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CUDA

CUDA

Setup CUDA for NVIDIA GPUs.

Install drivers

From the Ubuntu repository 

sudo ubuntu-drivers install

From nvidia

Install nvidia CUDA runtime and compatible GPU driver from NVIDIA: https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-toolkit (For Ubuntu 24.04)

Clean previous installations

sudo apt autopurge 'cuda*' 'nvidia*'

Install drivers

wget https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/ubuntu2404/x86_64/cuda-keyring_1.1-1_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i cuda-keyring_1.1-1_all.deb
sudo apt update && sudo apt -y install cuda-toolkit-13-0

Add the CUDA compiler (nvcc) to the system PATH:

~/.profile
export PATH=/usr/local/cuda/bin${PATH:+:${PATH}}

For WSL2, install Windows NVIDIA GPU driver first; then install the CUDA toolkit in the WSL.

wget https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/wsl-ubuntu/x86_64/cuda-wsl-ubuntu.pinsudo mv cuda-wsl-ubuntu.pin /etc/apt/preferences.d/cuda-repository-pin-600wget https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/13.0.2/local_installers/cuda-repo-wsl-ubuntu-13-0-local_13.0.2-1_amd64.debsudo dpkg -i cuda-repo-wsl-ubuntu-13-0-local_13.0.2-1_amd64.debsudo cp /var/cuda-repo-wsl-ubuntu-13-0-local/cuda-*-keyring.gpg /usr/share/keyrings/sudo apt-get updatesudo apt-get -y install cuda-toolkit-13-0

Tweaks

ArchWiki: NVIDIA/Tips and tricks

Power limit

To monitor GPU power draw:

nvidia-smi -q -d POWER -l 1 | grep "Power Draw"

To limit power draw to 300W, the setting will reset after reboot.

sudo nvidia-smi -pl 300

To apply power draw settings at boot, make a systemd service.

/etc/systemd/system/nvidia-tdp.timer
[Unit]
Description=Set NVIDIA power limit on boot

[Timer]
OnBootSec=5

[Install]
WantedBy=timers.target
title=/etc/systemd/system/nvidia-tdp.service
[Unit]
Description=Set NVIDIA power limit

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/usr/bin/nvidia-smi -pl 300

And enable nvidia-tdp.timer.

sudo systemctl enable nvidia-tdp.timer

Preserve video memory after suspend

Fixes GUI corruptions after suspend and resume.

And the following file to preserve video memory after suspend.

/etc/modprobe.d/nvidia.conf
NVreg_PreserveVideoMemoryAllocations=1
NVreg_TemporaryFilePath=/var/tmp

Monitor GPU activities

  • nvidia-smi
  • nvtop: See nvtop

Reload nvidia GPU driver

How to reload nvidia GPU driver to fix “NVML: Driver/library version mismatch” error after installing new nvidia driver. No rebooting required. 1

The following command will switch the system into text (CLI) mode, reload the graphical driver, and then switch back to GUI mode.

sudo apt purge $DRIVER_TO_DELETE
sudo apt reinstall $DRIVER_OF_CHOICE

sudo systemctl isolate multi-user.target

lsmod | grep nvidia # - to identify the modules needing to be reloaded.
sudo modprobe --remove $ALL_MODULES_IDENTIFIED_ABOVE
sudo modprobe $ALL_MODULES_IDENTIFIED_ABOVE

sudo systemctl isolate graphical.target

  1. https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/how-to-fix-nvml-driver-library-version-mismatch-without-rebooting/269998 ↩︎

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