GPU Drivers Not Included in Oracle Linux Platform Images

The Oracle Linux 8 or Oracle Linux 9 platform images provided with Compute Cloud@Customer don't include GPU drivers. If you create a GPU instance, you must manually install the GPU drivers.

Details

If a Compute Cloud@Customer installation includes compute nodes with GPUs, you can access them by selecting a dedicated shape. The GPU shapes can be selected for compute instances based on an Oracle Linux 8 or Oracle Linux 9 platform image. The current image versions don't include GPU drivers. The instance OS detects the allocated GPUs, but to use them, you need the CUDA Toolkit from the NVIDIA developer site to install the required drivers.

Note

The large download and local repository installation need a large amount of disk space. The default 50GB boot volume is insufficient on Oracle Linux 9 and only just large enough on Oracle Linux 8. We highly recommend increasing the boot volume size to at least 60GB, and extend the file system accordingly.

Workaround

After creating the instance, log in to the instance and install the CUDA Toolkit. Follow the instructions for your version of Oracle Linux.

Installing GPU Drivers in an Oracle Linux 9 Instance

From the command line of the instance, download and install the CUDA Toolkit rpm for your OS.

$ wget https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/12.8.0/local_installers/cuda-repo-rhel9-12-8-local-12.8.0_570.86.10-1.x86_64.rpm
$ sudo rpm -i cuda-repo-rhel9-12-8-local-12.8.0_570.86.10-1.x86_64.rpm
$ sudo dnf clean all
$ sudo dnf install cuda-toolkit-12-8

Enable the Oracle Linux 9 EPEL yum repository. Install the dkms package.

$ sudo yum-config-manager --enable ol9_developer_EPEL
$ sudo dnf install dkms

Install the GPU drivers.
```
$ sudo dnf install cuda-12-8
```

Verify the installation with the NVIDIA System Management Interface.

$ nvidia-smi
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 570.86.10              Driver Version: 570.86.10      CUDA Version: 12.8     |
|-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
| GPU  Name                 Persistence-M | Bus-Id          Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan  Temp   Perf          Pwr:Usage/Cap |           Memory-Usage | GPU-Util  Compute M. |
|                                         |                        |               MIG M. |
|=========================================+========================+======================|
|   0  NVIDIA L40S                    Off |   00000000:00:05.0 Off |                    0 |
| N/A   26C    P8             23W /  350W |       1MiB /  46068MiB |      0%      Default |
|                                         |                        |                  N/A |
+-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Processes:                                                                              |
|  GPU   GI   CI              PID   Type   Process name                        GPU Memory |
|        ID   ID                                                               Usage      |
|=========================================================================================|
|  No running processes found                                                             |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Installing GPU Drivers in an Oracle Linux 8 Instance

From the command line of the instance, download and install the CUDA Toolkit rpm for your OS.

$ wget https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/12.8.0/local_installers/cuda-repo-rhel8-12-8-local-12.8.0_570.86.10-1.x86_64.rpm
$ sudo rpm -i cuda-repo-rhel8-12-8-local-12.8.0_570.86.10-1.x86_64.rpm
$ sudo dnf clean all
$ sudo dnf install cuda-toolkit-12-8

Enable the Oracle Linux 8 EPEL yum repository. Install the dkms package.

$ sudo yum-config-manager --enable ol8_developer_EPEL
$ sudo dnf install dkms

Install the GPU drivers.
```
$ sudo dnf install cuda-12-8
```

Install the NVIDIA kernel module.

$ sudo scl enable gcc-toolset-13 bash
# dkms install nvidia-open -v 570.86.10

If this make error appears while the kernel module is built, you can safely ignore it.

Cleaning build area...(bad exit status: 2)
Failed command:
make -C /lib/modules/5.15.0-206.153.7.el8uek.x86_64/build M=/var/lib/dkms/nvidia-open/570.86.10/build clean

Verify the installation with the NVIDIA System Management Interface.

# nvidia-smi
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| NVIDIA-SMI 570.86.10              Driver Version: 570.86.10      CUDA Version: 12.8     |
|-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+
| GPU  Name                 Persistence-M | Bus-Id          Disp.A | Volatile Uncorr. ECC |
| Fan  Temp   Perf          Pwr:Usage/Cap |           Memory-Usage | GPU-Util  Compute M. |
|                                         |                        |               MIG M. |
|=========================================+========================+======================|
|   0  NVIDIA L40S                    Off |   00000000:00:05.0 Off |                    0 |
| N/A   26C    P8             23W /  350W |       1MiB /  46068MiB |      0%      Default |
|                                         |                        |                  N/A |
+-----------------------------------------+------------------------+----------------------+

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Processes:                                                                              |
|  GPU   GI   CI              PID   Type   Process name                        GPU Memory |
|        ID   ID                                                               Usage      |
|=========================================================================================|
|  No running processes found                                                             |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Documentation

GPU Drivers Not Included in Oracle Linux Platform Images