NVIDIA have announced some big changes are coming to their Linux drivers, which will start with the upcoming 560 series.
Writing in an update on the NVIDIA forum they said:
Starting in the release 560 series, it will be recommended to use the open flavor of NVIDIA Linux Kernel Modules wherever possible (Turing or later GPUs, or Ada or later when using GPU virtualization).
If installing from the .run file, installation will detect what GPUs are present and default to installing the open kernel modules if all NVIDIA GPUs in the system can be driven by the open kernel modules. Distribution-specific repackaging of the NVIDIA driver may require additional steps, specific to that packaging, to choose the open flavor.
In the release 560 series, it will still be possible to configure the .run file to install the proprietary flavor of kernel modules, with the
--kernel-module-type=proprietarycommand line option. However, in the future, some GPUs may only be supported with the open flavor.
We still have the 555 Beta to come this month which will bring Explicit Sync support. So this will be the update after that.
Interesting though to see NVIDIA move more and more towards open source. We've seen recently how the former Nouveau driver lead joined NVIDIA and sent a massive patch set, and then we had news that an NVIDIA developer contributed to the open source NVK driver and even on top of that they put up a script for GeForce NOW on Steam Deck.
Certainly an interesting time for the green camp.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
I thought I had seen a lot of news related to Nvidia and open source projects lately. I wonder... Maybe they are involved in a piece of hardware Valve are making? We know Valve want the ability to fix driver issues as they arise which is only possible if the drivers are open source.
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Quoting: lejimsterI thought I had seen a lot of news related to Nvidia and open source projects lately. I wonder... Maybe they are involved in a piece of hardware Valve are making? We know Valve want the ability to fix driver issues as they arise which is only possible if the drivers are open source.either a valve home console, or VR Headset or just steamOS general relase...
i doubt steamdeck 2 will go nvidia
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Woodlandor May 11
The only logical explanation for this is that an army of Penguins boarded a warship to take to the mainland.
They successfully infiltrated Nvidia headquarters and are holding herrings to everyone’s throats.
They successfully infiltrated Nvidia headquarters and are holding herrings to everyone’s throats.
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Quoting: WoodlandorThe only logical explanation for this is that an army of Penguins boarded a warship to take to the mainland.
They successfully infiltrated Nvidia headquarters and are holding herrings to everyone’s throats.
Penguins ftw!
1 Likes, Who?
Quoting: WoodlandorThe only logical explanation for this is that an army of Penguins boarded a warship to take to the mainland.
They successfully infiltrated Nvidia headquarters and are holding herrings to everyone’s throats.
I mean, kinda??? We have ex-Nouveau devs join Nvidia and help with the Nouveau drivers from there...
Like the massive kernel patch Ben Skeggs did, or the NVK patches Arthur Huillet is doing. The latter also have recently released SPH Shader headers on Nvidia Open Docs repository, apparently.
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Quoting: tpauNow we need the same for <turing too :)As much as I would like this, they have to draw the line somewhere when it comes to old architecture support. For them that is Turing, which made its debut in 2019. And as much as I hate to say it, 5 years is pretty typical for hardware support across most industries.
Still, the push for making the open kernel module a 1st class citizen is great news!
3 Likes, Who?
Quoting: lejimsterI thought I had seen a lot of news related to Nvidia and open source projects lately. I wonder... Maybe they are involved in a piece of hardware Valve are making? We know Valve want the ability to fix driver issues as they arise which is only possible if the drivers are open source.
Valve plans to eventually release Steam OS as an iso for desktop computers, and most desktop computers that are capable of playing games have an Nvidia GPU.
Nvidia likes to sell GPU's for PC's to run games. With Linux gaming taking off they don't want to be caught with a seemingly inferior product when AMD GPU's "just work".
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All these pushes in the right direction make me think they were visited by three ghosts at some point.
Happy to see, this means I can keep this GPU in my system for as long as it is useful, which is probably a pretty long time.
Happy to see, this means I can keep this GPU in my system for as long as it is useful, which is probably a pretty long time.
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I love this news.
For guessing why, my thoughts go toward a market larger than handheld gaming: cloud computing, which includes game streaming broadly speaking.
For guessing why, my thoughts go toward a market larger than handheld gaming: cloud computing, which includes game streaming broadly speaking.
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Better late than never. Now the big news will be when they upstream it, and it being accepted in the Linux kernel - and who knows, maybe open source some of their user space software as well!
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Correct me if I am wrong but does this mean that Nvidia will officially be moving to open drivers for all future cards?
If so what about HDMI 2.1 support? Because AMD recently confirmed that the HDMI forum will NOT licence out 2.1 support via the AMD open driver. I don't want to spend out for a monitor when my £2.5k QN95A TV supports VRR 120Hz 4k along with my £1k 7900xtx.
I am just curious because I cannot use Freesync, VRR due to AMD not supporting HDMI 2.1 via the open driver.
I may just switch back to Nvidia with the launch of the 5000 series of cards if this is the case and sell my 7900xtx.
If so what about HDMI 2.1 support? Because AMD recently confirmed that the HDMI forum will NOT licence out 2.1 support via the AMD open driver. I don't want to spend out for a monitor when my £2.5k QN95A TV supports VRR 120Hz 4k along with my £1k 7900xtx.
I am just curious because I cannot use Freesync, VRR due to AMD not supporting HDMI 2.1 via the open driver.
I may just switch back to Nvidia with the launch of the 5000 series of cards if this is the case and sell my 7900xtx.
2 Likes, Who?
Quoting: finaldestCorrect me if I am wrong but does this mean that Nvidia will officially be moving to open drivers for all future cards?Interesting point. Maybe they'll change their minds when it's also Nvidia asking.
If so what about HDMI 2.1 support? Because AMD recently confirmed that the HDMI forum will NOT licence out 2.1 support via the AMD open driver.
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Quoting: finaldestIf so what about HDMI 2.1 support?"Even though AMD might not be able to add support for HDMI 2.1, nouveau certainly will as Nvidia's open source driver _also_ supports HDMI 2.1 so there is no reason to believe that at least some drivers can't support HDMI 2.1
It's quite backwards, but apparently having all the logic inside firmware (like Nvidia does) will probably help us implementing support for HDMI 2.1 🙃"
From Karol Herbst (Red Hat / Nouveau dev)
https://chaos.social/@karolherbst/112014061455305513
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Viesta2015 May 11
Quoting: elmapulQuoting: lejimsterI thought I had seen a lot of news related to Nvidia and open source projects lately. I wonder... Maybe they are involved in a piece of hardware Valve are making? We know Valve want the ability to fix driver issues as they arise which is only possible if the drivers are open source.either a valve home console, or VR Headset or just steamOS general relase...
i doubt steamdeck 2 will go nvidia
Best case scenario would be a valve home console... along with an updated VR Set and have them both separate... it'd allow others to use any piece of VR equipment they wish and use it as a general PC if people wanted. :)
(especially with steam link on quest 3)
1 Likes, Who?
DamonLinuxPL May 11
Quoting: finaldestCorrect me if I am wrong but does this mean that Nvidia will officially be moving to open drivers for all future cards?
If so what about HDMI 2.1 support? Because AMD recently confirmed that the HDMI forum will NOT licence out 2.1 support via the AMD open driver. I don't want to spend out for a monitor when my £2.5k QN95A TV supports VRR 120Hz 4k along with my £1k 7900xtx.
I am just curious because I cannot use Freesync, VRR due to AMD not supporting HDMI 2.1 via the open driver.
I may just switch back to Nvidia with the launch of the 5000 series of cards if this is the case and sell my 7900xtx.
No one know... but seems like you confuse open kernel module with open source driver. What Nvidia now doing is just focusing on open kernel module, whole driver (opengl, Vulkan etc) userspsce is still closed source, proprietary.
8 Likes, Who?
Quoting: Viesta2015Best case scenario would be a valve home console... along with an updated VR Set and have them both separate... it'd allow others to use any piece of VR equipment they wish and use it as a general PC if people wanted. :)Didn't they already try and fail with console hardware by releasing the Steam Link?
(especially with steam link on quest 3)
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Quoting: sprocketFor them that is Turing, which made its debut in 2019.2018. Not a dig, just an FYI.
Last edited by CatKiller on 11 May 2024 at 8:39 pm UTC
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Hate to break it to people, but gaming is irrelevant to Nvidia decision making these days. This is all about GPUs in datacenters for AI and so on. Supporting the open kernel module just makes it more hassle-free for these large scale customers that pretty much all run some custom Linux version.
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