This topic describes how to install an NVIDIA GRID driver and build a desktop environment on a GPU-accelerated Linux instance.

Prerequisites

  • A GPU-accelerated instance that can access the Internet is created.
    Note This topic describes how to install NVIDIA GRID drivers on GPU-accelerated Linux instances. For GPU-accelerated Windows instances, you can select paid images that have NVIDIA GRID drivers pre-installed when you create the instances. For more information, see Create an NVIDIA GPU-accelerated instance.

    When you create an instance, we recommend that you select an image from the Public Image drop-down list. If you select an image pre-installed with the NVIDIA GRID driver in the Image Marketplace dialog box, you must disable the nouveau driver after you create the instance.

    nouveau is an open source driver. It must be disabled before you install another driver. You can create a nouveau.conf file in the /etc/modprobe.d directory and add blacklist nouveau to the file to disable nouveau.

  • A VNC application is installed. VNC Viewer is used in this example.
  • A GRID license is obtained from NVIDIA. You must build a license server. You can purchase an ECS instance and build a license server by following the tutorial on the NVIDIA official website.

Background information

You must install an NVIDIA GRID driver if your GPU-accelerated instances need to support Open Graphics Library (OpenGL). By default, the NVIDIA GRID license that is granted to NVIDIA GPUs such as P100, P4, and V100 is not activated. You can activate the license by using a trial license to use OpenGL.
Note Only NVIDIA partners can download the driver from the official NVIDIA website. This topic describes how to obtain the installation package of the NVIDIA GRID driver from Alibaba Cloud.

This topic describes how to install NVIDIA GRID drivers on GPU-accelerated instances that are not equipped with vGPUs. For information about how to install NVIDIA GRID drivers on vgn6i or vgn5i GPU-accelerated instances that are equipped with vGPUs, see Install NVIDIA GRID drivers on vgn6i or vgn5i Linux instances.

Procedure

Install an NVIDIA GRID driver on a Linux instance that runs Ubuntu 16.04 64-bit

  1. Connect to a Linux instance. For more information, see Connect to a Linux instance by using a username and password.
  2. Run the following commands in sequence to upgrade the system and install KDE:
    apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
apt-get install kubuntu-desktop
  3. Run the reboot command to restart the system.
  4. Connect to the Linux instance again. Run the following commands to download and decompress the NVIDIA GRID driver package.
    The NVIDIA GRID driver package contains the drivers for various operating systems. For Linux, select NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-410.39-grid.run.
    wget http://grid-9-4.oss-cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-430.99-grid.run
  5. Run the following commands in sequence and follow the on-screen tips to install the NVIDIA GRID driver:
    chmod 777 NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-430.99-grid.run
. /NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-430.99-grid.run
  6. Run the nvidia-smi command to test whether the NVIDIA GRID driver is installed.
    If a command output similar to the following one is displayed, the NVIDIA GRID driver is installed.
  7. Add a license server and activate the license.
    1. Run the cd /etc/nvidia command to go to the /etc/nvidia directory.
    2. Run the cp gridd.conf.template gridd.conf command to create a file named gridd.conf.
    3. Add the license server information to the gridd.conf file.
      ServerAddress=<IP address of the license server>
ServerPort=<Port of the license server (default port: 7070)>
FeatureType=2
EnableUI=TRUE
  8. Run the following command to install x11vnc:
    apt-get install x11vnc
  9. Run the lspci | grep NVIDIA command to query the GPU BusID.

    In this example, the GPU BusID is 00:07.0.

  10. Configure the X Server environment and restart the system.
    1. Run the nvidia-xconfig --enable-all-gpus --separate-x-screens command.
    2. Add the GPU BusID that you obtained to Section "Device" in the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. In this example, BusID "PCI:0:7:0" is added.
    3. Run the reboot command to restart the system.

Test the NVIDIA GRID driver installed on an instance that runs Ubuntu 16.04 64-bit

  1. Run the following command to install the GLX application:
    apt-get install mesa-utils
  2. Run the startx command to start X Server.
    • If the startx command is unavailable, run the apt-get install xinit command to install the GLX application.
    • If you run the startx command, the hostname: Name or service not known error may be reported. This error does not affect the startup of X Server. You can run the hostname command to query the hostname of the instance. Then, you can modify the /etc/hosts file by replacing the hostname that follows 127.0.0.1 with the actual hostname of your instance.
  3. Start a new terminal session of the SSH client and run the following command to start x11vnc:
    x11vnc -display :1
    If a command output similar to the following one is displayed, x11vnc is started. In this case, you can connect to the instance by using a VNC application. In this example, VNC Viewer is used.
  4. Log on to the ECS console and add security group rules to a security group to which the instance is added. The security group rules allow inbound traffic on TCP port 5900. For more information, see Add security group rules.
  5. On the local machine, start VNC Viewer and enter <Public IP address of the instance>:5900 to connect to the instance and go to KDE.
  6. Run the glxinfo command to view the configurations supported by the current NVIDIA GRID driver.
    1. Start a new terminal session of the SSH client.
    2. Run the export DISPLAY=:1 command.
    3. Run the glxinfo -t command to list the configurations supported by the current NVIDIA GRID driver.
  7. Run the glxgears command to test the NVIDIA GRID driver.
    1. On KDE, right-click the desktop and select Run Command.
    2. Run the glxgears command to start the testing application.
      If a window similar to the following one is displayed, the NVIDIA GRID driver runs normally.

Install an NVIDIA GRID driver on a Linux instance that runs CentOS 7.3 64-bit

  1. Connect to a Linux instance. For more information, see Connect to a Linux instance by using a username and password.
  2. Run the following commands in sequence to upgrade the system and install KDE:
    yum update
yum install kernel-devel
yum groupinstall "KDE Plasma Workspaces"
  3. Run the reboot command to restart the system.
  4. Connect to the Linux instance again. Run the following command to download and decompress the NVIDIA GRID driver package.

    The NVIDIA GRID driver package contains the drivers for various operating systems. For Linux, select NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-430.99-grid.run. 

    wget http://grid-9-4.oss-cn-hangzhou.aliyuncs.com/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-430.99-grid.run
  5. Disable the nouveau driver:
    1. Run the vim /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf command and add blacklist nouveau to the file.
    2. Run the vim /lib/modprobe.d/dist-blacklist.conf command and add the following content:
      blacklist nouveau
options nouveau modeset=0
    3. Run the mv /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r).img /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r)-nouveau.img command.
    4. Run the dracut /boot/initramfs-$(uname -r).img $(uname -r) command.
  6. Run the reboot command to restart the system.
  7. Run the following commands in sequence and follow the on-screen tips to install the NVIDIA GRID driver:
    chmod 777 NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-430.99-grid.run
. /NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-430.99-grid.run
  8. Run the nvidia-smi command to test whether the NVIDIA GRID driver is installed.
    If a command output similar to the following one is displayed, the NVIDIA GRID driver is installed.
  9. Add a license server and activate the license.
    1. Run the cd /etc/nvidia command to go to the /etc/nvidia directory.
    2. Run the cp gridd.conf.template gridd.conf command to create a file named gridd.conf.
    3. Add the license server information to the gridd.conf file.
      ServerAddress=<IP address of the license server>
ServerPort=<Port of the license server (default port: 7070)>
FeatureType=2
EnableUI=TRUE
  10. Run the following command to install x11vnc:
    yum install x11vnc
  11. Run the lspci | grep NVIDIA command to query the GPU BusID.
    In this example, the GPU BusID is 00:07.0.
  12. Configure the X Server environment.
    1. Run the nvidia-xconfig --enable-all-gpus --separate-x-screens command.
    2. Add your GPU BusID to Section "Device" in the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. In this example, BusID "PCI:0:7:0" is added.
  13. Run the reboot command to restart the system.

Test the NVIDIA GRID driver installed on an instance that runs CentOS 7.3 64-bit

  1. Run the startx command to start X Server.
  2. Start a new terminal session of the SSH client and run the following command to start x11vnc:
    x11vnc -display :0
    If a command output similar to the following one is displayed, x11vnc is started. In this case, you can connect to the instance by using a VNC application. In this example, VNC Viewer is used.
  3. Log on to the ECS console and add security group rules to a security group of the instance. The security group rules allow inbound traffic on TCP port 5900. For more information, see Add security group rules.
  4. On the local machine, start VNC Viewer and enter <Public IP address of the instance>:5900 to connect to the instance and go to KDE.
  5. Run the glxinfo command to view the configurations supported by the current NVIDIA GRID driver.
    1. Start a new terminal session of the SSH client.
    2. Run the export DISPLAY=:0 command.
    3. Run the glxinfo -t command to list the configurations supported by the current NVIDIA GRID driver.
  6. Run the glxgears command to test the NVIDIA GRID driver.
    1. On KDE, right-click the desktop and select Run Command.
    2. Run the glxgears command to start the testing application.
      If a window similar to the following one is displayed, the NVIDIA GRID driver runs normally.