Open-Source NVIDIA Outlook Brighter Due To GSP Firmware, But Major Challenges Remain

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Open-Source NVIDIA Outlook Brighter Due To GSP Firmware, But Major Challenges Remain

Longtime open-source Linux graphics driver developer and DRM subsystem maintainer, David Airlie of Red Hat, took the stage at Linux Plumbers Conference today to talk about Nouveau and the state of the open-source NVIDIA Linux driver...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/LPC-2022-Open-Source-NVIDIA

[tildearrow]

So that unstable ABI thing is the "with an exception" part of NVIDIA's typical open-source moves ("open-source with an exception")...

[loganj]

"NVIDIA will need to commit to a stable GSP firmware ABI" this sounds so strange coming from linux devs considering that proprietary nvndia drivers never worked with newer kernels by default and you had to wait for a new release

[mdedetrich]

"NVIDIA will need to commit to a stable GSP firmware ABI" this sounds so strange coming from linux devs considering that proprietary nvndia drivers never worked with newer kernels by default and you had to wait for a new release

Well in general this entire saga is a song and dance due to Linux not having a stable graphics API.

[oleid]

"NVIDIA will need to commit to a stable GSP firmware ABI" this sounds so strange coming from linux devs considering that proprietary nvndia drivers never worked with newer kernels by default and you had to wait for a new release

Well, if we could include the source code of the firmware within the kernel source code we wouldn't need a stable blob ABI.

[hamishmb]

It's good to know that there is hope

[Danny3]

What about HDMI?
Can we have 4K@120Hz over HDMI 2.1 on Nvidia with open source drivers?

[hotaru]

proprietary nvndia drivers never worked with newer kernels by default and you had to wait for a new release

which is entirely Nvidia's fault. proper drivers get updated with the kernel and don't have that problem. only janky out-of-tree drivers break like that.

[You-]

"NVIDIA will need to commit to a stable GSP firmware ABI" this sounds so strange coming from linux devs considering that proprietary nvndia drivers never worked with newer kernels by default and you had to wait for a new release

The difference here is the burden of support. A Driver in the kernel is "supported" by kernel developers, while an out of tree driver isnt.

[bug77]

If Nvidia started to go open, I'm pretty sure they will get there faster than Nouveau could, even if they had the missing bits for re-clocking now. Nouveau still has its place, but it would be cool if Nvidia's driver was open enough so that Nouveau developers could just close up shop and move over. One can only dream.