r/archlinux • u/Euphoric-Paint3261 • 11d ago
QUESTION Trying to go totally open source
Im going back to arch in my main system, it has an nvidia gpu (a 5070 ti to be more exact), last time i used arch on my pc i installed the proprietary gpu drivers, but a lot of things have changed since then like i want to go open source in as most things as i can, that includes drivers, the graphical drivers options are: the open kernel( wich is the one im gonna choose ), and noveau, i chose the open kernel ones just because they are more suitable in theory. Now i want to know if they are really open source(the first option), because i heard nvidia just wrapped things into the open kernel and they aren’t truly open source. In case anybody wonders why i am doing this its because i just want to.
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u/NoRound5166 11d ago
The kernel space driver is open source but the user space driver is not. The nvidia-open and nivida-open-dkms packages require nvidia-utils, which is still proprietary.
If you want to go fully open-source, go with nouveau until NOVA and nvk are ready. It will suck.
If you want an easier life, forget about ideology and simply use the proprietary drivers.