This overlay is intended for a clean installation of the Intel Manycore Platform Software Stack (MPSS) for the Knights Corner architecture, the Intel Xeon Phi Processor Software for Linux (XPPSL) for the Knights Landing architecture, and related tools to support the Xeon Phi processing accelerators and CPUs on Gentoo.
This readme will only give a brief introduction on how to use this overlay. Prior knowledge about the Xeon Phi software stack and the Gentoo system is highly recommended. Note that all packages in this overlay are marked unstable and therefore need to be unmasked, e.g., through your keywords file.
In order to manage overlays, the package app-portage/layman must be installed into your Gentoo environment:
emerge -av app-portage/layman
If the installation of layman was successfully completed, then you are ready to sync the content of this repository:
layman -o https://raw.githubusercontent.com/abusse/xeon-phi-overlay/master/master/repositories.xml -f -a xeon-phi
If you use eix you may need to execute:
eix-update
Few of the ebuilds of this overlay require the Intel C++ compiler (ICC). Even though it is part of the official Portage repository, a more recent version is available in the Science. Installing this overlay is therefore highly recommended:
layman -a science
The XPPSL stack currently consists of the following packages:
- xppsl-hwloc - a modified version of hwloc for the KNL architecture
- xppsl-micperf - incorporates a variety of benchmarks into a simple user experience
- xppsl-zonesort - the zonesort kernel module for the KNL
- xppsl-memkind - a user-extensible heap manager for high bandwidth memory (MCDRAM)
- xppsl-systools-sb - provides a variety of information and diagnostics for the processor
Furthermore, there is a meta package available that merges the whole software stack. So in order to install all tools of the XPPSL simply run:
emerge -av sys-apps/xppsl-meta
This readme will only give a brief overview how to install the MPSS and related tools. However, thanks to Libor Bukata, Jan Kůrka, and Přemysl Šůcha a more detailed but dated guide based on this overlay is available: Xeon Phi Installation on Gentoo Linux. It does not only describe how to install the necessary tools but also how to configure the setup.
In order to run the Xeon Phi card, the MPSS daemon has to be installed:
emerge -av sys-apps/mpss-daemon
This package will pull in all other packages that necessary to run the Xeon Phi. It will install an init script that allows to start the card. However, you have to remember to configure it according to the Intel Documentation before starting it:
/etc/init.d/mpss start
The Xeon Phi can also be started during system boot:
rc-update add mpss default
This overlay also includes an ebuild for the SDK supplied by Intel. It can be installed into your Gentoo environment by running:
emerge -av sys-devel/mpss-sdk-k1om
If you prefer to compile your own toolchain and not relying on the binaries supplied by the Intel SDK (see above), you can do this with the ebuilds provided by this overlay.
In order to build a cross toolchain, the package sys-devel/crossdev must be installed into your Gentoo environment:
emerge -av sys-devel/crossdev
Using crossdev, it is possible to build a toolchain from the sources supplied by Intel:
USE="vanilla -sanitize -vtv" crossdev -v --target cross-x86_64-k1om-linux-gnu --binutils 2.22_p382 --gcc 5.1.1_p382 --kernel 2.6.38_p382 --libc 2.14.1_p382
Note that the patch level of the tools indicate the MPSS version. For example MPSS version 3.8.2 results in *_p382. Furthermore, it is important to use the vanilla flag as the gentoo patches will not apply to the Intel source. Finally, the GCC for the Xeon Phi does not support sanitizer functions (-sanitize) and the virtual table verification feature (-vtv).