this post was submitted on 30 Aug 2023
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Linux 6.6 To Better Protect Against The Illicit Behavior Of NVIDIA's Proprietary Driver (www.phoronix.com)
submitted 1 year ago by pnutzh4x0r@lemmy.ndlug.org to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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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.

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[–] apt_install_coffee@lemmy.ml 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Likely a combination of 4 things:

  1. They have third party firmware in their blobs that they are under NDA regarding the source code.

  2. They believe in the source code is a large part of their success and don't want to reveal it.

  3. They believe giving out the source code will allow many inferior variants of the software, impacting their brand.

  4. Control; the more source code they have in mesa the more of their code can be rejected by mesa. Keeping their stuff as blobs allows them to put in whatever hacks they want.

[–] uis@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

  1. They can open their code without merging into mesa

  2. They don't want you to use "old" GPUs

[–] apt_install_coffee@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sure but why open their code without getting the integration benefits?

[–] uis@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)
  1. Getting to use GPL-only symbols
  2. Still much easier for distros
  3. Example of drivers

And again we are talling about code not being rejected as main goal.