Ubuntu Setup (Headless)

This guide covers setting up NVIDIA Omniverse in a Docker container on Ubuntu. This is useful for headless simulation, CI/CD, or running on a Linux server (e.g., NVIDIA Thor).

Prerequisites

OS: Ubuntu 20.04 or 22.04
GPU: NVIDIA RTX GPU
Driver: Latest NVIDIA Linux Driver

Step 1: NVIDIA Developer Account & NGC

To access Omniverse container images, you need an NVIDIA NGC account.

Register: Go to ngc.nvidia.com and create an account.
API Key: * Log in to NGC. * Click your user profile (top right) > Setup. * Click Get API Key. * Click Generate API Key. * SAVE THIS KEY. You cannot see it again.

Step 2: Install Docker & NVIDIA Container Toolkit

If you haven’t already, install Docker and the NVIDIA runtime.

# 1. Install Docker
curl https://get.docker.com | sh \
  && sudo systemctl --now enable docker

# 2. Setup NVIDIA Container Toolkit repository
curl -fsSL https://nvidia.github.io/libnvidia-container/gpgkey | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/nvidia-container-toolkit-keyring.gpg \
  && curl -s -L https://nvidia.github.io/libnvidia-container/stable/deb/nvidia-container-toolkit.list | \
    sed 's#deb https://#deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/nvidia-container-toolkit-keyring.gpg] https://#g' | \
    sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nvidia-container-toolkit.list

# 3. Install Toolkit
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y nvidia-container-toolkit

# 4. Configure Docker
sudo nvidia-ctk runtime configure --runtime=docker
sudo systemctl restart docker

Step 3: Log in to NGC Registry

Authenticate Docker with your NGC API key.

# Username is ALWAYS '$oauthtoken'
# Password is your generated API Key
docker login nvcr.io

Step 4: Pull & Run Omniverse Kit

You can now pull Omniverse Kit or Isaac Sim images.

# Example: Pull Isaac Sim (includes Kit)
docker pull nvcr.io/nvidia/isaac-sim:2023.1.1

# Run with GPU support
docker run --name isaac-sim --entrypoint bash -it --gpus all -e "ACCEPT_EULA=Y" --rm --network=host \
    nvcr.io/nvidia/isaac-sim:2023.1.1