105 lines
4.1 KiB
XML
105 lines
4.1 KiB
XML
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<chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
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xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
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xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
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version="5.0"
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xml:id="sec-gpu-accel">
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<title>GPU acceleration</title>
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<para>
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NixOS provides various APIs that benefit from GPU hardware
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acceleration, such as VA-API and VDPAU for video playback; OpenGL and
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Vulkan for 3D graphics; and OpenCL for general-purpose computing.
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This chapter describes how to set up GPU hardware acceleration (as far
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as this is not done automatically) and how to verify that hardware
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acceleration is indeed used.
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</para>
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<para>
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Most of the aforementioned APIs are agnostic with regards to which
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display server is used. Consequently, these instructions should apply
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both to the X Window System and Wayland compositors.
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</para>
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<section xml:id="sec-gpu-accel-opencl">
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<title>OpenCL</title>
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<para>
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<link xlink:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenCL">OpenCL</link> is a
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general compute API. It is used by various applications such as
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Blender and Darktable to accelerate certain operations.
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</para>
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<para>
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OpenCL applications load drivers through the <emphasis>Installable Client
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Driver</emphasis> (ICD) mechanism. In this mechanism, an ICD file
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specifies the path to the OpenCL driver for a particular GPU family.
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In NixOS, there are two ways to make ICD files visible to the ICD
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loader. The first is through the <varname>OCL_ICD_VENDORS</varname>
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environment variable. This variable can contain a directory which
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is scanned by the ICL loader for ICD files. For example:
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<screen><prompt>$</prompt> export \
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OCL_ICD_VENDORS=`nix-build '<nixpkgs>' --no-out-link -A rocm-opencl-icd`/etc/OpenCL/vendors/</screen>
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</para>
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<para>
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The second mechanism is to add the OpenCL driver package to
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<xref linkend="opt-hardware.opengl.extraPackages"/>. This links the
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ICD file under <filename>/run/opengl-driver</filename>, where it will
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be visible to the ICD loader.
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</para>
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<para>
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The proper installation of OpenCL drivers can be verified through
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the <command>clinfo</command> command of the <package>clinfo</package>
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package. This command will report the number of hardware devides
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that is found and give detailed information for each device:
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</para>
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<screen><prompt>$</prompt> clinfo | head -n3
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Number of platforms 1
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Platform Name AMD Accelerated Parallel Processing
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Platform Vendor Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.</screen>
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<section xml:id="sec-gpu-accel-opencl-amd">
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<title>AMD</title>
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<para>
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Modern AMD <link
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xlink:href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphics_Core_Next">Graphics
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Core Next</link> (GCN) GPUs are supported through the
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<package>rocm-opencl-icd</package> package. Adding this package to
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<xref linkend="opt-hardware.opengl.extraPackages"/> enables OpenCL
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support. However, OpenCL Image support is provided through the
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non-free <package>rocm-runtime-ext</package> package. This package can
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be added to the same configuration option, but requires that
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<varname>allowUnfree</varname> option is is enabled for nixpkgs. Full
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OpenCL support on supported AMD GPUs is thus enabled as follows:
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<programlisting><xref linkend="opt-hardware.opengl.extraPackages"/> = [
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rocm-opencl-icd
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rocm-runtime-ext
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];</programlisting>
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</para>
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<para>
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It is also possible to use the OpenCL Image extension without a
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system-wide installation of the <package>rocm-runtime-ext</package>
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package by setting the <varname>ROCR_EXT_DIR</varname> environment
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variable to the directory that contains the extension:
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<screen><prompt>$</prompt> export \
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ROCR_EXT_DIR=`nix-build '<nixpkgs>' --no-out-link -A rocm-runtime-ext`/lib/rocm-runtime-ext</screen>
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</para>
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<para>
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With either approach, you can verify that OpenCL Image support
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is indeed working with the <command>clinfo</command> command:
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<screen><prompt>$</prompt> clinfo | grep Image
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Image support Yes</screen>
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</para>
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</section>
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</section>
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</chapter>
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