ROCm 1.9 Compute Components To Support Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

[boxie]

You do not need $$$$ software to be creative. Rosegarden is really good for music production and Kdenlive for video editing. No need for opencl. Think of the hardware and software that were used in eighties. With these free software you have more resources for production than in eighties with many samplers and DX7 synths.

To paraphrase:
People thousands of years ago did not have access to modern building technologies and they did it just fine - you don't need access to kangaroo cranes or industrial cement mixers or pre fab building facilities to make great buildings!

You don't *need* it, but it certainly helps!

[boxie]

Here's my question that never gets a professional answer.

Say I'm not using Ubuntu, but Debian, or any other third party distro and I need OpenCL 1.2 or newer for Blender Compute support with AMD, I want an actual affirmative answer that ROCm built packages for my distro will enable OpenCL aware third party apps, system-wide to leverage OpenCL on one's GPGPU, and depending on the application [Blender with CPU/GPGPU kernel support] including my multi-core CPU(s).

I'm not talking ``just add the following to your .profile or other CLI `tricks' to get it to work, sort of.

Specifically, install and just run your app, whether it be Natron, Blender, Darktable, Gimp, Rawtherapee, etc., and the configuration to recognize OpenCL support actually produces expected results.

No, ``broken kernel,'' ``no GPUs currently support OpenCL 1.2, etc'' crap.

As a shareholder interested in doubling down my investment I want to know this nearly 2 years of development time hasn't been a complete waste of my time. I'm spending less and less time in Linux and more back in OS X. I'll gladly drop Linux today if AMD can't commit to proper application enabled, system-wide OpenCL support that isn't CLI driven Tensor Flow crap that all but a few data scientists, or ``miners'' need.

I'd rather be building a TR2 system this August, but will wait for the new Mac Pro to get those custom AMD designs knowing it will ``just work'' on OS X. AMD get's a small fee but no CPU fees with TR2 if that is the case. I know AMD will make far more with me building an all AMD system.

Logic Pro X and Final Cut Pro X are two reasons Linux will only ever get me with Blender. With Substance Designer/Painter on OS X I'm willing to invest elsewhere because time is money.

Watching Michael invest his heart n' soul into his business is admirable. It serves to legitimize and bring large exposure for justifying the Linux Desktop. Not having proper desktop OpenCL support, in standard distributions only knee caps the platform.

I can certainly understand your frustration.

I'm sure you can also see the benefit of AMD initially targeting the most used Linux version first to get things going.

There is very real progress being made towards making OpenCL and ROCm "just work" across everything. It might be a small while away before everything becomes smooth and *just works*.

I am however both perpetually optimistic and also unaffected by the lack of OpenCL on my workstation. I will also be happy when it arrives!

As a side note - do the -PRO drivers work for your use case at all?

[Marc Driftmeyer]

I can certainly understand your frustration.

I'm sure you can also see the benefit of AMD initially targeting the most used Linux version first to get things going.

There is very real progress being made towards making OpenCL and ROCm "just work" across everything. It might be a small while away before everything becomes smooth and *just works*.

I am however both perpetually optimistic and also unaffected by the lack of OpenCL on my workstation. I will also be happy when it arrives!

As a side note - do the -PRO drivers work for your use case at all?

The Pro driver OpenCL works for me on 4.15 as follows:

Linux horus 4.15.0-1-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.15.4-1 (2018-02-18) x86_64 GNU/Linux

Anything newer and it fails leaving me with a useless OpenCL from Mesa.

[boxie]

And with latest tools and knowledge modern building companies build shit buildings. Making construction defects is a rule. I did build mine low energy concrete house by hand ( I lifted tens of thousand kilograms of 15-20 kg concrete blocks), no debt and I did sleep very well without reclamation worries.

They also do it much faster that what was possible back then too.

Also - Got a pick of your house that you would be willing to share? I'd be keen to see what you built!

[pete910]

They also do it much faster that what was possible back then too.

Also - Got a pick of your house that you would be willing to share? I'd be keen to see what you built!

He's a troll, stop feeding him. Needs banning TBH with the **** he/she comes out with!

[boxie]

He's a troll, stop feeding him. Needs banning TBH with the **** he/she comes out with!

I am sure we are all guilty of trolling at some stage or another!

[pete910]

I am sure we are all guilty of trolling at some stage or another!

Yes, we all do at times when something has frustrated us or on a rant of a particular subject, Not constant like he/she seems to do.

[boxie]

Yes, we all do at times when something has frustrated us or on a rant of a particular subject, Not constant like he/she seems to do.

nah - he just knows what he likes and that's fine. he sometimes even let's us know that he likes those things and tells people that they are wrong when they do not like the same things :P

[cde1]

The Pro driver OpenCL works for me on 4.15 as follows:

Linux horus 4.15.0-1-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.15.4-1 (2018-02-18) x86_64 GNU/Linux

Anything newer and it fails leaving me with a useless OpenCL from Mesa.

That is very surprising considering I've used successfully the PAL and legacy OpenCL stacks from AMDGPU-Pro 18.20 on Debian testing with kernel 4.16 and 4.17-rc6 (amd-staging-drm-next).

[Ansla]

The Pro driver OpenCL works for me on 4.15 as follows:

Linux horus 4.15.0-1-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.15.4-1 (2018-02-18) x86_64 GNU/Linux

Anything newer and it fails leaving me with a useless OpenCL from Mesa.

I'm using the Pro OpenCL 17.50.511655 driver with kernel 4.17 on Gentoo (RX 480 card). And it worked well with the 4.16 series as well.