Supported kernel versions?

Graphics / Linux Linux
1

Is there any listing with the driver or in the readme file that tells you which versions of the linux kernel are supported by the nvidia driver?

2

No, but you can read the sources and find appropriate

#if LINUX_VERSION_CODE < KERNEL_VERSION(X, Y, Z)

The latest drivers usually support the latest released stable kernel version or the same version minus one.

3

Unforantly extracting and doing a grep for the line you mentioned really didn’t give a clear indication of what is supported, unless I was wondering for a much older kernel version.

/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-331.79
$ grep -R 'LINUX_VERSION_CODE' *
kernel/conftest.sh:            #if LINUX_VERSION_CODE >= KERNEL_VERSION(2, 6, 0)
kernel/os-interface.c:#define NV_KERNEL_RELEASE    ((LINUX_VERSION_CODE >> 16) & 0x0ff)
kernel/os-interface.c:#define NV_KERNEL_VERSION    ((LINUX_VERSION_CODE >> 8)  & 0x0ff)
kernel/os-interface.c:#define NV_KERNEL_SUBVERSION ((LINUX_VERSION_CODE)       & 0x0ff)
kernel/nv-linux.h:#if LINUX_VERSION_CODE < KERNEL_VERSION(2, 6, 9)
kernel/nv-linux.h:#elif LINUX_VERSION_CODE < KERNEL_VERSION(2, 7, 0)
kernel/nv-linux.h:#elif LINUX_VERSION_CODE >= KERNEL_VERSION(3, 0, 0)
kernel/nv-linux.h:  (LINUX_VERSION_CODE < KERNEL_VERSION(2, 6, 11))
kernel/uvm/conftest.sh:            #if LINUX_VERSION_CODE >= KERNEL_VERSION(2, 6, 0)
kernel/uvm/nvidia_uvm_linux.h:#if LINUX_VERSION_CODE < KERNEL_VERSION(2, 6, 18)
kernel/uvm/nvidia_uvm_linux.h:#elif LINUX_VERSION_CODE < KERNEL_VERSION(2, 7, 0)
kernel/uvm/nvidia_uvm_linux.h:#elif LINUX_VERSION_CODE >= KERNEL_VERSION(3, 0, 0)
kernel/uvm/nvidia_uvm_linux.h:#if LINUX_VERSION_CODE < KERNEL_VERSION(3,8,0)
4

OK, I’ve successfully compiled the latest NVIDIA drivers against kernel 3.15.

5

That’s nice to know but I was more looking for into the future and beyond, I was hoping nvidia themselves would one day list supported kernel versions in their documentation.

6

NVIDIA cannot predict how and when kernel developers will break APIs yet again.

Meanwhile guys at Arch and RPMfusion usually have patches to run all supported NVIDIA drivers on modern kernels.

7

Surely they’d know which kernel their driver works on when they create it, I’m not asking them to predict the future here.

8

Like I already said, current drivers support current kernels.

It seems like you’re asking to ask.

9

Please see my original post, I am asking if it’s in the documentation.

10

There’s no documentation about such support, and I doubt it will ever be.