In order to run code on AMD GPUs, the AMD provided opencl libraries and other files need to be available in the container. If they are not already present in the docker image, they need to be installed after the fact, besides the fact that the devices need to be made available to the container via the –device parameter.
The following components need to be present in a container to make use of opencl:
- GPU device card* and associated renderD* device file
- opencl libraries for the card
The card* and renderD* devices are in /dev/dri/.
The render device associated with a specific card is the card’s number + 128. So renderD128 belongs to card0, renderD129 belongs to card1, and so on. The renderD device and the card device that belong together need to be made available to the same container. You can see the mapping of physcial devices to render and card devices in /dev/dri/by-path/.
Example for the linuxserver/foldingathome image
In the following example, the specific steps to make opencl usable in the docker image linuxserver/foldingathome are shown. The example will store the foldingathome’s software configuration in the host directory /opt/foldingathome and forward card0 and renderD128 into the docker container. The card is a AMD RX580.
Create the docker container: docker container create -c 10 --blkio-weight 10 --name foldingathome -ti --volume /opt/foldingathome:/config --device /dev/dri/card0 --device /dev/dri/renderD128 linuxserver/foldingathome
You can amend the command as required. The important parts are: --volume /opt/foldingathome:/config --device /dev/dri/card0 --device /dev/dri/renderD128
Download the amdgpu driver archive: wget --referer https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/rn-amdgpu-unified-linux-20-20 -N https://drivers.amd.com/drivers/linux/amdgpu-pro-20.20-1089974-ubuntu-18.04.tar.xz
The URL to the drivers can be changed for newer driver versions. The source parameter in the Arch Linux AUR’s opencl-amd package’ PKGBUILD ususally shows the latest one.
Start the container: docker start foldingathome
Copy the driver archive into it: docker cp amdgpu-pro-20.20-1089974-ubuntu-18.04.tar.xz foldingathome:/tmp/
Get a shell in it: docker exec -ti foldingathome bash
Update the package index and install the xz-utils package for extracting the archive: apt update && apt install xz-utils
Extract and install the driver (it will fail because of unmet dependencies, but the opencl driver installs fine): cd /tmp && tar xf amdgpu-pro-20.20-1089974-ubuntu-18.04.tar.xz && cd amdgpu-pro-20.20-1089974-ubuntu-18.04.tar.xz && ./amdgpu-pro-install
Cleanup the files we don’t need: rm -rf /tmp/amdgpu-pro-20.20-1089974-ubuntu-18.04.tar.xz
Install the package we actually want. The install takes some time and unneeded dkms modules are installed, but that doesn’t matter: apt install opencl-amdgpu-pro
Install clinfo to check if the device is usable: apt install clinfo
Check the clinfo output to see if the device is usable. Looks like that if it works: clinfo
Number of platforms 1 [188/9922]
Platform Name AMD Accelerated Parallel Processing
Platform Vendor Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Platform Version OpenCL 2.1 AMD-APP (3075.10)
Platform Profile FULL_PROFILE
Platform Extensions cl_khr_icd cl_amd_event_callback cl_amd_offline_devices
Platform Host timer resolution 1ns
Platform Extensions function suffix AMD
Platform Name AMD Accelerated Parallel Processing
Number of devices 2
Device Name Ellesmere
Device Vendor Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Device Vendor ID 0x1002
Device Version OpenCL 1.2 AMD-APP (3075.10)
Driver Version 3075.10
Device OpenCL C Version OpenCL C 1.2
Device Type GPU
Device Board Name (AMD) Radeon RX 580 Series
Device Topology (AMD) PCI-E, 0a:00.0
Device Profile FULL_PROFILE
Device Available Yes
Compiler Available Yes
Linker Available Yes Max compute units 36 SIMD per compute unit (AMD) 4 SIMD width (AMD) 16
SIMD instruction width (AMD) 1
Max clock frequency 1365MHz
Graphics IP (AMD) 8.0
Device Partition (core)
Max number of sub-devices 36
Supported partition types None
Max work item dimensions 3
Max work item sizes 1024x1024x1024
Max work group size 256
Preferred work group size (AMD) 256
Max work group size (AMD) 1024
Preferred work group size multiple 64
Wavefront width (AMD) 64
Preferred / native vector sizes
char 4 / 4 [147/9922]
short 2 / 2
int 1 / 1
long 1 / 1
half 1 / 1 (cl_khr_fp16)
float 1 / 1
double 1 / 1 (cl_khr_fp64)
Half-precision Floating-point support (cl_khr_fp16)
Denormals No
Infinity and NANs No
Round to nearest No
Round to zero No
Round to infinity No
IEEE754-2008 fused multiply-add No
Support is emulated in software No
Single-precision Floating-point support (core)
Denormals No
Infinity and NANs Yes
Round to nearest Yes
Round to zero Yes
Round to infinity Yes
IEEE754-2008 fused multiply-add Yes
Support is emulated in software No
Correctly-rounded divide and sqrt operations Yes
Double-precision Floating-point support (cl_khr_fp64)
Denormals Yes
Infinity and NANs Yes
Round to nearest Yes
Round to zero Yes
Round to infinity Yes
IEEE754-2008 fused multiply-add Yes
Support is emulated in software No
Address bits 64, Little-Endian
Global memory size 8479080448 (7.897GiB)
Global free memory (AMD) 8260768 (7.878GiB)
Global memory channels (AMD) 8
Global memory banks per channel (AMD) 16
Global memory bank width (AMD) 256 bytes
Error Correction support No
Max memory allocation 4244635648 (3.953GiB)
Unified memory for Host and Device No
Minimum alignment for any data type 128 bytes
Alignment of base address 2048 bits (256 bytes)
Global Memory cache type Read/Write
Global Memory cache size 16384 (16KiB)
Global Memory cache line size 64 bytes
Image support Yes
Max number of samplers per kernel 16
Max size for 1D images from buffer 134217728 pixels
Max 1D or 2D image array size 2048 images
Base address alignment for 2D image buffers 256 bytes
Pitch alignment for 2D image buffers 256 pixels
Max 2D image size 16384x16384 pixels
Max 3D image size 2048x2048x2048 pixels
Max number of read image args 128
Max number of write image args 8
Local memory type Local
Local memory size 32768 (32KiB)
Local memory syze per CU (AMD) 65536 (64KiB)
Local memory banks (AMD) 32
Max number of constant args 8
Max constant buffer size 4244635648 (3.953GiB)
Preferred constant buffer size (AMD) 16384 (16KiB)
Max size of kernel argument 1024
Queue properties
Out-of-order execution No
Profiling Yes
Prefer user sync for interop Yes
Profiling timer resolution 1ns
Profiling timer offset since Epoch (AMD) 1588525617364601339ns (Sun May 3 17:06:57 2020)
Execution capabilities
Run OpenCL kernels Yes
Run native kernels No
Thread trace supported (AMD) Yes
Number of async queues (AMD) 2
Max real-time compute queues (AMD) 0
Max real-time compute units (AMD) 96
SPIR versions 1.2
printf() buffer size 4194304 (4MiB)
Built-in kernels
Device Extensions cl_khr_fp64 cl_amd_fp64 cl_khr_global_int32_base_atomics cl_khr_global_int32_extended_ato
mics cl_khr_local_int32_base_atomics cl_khr_local_int32_extended_atomics cl_khr_int64_base_atomics cl_khr_int64_extended_atomics cl_khr_3d_
image_writes cl_khr_byte_addressable_store cl_khr_fp16 cl_khr_gl_sharing cl_amd_device_attribute_query cl_amd_vec3 cl_amd_printf cl_amd_med
ia_ops cl_amd_media_ops2 cl_amd_popcnt cl_khr_image2d_from_buffer cl_amd_bus_addressable_memory cl_khr_spir cl_khr_gl_event
NULL platform behavior
clGetPlatformInfo(NULL, CL_PLATFORM_NAME, ...) No platform
clGetDeviceIDs(NULL, CL_DEVICE_TYPE_ALL, ...) No platform
clCreateContext(NULL, ...) [default] No platform
clCreateContext(NULL, ...) [other] Success [AMD]
clCreateContextFromType(NULL, CL_DEVICE_TYPE_DEFAULT) Success (1)
Platform Name AMD Accelerated Parallel Processing
Device Name Ellesmere
clCreateContextFromType(NULL, CL_DEVICE_TYPE_CPU) No devices found in platform
clCreateContextFromType(NULL, CL_DEVICE_TYPE_GPU) Success (2)
Platform Name AMD Accelerated Parallel Processing
Device Name Ellesmere
clCreateContextFromType(NULL, CL_DEVICE_TYPE_ACCELERATOR) No devices found in platform
clCreateContextFromType(NULL, CL_DEVICE_TYPE_CUSTOM) No devices found in platform
clCreateContextFromType(NULL, CL_DEVICE_TYPE_ALL) Success (2)
Platform Name AMD Accelerated Parallel Processing
Device Name EllesmereAfter you verified that the driver works and the device is usable, the container needs to be restarted for foldingathome to recognize it. Exit the shell with ctrl+D (or type exit), stop the container, and start it again: docker stop foldingathome && docker start foldingathome
The GPU should now be available in foldingathome.
It is obviously nicer to put this into a Dockerbuild. You’re free to do that.