AMD Hardware Transcoding for RHEL 9/Oracle Linux 9

#1

In case anyone else is using Oracle Linux like me I wanted to share how you can do hardware transcoding with RHEL 9 or Oracle Linux 9. Here are the steps I used and obviously you need to use sudo or su to root to execute the system commands:

  • Boot under the rhel kernel and not the uek kernel. Since Oracle linux defaults to the uek kernel you need to do this step since the AMD drivers won't install correctly when running under uek.
  • Download the Radeon Software for Linux for RHEL 9.x. Since the drivers are currently only available for v9.2, download that version even though the latest RHEL/Oracle Linux is v9.3: https://www.amd.com/en/support/linux-drivers
  • dnf -y install ./amdgpu-install-5.7.50702-1.el9.noarch.rpm (Change this install line to the appropriate filename you downloaded above)
  • Because you're running v9.3 and the current AMD drivers are for v9.2 you need to do the following 2 steps to modify the repos. After AMD releases the v9.3 drivers the repos should be able to remain untouched and these 2 steps should no longer be needed:
    ** vi /etc/yum.repos.d/amdgpu.repo and change $amdgpudistro to 9.2 since we're running 9.3
    ** vi /etc/yum.repos.d/amdgpu-proprietary.repo and change $amdgpudistro to 9.2 since we're running 9.3
  • vi /bin/amdgpu-install and find "rhel" in the file which will be a "case statement" line and then add "|ol" to the end of the case statement line. You're adding "|ol" to the case statement so it doesn't error when you run it since Oracle Linux isn't in the original case statement.
  • amdgpu-install --usecase=amf,graphics
  • reboot

Now when you check the Advanced Setting in the Channels DVR web interface you should see "Hardware" selected in the Transcoder row on that page.

BTW, now that you've installed the AMD drivers successfully you can continue booting under the RHEL kernel or feel free to boot under the UEK kernel since the drivers are installed and Hardware transcoding will continue to work even when using the Oracle UEK kernel.

Hopefully this helps others for at least the v9.2 AMD RHEL drivers and RHEL/OL v9.3. For other versions of the drivers/OS hopefully these steps will give you guidance of what to do to make things work.

1 Like
#2

I appreciate the detailed post (which seems quite specific to the software versions listed), but can't it just be reduced down to:

  • Install the latest graphics drivers for your hardware
  • Reboot
#3

Is this a typo?

#4

I saw posts for ubuntu and others for amd. They don't really work for rhel/ol. Especially since the drivers are for rhel although ol is essentially rhel. The issue with the generalization that is suggested is that it was difficult figuring out what the latest drivers were for my amd and then where to download them.

I was hoping my detailed instructions would help out in that aspect along with possibly being used as a guideline once new versions of drivers or rhel/ol versions come out. I specifically stated my versions of linux since it was tested with that specific version for over a week with no issues. It may work with v8.8 of rhel/ol or v9.2 or v9.1. If someone is running those versions they can test. I just wanted anyone to see the exact configuration that was working for me. Whether right or wrong I guess.

#5

Not at all. If you look at the case statement in that file. It's essentially using an "or" for different flavors of linux. Since Oracle Linux's /etc/os-release uses "ol" for it's ID you need to add the "or ol" in the case statement so the script runs and doesn't error our saying that your OS is not supported even though it should be since OL is essentially RHEL.

#6

No, but usually Fedora (or other RPM-based distro) instructions will work.

But I am curious, are there really that many home users using RHEL, Oracle, Alma, or Scientific distros for their home servers with Channels?

#7

I tried to find instructions for RPM distributions and couldn't. If there is already a thread that describes how to do this for RPM distributions then I'm sorry and I'll remove this thread. I've been fighting trying to get this working for a little while until I figured out the steps above.

I'm not sure what others use for their home servers. Since I've been a sysadmin for 40 years I've been using RHEL heavily. So for home I used CentOS instead of Fedora since Fedora forces you to upgrade too quickly which is not prudent if you want to run a stable server.

Since RedHat effectively changed CentOS to everyone's displeasure that was out of the question these days. Oracle distributes OL freely so you don't have to pay RedHat for using RHEL (no I didn't want to use their developer's license since the restrictions were too vague for my liking and I didn't want a surprise cease and desist order from them or a surprise bill). Also, since they can change their developer license at any time I didn't want to go in that direction. So with OL I'm essentially running RHEL which many vendors support and I can run it with no worries.

#8

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