How to Fix CUDA GCC Unsuported Versions on Linux
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When compiling CUDA programs on Linux, you might encounter compatibility issues between the NVIDIA CUDA Compiler (nvcc) and newer versions GCC. This conflict arises because nvcc has specific GCC version requirements, and using an unsupported GCC version can lead to compilation errors, as the one described below:
$ nvcc -ccbin g++ -m64 -gencode arch=compute_50,code=sm_50 -gencode arch=compute_52,code=sm_52 -gencode arch=compute_60,code=sm_60 -gencode arch=compute_61,code=sm_61 -gencode arch=compute_70,code=sm_70 -gencode arch=compute_75,code=sm_75 -gencode arch=compute_80,code=sm_80 -gencode arch=compute_86,code=sm_86 -gencode arch=compute_89,code=sm_89 -gencode arch=compute_90,code=sm_90 -gencode arch=compute_90,code=compute_90 sample.cu -o sample
In file included from /usr/local/cuda/include/cuda_runtime.h:82,
from <command-line>:
/usr/local/cuda/include/crt/host_config.h:143:2: error: #error -- unsupported GNU version! gcc versions later than 13 are not supported! The nvcc flag '-allow-unsupported-compiler' can be used to override this version check; however, using an unsupported host compiler may cause compilation failure or incorrect run time execution. Use at your own risk.
143 | #error -- unsupported GNU version! gcc versions later than 13 are not supported! The nvcc flag '-allow-unsupported-compiler' can be used to override this version check; however, using an unsupported host compiler may cause compilation failure or incorrect run time execution. Use at your own risk.
| ^~~~~
make: *** [Makefile:2: all] Error 1
To solve this, we need to use an older version of GCC (usually it is an older version, but if our Linux systems comes with a very old GCC, we will need to upgrade it). A good and easy way to obtain this is via spack.
Setting up spack:
$ mkdir -p ~/bin
$ cd ~/bin/
$ git clone -c feature.manyFiles=true --depth=2 https://github.com/spack/spack.git
$ cd spack/bin
I also setup the environment in the ~/.bashrc file.
## Spack
source $HOME/bin/spack/share/spack/setup-env.sh
Install GCC 12.3.0
$ spack install gcc@12.3.0
After the installation, we need to load it:
$ spack load gcc@12.3.0
$ gcc --version
gcc (Spack GCC) 12.3.0
Copyright (C) 2022 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO
warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
Now we can compile our CUDA programs.