ROCm Installation Options (Linux)#

Applies to Linux

2023-06-29

5 min read time

Users installing ROCm must choose between various installation options. A new user should follow the Quick Start guide.

Package Manager versus AMDGPU Installer?#

ROCm supports two methods for installation:

  • Directly using the Linux distribution’s package manager

  • The amdgpu-install script

There is no difference in the final installation state when choosing either option.

Using the distribution’s package manager lets the user install, upgrade and uninstall using familiar commands and workflows. Third party ecosystem support is the same as your OS package manager.

The amdgpu-install script is a wrapper around the package manager. The same packages are installed by this script as the package manager system.

The installer automates the installation process for the AMDGPU and ROCm stack. It handles the complete installation process for ROCm, including setting up the repository, cleaning the system, updating, and installing the desired drivers and meta-packages. Users who are less familiar with the package manager can choose this method for ROCm installation.

Single Version ROCm install versus Multi-Version#

ROCm packages are versioned with both semantic versioning that is package specific and a ROCm release version.

Single-version Installation#

The single-version ROCm installation refers to the following:

  • Installation of a single instance of the ROCm release on a system

  • Use of non-versioned ROCm meta-packages

Multi-version Installation#

The multi-version installation refers to the following:

  • Installation of multiple instances of the ROCm stack on a system. Extending the package name and its dependencies with the release version adds the ability to support multiple versions of packages simultaneously.

  • Use of versioned ROCm meta-packages.

Attention

ROCm packages that were previously installed from a single-version installation must be removed before proceeding with the multi-version installation to avoid conflicts.

Note

Multiversion install is not available for the kernel driver module, also referred to as AMDGPU.

The following image demonstrates the difference between single-version and multi-version ROCm installation types:

Fig. 1 ROCm Installation Types#