Enable nvidia-smi permissions to be run by all users

Question

How can I enable nvidia-smi for all users. I can run it as a sudo user, but as a regular user, I get:

Failed to initialize NVML: Insufficient Permissions

Answer 1

I had the problem and here was my solution. Maybe it is helpful to you.

By ll /dev/nvidia* you can find that the devices belong to root and vglusers group.

If you are the same to me, now you should add your user account into the vglusers group.

by usermod -a -G vglusers username (require sudo)

or editing /etc/group and add your username at the end of the line vglusers:x:****:user1,user2,...

Then logout the bash and re-enter.

Notes:

• The group name may be video rather than vglusers; you'll see which name is used when you ll /dev/nvidia*.
• If you are using vncserver, you have to kill the server and restart it because you did not have the permission when you started the vncserver.