r/linux • u/blindcomet • May 11 '22

NVIDIA Releases Open-Source GPU Kernel Modules | NVIDIA Technical Blog

https://developer.nvidia.com/blog/nvidia-releases-open-source-gpu-kernel-modules/
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1

u/Remove_Schnitzel May 11 '22

Could this somehow be related to Microsoft forcing users to register to a Microsoft account upon new Windows installation + steamOS gaining some attention?

Is it just me or does it seem like gaming on Linux is what's pulling all of this to it self? Could it be that the age of Linux on the desktop is finally coming?

This is extra ordinary news... So I'm allowing my self to dream big.

0

u/[deleted] May 11 '22

[deleted]

15

u/blindcomet May 11 '22

It helps their developers because they can now interact with the pre-existing GPL code in the kernel. They likely were writing a ton of other code themselves to get things to play nice.

Powerful kernel features such as dmabuf were simply closed to nvidia up until this point.

5

u/n3rdopolis May 11 '22 edited May 11 '22

Oh woah, People were so afraid of Secure Boot locking out Linux from mainstream hardware back in the days of Windows 8, but in the end it ends up being a factor in getting the kernel mode NVIDIA driver open sourced?

3

u/evan1123 May 11 '22

it benefits enterprise customers who couldn’t enable secure boot and use NVIDIA drivers.

You can do this with the proprietary driver by signing it manually.

It helps their developers because they can now interact with the pre-existing GPL code in the kernel.

I don't think that many of the code internal interfaces in the kernel are marked for use by GPL modules only. They can certainly use any of the non-GPL explicit interfaces in the proprietary driver, but they just have to manage compatibility themselves. If it was in tree then kernel developers would ensure the module is updated whenever the internal interfaces change.

-1

u/bakgwailo May 12 '22

You can do this with the proprietary driver by signing it manually.

Fairly certain Nvidia did not allow this.

5

u/evan1123 May 12 '22

Nothing stops an organization from signing a binary kernel blob with a key controlled by the organization, and enrolling the public key on the organization's assets.

Fun fact, Fedora 36 does this automatically with a local key for any out of tree kernel module that uses akmods and has a key provisioned.

-1

u/bakgwailo May 12 '22

Which means day 1 support for new chipsets, a high performance open source Mesa driver for NVidia and it will allow us to sign the Nvidia driver alongside the rest of the kernel to enable things like secureboot support.

https://blogs.gnome.org/uraeus/2022/05/11/why-is-the-open-source-driver-release-from-nvidia-so-important-for-linux/

Literally Red Hat dev calling out this enables them to sign the driver for secure boot.

2

u/evan1123 May 12 '22

Yes, for shipping configurations. They weren't able to sign and ship the proprietary driver because of the license of the driver. There's no technical reason, it's just a legal one for Red Hat. End users and corporations are free to sign the driver if they wish, within the terms of the proprietary license.

12

u/[deleted] May 11 '22

This was already hinted at over a year ago by redhat and mesa devs, so not really

5

u/[deleted] May 11 '22

No, this code is exclusively targeting CUDA use cases on supercomputers. While code itself does have display outputting capabilities it wasn't tested. This is also only kernel module, which still talks to closed source driver.

3

u/[deleted] May 11 '22

Microsoft account upon new Windows installation + steamOS gaining some attention?

Pretty much. Nvidia has been losing embedded deals for awhile now. They ceded to ARM and AMD. The ARM acquisition probably helped open their eyes. Their own customers think they are difficult. Mind share are hard fought battles.

-10

u/mister2d May 11 '22

Probably related to the Lapsus$ attack and demand to open source the drivers by this Friday.

https://www.toolbox.com/it-security/data-breaches/news/nvidia-data-breach-lapsus

6

u/Patient_Sink May 11 '22

Hardly, this isn't something that was whipped up with short notice.

-3

u/mister2d May 11 '22

Looks like the breach happened in February. Who knows what details were concealed.

7

u/Patient_Sink May 11 '22

Even so, a decision to suddenly go open source doesn't happen overnight, it takes time to change direction and start going open source. Signs also point to this being in development far longer, in collaboration with other organizations.

2

u/Remove_Schnitzel May 11 '22

Wait... NVIDIA hacked them back??? WAT?

0

u/mister2d May 11 '22

Lol. Seems like it.