Install the Cloud-Next Kernel in Rocky Linux

Introduction

CIQ SIG/Cloud Next is a set of repositories designed to accelerate new cloud features for Rocky Linux, as well as to provide access to proprietary packages that cannot be included in the official Rocky SIG/Cloud due to licensing restrictions. There are currently two repositories: an open-source repository that adds new features, and a Non-Free repository for proprietary software such as drivers for Nvidia. CIQ SIG/Cloud Next is not intended to replace Rocky SIG/Cloud, but rather to supplement it with proprietary components. You can find the official repository and documentation for the Cloud Next repository on gitlab.

Instructions

We first need to install the appropriate repositories:

Rocky 9

To install CIQ SIG/Cloud Next on Rocky 9, run the following:

sudo dnf install https://depot.ciq.com/public/download/ciq-sigcloud-next-9/ciq-sigcloud-next-9.x86_64/Packages/c/ciq-sigcloud-next-release-6-1.el9_5.cld_next.noarch.rpm

You can also install CIQ SIG/Cloud Next - Nonfree by running:

sudo dnf install https://depot.ciq.com/public/download/ciq-sigcloud-next-9/ciq-sigcloud-next-9-nonfree.x86_64/Packages/c/ciq-sigcloud-next-nonfree-release-3-1.el9_5.cld_next.noarch.rpm

Rocky 8

To install CIQ SIG/Cloud Next on Rocky 8, run:

sudo dnf install https://depot.ciq.com/public/download/ciq-sigcloud-next-8/ciq-sigcloud-next-8.x86_64/Packages/c/ciq-sigcloud-next-release-6-1.el8_10.cld_next.noarch.rpm

To install the CIQ SIG/Cloud Next - Nonfree repository, run:

sudo dnf install https://depot.ciq.com/public/download/ciq-sigcloud-next-8/ciq-sigcloud-next-8-nonfree.x86_64/Packages/c/ciq-sigcloud-next-nonfree-release-3-1.el8_10.cld_next.noarch.rpm

Update the system

Once you have the appropriate repositories installed, you can update your kernel by running dnf update or dnf update kernel.

Install Nvidia drivers

You can now also install the NVIDIA Datacenter GPU drivers with:

sudo dnf install nvidia-dc-driver-latest kmod-nvidia-dc-open-latest

If you need to choose a specific version of the driver (such as 550 or 570), you can install those directly:

sudo dnf install nvidia-dc-driver550 kmod-nvidia-dc-open550 --allowerasing

This will switch you to the 550 major version, and will not be updated to another major version of the package.

Mellanox drivers

To make use of the NVIDIA Mellanox DOCA drivers, you'll need to enable the upstream DOCA repo. You can do so by running:

sudo dnf install doca-repo

Once this new repository is installed, you can then install the DOCA packages, including the kernel modules built for Rocky Linux, by installing the following:

sudo dnf install doca-ofed

Reboot

Once you have the kernel and desired drivers installed, reboot your server.

Notes

If you already have a kernel installed that is newer than the latest available kernel from CIQ SIG/Cloud Next, you will need to specify which version you would like to install. We first need to look for the available kernels:

$ sudo dnf --disablerepo="*" --enablerepo="ciq-sigcloud-next" list --showduplicates kernel
Installed Packages
kernel.x86_64       5.14.0-503.14.1.el9_5       @baseos
kernel.x86_64       5.14.0-503.38.1.el9_5       @baseos
Available Packages
kernel.x86_64       5.14.0-503.22.1.el9_5.cld_next.3.1        ciq-sigcloud-next
kernel.x86_64       5.14.0-503.35.1.el9_5.cld_next.2.1        ciq-sigcloud-next

In this case we want to install 5.14.0-503.35.1.el9_5.cld_next.2.1, so we can run the following:

sudo dnf install kernel-5.14.0-503.35.1.el9_5.cld_next.2.1

Once this finishes installing, it should automatically become your default kernel at boot. You can verify this with:

$ sudo grubby --default-title
Rocky Linux (5.14.0-503.35.1.el9_5.cld_next.2.1.x86_64) 9.5 (Blue Onyx)

If this is the incorrect kernel, or you need to rollback to another kernel, you can do so by running the following:

$ grubby --set-default /boot/vmlinuz-5.14.0-503.35.1.el9_5.cld_next.2.1.x86_64
The default is /boot/loader/entries/0a7500f2dd6247d69028b90889d6d0fb-5.14.0-503.35.1.el9_5.cld_next.2.1.x86_64.conf with index 3 and kernel /boot/vmlinuz-5.14.0-503.35.1.el9_5.cld_next.2.1.x86_64

References & related articles

CIQ SIG/Cloud Next GitLab Repository
Rocky Linux SIG/Cloud Documentation
Rocky Linux Kernel Guide