Plans for Nvidia Proprietary Driver Going Forward from 6.6?

Makes sense, thanks.

Hmmm that is terrible news…So if I want to stay on Linux I’m “forced” to switch to an ADM GPU in a couple of months? (or will not be able to update anymore?)

I read that today and groaned. My main machine is a ROG Strix laptop with built in nvGPU shared with the intel. At least I can force it to run in Intel mode…no more duke nukem for me!

What does this mean for the end user in practice?

Well–In my case- I’ve bought an Intel Arc A750 to play around with & as soon as it gets here, I’m selling my RTX3070 on eBay…

The handwriting is on the wall—Nvidia has been very heavy-handed over the years–I stayed with them because of gaming, but if it is going down the way it looks…in the choice between AMD & Intel…well, I am interested in where the Intel driver is going.

Can someone explain the underlying issue?
From the linked article it seems Nvidia’s driver was pretending to be GPL licensed. Why would they do that, what’s the benefit?
and what does this have to do with “DMCA circumvention of access controls lawsuits”?

Well–I don’t like the underhanded way Nvidia is handling this…making calls via a “legit” module for “non-legit” calls just sets me the wrong way…If they want to keep things hidden…OK, but say so upfront & create a kernel fork that allows it.

As for the “out-of-the-side-of-the-mouth” lawsuit cruft…doing an EULA that holds them harmless would work as well…They “think” that they are above reproach & can’t be bothered with doing things the “right way”.

In either case…I’m selling my RTX 3070 this weekend as soon as I get the Intel A750 spec’d into my system…and good riddance.

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I agree the deception is bad, but I don’t understand why it is necessary. What do they gain from it?

You could switch to the LTS kernel until there is an upgrade to the next LTS kernel which version that is I don’t know out of the top of my head. I’m using the LTS kernel because I see no need to be using the mainline kernel for myself.

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Keeping their “Trade” secrets-----secret.

So does this mean when the kernel hits 6.6 my GTX 1060 won’t work? I just can’t see this happening or Nvidia might as well quit making graphics cards…

Well…I’ve just put my RTX 3070 up on eBay…have got the Intel Arc A750 all setup…Everything I normally use is working almost as well or slightly better…Steam works–slightly lower frame rates, but still well within useability. BOINC required the most work…changing from CUDA computing to OpenCL computing took a bit longer than I expected, but is now pumping out work units & “seems” to be faster than the CUDA system.

I started with a A750 because it was a VERY reasonable cost used…I’ll be moving to a A770 or whatever Intel puts out next year… The driver seems to work without any problems so far…and Wayland was SO easy…Lightyears away from the problem it has with Nvidia. Looking forward to seeing how the new Xe driver works…The old i915 is not bad at all so far.

In short…the process was simpler than I expected…Install the additional Intel stuff, shut down/install the A750, reboot & uninstall the nvidia stuff & reboot again to finish…Done.

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Not really looking forward to the 6.6 release if that basically means I have to buy an AMD GPU in advance, sell my fairly new 4080 and reinstall my whole OS (Not really sure if I would be able to remove everything NVIDIA related if I don’t do a fresh install…)

I find it amusing that people who profess to value open source software bought into Nvidia tech when Nvidia has a long history of giving the middle finger to open source development. The way forward should be clear: transition away from Nvidia products. Since Nvidia values their privacy and produces products for closed source operating systems, if you wish to use Nvidia, use an operating system that Nvidia wholeheartedly supports. The rules of the Linux world do not change: buy hardware that Linux supports and from companies that support open source development. Its always been that way. :smile:

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While I respect your viewpoint on prioritizing open-source support, it’s crucial to understand that not all decisions are black and white. For those of us deep into AI-related tasks, AMD and their ROCm aren’t quite on par with NVIDIA’s CUDA just yet. Yes, NVIDIA’s approach to the open-source community leaves much to be desired, but the practicalities of our work sometimes necessitate choices that aren’t ideal in terms of open-source ethos.

Switching back to Windows? I can confidently say I’m not going back to that OS anytime soon. If we take your argument to its logical conclusion, it might suggest that Windows is the superior OS for AI tasks, making Linux unsuitable. But we both know that’s not the case.

I get where you’re coming from, advocating for open-source support. But it’s essential to recognize the nuances and specific needs of each user before making blanket recommendations. Let’s not oversimplify the complexities many of us face in our professional and personal tech choices.

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I would say: Don’t panic. Nvidia will find a way to make the drivers work. Give them a few weeks to adept to the new kernel. This happens every once in a while with a new kernel. It even happens to ZFS which is under an open source license (CDDL). But that doesnt matter for the kernel devs. They consider anything which is not GPL as proprietary, tainting the kernel.

What concerns me here the most is actually that the kernel devs take away the freedom from the user to use the software as they want it. If the user wants to use nvidia software along with the kernel it is totally legal. There is no license infringement on the user side. It can never be. The GPL2 allows the user to do anything(!) with the software as long as it is not distributed.

So this whole EXPORT_SYMBOL_GPL thing is targeted towards distributors. It has no legal consequence for end users. But it affects end users big time, at least those who want to use non-GPL software together with the kernel. I see this very critical.

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It is easy. Just use use the utility to go back to nouveau. Reboot and make sure all looks good then power down and swap the card out. What I did and didn’t have to reinstall the whole shooting match.

I’m more worried about all the utility stuff that I have installed that is NVIDIA/CUDA specific. I’m pretty sure the utility will not remove this and I don’t know how this will affect my system if I keep this installed. Would also have to re-install Steam I guess. I would prefer to keep my current install but I’m not sure if it will go that well if I do.

Install the LTS kernel now and then start booting off it once 6.6 is released.

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I’ve got the removal …it’s really not very hard.

Run first  sudo pacman -Rns nvidia{,-utils}  check that nvidia-hook is removed
Then verify----
/etc/modules-load.d  removed nvidia-tweaks
/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d  removed 10-nvidia.conf
/etc/mkinitcpio.conf  removed MODULES="nvidia nvidia_modeset nvidia_uvm nvidia_drm" 
should look like:  MODULES=""  then do: sudo mkinitcpio -P
/user/share/nvidia  removed
/user/share/X11/xorg.conf.d  removed 10-nvidia-drm-outputclass.conf

pacman -Q | grep  nvidia (before to check & afterward to check)

lib32-nvidia-utils 535.104.05-1
nvidia-dkms 535.104.05-1
nvidia-hook 1.3-1
nvidia-inst 23-7
nvidia-installer-common 23-7
nvidia-settings 535.104.05-1
nvidia-tweaks 525-2
nvidia-utils 535.104.05-1

That is it…no more Taint in the kernel…