Error: NVIDIA-SMI has failed because it couldn't communicate with the NVIDIA driver

Question

The NVIDIA-SMI is throwing this error:

NVIDIA-SMI has failed because it couldn't communicate with the NVIDIA driver. Make sure that the latest NVIDIA driver is installed and running

I purged NVIDIA and installed it again following steps mentioned here.

My device specs are as follows:

• Server with a Tesla M40
• Running on Ubuntu 16.04
• Kernel version Linux 4.4.0-116-generic x86_64
• Driver: nvidia-384

Can someone please help in solving the error?

Answer 1

to download latest driver as of this answer:

    sudo apt install libnvidia-compute-435 libnvidia-compute-435
    sudo apt install libnvidia-gl-435 nvidia-dkms-435 nvidia-kernel-source-435         
    nvidia-utils-435 xserver-xorg-video-nvidia-435 libnvidia-ifr1-435 
    sudo apt install nvidia-driver-435
    sudo reboot

and then:

    nvidia-smi

Answer 2

Note: this answer is from 2018 and works for Ubuntu 16.04, which is very much out-of-date. Don't try this on recent Ubuntu versions.

Try

1. Download the driver from here
2. sudo apt-get purge nvidia* - To remove your current installations
3. dpkg -i nvidia-diag-driver-local-repo-ubuntu1604_375.66-1_amd64.deb - installing what you downloaded earlier
4. sudo apt-get update
5. sudo apt-get install cuda-drivers

After this, go on and reboot your computer. When it's up again, the nvidia-smi command should run smoothly