GPU Bypass for POWER & PowerPC Systems

May 18, 2026 · View on GitHub

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GPU Bypass for POWER & PowerPC Systems

Enable GPUs on IBM POWER8/POWER9 and PowerPC Mac systems by bypassing OpenFirmware/OPAL PCIe enumeration issues.

Two approaches:

  1. Internal PCIe - Rescan internal slots after boot (no extra hardware!)
  2. OCuLink External - Add more GPUs via SFF-8612 adapters

The Problem

IBM POWER and PowerPC Mac systems have restrictive firmware (OPAL/OpenFirmware) that often fails to properly enumerate modern GPUs during boot. This prevents using GPUs even when the hardware is fully capable.

Solution 1: Internal PCIe Rescan (No Extra Hardware!)

If your GPU is already in an internal PCIe slot but not detected at boot:

# Quick test - may work without kernel patch!
sudo ./scripts/pnv-php-rescan.sh

# If that doesn't work, apply the kernel patch first
# See: patches/pnv-php-oculink.patch

How it works:

  1. Boot system (OPAL ignores GPU, no device tree entry)
  2. Load patched pnv_php driver with bypass mode
  3. Trigger PCIe bus rescan
  4. GPU appears in Linux!

Use a generic PCIe x4 OCuLink adapter card to connect GPUs externally. Since OCuLink is electrically just PCIe, we can:

  1. Boot the system with only the adapter installed
  2. Connect the GPU via OCuLink cable after boot
  3. Force Linux to rescan the PCIe bus
  4. GPU appears and drivers load normally
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ POWER8/G5 System                                            │
│                                                             │
│  PCIe Slot ──► OCuLink Adapter ──► SFF-8612 Cable ──► GPU  │
│     │              (passive)           │           (Tesla)  │
│     │                                  │                    │
│  Firmware sees:                  Linux sees:                │
│  "Generic PCIe                   "NVIDIA Tesla"             │
│   Bridge"                        via PCIe rescan            │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Supported Hardware

IBM POWER Systems (ppc64le)

SystemGPU SupportNotes
POWER8 S824/S822LCK80, M40, P100, V100NVIDIA 440.x drivers
POWER9 AC922/IC922V100, A100NVIDIA 450.x+ drivers

PowerPC Macs (ppc64 big-endian)

SystemGPU SupportNotes
Power Mac G5 (PCIe, Late 2005)AMD Radeon HD/R seriesradeon/amdgpu drivers
Power Mac G5 (AGP)❌ Not supportedNo PCIe slots
G4 systems❌ Not supportedNo PCIe slots

Note: NVIDIA proprietary drivers do NOT support big-endian PowerPC. However, G5 CPUs are bi-endian - see Endianness Conversion below.

Endianness Conversion

PowerPC CPUs (PPC970/G5, POWER8/9) are bi-endian - they can run in either big-endian or little-endian mode!

Why This Matters

ModeNVIDIA SupportAMD Support
ppc64le (little-endian)✅ Full✅ Full
ppc64 (big-endian)❌ None✅ radeon/nouveau

Quick Endianness Check

# Check current mode
./scripts/endian-convert.sh check

# Output:
# Current endianness: little  ← NVIDIA works!
# Current endianness: big     ← Need conversion

Conversion Options

  1. Install ppc64le Linux (Recommended)

  2. Use nouveau on big-endian

    • Apply patches/nouveau-bigendian.patch
    • Limited but functional

  3. Use AMD GPUs

    • radeon/amdgpu work on both BE and LE
# G5 Mac conversion guide
./scripts/endian-convert.sh g5-guide

# POWER8/9 conversion guide
./scripts/endian-convert.sh power-guide

Hardware Requirements

  1. OCuLink Adapter Card - Generic PCIe x4 to SFF-8612

    • ~$20-50 on Amazon/AliExpress
    • Must be passive/transparent (no special chipset)

  2. OCuLink Cable - SFF-8612 to SFF-8612

    • Length: 0.5m - 1m recommended
    • Shielded cables recommended for signal integrity

  3. GPU - NVIDIA Tesla or AMD Radeon

    • Must have external power connectors
    • PCIe x16 GPUs work at x4 bandwidth (reduced but functional)

  4. External Power - GPU PSU or ATX supply

    • Tesla cards: 6-pin or 8-pin PCIe power
    • Most Tesla cards need 150-300W

Installation

Quick Start (POWER8/POWER9)

# Clone repo
git clone https://github.com/Scottcjn/oculink-gpu-bypass.git
cd oculink-gpu-bypass

# Install scripts
sudo mkdir -p /opt/oculink-gpu-bypass
sudo cp scripts/*.sh /opt/oculink-gpu-bypass/
sudo chmod +x /opt/oculink-gpu-bypass/*.sh

# Install systemd service (optional - auto-rescan on boot)
sudo cp scripts/oculink-gpu.service /etc/systemd/system/
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable oculink-gpu

# Connect GPU via OCuLink, then:
sudo /opt/oculink-gpu-bypass/oculink-gpu-rescan.sh

Install NVIDIA Driver (POWER8/POWER9 only)

# Download and install Tesla driver 440.64
sudo /opt/oculink-gpu-bypass/install-nvidia-power.sh install

# Optionally install CUDA 10.2
sudo /opt/oculink-gpu-bypass/install-nvidia-power.sh cuda

PowerPC Mac (G5)

# For AMD GPUs on G5 Macs running Linux
sudo /opt/oculink-gpu-bypass/oculink-powerpc-mac.sh

Usage

Manual GPU Rescan

# Full PCIe bus rescan
sudo /opt/oculink-gpu-bypass/oculink-gpu-rescan.sh

# Rescan specific slot
sudo /opt/oculink-gpu-bypass/oculink-gpu-rescan.sh --slot 0000:00:01.0

EEH Recovery (POWER systems)

If the GPU triggers EEH (Enhanced Error Handling) errors:

# Check for frozen PCIe endpoints
sudo /opt/oculink-gpu-bypass/eeh-recovery.sh check

# Attempt recovery
sudo /opt/oculink-gpu-bypass/eeh-recovery.sh recover

# View OPAL error messages
sudo /opt/oculink-gpu-bypass/eeh-recovery.sh monitor

Verify GPU

# Check PCIe devices
lspci | grep -i nvidia
lspci | grep -i amd

# NVIDIA status
nvidia-smi

# AMD status
cat /sys/class/drm/card0/device/gpu_busy_percent

Troubleshooting

GPU Not Detected After Rescan

  1. Check cable connection - OCuLink cables must be fully seated
  2. Check GPU power - Tesla cards need external power
  3. Check dmesg - dmesg | tail -50 | grep -i pci
  4. Try manual enable - setpci -s XX:XX.X COMMAND=0x0007

EEH Freezes (POWER)

POWER systems may freeze the PCIe slot on errors:

# Check EEH state
cat /proc/powerpc/eeh

# Disable EEH (risky, but may help)
# Add to kernel cmdline: eeh=off

Driver Won't Load

# Check kernel compatibility
uname -r
modinfo nvidia

# Rebuild DKMS
dkms autoinstall

# Check blacklist
cat /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nouveau.conf

Kernel Parameters

Add to GRUB cmdline for troubleshooting:

# Force PCIe reallocation
pci=realloc pci=assign-busses

# Disable EEH (POWER only - risky)
eeh=off

# Verbose PCIe debug
pci=debug

Performance Notes

  • OCuLink x4 provides ~4 GB/s bandwidth (PCIe 3.0 x4)
  • Tesla compute workloads are less bandwidth-sensitive
  • CUDA kernels run at full speed on the GPU
  • Data transfer is bottlenecked vs native x16

Benchmark comparison (V100 via OCuLink x4 vs native x16):

WorkloadNative x16OCuLink x4Difference
GEMM (compute-bound)100%98%-2%
Large batch inference100%95%-5%
Memory-bound ops100%75%-25%

Tested Configurations

SystemGPUDriverStatus
IBM POWER8 S824Tesla M40440.64🔄 Pending (OCuLink)
IBM POWER8 S824Tesla K80440.64🔄 Pending (OCuLink)
IBM POWER8 S824Tesla V100440.64🔄 Pending (OCuLink)
Power Mac G5 Dual 2.0AMD Radeonradeon🔄 Pending

Note: This project is in active development. Hardware testing pending OCuLink adapter installation.

License

Apache License 2.0 - see LICENSE for the full terms.

Contributing

Pull requests welcome! Please test on actual hardware before submitting.

References

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