Pre Installation

Pre-installation Actions

Some actions must be taken before the CUDA Toolkit and Driver can be installed on Linux:

• Verify the system has a CUDA-capable GPU

• Verify the system is running a supported version of Linux

• Verify the system has gcc installed

• Verify the system has the correct kernel headers and development packages installed

• Download the NVIDIA CUDA Toolkit

• Handle conflicting installation methods

Verify You Have a CUDA-Capable GPU

To verify that your GPU is CUDA-capable, go to your distribution’s equivalent of System Properties, or, from the command line, enter:

lspci | grep -i nvidia

Output

NVIDIA Corporation GA100 [A100 PCIe 80GB] (rev a1)

Verify You Have a Supported Version of Linux

The CUDA Development Tools are only supported on some specific distributions of Linux. These are listed in the CUDA Toolkit release notes.

To determine which distribution and release number you’re running, type the following at the command line:

uname -m && cat /etc/*release

Output

DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=22.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=jammy
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS"
PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS"
NAME="Ubuntu"
VERSION_ID="22.04"
VERSION="22.04.4 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish)"
VERSION_CODENAME=jammy
ID=ubuntu
ID_LIKE=debian
HOME_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://help.ubuntu.com/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/"
PRIVACY_POLICY_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/legal/terms-and-policies/privacy-policy"
UBUNTU_CODENAME=jammy

Verify the system has gcc installed

The gcc compiler is required for development using the CUDA Toolkit.

It is not required for running CUDA applications. It is generally installed as part of the Linux installation, and in most cases the version of gcc installed with a supported version of Linux will work correctly.

To verify the version of gcc installed on your system, type the following on the command line:

gcc --version

Verify the system has the correct Kernel Headers and Development Packages Installed

The CUDA Driver requires that the kernel headers and development packages for the running version of the kernel be installed at the time of the driver installation, as well whenever the driver is rebuilt.

The version of the kernel your system is running can be found by running the following command:

uname -r

Native Linux Distribution Support in CUDA 12.3

The CUDA development environment relies on tight integration with the host development environment, including the host compiler and C runtime libraries, and is therefore only supported on distribution versions that have been qualified for this CUDA Toolkit release.