Installing Nvidia GPU Drivers on Linux

This document provides instructions for installing Nvidia GPU drivers

Installation on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL 9)

Follow these steps to install Nvidia drivers and nvidia-smi on your RHEL 9 instance.

Step 1: Enable EPEL and CodeReady Builder Repositories

First, update the DNF package repository cache and enable necessary repositories.

# Update the DNF package repository cache
sudo dnf makecache

# Enable the RHEL 9 CodeReady Builder package repository.
# This repository provides additional development tools and libraries.
sudo subscription-manager repos --enable codeready-builder-for-rhel-9-$(uname -i)-rpms

# Install the epel-release package. EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux)
# provides high-quality add-on packages for RHEL.
sudo dnf install -y https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release-latest-9.noarch.rpm

# Update the DNF package repository cache again to ensure all changes take effect.
sudo dnf makecache

Step 2: Install Dependencies and Build Tools

Install the necessary build tools and kernel headers required for compiling Nvidia kernel modules.

# Install essential build tools (gcc, make, dkms) and kernel development headers.
# These are crucial for the Nvidia driver to build against your specific kernel version.
sudo dnf install -y kernel-devel-$(uname -r) kernel-headers-$(uname -r) gcc make dkms acpid libglvnd-glx libglvnd-opengl libglvnd-devel pkgconfig

Step 3: Add the Nvidia CUDA Repository

Add the official Nvidia CUDA package repository to your system. This repository contains the latest Nvidia drivers and CUDA toolkit.

# Add the Nvidia CUDA repository for RHEL 9.
sudo dnf config-manager --add-repo http://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/rhel9/$(uname -i)/cuda-rhel9.repo

# Update the DNF package repository cache to reflect the new addition.
sudo dnf makecache

Step 4: Install Nvidia GPU Drivers

Install the Nvidia GPU drivers from the newly added repository.

# Install the latest open-source kernel module based Nvidia driver.
# The '--allowerasing' flag might be needed if there are conflicts with existing drivers (e.g., nouveau).
sudo dnf module install -y nvidia-driver:open-dkms --allowerasing

# If you prefer a specific driver version (e.g., version 535), use the command below instead:
sudo dnf module install -y nvidia-driver:535 --allowerasing

Step 5: Verify the Installation

After the installation is complete, reboot your system to ensure the new drivers are loaded correctly.

sudo reboot

After rebooting, log back in and verify the driver installation:

# Check if the proprietary 'nvidia' kernel module is loaded.
# This command should return results indicating the Nvidia driver is active.
lsmod | grep nvidia

# Check if the open-source 'nouveau' driver module is NOT loaded.
# This command should ideally return nothing, indicating nouveau is successfully blacklisted.
lsmod | grep nouveau

# Finally, confirm the drivers are working correctly by running nvidia-smi.
# This command should display information about your Nvidia GPU(s).
nvidia-smi

result of nvidia-smi command

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Installation on Ubuntu

Follow these steps to install Nvidia drivers and nvidia-smi on your Ubuntu instance. The process is generally simpler on Ubuntu.

Step 1: Update Package Lists

Before installing any new packages, ensure your system's package lists are up-to-date.

# Update the list of available packages and their versions.
sudo apt update

# Upgrade all your installed packages to their latest versions.
sudo apt upgrade -y

Step 2: Install Nvidia GPU Drivers

Ubuntu provides a utility to automatically detect and install the recommended Nvidia drivers. This is the simplest method.

# Automatically install the recommended proprietary Nvidia drivers for your system.
sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall

Alternatively, if you want to install a specific driver version (e.g., nvidia-driver-535), you can first search for available drivers and then install the desired one:

# Search for available Nvidia driver packages.
apt search nvidia-driver

# Install a specific driver version (replace '535' with the desired version).
sudo apt install nvidia-driver-535
# This will also install nvidia-smi as part of the driver package.

Step 3: Verify the Installation

After the installation is complete, reboot your system to ensure the new drivers are loaded correctly.

sudo reboot

After rebooting, log back in and verify the driver installation:

# Check if the proprietary 'nvidia' kernel module is loaded.
# This command should return results indicating the Nvidia driver is active.
lsmod | grep nvidia

# Check if the open-source 'nouveau' driver module is NOT loaded.
# This command should ideally return nothing, indicating nouveau is successfully blacklisted.
lsmod | grep nouveau

# Finally, confirm the drivers are working correctly by running nvidia-smi.
# This command should display information about your Nvidia GPU(s).
nvidia-smi

result of nvidia-smi command