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Installing NVIDIA Drivers and CUDA on Ubuntu 24.04

This guide provides a short tutorial on how to install NVIDIA drivers and CUDA on Ubuntu 24.04 (Noble Numbat).

Prerequisites

  • An Ubuntu 24.04 system with an NVIDIA graphics card.
  • An active internet connection.
  • Basic familiarity with the Linux command line.

Steps 1. Install NVIDIA Drivers (if not already installed)

Update and Upgrade Package Lists:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Install ubuntu-drivers-common:

The ubuntu-drivers command is part of the ubuntu-drivers-common package. If you encounter the "command not found" error, install it:

sudo apt install ubuntu-drivers-common

ubuntu-drivers devices

This command will output information about your NVIDIA card and recommended driver packages. Note the recommended driver version.

  • Install the recommended driver:
sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall
  • Or install a specific driver version:
sudo apt install nvidia-driver-XXX

Replace XXX with the desired version.

Reboot Your System:

sudo reboot

Verify the Installation:

nvidia-smi

Step 2. Install CUDA (Specific Version: 12.8.0)

This section details installing CUDA version 12.8.0 using the local .deb repository method.

Download CUDA Repository Pin and Local Installer:

wget [https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/ubuntu2404/x86_64/cuda-ubuntu2404.pin](https://www.google.com/search?q=https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/ubuntu2404/x86_64/cuda-ubuntu2404.pin)
sudo mv cuda-ubuntu2404.pin /etc/apt/preferences.d/cuda-repository-pin-600
wget [https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/12.8.0/local_installers/cuda-repo-ubuntu2404-12-8-local_12.8.0-570.86.10-1_amd64.deb](https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/12.8.0/local_installers/cuda-repo-ubuntu2404-12-8-local_12.8.0-570.86.10-1_amd64.deb)

Install the CUDA Repository:

sudo dpkg -i cuda-repo-ubuntu2404-12-8-local_12.8.0-570.86.10-1_amd64.deb

Add CUDA Repository Key:

sudo cp /var/cuda-repo-ubuntu2404-12-8-local/cuda-*-keyring.gpg /usr/share/keyrings/

Update Package Lists and Install CUDA Toolkit:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get -y install cuda-toolkit-12-8

Set Environment Variables:

Add the CUDA bin and lib directories to your PATH and LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variables. Open your ~/.bashrc file with a text editor:

nano ~/.bashrc

Add the following lines to the end of the file:

export PATH=/usr/local/cuda-12.8/bin${PATH:+:${PATH}}
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/cuda-12.8/lib64${LD_LIBRARY_PATH:+:${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}}

Save the file and apply the changes:

source ~/.bashrc

Verify the CUDA Installation:

Check the CUDA version:

nvcc --version