Nvidia Driver question on LINUX compat.

drsnx60

drsnx60

Im testing Alfonso Siciliano's "desktop" KDE environment installation script.

I find that the nvidia.ko driver loads the linux.ko driver but not the linux64.ko driver
regardless if the ' enable_linux="YES" ' statment exist or not in /etc/rc.conf.
the Linux OPTION in the NVIDIA driver is "ON" in the package supplied from the REPO, as expected.


# pkg info nvidia-kmod-580.119.02.1500068_1
nvidia-kmod-580.119.02.1500068_1
Name : nvidia-kmod
Version : 580.119.02.1500068_1
Installed on : Wed Feb 11 07:58:28 2026 CET
Origin : x11/nvidia-kmod
Architecture : FreeBSD:15:amd64
Prefix : /usr/local
Categories : kld x11
Licenses : NVIDIA
Maintainer : x11@FreeBSD.org
WWW : https://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html
Comment : kmod part of NVidia graphics card binary drivers for hardware OpenGL rendering
Options :
ACPI_PM : on
LINUX : on
WBINVD : off


With linux_enable=YES in rc.conf module linux64.ko is loaded as well.

Why is NVIDIA driver only loading 32-bit linux module ?


Secondly : the Pkg-message file for the nvidia-kmod driver seems to be outdated with
info that is nolonger correct .

why does it tell us to add linux_enable="YES" to /etc/rc.conf if its autoloaded ?
It has old info on nvidia-modeset which now has been replaced by nvidia-drm.

# sysrc kld_list+=nvidia-drm


Regards
 
drsnx60 said:
I find that the nvidia.ko driver loads the linux.ko driver but not the linux64.ko driver
regardless if the ' enable_linux="YES" ' statment exist or not in /etc/rc.conf.
Click to expand...
My understanding is that:
  • linux_enable="YES" (yours should be a typo) does not only loading matching linux*.ko (linux64.ko for amd64 and linux.ko for i386) but does more for Linuxulator to work. See /etc/rc.d/linux for details.
  • For amd64, linux_enable="YES" kldloads linux64.ko and any others needed for Linuxulator but not automatically pulled in by linux64.ko, excluding linux.ko.
  • x11/nvidia-driver-470 and non-legacy x11/nvidia-driver{-devel} has 32bit compat libraries, and if enabled LINUX option (default), the compat libraries need linux.ko, too.

drsnx60 said:
It has old info on nvidia-modeset which now has been replaced by nvidia-drm.
Click to expand...
You're completely mis-understanding here!
nvidia-drm.ko doesn't replace anything in nvidia.ko and nvidia-modeset.ko.

Just adds another interface (DRM with "generic" KMS) and code required for it.
nvidia-drm.ko mutually require nvidia-modeset.ko, which provides nvidia-specific KMS functionality, to work. So automatically kldload nvidia-modeset.ko as a dependency.

And nvidia-modeset.ko mutually requires nvidia.ko, which provides legacy X11 interface (UMS, in contrast with KMS) and codes that actually drives GPU, to work. So automatically kldload nvidia.ko as a dependency.

Yes, only nvidia.ko is the actual GPU driver kernel module.
 
Ok . so we have

kldlist = nvidia-drm which inturn loads nvidia-modset which inturn loads nvidia.ko .

this is fine.

What should be the goal of the KDE desktop script as far as NVIDIA part is concerned ?
should we aim for a full setup ? Including DRM , Including Linux , /compat/linux/proc & sys , setup /etc/fstab , the whole emulators/linux-base-rl9 and x11/linux-nvidia-libs ?

Or should the KDE desktop-installer script only aim to install the drivers according to the instructions in the handbook.

this is basically a philosophical question.....

Bare basics , or full everything setup. ?
 
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