Problem while installing cuda toolkit in ubuntu 18.04

Question

After following all the instructions in CUDA Toolkit 11.1 Downloads, the last instruction

sudo apt-get -y install cuda

doesn't work for me.

Terminal shows this message:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 cuda : Depends: cuda-11-1 (>= 11.1.0) but it is not going to be installed
E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

PS: I have an NVIDIA GTX 1660TI card in my computer.

Any solution please?

Does this answer your question? Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages — karel, Oct 05 '20 at 16:02
Does anything not work after your dpkg -i install, which should have supplied all necessary files? Might have been a cut and paste error on Nvidia's part from their debnetwork install. — ubfan1, Oct 05 '20 at 16:12

score 29 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 10 '21 at 00:31

29

I just ran into this issue and solved it by running the following commands:

sudo apt clean
sudo apt update
sudo apt purge nvidia-* 
sudo apt autoremove
sudo apt install -y cuda

Major thanks to this post on the Nvidia forums.

answered Feb 10 '21 at 00:31

Matt Popovich

459

5

solved it for same issue for cuda 11.3 on Ubuntu 20.04 – rob Apr 30 '21 at 09:01
2

Matt, the post you referenced had apt purge cuda after apt update. Any reason you didn't use that step from the post you referenced? – user1045680 May 11 '21 at 16:23
1

@user1045680 Good question and good point. I normally try to do the least destructive thing possible when debugging things. If it fails, I then try again with more destruction! So I think I first ran it without apt purge cuda to see what would happen... it ended up working, and I posted it! Adding apt purge cuda would be a good second attempt if the above list of commands fails. – Matt Popovich May 12 '21 at 17:25
thanks matt, this solveddd it for me, Ubuntu 20.04 – Kuldip Chaudhari Jul 22 '22 at 15:13
The sudo apt purge nvidia-* syntax doesnt work on zsh terminal. I had to use simple bash. – Souradeep Nanda Aug 06 '22 at 06:51
please revise your answer as i have tried this, on some PCs example(DELL) these command lines will send them through hell of reinstallations and black screens, i have been there myself. so please revise this answer. purging nvidia on DELL alienware will not only purge the graphics but also the wifi adapter. I hope there is a cleaner solution than this. – Karim Sherif Nov 21 '22 at 17:40
FYI, these instructions are missing the contrib step from here. Also need sudo add-apt-repository contrib. Nvidia needs more interns to clean up their docs. – Brian Wiley Feb 03 '23 at 17:12

Roman Prytkov · Answer 2 · 2020-10-08T15:24:04.897

I think the issue is the CUDA driver version. It looks like the installer tries to install the newest version 455.23.05 and the installation actually fails there.

I've solved it by first downloading the local installer and unselecting the CUDA driver installation, so it just installs the toolkit.

wget https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/11.1.0/local_installers/cuda_11.1.0_455.23.05_linux.run
chmod +x cuda_11.1.0_455.23.05_linux.run 
sudo ./cuda_11.1.0_455.23.05_linux.run

In the menu unselect the driver installation: If not already done, add the nvidia repo as per instructions from the official website before installing the driver:

wget https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/ubuntu1804/x86_64/cuda-ubuntu1804.pin
sudo mv cuda-ubuntu1804.pin /etc/apt/preferences.d/cuda-repository-pin-600
sudo apt-key adv --fetch-keys https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/ubuntu1804/x86_64/7fa2af80.pub
sudo add-apt-repository "deb https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/ubuntu1804/x86_64/ /"
sudo apt-get update

Install the CUDA driver 450 manually:

sudo apt-get install cuda-drivers-450

Test by running nvcc -V In case nvcc is not found, don't forget to add it to your PATH: PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/cuda/bin

I just added the "PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/cuda/bin" in my path and it works well now ! Thank you ! — Taha Sherif, Oct 30 '20 at 08:35
Worked like a charm and yes you need setting PATH like Taha mentioned. — drmaa, Feb 19 '21 at 09:28
This really helped. The posts above (and below) talk of purging the machine of Cuda related material. Sadly, that didn't resolve the issue, but this approach did. — Anthony Nash, Oct 18 '21 at 14:24

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 24 '20 at 21:38

3

You have to uninstall any nvidia driver before running sudo apt install -y cuda
To do so, got to "Software & Updates" -> "Additional drivers" -> Using X.Org X (nouveou)

answered Oct 24 '20 at 21:38

d.lime

160
6

1

Actually works. – Update Dec 11 '20 at 02:27

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 11 '21 at 01:32

0

What helped me in resolving this issue is that I installed up to dated version of the nvidia driver with command "sudo apt install nvidia-driver-NNN" and then pointed on it to be used from the Software & Updates - Additional Drivers

answered Jul 11 '21 at 01:32

Levan Tsereteli

1

score 0 · Answer 5 · edited Jan 22 '24 at 09:05

0

For the unmet dependencies, try the following in terminal:

apt --fix-broken install

edited Jan 22 '24 at 09:05

guttermonk

1,004
14
29

answered Jan 19 '24 at 15:56

Adesoji Alu

113

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Mar 24 '24 at 11:45

The command which helped me was this:

apt --fix-broken purge

My problem was some of the Nvidia where hold back in the older version for some reason while the others were updated and because of the compatibility issues everything must have been in the latest version. This was my error message (notice the package versions):

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 cuda-drivers : Depends: cuda-drivers-550 (= 550.54.14-1) but it is not installed
 libnvidia-decode-545 : Depends: libnvidia-compute-545 (= 545.23.08-0ubuntu1) but it is not installed
E: Unmet dependencies. Try 'apt --fix-broken install' with no packages (or specify a solution).

When using apt --fix-broken purge, apt removed all old packages (545) and forced the new packages (550) to be installed and thus everything worked just fine. However, in some cases (like mine), apt couldn't manually remove the purgable packages because it tries to install the new packages on top of the old packages instead of removing all old packages and installing new ones. To fix this, I simply used this command with the packages given by the apt (they are marked with a * next to them). For example, I used this:

dpkg --purge libnvidia-decode-545 libnvidia-encode-545 libnvidia-extra-545 libnvidia-fbc1-545 libnvidia-fbc1-545:i386 nvidia-dkms-545 nvidia-kernel-common-545 nvidia-kernel-source-545 libnvidia-cfg1-545 xserver-xorg-video-nvidia-545

After this, I ran apt --fix-broken purge again and everything worked fine.

score -1 · Answer 7 · answered Apr 25 '21 at 09:02

-1

As in the previous post, I run this for Ubuntu 20.04 Nvidia Quadro P520:

sudo apt clean 
sudo apt update
sudo apt purge nvidia-*

sudo apt autoremove

Reboot your PC and run this:

sudo apt install -y cuda

answered Apr 25 '21 at 09:02

Muhammad Aizzat Zakaria

1

The OP asked about 18.04, will your solution work for this version ? – kanehekili May 08 '21 at 22:56
Seems to be a duplicate solution of my answer... I know you don't have enough reputation to leave comments, but this probably would have been best as a comment "can confirm this works on Ubuntu 20.04 with Nvidia Quadro P520". Glad it worked for you! – Matt Popovich Jul 26 '21 at 18:58
@MattPopovich your answer didn't work for me! I keep getting the error! – Minions Dec 21 '23 at 17:55

Problem while installing cuda toolkit in ubuntu 18.04

7 Answers7