Ubuntu 16.04 + GTX 1080 + CUDA 8.0

Jun 22, 2016 00:00 · 226 words · 2 minute read

I have recently acquired a GTX 1080. A few friends have told me that they have been having trouble getting everything working for a standard machine learning setup, so I have decided to document the steps I have taken.

  • Boot from a UEFI USB. Add “nouveau.modeset=0” to the end of the options script (press F6, then Escape, then type), otherwise you will get a blank screen.
  • Install Ubuntu, quite straightforward. Then “nouveau.modeset=0” on grub again (after pressing e) to get to desktop.
  • Download NVIDIA 367.18 driver and CUDA 8.0.
  • Press Alt+Ctrl+F1. Sign in. Type:
sudo service lightdm stop
sudo init 3
sudo sh {INSERT .run of 367.18 driver}
sudo sh {INSERT .run of CUDA}
sudo service lightdm start

Don’t install the drivers that come with CUDA. You will need to change some settings to be able to see text when you Alt+Ctrl+F1 again; you can search for the solution online. Otherwise, you can get to desktop with Alt+Ctrl+F7.

  • Reboot. Now you can install Theano, Lasagne, Keras etc. normally. Then, if you haven’t already, create a .theanorc file in your $HOME$ directory. Copy and paste:
[global]
device = gpu
floatX = float32

[nvcc]
flags=-D_FORCE_INLINES

[cuda] 
root = /usr/local/cuda-8.0
  • Download cuDNN. Copy and paste the contents of cuDNN to the CUDA directory. Open terminal. Type:
[global]
device = gpu
floatX = float32

[nvcc]
flags=-D_FORCE_INLINES

[cuda] 
root = /usr/local/cuda-8.0