Installation prerequisites

Installation prerequisites#

2024-12-17

11 min read time

Applies to Linux

Before installing ROCm, complete the following prerequisites.

  1. Confirm the system has a supported Linux version.

    • To obtain the Linux distribution information, use the following command:

      uname -m && cat /etc/*release

    • Confirm that your Linux distribution matches a supported distribution.

      Example: Running the preceding command on an Ubuntu system produces the following output:

      x86_64
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=20.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=focal
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 20.04.5 LTS"

  1. Verify the kernel version.

    • To check the kernel version of your Linux system, type the following command:

      uname -srmv

      Example: The preceding command lists the kernel version in the following format:

      Linux 5.15.0-46-generic #44~20.04.5-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jun 24 13:27:29 UTC 2022 x86_64

    • Confirm that your kernel version matches the system requirements, as listed in Supported operating systems.

Register your Enterprise Linux#

If you’re using Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), Oracle Linux (OL) or SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES), register your operating system to ensure you’re able to download and install packages.

There is no registration required for Ubuntu.

Typically you can register by following the step-by-step user interface. If you need to register by command line, use the following commands:

subscription-manager register --username <username> --password <password>
subscription-manager attach --auto

More details about registering for RHEL

There is no registration required for Oracle Linux.

Typically you can register by following the step-by-step user interface. If you need to register by command line, use the following commands:

sudo SUSEConnect -r <REGCODE>

More details about registering for SLES

Additional package repositories#

For some distributions, the ROCm installation packages depend on packages that aren’t included in the default package repositories. These external repositories need to be sourced before installation. Use the following instructions specific to your distribution to add the necessary repositories.

All ROCm installation packages are available in the default Ubuntu repositories.

  1. Add the EPEL repository.

    wget https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-9.noarch.rpm
sudo rpm -ivh epel-release-latest-9.noarch.rpm

    wget https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm
sudo rpm -ivh epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm

  2. Enable the CodeReady Linux Builder (CRB) repository.

    In order to enable CRB, you may need to install dnf-plugin-config-manager first.

    sudo dnf install dnf-plugin-config-manager
sudo crb enable

  1. Add the EPEL repository.

    wget https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm
sudo rpm -ivh epel-release-latest-8.noarch.rpm

  2. Enable the CodeReady Linux Builder (CRB) repository.

    In order to enable CRB, you may need to install dnf-plugin-config-manager first.

    sudo dnf install dnf-plugin-config-manager
sudo crb enable

Add a few modules with SUSEConnect, along with the Perl language, Education and science repositories.

sudo SUSEConnect -p sle-module-desktop-applications/15.6/x86_64
sudo SUSEConnect -p sle-module-development-tools/15.6/x86_64
sudo SUSEConnect -p PackageHub/15.6/x86_64
sudo zypper install zypper
sudo zypper addrepo https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/devel:/languages:/perl/15.6/devel:languages:perl.repo
sudo zypper addrepo https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Education/15.6/Education.repo
sudo zypper addrepo https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/science/SLE_15_SP5/science.repo # Once SLE_15_SP6 is created, change the static folder "SLE_15_SP5" to dynamic

sudo SUSEConnect -p sle-module-desktop-applications/15.5/x86_64
sudo SUSEConnect -p sle-module-development-tools/15.5/x86_64
sudo SUSEConnect -p PackageHub/15.5/x86_64
sudo zypper install zypper
sudo zypper addrepo https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/devel:/languages:/perl/15.5/devel:languages:perl.repo
sudo zypper addrepo https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Education/15.5/Education.repo
sudo zypper addrepo https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/science/SLE_15_SP5/science.repo # Once SLE_15_SP6 is created, change the static folder "SLE_15_SP5" to dynamic

Kernel headers and development packages#

The driver package uses Dynamic Kernel Module Support (DKMS) to build the amdgpu-dkms module (driver) for the installed kernels. This requires the Linux kernel headers and modules to be installed for each. Usually these are automatically installed with the kernel, but if you have multiple kernel versions or you have downloaded the kernel images and not the kernel meta-packages then they must be manually installed.

To install for the currently active kernel run the command corresponding to your distribution.

sudo apt install "linux-headers-$(uname -r)" "linux-modules-extra-$(uname -r)"
sudo apt install python3-setuptools python3-wheel

sudo dnf install "kernel-headers-$(uname -r)" "kernel-devel-$(uname -r)" "kernel-devel-matched-$(uname -r)"

sudo dnf install python3-setuptools python3-wheel

sudo dnf install "kernel-headers-$(uname -r)" "kernel-devel-$(uname -r)"

sudo dnf install python3-setuptools python3-wheel

sudo dnf install "kernel-uek-devel-$(uname -r)"
sudo dnf install python3-setuptools python3-wheel

sudo zypper install kernel-default-devel
sudo zypper install python3-setuptools python3-wheel

Configuring permissions for GPU access#

There are two primary methods to configure GPU access for ROCm: group membership or udev rules. Each method has its own advantages, and the choice depends on your specific requirements and system management preferences.

Using group membership#

By default, GPU access is managed through membership in the video and render groups. The video and render groups are system groups in Linux used to manage access to graphics hardware and related functionality. Traditionally, the video group is used to control access to video devices, including graphics cards and video capture devices. The render group is more recent and specifically controls access to GPU rendering capabilities through Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) render nodes.

  1. To check the groups in your system, issue the following command:

    groups

  2. Add yourself to the video and render groups:

    sudo usermod -a -G video,render $LOGNAME

  3. Optionally, add other users to the video and render groups:

    sudo usermod -a -G video,render user1
sudo usermod -a -G video,render user2

  4. To add all future users to the render and video groups by default, run the following commands:

    echo 'ADD_EXTRA_GROUPS=1' | sudo tee -a /etc/adduser.conf
echo 'EXTRA_GROUPS=video' | sudo tee -a /etc/adduser.conf
echo 'EXTRA_GROUPS=render' | sudo tee -a /etc/adduser.conf

Using udev rules#

A flexible way to manage device permissions is to use udev rules. They apply system-wide, can be easily deployed via configuration management tools, and eliminate the need for user group management. This method provides more granular control over GPU access.

Grant GPU access to all users on the system#

  1. Create a new file /etc/udev/rules.d/70-amdgpu.rules with the following content:

    KERNEL=="kfd", MODE="0666"
SUBSYSTEM=="drm", KERNEL=="renderD*", MODE="0666"

  2. Reload the udev rules:

    sudo udevadm control --reload-rules && sudo udevadm trigger

This configuration grants all users read and write access to AMD GPU resources, including the AMD Kernel-mode GPU Driver (KMD) and Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) devices.

Grant GPU access to a custom group#

  1. Create a new group (e.g., devteam):

    sudo groupadd devteam

  2. Add users to the new group:

    sudo usermod -a -G devteam dev1
sudo usermod -a -G devteam dev2

  3. Create udev rules to assign GPU devices to this group:

    Create a file /etc/udev/rules.d/70-amdgpu.rules with:

    KERNEL=="kfd", GROUP="devteam", MODE="0660"
SUBSYSTEM=="drm", KERNEL=="renderD*", GROUP="devteam", MODE="0660"

  4. Reload the udev rules:

    sudo udevadm control --reload-rules && sudo udevadm trigger

This configuration grants all users in the devteam group read and write access to AMD GPU resources, including the AMD Kernel-mode GPU Driver (KMD) and Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) devices.

Disable integrated graphics (IGP), if applicable#

ROCm doesn’t currently support integrated graphics. Should your system have an AMD IGP installed, disable it in the BIOS prior to using ROCm. If the driver can enumerate the IGP, the ROCm runtime may crash the system, even if told to omit it via HIP_VISIBLE_DEVICES.