Next year could certainly be interesting in the world of Linux GPU drivers, specifically NVIDIA this time going by a talk they're going to have at the GPU Technology Conference.
On their website (thanks Phoronix) they're listing a session titled "Open Source, Linux Kernel, and NVIDIA", which is being presented by long-time NVIDIA engineer John Hubbard. The title alone is enough to really get you thinking, what exactly are they up to? Then you read the details of the talk, which makes it sound even more exciting and makes me very curious:
We'll report up-to-the-minute developments on NVIDIA's status and activities, and possibly (depending on last-minute developments) a few future plans and directions, regarding our contributions to Linux kernel; supporting Nouveau (the open source kernel driver for NVIDIA GPUs, that is in the Linux kernel), including signed firmware behavior, documentation, and patches; and NVIDIA kernel drivers.
Both AMD and Intel already have their drivers open, with developers paid to work on them and so perhaps NVIDIA will finally follow along? Stranger things have happened, so I wouldn't completely count NVIDIA out on that, although I'm not expecting them to make such a big shift. What do you think they're planning?
GTC is being hosted in San Jose, California and runs from March 23 - 26, 2020. The talk doesn't seem to have a set time or date yet.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Quoting: GuestInteresting. I think that earths polar caps will melt before NVIDIA open up their driver. But we'll see what happens in the next year.Maybe NVIDIA will give us a big surprise in conference and open up their driver code:) One can hope that.But in reality that doesn't happen easily. So my expectations are low...
I don't know why people often think Nvidia has to open up their blob in an effort to support the/an open source driver stack. This, indeed, won't probably ever happen for various reasons.
How about providing documentation and getting that ridiculous firmware situation out of the way?
Quoting: PatolaWon't happen, not in any meaningful way. I doubt NVIDIA will ever allow their buyers to control their own property. They do not allow passthrough virtualization nor high-throughput video recording on their consumer products by purposeful disabling these features on them, letting them enabled only in their corporate GPUs. Example, https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/e47rr7/ever_wanted_something_faster_than_xcomposite_or/ -- just see how long that hack lasts.
Good point and very much this.
Locking the cards by not providing information, controlling the driver stack and restrict them to run only signed firmware is not a coincidence. Nvidia does this to diversify their silicons by software.
A true fully open software stack would simply undermine that endeavor.
Patola is right and it's that simple: Won't happen.
Last edited by sub on 6 December 2019 at 10:32 pm UTC
NVIDIA is not going to do anything with the gaming drivers or firmware. They are going to make it easier to use their NVIDIA cards in machine learning deployments, like "the cloud" and companies with their own data centers... you know, the kind of stuff hackers can rent for 24 hours to crack a DB full of credentials... oh yeah, and more appropriate things like Audi driver aids.
Last edited by const on 7 December 2019 at 1:41 pm UTC
To be honest, sharing this outline as "sort of open-source driver announcement" like Phoronix did is just plain wrong in my opinion and will only lead to further freaking people out due believing in promises Nvidia never made. Other people blindly sharing this news on Reddit etc. will further emphasize this. I really don't like this kind of journalism.
Fortunately the headline and posting here at GoL is a bit more objective. Thanks!
Last edited by jens on 7 December 2019 at 3:33 pm UTC
The force of Nvidia on the market is RTX, G-Sync, Nvenc, Cuda... all proprietary technologies. I don't think they will open their drivers.
But, they can port GeForce Experience, or Geforce Now on Linux...
Last edited by Nasra on 4 January 2020 at 3:09 pm UTC
Quoting: StenkaSteam no support amd mesa vaapi implementation, gaming on Steam link not playable, totally choppy software-rendered, in nvidia simply works.
That's a Steam's problem, not AMD's or anyone else's. VAAPI is standard. OBS supports VAAPI just fine for instance. So use OBS if you need video streaming.
Last edited by Shmerl on 7 December 2019 at 11:23 pm UTC
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