pnutzh4x0rAug 30, 2023

Linux 6.6 To Better Protect Against The Illicit Behavior Of NVIDIA's Proprietary Driver

https://lemmy.ndlug.org/post/135674

Linux 6.6 To Better Protect Against The Illicit Behavior Of NVIDIA's Proprietary Driver - NDLUG

> Luis Chamberlain sent out the modules changes today for the Linux 6.6 merge window. Most notable with the modules update is a change that better builds up the defenses against NVIDIA’s proprietary kernel driver from using GPL-only symbols. Or in other words, bits that only true open-source drivers should be utilizing and not proprietary kernel drivers like NVIDIA’s default Linux driver in respecting the original kernel code author’s intent. > Back in 2020 when the original defense was added, NVIDIA recommended avoiding the Linux 5.9 for the time being. They ended up having a supported driver several weeks later. It will be interesting to see this time how long Linux 6.6+ thwarts their kernel driver.

Show thread𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒏Aug 30, 2023

Oh wow the comments on this one are bonkers.

From what I understand (because it wasn’t clear from either of the TLDRs posted here) Nvidia’s proprietary graphics driver has been calling parts of the kernel that they shouldn’t be, because their driver is closed source.

These seem to be parts of the kernel that another company may own patents to, but has only licensed it to the kernel for free use with GPL open source code only, i.e. closed source/proprietary code is not allowed to use it.

Nvidia seems to have open sourced a tiny communication shim to try and bypass this restriction, so their closed source driver talks to the shim, and the shim talks to the restricted code in the kernel, that Nvidia does not have a license to use. This is a DMCA violation, hence why the Kernel devs are putting in preventions to block the shim, as far as I can see.

I don’t understand the small minority of commenters there defending a la soulless corp Nvidia, who is blatantly in the wrong here. Some commenters have gone as far as to call the Linux kernel maintainers “zealots”, would not be surprised if they are alts for Nvidia devs…

Show threadTetsuoAug 30, 2023

Just a perspective on why people would support NVIDIA here:

  • They don’t believe in copyright law so they don’t mind whoever infringe on them. Especially since here it would make the proprietary driver work better.

  • They do care about copyright law but think having a working driver outweighs respecting them.

Not my opinion here just saying that for some people usability trumps any other aspects.

Show threadBaconIsAVegAug 30, 2023

Also, some of us are using Nvidia because we rely on software that doesn’t work on AMD. I really enjoy using Linux, but if it’s going to make my life difficult I’ll go back to using Windows with WSL.

I agree Nvidia should resolve the licensing issues, but man GPL zealots get a such a raging hard-on for anything Nvidia related it’s funny to watch.

Show threadSemperverusAug 30, 2023
Them becoming raging zealots is kind of the only realistic way to defend the GPL though. If they don’t, it’s just going to get treated like toilet paper. I’d much rather have the angry hate mob than to be disrespected by big companies who can otherwise just get away with whatever they want.
Show threadBURN
And I’d like hardware that works, and proprietary drivers are really the only way that happens
Aug 30, 2023 at 3:32pmWeb
Show threadSkyeStarfallAug 30, 2023

Ehm, not at all??

There’s so much hardware with non-proprietary drivers.

Show threadProgrammingSocksAug 30, 2023
AMD and Intel both have fully featured, full performance open source graphics drivers.
Show threadCynetri (he/any)Aug 30, 2023
Not to knock on your point but the AMD drivers on Linux don’t support hardware video encoding unfortunately, so technically it’s not full-featured
Show threadyum13241Aug 31, 2023
Depends on your distro. Fedora and Manjaro removed it.
Show threadKevinAug 31, 2023
I take advantage of hardware video encoding on linux with amd’s open source drivers almost every day.
Show threadCynetri (he/any)Aug 31, 2023
I probably sbould’ve specified H.264/H.265, unless I’m missing something?
Show threadCaptainAnikiAug 31, 2023

You’re still wrong.

wiki.archlinux.org/…/Hardware_video_acceleration

Hardware video acceleration - ArchWiki

Show threadCynetri (he/any)Sep 1, 2023
I have a 6800 XT, is there something I have to enable somewhere? I could’ve sworn it was missing because h264/265 had licensing weirdness going on but idk
Show threadCaptainAnikiSep 1, 2023

No idea.

Start here.

wiki.archlinux.org/…/Hardware_video_acceleration#…

Very rarely are arch docs directly related to only Arch and generally the best overall Linux documentation

Hardware video acceleration - ArchWiki

Show threadKevinSep 1, 2023
h264 and h265 work- check the va-api table to see what’s supported: wiki.archlinux.org/…/Hardware_video_acceleration
Hardware video acceleration - ArchWiki

Show threadNibodhikaAug 31, 2023
Why do you think that? Companies can open source their drivers at will, in fact at this point NVIDIA is the only major player in GPU market who hasn’t done this, what do you think makes this particular hardware so special that needs a closed source driver when every other competitor doesn’t? In fact what could possibly be the reason for a driver to need to be closed source?
Show threadCaptainAnikiAug 31, 2023
Where the fuck do you morons come up with this shit?