Unix graphics feature deprecation schedule
forums.developer.nvidia.com
Open Linux Kernel Modules Installed by Default 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...
  • woelkchen@lemmy.worldEnglish
    111·
    2 months ago

    The headline is misleading. It’s only about the kernel module. The driver itself will stay proprietary.

    • Jajcus@kbin.social
      61·
      2 months ago

      But this is the part where being open source is most important. For security, maintainability and convenience reasons

      One could even argue if the usespace part, the OpenGl or Vulkan implementation, is still ‘a driver’. (I think it is, at least partially)

      • woelkchen@lemmy.worldEnglish
        9·
        2 months ago

        It’s the part that can legally be distributed with Linux distributions (including in-car OS) due the kernel’s license. The actual functionality is in the proprietary user space driver

      • h3ndrik@feddit.deEnglish
        3·
        2 months ago

        I’m not sure. Didn’t they just move the code that was previously executed in the proprietary kernel module to the new also proprietary userspace driver that’s just connected to the hardware by this new and open source wrapper module? And the other half into firmware? It’s still arbitrary and closed code that gets forwarded to the hardware. And running there it has access to all the memory, screen content etc… I’m not sure if this is a win concerning security. I think it’s pretty much unchanged.

        But there are several big advantages. Now the kernel probably won’t get tainted any longer and we can have signed kernels and activate secure boot easily. And that’s maybe a big plus for security. And I hope we’ll get the convenience, too. In the past I had the NVidia driver crap out on me while debugging stuff with recent kernel versions or release candidates. And NVidia was lagging behind, leaving me with a console instead of the desktop environment…

        • Jajcus@kbin.social
          3·
          2 months ago

          Didn’t they just move the code that was previously executed in the proprietary kernel module to the new also proprietary userspace driver

          Probably. And that is exactly what was expected from them since the beginning of their Linux drivers. Kernel is not a place for such big and proprietary piece of code. So this is the important change.

          Yes, the driver is still proprietary, but it does not break the kernel any more the way it did.

          • h3ndrik@feddit.deEnglish
            2·
            2 months ago

            it does not break the kernel any more the way it did.

            Hehe, yeah that’d be hard to achieve.

  • FreeLikeGNU@lemmy.worldEnglish
    14·
    2 months ago

    I guess this means that not having to rely on dkms for hardware means being able to run the latest kernels without the hardware being disabled.

    • jbkEnglish
      7·
      2 months ago

      It’s not likely that the driver will be mainlined anytime soon, so no. It’s the same as with the proprietary kernel driver, except maybe some being able to patch problems with newer kernel versions by themselves.