For newer GPUs from the Turing, Ampere, Ada Lovelace, or Hopper architectures, NVIDIA recommends switching to the open-source GPU kernel modules.
So 20-series onwards.
this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2024
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Yes. Everything older is unsupported in terms of the new Linux stuff anymore. Planned obsolescence yk?
Well their proprietary driver works fine for older hardware.
And 16xx
Yep! My pre-built 1660 super i got years ago is still chugging along amazingly as a streaming device for my steam deck.
Does this mean upcoming distros can have the drivers inbuilt? NVIDIA Cards working out of the box? I'm Out of the Loop.
This has never been an issue. Nothing stops any distro from installing the DKMS drivers at install time. You also have the nouveau driver that can be installed by default if you don't want to ask users to agree to Nvidia's license for proprietary driver use.
You also have the nouveau driver that can be installed by default...
And pretty soon, NVK!
NVK is already usable, performancr isn't 100% of the proprietary driver but I play Overwatch on NVK at 165FPS on my RTX3070 laptop a lot, low settings but very playable. This is with an Optimus configuration (VRR Freesync panel on AMD iGPU) in GNOME Wayland.
oh wow, I have a 3080 TI desktop GPU, I should try it with Overwatch 2 + NVK.
Also: Thanks for OpenRGB. I love it.
Wasn't nova the new driver?
Never heard of that one. NVK is a brand new open source driver that uses features of the RTX series to reverse engineer Nvidia drivers. According to the project team, those features make it much easier than before, but it limits the scope to RTX series cards and onward.
This is a good discussion: https://old.reddit.com/r/linuxquestions/comments/1cqcnr3/whats_the_difference_between_nvidia_open_source/
Essentially, Nova is a kernel level driver and not user level
But apparently people always had issues with NVidia graphics cards on Linux, no matter what driver it is. And the fact that even Mint and Ubuntu don't install the drivers by default tells that there indeed are some legal issues with it.
What kind of issues do they have? I've used gtx970, 1080, rtx3080 and now 3090 and I've never had any issues worth mentioning.
I had all kinds of issues with my 1080 Ti that eventually prompted me to "downgrade" to a 5700XT.
Artefacts, distro updates breaking my system because the graphics driver didn't like it, stuttering, crashes, flickering, extremely poor Wayland support. It made me hate using my PC to be honest.
By all accounts with the newest driver it's basically all resolved, and I'm glad to see Nvidia is finally taking steps to open up their graphics stack, so we're headed in a good direction
...but people really aren't lying when they've been saying Nvidia's Linux support has been substandard.
Not everyone has the issues. I guess they depend on other hardware, driver version, distro, DE etc
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So, it's just the philosophy of FOSS stopping distros from using proprietary?
I'm not sure what distro you've used that was unable to install Nvidia drivers as part of the general OS install process, but it would have been due to needing the user to agree to the proprietary driver's EULA.
I'm using Mint. It doesn't install proprietary Nvidia drivers along the system install. But provides a slick Driver manager where you download proprietary Drivers without any hassle. It does include nouveau during install though.
Yes, this is what I'm explaining. They can't LEGALLY just install it for you without you agreeing to the license, so there needs to be a prompt for that before doing so.
But, what about some Distros have NVIDIA Versions, Which come with proprietary Drivers? Like Nobara, Bazzite, Pop OS..?
They don't have legal issues?
I think its because the country they are based on. I also heard that VLC has lots of codecs (even proprietary ones), because it's origin country doesn't restrict them to use proprietary codecs.
I'm not aware of any distros catering to specific locales in their installers, but maybe that's a thing.
Well, what I really wonder is if because the kernel can include it, if this will make an install more agnostic. Like literally pull my disk out of a gaming nvidia machine, and plug it into my AMD machine with full working graphics. If so this is good for me since I use a usb-c nvme ssd for my os to boot from on my work and home machines and laptops for when I'm not worrying. All three currently have nvidia cards and this works ok. I have some games to chill and take a break. My works core OS for work MDM etc unmodified. I like it that way.
I realise this is not a terribly useful case, but I could see it for graphically optimised VM migrations too not that I have many. Less work in transitioning gives greater flexibility.
this works ok
People said that the new 555 Nvidia drivers works good.
Like literally pull my disk out of a gaming nvidia machine, and plug it into my AMD machine with full working graphics.
This should work already, i switched from nvidia to amd this year by swapping the cards and removing the nvidia drivers some time later.
I guess it's because the drivers only apply to their specific hardware, so no problems having amd and nvidia drivers present at the same time.
The kernel drivers were never an issue, but userspace drivers fixed this many years ago with glvnd.
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I stand with AMD
nvidia transitions fully? that's all i need to hear, good job nvidia 🏳️⚧️🏳️⚧️🏳️⚧️🏳️⚧️🏳️⚧️
No blobs?
Use this bro 
All the proprietary kernel stuff has moved to firmware.
Forgive the stupid question, but what does this mean, exactly? Does it mean Nvidia support on par with that for AMD? Will this enable a release of Bazzite that supports Steam Gaming Mode for Nvidia cards?
It means it will break less on kernel updates. I don’t think it fundamentally changes much else for gaming.
Nvidia, fix power management on open drivers. Then we are talking.
Cries in 1080 ti
Linux using proprietary drivers always feels like a plane using a transmission to me.
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