PyTorch giving cuda runtime error

I have made a slight modification in my code so that it does not use DataParallel and DistributedDataParallel. The code is as follows:

import argparse
import os
import shutil
import time

import torch
import torch.nn as nn
import torch.nn.parallel
import torch.backends.cudnn as cudnn
import torch.distributed as dist
import torch.optim
import torch.utils.data
import torch.utils.data.distributed
import torchvision.transforms as transforms
import torchvision.datasets as datasets
import torchvision.models as models

model_names = sorted(name for name in models.__dict__
    if name.islower() and not name.startswith("__")
    and callable(models.__dict__[name]))

parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='PyTorch ImageNet Training')
parser.add_argument('data', metavar='DIR',
                    help='path to dataset')
parser.add_argument('--arch', '-a', metavar='ARCH', default='resnet18',
                    choices=model_names,
                    help='model architecture: ' +
                        ' | '.join(model_names) +
                        ' (default: resnet18)')
parser.add_argument('-j', '--workers', default=4, type=int, metavar='N',
                    help='number of data loading workers (default: 4)')
parser.add_argument('--epochs', default=90, type=int, metavar='N',
                    help='number of total epochs to run')
parser.add_argument('--start-epoch', default=0, type=int, metavar='N',
                    help='manual epoch number (useful on restarts)')
parser.add_argument('-b', '--batch-size', default=256, type=int,
                    metavar='N', help='mini-batch size (default: 256)')
parser.add_argument('--lr', '--learning-rate', default=0.1, type=float,
                    metavar='LR', help='initial learning rate')
parser.add_argument('--momentum', default=0.9, type=float, metavar='M',
                    help='momentum')
parser.add_argument('--weight-decay', '--wd', default=1e-4, type=float,
                    metavar='W', help='weight decay (default: 1e-4)')
parser.add_argument('--print-freq', '-p', default=10, type=int,
                    metavar='N', help='print frequency (default: 10)')
parser.add_argument('--resume', default='', type=str, metavar='PATH',
                    help='path to latest checkpoint (default: none)')
parser.add_argument('-e', '--evaluate', dest='evaluate', action='store_true',
                    help='evaluate model on validation set')
parser.add_argument('--pretrained', dest='pretrained', action='store_true',
                    help='use pre-trained model')
parser.add_argument('--world-size', default=1, type=int,
                    help='number of distributed processes')
parser.add_argument('--dist-url', default='tcp://224.66.41.62:23456', type=str,
                    help='url used to set up distributed training')
parser.add_argument('--dist-backend', default='gloo', type=str,
                    help='distributed backend')

best_prec1 = 0


def main():
    global args, best_prec1
    args = parser.parse_args()

    args.distributed = args.world_size > 1

    if args.distributed:
        dist.init_process_group(backend=args.dist_backend, init_method=args.dist_url,
                                world_size=args.world_size)

    # create model
    if args.pretrained:
        print("=> using pre-trained model '{}'".format(args.arch))
        model = models.__dict__[args.arch](pretrained=True)
    else:
        print("=> creating model '{}'".format(args.arch))
        model = models.__dict__[args.arch]()

    if not args.distributed:
        if args.arch.startswith('alexnet') or args.arch.startswith('vgg'):
            #model.features = torch.nn.DataParallel(model.features)
            model.cuda()
        #else:
            #model = torch.nn.DataParallel(model).cuda()
    else:
        model.cuda()
        #model = torch.nn.parallel.DistributedDataParallel(model)

    # define loss function (criterion) and optimizer
    criterion = nn.CrossEntropyLoss().cuda()

    optimizer = torch.optim.SGD(model.parameters(), args.lr,
                                momentum=args.momentum,
                                weight_decay=args.weight_decay)

    # optionally resume from a checkpoint
    if args.resume:
        if os.path.isfile(args.resume):
            print("=> loading checkpoint '{}'".format(args.resume))
            checkpoint = torch.load(args.resume)
            args.start_epoch = checkpoint['epoch']
            best_prec1 = checkpoint['best_prec1']
            model.load_state_dict(checkpoint['state_dict'])
            optimizer.load_state_dict(checkpoint['optimizer'])
            print("=> loaded checkpoint '{}' (epoch {})"
                  .format(args.resume, checkpoint['epoch']))
        else:
            print("=> no checkpoint found at '{}'".format(args.resume))

    cudnn.benchmark = True

    # Data loading code
    traindir = os.path.join(args.data, 'train')
    valdir = os.path.join(args.data, 'val')
    normalize = transforms.Normalize(mean=[0.485, 0.456, 0.406],
                                     std=[0.229, 0.224, 0.225])

    train_dataset = datasets.ImageFolder(
        traindir,
        transforms.Compose([
            transforms.RandomSizedCrop(224),
            transforms.RandomHorizontalFlip(),
            transforms.ToTensor(),
            normalize,
        ]))

    if args.distributed:
        train_sampler = torch.utils.data.distributed.DistributedSampler(train_dataset)
    else:
        train_sampler = None

    train_loader = torch.utils.data.DataLoader(
        train_dataset, batch_size=args.batch_size, shuffle=(train_sampler is None),
        num_workers=args.workers, pin_memory=True, sampler=train_sampler)

    val_loader = torch.utils.data.DataLoader(
        datasets.ImageFolder(valdir, transforms.Compose([
            transforms.Scale(256),
            transforms.CenterCrop(224),
            transforms.ToTensor(),
            normalize,
        ])),
        batch_size=args.batch_size, shuffle=False,
        num_workers=args.workers, pin_memory=True)

    if args.evaluate:
        validate(val_loader, model, criterion)
        return

    for epoch in range(args.start_epoch, args.epochs):
        if args.distributed:
            train_sampler.set_epoch(epoch)
        adjust_learning_rate(optimizer, epoch)

        # train for one epoch
        train(train_loader, model, criterion, optimizer, epoch)

        # evaluate on validation set
        prec1 = validate(val_loader, model, criterion)

        # remember best prec@1 and save checkpoint
        is_best = prec1 > best_prec1
        best_prec1 = max(prec1, best_prec1)
        save_checkpoint({
            'epoch': epoch + 1,
            'arch': args.arch,
            'state_dict': model.state_dict(),
            'best_prec1': best_prec1,
            'optimizer' : optimizer.state_dict(),
        }, is_best)


def train(train_loader, model, criterion, optimizer, epoch):
    batch_time = AverageMeter()
    data_time = AverageMeter()
    losses = AverageMeter()
    top1 = AverageMeter()
    top5 = AverageMeter()

    # switch to train mode
    model.train()

    end = time.time()
    for i, (input, target) in enumerate(train_loader):
        # measure data loading time
        data_time.update(time.time() - end)

        target = target.cuda(async=True)
        input_var = torch.autograd.Variable(input)
        target_var = torch.autograd.Variable(target)

        # compute output
        output = model(input_var)
        loss = criterion(output, target_var)

        # measure accuracy and record loss
        prec1, prec5 = accuracy(output.data, target, topk=(1, 5))
        losses.update(loss.data[0], input.size(0))
        top1.update(prec1[0], input.size(0))
        top5.update(prec5[0], input.size(0))

        # compute gradient and do SGD step
        optimizer.zero_grad()
        loss.backward()
        optimizer.step()

        # measure elapsed time
        batch_time.update(time.time() - end)
        end = time.time()

        if i % args.print_freq == 0:
            print('Epoch: [{0}][{1}/{2}]\t'
                  'Time {batch_time.val:.3f} ({batch_time.avg:.3f})\t'
                  'Data {data_time.val:.3f} ({data_time.avg:.3f})\t'
                  'Loss {loss.val:.4f} ({loss.avg:.4f})\t'
                  'Prec@1 {top1.val:.3f} ({top1.avg:.3f})\t'
                  'Prec@5 {top5.val:.3f} ({top5.avg:.3f})'.format(
                   epoch, i, len(train_loader), batch_time=batch_time,
                   data_time=data_time, loss=losses, top1=top1, top5=top5))


def validate(val_loader, model, criterion):
    batch_time = AverageMeter()
    losses = AverageMeter()
    top1 = AverageMeter()
    top5 = AverageMeter()

    # switch to evaluate mode
    model.eval()

    end = time.time()
    for i, (input, target) in enumerate(val_loader):
        target = target.cuda(async=True)
        input_var = torch.autograd.Variable(input, volatile=True)
        target_var = torch.autograd.Variable(target, volatile=True)

        # compute output
        output = model(input_var)
        loss = criterion(output, target_var)

        # measure accuracy and record loss
        prec1, prec5 = accuracy(output.data, target, topk=(1, 5))
        losses.update(loss.data[0], input.size(0))
        top1.update(prec1[0], input.size(0))
        top5.update(prec5[0], input.size(0))

        # measure elapsed time
        batch_time.update(time.time() - end)
        end = time.time()

        if i % args.print_freq == 0:
            print('Test: [{0}/{1}]\t'
                  'Time {batch_time.val:.3f} ({batch_time.avg:.3f})\t'
                  'Loss {loss.val:.4f} ({loss.avg:.4f})\t'
                  'Prec@1 {top1.val:.3f} ({top1.avg:.3f})\t'
                  'Prec@5 {top5.val:.3f} ({top5.avg:.3f})'.format(
                   i, len(val_loader), batch_time=batch_time, loss=losses,
                   top1=top1, top5=top5))

    print(' * Prec@1 {top1.avg:.3f} Prec@5 {top5.avg:.3f}'
          .format(top1=top1, top5=top5))

    return top1.avg


def save_checkpoint(state, is_best, filename='checkpoint.pth.tar'):
    torch.save(state, filename)
    if is_best:
        shutil.copyfile(filename, 'model_best.pth.tar')


class AverageMeter(object):
    """Computes and stores the average and current value"""
    def __init__(self):
        self.reset()

    def reset(self):
        self.val = 0
        self.avg = 0
        self.sum = 0
        self.count = 0

    def update(self, val, n=1):
        self.val = val
        self.sum += val * n
        self.count += n
        self.avg = self.sum / self.count


def adjust_learning_rate(optimizer, epoch):
    """Sets the learning rate to the initial LR decayed by 10 every 30 epochs"""
    lr = args.lr * (0.1 ** (epoch // 30))
    for param_group in optimizer.param_groups:
        param_group['lr'] = lr


def accuracy(output, target, topk=(1,)):
    """Computes the precision@k for the specified values of k"""
    maxk = max(topk)
    batch_size = target.size(0)

    _, pred = output.topk(maxk, 1, True, True)
    pred = pred.t()
    correct = pred.eq(target.view(1, -1).expand_as(pred))

    res = []
    for k in topk:
        correct_k = correct[:k].view(-1).float().sum(0, keepdim=True)
        res.append(correct_k.mul_(100.0 / batch_size))
    return res


if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

And, when I run this code on a set of images with the alexnet neuralnet architecture, it gives a weird cuda error, which is as follows:

=> creating model 'alexnet'
THCudaCheck FAIL file=/pytorch/torch/lib/THC/THCGeneral.c line=70 error=30 : unknown error
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "imagenet2.py", line 319, in <module>
    main()
  File "imagenet2.py", line 87, in main
    model.cuda()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/torch/nn/modules/module.py", line 147, in cuda
    return self._apply(lambda t: t.cuda(device_id))
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/torch/nn/modules/module.py", line 118, in _apply
    module._apply(fn)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/torch/nn/modules/module.py", line 118, in _apply
    module._apply(fn)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/torch/nn/modules/module.py", line 118, in _apply
    module._apply(fn)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/torch/nn/modules/module.py", line 124, in _apply
    param.data = fn(param.data)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/torch/nn/modules/module.py", line 147, in <lambda>
    return self._apply(lambda t: t.cuda(device_id))
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/torch/_utils.py", line 66, in _cuda
    return new_type(self.size()).copy_(self, async)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/torch/cuda/__init__.py", line 266, in _lazy_new
    _lazy_init()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/torch/cuda/__init__.py", line 85, in _lazy_init
    torch._C._cuda_init()
RuntimeError: cuda runtime error (30) : unknown error at /pytorch/torch/lib/THC/THCGeneral.c:70

Command used for running the code: python imagenet.py --world-size 1 --arch 'alexnet' <image_folder>

Where did I go wrong?

PS: Running on an AWS g2.2xlarge Ubuntu instance.

The CUDA version is as follows:

nvcc: NVIDIA (R) Cuda compiler driver
Copyright (c) 2005-2016 NVIDIA Corporation
Built on Tue_Jan_10_13:22:03_CST_2017
Cuda compilation tools, release 8.0, V8.0.61

CUDNN gives useless error messages. For debug, test your net on CPU using net.cpu() or just simple remove the net.cuda(). You will have to do the same with training, validation and output variables.
It seams the problem is that you used pre-trained AlexNet on a images of size different than 224x224. According to the documentation it should work as long as the image size is at least 224x224.
This is probably a tensor shaping problem due to a hard-coded parameter in pytorch's implementation of AlexNet. In vision/torchvision/models/alexnet.py at line 44 it says