NVIDIA Fully Adopts Open Source GPU Kernel Modules

Back in 2022 NVIDIA announced there open source GPU kernel modules but they weren't the official way to use Nvidia on Linux until very recently but not on the entire Nvidia stack, it requires a bit of thought.

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#Nvidia #Linux #OpenSource #FOSS

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[MrWorshipMe]

Grace Hopper is not a grasshopper. She was a brilliant computer scientist, mathematician, and programmer.

[szaszm_]

Brodie being the only Linux YouTuber who is doing actual due diligence, at least about this topic.

[FatDawlf]

I think the biggest blockers for nvidia opening up their userspace drivers are
1. They're control freaks
2. Cuda
3. NVENC

[ahettinger]

I'm happy using DP on my AMD card. HDMI forum can bite me.

[jean-michelgilbert]

It is an incredibly important component. Nvidia is infamous for not releasing documentation on how their hardware actually works so we, as game developers, are always taking guesses about what Nvidia GPUs do internally. By comparison, AMD hardware is so clearly documented that we can actually refer to their documentation for knowing what the GPU will do with our code (with a seasoning of RenderDoc's disassembly to AMDIL). These open source kernel modules are an opportunity for reverse engineering proper documentation for Nvidia hardware.

[cameronbosch]

I still don't get why Nvidia won't open source the kernel modules of Maxwell & Pascal once they drop them from the propietary drivers. I mean, they'll be probably be old enough...

[anthonywalker]

Ok, so nvk isn't obsolete because the normal driver is still being developed behind closed doors.

[genstian]

Great, and now they have devs internally working on other open source stuff, including NVK and the new red hat driver. And they've released hardware docs. Its looking good for the future, altho we will never see open source CUDA.

[balintmecsei]

A little correction, nvidia-open wasn't added to the main repos after the announcement. It's been in the main repos since 2022. It was added not long after it was released.

[adamgarlow]

HDMI can just stop being the default for TVs and other non-PC devices and everything can be displayport. Actually lets get a new revision of DVI, that was a good connector.

[jean-michelgilbert]

So AMD would never do that but small indie hardware manufacturers have started to unofficially support HDMI without a license by calling it something else on the box and mentioning that it's 100% HDMI compatible in their Discord server. Nobody wants to pay the exorbitant fees of the HDMI Forum. The project I'm thinking of even got themselves a second-hand HDMI-tester on the gray market to make sure they got every timing right in their FPGA implementation.

[tablettablete]

Hey Brodie, can you talk about AMD GPU support situation?

I always hear that it is perfect on Linux, because they provide a FOSS driver.

However, the situation doesn't look that good:

- No HDMI 2.1 (HDMI Consortium is to blame)

- No manual fan control for RDNA3 (despite Windows supporting this)

- No ZeroRPM control for RDNA 3

[bubbles]

I once had to go through a huge number of steps and NDAs to get the PowerVR kernel driver source code and was surprised at how little there is actually is going on there and was amazed at why they considered it proprietary. The userspace code was open source (iirc) and where most of the actual stuff happened.

[nemescontent]

“A blob to support hdmi” your terms are acceptable

[mx]

It's open source, but just not a community project at all.

[tutacat]

Just don't use HDMI. HDMI support DisplayPort video signal from a passive adapter.

[eputty]

just one thing... the nvida-open package on arch is much older than that announcement. it's been there from at least driver release 540.

[merthyr]

My headcanon is that Lapsus$ was the catalyst for anything that Nvidia ever releases to open source.

[mritunjaymusale]

Nah we musn't let HDMI stomp over the FOSS efforts. Remember it's made by the same copyright mafia that tried to make ripping your own Blurays illegal.
Use displayport.

[iamnickdavis]

I appreciate the clarification, i was pretty sure most of the news outlets had no idea what they were talking about