How to Setup Cuda on Ubuntu? For beginners!

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Live USB sticks work well to test LINUX but you cannot update or modify the OS on them.
There is a way to install a full version of Linux onto a USB jump drive but it seems not to be possible to boot from it.
If you want to test Linux use a secondary HDD at best so you do not mess up your production HDD.

  1. Install your flavor of Ubunutu 16.04.
    I tested Xubunutu and Ubuntu. Both worked well but I stayed with Ubuntu.

  2. Apply any updates to OS after installation if needed.

  3. To install CUDA with Ubuntu16.04 all you need is to install the Nvidia driver for your card.
    You can do that via:System settings > Softwares and Updates > Additional Drivers
    Select Nvidia driver for your card and hit apply.

There is no need to install the CUDA toolkit.

  1. From blender.org or buildbot (https://builder.blender.org/download) download Blender Linux and unpack the archive. CUDA kernels come with those blender builds.

  2. Restart your Mac/PC and enjoy CUDA with Blender on Linux.


Note for users with two different GPUs:

MacPro can come with older cards.
Ubuntu runs on them fine with the Ubuntu native driver.
But Ubunut 16.04 as of right now cannot deal with mixing drivers (native for old - NVIDIA for new card)

Best is to only switch to NVIDIA for the new card turn the computer off take the old card out and if you
have a second card put the second one in.

I run with two GTX 970.

I also swichted to NVIDIA drivers for both GT 8800 and GTX 970 and Ubuntu also cannot deal with that.
You will be stuck in a loop at the log-in page.

Win and OS X do not care here.

I assume the same is also true for PCs with older and newer cards.

DONT mix drivers and cards as it seems.

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It’s Simpler to download it here (linux version of course) as usual and then unpack it :wink:

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By my personal experience, the *buntu distro tends to be a bit behind when it comes to software packages like Blender (I think they’re still on 2.76 last time I installed an *buntu version). This is why I moved to a rolling release like Antergos which offer the ease of installation that *buntu has with the lastest version of applications that Arch has. You get the latest 2.77 on Arch based distro.

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Oh, and if you have an NVidia GPU don’t forget to install the CUDA package, either before or after Blender so that you can activate it for cycle.

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I downloaded Xubuntu, internet access works but app store does not connect.

Then I made new partitions for the HD rebooted into the live USB stick and then during installation process I was told the
stuff to install was not found …

Well things like this why Linux is where it is :wink:

I will check out Kubuntu

Honestly all I am interesting is just to test the CPU and CUDA speed for myself.
I still cannot believe that CUDA on Linux is that much faster.

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Did you read my first post in this thread? They talk about poor performance in Windows 10 with Blender. Do you use Mac machine, right?
Another thing, if you are downloading a big iso file (not talking only about Linux images), you try using a good Download manager different that those who comes by default with the browser (they tend to corrupt files). And then check the integrity of the iso file with MD5 checksum.

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for grabbing the ISO’s
using the TORRENT download is and has been the recommended way

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Yes I have a MacPro but this is nothing else then Intel hardware so I run WIn10 on them as well for work based on what I need to operate.

Firefox downloads the Blender Buildbot tar fine and after unzipping it all works as expected.

Time to test now.

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Cool ! Looking to see your results :slight_smile:

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In deed Win is slower again with builds I downloaded.
In the past Win was always slower but then it caught up with OS X.
Maybe it it just the current build bot.

But CPU between OS X and Xubuntu was equal.
Because after 3 attempts to install a full version of Xubuntu I ended up each time with a live iso installation again I gave up.
So no Cuda testing for me.

Test File: Mike BMW updated version
GPU: 2 x GTX 970

OSX10.11 GPU 0:48 CPU 4:51

Win10 GPU 0:51 CPU 6:35

Xubuntu GPU 0:00 CPU 5:09

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What is your graphics Card and windows version ?

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1- Install Antergos (you’ll have the option to install the nvidia drivers during the install)
2- Install blender: sudo pacman -S blender
3- Install cuda: sudo pacman -S cuda
4- ???
5- Profit!

I wouldn’t go back to *buntu even if I was paid for it, especially the bug ridden 16.04 LTS…

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As I said 3 times did I try to install Xubuntu and each time did I end up with a Live CD boot option after the install.

So I wont want to try it a 4th time.

I assume one cannot adjust a modify the USB live cd image?

But I have to say the UI is pleasantly fast.

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You mean, so that the changes remain saved? That depends on how you create the LiveUSB. You have to create it with the option of persistent data. You can use this from windows:
http://www.linuxliveusb.com/
(You select the iso image you had downloaded, do not download it again from the program)

Anyway this does not work nothing stable compared to the installed system on disk.

By the way, how you tried to install the nvidia driver?. Yes, nvidia does not care to make a friendly GUI for Linux installer, like on Windows.

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cool I will boot into Win10 and then do it.

LOL Ubuntu starts 10times faster than Win10 the slowest OS ever booting …

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I just installed Ubuntu 16.04 on a new machine with i7-6700, 32GigRAM. I haven’t installed the graphics card yet. The Blenchmark CPU test ran in 1min53secs. I followed the setup instructions in this perfectly timed blog post by David Revoy which includes how he installs Blender;

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:thomas-schiex/blender
sudo apt update
sudo apt install blender

Previously I’d tried installing Ubuntu14 from and old disk but the ethernet card was designed to work with a newer kernel. Ubuntu16 worked straight away and those instructions from David Revoy were also great. Wacom tablet appears to be working fine too which was a concern for me. …just the NVidia card to go now

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Weirdly, it’s the opposite for me.
Windows 10 starts in seconds but Ubuntu GNOME 16.04 literally shows me more than a minute of black screen before the login screen shows up.

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Weird I have dual boot setup and windows turn starts up faster then Ubuntu, But the difference in boot up time is kind of small so it is not something that I give particular thought to or spend my time worrying about.

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Do you use Nvidia card with propriety drivers enabled? SOmietimes Nvidia is probing too long and that takes too much time to from boot. Rund dmesg --color in terminal to see progress and timing.

I just installed Ubuntu 16.04 on a new machine with i7-6700, 32GigRAM. I haven’t installed the graphics card yet. The Blenchmark CPU test ran in 1min53secs. I followed the setup instructions in this perfectly timed blog post by David Revoy which includes how he installs Blender;

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:thomas-schiex/blender
sudo apt update
sudo apt install blender

Previously I’d tried installing Ubuntu14 from and old disk but the ethernet card was designed to work with a newer kernel. Ubuntu16 worked straight away and those instructions from David Revoy were also great. Wacom tablet appears to be working fine too which was a concern for me. …just the NVidia card to go now

Just install propriety drivers, go to Software & Updates and there is Additional drivers tab, check driver you want and hit Apply changes.
For installing Blender you can just download from Blender.org, extract it to some location and start Blender. Simple as that.

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Yes, proprietary NVIDIA drivers are active. Had to start Ubuntu with ‘nomodeset’ the first time to even be able to see anything and be able to activate the proprietary drivers. Before that, it would just stay on a black screen.
Now it boots up but takes ages before the login screen shows.

Using an NVIDIA GTX 980 Ti.
ASUS Rampage IV Extreme motherboard.