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Nvidia releases open-source GPU kernel modules

developer.nvidia.com

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Re: Nvidia releases open-source GPU kernel modules

#41

Post by teekert »

est31 wrote: post #21
teekert wrote: post #2

Nvidia module does not taint kernel anymore!

For the uninitiated: If the linux kernel is asked to load a module with an incompatible license, it's called "tainted": https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/admin-guide/tainted-k...

I saw this message scroll by during booting, somewhere in 2004? I searched for it online and those were my first lessons on foss and the GPL. How great to see this happening. Is it the hack (I don't think so)? Is it the succes of Steam (Deck)? Is is Proton? Deep Learning? Probably all of it…

Re: Nvidia releases open-source GPU kernel modules

#44

Post by samstave »

messe wrote: post #8

Had to do a few doubletakes on this, but even with the recent hacks and progress on NVIDIA releasing Tegra source code, I didn't expect this for another few years. Holy shit. It's even licensed as MIT. Even OpenBSD could conceivably port this with enough manpower. Adding enough just emulation for the userspace driver would be a lot easier than maintaining a complete linux emulator. This is one of the biggest things t…

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Re: Nvidia releases open-source GPU kernel modules

#45

Post by gary_0 »

marcodiego wrote: post #20

Hell is freezing? Serious, does it means we won't need Nouveau anymore? How many and which binary blobs it still needs? Are they encrypted or require signing?

Nouveau is still needed because Nvidia's drivers do not conform to Linux kernel standards, so they can't be upstreamed. Nouveau is conforming, so it still has a reason to exist. Fortunately Nouveau can more easily improve by using Nvidia's now-open source as a reference.

Re: Nvidia releases open-source GPU kernel modules

#46

Post by ladyanita22 »

messe wrote: post #12
weinzierl wrote: post #5

I wonder if it is the result of the LAPSUS$ hack. This was their statement from early March: "After evaluating our position and Nvidia's, we decided to add one more requirement. " "We request that Nvidia commits to completely Open Source (an distribute under a FOSS License) ther GPU drivers for Windows, macOS and Linux, from now on and forever." "If this request is not met, on Friday we will release the complete Sili…

I wonder if that means their userspace drivers will follow soon.

No way they're releasing CUDA or Nvidia RTX code. That'll stay closed source (and I respect that)

Re: Nvidia releases open-source GPU kernel modules

#48

Post by marcodiego »

For those who didn't use Nvidia on linux in the old times:

The driver was a proprietary binary. Since a kernel module requires interfacing with the kernel API, it could be considered a derivative work and a breach of the GPL license. So, Nvidia provided a small open source shim which interfaced between the kernel and the proprietary module.

You had to compile that shim yourself with the right arcane command line incantations and if you did anything wrong, missed the right packages or had an incompatible user space, including libs and compiler, you could end up without X11 and no way to easily run a browser or google about the problem you had. You had to do it EVERY FUCKING TIME YOU UPDATED THE KERNEL!

It was still possible to edit xorg.conf or, if you were older, xf86config by hand to fix it and use the VESA driver, but it was very inconvenient. It became more reliable over the time and even fully automated with DKMS, but I hated them for it.

I used and recommended ATI and INTEL for most of the people I could for a long time because of this.

I was from a time when It was possible to use 3D acceleration on linux with 3dfx with fully open source drivers (I think), giving you a cheap UNIX-like graphical workstation with OpenGL support. When Nvidia bought 3dfx and simply killed their drivers, my hate became specially strong.

EDIT: Remember you had to recompile the shim at every kernel update and replaced "module" with "driver".

Re: Nvidia releases open-source GPU kernel modules

#49

Post by verst »

marcodiego wrote: post #20

Hell is freezing? Serious, does it means we won't need Nouveau anymore? How many and which binary blobs it still needs? Are they encrypted or require signing?

From the linked article:

> The current codebase does not conform to the Linux kernel design conventions and is not a candidate for Linux upstream. [...]

> In the meantime, published source code serves as a reference to help improve the Nouveau driver. Nouveau can leverage the same firmware used by the NVIDIA driver, exposing many GPU functionalities, such as clock management and thermal management, bringing new features to the in-tree Nouveau driver.

Re: Nvidia releases open-source GPU kernel modules

#50

Post by nsajko »

est31 wrote: post #21
teekert wrote: post #2

Nvidia module does not taint kernel anymore!

For the uninitiated: If the linux kernel is asked to load a module with an incompatible license, it's called "tainted": https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/admin-guide/tainted-k...

> load a module with an incompatible license

Loading any out-of-tree module taints the kernel, for example the vbox modules are GPL: https://archlinux.org/packages/community/x86_64/virtualbox-h...

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