The Chimera Linux project has announced progress in getting proprietary NVIDIA graphics drivers working on its musl-based Linux distro, addressing a longstanding compatibility issue for NVIDIA GPU users on Linux systems that use musl instead of glibc.
Until now, proprietary NVIDIA driver compatibility was a significant obstacle for Chimera Linux, because NVIDIA’s proprietary userspace libraries are built against glibc, making them incompatible with musl without modifications. While open-source alternatives like Nouveau and NVK exist, they have substantial performance limitations, especially on older NVIDIA hardware.
But now, experimental packages are available through a pending pull request for both NVIDIA’s legacy 580 driver branch and the newer 620 series. The implementation targets x86_64 and AArch64 architectures, though the latter has had limited testing.
According to the devs, the first step was switching Chimera Linux to GLVND, which allows multiple OpenGL implementations, including Mesa and NVIDIA’s proprietary drivers, to coexist on the same system. It is especially useful for laptops with hybrid graphics configurations.
Next, the developers used gcompat, a compatibility layer providing selected glibc functions missing from musl. However, NVIDIA’s libraries required more modifications, so the project also used patchelf to adjust library dependencies and add the necessary compatibility components.
Another obstacle was GNU indirect functions, supported by glibc but excluded from musl. To address this, the developers introduced a patched musl package named musl-nvidia, adding support for the required relocations.
Further testing revealed issues with mutex initialization since NVIDIA’s proprietary libraries expect certain glibc-specific behaviors that musl handles differently. To address this, a separate compatibility library was developed to translate the relevant mutex operations, resolving graphical application hangs during initial testing.
With these modifications, the project successfully tested the NVIDIA 580 driver using a GeForce GTX 980 Ti. The newer 620 driver also worked with an RTX 3070 Ti, while preliminary testing showed at least partial functionality on AArch64 hardware.
However, despite these results, proprietary NVIDIA support in Chimera Linux remains experimental. The developers acknowledge that packaging needs further refinement and more hardware testing before it is ready for general use.
For more details, see the announcement.
