CUDA on Ubuntu 9.10/Linux Mint Helena

If you check on the CUDA site, you will notice that there’s no download for the latest version of Ubuntu; Ubuntu 9.10 or Linux Mint Helena which is based on Ubuntu 9.10. Consequently, many webpages have popped up on the web saying how to go about with Ubuntu 9.10.

I tried my luck at those but I couldn’t get any of these to work – they all messed up my display – until I stumbled on Przemoc’s wiki (last article on the page). The solution proposed there is much more elegant and easier than any I’ve seen yet since it’s based on modifying the sources of aptitude to get the latter to download the CUDA drivers for you which is the hardest part of the installation.

Once this is done, installing the CUDA toolkit and SDK is childplay and it works flawlessly with my GTX 260 graphics card even with twinview. That was CUDA 2.3 by the way.

The cool link once again: Przemoc’s wiki (last article on the page)

or the relevant part of the page copied here

1. nVidia 190 drivers

   sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nvidia-vdpau/ppa
   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get install nvidia-190-modaliases nvidia-glx-190 nvidia-settings-190

2. GNU Compiler Collection 4.3

   sudo apt-get install gcc-4.3 g++-4.3
   sudo update-alternatives --remove-all gcc
   sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gcc gcc /usr/bin/gcc-4.3 43 --slave /usr/bin/g++ g++ /usr/bin/g++-4.3 --slave /usr/bin/gcov gcov /usr/bin/gcov-4.3
   sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gcc gcc /usr/bin/gcc-4.4 44 --slave /usr/bin/g++ g++ /usr/bin/g++-4.4 --slave /usr/bin/gcov gcov /usr/bin/gcov-4.4
   sudo update-alternatives --config gcc    # choose gcc 4.3

3. CUDA SDK requirements

   sudo apt-get install libglut-dev libxi-dev libxmu-dev