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Jonny
Asked: 2018-05-09 00:59:21 +0800 CST

The easy way: Install Nvidia drivers, CUDA, CUDNN and Tensorflow GPU on Ubuntu 18.04

  • 772

How can I easily get tensorflow gpu running?

gpu cuda 18.04

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    I just installed Tensorflow GPU on Ubuntu 18.04. There are a lot instructions for it, however I think the fastest and easiest way is usually not used and I want to share it:

    NVIDIA DRIVER:

    ubuntu-drivers devices
sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall
nvidia-smi

    CUDA:

    Normally: "sudo apt install nvidia-cuda-toolkit" However this installs version 9.1, too new at the moment and tensorflow will not run. Instead download CUDA 9.0: https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-90-download-archive?target_os=Linux&target_arch=x86_64&target_distro=Ubuntu&target_version=1704&target_type=runfilelocal Then run (Additional Details on the first line can be found at: How can I install CUDA 9 on Ubuntu 17.10):

    sudo sh cuda_9.0.176_384.81_linux.run --override
sudo ln -s /usr/bin/gcc-6 /usr/local/cuda/bin/gcc
sudo ln -s /usr/bin/g++-6 /usr/local/cuda/bin/g++
cd ~
sudo nano .bashrc

add at the end of the file:
export PATH=/usr/local/cuda-9.0/bin${PATH:+:${PATH}}
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/cuda-9.0/lib64${LD_LIBRARY_PATH:+:${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}}
CTL+X to save and exit

    CuDNN:

    register at nvidia developers https://developer.nvidia.com/cudnn Download 9.1 runtime & developer library for 16.04 (Files cuDNN v7.1.3 Runtime Library for Ubuntu16.04 (Deb) & cuDNN v7.1.3 Developer Library for Ubuntu16.04 (Deb)) Open the files with software manager and install them. Check with:

    cat /usr/include/x86_64-linux-gnu/cudnn_v*.h | grep CUDNN_MAJOR -A 2

    Install libraries and tensorflow:

    sudo apt-get install libcupti-dev
pip3 install tensorflow-gpu

    Check:

    in tensorflow check for GPU support 
sess = tf.Session(config=tf.ConfigProto(log_device_placement=True))

    Note: Start tensorflow or your development environment from terminal, otherwise for me it does not load the PATH variables.

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  2. Just to extend Jonny's answer: when following Jonny's method for installing CUDA, I had to choose "No" for "Install NVIDIA Accelerated Graphics Driver for Linux-x86_64 384.81?" (yes or default for everything else). Otherwise the CUDA driver installation would fail saying "ERROR: An NVIDIA kernel module 'nvidia-drm' appears to already be loaded in your kernel"

    Then you can test your CUDA installation by running the samples.

    First install their dependencies:

    sudo apt-get install freeglut3-dev build-essential libx11-dev libxmu-dev libxi-dev libgl1-mesa-glx libglu1-mesa libglu1-mesa-dev libglfw3-dev libgles2-mesa-dev

    These won't compile with the new compilers on Ubuntu 18, so you'll need to downgrade to gcc/g++ 6:

    sudo apt-get install gcc-6 g++-6
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/g++ g++ /usr/bin/g++-6 10
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gcc gcc /usr/bin/gcc-6 10

    Compile the samples by navigating to:

    ~/NVIDIA_CUDA-9.0_Samples/bin/x86_64/linux/release

    And compile using:

    make -k

    Run one of the samples like:

    ./nbody
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