Contents
For a full package listing, check Arch's CUDA package contents as the full list is too expansive to list here.
The CUDA proprietary toolkit provides tools for running code on NVIDIA GPUs. This is otherwise known as hardware acceleration.
The download size is over 5G, so you should consider if and when you will want to download this runfile. For this reason, it is not recommended to download it when using limited hotspot data. Its size can largely be attributed to containing compilers as well as the NVIDIA driver. The driver only accounts for 10% of the runfile's size.
First create the installation directory and symlink as the
root
user:
mkdir -pv /opt/cuda-12.8.1 && ln -sfv cuda-12.8.1 /opt/cuda
Install CUDA by running the
following commands as the root
user:
sh cuda_12.8.1_570.124.06_linux.run \ --target cuda_12.8.1_570.124.06_linux \ --noexec && pushd cuda_12.8.1_570.124.06_linux/builds && rm -rvf bin integration NVIDIA*.run && mv version.json /opt/cuda-12.8.1 && mkdir -p /opt/cuda-12.8.1/bin && cuda_components=( cuda_nsight/{bin,nsightee_plugins}, cuda_nvvp/{bin,libnvvp}, cuda_sanitizer_api/compute-sanitizer, nsight_compute, nsight_systems ) for i in ${cuda_components[@]}; do cp -vR $i /opt/cuda-12.8.1 done && rm -rf cuda_nvvp cuda_nsight cuda_sanitizer_api && ln -sfv ../compute-sanitizer/compute-sanitizer \ /opt/cuda-12.8.1/bin/compute-sanitizer && mv EULA.txt /opt/cuda-12.8.1 && for lib in *; do cp -vR $lib/* /opt/cuda-12.8.1 && rm -rf $lib done && ln -svf lib64 /opt/cuda-12.8.1/lib && for mf in $(find /opt/cuda-12.8.1 -name Makefile); do sed -i "s|/usr/local/cuda|/opt/cuda-12.8.1|g" "$mf" done && popd && rm -rf cuda_12.8.1_570.124.06_linux
The above instructions extract the runfile and installs components manually. In the past, this was not needed. However, cuda_installer fails to load as it relies on an older libxml2 ABI. This process will be kept even when the ABI gets fixed as it allows for more control, despite being more complicated.
Still as the root
user, allow the
use of new compilers:
sed -e "/.*unsupported GNU version.*/d" \ -e "/.*unsupported clang version.*/d" \ -i /opt/cuda-12.8.1/targets/x86_64-linux/include/crt/host_config.h
This technically is not supported and there may be compilation errors in other packages as a result. However, it's a better compromise than installing older compilers just for one package. This package is still being developed but takes a long time to adapt to newer software.
Finally, patch a header file to fix building against glibc-2.41, again as the root
user:
patch -Np1 /opt/cuda-12.8.1/targets/x86_64-linux/include/crt/math_functions.h \ -i cuda-12.8.1-glibc-2.41-1.patch
--target
: This parameter
specifies the extraction directory.
--noexec
: This parameter
does ensures the toolkit does not get triggered for installation.
Ensure the libraries are cached as the root
user:
cat > /etc/ld.so.conf.d/cuda.conf << EOF &&
/opt/cuda/lib64
/opt/cuda/nvvm/lib64
/opt/cuda/extras/CUPTI/lib64
EOF
ldconfig
Now in order to use the toolkit, it needs to be included in the path.
As the root
user, create the
profile (dependent on The
Bash Shell Startup Files) for CUDA:
cat > /etc/profile.d/cuda.sh << "EOF"
# Begin /etc/profile.d/cuda.sh
pathprepend /opt/cuda/bin PATH
# End /etc/profile.d/cuda.sh
EOF
Immediately after installation, update the current PATH for your current shell:
source /etc/profile.d/cuda.sh
For a full package listing, check Arch's CUDA package contents as the full list is too expansive to list here.