       CU_SAFE_CALL(cuLaunchGrid(func2, width / block_size, height / block_size ));

      CU_SAFE_CALL( cuCtxSynchronize() );

      // clean up

      CU_SAFE_CALL(cuMemFree(dest_dev));

      CU_SAFE_CALL(cuMemFree(d_data));

      CU_SAFE_CALL(cuModuleUnload(module));

      cuCtxDetach(cuContext);

This program crashes only on every second invocation. I also noticed that sometimes some of my kernels finish but only if a certain other kernel finished on the previous program invocation. To me it seems that CUDA is keeping some faulty state inbetween program invocations.

Also note that the example only seems to crash if both kernels use different texture samplers.

I have the strange feeling that all this is somehow related to the textures. Sometimes some of my kernels randomly finished by just changing some flags of the texture references, which is also very strange. I also think that it works when I don’t use textures at all.

Well all this is extremely weird and I absolutely don’t have any idea why this is happening, especially since it was running without problems in CUDA 0.8.

Hi,

it seems, that you a have a similiar maybe the same problem.

[url=“http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=42785”]http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=42785[/url]

My original program (not posted) has also a weird behaviour caused by multiple kernels.
With 0.8 everything worked fine.

I broke the problem down to my simple example program.
The only difference is that I’m using the cuda calls and not cu ones.

Sorry, for not solving your problem, but maybe keep contact.

Hi,

I’m happy that I’m not the only one having problems with CUDA 1.0.

Please also see this thread:
[url=“http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=42793”]The Official NVIDIA Forums | NVIDIA
I also posted a simple example there which doesn’t work with CUDA 1.0.

My kernel also has problems on larger datasets. I haven’t isolated the problem yet, but now I suspect the reliability of cuda memory management.

Hey Julien,

NVIDIA confirmed my bug. (http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=42785)
It seems that this problem is only with the current driver version. Will be fixed in the next one.

Best

That’s great news, I hope that’ll also fix my problems.