Installing Intel MPSS 3.3 in Arch Linux
This technical publication provides instructions for installing the Intel Manycore Platform Software Stack (MPSS) version 3.3 in Arch Linux operating system. Intel MPSS is a suite of tools necessary for operation of Intel Xeon Phi coprocessors. Instructions provided here enable offload and networking functionality for coprocessors in Arch Linux. The procedure described in this paper is completely reversible via an uninstallation script.
Downloads:
| Product | Direct Link |
| Intel MPSS 3.3 (page, archive) | mpss-3.3-linux.tar (~400 MB) |
| Linux Kernel 3.10 LTS (AUR) | linux-lts310.tar.gz (78 KB) |
| TRee Installation Generator (TRIG) | trig.sh (3 KB) |
| RHEL networking utilities | rhnet.tgz (34 KB) |
| Offload functionality test | Offload-Hello.cc (347 B) |
| GNU Public License v2 (applies to TRIG and RHEL utilities) | page |
Paper: 
Colfax_MPSS_in_Arch_Linux.pdf (97 KB)
Make sure to read important additional in the “Comments” below ↓
If you see a message similar to:
[quote]$ ./Offload-Hello
Error getting SCIF driver version
Hello World from main()! I see 4 logical cores.
offload error: cannot offload to MIC – device is not available[/quote]
when running the sample program as a regular user, check permissions of the device. Permissions on my system defaulted to:
[quote]$ ls -l /dev/mic*
crw——- 1 root root 247, 2 Aug 26 12:26 /dev/mic0
/dev/mic:
total 0
crw——- 1 root root 247, 0 Aug 26 12:24 ctrl
crw——- 1 root root 247, 1 Aug 26 12:24 scif[/quote]
To work for non-root users, they need to be the following:
[quote]crw——- 1 root root 247, 2 Aug 26 12:26 /dev/mic0
/dev/mic:
total 0
crw-rw-rw- 1 root root 247, 0 Aug 26 12:24 ctrl
crw-rw-rw- 1 root root 247, 1 Aug 26 12:24 scif[/quote]
I've also confirmed that this procedure works for the linux-lts310-ck kernel available in the AUR. You'll need the linux-lts310-ck-headers package instead of the linux-lts310-headers package.
An advantage of the ck variant is that there are Nvidia modules available (nvidia-lts310-ck in the AUR), so you can have a Xeon Phi and NVIDIA card in the same box, and both fully functional.
This procedure works for mpss-3.4.2 as well. Download that from:
https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-manycore-platform-software-stack-mpss#downloads
then follow the procedures as in the above document substituting mpss-3.4.2 for mpss-3.3.