yeah, this can be a "fun" experience requiring much patience.
can you provide links to the tips and tricks you used?
here's some stuff I found.
For Cuda:
https://d3adbra1n.wordpress.com/2014/05/03/cuda-miner-installation-on-a-fresh-ubuntu-14-04-lts/and of course it took me until install attempt #12 to realize you can just hit ctrl-c to get through that stupid long license agreement.
I also found that updating linux (with sudo apt update, then upgrade or whatever) constantly causes my miners to get killed. I've managed to recover by just reinstalling Cuda (I think). I also reinstall the drivers, but the cuda install is what finally gets it going again.
