News: 0001593247

  ARM Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life (Terry Pratchett, Jingo)

Linux 6.19 Nova Driver Landing Boot42 Support For Next-Gen NVIDIA GPUs

([Nouveau] 5 Hours Ago NVIDIA Boot42)


Along with [1]getting the NVIDIA GSP fully booted and initialized for Ampere GPUs with the Nova driver code coming to Linux 6.19, this next kernel version is also beginning to make preparations for eyeing next-generation NVIDIA GPU support on this open-source driver.

As I wrote about back in October, [2]NVIDIA engineers have begun making Nova driver preparations for next-gen GPUs . In particular, the first step of plumbing "Boot42" support for hardware initialization as a new requirement for post-Blackwell GPUs.

That Boot42 support is now [3]queued in the DRM-Next tree ahead of the Linux 6.19 merge window opening in early December. This doesn't make the NVIDIA Rubin GPU support suddenly all start working nicely but is a step in that direction of next-gen GPU support. Nice to see it happening early and hopefully is an indication of NVIDIA planning to contribute more punctual new hardware support to the open-source Nova driver moving forward. At the same time the Nova driver isn't ready yet for end-users with prior generation GPU support still being brought up and not yet as full-featured as the existing Nouveau open-source driver.

A nice step in the right direction for open-source driver support from NVIDIA.

Another small but worthwhile change for Linux 6.19 is also providing [4]clear error reports when the Nova driver hits an unsupported GPU.



[1] https://www.phoronix.com/news/DRM-Rust-Code-For-Linux-6.19

[2] https://www.phoronix.com/news/NVIDIA-Nova-Next-Gen-Boot42

[3] https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/kernel/-/commit/0ecc08e2c450d9d3aebfc0c093db444d77557469

[4] https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/drm/kernel/-/commit/ce89e3e019f1ec4b11356f35feb8bd8c0f2c6bf7


Young men are fitter to invent than to judge; fitter for execution than for
counsel; and fitter for new projects than for settled business. For the
experience of age, in things that fall within the compass of it, directeth
them; but in new things, abuseth them. The errors of young men are the ruin
of business; but the errors of aged men amount but to this, that more might
have been done, or sooner. Young men, in the conduct and management of
actions, embrace more than they can hold; stir more than they can quiet; fly
to the end, without consideration of the means and degrees; pursue some few
principles which they have chanced upon absurdly; care not how they innovate,
which draws unknown inconveniences; and, that which doubleth all errors, will
not acknowledge or retract them; like an unready horse, that will neither stop
nor turn. Men of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little,
repent too soon, and seldom drive business home to the full period, but
content themselves with a mediocrity of success. Certainly, it is good to
compound employments of both ... because the virtues of either age may correct
the defects of both.
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