Local endomorphism ring

An endomorphism ring is local when its nonunits form a proper two-sided ideal; commutativity is not required. The Fitting lemma gives this property for an indecomposable finite-length module. If two nonunits had an invertible sum, multiplication by its inverse would give $I=f+g$ with noninvertible $f,g$. Fitting makes $f$ nilpotent, so $I-f=g$ would be invertible, a contradiction. Products with a nonunit are nonunits by finite-length injectivity/surjectivity. The quotient by the nonunit ideal is a division ring.