Best Linux distro for CUDA / OpenCL

Accelerated Computing CUDA CUDA Programming and Performance
1

Here are the graphics cards I have -
nVidia Corporation Quadro NVS 290 (rev a1)
nVidia Corporation NV43GL [Quadro FX 550] (rev a2) <— I guess not compatible with CUDA
nVidia Corporation G80 [Quadro FX 5600] (rev a2)
nVidia Corporation Quadro NVS 295 (rev a1)

Now for all the above the nViidia drivers page says I need version 190.53 (amd64)

This page (http://developer.nvidia.com/object/cuda_2_3_downloads.html) however links to 190.42. First, what should I do? 190.42 or 190.53?

Second, what would be a good 64 bit distro to get started easily with CUDA / OpenCL programming? I am familiar with Linux in general but people can get touchy on this whole graphics card topic (I got yelled at left and right on IRC for trying to raise this topic), hence I am posting it here.

So basically (a) should I go with the 190.53 or the 190.42 driver? (B) Which distro makes it easy to install said driver?

2

If you want OpenCL you will need the 195.30 beta driver or the 190.23 OpenCL release driver… The current 190.53 driver (which I would otherwise recommend) doesn’t have OpenCL support. For a workstation, I would suggest Ubuntu 9.04. Don’t be tempted to go for 9.10 - it ships with gcc 4.4 that is not supported. Similarly, refuse any attempts by the OS to install drivers for you and do it yourself from the official NVIDIA installers.

Follow that simple prescription and it should be plain sailing

3

oh I see. Good to know. Thanks :) Couple of things -

(a) 195.30 will support all the cards listed above, right?

(B) 190.23 driver, where do I get it? I searched on Google for 190.23 nVidia and I get this thread as the first search result !!!

© OpenCL is also supported on the above cards, right? (I guess I should ask that on the OpenCL section of this forum) (Or in general, OpenCL is supported where CUDA is supported, right?)

Good to know that too. Yeah I like 9.04 too

Yep. This was the touchy topic on IRC I was talking about.

Will check it out man. Thanks a ton.

4

Another quick question …

http://developer.nvidia.com/object/opencl-download.html

This page shows http://developer.download.nvidia.com/compu…x_64_190.29.run

as the driver

You have mentioned 190.23 and this page says 190.29

Is this what you are referring to?

5

Yeah sorry. Keeping versions straight in ones head and fingers on the right keys is a challenge I am rarely successful at. Sorry for the confusion.

6

Ubuntu 9.10 ships with BOTH gcc 4.3 and 4.4. There’s a simple simlink from /usr/bin/gcc to /usr/bin/gcc4.4… change it to simlink to gcc 4.3 and CUDA is fine.

7

But that will cause non cuda programs to also use gcc 4.3. I found the least intrusive way to fix the gcc4.4 issue was by highman in his post here: http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?s=&…st&p=955819

8

Thank you for the information…
Let me sort it out then I will reply you with the authenticated source…