GPU Hardware Acceleration for Intel Arc GPUs

smitdylan · Jan 2nd 2025

Recent Intel Arc GPUs, like my Arc A380, require a more modern kernel version than the included 6.1 version in OMV7.
Not having this installed will result in no hardware acceleration being available, like hardware accelerated transcoding in Jellyfin.

Luckily the steps are very easy, but not widely documented/known.

Here are the steps:

- Install OMV-kernel from System - Plugins

- Go to System - kernel

- Click on the Proxmox (3rd) icon

- Install kernel 6.5 or higher (6.11 tested without issues for me)

- Highlight newly installed kernel and set as default boot (1st icon)

Video guide:

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ryecoaaron · Jan 2nd 2025

Enabling backports (can be done in omv-extras) will get you the 6.11 kernel from the debian repo as well.

smitdylan · Jan 3rd 2025

Quote from ryecoaaron

Enabling backports (can be done in omv-extras) will get you the 6.11 kernel from the debian repo as well.

Is that better than the proxmox kernel?

Soma · Jan 3rd 2025

Quote from smitdylan

Not having this installed will result in no hardware acceleration being available, like hardware accelerated transcoding in Jellyfin.

If you use Linuxserver Jellyfin container, it will do hardware acceleration with kernel <=6.1 with a mod:

GitHub - linuxserver/docker-mods at jellyfin-opencl-intel

GitHub - linuxserver/docker-jellyfin

The YML will need this:

Code

    environment:
      - -------
      - DOCKER_MODS=linuxserver/mods:jellyfin-opencl-intel

And add the USER that owns the container to the video and render groups.

The YML will also need this:

Code

    devices:
      - /dev/dri/renderD128:/dev/dri/renderD128
      - /dev/dri/card0:/dev/dri/card0

There's a lot of info on these matters, be it on the forum or on the corresponding github.

Don't post videos that will only be outdated and help increase view counts for people that have nothing to do with OMV.

smitdylan · Jan 3rd 2025

I made a video because it cost people a ton of time to figure out the issue, even if it's not the ideal version. While I agree stuff like this can be outdated, it is made since there is no clear documentation or discussion about it.

I spent 2 days on this. I am new to home servers/OMV, but definitely not atechnical.

In that time I never found that mod (which is jellyfin only I think, so if I need a different container with GPU support that would not work), and while I read about backports I could not find any docs on them. While it might be somewhere, it is hard to find when you are not already in the OMV ecosystem it seems like.

Looking now, I finally found that enable backports is a button in extras, while I thought there only were checkboxes on that page. Since it's called 'enable backports', why isn't it also a checkbox? That way you can have an easy overview of which settings are enabled. In other UIs the buttons are top left instead of bottom right, which is confusing

ryecoaaron · Jan 3rd 2025

Quote from smitdylan

Is that better than the proxmox kernel?

I will say it is different. The proxmox kernel is a slightly modified Ubuntu kernel. It was added because zfs is built-in. I find it slightly more stable on my systems but others have issues with it due to different driver support.

Quote from smitdylan

while I read about backports I could not find any docs on them. While it might be somewhere, it is hard to find when you are not already in the OMV ecosystem it seems like.

Backports is a Debian repo and has nothing to do with OMV. It is where Debian puts some packages from the next version of Debian where people might need a newer version. The kernel or zfs or qemu are good examples. I don't see why OMV should document what Debian already has well documented. When backports are enabled, OMV only pins the kernel. omv-extras pins zfs and qemu. So, those are the only packages a system will get from backports unless you use the command line.

Quote from smitdylan

Looking now, I finally found that enable backports is a button in extras, while I thought there only were checkboxes on that page. Since it's called 'enable backports', why isn't it also a checkbox? That way you can have an easy overview of which settings are enabled. In other UIs the buttons are top left instead of bottom right, which is confusing

If it made sense to make it a checkbox, I would've. Backports isn't a database setting where the value of a checkbox makes sense. A checkbox might also be confusing by making people think backports packages were installed. You can have the backports repo enabled and no backports packages installed. Just like you can have backports packages installed and the backports repo disabled. omv-extras has been giving people the ability to disable and enable backports for many years. It has changed over time to reflect what people understand and what makes sense. So, you may be confused but the current setup has worked the best in my opinion. A large number of OMV users are RPi users and backports is not needed on an RPi. Backports really concerns very few people - really just kvm users.

smitdylan · Jan 3rd 2025

Thanks for the explanation, that's very much appreciated!

Maybe it would be nice to have a docs page on them. Intel Arc GPUs are great for media transcoding and are cheap, so I would assume quite some people get them.

I just googled 'openmediavault backports' and got no real results. The same goes for other terms I found on the way.

While it's not 100% OMV, it is in the UI and does concern some people. In my opinion it should have documentation in that case. That's from the perspective as a beginner btw, so if this is just something to tough up users that's fine as well haha

jata1 · Jan 3rd 2025

Thanks for the info ryecoaaron.

I have recently (yesterday) manually reinstalled omv on my minipc. I have a load of docker containers (incl Plex) and also use kvm.

I have kept the install as vanilla as possible so have not installed proxmox kernel or enabled backports.

I think gpu transcoding is working in Plex/docker but need to check. All my vms seem to be working fine.

So what am I missing or will something work better if I enable backports or use promox kernel?

ryecoaaron · Jan 3rd 2025

Quote from smitdylan

I just googled 'openmediavault backports' and got no real results. The same goes for other terms I found on the way.
While it's not 100% OMV, it is in the UI and does concern some people. In my opinion it should have documentation in that case. That's from the perspective as a beginner btw, so if this is just something to tough up users that's fine as well haha

I am not good a writing docs that noobs understand. I can answer questions. Since I have limited time, I feel my time is better used maintaining/writing plugins. Others can contribute docs. The omv-extras plugin has a button for the omv-extras wiki. Feel free to contribute.

ryecoaaron · Jan 3rd 2025

Quote from jata1

So what am I missing or will something work better if I enable backports or use promox kernel?

Backports is enabled by default if you installed OMV from the ISO. But why change your system if everything is working well?

Soma · Jan 3rd 2025

Quote from jata1

I think gpu transcoding is working in Plex/docker but need to check. All my vms seem to be working fine.

IIRC, for hardware acceleration to work on it (be it jellyfin, emby, plex, etc) a kernel >6.2 is required.

Since I use jellyfin, the solution to use it with kernel >=6.1 is the one I mentioned above.

As for Plex, there's no mention to it on the mods available so, activating backports will put you on kernel 6.9 which will give you hardware acceleration OOB

On both, the dev/dri needs to be binded on the YML and the USER that runs the container need read access to it hence adding the USER to the groups

ryecoaaron · Jan 3rd 2025

Quote from Soma

activating backports will put you on kernel 6.9 which will give you hardware acceleration OOB

Should be the 6.11 kernel. If you don't have 6.11 then install linux-image-amd64
https://packages.debian.org/se…eywords=linux-image-amd64

Soma · Jan 3rd 2025

Quote from ryecoaaron

Should be the 6.11 kernel. If you don't have 6.11 then install linux-image-amd64
https://packages.debian.org/se…eywords=linux-image-amd64

Honestly, I activated it (without needing it) and it's on 6.9.7 (ATM)

It hasn't asked for an update yet to 6.11 but I will revert to STABLE when I go for the next OS USB stick rotation.

I have no need for the backports since jellyfin runs with hardware acceleration with the linuxserver mod on 6.1

ryecoaaron · Jan 3rd 2025

Quote from Soma

Honestly, I activated it (without needing it) and it's on 6.9.7 (ATM)

That isn't good. The 6.9 backports kernel is not maintained. I would guess you don't have backports enabled anymore and/or don't have the linux-image-amd64 kernel package.

smitdylan · Jan 3rd 2025

Quote from ryecoaaron

I am not good a writing docs that noobs understand. I can answer questions. Since I have limited time, I feel my time is better used maintaining/writing plugins. Others can contribute docs. The omv-extras plugin has a button for the omv-extras wiki. Feel free to contribute.

I wouldn't mind contributing to the docs. Likely at the jellyfin guide for hardware acceleration.

Would you suggest that backports is the best solution here? Since that doesn't require any changes to the docker file and isn't jellyfin specific?

Soma · Jan 3rd 2025

First off, sorry for hijacking this thread.

If best, move this to a new thread.

ryecoaaron

I believe I have a small snag with the versions of the kernel my OMV is showing and I think it is due to having the system migrated from a Pi4 to CM4 (with the Raspberry Pi versions) and after, omv-regened to the i3-n305 (amd64 versions).

Probably, something is pinned to have those versions installed and not the latests

Some leftover from the RaspiOS days, maybe...

I will revert to STABLE and will see which versions will show on it.

ryecoaaron · Jan 3rd 2025

Quote from smitdylan

I wouldn't mind contributing to the docs. Likely at the jellyfin guide for hardware acceleration.

I think a jellyfin guide would be best in the Guides part of this forum but people would appreciate it.

Quote from smitdylan

Would you suggest that backports is the best solution here? Since that doesn't require any changes to the docker file and isn't jellyfin specific?

Depends on the system. Since a lot of people running jellyfin on RPi, backports doesn't apply. I still prefer the proxmox kernel myself but backports is the default.

ryecoaaron · Jan 3rd 2025

Quote from Soma

Probably, something is pinned to have those versions installed and not the latests
Some leftover from the RaspiOS days, maybe...

I will revert to STABLE and will see which versions will show on it.

You need linux-image-amd64 installed whether you are on stable or backports. If you omv-regen'd from rpi, I'm not sure what it would do.

Soma · Jan 3rd 2025

Quote from ryecoaaron

You need linux-image-amd64 installed whether you are on stable or backports. If you omv-regen'd from rpi, I'm not sure what it would do.

Code

USER@HOST:~ $ dpkg -l | grep linux-image
rc  linux-image-6.1.0-22-amd64     6.1.94-1                            amd64        Linux 6.1 for 64-bit PCs (signed)
rc  linux-image-6.1.0-25-amd64     6.1.106-3                           amd64        Linux 6.1 for 64-bit PCs (signed)
ii  linux-image-6.1.0-27-amd64     6.1.115-1                           amd64        Linux 6.1 for 64-bit PCs (signed)
ii  linux-image-6.9.7+bpo-amd64    6.9.7-1~bpo12+1                     amd64        Linux 6.9 for 64-bit PCs (signed)
ii  linux-image-amd64              6.1.115-1                           amd64        Linux for 64-bit PCs (meta-package)

Code

USER@HOST:~ $ sudo apt-cache policy linux-image-6.9.7+bpo-amd64
linux-image-6.9.7+bpo-amd64:
  Installed: 6.9.7-1~bpo12+1
  Candidate: 6.9.7-1~bpo12+1
  Version table:
 *** 6.9.7-1~bpo12+1 100
        100 http://httpredir.debian.org/debian bookworm-backports/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

USER@HOST:~ $ sudo apt-cache policy linux-image-6.1.0-27-amd64
linux-image-6.1.0-27-amd64:
  Installed: 6.1.115-1
  Candidate: 6.1.115-1
  Version table:
 *** 6.1.115-1 500
        500 http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

USER@HOST:~ $ sudo apt-cache policy linux-image-amd64
linux-image-amd64:
  Installed: 6.1.115-1
  Candidate: 6.1.115-1
  Version table:
     6.11.10-1~bpo12+1 100
        100 http://httpredir.debian.org/debian bookworm-backports/main amd64 Packages
 *** 6.1.115-1 500
        500 http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Display More

Do you see anything out of ordinary?

ryecoaaron · Jan 3rd 2025

Quote from Soma

Do you see anything out of ordinary?

Nope. Your system just never installed the 6.10 or 6.11 kernel. Maybe the kernel isn't pinned for backports? If you are going back to the 6.1 kernel, it shouldn't matter. I would purge those 6.9 kernels.

GPU Hardware Acceleration for Intel Arc GPUs

ryecoaaron Jan 2nd 2025

ryecoaaron Jan 2nd 2025

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