gputools: error in installation

Question

I am setting up a new Dell Precision workstation with an NVidia Tesla 2050 GPU card. I would like to install R's package gputools. My OS is openSuse 11.3 with KDE 4.4.

I downloaded NVidia's CUDA Toolkit 3.2 and installed it in /usr/local/cuda, I also downloaded the latest version of the CULA Tools set (version R10) and installed it in /usr/local/cula.

When trying to install gputools from within R using: install.packages("gputools") I get the following error message:

classification.cu(735): error: argument of type "unsigned int *" is incompatible with parameter of type "size_t *"

classification.cu(735): error: argument of type "unsigned int *" is incompatible with parameter of type "size_t *"

classification.cu(1042): error: argument of type "unsigned int *" is incompatible with parameter of type "size_t *"

classification.cu(1042): error: argument of type "unsigned int *" is incompatible with parameter of type "size_t *"

4 errors detected in the compilation of "/tmp/tmpxft_00003d8d_00000000-12_classification.compute_12.cpp1.ii".
make: *** [classification.o] Error 2
ERROR: compilation failed for package ‘gputools’
* removing ‘/home/moswald/R/x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu-library/2.12/gputools’

The downloaded packages are in
        ‘/tmp/RtmphI30zE/downloaded_packages’
Warning message:
In install.packages("gputools", dependencies = TRUE) :
  installation of package 'gputools' had non-zero exit status

Using older versions of the CULA and CUDA toolsets does not help either.

Answer 1

From the top of my head, try the 3.1 version of the NVidua CUDA SDK. I think there were interactions with the newer one.

Answer 2

To support devices with large amounts of memory (such as the C2070 with 6GB device memory), CUDA-3.2 uses "size_t" to describe amounts of memory rather than "unsigned int" as was used in CUDA <= 3.1. This looks like a classic case of using CUDA-3.2 where CUDA-3.1 is expected. You may be able to hack things with the CUDA-3.2 compiler by adding

-DCUDA_FORCE_API_VERSION=3010

to your nvcc command-line.