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Nvidia driver and CUDA

CUDA and nvidia-driver can be safely separately installed.

Usually, we install nvidia-driver first since it is necessary for GUI.

CUDA is only used for high-performance computation.

install nvidia-driver

Always use the package manager!!!

CUDA Runfile installed version is incomplete, not fully a graphic driver, just a GPU status monitor.

For example, it will not install nvidia-prime which contains prime-select

First, go runlevel 2 and turn off any GUI. [seems not really necessary...]

# go runlevel 3
sudo systemctl isolate multi-user.target # will stop all the graphic processes
sudo telinit 3

Recommended way is to use ubuntu-drivers:

# will list your GPU and suitable driver versions
sudo ubuntu-drivers devices 
# install the latest version
sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall

However sometimes it just output nothing, then we have to use PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa
sudo apt update
# e.g. choose a suitable version manually.
sudo apt install nvidia-418

Finally, go runlevel 5 and reboot.

# go runlevel 5
sudo systemctl isolate graphical.target
sudo telinit 5

# set default runlevel 5
sudo systemctl enable graphical.target
sudo systemctl set-default graphical.target

sudo reboot

Location of nvidia-smi: [outdated, only on ubuntu16!]

nvidia-debugdump -> /etc/alternatives/x86_64-linux-gnu_nvidia-debugdump
nvidia-xconfig -> /etc/alternatives/x86_64-linux-gnu_nvidia_xconfig
nvidia-smi -> /etc/alternatives/x86_64-linux-gnu_nvidia_smi
.

switch between intel and nvidia driver

# in case prime-select is not found
sudo apt install nvidia-prime

# show current video driver
sudo prime-select query

# change
sudo prime-select nvidia
sudo prime-select intel

uninstall nvidia-driver

# pkg manager install
sudo apt purge nvidia*

install CUDA

Recommend to use Runfile install.

  • We can install any version we want, and handle multiple versions by setting PATH and LD_LIBRARY_PATH.
  • We can easily uninstall it. (just rm it)
  • Package manager may need VPN to download CUDA.

Download here: https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-downloads

AND The detailed installation guide: https://docs.nvidia.com/cuda/cuda-installation-guide-linux/index.html

Do not need to go runlevel 3 or turn off GUI to install CUDA.

# install
# do not check the driver install !!! we have installed it separately.
sudo bash cuda_<version>_linux.run

# check installed version
nvcc -V

switch between multiple CUDA versions

Globally: change the /usr/local/cuda soft link.

sudo ln -s /usr/local/cuda-10.1 /usr/local/cuda

Locally: change your PATH and LD_LIBRARY_PATH:

export PATH="/usr/local/cuda-9.1/bin:$PATH"
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="/usr/local/cuda-9.1/lib64:$:LD_LIBRARY_PATH"

export PATH="/usr/local/cuda-10.1/bin:$PATH"
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="/usr/local/cuda-10.1/lib64:$:LD_LIBRARY_PATH"

uninstall CUDA

Just REMOVE it.

sudo rm -rf /usr/local/cuda-10.1

If you use package manager to install CUDA:

sudo apt purge cuda*

pitfalls

  • for CUDA 10.1, install the update 10.1.243 directly, instead of the general release 10.1.105 !!! Or you can update from 105 to 243, just run the new runfile and it will prompt.