# CUDA installation

TIP

You don’t need to use sudo to install CUDA Toolkit (opens new window) and cuDNN (opens new window).

# CUDA 12.8

In this example we will use ${HOME}/cuda-12.8.1 as our installation path.

cd "${HOME}"

Download CUDA runfile installer:

wget https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/12.8.1/local_installers/cuda_12.8.1_570.124.06_linux.run

Update permissions:

chmod +x ./cuda_12.8.1_570.124.06_linux.run

Start the runfile installation (takes a few quiet minutes):

./cuda_12.8.1_570.124.06_linux.run \
  --silent \
  --toolkit \
  --installpath=${HOME}/cuda-12.8.1 \
  --no-opengl-libs \
  --no-drm \
  --no-man-page && echo Success || echo Fail

Cleanup installation files:

rm -v cuda_12.8.1_570.124.06_linux.run

# Install cuDNN for CUDA 12.8

Download cuDNN (opens new window) package:

wget https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cudnn/redist/cudnn/linux-x86_64/cudnn-linux-x86_64-9.9.0.52_cuda12-archive.tar.xz

Extract the cuDNN package into our cuda installation:

tar -xvf cudnn-linux-x86_64-9.9.0.52_cuda12-archive.tar.xz --strip-components=1 -C ${HOME}/cuda-12.8.1 && echo Success || echo Fail

After extraction, remove the package:

rm -v cudnn-linux-x86_64-9.9.0.52_cuda12-archive.tar.xz

# Create activation script for CUDA 12.8

TIP

In the activation script have used the CUDA installation directory from our example above (${HOME}/cuda-12.8.1)

Create activation script by running the code below:

cat <<\EOF > ~/activate-cuda-12.8.sh

export CUDA_HOME=${HOME}/cuda-12.8.1

export PATH=$CUDA_HOME/bin:$PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$CUDA_HOME/lib64:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$CUDA_HOME/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$CUDA_HOME/extras/CUPTI/lib64:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export CUDAToolkit_ROOT_DIR=$CUDA_HOME
export CUDAToolkit_ROOT=$CUDA_HOME

export CUDA_TOOLKIT_ROOT_DIR=$CUDA_HOME
export CUDA_TOOLKIT_ROOT=$CUDA_HOME
export CUDA_BIN_PATH=$CUDA_HOME
export CUDA_PATH=$CUDA_HOME
export CUDA_INC_PATH=$CUDA_HOME/targets/x86_64-linux
export CFLAGS=-I$CUDA_HOME/targets/x86_64-linux/include:$CFLAGS
export CUDAToolkit_TARGET_DIR=$CUDA_HOME/targets/x86_64-linux

EOF

# Set environment variables for CUDA 12.8

From now one you can easily load your cuda variables by sourcing activation script:

source ~/activate-cuda-12.8.sh

# Test commands

Run test commands to confirm that your installation was successful:

which nvcc

nvcc --version

The expected output:

/home/ubuntu/cuda-12.8.1/bin/nvcc

nvcc: NVIDIA (R) Cuda compiler driver
Copyright (c) 2005-2025 NVIDIA Corporation
Built on Fri_Feb_21_20:23:50_PST_2025
Cuda compilation tools, release 12.8, V12.8.93
Build cuda_12.8.r12.8/compiler.35583870_0

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