Hey, i will show you a way to Install only the OpenCL Drivers/Headers. In a relatively hassle free manner.
After some fiddling to get OpenCL running on my Pop!OS Machine,
I’ve learnt some pitfalls to resolve. With that said, let’s get started.
Sources:
Radeon™ Software for Linux® Installation > Table of Content | readthedocs.io
Installing All Open / Pro Variant | readthedocs.io
opencl-optional-component | readthedocs.ioInformations about ROCm/ROCr
Application-specific limitations of ROCm and Blender | developer.blender
ROCm Compatible Hardware | GitHub
Further instructions for installing ROCm | rocmdocs.amd
Disclaimer
the installation routine shown, is not amd’s intended procedure.
Everything shown, is kind of bypassing the installation routine.
I do not give any liability or guarantee for any damage to the system, hardware or software.
Use on your own risk.
Main Content:
Scenario#1
Installation & Troubleshooting | Steps: 9
You don’t have tried / installed AMD drivers: (OPENCL ONLY)Scenario#2
Uninstall Properly | Steps: 3
You have tried installing the AMD Drivers but somethings went wrong.Scenario#3
Your system is un-bootable. | Steps: 3
Recover your System.
Main informations:
Tested Hardware:
AMD RX580Tested OS´s/Platforms: | by Contributor:
Pop!OS 20.04 LTS
Pop!OS 20.10 | Blenderis, AisykTested Kernels:
5.4.0-7629-generic
5.4.0-7634-generic | Incompatible with Driver: 20.04.1 / Revision: 20.45
5.8.0-7630-generic | Incompatible with Driver: 20.04.1 / Revision: 20.45Tested Driver Versions: | by Contributor:
(Radeon Software for Linux Driver for Ubuntu)
18.04 => Revision: 20.30
18.04.5 => Revision: 20.40 | Blenderis
20.04.1 => Revision: 20.45 | Incompatible with 20.04, 20.10 and Blender
Thanks to: dualhammers, for letting me know and your logs.Tested on Blender: | by Contributor:
2.82a Blenderis
2.83.5 | Blenderis, Aisyk
2.90 Alpha
2.91.0 AlphaIncompatible Hardware > for this Method:
- Most likely all RX 6000 Series
- all models that do not offer:
Radeon Software for Linux Drivers for Ubuntu:
-18.04 HWE | Revision Number20.30
-18.04.5 HWE | Revision Number20.40- Integrated Motherboard Graphics
- Professional & Server Graphics
- R5, R7, R9 Series
- HD Series
- ATi Series / Legacy Graphics
Thanks to all Contributors.
NOTE: Latest driver 20.04.1 / Revision: 20.45 is incompatible on <& 20.04, 20.10 and also Blender
AMD has apparently changed the openCL headers internally from:
(Pal / Legacy) to (ROCm / ROCr),Most likely all RX 6000 series and
all models that do not offer older driver versions are incompatible for this method at the moment.Models with older driver available like:
Radeon Software for Linux Drivers for Ubuntu:
18.04 | Number: 20.30
18.04.5 | Number: 20.40
should still work with this method on Pop!OS 20.10.
./amdgpu-install --opencl=pal,legacy --headless --no-dkms
Tested driver 20.04.1 / Revision: 20.45 on Pop!OS 20.04 and FerenOS 20.04
Results:
1. Installation and kernel update/build were successful.
2. Strange rendering artefacts and pixel mush in (eevee -> Render Mode)
![]()
3. So far I’ve had no luck and Blender doesn’t finish kernel compilation (Cycles) without crashing.
So the latest driver doesn’t seem to be fully compatible with Blender ATM.
maybe a little love and optimization can change that in the long run.
- Maybe it’s because of this:
WARNING: PAL OpenCL has been dropped in favour of ROCr.ROCr OpenCL will be installed instead of PAL OpenCL.Please advise that this option is deprecated and will be removed in future releases. Please use --opencl=rocr instead.
AMD ROCm/ROCr | not fully supported by Blender
Application-specific limitations of ROCm and Blender | developer.blender
Scenario#1
You don’t have installed AMD drivers: (OpenCL ONLY)1. Go to AMD Driver support
Download the Driver Tarball for your GPU -> for Ubuntu Distributions.
(Not greater than 18.04.5 => Revision: 20.40)2. Extract the Tarball and open the new Folder
(amdgpu-pro-20.10-1048554-ubuntu-18.04) in my case.3. Edit the (amdgpu-install file) for compatibility purposes
double-click on amdgpu-install
-Some text-editor should appear
- Search for Ubuntu
(Ctrl f)
-add “|pop
” to the case list
-once the new Case is added press(ctrl s)
to save the file and close the text-editor.
- Note: This step is key, this will add Pop!OS as a compatible Distribution.*
![]()
4. right click on some free space in that folder where the
“amdgpu-install”
File is ->
- Right Click ->
“Open in Terminal"
Now you should have a terminal window with a path pointer, to your downloaded Driver Folder.5. In the Terminal
Now The Fun beginns, also the Installation Process.Pop!OS 18.04~20.10:
AMD GPU
./amdgpu-install --no-dkms --opencl=legacy,pal --headless
AMD GPU Pro
./amdgpu-pro-install --no-dkms --opencl=pal,legacy --headless
if you encounter this Message:
“ERROR: using --no-dkms with a pro install is invalid.\nDid you want to run the following instead \namdgpu-install --no-dkms”
Try this Procedure thanks to: pzonaAMD GPU Pro ROCm | not fully supported by Blender
./amdgpu-install --no-dkms --opencl=rocm --headless
Note: Thanks to Blenderis for the incompatibility hint.
That’s the new Command for newer OS’s. Sadly without dryrun flag.
So you need to watch extra carefully if there are no DKMS packages.If you encounter a warning Message like “Build Error 1” Or simmilar, dont Reboot your system!
Follow Scenario#2 below and uninstall AMD-GPU Drivers properly and restart your install processdere.Some explanation for the --Flags
Choose the right OpenCL: Header package for your hardware and application.
If you are not sure, please refer to the links below.Old and semi-old GPU’s
--opencl=legacy,pal
Vega10 or newer GPU´s
--opencl=rocm
ROCm overview:
Informations about ROCm/ROCr
Application-specific limitations of ROCm and Blender | developer.blender
ROCm Compatible Hardware | GitHub
Further instructions for installing ROCm | rocmdocs.amd–headless should assure
-no Display driver
-no DKMS Firmware
-no Vulkan and/or OpenGL librarys get installed.
(You don’t need them since Pop!OS uses The X.Org Mesa Drivers.)
–dryrun Is an auxiliary flag, it simulates the installation process, shows you the packages to be installed. But without any actual installation. Remove it to start the final installation.
–no-dkms
is important!
This flag prevents a kernel rebuild and the installation of:
amdgpu-pro-firmware and other DKMS packages.
Note: Pop! OS is not compatible with these drivers.
The DKMS rebuild will result in errors.
This can lead to a un-bootable Pop!OS.
If it looks like in this Picture, you are ready to go.
Just remove The —dryrun Flag and let the Installation-process begin.6. Installation without --dryrun Flag
As you can see, there are some dependencies needed to install.
As long as there are no hints in the Packagenames like ->
DKMS, Firmware, Vulkan or OpenGL. it’s good to go.
Press Y and Confirm.7. Check your installation in Terminal by type:
clinfo
if the installation was successful:
it should response: Number of devices: 1 or
(if you have more than one OpenCL compatible Devices, it should show something >0)8. Reboot your System
9. Check Blender
If the Result looks like the Picture above:
Congratulations, You’ve just successfully installed AMD´s proprietary OpenCL on Linux!TROUBLESHOOTING
If not: blender and/or clinfo, does not show me any compatible OpenCL device:
Note: Thanks to Aisyk for his research, according to his findings:
it might be helpful or necessary to install the following package manually:
sudo apt install opencl-headers ocl-icd-libopencl1
his attempts also showed:
flatpack version of blender, does not work properly for using OpenCL.It can also be helpful, to test out one of the daily builds.
They contain some hotfixes for new hardware and tackle version problems.
It is possible that the detection of the OpenCL hardware and / or other errors have already been fixed with this version.Note: sometimes you need to reinstall Blender,
or move it to another Place(If Downloaded from Blender.org as Archive)If Blender won’t start, artifacts appear in eevvee, or your Cycles kernel build is unsuccessful. Check whether you have installed Driver: 20.04.1 / Revision: 20.45.
In this case: this version is not compatible with Blender atm, also not with system versions <& 20.04, 20.10.Scenario#2
You have tried installing the AMD Drivers but somethings went wrong OR
you can’t perform a proper Uninstall anymore.If you just want to Uninstall the Drivers properly.
1. go to your downloaded amd driver folder and open a terminal->
like in step 4 @ Scenario#1 and type:
./amdgpu-pro-install --uninstall
./amdgpu-install --uninstall
If you have already executed:
amdgpu-uninstall
ORamdgpu-pro-uninstall
Result could be:- “The amdgpu driver is already installed or was not uninstalled correctly. Please fully uninstall the driver before proceeding with installation You can try running this install script with the --uninstall option to clean up the previous installation.”
1. Not a problem, just open a Terminal and Type:
Pop!OS 18.04~20.04:
sudo apt install amdgpu-dkms libdrm-amdgpu-amdgpu1
Thanks to Blenderis
This will refresh the Dependency list. Especially the amdgpu-pro-pin.Pop!OS 18.04
sudo apt install amdgpu-dkms libdrm-amdgpu-amdgpu1 libdrm-amdgpu1libdrm2-amdgpu
4. Folow Step 1 @ Scenario#2
3. Reboot your System
Beginn with step 1 @ Scenario#1
Scenario#3
Your system is un-bootable.Note: this steps will solve a un-bootable OS. (if you have access to the Terminal.)
1. Press/Try(ALT F2)
2. In Terminal Type:
cd Downloads/amdgpu-pro-xx.xx-xxxx-ubuntu-xx.xx
(Note: i assume your downloaded Driver Package is in the Downloads Folder. If not change it according to your path.)
Please replace the “x” with the numbers of your Driver folder name.
you can typels
to list the entities.Once your Path matches the place where your downloaded Driver folder lies.
Type:
./amdgpu-pro-install --uninstall
./amdgpu-install --uninstall
3. Reboot your System
(Note: once your system is bootable again)
Beginn with step 1 @ Scenario#1
Hope this is helpful.
-Cheers Tpal
Was it helpful / successful for you?
If not, please let me know your:
-Pop!OS/Linux version + (kernel version optional)
-GPU series / model
-Driver edition + revsion number
Error message/s (logs, images optional)If you were successful with a:
-driver version
-GPU model / series
-Kernel / Linux version
I have marked as incompatible.
Please let me know. Also what steps it will take to make it work.
This will help keep this guide updated.
Thanks in regard.
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