Ubuntu - GPU - Vulkan - Vulkan Try New Version

Vulkan applications interact with Vulkan drivers through the loader.

The loader is responsible for supporting multiple GPUs and their drivers.
For supporting the latest Vulkan API version, the loader also needs to be the matching version.

More information about the loader is available here: Vulkan Loader

The upstream Vulkan loader source code is available in the following git repos:

Vulkan Validation Layers

The loader also supports the Vulkan validation layers, which are optional components that augment the Vulkan system.

Layers can intercept, evaluate, and modify existing Vulkan functions on their way from the application down to the hardware.
Layers are a critical component of developing correct Vulkan applications.
More information about the validation layers is available here: Vulkan Validation Layers

Build the loader

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install git build-essential libx11-xcb-dev libxkbcommon-dev libwayland-dev libxrandr-dev cmake
git clone https://github.com/KhronosGroup/Vulkan-Loader.git
cd Vulkan-Loader
mkdir build
cd build
python ../scripts/update_deps.py
cmake -C helper.cmake ..
cmake --build .

or for tests…

cmake -D UPDATE_DEPS=ON -D BUILD_TESTS=ON ..
cmake --build .
 
ctest

or for install…

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install git build-essential libx11-xcb-dev libxkbcommon-dev libwayland-dev libxrandr-dev cmake
git clone https://github.com/KhronosGroup/Vulkan-Loader.git
cd Vulkan-Loader && mkdir build && cd build
python3 ../scripts/update_deps.py
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DVULKAN_HEADERS_INSTALL_DIR=$(pwd)/Vulkan-Headers/build/install ..
make -j8

NOTE: Detailed instructions are available in Vulkan-Loader/BUILD.md

Optionally instead of the 2 last lines use this instead:
```
cmake -C helper.cmake ..
cmake --build .
```

CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE: can be Release or Debug.
VULKAN_HEADERS_INSTALL_DIR: the absolute path to a Vulkan-Headers install directory must be provided.
CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX: to customize the install location also modifies the loader search paths to include searching for layers in the specified install location.
- The default value for CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX is /usr/local, which would be used if you do not specify CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX.
- Setting CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX to /tmp/build causes the loader to search /tmp/build/etc/vulkan/explicit_layer.d and /tmp/build/share/vulkan/explicit_layer.d for the layer JSON files.
- The loader also searches the “standard” system locations of /etc/vulkan/explicit_layer.d and /usr/share/vulkan/explicit_layer.d after searching the two locations under /tmp/build.
- Then run make install as before, which will install the files in /tmp/build
```
sudo make install
```

Use the newly built loader

To use the newly built loader:

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$(pwd)/loader

Install (Optional)

The newly built loader can be installed to /usr/local/lib by running

sudo make install

Refresh the system loader search cache.

sudo ldconfig

Test

  VK_ICD_FILENAMES=/home/peter/Downloads/0/a/Vulkan-Tools-main/build/icd/VkICD_mock_icd.json vulkaninfo --summary
  VK_ICD_FILENAMES=/home/peter/Downloads/0/a/Vulkan-Tools-main/build/icd/VkICD_mock_icd.json /home/peter/Downloads/0/a/Vulkan-Tools-main/build/vulkaninfo/vulkaninfo --summary
  VK_ICD_FILENAMES=/home/peter/Downloads/0/a/Vulkan-Tools-main/build/icd/VkICD_mock_icd.json /home/peter/Downloads/0/a/Vulkan-Tools-main/build/vulkaninfo/vulkaninfo | grep driver

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/home/peter/Downloads/0/a/Vulkan-Tools-main/build/Vulkan-Loader/build/loader/ VK_ICD_FILENAMES=/home/peter/Downloads/0/a/Vulkan-Tools-main/build/icd/VkICD_mock_icd.json /home/peter/Downloads/0/a/Vulkan-Tools-main/build/vulkaninfo/vulkaninfo --summary
 
 
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/home/peter/Downloads/0/a/Vulkan-Tools-main/build/Vulkan-Loader/build/loader/ VK_ICD_FILENAMES=/home/peter/Downloads/0/a/Vulkan-Tools-main/build/icd/VkICD_mock_icd.json /home/peter/Downloads/0/a/Vulkan-Tools-main/build/vulkaninfo/vulkaninfo --summary
 
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/home/peter/Downloads/0/a/Vulkan-Tools-main/build/Vulkan-Loader/build/loader/ vulkaninfo --summary
 
LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/home/peter/Downloads/0/a/Vulkan-Tools-main/build/Vulkan-Loader/build/loader/ vulkaninfo | grep driver

Test

A test suite for the Vulkan loader.

ctest

returns:

Test project /home/peter/Downloads/0/a/Vulkan-Loader-main/build
        Start   1: Allocation.Instance
  1/538 Test   #1: Allocation.Instance .............................................................................   Passed    0.01 sec
        Start   2: Allocation.GetInstanceProcAddr
  2/538 Test   #2: Allocation.GetInstanceProcAddr ..................................................................   Passed    0.01 sec
        Start   3: Allocation.EnumeratePhysicalDevices
  3/538 Test   #3: Allocation.EnumeratePhysicalDevices .............................................................   Passed    0.01 sec
        Start   4: Allocation.InstanceAndDevice
  4/538 Test   #4: Allocation.InstanceAndDevice ....................................................................   Passed    0.01 sec
        Start   5: Allocation.InstanceButNotDevice
  5/538 Test   #5: Allocation.InstanceButNotDevice .................................................................   Passed    0.01 sec
        Start   6: Allocation.DeviceButNotInstance
...
...
100% tests passed, 0 tests failed out of 538
 
Total Test time (real) =  10.89 sec