I really wish Linux would add GPU driver restarting like windows has. I think 99% of the time my kernel panics on any of my machines it’s because of amdgpu or the intel driver. Though I think windows implements this by having the driver be in userspace like Linux used to do with xorg drivers back in the day?
This is about Nouveau, the reverse engineered drivers, not Nvidia’s official open source drivers… Pretty confusing from just the title.
Aren’t only some kernel modules OSS from nvidia, with the rest staying proprietary?
FYI this is the nouveau driver no one uses. There is absolutely no reason to use an nvidia card and this driver.
I really feel bad for the nouveau developers, it seems like such a thankless job.
Maybe best to avoid NVDA if using Linux, entirely.
My next build is going to be AMD GPU and CPU with nixOS. I heard GPU support for Linux is better with AMD cards, but honestly haven’t delved into it whether it holds any truth or not.
It’s generally easier because the drivers are built in. Nvidia is perfectly usable, but it’s more susceptible to breaking during kernel updates. It’s not as bad as everyone makes it sound though. That said, AMD is usually the way to go on Linux unless your use case requires Nvidia.
The use case is precision CAD and DNN development.
cuDNN+CUDA+TensorCores have the best TOPS/$/kWh performance (for now). Plus, I need ECC VRAM for professional CAD calculations.
There’s plenty of reasons to use an NVIDIA stack.
It’s just weird when people say there’s no reason to use their products.
I use it because I need HDMI :/
Can you explain what you mean by that? You can’t use HDMI with AMD?
Not the newer version of it, they’re stuck on the older one.
Ah right, I have read about that, just forgot. Man HDMI is such a mess. Use Display Port whenever you can and don’t buy a monitor without one ever again.
It really is, most people could probably be using Display Port anyways, unless trying to hook up to a TV I suppose.
The 9070 XT supports HDMI 2.1b, and unfortunately my Sapphire NITRO+ has two of them and two DisplayPorts. None of my three monitors support HDMI 2.0 or 2.1, so one of them is stuck at 60 Hz right now, and I’m pretty annoyed about it.
Display Port ftw
What does that have to do with needing NVIDIA?
The newer versions of HDMI aren’t supported on AMD cards due to licencing issues.
Something about AMD not being able to license the HDMI protocol in a way that allows open source code.
The main Nvidia driver that people use is proprietary, so it doesn’t have that problem
Obviously AMD and Intel don’t include HDMI on their cards.
/s
“perfectly usable” as in you have to install a third party translation layer to make hardware video decoding work on firefox
I also switched to AMD+AMD. The GPU support being better on AMD comes from the Open Source driver that is integrated into Linux. But there are caveats. In example if you need OpenCL or other features, it can be problematic with AMD. Plus, if you have a Nvidia card 20xx series or newer, then you can use the new Open Source driver too. And Nvidia support for Wayland and other stuff got better nowadays (just reading about it, no personal experience with current, my last Nvidia card is 1070).
While I prefer AMD gpu now, the “better support” is not really black and white.
My older previous computer has a GTX 1070 and I don’t use it because I avoid the proprietary driver. If the nouveau driver becomes good, I can use my older secondary computer for something else. Hell, it can even game, but that wouldn’t be my main usage anyway.
So yes, there are people caring about nouveau driver.
With old hardware, beggars can’t be choosers. I get the appeal of the nouveau driver, but if your goal is to save a machine from the landfill, it’s probably the better compromise to use the proprietary driver and keep it actually competitive for as long as possible. Those 900/1000 series cards are still plenty powerful today, even if they can’t quite do AAA gaming anymore.
If you have an Nvidia card then you are going use it. That is a reason.
Not exactly. There are two alternatives, depending on which card you have: a) the proprietary driver, b) the new Open Source driver that supports RTX 20xx series and upwards.
Nouveau seems to work pretty well on Debian 13 for me, at least for standard web browser / streaming / video playback with 2160p HDR tonemapping. Back when I was using Debian 12 Nouveau would lag badly during 2160p playback so I was force to use the Nvidia driver binary at the time. But so far it’s been alright, granted I’ve not tested any gaming and perhaps that’s where Nouveau won’t do as well.
Gonna hold my breath, pls hurry
So there is hope for my old GTX 1070? I don’t want to use the proprietary driver on my old (secondary) computer.
What do you mean? I’m running Linux on a 1070 with minimal issues
I’m sick of the proprietary driver. Especially if using Flatpak and even worse, if you have multiple Kernels installed, especially updating Kernels often on Archlinux. In Flatpak multiple driver versions need to be downloaded (each above 300 MB) and they are always fully downloaded, not partially. With an internet speed that was not too fast it took a lot of time just for Nvidia. And then each Kernel module had to be compiled and build with Kernel updates, which took time with each Kernel update.
Otherwise, running the gpu worked pretty good, that is not my issue with it. There were here and there stuff that was annoying, in example Wayland was not good supported back then.
Nope, 900 and 1000 series have little hope of being properly supported. They require signed firmware which seems to be problem and are not new enough for the “open-source” solution from Nvidia for new cards.
