(I realise this would be totally unsupported and likely painful). Just wondering if anyone has considered this?

See this thread: [image] DGX Spark - Need resize root partition for headless DGX OS and/or other Linux distros DGX Spark / GB10 Well, well, well, have a look at that: eugr@spark:~$ fastfetch .',;::::;,'. eugr@spark .';:cc…

Thanks for the reply. I was able to get a NixOS (my usual distro) USB image to boot fairly easily, so I’m planning on installing that going forward. I’ll share details soon in case it’s any help to anyone else.

Hi @graham36 I have moved this topic to the DGX Spark / GB10 User Forum > DGX Spark / GB10 . The DGX Spark / GB10 User Forum > DGX Spark / GB10 Projects category is intended for discussion related to projects built on DGX Spark.

With Fedora, I’m experiencing weird issues with LAN, where Ethernet adapter gets disabled on reboot and won’t function until I turn it off completely and then cold boot. I disabled fast boot in BIOS - same thing. I think it’s somehow related to ACPI, but not sure. Also, GPU performance is worse ther…

For the networking part, you need the changes to add the r8127 driver , at least. There are probably quite a few other changes you’d need to cherry-pick to get up to par with the DGX OS kernel; haven’t gone through them and figured out which ones are essential vs. just nice to have.

This is useful, thanks! Any plans to upgrade the kernel in DGX OS to a more modern one? 6.11 is quite old… EDIT: Actually, rtl8127 driver was a part of Linux kernel since 6.16, I believe. It definitely works with my 6.17.5 kernel. The only issue is that it stops working during shutdown cycle, and i…

So far things have been working pretty straightforwardly with NixOS. I put my config here in case anyone is interested: GitHub - graham33/nixos-dgx-spark: Basic NixOS config for the DGX Spark . You can generate a USB image to boot from with that repo.

Does your NIC experience the same behavior as I described, IOW ethernet adapter is not available after reboot? What kernel are you running?

@aplattner is there anything else important for functionality or performance in the Nvidia kernel branch? If so I may try to build it for my NixOS install. Thanks!

@eugr I haven’t actually tried the ethernet adaptor yet, I’ll let you know. I think I’m using 6.17.5 as well.

Has anyone tried an alternative Linux distro?

Accelerated Computing DGX Spark / GB10 User Forum DGX Spark / GB10

cosinus October 27, 2025, 3:19pm 2

See this thread:

Lack of kernel/driver support will make other distros not that much fun. Some don’t even have ARM support.

Topic		Replies	Views
595.58.03 Certified Linux-aarch64 (ARM64) Display Driver and CUDA 13.2 - when for DGX Spark GB10 DGX Spark / GB10 cuda , driver	26	2558	September 22, 2026
New DGX OS 7.4.0 DGX Spark / GB10	39	4261	March 28, 2026
I am EXTREMely disappointed with the current state of DGX Spark DGX Spark / GB10	95	31955	October 23, 2026
DGX Spark - Need resize root partition for headless DGX OS and/or other Linux distros DGX Spark / GB10	23	2174	October 27, 2025
What I've learned so far as a "non-tech" Day 1 DGX Spark adopter DGX Spark / GB10	25	5345	October 30, 2025
DGX Spark (SM121) Software Support is Severely Lacking - Official Roadmap Needed DGX Spark / GB10	43	7791	August 2, 2026
Can DGX Spark work with non-DGX OS? DGX Spark / GB10	7	1533	August 5, 2026
DGX Spark: Could Windows on ARM Support Be Possible, Like RTX Spark, N1X? DGX Spark / GB10 cuda , kernel , driver	67	6955	October 23, 2026
What happened with CUDA 13.2 on DGX Spark? DGX Spark / GB10	9	1333	October 2, 2026
One of Four DGX Sparks Shows ~35% Lower NCCL Bandwidth — Can't Figure Out Why DGX Spark / GB10	49	2730	March 17, 2026

Has anyone tried an alternative Linux distro?

Related topics