Configuring GPU Pass-Through for AMD cards on openSUSE Kalpa

Nutthawit Lilawannasin — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 23:35:24 +0000

Prerequisites

You need an additional display card on the host (eg. 1 igpu + 1 dedicate gpu or 2 dedicate gpu).
GPU pass-through is supported on the AMD64/Intel 64 architecture only.

Configuring the host

Verify the host environment

Verify that the host support VT-d technology and that it is already enabled in the firmware settings:

# dmesg | grep -e "Directed I/O"
[    0.283295] [      T1] DMAR: Intel(R) Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O

Enable IOMMU

IOMMU is disabled by default. You need to enable it at boot time in the /etc/kernel/cmdline configuration file.

1) For Intel CPU add this line to file:

intel_iommu=on iommu=pt rd.driver.pre=vfio-pci

2) For AMD CPU add this line instead:

amd_iommu=on iommu=pt rd.driver.pre=vfio-pci

3) Finally, when you cat the file, you will see content like this:

# cat /etc/kernel/cmdline 
root=/dev/nvme0n1p2 splash=silent swapaccount=1 systemd.show_status=1 mitigations=auto quiet security=selinux selinux=1 intel_iommu=on iommu=pt rd.driver.pre=vfio-pci

Configure VFIO and isolate the GPU used for pass-through

1) Find the card vendor and model IDs:

# lspci -nn | grep -i "AMD"
03:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Navi 33 [Radeon RX 7600/7600 XT/7600M XT/7600S/7700S / PRO W7600] [1002:7480] (rev cf)
03:00.1 Audio device [0403]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Navi 31 HDMI/DP Audio [1002:ab30]

2) Create the file /etc/modprobe.d/vfio.conf with the following content:

options vfio-pci ids=1002:7480,1002:ab30

Load the VFIO driver

Including the driver in the initrd file

1) Create the file /etc/dracut.conf.d/gpu-passthrough.conf and add the following content (mind the leading whitespace):

add_drivers+=" vfio vfio_iommu_type1 vfio_pci "

2) Re-generate the initrd file:

# sdbootutil list-snapshots
1 first root filesystem
2 Snapshot Update of #1
3 Snapshot Update of #2
4 Snapshot Update of #2
5 Snapshot Update of #4
6 Snapshot Update of #5
7 Snapshot Update of #4

# sdbootutil list-kernels 7
ok /lib/modules/6.19.5-2-default/vmlinuz -> opensuse-microos-6.19.5-2-default-7.conf

# sdbootutil update-all-entries 7
# sdbootutil mkinitrd 7

3) Reboot the host machine

For most of the changes in the above steps to take effect, you need to reboot the host machine:

# reboot

4) Verify IOMMU is Active

After your Kalpa host boots back up, open a terminal and check the kernel logs to confirm that the hardware isolation is working:

dmesg | grep -i "Adding to iommu group"
[    0.283068] [      T1] pci 0000:00:00.0: Adding to iommu group 0
[    0.283078] [      T1] pci 0000:00:01.0: Adding to iommu group 1
[    0.283091] [      T1] pci 0000:00:14.0: Adding to iommu group 2
[    0.283097] [      T1] pci 0000:00:14.2: Adding to iommu group 2
[    0.283106] [      T1] pci 0000:00:15.0: Adding to iommu group 3
[    0.283115] [      T1] pci 0000:00:16.0: Adding to iommu group 4
[    0.283122] [      T1] pci 0000:00:17.0: Adding to iommu group 5
[    0.283137] [      T1] pci 0000:00:1a.0: Adding to iommu group 6
[    0.283147] [      T1] pci 0000:00:1c.0: Adding to iommu group 7
[    0.283155] [      T1] pci 0000:00:1c.3: Adding to iommu group 8
[    0.283163] [      T1] pci 0000:00:1c.4: Adding to iommu group 9
[    0.283172] [      T1] pci 0000:00:1d.0: Adding to iommu group 10
[    0.283188] [      T1] pci 0000:00:1f.0: Adding to iommu group 11
[    0.283195] [      T1] pci 0000:00:1f.3: Adding to iommu group 11
[    0.283201] [      T1] pci 0000:00:1f.4: Adding to iommu group 11
[    0.283208] [      T1] pci 0000:00:1f.5: Adding to iommu group 11
[    0.283216] [      T1] pci 0000:01:00.0: Adding to iommu group 12
[    0.283224] [      T1] pci 0000:02:00.0: Adding to iommu group 13
[    0.283235] [      T1] pci 0000:03:00.0: Adding to iommu group 14
[    0.283245] [      T1] pci 0000:03:00.1: Adding to iommu group 15
[    0.283260] [      T1] pci 0000:04:00.0: Adding to iommu group 16
[    0.283268] [      T1] pci 0000:06:00.0: Adding to iommu group 17
[    0.283275] [      T1] pci 0000:07:00.0: Adding to iommu group 18

Configuring the guest

This section describes how to configure the guest virtual machine so that it can use the host's GPU.

Requirements for the guest configuration

Use Q35 chipset if possible.
Install the guest VM using UEFI firmware.
Add the following emulated Graphic: Spice or VNC
Add the following emulated Device: qxl, VGA or Virtio
Add the host PCI device (03:00.0 in our example) to the guest.
For the best performance, we recommend using virtio drivers for the network card and storage.

💡 Credits & Inspiration

This article was inspired by Configuring GPU Pass-Through for NVIDIA cards

Install NetBird on openSUSE MicroOS

Nutthawit Lilawannasin — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 23:34:46 +0000

Prerequisites

Ensure the netbird binary is installed on the laptop or PC intended for use as a remote client.
You will need to generate a Setup Key from the NetBird Dashboard.

Configure the Remote host

Install NetBird binary

The official NetBird installation puts the binary in /usr/bin/netbird. Because /usr/bin is read-only, you'll need to remount it as read-write before running the curl installation script.

# transactional-update shell
transactional update# curl -fsSL https://pkgs.netbird.io/install.sh | sh

Restore the SELinux file contexts

Because SELinux is active by default on openSUSE, a relabeling of the NetBird binary is required for the systemd service to function properly.

1) Resets file security contexts to their default values:

transactional update# ls -ldZ /usr/bin/netbird 
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 1001 1001 unconfined_u:object_r:user_tmp_t:s0 36741304 Mar 26 17:11 /usr/bin/netbird

transactional update# restorecon -v /usr/bin/netbird
Relabeled /usr/bin/netbird from unconfined_u:object_r:user_tmp_t:s0 to unconfined_u:object_r:bin_t:s0

2) Verify that the context is set to unconfined_u:object_r:bin_t:s0:

transactional update# ls -ldZ /usr/bin/netbird 
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 1001 1001 unconfined_u:object_r:bin_t:s0 36741304 Mar 26 17:11 /usr/bin/netbird

3) Exist the shell and reboot:

transactional update# exit
# reboot

4) After a reboot, NetBird should start up automatically:

# systemctl status netbird
● netbird.service - NetBird mesh network client
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/netbird.service; enabled; preset: disabled)
     Active: active (running) since Wed 2026-04-01 08:44:41 +07; 21s ago
 Invocation: e5061c215da54c8486540512dc798163
   Main PID: 1343 (netbird)
      Tasks: 9 (limit: 4465)
        CPU: 19ms
     CGroup: /system.slice/netbird.service
             └─1343 /usr/bin/netbird service run --log-level info --daemon-addr unix:///var/run/netbird.sock --log-file /var/log/netbird>

Apr 01 08:44:41 web-dev-microos systemd[1]: Started NetBird mesh network client.

Setup the connection with setup-key:

# netbird up --setup-key <YOUR-SETUP-KEY>
Connected

Forem: Nutthawit Lilawannasin

Configuring GPU Pass-Through for AMD cards on openSUSE Kalpa

Prerequisites

Configuring the host

Verify the host environment

Enable IOMMU

Configure VFIO and isolate the GPU used for pass-through

Load the VFIO driver

Including the driver in the initrd file

Configuring the guest

Requirements for the guest configuration

💡 Credits & Inspiration

Install NetBird on openSUSE MicroOS

Prerequisites

Configure the Remote host

Install NetBird binary

Restore the SELinux file contexts

Setup the connection with setup-key: