Advice for Installing CUDA 9.2 on Sparky

[vk2emq]

I am interested in using photogrammetry for archaeological applications, particularly in producing 3D models of artefacts and have successfully used VisualSFM and Meshlab with CUDA on a Win10 laptop with built in Nvidia GT940 graphics processor. However with intensive rendering sometimes taking several hours the temperature of the GPU can get up to 95 deg C and the laptop becomes too hot to touch ....

To avert a possible meltdown I have built from E waste a robust server with plenty of fans and heatsinks and RAM and have successfully installed Sparky 5.2 with Colman ( an alternate to VisualSFM ) , Meshlab, Blender etc ...I have an Nvidia GT1030 Video Card and am currently running the Nouveau driver. I would like to install CUDA 9.2 as per my Win10 option to take advantage of the GPU processing power for 3D rendering ..... however Nvidia in their wisdom do not support Debian based distributions for CUDA .....

Any advice on getting CUDA to run on Sparky would be most appreciated .... as an alternative to having to wrestle with Ubuntu 17.10 - the latest distribution nominated by Nvidia for running CUDA

[paxmark1]

I am all for as many as possible to run Sparky in as many circumstances and places as possible, but ...   

If you have the skill set to set up  the software mentioned, you do not necessarily need the apps Sparky has bundled on top of Debian. 

For a focused system with technical challenges, Debian, your choice of RedHat associated variants or Ubuntu are this hobbyist's picks.  Ubuntu would be 3rd easily and CentOS etc. etc. would be second as I have not used them in over a decade.    Of course if NVIDIA supports FreeBSD you could always go in that direction.  What do the bitminers use? 

If you do get Debian, go with the  non-free iso.  You just have to look for it on the Debian pages. Search out if anyone else in Debian has had success with CUDA, bitminers with Debian and CUDA, and the same for the RedHaT universe. 

I recommend you become adept at getting help on irc for your specialized programs and learn how to "paste" command line output into irc's.  Usage of the small command line "inxi" is used much in forums and irc to give  your machine details to others. 

If you use a DE, LXQT will give you a good install of QT5 and is quite lighter than KDE.  If you do go Debian - testing is not in a state of flux, and might be stable enough for your needs.  In 2019 you could keep it at "Buster" and let your machine slide into stable. 

peace out.

added later
 

Fedora 28 Workstation has big news too. For the first time, we're making it easy for users to enable certain third-party software sources, including proprietary Nvidia drivers. We've worked for a long time to figure out the right way to do this without compromising our ideals, and I think the opt-in approach we're trying now does it well. Read more in the Magazine article on third-party repos, and also check out other F28 Workstation news.   

https://fedoramagazine.org/announcing-fedora-28/

Cause friends don't steer friends to Ubuntu  --  note I am a hobbyist and a realist. When I went to the MUUG (Manitoba Unix Users Group) for a few years, (I miss Canada) the majority of the attendees were professionals and the  U of Manitoba and U of W it people used Centos for work and often Fedora for their own boxes.  I do like Debian, I do like Sparky, but ...