This is the open-source version of the kernel module needed by the
proprietary binary nvidia driver. It is provided as an alterative to
the nvidia-kernel SBo script that builds the modules from the binary
Nvidia package. Note that it CANNOT be installed with the
nvidia-kernel package, but you will still need the nvidia-driver
package from SlackBuilds.org.
To build the package for a kernel different from the running one,
start the script setting the KERNEL variable as in
KERNEL=4.6.3 ./nvidia-open-kernel.SlackBuild
A default config file is placed at
/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-nvidia.conf
to make sure that X loads the nvidia module. If you need to make
changes, move that file to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ and edit the copy.
You do not need this file at all if you have a proper and complete
xorg.conf.
The xf86-video-nouveau-blacklist package from /extra is required.
NOTES (quoted from the Nvidia driver README)
"The open flavor of kernel modules supports Turing, Ampere, and
forward. The open kernel modules cannot support GPUs before Turing,
because the open kernel modules depend on the GPU System Processor
(GSP) first introduced in Turing.
"Most features of the Linux GPU driver are supported with the open
flavor of kernel modules, including CUDA, Vulkan, OpenGL, OptiX, and
X11. G-Sync with desktop GPUs is supported. Suspend, Hibernate,
and Resume power management is supported, as is Run Time D3 (RTD3) on
Ampere and later GPUs. However, in the current release, some display
and graphics features (notably: SLI, G-Sync on notebooks, preserving
video memory across power management events with
NVreg_PreserveVideoMemoryAllocations set) and NVIDIA virtual GPU
(vGPU), are not yet supported. These features will be added in
upcoming driver releases.
"Use of the open kernel modules on GeForce and Workstation GPUs should
be considered alpha-quality in this release due to the missing features
listed above."
To use this module on these GPUs, pass GEFORCE=yes to the script.
PLEASE NOTE that ffmpeg hardware video encoding will NOT work with this
module. If you need this functionality, you MUST use the nvidia-kernel
script which builds from the proprietary release package.
After installation, you will need to reboot your computer for the
changes to take effect.
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