Installing GPU drivers on a real-time Linux system

When using MoveIt Pro, you may want to use a dedicated GPU if the scene you are visualizing in the UI is complex or you want to do GPU-accelerated computing tasks like ML inferencing. However, it is typical to run hardware on a real-time operating system to improve hardware performance and robustness to jitter. For some systems (notably ones that include NVIDIA GPUs), there are some extra steps to configure the system to utilize both of these features.

PickNik currently recommends using Debian, as it is easy and free to configure with a real-time kernel. Ubuntu also offers a real-time option but requires Ubuntu Pro membership to use it.

Installing a real-time kernel on Debian

The name of the package is tied to your CPU architecture, but generally follows the pattern linux-image-rt-$ARCH. For example, on x86_64 Debian, open a terminal and run:

sudo apt-get install linux-image-rt-amd64
sudo update-grub2

Then reboot and ensure that your default kernel in your bootloader is now listed as the real-time image described in the command above.

Installing GPU drivers on a real-time system

NVIDIA

To get the most out of your NVIDIA GPU in Linux, you will need to install the drivers. To find the drivers for your particular GPU, visit their driver website and enter your GPU model, OS, and architecture.

Once you have downloaded the driver, you'll see a .run file in your Downloads folder Open a terminal and run

IGNORE_PREEMPT_RT_PRESENCE=1 bash NVIDIA*.run

Then follow the driver installation steps. Once the drivers are installed, you should be able to reboot and use your NVIDIA GPU on your real-time system.

Other manufacturers

Other manufacturers' GPU drivers often require no additional configuration and fairly full-fledged support for them is even included in Linux itself.