NVIDIA Grace Blackwell + Canonical Support

Documentation
1

As of November 2025, here are Canonical’s recommendations for software use for both pre-production and production samples of NVIDIA Grace Blackwell rack-scale systems, including GB200 NVL72 and GB300 NVL72 systems (this does not apply to Grace Blackwell desktop systems, like the DGX Spark or the DGX Station)

Component Source
Operating System Ubuntu 24.04 LTS2
Kernel linux-nvidia-64k-hwe-24.041, 2 (see installation instructions below)
GPU Drivers r580 open-source driver series (see installation instructions below)

Instructions

Installing the -nvidia HWE Kernel
  1. Install Ubuntu 24.04 using the generic installer
  2. After install and reboot, install the linux-nvidia-hwe or linux-nvidia-64k-hwe3 kernel:
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install linux-nvidia-64k-hwe-24.04
  1. Reboot:
$ sudo reboot

After the machine has restarted, you can verify your kernel version by running

$ uname -r
Installing the NVIDIA r580 GPU Drivers
  1. For driver installation, we leverage ubuntu-drivers to automatically match modules to your kernel.
sudo ubuntu-drivers install --gpgpu nvidia:580-server-open
  1. Install the matching utilities package, Fabric Manager, and NVSwitch Configuration and Query Library
sudo apt update
sudo apt install nvidia-utils-580-server nvidia-fabricmanager-580 libnvidia-nscq-580

Footnotes

1As of November 2025, the 24.04 HWE kernel version is 6.14.

2Please note that end-user support on OEM derivatives is limited to certified hardware. Please see ubuntu.com/certified for a list of certified SKUs.

About Ubuntu Server Certification Programs

  • Learn more here.
  • Make your hardware stand out. Talk to us about certifying your products. Learn more about becoming certified.
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