KernelModule.md

Installing the amdgpu Kernel Module (Driver)

For ROCm to work, the amdgpu Kernel Module must be installed. It is essentially the driver talking to the GPUs.

Without the driver, you get the following error when executing rocm-smi:

$ rocm-smi
cat: /sys/module/amdgpu/initstate: No such file or directory
ERROR:root:Driver not initialized (amdgpu not found in modules)

Installation steps

To install and enable the amdgpu on Ubuntu (similar instructions apply to other OSes) follow these steps:

1. Find out your kernel version using uname -r.

   $ uname -r
   5.4.0-126-generic
   

2. Install the kernel extra modules:

   $ sudo apt install linux-modules-extra-5.4.0-126-generic
   

3. Install the amdgpu-install installer script. It facilitates the installation of the amdgpu module, but also the entire ROCm stack (in the default location). We will use it to install the driver only. Information about the script can be found here.

   wget https://repo.radeon.com/amdgpu-install/22.20/ubuntu/focal/amdgpu-install_22.20.50200-1_all.deb
   sudo dpkg -i amdgpu-install_22.20.50200-1_all.deb
   

4. Using amdgpu-install, install the amdgpu kernel module.

   amdgpu-install --usecase=dkms
   

5. Reboot the system (Is this necessary?)

6. Enable the amdgpu module.

   sudo modprobe amdgpu
   

Testing

If the installation succeeds, rocm-smi should display the following (the test system has no gpus)

$ rocm-smi


======================= ROCm System Management Interface =======================
WARNING: No AMD GPUs specified
================================= Concise Info =================================
GPU  Temp  AvgPwr  SCLK  MCLK  Fan  Perf  PwrCap  VRAM%  GPU%  
================================================================================
============================= End of ROCm SMI Log ==============================

References

1. https://amdgpu-install.readthedocs.io/en/latest/install-prereq.html
2. ROCm/ROCm#738
3. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/AMDGPU