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This is a very important point. In general, Nvidia's relationship with Linux has been... complicated. On the one hand, at least they offer drivers for it. On t

This is a very important point. In general, Nvidia's relationship with Linux has been... complicated. On the one hand, at least they offer drivers for it. On the other, I have found few more reliable ways to irreparably break a Linux installation than trying to install or upgrade those drivers. They don't seem to prioritize it as a first class citizen, more just tolerate it the bare minimum required to claim it works.

stabbles 2y ago
Now that the majority of their revenue is from data centers instead of Windows gaming PCs, you'd think their relationship with Linux should improve or already has.
- lolinder 2y ago
  It's possible. I haven't had a system completely destroyed by Nvidia in the last few years, but I've been assuming that's because I've gotten in the habit of just not touching it once I get it working...
  - pplonski86 2y ago
    I got similar experience. I really prefer switch CUDA version with whole PC machine. What is more, the speed and memory of hardware improves quickly in time as well.
  - godelski 2y ago
    I update drivers regularly. I've only had one display failure and was solved by a simple rollback. To be a bit fair (:/) it was specifically a combination of new beta driver and a newer kernel. It's definitely improved a ton since 10 years ago I just would not update them except very carefully.
    - lolinder 2y ago
      I've bricked multiple systems just running apt install on the Nvidia drivers. I have no idea how, but I run the installation, everything works fine, and then when I reboot I can't even boot. That was years ago, but it happened multiple times and I've been very cautious ever since.
      - godelski 2y ago
        Interesting. I've never had that issue (~15 years experience) but I always had CPUs with graphics drivers. Do you think that might be it? The danger zone was always at `startx` and never before. (I still buy CPUs with graphics drivers because I think it is always good to have a fallback and hey, sometimes I want to sacrifice graphics for GPU compute :)
  - KerrAvon 2y ago
    I have been having a fine time with a 3080 on recent Arch, FWIW. HDR support is still painful, but that seems to be a Linux problem, not specific to Nvidia.
- sangnoir 2y ago
  Nvidia segments its big iron AI hardware from the consumer/prosumer segment. They do this by forbidding the use of GeForce drivers in datacenters[1]. All that to say, it is possible for the H100 to to have excellent Linux support, while support for the 4090 is awful. 1. https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/nvidia-updates-geforce-eula-to-prohibit-data-center-use/ https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/nvidia-updates-ge...
- robhlt 2y ago
  They have been making real improvements the last few years. Most of their proprietary driver code is in firmware now, and the kernel driver is open-source[1] (the userland-side is still closed though). They've also significantly improved support for wayland and stopped trying to force eglstreams on the community. Wayland+nvidia works quite well now, especially after they added explicit sync support. 1. https://github.com/NVIDIA/open-gpu-kernel-modules/ https://github.com/NVIDIA/open-gpu-kernel-modules/
  - jimmySixDOF 2y ago
    >complicated ... as in remember the time a ransomware hacker outfit demanded they release the drivers or else ..... https://www.webpronews.com/open-source-drivers-or-else-nvidia-hackers-make-demands/ https://www.webpronews.com/open-source-drivers-or-else-nvidi...
  - Vilian 2y ago
    Because red hat announced that next RHEl is going tone Wayland only, that why they fixed all that you said, they don't care about users, only servers
dotancohen 2y ago
> Nvidia's relationship with Linux has been... complicated. For those unfamiliar with Linus Torvalds' two-word opinion of Nvidia: https://youtube.com/watch?v=OF_5EKNX0Eg https://youtube.com/watch?v=OF_5EKNX0Eg
- andirk 2y ago
  Wow. Torvalds' distaste for Nvidia from that, albeit 12 year old, clip leaves little to the imagination. Re: gaming GPUs, Windows is their main OS, but is that the main reason why Huang only mentioned Windows in his CES 2025 keynote? Their gaming chips are a small portion of the company now. But they want to focus dev on Windows??
  - rbanffy 2y ago
    Nvidia has its own Linux distribution, DGX OS, based on Ubuntu LTS, but installing other Linux distros on machines with Nvidia GPUs is less than ideal.
FuriouslyAdrift 2y ago
The Digits device runs the same nVidia DGX OS (nVidia custom Ubuntu distro) that they run on their cloud infra.

stabbles 2y ago

Now that the majority of their revenue is from data centers instead of Windows gaming PCs, you'd think their relationship with Linux should improve or already has.

lolinder 2y ago
It's possible. I haven't had a system completely destroyed by Nvidia in the last few years, but I've been assuming that's because I've gotten in the habit of just not touching it once I get it working...
- pplonski86 2y ago
  I got similar experience. I really prefer switch CUDA version with whole PC machine. What is more, the speed and memory of hardware improves quickly in time as well.
- godelski 2y ago
  I update drivers regularly. I've only had one display failure and was solved by a simple rollback. To be a bit fair (:/) it was specifically a combination of new beta driver and a newer kernel. It's definitely improved a ton since 10 years ago I just would not update them except very carefully.
  - lolinder 2y ago
    I've bricked multiple systems just running apt install on the Nvidia drivers. I have no idea how, but I run the installation, everything works fine, and then when I reboot I can't even boot. That was years ago, but it happened multiple times and I've been very cautious ever since.
    - godelski 2y ago
      Interesting. I've never had that issue (~15 years experience) but I always had CPUs with graphics drivers. Do you think that might be it? The danger zone was always at `startx` and never before. (I still buy CPUs with graphics drivers because I think it is always good to have a fallback and hey, sometimes I want to sacrifice graphics for GPU compute :)
- KerrAvon 2y ago
  I have been having a fine time with a 3080 on recent Arch, FWIW. HDR support is still painful, but that seems to be a Linux problem, not specific to Nvidia.
sangnoir 2y ago
Nvidia segments its big iron AI hardware from the consumer/prosumer segment. They do this by forbidding the use of GeForce drivers in datacenters[1]. All that to say, it is possible for the H100 to to have excellent Linux support, while support for the 4090 is awful. 1. https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/nvidia-updates-geforce-eula-to-prohibit-data-center-use/ https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/nvidia-updates-ge...
robhlt 2y ago
They have been making real improvements the last few years. Most of their proprietary driver code is in firmware now, and the kernel driver is open-source[1] (the userland-side is still closed though). They've also significantly improved support for wayland and stopped trying to force eglstreams on the community. Wayland+nvidia works quite well now, especially after they added explicit sync support. 1. https://github.com/NVIDIA/open-gpu-kernel-modules/ https://github.com/NVIDIA/open-gpu-kernel-modules/
- jimmySixDOF 2y ago
  >complicated ... as in remember the time a ransomware hacker outfit demanded they release the drivers or else ..... https://www.webpronews.com/open-source-drivers-or-else-nvidia-hackers-make-demands/ https://www.webpronews.com/open-source-drivers-or-else-nvidi...
- Vilian 2y ago
  Because red hat announced that next RHEl is going tone Wayland only, that why they fixed all that you said, they don't care about users, only servers

dotancohen 2y ago

> Nvidia's relationship with Linux has been... complicated. For those unfamiliar with Linus Torvalds' two-word opinion of Nvidia: https://youtube.com/watch?v=OF_5EKNX0Eg https://youtube.com/watch?v=OF_5EKNX0Eg

andirk 2y ago
Wow. Torvalds' distaste for Nvidia from that, albeit 12 year old, clip leaves little to the imagination. Re: gaming GPUs, Windows is their main OS, but is that the main reason why Huang only mentioned Windows in his CES 2025 keynote? Their gaming chips are a small portion of the company now. But they want to focus dev on Windows??
- rbanffy 2y ago
  Nvidia has its own Linux distribution, DGX OS, based on Ubuntu LTS, but installing other Linux distros on machines with Nvidia GPUs is less than ideal.

FuriouslyAdrift 2y ago

The Digits device runs the same nVidia DGX OS (nVidia custom Ubuntu distro) that they run on their cloud infra.