NVIDIA Transitions To Open-Source GPU Kernel Modules With Newest Driver Update At Linux

NVIDIA has announced that it will transition to open-source GPU kernel modules for Linux, with the change coming in an upcoming driver update.

[Press Release]: With the R515 driver, NVIDIA released a set of Linux GPU kernel modules in May 2022 as open source with dual GPL and MIT licensing. The initial release targeted datacenter compute GPUs, with GeForce and Workstation GPUs in an alpha state.

At the time, we announced that more robust and fully-featured GeForce and Workstation Linux support would follow in subsequent releases and the NVIDIA Open Kernel Modules would eventually supplant the closed-source driver.

NVIDIA GPUs share a common driver architecture and capability set. The same driver for your desktop or laptop runs the world’s most advanced AI workloads in the cloud. It’s been incredibly important to us that we get it just right.

Two years on, we’ve achieved equivalent or better application performance with our open-source GPU kernel modules and added substantial new capabilities:

We’re now at a point where transitioning fully to the open-source GPU kernel modules is the right move, and we’re making that change in the upcoming R560 driver release.

Not every GPU is compatible with the open-source GPU kernel modules.

For cutting-edge platforms such as NVIDIA Grace Hopper or NVIDIA Blackwell, you must use the open-source GPU kernel modules. The proprietary drivers are unsupported on these platforms. For newer GPUs from the Turing, Ampere, Ada Lovelace, or Hopper architectures, NVIDIA recommends switching to the open-source GPU kernel modules.

For older GPUs from the Maxwell, Pascal, or Volta architectures, the open-source GPU kernel modules are not compatible with your platform. Continue to use the NVIDIA proprietary driver. For mixed deployments with older and newer GPUs in the same system, continue to use the proprietary driver.

[Journalist's Note]: We reported on this development months ago when the firm was told to go open-source with their upcoming NVIDIA R560 series Linux driver. This move is an attempt to promote an open-source environment at Linux and to give competition to AMD, which has a well-established consumer base on Linux. With the lead developer of Nouveau joining NVIDIA, it looks like future architectures can potentially switch to the newer open-source kernel drivers, given that Team Green stays consistent with the trend.

NVIDIA's blog post also mentions various installation methods for switching from the proprietary driver to the open-source driver, hence you can follow them once the driver update comes in.