New NVIDIA Open-Source Linux Kernel Graphics Driver Appears

[phoronix]

Phoronix: New NVIDIA Open-Source Linux Kernel Graphics Driver Appears

Appearing with NVIDIA's latest Linux4Tegra code drop is a new open-source kernel graphics driver not previously published. This driver isn't based on the existing Nouveau driver but rather appears to be derived from their internal driver code-base with some copyright references going back to 90's...

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=NVIDIA-Kernel-Driver-Source

[birdie]

What if NVIDIA has actually yielded to LAPSUS$ demands? That would be truly massive.

Or alternatively considering the entire source code of both their Windows and Linux drivers has been leaked they've finally come to their senses and decided "F it, let's open source the driver". I'm perfectly OK with only the driver being open source and the two versions of user space components - one open (Mesa) and the other one proprietary.

[user1]

What if NVIDIA has actually yielded to LAPSUS$ demands? That would be truly massive.

That were exactly my thoughts.
If this will actually be used for desktop GPU's, now the question is will they adapt it to the Kernel's DRM infrastructure, or will it still remain an out of tree module. Considering the fact that Nvidia also releases their drivers for FreeBSD and Solaris (which is something both Intel and AMD don't do), it's quite obvious that they share code of their Kernel driver across all the operating systems they support, so I think it will most likely remain an out of tree module. But it's still better than having a completely closed source blob.

[ServerGarbage]

Is the hell freezing? Hope it's not a lapsus

[tehehe]

Boring...

[loligans]

This is a good first step, but NVIDIA has a lot to makeup for when it comes to the open sourced community. Overall I'm glad they did this, and I hope they proceed with the Desktop drivers as well. However, at this point I'm a little jaded considering the whole GBM and EGLStreams nonsense.

[birdie]

Boring...

Your post or you as a person? Yes.

[brucethemoose]

What if NVIDIA has actually yielded to LAPSUS$ demands? That would be truly massive.

Nah, I don't think its responding to the Lapsus demands, especially not this soon.


On the other hand, the leak itself probably made the existing decision/effort that much easier.

[adriansev]

The title is such a click-bait )))) i actually looked down in the corner date to make sure it's not 1st april ))))

[birdie]

Nah, I don't think its responding to the Lapsus demands, especially not this soon.


On the other hand, the leak itself probably made the existing decision/effort that much easier.

But what if this leak was not a result of successful hacking but a deliberate attempt of an NVIDIA employee to steer the company towards the open-source path faster?