Installation opt in
The R515 release contains precompiled versions of both the closed-source driver and the open-source kernel modules. These versions are mutually exclusive, and the user can make the choice at install time. The default option ensures that silent installs will pick the optimal path for NVIDIA Volta and older GPUs versus Turing+ GPUs.
Users can build kernel modules from the source code and install them with the relevant user-mode drivers.
Figure 1: Illustration of installation options for the end user to opt-in to open GPU kernel modules and the default path of closed source modules.
Partner ecosystem
NVIDIA has been working with Canonical, Red Hat, and SUSE for better packaging, deployment, and support models for our mutual customers.
Canonical
“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. “As the makers of Ubuntu, the most popular Linux-based operating system for developers, we can now provide even better support to developers working at the cutting edge of AI and ML by enabling even closer integration with NVIDIA GPUs on Ubuntu.”
In the coming months, the NVIDIA Open GPU kernel modules will make their way into the recently launched Canonical Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.
SUSE
“We at SUSE are excited that NVIDIA is releasing their GPU kernel-mode driver as open source. This is a true milestone for the open-source community and accelerated computing. SUSE is proud to be the first major Linux distribution to deliver this breakthrough with SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 SP4 in June. Together, NVIDIA and SUSE power your GPU-accelerated computing needs across cloud, data center, and edge with a secure software supply chain and excellence in support.” — Markus Noga, General Manager, Business Critical Linux at SUSE
Red Hat
“Enterprise open source can spur innovation and improve customers’ experience, something that Red Hat has always championed. We applaud NVIDIA’s decision to open source its GPU kernel driver. Red Hat has collaborated with NVIDIA for many years, and we are excited to see them take this next step. We look forward to bringing these capabilities to our customers and to improve interoperability with NVIDIA hardware.” — Mike McGrath, Vice President, Linux Engineering at Red Hat
Upstream approach
NVIDIA GPU drivers have been designed over the years to share code across operating systems, GPUs and Jetson SOCs so that we can provide a consistent experience across all our supported platforms. The current codebase does not conform to the Linux kernel design conventions and is not a candidate for Linux upstream.
There are plans to work on an upstream approach with the Linux kernel community and partners such as Canonical, Red Hat, and SUSE.
In the meantime, published source code serves as a reference to help improve the Nouveau driver. Nouveau can leverage the same firmware used by the NVIDIA driver, exposing many GPU functionalities, such as clock management and thermal management, bringing new features to the in-tree Nouveau driver.
Stay tuned for more developments in future driver releases and collaboration on GitHub.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I download the R515 driver?
You can download the R515 development driver as part of
CUDA Toolkit 11.7, or from the driver
downloads page under “Beta” drivers. The R515 data center driver will follow in subsequent releases per our usual cadence.
Can open GPU Kernel Modules be distributed?
Yes, the NVIDIA open kernel modules are licensed under a dual GPL/MIT license; and the terms of licenses govern the distribution and repackaging grants.
Will the source for user-mode drivers such as CUDA be published?
These changes are for the kernel modules; while the user-mode components are untouched. So the user-mode will remain closed source and published with pre-built binaries in the driver and the CUDA toolkit.
Which GPUs are supported by Open GPU Kernel Modules?
Open kernel modules support all Ampere and Turing GPUs. Datacenter GPUs are supported for production, and support for GeForce and Workstation GPUs is alpha quality. Please refer to the Datacenter, NVIDIA RTX, and GeForce
product tables for more details (Turing and above have compute capability of 7.5 or greater).
How to report bugs
Problems can be reported through the
GitHub repository issue tracker or through our existing
end-user support forum. Please report security issues through the channels listed on the
GitHub repository security policy.
What is the process for patch submission and SLA/CLA for patches?
We encourage community submissions through pull requests on the GitHub page. The submitted patches will be reviewed and if approved, integrated with possible modifications into a future driver release. Please refer to the
NVIDIA driver lifecycle document.
The published source code is a snapshot generated from a shared codebase, so contributions may not be reflected as separate Git commits in the GitHub repo. We are working on a process for acknowledging community contributions. We also advise against making significant reformatting of the code for the same reasons.
The process for submitting pull requests is described on our
GitHub page and such contributions are covered under the
contributor license agreement (CLA).
More detailed
FAQs are also available on the GitHub page.
