Aftershock Creator Max with RTX 5090 on Linux

This is going to be my primary research machine for training.

Pre-installation

1. Buy a USB stick, at least 8GB.
2. Buy peripherals if you don’t have any
3. Download Ubuntu
4. Download Balena Etcher

Prepare USB

1. Plug USB stick into MacBook (don’t forget you need an adapter) - side thought: are there USB-C sticks?
2. Install Balena Etcher
3. Open Balena Etcher
4. Click “Flash from file” → select the Ubuntu 24.04 ISO you downloaded
5. Click “Select target” → choose the USB stick
6. Click “Flash!”
7. Eject USB

Boot new machine

1. Start the machine and make sure it is not DOA.
2. Perform Windows setup (setup account, windows updates, etc)
3. (Optional Step) Spend 6h trying to figure out why the GPU is not available
4. (Optional Step) Figure out the reason is the GPU was not plugged in
5. Run Task Manager and verify all components you bought are available and correct (especially the GPU!)

Prepare BIOS

1. Power on workstation, immediately tap Delete key repeatedly to enter BIOS
2. Find Secure Boot setting (location varies by motherboard, usually under “Boot” or “Security” tab)
3. Set Secure Boot to “Disabled”
4. Verify Boot mode is UEFI (not Legacy/CSM) and SATA mode is AHCI
5. Save and exit

Boot from USB

1. With workstation off, plug Ubuntu USB into rear USB port
2. Power on, immediately tap Delete key repeatedly to enter BIOS
3. Navigate to Boot menu / Boot Priority
4. Move the USB drive to the top of boot order
5. Save and exit (F10)
6. Machine reboots, Ubuntu installer launches

Install Ubuntu

1. At welcome screen: select language → English
2. Choose “Install Ubuntu” (not “Try Ubuntu”)
3. Keyboard layout: select your layout (English (US) or English (UK))
4. Network: connect to your network if prompted (ethernet should auto-connect)
5. Updates and software:

• Select “Normal installation”
• Check “Download updates while installing Ubuntu”
• Check “Install third-party software for graphics and Wi-Fi hardware”

Disk Partioning

For this is going to be a dedicated research machine; as tempting as it is to turn this to leave space for a gaming PC, I am going to skip that option (the Switch 2 keeps me busy enough).

1. Select “Erase disk and install Ubuntu”
2. Click “Install Now”
3. Confirm changes when prompted
4. The entire 2TB becomes one Linux partition

Complete installation

The rest of the installation covers timezone and whether I want to install other third party drivers, which I chose to accept so the NVIDIA drivers are all ready to go.

Ubuntu config

1. Run system updates

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y

2. Install essential tools

sudo apt install -y \
  curl wget git \
  build-essential \
  vim htop tmux \
  software-properties-common \
  apt-transport-https \
  ca-certificates \
  gnupg lsb-release

3. Reboot to apply kernel updates

sudo reboot

Install NVIDIA drivers

1. Add ppa drivers repository

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa
sudo apt update

2. Install GPU driver

sudo apt install -y nvidia-driver-595 # apt might suggest a different driver, use that instead

3. Reboot

sudo reboot

4. Validate installation

nvidia-smi

If all goes well you should see your GPU was correctly detected.

I didn’t.

A note on having used Macbooks for 15 years

Macbooks simply work. You can transfer your data from a previous device to your macbook and everything just works. I spent another couple of hours figuring out why Ubuntu couldn’t see my NVIDIA GPU. Eventually I figured out Secure Boot was on and I had to disable it.

Feeling like an imposter right now.

Back to business - set up remote server

I will use this computer as a research machine, mainly SSH’in from my Macbook. More… familiar.

sudo apt install -y openssh-server
sudo systemctl enable --now ssh
sudo systemctl status ssh

Everything green.

Now get the local IP address by running hostname -I. Finally, from the macbook, run ssh <username>@<workstatio-ip> - replace username with yours and add the IP you got on the previous step.