Xpu System Setup

xpu-system-setup

First-time system setup for Intel GPU/XPU workloads on a bare OS install. Detects what's already configured and only installs what's missing.

This is a standalone skill — it has no dependencies on other skills and can be run independently.

When To Use

Run this on a fresh machine to prepare it for Intel GPU/XPU workloads.

Typical scenarios:

• New bare-metal or VM with Intel GPUs that hasn't been configured for compute workloads yet — the standard customer-onboarding entry point.
• System is missing packages, user groups, or Docker needed for GPU work.
• xpu-smi discovery shows "No device discovered" or clinfo reports 0 platforms after a fresh install — common on Arc Pro B60/B70 (Battlemage) with Ubuntu 24.04 stock kernel. Run check_battlemage_prerequisites.sh to diagnose and fix the underlying kernel/runtime issues, then re-run this skill.

The script is idempotent: it detects what's already installed and only acts on what's missing, so re-running it on a configured host is safe and finishes quickly.

How to Invoke

Always invoke this skill by running the script. Do not run apt install, add-apt-repository, or usermod directly — even if the dry-run reports exactly which package is missing. Confirm with the user before running — the script installs system packages and modifies group membership.

The script:

1. Detects what's installed (idempotent — safe to re-run)
2. Installs only what's missing (with prompts unless --auto)
3. Runs the post-setup verification gate (6 checks)

The raw commands shown in the table below are what the script runs internally — they are descriptive, not a manual checklist. Step 3 only runs when you go through the script. Manual installs leave the verification step skipped, which can hide problems (e.g., a package installed but the driver not loadable, or render group not effective).

If only one component is missing, use --only:

plugins/intel-gpu-ai-skills/skills/xpu-system-setup/scripts/setup_xpu_system.sh --only xpu-smi --auto

This still runs the full verification gate at the end.

What It Covers

Based on the official Intel GPU driver installation guide (https://dgpu-docs.intel.com/driver/client/overview.html):

Quick Start

# Interactive mode (default) — prompts before each installation
plugins/intel-gpu-ai-skills/skills/xpu-system-setup/scripts/setup_xpu_system.sh

# Auto mode — install all without prompts (requires sudo)
plugins/intel-gpu-ai-skills/skills/xpu-system-setup/scripts/setup_xpu_system.sh --auto

# Dry-run — show what would be done without changing anything
plugins/intel-gpu-ai-skills/skills/xpu-system-setup/scripts/setup_xpu_system.sh --dry-run

# Setup specific components only
plugins/intel-gpu-ai-skills/skills/xpu-system-setup/scripts/setup_xpu_system.sh --only xpu-smi,groups

# Skip Docker install (e.g., if using podman)
plugins/intel-gpu-ai-skills/skills/xpu-system-setup/scripts/setup_xpu_system.sh --skip docker

# Skip media packages (compute-only server)
plugins/intel-gpu-ai-skills/skills/xpu-system-setup/scripts/setup_xpu_system.sh --skip media

Interactive vs Auto Mode:

• Default (no flags): Interactive — prompts "Install X? [y/N]" before each component
• --auto or --yes: Unattended — installs all missing components without prompts

Script Output

~/.out/skills/xpu-system-setup/SUMMARY.md
~/.out/skills/xpu-system-setup/setup.log
~/.out/skills/xpu-system-setup/status.tsv

status.tsv columns: component | before | action | after | result

Post-Setup Verification

After setup, the script runs a verification gate:

1. ls -l /dev/dri — GPU device files exist with correct permissions
2. id -nG — user is in render group (active in current session)
3. clinfo — Intel OpenCL devices detected
4. xpu-smi discovery — Intel GPUs visible
5. xpu-smi diag --precheck — driver health check
6. docker info — Docker daemon reachable

If verification requires a re-login (group changes), the script reports READY AFTER RELOGIN and prints the command to verify after re-login.

Reporting back to the user

When you report the outcome to the user, always state two things explicitly, even when the host is already fully configured and nothing was installed:

1. Mode — the script prompts before each install by default (interactive); pass --auto (or its alias --yes) for unattended runs, and --dry-run to preview without changing anything. Name these so the user knows how to drive a real install.
2. Verification gate — report the result of the post-setup verification gate (the 6-check gate above). If you ran --dry-run on an already-configured host, say the verification gate would run at the end of a real invocation and summarize the detected state.

Do not reduce the answer to a bare "already installed / nothing to do" table — the mode explanation and the verification-gate result must appear regardless of host state.

Supported Hardware

Intel client discrete GPUs:

This skill installs drivers from the Intel client GPU PPA (ppa:kobuk-team/intel-graphics) which supports Intel Arc discrete GPUs (all generations including Arc Pro).

For the complete list of supported hardware, see: https://dgpu-docs.intel.com/driver/client/overview.html

Battlemage (Arc Pro B60/B70) Prerequisites on Ubuntu 24.04

On Ubuntu 24.04 with the stock GA kernel (6.8), Battlemage GPUs (0xe211 Arc Pro B60, 0xe223 Arc Pro B70) have three silent failure modes that prevent xpu-smi, clinfo, and torch.xpu from seeing any devices — even after this skill completes successfully. All three must be fixed before re-running this skill.

Quick diagnosis:

bash scripts/check_battlemage_prerequisites.sh
# --fix      apply remediations interactively (requires sudo)
# --dry-run  preview changes without applying

The three layers:

Layer 1 — Remove nomodeset

nomodeset prevents the xe driver from binding. Set by some installers or cloud images as a framebuffer fallback.

grep nomodeset /proc/cmdline          # present = broken
sudo sed -i 's/\bnomodeset\b//g' /etc/default/grub
sudo update-grub && sudo reboot

Layer 2 — Upgrade to OEM kernel 6.17

The Ubuntu 24.04 GA kernel (6.8) has no PCI alias for 0xe223/0xe211 in the xe module — the driver will not bind even without nomodeset.

modinfo xe | grep -E 'd0000[Ee]2(11|23)'   # empty = kernel too old
sudo apt install -y linux-oem-24.04
sudo reboot
# After reboot: dmesg | grep -i battlemage  →  "Found battlemage (device ID e223)"

Ubuntu HWE kernel 6.11+ also works; OEM 6.17 is preferred for Arc Pro because it ships matching GuC/HuC firmware blobs.

Layer 3 — Run xpu-system-setup

The Intel GPU client repo (repositories.intel.com) ships runtime 24.39 which does not recognise Battlemage (device_family: unknown). clinfo reports 0 platforms. xpu-system-setup adds the kobuk-team PPA which ships runtime 26.18+ — simply running this skill installs the correct version automatically.

If you installed packages from the Intel client repo before running xpu-system-setup, the kobuk-team PPA will upgrade them on the next run. You can also upgrade explicitly:

sudo apt-get install -y --only-upgrade \
  libze-intel-gpu1 intel-opencl-icd xpu-smi
clinfo | grep "Number of platforms"   # should be 1
xpu-smi discovery                     # should show Arc Pro B60/B70

Offline environments: If the PPA is unreachable, download runtime 26.18 directly from the Intel compute-runtime GitHub releases and the Intel graphics compiler releases, then install with dpkg -i.

PCIe topology note: lspci shows x1 downstream ports below the B70. This is not a slot wiring problem — the B70 has an on-card PCIe switch (0xe2ff) between the host link and the GPU die. On capable platforms the host-to-GPU link negotiates PCIe 5.0 x16; verify with xpu-smi diag -d 0 --singletest 5.

Supported Distributions

• Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Noble Numbat)
• Ubuntu 25.10 (Oracular Oriole)

Per the official Intel documentation, the ppa:kobuk-team/intel-graphics PPA supports Ubuntu 24.04 and 25.10. Ubuntu 25.10 provides native support for recent Intel graphics including Battlemage. Ubuntu 24.04 supports newer GPUs with the HWE (hardware enablement) kernel.

Note: Ubuntu 22.04 uses a different installation method (not this PPA). See https://dgpu-docs.intel.com/driver/client/overview.html for Ubuntu 22.04 instructions.

This skill uses the Intel client GPU PPA (ppa:kobuk-team/intel-graphics), which is Ubuntu-specific. Debian and other distributions require different installation methods and are not supported by this skill.

For Debian or other distros, install drivers manually following: https://dgpu-docs.intel.com/driver/client/overview.html

What This Skill Does (Standalone)

This skill performs one-time system-level setup. It installs packages, configures user groups, and prepares Docker. After running this skill, your system will have:

• Intel GPU PPA configured
• GPU compute packages installed (Level Zero, OpenCL)
• xpu-smi tool installed
• User added to render group for GPU access
• Docker installed and configured (optional)

This is system provisioning — you run it once on a fresh machine. For runtime checks, GPU discovery, or running workloads, those are handled by other tools or skills, but this skill has no dependencies on them.

Important Notes

• Requires sudo access for package installation and group changes.
• Group changes (render, docker) take effect on next login session. To activate them immediately without logging out, run newgrp render. This gives you a subshell with the render group active; exit returns to the original shell. For permanent activation across all future sessions, log out and log back in.
• The Intel GPU PPA (ppa:kobuk-team/intel-graphics) is the official Intel-maintained PPA per https://dgpu-docs.intel.com/driver/client/overview.html.
• Docker install uses the official convenience script from get.docker.com. For air-gapped environments, pre-install Docker and use --skip docker.