ROCm Offline Installer Creator#

Applies to Linux

2024-10-02

28 min read time

The ROCm Offline Installer Creator creates an installation package for a preconfigured setup of ROCm, the AMDGPU driver, or a combination of the two on a target system without network or internet access.

On a system with internet access (known as the host), the tool creates an installer package. It uses the host system as the template for a matching offline system (known as a target). After creating the offline installer package, you can run it on a target without network access to install ROCm and the AMDGPU driver.

The ROCm Offline Installer Creator lets you customize multiple unique configurations for use when installing ROCm on a target.

The ROCm Offline Installer Creator features:

  • A lightweight user interface

  • An easy-to-use user interface for configuring the creation of the installer

  • Support for multiple Linux distributions

  • Installer support for different ROCm releases

  • Installer support for specific ROCm components

  • Optional driver or driver-only installer creation

  • Optional post-install preferences

  • Lightweight installer packages, which are unique to the preconfigured ROCm setup

  • Resolution and inclusion of dependency packages for offline installation

Prerequisites#

The ROCm Offline Installer Creator requires the following configuration:

  • The host must be connected to the network and internet when running the ROCm Offline Installer Creator.

  • The host system running the ROCm Offline Installer Creator and the target system running the installer must use the same Linux distribution, release version, and Linux kernel version.

For example, if the host system uses Ubuntu 22.04.4 with the 6.5.0-44-generic kernel, only an Ubuntu 22.04.4 target with the 6.5.0-44-generic kernel can use the offline installer. If the base OS distribution version and the kernel version of that distribution do not match on both systems, installation is not permitted.

The following configuration is recommended when using the ROCm Offline Installer Creator:

  • The host system running the ROCm Offline Installer Creator and the target system should use the same OS image and have the same packages installed.

  • The host OS should not have ROCm or the AMDGPU driver installed. (This recommendation doesn’t apply to any AMDGPU drivers included with the default distribution packages.)

Supported Linux distributions#

The ROCm Offline Installer Creator tool supports the following Linux distributions and versions:

  • Ubuntu: 20.04, 22.04, 24.04

  • RHEL: 8.9, 8.10, 9.2, 9.3, 9.4

  • SLES: 15.5, 15.6

Getting started#

The ROCm Offline Installer Creator is distributed as a self-extracting .run package. Launch the tool from any directory on the host system to create an offline installer.

Download the Offline Installer Creator from repo.radeon.com using the following command:

wget https://repo.radeon.com/rocm/installer/rocm-linux-install-offline/rocm-rel-<rocm-version>/<distro>/<distro-version>/<creator-package>

Substitute your values for the following placeholders:

  • <rocm-version>: ROCm version number for the ROCm Offline Installer Creator tool.

  • <distro>: Linux distribution for the tool.

  • <distro-version>: Linux distribution version for the tool.

  • <creator-package>: The ROCm Offline Installer Creator package name.

For example, use this command to download ROCm version 6.2 of the Offline Installer Creator for Ubuntu release 22.04:

wget https://repo.radeon.com/rocm/installer/rocm-linux-install-offline/rocm-rel-6.2/ubuntu/22.04/rocm-offline-creator_1.0.0.60200-3~22.04.run

Installer Creation#

On the host system, run the ROCm Offline Installer Creator from the terminal command line as follows:

./rocm-offline-creator_1.0.0-local.run <options>

The <options> parameter can either be left empty or set to these options:

  • help: displays information on how to use the Offline Installer Creator

  • version: displays the current version of the Offline Installer Creator

  • prompt: enables user prompts during offline installer creation

  • config=: specifies the full path to a .config file that contains a configuration for creating an offline installer. This parameter is used for testing purposes. See the Testing section for more information.

  • wconfig=: specifies the full path to a .config file that is created using the current configuration settings when the user exits the user interface. When this option is specified, the ROCm Offline Installer Creator does not create an installer package. This option is used for testing purposes.

Note

The prompt and config options can be combined in the same command.

This example demonstrates how to use the prompt option when running the Offline Installer Creator:

./rocm-offline-creator_1.0.0-local.run prompt

The optional prompt parameter stops the Offline Installer Creator at critical checkpoints in the creation process and prompts the user. At these checkpoints, the user can either continue or end the program. Without the prompt parameter, installer creation continues without interruption, unless a failure occurs during the process.

After extracting the .run package, the Offline Installer Creator displays the Main menu. From here, you can customize the offline installer using the Create Configuration menu and options in the ROCm, driver, and extra packages menus.

The main user interface menu for the Offline Installer Creator

After configuring all the options, select Create Offline Installer to review the settings and start the offline installer creation process. After the installer is created, the offline installer .run package is saved to the configured location. Copy this package to any matching target system for ROCm and driver installation.

Offline Installer Creator interface#

Use the Offline Installer Creator user interface to configure the contents of the ROCm and driver installation package for later use on the target system.

Starting from the Main menu, the Offline Installer Creator user interface contains multiple menus and sub-menus used to configure and create the offline installer. The following section describes the menu items:

Create Configuration menu#

The Create Configuration menu selects the input source and output parameters for the installer. Configuration items in this menu include the input repository, the type of dependency downloading to perform, and the name and output location for the new installer.

The Create Configuration menu for the Offline Installer Creator
  • Installer Input

    The Installer Input indicates the input repository for sourcing the ROCm and driver packages used to build the offline installer. A value of repo-public indicates that a publicly-available repository, as defined in the Repo Type field, is used for the package input.

  • Repo Type

    The Repo Type indicates the specific type of repository used for input. If the value of Installer Input is set to repo-public, then repo.radeon.com is used to source and download any ROCm and driver packages required to create the offline installer.

  • Dependency Download Type

    To create an offline installer, any package downloaded and installed on the target system must include any dependent packages required for offline installation. The Offline Installer Creator provides two options for controlling how dependent packages are included: full and minimum.

    Set the Dependency Download Type to full, the default setting, to resolve all dependencies for ROCm and the selected drivers aggressively and recursively and download them as required. Full mode typically results in a larger offline installer than minimum mode. This mode is recommended if the host system running the Offline Installer Creator uses a modified OS image with additional packages installed, such as ROCm.

    In cases where the host system is running an unmodified OS image that is exactly the same as the target, set the Dependency Download Type to minimum. This mode downloads the minimum number of dependent packages required to create the offline installer. The resulting offline installer has a smaller size in minimum mode than it does in full mode. A typical use of minimum mode is for distributing a preconfigured OS image as the base installation across multiple offline systems. The base image is used to create an offline installer which is then deployed to the matching offline systems to install ROCm.

  • Installer Name

    Installer Name specifies the name of the offline installer .run file that is generated. The default option is rocm-offline-install.

  • Installer Path

    Installer Path configures the output directory for the new offline installer on the host system. The default location is the home directory of the current user.

    Note

    The Offline Installer Creator validates the directory path and doesn’t permit installer creation if the path is invalid.

ROCm Options menu#

The optional ROCm Options menu includes or excludes the ROCm component in the offline installer. If ROCm installation is included, a specific version and set of the ROCm components are integrated into the resulting installer.

The ROCm Options menu for the Offline Installer Creator
  • Install ROCm

    This field indicates whether to include ROCm components in the offline installer. If this field is set to yes, ROCm installation is enabled. If you choose this configuration, you must select the ROCm version and list of ROCm components. Otherwise, the creation of the offline installer is not permitted. To create a “driver-only” offline installer, disable the Install ROCm option.

  • ROCm Version

    If Install ROCm is enabled, select a specific version of ROCm using the ROCm Version sub-menu. ROCm version 5.7.3 and later are available for selection. All ROCm components are based on this version of ROCm.

    Note

    Only one ROCm version can be selected.

  • ROCm Components

    If Install ROCm is set to yes, you can select a list of components from the ROCm Components sub-menu. These components represent use cases and functions within the ROCm software stack. For example, rocm is one of the primary components within ROCm. It includes most of the essential parts of the ROCm stack, so most users should include rocm as a base component for any ROCm offline installer.

    Note

    • Configure the ROCm Version field before selecting the ROCm components.

    • Select one or more components from the ROCm Components list for offline installer creation.

The following ROCm Components are available for offline installation. For more information on the components, see What is ROCm.

  • rocm

    • For users and developers requiring the full ROCm stack

    • OpenCL (ROCr/KFD based) runtime

    • HIP runtimes

    • Machine-learning framework

    • All ROCm libraries and applications

  • rocmdev

    • For developers requiring the ROCm runtime, with profiling and debugging tools

    • HIP runtimes

    • OpenCL runtime

    • Profiler, tracer, and debugger tools

  • rocmdevtools

    • For developers requiring the ROCm profiling and debugging tools

    • Profiler, tracer, and debugger tools

  • lrt

    • For users of applications using the ROCm runtime

    • ROCm compiler and device libraries

    • ROCr runtime and thunk

  • hip

    • For users of the HIP runtime on AMD products

    • HIP runtimes

  • hiplibsdk

    • For application developers using HIP on AMD products

    • HIP runtimes

    • ROCm math libraries

    • HIP development libraries

  • graphics

    • For users of graphics applications

    • Open-source Mesa 3D graphics and multimedia libraries

  • multimediasdk

    • For developers of open-source multimedia

    • Open-source Mesa 3D multimedia libraries

    • Development headers for multimedia libraries

  • opencl

    • For users of applications requiring OpenCL on Vega or later products

    • ROCr-based OpenCL

    • ROCm language runtime

  • openclsdk

    • For application developers requiring ROCr-based OpenCL

    • ROCr-based OpenCL

    • ROCm language runtime

    • Development and SDK files for ROCr-based OpenCL

  • openmpsdk

    • For users of OpenMP or Flang on AMD products

    • OpenMP runtime and development packages

  • mllib

    • For users running machine-learning workloads

    • MIOpen hip and tensile libraries

    • Clang OpenCL

    • MIOpen kernels

  • mlsdk

    • For developers running machine-learning workloads

    • MIOpen development libraries

    • Clang OpenCL development libraries

    • MIOpen kernels

Driver Options Menu#

Use the Driver Options menu to optionally include the AMDGPU driver in the offline installer. If driver installation is included, an AMDGPU driver based on a specific ROCm version is integrated into the installer. In addition, the installer can configure several post-installation driver options for offline installation.

The Driver Options menu for the Offline Installer Creator
  • Install amdgpu Driver

    This field specifies whether to include the AMDGPU driver in the offline installer. To enable its inclusion, set the value of Install amdgpu Driver to yes. To include the driver, select the amdgpu Driver ROCm Version. Otherwise, the creation of an offline installer is not permitted. This option is typically disabled when creating an ROCm-only offline installer.

  • amdgpu Driver ROCm Version

    If Install amdgpu Driver is set to yes, the amdgpu Driver ROCm Version field is used to select a specific ROCm version to base the AMDGPU driver on.

    Note

    • The offline installer can only use one ROCm version.

    • The AMDGPU driver included in the offline installer is the DKMS version.

Post-install driver options#

If you are including the AMDGPU driver in the offline installer, you can apply one or more of the following post-installation driver options:

  • Set Video,Render Group

    When this setting is enabled, the resulting offline installer adds the current user ($USER) to the render and video groups on the target system after installing AMDGPU. In most cases, you must belong to both groups before any ROCm components can use the AMDGPU driver or access GPU resources.

    Note

    Enabling this post-installation option is recommended.

  • Blacklist amdgpu driver

    When this setting is enabled, the resulting offline installer immediately disables the AMDGPU driver kernel module after installing it. As a result, the system disables driver startup and initialization on subsequent reboots. Use this option when the AMDGPU driver is being debugged or is potentially unstable, or if control of driver initialization is required during boot up.

    Caution

    This option is intended for advanced users familiar with Linux kernel modules and GPU drivers.

    Note

    If this option is selected, the Start amdgpu driver on install option is not available.

  • Start amdgpu driver on install

    If the Start amdgpu driver on install option is enabled, the offline installer uses modprobe to automatically launch the AMDGPU driver after installation. If a pre-existing AMDGPU driver is already loaded on the system, the installer doesn’t start the new driver. This option is often useful for users installing the driver on a system where the GPU device is newer and not yet natively supported as part of the upstream GPU driver for the Linux distribution.

    Note

    If this option is selected, the Blacklist amdgpu driver on install option is not available for use in the offline installer.

Extra Packages Menu#

The Extra Packages menu provides a list of optional packages for inclusion in the offline installer. You can select the rocminfo and rocm-smi packages as extra packages for the installer, provided they are not already included as part of a given ROCm component.

The Extra Packages menu for the Offline Installer Creator

Note

If a selected ROCm component already includes rocminfo or rocm-smi, the fields are set to yes and can’t be modified.

Create Offline Installer Menu#

The Create Offline Installer menu summarizes the current configuration. The Offline Installer Creator uses this configuration to create the offline installer. If there are no errors, you can Accept the configuration and create the offline installer .run file. If the tool finds any missing requirements or errors in the configuration, the Accept option is not available. In this case, return to the Main menu by selecting Return and edit the current configuration before proceeding.

The following illustrations show the three menu pages required to create the offline installer.

The first page of the Create Offline Installer menu for the Offline Installer Creator The second page of the Create Offline Installer menu for the Offline Installer Creator The third page of the Create Offline Installer menu for the Offline Installer Creator

Using the ROCm Offline Installer Creator#

After starting the Offline Installer Creator, the user interface appears in the terminal. At the top of the Main menu, the Target Installer field indicates the Linux distribution, version, and Linux kernel version currently running on the host system. The target system must match the host system because the target installer is based on the current host distribution and kernel version. When navigating through the menus, you can use the Done option to return to the previous menu. Some menus have a Help option to display more information about the current menu.

Follow these steps to create an offline installer:

  1. Fill out the configuration creation details:

    1. Enter the Create Configuration menu.

    2. Set the Dependency Download Type to either full, which is the default, or minimum.

    3. Set the Installer Name field or use the default name that is provided. The Offline Installer Creator appends the .run extension to the installer name when it creates the installer.

    4. Use the Installer Path field to configure the output directory for the installer. The default value is the $USER home directory.

  2. Set the ROCm options:

    In the ROCm Options menu, enable or disable the installation of ROCm components. If ROCm installation is enabled, the ROCm Version and ROCm Components fields are also required.

    1. Enter the ROCm Options menu.

    2. Set Install ROCm to yes to include ROCm components in the offline installer.

    3. For the ROCm Version field, select the ROCm release version from the sub-menu.

    4. For the ROCm Components field, select one or more ROCm components from the sub-menu.

  3. Set the driver options:

    In the Driver Options menu, enable or disable the installation of the amdgpu driver. To enable driver installation, you must also configure the amdgpu Driver ROCm version field.

    1. Enter the Driver Options menu.

    2. Set Install amdgpu Driver to yes to include the amdgpu driver in the offline installer.

    3. If the amdgpu Driver ROCm Version field is not already populated, select the ROCm release version from the sub-menu.

    4. Configure the post-installation driver options, including Set Video,Render Group, Blacklist amdgpu driver, and Start amdgpu driver on install.

    Note

    • Enabling the Set Video,Render Group option is recommended. However, the post-installation options aren’t required to create or use the installer.

    • The amdgpu Driver ROCm Version field is the same field as the ROCm Version field in the ROCm Options menu. You can set the ROCm release version from either menu.

  4. Set the extra packages:

    In the Extra Packages menu, optionally include one or both of the rocminfo and rocm-smi packages in the offline installer.

    Note

    Some ROCm components already include the rocminfo and rocm-smi packages, which are automatically added to the offline installer by default. If so, the user interface sets the rocminfo and rocm-smi fields to yes and ensures they can’t be edited.

  5. Create the installer:

    After completing the previous steps, you can create the offline installer.

    1. Enter the Create Offline Installer menu.

    2. Review the current installer configuration by using the review summary interface, pressing <Next Page> to cycle through the pages.

    3. If there are any errors or missing requirements in the configuration, press <RETURN> to display the main menu and make any required changes. Any errors or missing requirements are indicated in red.

    4. If there are no errors in the configuration, select <ACCEPT> to create the offline installer, which is saved to the designated location.

    5. At this point, the user interface closes and the offline install creation script starts running.

    Note

    You can only select <ACCEPT> if all configuration requirements are met and no errors are detected.

  6. Offline Installation:

    After the offline installer has been created and saved to the designated output directory on the host system, copy the installer to any matching target system and run it. The target doesn’t need to have a network or internet connection.

    1. Copy the offline installer, for example rocm-offline-install.run, to a target system that matches the host.

    2. Run the installer from the terminal command line:

      ./rocm-offline-install.run <option>
      

      The option parameter can either be omitted or optionally set to prompt or dryrun. The prompt option enables user prompts during the offline installation process. If the prompt parameter is appended, the installer halts at critical points during the installation process, prompting the user to continue or stop the installation. Without the prompt parameter, the offline installation runs until completion, unless a failure occurs during the process.

      To simulate the offline installation process, set the option parameter to dryrun. With dryrun, the installer outputs any errors it detects but does not install any packages.

      ./rocm-offline-install.run prompt
      

      or

      ./rocm-offline-install.run dryrun
      

      Note

      You can run the installer with both the dryrun and prompt options. This simulates the offline installation and prompts you during the process.

Log files#

By default, the ROCm Offline Installer Creator records its output in log files in the /var/log/offline_creator directory. The output of both creation and installation processes is logged to this directory.

Building#

Build the ROCm Offline Installer Creator from source using the files located at ROCm/rocm-install-on-linux.

To build the Offline Installer Creator:

  1. Install the prerequisites

    You must install the following packages prior to building the Offline Installer Creator from source.

    sudo apt install cmake
    sudo apt install build-essential
    sudo apt install libncurses5-dev
    sudo apt install makeself
    sudo apt install wget
    

    First, install the RHEL version-specific prerequisites:

    Install the following for RHEL 8.x:

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

    Install the following for RHEL 9.x:

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

    Then install the generic RHEL x.x prerequisites

    sudo dnf install cmake
    sudo dnf install gcc gcc-c++
    sudo dnf install ncurses-devel
    sudo dnf install makeself
    

    Install the following for SLES 15.5:

    SUSEConnect -p PackageHub/15.5/x86_64
    sudo zypper install cmake
    sudo zypper install gcc gcc-c++
    sudo zypper install ncurses-devel
    sudo zypper install makeself
    

    Install the following for SLES 15.6:

    SUSEConnect -p PackageHub/15.6/x86_64
    sudo zypper install cmake
    sudo zypper install gcc gcc-c++
    sudo zypper install ncurses-devel
    sudo zypper install makeself
    
  2. Clone the tool source

    git clone https://github.com/ROCm/rocm-install-on-linux
    
  3. Build the configuration

    cd rocm-install-on-linux/src/offline-installer
    mkdir build
    cd build
    cmake ..
    
  4. Build the Offline Installer Creator

    The Offline Installer Creator is built for both standard and test use. The output is placed in the CMake build directory.

    • To build the tool, run the following command:

      make
      

      This command generates the file rocm-offline-creator_1.0.0-local.run.

Testing#

The Offline Installer Creator test suite includes a set of tests for validating common installer configurations. These tests simulate and validate the creation of the target offline installer and the installer’s behavior.

The tests are based on the ROCm version and on the components being installed.

Tests are available for these ROCm versions:

  • 5.7.3

  • 6.0.2

  • 6.1.x

  • 6.2.x

Tests are available for the following component combinations:

  • ROCm only: Creates an installer for the rocm component only.

  • Driver only: Creates an installer for the amdgpu driver only.

  • ROCm and driver: Creates an installer for both the rocm component and the amdgpu driver.

  • ROCm and graphics: Creates an installer for the rocm,graphics component.

  • hip and hiplibsdk: Creates an installer for the hip,hiplibsdk component.

Building the tests#

Tests are built using CMake and make. See the Building section above.

Running the tests#

Run the preconfigured tests using the CMake and CTest utilities.

Note

Run any of the tests below with the -V argument to enable verbose logging and output for the offline installer tool creator or installer scripts.

There are two test types:

  • Full test

  • ROCm version test

For each type of test, installer creation is validated using one of the preset .config files located in the tests directory. These files contain the settings required to create the offline installer. They run through the create-offline.sh script for the relevant Linux distribution. This is followed by a dry run of the resulting offline installer .run file, which performs a simulated installation for the distribution under test.

Full test#

From the build location of the offline tool, run the following command:

ctest

This suite runs 90 tests.

The following tests are available, depending on the ROCm version:

ROCm version

Test Suite Support

6.2.x

ROCm only, Driver only, ROCm + Driver, ROCm + graphics, hip + hiplibsdk

6.1.x

ROCm only, Driver only, ROCm + Driver, ROCm + graphics, hip + hiplibsdk

6.0.2

ROCm only, Driver only, ROCm + Driver, ROCm + graphics, hip + hiplibsdk

5.7.3

ROCm only, Driver only, ROCm + Driver, ROCm + graphics, hip + hiplibsdk

Note

Test suites for a ROCm version only run if the version is supported on the Linux Distribution Version under test.

ROCm version test#

Select subsets of the “Full” test for a specific version of ROCm and run them using CTest.

From the build location of the offline tool, run the following command:

ctest -L <rocm-version>

where <rocm-version> is one of 5.7.3, 6.0.2, 6.1.x, or 6.2.x.

Running manual tests#

In addition to the preconfigured CTest utilities, you can manually configure your own Offline Installer Creator tests. This configuration option bypasses the user interface and runs the create-offline.sh script as described in the Running the tests section above. To manually test the creation of an offline installer without the user interface, run the Offline Installer Creator with the config parameter.

Caution

For normal Offline Installer Creator usage, the user interface is recommended. The user interface validates the various configuration file inputs and guides you through the configuration process.

./rocm-offline-creator_1.0.0-local.run config=[path-to-config-file]

Set the config parameter to the absolute path to a configuration file. The file name must include the .config file extension. The file follows the format defined by the Offline Installer Creator user interface. Example configuration files, which are used for running the CTest utilities, are available in the tests directory of the offline-installer repository.