NVIDIA's Open-Source Kernel Driver & Maturing Wayland Support Were Great In 2023

[phoronix]

Phoronix: NVIDIA's Open-Source Kernel Driver & Maturing Wayland Support Were Great In 2023

Following the 2023 highlights for Intel and AMD on Linux, here's a look back at the most popular Linux-related NVIDIA news for the past calendar year...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/NVIDIA-2023-Highlights

[elbar]

In some countries there is requirement for open source drivers for certain usage, but practically there is no common folk people doing open source development for this drivers when there is no documentation for its hardware...

But open source has benefits even for nvidia, but such benefits are for me practically limited to make an issue(maybe on github, mesa or something) to tell that there is some bug needed to solve, but I am not specialized to do such development...

If there are open source drivers such open source driver usage may be required, but such the most important thing for me is hassle free drivers. And for that bugs are problems, open source drivers are not required, but filling problems is. And when there is some application form for new developers, why not even for mesa nvidia open source drivers with publicized docs for such developers(under gate of such form)?

developers have problems with signage of CLA, but practically it is brain damage to solve its form application, but when gaining access to public docs, but filling bugs is not under CLA review, then I think that nvidia should get is as a bonus towards its market share for usage when open source drivers are required... and a bonus maybe more traction for angry users wanting to fill bugs when no one listen

[mrg666]

Open source drivers are working fine for me with Plasma Wayland on our server. Much more practical than proprietary driver since game performance is not necessary. I also like the server not running X11 for security (even SDDM is on Wayland). I can directly go to DE instead of console login and start DE. Looking forward to have full 3D acceleration in 2024.

[loganj]

does these open source drivers offer some sort of power management? like limit the power usage? or even a fps cap

[Hibbelharry]

does these open source drivers offer some sort of power management? like limit the power usage? or even a fps cap

That depends heavily on the generation of cards. For Geforce up to Kepler there are some manual controls. For Maxwell to Pascal there is nothing, you're locked to a low power state. For Turing and newer there is some hope, but I don't know the current state of the implementations. Haven't touched those Nvidia cards, always bought Intel/AMD (i)GPUs since some years, they're in my opinion just more painfree and better supported for any Desktop or 3D usecase.

[sarmad]

does these open source drivers offer some sort of power management? like limit the power usage? or even a fps cap

For newer GPUs (RTX 2000 and newer) there is power management through GSP (a binary firmware that runs on the GPU itself), but this is very new code that hasn't made it to a released kernel/mesa yet AFAIK, so we'll have to wait few months before this is in your nearby distro.

[bug77]

Open source drivers are working fine for me with Plasma Wayland on our server. Much more practical than proprietary driver since game performance is not necessary. I also like the server not running X11 for security (even SDDM is on Wayland). I can directly go to DE instead of console login and start DE. Looking forward to have full 3D acceleration in 2024.

Fwiw, Nvidia's driver seems to be working fine with Plasma 6. The problem is, now that Plasma runs fine, I get to see how every other program (e.g. Chromium, Firefox) falls flat on its face when dealing with Wayland.

[mrg666]

Fwiw, Nvidia's driver seems to be working fine with Plasma 6. The problem is, now that Plasma runs fine, I get to see how every other program (e.g. Chromium, Firefox) falls flat on its face when dealing with Wayland.

Both Chromium and Firefox are working with Wayland and xwayland just fine. I know since I tested.

[petete]

Even on the official driver, power management works better on RTX2000 and newer.

On laptops with 2 gpus (intel or amd iGPU, nvidia dGPU), the nvidia part will power off when not used, but on RTX1000 and older it will stay on, sucking battery power.

[bug77]

Both Chromium and Firefox are working with Wayland and xwayland just fine. I know since I tested.

Firefox doesn't display menus properly with 125% scaling on the monitor (it clips them). I remember that because recently I read it gained precisely this feature: fractional Wayland scaling. I don't remember what was Chromium's problem.

It's possible this is caused by Plasma feeding them wrong data, after all Plasma is still in beta, but that was my experience. Mind you, it was leaps and bounds better than last time I tried, 6-9 months ago.