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feat(backend/python): build vllm from source for AMD consumer/RDNA GPUs#10998

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feat(backend/python): build vllm from source for AMD consumer/RDNA GPUs#10998
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What

vllm's ROCm install pulls a prebuilt wheel from wheels.vllm.ai/rocm, but that wheel exists only for CDNA data-center arches (gfx942/gfx950) and is pinned to a rocm7.2.3 torch that can't enumerate consumer/RDNA GPUs (device_count == 0 on e.g. gfx1151). There is no prebuilt vllm wheel for these GPUs anywhere — which is why AMD ships a whole rocm/vllm:*_rdna_* container. This builds vllm from source against AMD's ROCm 7.14 torch, reproducing that container's recipe inside LocalAI's normal Dockerfile.python build (FROM-scratch, portable venv — no external gRPC / no 73 GB image).

How

  • torch[device-gfx<arch>] + rocm-sdk-devel (hipcc + the HIP CMake packages the runtime _rocm_sdk_core lacks) from AMD's multi-arch index; ROCM_PATH/CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH resolved from the SDK's own rocm-sdk path CLI — self-contained, no system /opt/rocm needed.
  • vLLM detects ROCm at runtime via import amdsmi; register the SDK's in-place amd_smi with a .pth. A pip copy breaks its relative libamd_smi.so lookup, and forcing the lib via LD_LIBRARY_PATH shadows torch's own ROCm runtime and zeroes device_count.
  • run.sh exposes the bundled amdclang as CC/CXX: Triton JIT-compiles kernels at first inference and the runtime image ships hipcc but not cc/gcc, so without it inference dies with "Failed to find C compiler". Mirrors the CPU-toolchain block just above it.
  • arch from AMDGPU_TARGETS, defaulting to gfx1151.

Testing

Hardware-validated on gfx1151: builds from a single make, is loaded natively by LocalAI from /backends/vllm (no external gRPC), and generates. Only gfx1151 was tested on real hardware; other AMD arches use the same mechanism but are unverified.

Dependency

Stacks on #10978 (ROCm 7.14 base) and #10997 (multi-arch torch / AMDGPU_TARGETS). Draft until those land; reviewable change is the top commit.

walcz-de and others added 5 commits July 20, 2026 16:37
…1 / Strix Halo)

ROCm 7.14 adds native gfx1151 (Strix Halo / RDNA 3.5) runtime support. The
prebuilt ROCm images pinned rocm/dev-ubuntu-24.04:7.2.1, which predates gfx1151
support, so the published -gpu-rocm-hipblas-* images do not run on that hardware
even though gfx1151 is already in AMDGPU_TARGETS.

Bump the pin to rocm/dev-ubuntu-24.04:7.14.0-full everywhere it is referenced:
- .github/backend-matrix.yml  (all hipblas backend build entries)
- .github/workflows/base-images.yml  (base-grpc-rocm-amd64 gRPC cache is rebuilt
  on 7.14 so it stays ABI-compatible with the new runtime base)
- .github/workflows/image.yml + image-pr.yml  (core hipblas image)
- .agents/*.md examples + backend/Dockerfile.base-grpc-builder comment

Verified on gfx1151 / Strix Halo: a full ROCm 7.14 stack (LocalAI + llama.cpp
hipblas, vLLM, embeddings/reranker) runs natively, no HSA_OVERRIDE_GFX_VERSION
needed. Other AMD architectures (gfx908/90a/942/1030/1100/1200/1201) build on
the same base and are covered by CI; I do not have that hardware to test at runtime.

Signed-off-by: stefanwalcz <stefan.walcz@walcz.de>
…gister lib paths)

ROCm 7.x moved to 'TheRock' packaging. Bumping the base to
rocm/dev-ubuntu-24.04:7.14.0-full surfaces two build breakages, fixed here in
ALL THREE spots that installed the legacy ROCm dev metapackages:

1) Legacy hipblas-dev / hipblaslt-dev / rocblas-dev metapackages were removed
   (consolidated + arch-split: amdrocm-blas<ver>-gfx*, amdrocm-blas-dev, ...).
   'apt-get install' of the old names fails. The -full base already ships the
   BLAS dev libs+headers, so the install is dropped in:
     - Dockerfile (requirements-drivers)          -> core image
     - .docker/install-base-deps.sh (section 6)   -> C++ backend builder
     - backend/Dockerfile.python (hipblas block)  -> Python backends (vllm,
       sglang, transformers, diffusers, kokoro, ...)

2) TheRock scatters the ROCm libs across /opt/rocm/lib,
   /opt/rocm/lib/rocm_sysdeps/lib and /opt/rocm/llvm/lib with no ld.so.conf.d
   entry, so the dynamic linker can't resolve them and the built backends fail
   at RUNTIME ('... cannot open shared object file') — a failure CI never sees
   because it only surfaces when a backend loads on an AMD GPU. Fixed by
   registering all three lib dirs in /etc/ld.so.conf.d/rocm.conf before ldconfig
   in all three blocks.

Validated end-to-end on gfx1151 / Strix Halo (build + GPU inference, llama-cpp).
Ref: https://rocm.docs.amd.com/en/latest/about/transition-guide-TheRock.html

Signed-off-by: stefanwalcz <stefan.walcz@walcz.de>
Apply the same ROCm 7.14 dependency + linker-path migration to
backend/Dockerfile.golang: the removed legacy hipblas-dev / hipblaslt-dev /
rocblas-dev metapackages are no longer installed (the rocm/dev-ubuntu-*:*-full
base already ships them), and TheRock's scattered ROCm lib dirs are registered
in /etc/ld.so.conf.d/rocm.conf before ldconfig so cgo-based Go backends resolve
the ROCm runtime libraries at build/link and runtime.

Identified by the LocalAI maintenance bot; re-authored under my identity per DCO.

Co-authored-by: localai-org-maint-bot <306269227+localai-org-maint-bot@users.noreply.github.com>
Signed-off-by: stefanwalcz <stefan.walcz@walcz.de>
…users/kokoro

The community whl/rocm7.0 torch wheel these backends install does not enumerate
consumer/RDNA AMD GPUs (torch.cuda.device_count() == 0 on e.g. Strix Halo /
gfx1151), so they silently fall back to CPU or fail to load. AMD publishes a
stable ROCm 7.14 torch for essentially every AMD arch on its multi-arch index,
selected per GPU via the torch[device-gfx<arch>] extra.

Install torch from that index in an isolated step: the index returns 403 for
packages it doesn't serve (accelerate/transformers/...), which uv treats as
fatal, so only the torch family is pulled there and everything else resolves
from PyPI. The arch comes from the build via a new AMDGPU_TARGETS ARG/ENV on
backend/Dockerfile.python, defaulting to gfx1151.

Only gfx1151 was validated on real hardware (transformers generates text,
diffusers runs SD-1.5, kokoro runs TTS); the mechanism is arch-generic for any
AMD GPU AMD ships a device wheel for.

Signed-off-by: stefanwalcz <stefan.walcz@walcz.de>
vllm's ROCm install pulls a prebuilt wheel from wheels.vllm.ai/rocm, but that
wheel exists only for CDNA data-center arches (gfx942/gfx950) and is pinned to a
rocm7.2.3 torch that can't enumerate consumer/RDNA GPUs (device_count == 0 on
e.g. gfx1151). No prebuilt vllm wheel exists for these GPUs anywhere, so build it
from source against AMD's ROCm 7.14 torch -- reproducing the recipe AMD's own
rocm/vllm:*_rdna_* image uses.

- torch[device-gfx<arch>] + rocm-sdk-devel (hipcc + the HIP CMake packages the
  runtime SDK lacks) from AMD's multi-arch index; ROCM_PATH / CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH
  resolved from the SDK's own `rocm-sdk path` CLI -- self-contained, no system
  /opt/rocm needed.
- vLLM detects ROCm at runtime via `import amdsmi`; register the SDK's in-place
  amd_smi with a .pth. A pip copy breaks its relative libamd_smi.so lookup, and
  forcing the lib via LD_LIBRARY_PATH shadows torch's own ROCm runtime and zeroes
  device_count.
- run.sh exposes the bundled amdclang as CC/CXX: Triton JIT-compiles kernels at
  first inference and the runtime image ships hipcc but not cc/gcc, so without it
  inference dies with "Failed to find C compiler". Mirrors the CPU toolchain
  block just above it.
- arch from AMDGPU_TARGETS (added in the multi-arch-torch change this stacks on),
  defaulting to gfx1151.

Validated on gfx1151: builds from a single `make`, loads natively via LocalAI
(no external gRPC) and generates. Only gfx1151 was hardware-tested; other AMD
arches use the same mechanism but are unverified.

Depends on mudler#10978 (ROCm 7.14 base) and the multi-arch-torch change it stacks on.

Signed-off-by: stefanwalcz <stefan.walcz@walcz.de>
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