CUDA : Driver version is insufficient for CUDA runtime

Question

When running the CUDA example /usr/local/cuda/samples/1_Utilities/deviceQuery$ with the sudo ./deviceQuery command, the output was :

 ./deviceQuery Starting...
 CUDA Device Query (Runtime API) version (CUDART static linking)
cudaGetDeviceCount returned 35
-> CUDA driver version is insufficient for CUDA runtime version
Result = FAIL

On using the lspci -v | grep -i command I get :

NVIDIA Corporation GF117M [GeForce 610M/710M/820M / GT 620M/625M/630M/720M] (rev a1)

The lshw -c video command gives :

PCI (sysfs)  


  *-display               
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: Haswell-ULT Integrated Graphics Controller
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 2
       bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
       version: 0b
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
       resources: irq:63 memory:b5000000-b53fffff memory:c0000000-cfffffff     ioport:6000(size=64)
  *-display
       description: 3D controller
       product: GF117M [GeForce 610M/710M/820M / GT 620M/625M/630M/720M]
       vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:09:00.0
       version: a1
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: bus_master cap_list
       configuration: driver=nouveau latency=0
       resources: irq:62 memory:b3000000-b3ffffff memory:a0000000-afffffff memory:b0000000-b1ffffff ioport:3000(size=128)

So might it be that CUDA doesn't work because the i915 driver is in play instead of the nvidia one ? If so how do I get this working ?

The last guide I followed to install the nvidia drivers really messed up my system and it needed a reinstall, please suggest a guide that works well for Ubuntu 14.04.

Solution

You appear to be using a laptop. Usually, after the Nvidia drivers are installed, the Intel GPU is used by default to conserve power. However, you can run any program with the Nvidia GPU by running it with optirun:

optirun ./deviceQuery

or

sudo optirun ./deviceQuery

though I don't think you'd need sudo for CUDA samples

Edit: As pointed out by Pilot6, optirun is available through the bumblebee package in Ubuntu. Check the project's website for more details.

Comments

[Meghdeep Ray]

sudo: optirun: command not found

[Pilot6]

@MeghdeepRay This is a bumblebee command.

[silgon]

sudo optirun working not not optirun alone, any idea why I need root permissions and how can I change that?