after continuously more devs voluntarily work on the open source drivers for NVIDIA - even NVIDIA devs themselves..!
we now hear great news from NVIDIA itself, officially:
some big changes are coming to their Linux drivers, which will start with the upcoming 560 series
Starting in the release 560 series, it will be recommended to use the open flavor of NVIDIA Linux Kernel Modules
http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/550.78/README/kernel_open.html
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=proprietary command line option. However, in the future, some GPUs may only be supported with the open flavor.
https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/unix-graphics-feature-deprecation-schedule/60588
Certainly interesting time:
previously we have seen:
- the former Nouveau driver lead joined NVIDIA and sent a massive patch set
- that an NVIDIA developer contributed to the open source NVK driver read more
- NVIDIA put up a script for GeForce NOW on Steam Deck (linux)
We have even more 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.
https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/merge_requests/29034#note_2403646
after seeing so many good news regarding NVIDIA and linux (open-source), I wonder:
Maybe they are involved in a piece of hardware Valve is making?
We know Valve want the ability to fix driver issues as they arise which is only possible if the drivers are open source.
So many pushes in the right direction - maybe they are hunted by ghosts in the NVIDIA headquarter ?
Waiting for more :D !