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posted by hubie on Thursday May 12 2022, @10:17PM   Printer-friendly
from the better-very-late-than-never dept.

NVIDIA Transitioning To Official, Open-Source Linux GPU Kernel Driver

The day has finally come: NVIDIA is publishing their Linux GPU kernel modules as open-source! To much excitement and a sign of the times, the embargo has just expired on this super-exciting milestone that many of us have been hoping to see for many years. Over the past two decades NVIDIA has offered great Linux driver support with their proprietary driver stack, but with the success of AMD's open-source driver effort going on for more than a decade, many have been calling for NVIDIA to open up their drivers. Their user-space software is remaining closed-source but as of today they have formally opened up their Linux GPU kernel modules and will be maintaining it moving forward. Here's the scoop on this landmark open-source decision at NVIDIA.

Many have been wondering in recent years what sort of NVIDIA open-source play the company has been working on... Going back to the end of 2019 have been signals of some sort of open-source driver effort and various rumblings have continued since that point. Last month I also pointed out a new open-source kernel driver appearing as part of the NVIDIA Tegra sources. Well, now the embargo has just expired and the lid can be lifted - NVIDIA is providing a fully open-source kernel driver solution for their graphics offerings. This isn't limited to just Tegra or so but spans not only their desktop graphics but is already production-ready for data center GPU usage.


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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by ilsa on Friday May 13 2022, @12:43PM (5 children)

    by ilsa (6082) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 13 2022, @12:43PM (#1244718)

    I question this "great support" Nvidia has provided. Last I checked, the functionality of the linux driver is WAAAY behind that of Windows.

    I would go so far as to say they sabotaged Linux's ability to expand into Laptops by intentionally omitting Optimus support. Having to kill your X session just to switch between graphics chips is flat out unacceptable, especially when Windows has been doing it successfully for a decade.

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  • (Score: 2) by JustNiz on Friday May 13 2022, @02:22PM (1 child)

    by JustNiz (1573) on Friday May 13 2022, @02:22PM (#1244734)

    >> Having to kill your X session

    erm nope. Lots of options documented here:

    https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/NVIDIA_Optimus [archlinux.org]

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by ilsa on Friday May 13 2022, @03:23PM

      by ilsa (6082) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 13 2022, @03:23PM (#1244759)

      erm yup.

      I've already gone down this road. Unless something has changed since I gave up a couple years ago, their Optimus support is woefully incomplete. There are several different ways in which Optimus can be implemented in hardware, but the linux driver only supports one of them.

      I tried putting linux on my gigabyte laptop so I know first hand what kind of a shitshow the Optimus support is.

  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by higuita on Friday May 13 2022, @02:24PM (1 child)

    by higuita (2465) on Friday May 13 2022, @02:24PM (#1244735)

    whatever nvidia and nvidia fans say, the optimus support is a joke... it can work, but is a pain... and if you change ANYTHING, it will fail and lock your computer

    Maybe this open source drive can improve it, but without the user space open too, i really do not believe it

    • (Score: 2) by ilsa on Friday May 13 2022, @03:28PM

      by ilsa (6082) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 13 2022, @03:28PM (#1244761)

      And that's assuming you can even make it work in the first place.

      When I was setting up linux on my gigabyte laptop, I found out the hard way that there are actually multiple ways in which Optimus can be implemented at the hardware level. The windows drivers supports them all. The linux driver supports one, and that isn't the one gigabyte used, so my only choice was to do the switch hardware and restart my X session.

      Needless to say that completely defeated the point of using a laptop, cause the nvidia chip wipes out my battery in 1 hr.

  • (Score: 2) by loonycyborg on Friday May 13 2022, @10:00PM

    by loonycyborg (6905) on Friday May 13 2022, @10:00PM (#1244824)

    Their linux driver seems to be aimed mostly at workstations.