Overview

This platform is based on Ubuntu Server HWE 16.04.2. The following packages will be installed:

• (Optional) bcache
• Basic build environment
• Proprietary Nvidia Driver
• CUDA 8.0 and cuDNN 6.0
• Oracle Java 8
• Python 2.7, PIP, Virtualenv

(Optional) bcache

Ref: https://yq.aliyun.com/articles/60734
Setup caching device, usually your SSD.

make-bcache --help
make-bcache -C -b 1MiB -w 4KiB --discard --cache_replacement_policy=lru /dev/[caching]

Setup backing device, usually your RAID'ed HDDs.

make-bcache -B --writeback -w 4KiB /dev/[backing] --wipe-bcache

Register both of the devices. Seeing error messages for echo is fine.

echo /dev/[caching] > /sys/fs/bcache/register
echo /dev/[backing] > /sys/fs/bcache/register
ll /sys/fs/bcache/ # get the cache set UUID
lsblk # check backing device

Attach caching to backing.

echo [cache set UUID] > /sys/block/bcache0/bcache/attach
cat /sys/block/bcache0/bcache/state 

Format the bcache0 device as EXT4

mkfs.ext4 /dev/bcache0 -m 0 -O extent,uninit_bg -E lazy_itable_init=1 -T largefile

Basic build environment

sudo apt install build-essential cmake pkg-config gfortran

Nvidia Driver

Install the proprietary GPU driver. Use the latest official release instead of the LTS version - usually the LTS version is too old to support the latest cards.

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa
sudo apt -y update
sudo apt -y install nvidia-381 mesa-common-dev freeglut3-dev

Make sure it doesn't load the graphic login session.

sudo systemctl set-default multi-user.target

Install CUDA 8.0 and cuDNN 6.0

sudo ./cuda_8.[..].run --tmpdir=/tmp

Extract cuDNN to the cuda directory. Note: only cards which support CUDA compatibility (cc) 3.0+ could leverage cuDNN, and it covers Kepler, Maxwell, and the latest Pascal. Fermi doesn't support cuDNN.

tar -xvf cudnn-8.0-linux-x64-v6.0.tgz -P /usr/local/cuda

Add the following paths to .bashrc

export PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/cuda-8.0/bin
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:/usr/local/cuda-8.0/lib64

Install Oracle Java 8

Install Oracle Java with its proprietary binary.

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:webupd8team/java
sudo apt -y update
sudo apt -y install oracle-java8-installer

Check Java Compiler version and set default.

javac -version
sudo apt -y install oracle-java8-set-default

Install Python 2.7, PIP, Virtualenv

sudo apt -y install python-pip python-virtualenv