Security News > 2022 > May > NVIDIA has open-sourced its Linux GPU kernel drivers

NVIDIA has published the source code of its Linux kernel modules for the R515 driver, allowing developers to provide greater integration, stability, and security for Linux distributions.

The products supported by these drivers include all models built on the Turing and Ampere architecture, released after 2018, including the GeForce 30 and GeForce 20 series, the GTX 1650 and 1660, and data center-grade A series, Tesla, and Quadro RTX. According to the GPU maker, this is a step toward improving its products' experience on the Linux platform, simplifying the integration process in Linux distributions, debugging, and boosting contribution activity.

"Developers can trace into code paths and see how kernel event scheduling is interacting with their workload for faster root-cause debugging. In addition, enterprise software developers can now integrate the driver seamlessly into the customized Linux kernel configured for their project." - NVIDIA. NVIDIA has been criticized heavily in the past for its denial to follow a more open and collaborative approach with the open-source community, so this move comes after many years of pressure.

"The new NVIDIA open-source GPU kernel modules will simplify installs and increase security for Ubuntu users, whether they're AI/ML developers, gamers, or cloud users," commented Cindy Goldberg, VP of Silicon alliances at Canonical.

The development does not make NVIDIA drivers part of the Linux kernel, and no upstream integration can occur.

For the open-source community, it means that we will now have a kernel driver and firmware that allows changing the clocking of the GPU to provide the kind of performance people expect from the NVidia graphics card, and it means that we will have an open-source driver that will have access to the firmware and kernel updates from day one for new generations of NVidia hardware.

News URL

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/linux/nvidia-has-open-sourced-its-linux-gpu-kernel-drivers/