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Installing ROCm & Llama.cpp for CPUs & APUs.

Or: Adding a Device Driver for AMD GPUs & iGPUs.

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Installing ROCm & Llama.cpp for CPUs & APUs.
B
Brian King

Thank you for reading this post.

My name is Brian and I'm a developer from New Zealand. I've been interested in computers since the early 1990s. My first language was QBASIC. (Things have changed since the days of MS-DOS.)

I am the managing director of a one-man startup called Digital Core (NZ) Limited. I have accepted the "12 Startups in 12 Months" challenge so that DigitalCore will have income-generating products by April 2024.

This blog will follow the "12 Startups" project during its design, development, and deployment, cover the Agile principles and the DevOps philosophy that is used by the "12 Startups" project, and delve into the world of AI, machine learning, deep learning, prompt engineering, and large language models.

I hope you enjoyed this post and, if you did, I encourage you to explore some others I've written. And remember: The best technologies bring people together.

Part of seriesThe AI Series

Abstract.

I document my complete workflow for installing AMD ROCm drivers on Ubuntu Desktop 24.04 LTS and building the llama.cpp library with HIP (GPU) backend support for my AMD Strix Halo APU with its Radeon 8060S iGPU. I cover every step — adding the ROCm repository, installing the drivers, cloning and configuring the llama.cpp build with the correct GPU target, and verifying the final GPU-accelerated binary.

Attributions:

None for this post.

An Introduction.

I run llama.cpp on my system to serve large language models locally. By default, the Nix package manager installs a CPU-only build that ignores the -ngl GPU offload flag — meaning my Radeon 8060S iGPU sits idle while the CPU churns through inference. That is a waste of my hardware. I write this post to capture exactly how I enable GPU acceleration: installing AMD's ROCm drivers and rebuilding llama.cpp with the HIP backend so my iGPU does the heavy lifting.

The Big Picture.

My workflow follows three broad phases. First, I install the AMD ROCm driver stack onto my Ubuntu-based system — adding the official repository, pinning the package priority, and installing the ROCm metapackage. Second, I clone the llama.cpp repository from GitHub and configure the CMake build with the HIP backend enabled, targeting my Strix Halo's gfx1151 architecture. Third, I build the project, install the binary to a local prefix, verify the HIP support is active, and add the accelerated binary to my PATH so every llama-server invocation uses my iGPU.

Prerequisites.

Updating my Base System.

  • From the terminal, I update my system:
sudo apt clean && \
sudo apt update && \
sudo apt dist-upgrade -y && \
sudo apt --fix-broken install && \
sudo apt autoclean && \
sudo apt autoremove -y

Installing OpenSSL.

💡
OpenSSL is an open-source command line tool used for implementing cryptography, including generating private keys, creating certificate signing requests (CSRs), and managing SSL/TLS certificates. It is widely used in IT security for various cryptographic tasks. CMake is used later in this post and OpenSSL is employed (if available) during the build.
  • I install OpenSSL:
sudo apt update && sudo apt install openssl

Installing ROCm.

💡
AMD ROCm is an open-source software stack for programming that supports AI, HPC, and general-purpose computing on AMD GPUs and iGPUs. It includes drivers, tools, compilers, and libraries like HIP and MIOpen to enable development across frameworks such as PyTorch and TensorFlow.

Step 1: Adding the ROCm Repository.

  1. I open a terminal.

  2. I add the ROCm GPG key:

wget https://repo.radeon.com/rocm/rocm.gpg.key -qO - | gpg --dearmor | sudo tee /etc/apt/keyrings/rocm.gpg > /dev/null
  1. I add the ROCm repository to my sources list:
echo "deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/rocm.gpg] https://repo.radeon.com/rocm/apt/latest $(lsb_release -cs 2>/dev/null) main" | sudo tee --append /etc/apt/sources.list.d/rocm.list
  1. I set the appropriate apt pin priority for ROCm:
echo -e 'Package: *\nPin: release o=repo.radeon.com\nPin-Priority: 600' | sudo tee /etc/apt/preferences.d/rocm-pin-600

Step 2: Updating Package Lists.

  1. I update my system to make the new packages available for installation:
sudo apt update

Step 3: Installing the ROCm Package.

  1. I Install the ROCm package:
sudo apt install -y rocm
💡
This step will take some time to complete. I do NOT assume that the install process has hung simply because the percentage values have not changed in a very long while. I step outside, I have a break, and I walk barefoot on the grass (unless there are prickles). At the very least, I make myself a hot beverage during the installation, i.e. "There is no dismay when I just walk away."

Step 4: Adding My Account to the ROCm Groups.**

  1. I (-a)ppend my $USER account to the ROCm (-G)roups:
sudo usermod -aG render,video $USER
  1. I refresh the terminal:
source ~/.bashrc
  1. I test the ROCm installation:
sudo rocminfo
  1. I reboot my system (the first of three times):
reboot

Building the llama.cpp Library for ROCm.

💡
The default Nix build of llama.cpp does not include GPU support (no ROCm, no HIP, no Vulkan). Installing `nix-env --install --attr llama-cpp` results in a CPU-only binary that ignores the -ngl GPU offload flag, i.e. I just installed a ROCm driver that will not be used. So, I build the llama.cpp library with the HIP backend enabled.

Setting up the Environment.

  • I set up the environment variables so the build tools can find the ROCm installation:
export PATH=/opt/rocm/bin:$PATH
export ROCM_PATH=/opt/rocm

Cloning the Repo from GitHub.

💡
GitHub is a proprietary developer platform that allows developers to create, store, manage, and share their code using git for version control. It is widely used for hosting open source software projects. GitHub has features like access control, bug tracking, and task management.
  • I change to my Home directory, clone the llama.cpp repository, and change to the llama.cpp directory:
cd ~
git clone https://github.com/ggml-org/llama.cpp.git
cd llama.cpp

Configuring the Build for ROCm.

  • I make the build directory and change to it:
mkdir -p build && cd build
💡
The (-p)arent flag is used with the mkdir command and allows me to create parent directories as needed. This means it will create the entire directory path if it doesn't already exist and will not return an error if the directory does exist. The -p flag ensures mkdir is useful because a single command that creates nested directory structures is utile.
  • I install CMake:
sudo apt install -y cmake
💡
CMake is a free, cross-platform software development tool that helps manage the build process of applications using compiler-independent instructions. It can automate tasks like testing, packaging, and installation, making it easier to build projects across different platforms.
  • I configure CMake with the HIP backend enabled, static libraries, and server-only mode:
cmake .. \
    -DGGML_HIP=ON \
    -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
    -DAMDGPU_TARGETS="gfx1151" \
    -DCMAKE_HIP_COMPILER_ROCM_ROOT=/opt/rocm \
    -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=/opt/rocm \
    -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=OFF \
    -DCMAKE_POSITION_INDEPENDENT_CODE=ON \
    -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=./install
💡
The BUILD_SHARED_LIBS=OFF flag links ggml statically, avoiding the .so symlink creation that fails on the CIFS network mount. The LLAMA_BUILD_SERVER_ONLY=ON flag skips the UI build, which also requires symlinks for npm. The CMAKE_HIP_COMPILER_ROCM_ROOT flag tells the HIP compiler where to find ROCm and passes the --rocm-path argument to clang++.
  • I reboot my system (the second of three times):
reboot
  • To confirm the correct target for my hardware, I run:
rocminfo | grep -E 'Name:|gfx'
💡
The AMDGPU_TARGETS value of gfx1151 ensures the Radeon 8060S iGPU in the Strix Halo APU is selected. Also, this ROCm information command will display results only after a reboot. If the output shows a different architecture (e.g. gfx1100 or gfx1030), I can adjust the AMDGPU_TARGETS accordingly.

Building llama.cpp with ROCm Support.

  • I build the project using all available CPU or APU cores:
cmake --build . --config Release -j$(nproc)
💡
This step will take some time to complete. The build compiles the GPU or iGPU kernels and the server binary together. I do NOT assume that the build has hung simply because the terminal output has not changed in a very long while. I step outside, I have a break, and I walk barefoot on the grass (unless there are prickles).

Installing the Binary.

  • I install the resulting binaries to a local prefix:
cmake --install . --prefix ./install
💡
The llama-server binary is now at `~/llama.cpp/build/install/bin/llama-server`.

Verifying the ROCm Build.

  • I confirm the build includes HIP support by running a quick smoke test:
./install/bin/llama-server --help 2>&1 | grep -i hip
💡
The ROCm backend is active if HIP appears in the help output.

Adding ROCm to my PATH.

💡
With ROCm drivers installed and a GPU-enabled/iGPU-enabled build of llama.cpp available, I can now serve AI models using the -ngl offload flag for llama.cpp. It can accelerate matrix operations by improving inference throughput across any of the AI models. I can set the -nlg flag to -1 to offload all of the AI model layers from the CPU/APU to the GPU/iGPU.

I add the ROCm-enabled build to my PATH so the GPU/iGPU-accelerated binary is used:

echo 'export PATH=$HOME/llama.cpp/build/install/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc
  • I reboot my system (third of three times):
reboot

The Results.

I end up with a working ROCm installation and a GPU-accelerated llama-server binary. Running rocminfo confirms the ROCm driver stack is active and sees my Radeon 8060S iGPU. Running llama-server --help | grep hip confirms the build includes HIP backend support. I can now serve models with the -ngl -1 flag, offloading every layer to my iGPU for dramatically faster inference than the CPU-only build I used before.

In Conclusion.

I have successfully installed AMD ROCm drivers and built a GPU/iGPU-accelerated llama.cpp binary on my GMKtek EVO-X2 hardware running the Ubuntu 24.04 LTS distribution. My Radeon 8060S iGPU now handles inference through the HIP backend, and I serve models with full layer offload using the -ngl -1 flag. This workflow eliminates the wasted compute I had with the default CPU-only Nix build and puts my hardware to proper use.

Until next time: Be safe, be kind, be awesome, kia kaha!!

Document Details.

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#ROCm #llama-cpp #AMD #GPU #iGPU #HIP #Ubuntu #Linux #Strix-Halo #Radeon8060S #AI #LLM #Machine-Learning #Open-Source

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Installing AMD ROCm Drivers & Building llama.cpp with GPU Acceleration

SEO Description (150 Characters).

I install AMD ROCm drivers on Ubuntu 24.04 and build llama.cpp with HIP backend GPU acceleration for my AMD Strix Halo APU with its Radeon 8060S iGPU, covering the complete workflow.

https://solodev.app/installing-rocm-llama-cpp-for-cpus-apus

Version

v0.5.2

#rocm#llama-cpp#amd#gpu#igpu#hip#ubuntu#linux#strix-halo#radeon8060s#ai#llm#open-source#machine-learning
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The AI Series

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In the AI series, I describe numerous "artificial intelligence" technologies and techniques including machine learning, deep learning, prompt engineering, and large language models.

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