Hello, would it be possible to bake in Nvidia and AMD GPU drivers directly into unRaid? Or maybe an easy way of activating the drivers? The folks over at LinuxServer are doing an amazing job with their Plugin (Which I do use) but it would be really nice if you could provide this out of the box, or an easy driver store to install from. The unRaid nvidia plugin is pretty popular, I am sure I am not the only one wishing for this. Of course I have no clue what kind of licensing this would require

While I get you and would like the same, I don't think it will ever happen (without LT hiring the LS folks on a perm basis). There just aren't enough people.

One can hope.... I am sure I am not the only one who would not mind paying a little extra for more extensive driver support. Just look at the plugin support how many people are begging for the latest release of the RC candidates of unRaid nVidia.... Maybe LimeTech should start a poll for this? 

If unraid adds driver support for graphics cards, then that would mean that I wouldn't have to run a VM 24x7 for no reason. Currently I have to run a VM 24x7 just to get my graphics cards to enter low power mode. I only have need for a VM a couple dozen hours a month. I hope LimeTech does add Graphics driver support soon.

If they do this, let it be a choice, just like it's a choice to run the GUI and Surf Internet as Root. I do not want my server being impacted by security bugs in Nvidia or AMD graphic drivers when I run neither of them.

On 12/1/2019 at 6:09 AM, Koshy said:

If unraid adds driver support for graphics cards, then that would mean that I wouldn't have to run a VM 24x7 for no reason. Currently I have to run a VM 24x7 just to get my graphics cards to enter low power mode. I only have need for a VM a couple dozen hours a month. I hope LimeTech does add Graphics driver support soon.

I'm curious what graphics card you're running. My experience recently has been that GPUs are in a lower power state before my VMs start. I did notice that I could squeeze a single extra watt of savings out of my AMD cards if I used the drivers that turn off the fan and display but it was still only 1 watt.

8 hours ago, scorcho99 said:

I'm curious what graphics card you're running. My experience recently has been that GPUs are in a lower power state before my VMs start. I did notice that I could squeeze a single extra watt of savings out of my AMD cards if I used the drivers that turn off the fan and display but it was still only 1 watt.

I'm running a RTX 2060. There is about a 30 watt increase in power draw when the VM is not running. 

9 hours ago, Koshy said:

I'm running a RTX 2060. There is about a 30 watt increase in power draw when the VM is not running. 

Whew, that is a big increase. I guess not all cards/setups work the same way.

On 12/4/2019 at 7:12 PM, Koshy said:

I'm running a RTX 2060. There is about a 30 watt increase in power draw when the VM is not running. 

whooaaa!!!!

And if / when unRaid adds built-in GPU drivers for nVidia / AMD, then we'll see updates to the OS every other day as people will begin screaming why doesn't unRaid have the latest version that was released an hour ago?

On 12/5/2019 at 3:12 AM, Koshy said:

I'm running a RTX 2060. There is about a 30 watt increase in power draw when the VM is not running. 

Try switching machine type. I noticed if shutting down Q35 VM = GPU fans still spinning but shutting down i440fx VM = GPU fans stop. That suggests at least a difference in power draw when VM is not running between the 2 machine types.

On 12/8/2019 at 4:57 AM, testdasi said:

Try switching machine type. I noticed if shutting down Q35 VM = GPU fans still spinning but shutting down i440fx VM = GPU fans stop. That suggests at least a difference in power draw when VM is not running between the 2 machine types.

Should I try this on a new VM? Can changing the Machine attribute form Q35 to i440fx screw up an existing VM? And can I change it back to Q35 later if I choose to do so?

34 minutes ago, Koshy said:

Should I try this on a new VM? Can changing the Machine attribute form Q35 to i440fx screw up an existing VM? And can I change it back to Q35 later if I choose to do so?

Always create a new VM template when changing machine type (i440fx is based on PCI and Q35 is based on PCIe, the GUI cannot deal with such drastic changes).

 

You can always have 2 VM templates using the same hardware (and vdisk) and switch between them, in a sense, "change it back".

From my experience, it is only 10-15s longer initial boot after changing machine type.

However, note that frequent switching may cause Windows to require reactivation.

On 12/7/2019 at 6:27 PM, testdasi said:

Try switching machine type. I noticed if shutting down Q35 VM = GPU fans still spinning but shutting down i440fx VM = GPU fans stop. That suggests at least a difference in power draw when VM is not running between the 2 machine types.

Interesting, I always use i440fx.

 

I noticed today that my oldest card a HD3450 uses ~8watts before the VM starts. It goes up when Windows is running in a VM using it, but unlike other cards...when I shut it down the card continues to use extra power.

On 12/7/2019 at 2:15 PM, Squid said:

And if / when unRaid adds built-in GPU drivers for nVidia / AMD, then we'll see updates to the OS every other day as people will begin screaming why doesn't unRaid have the latest version that was released an hour ago?

You're right, I follow the  nVidia unRaid thread...   But still it would be nice to have out of the box.

Limetech has already provided a system for extending the base OS which is being used as intended to provide users with a wide variety of different use cases flexibility in their setups to do what they need to do with their box.

 

As squid alluded to, the support requirements, stability considerations, complexity this adds to development and QA, and the fact that the solution already exists for the users that want and need this feature in exchange for a modest and occasional improvement in convenience for these users alone leads me to believe that this is probably not the best idea.

Please add GPU drivers to unraid builds.  Doesn't Limetech already do this for some NICs, SAS controllers, etc?  If so, I see no reason why GPU drivers (specifically for Nvidia in my case) shouldn't be added as well.

 

There's no need to keep up to date with the latest driver, unless there are serious bugs/exploits that need to be patched, just like with any other driver Unraid uses. 

 

I really don't get all the "sky is falling" negativity surrounding this request.  The work involved for Limetech to include these drivers is far less than for the Linuxserver.io team (and a huge thanks to each of them for that effort!) to add them after the fact.

 

Edited January 31, 20206 yr by brainbone

I'd rather Limetech focus their limited development efforts and time on NAS functions and features.

 

Sure, if they had unlimited time then include everything. Alas, that's not reality.

Edited January 30, 20206 yr by BRiT

4 hours ago, BRiT said:

I'd rather Limetech focus their limited development efforts and time on NAS functions and features.

 

Sure, if they had unlimited time then include everything. Alas, that's not reality.

That could be said about any feature request.  You may not find it useful, but many others would. 

 

For this specific feature, I think some of you may be conflating the burden for Linuxserver.io to do each Unraid Nvidia release with what it would be for Limetech.   The burden on Limetech would be many orders of magnitude less, which is why this feature would be beneficial. 

Edited January 31, 20206 yr by brainbone

I am not confusing anything. I'd rather even just 5 minutes of LimeTech time be spent on genuine NAS functions and features than on any and all GPU-related work.

1 hour ago, BRiT said:

I am not confusing anything. I'd rather even just 5 minutes of LimeTech time be spent on genuine NAS functions and features than on any and all GPU-related work.

Yeah, let's just get rid of docker, VMs, the whole plugin system ... all that stuff that's not "genuine NAS", whatever that means.

Edited January 31, 20206 yr by brainbone

As I have said in the past, we should have gotten multiple array support long before any and all of those. I'd gladly have traded the order of features added to move multiple array support earlier.

 

Stop being silly goose, I am not proposing to use a time machine to change the past nor to remove features, just proposing to focus on NAS features. Once its added then go for the fringe cases.

9 minutes ago, BRiT said:

focus on NAS features. Once its added then go for the fringe cases.

But I currently have no use for multiple array support.  I'd much rather have HA and replication as core features.

 

But above that, I'd like GPU drivers baked in and officially supported.

 

May I suggest cheering in the multiple array thread instead of jeering in the GPU one?

Edited January 31, 20206 yr by brainbone

No. 😜

 

It's all good. 

 

 

Though now that you mention it, HA and replication are great features I wish they'd add.

I think the better feature request would be DKMS support for OOT drivers.
That would allow LS.IO (or anyone really) to build DKMS packages for basically any hardware without requiring a full rebuild of the bzimage.