Nouveau (software)

This article is about a software project. For the wine, see Nouveau.
nouveau
Initial release1.0 / 18 June 2012; 12 years ago (2012-06-18)[1]
Repository
Written inC
Operating systemLinux, NetBSD
Platformx86, x86-64, ARM, PowerPC
TypeDevice driver
LicenseMIT License
Websitenouveau.freedesktop.org
In the middle: the FOSS stack, composed out of DRM & KMS driver, libDRM and Mesa 3D. Right side: Proprietary drivers: Kernel BLOB and User-space components.

nouveau (/nuːˈvoʊ/) is a free and open-source graphics device driver for Nvidia video cards and the Tegra family of SoCs written by independent software engineers, with minor help from Nvidia employees.

The project's goal is to create an open source driver by reverse engineering Nvidia's proprietary Linux drivers. It is managed by the X.Org Foundation, hosted by freedesktop.org, and is distributed as part of Mesa 3D. The project was initially based on the 2D-only free and open-source "nv" driver, which Red Hat developer Matthew Garrett and others claim had been obfuscated.[2] nouveau is licensed under the MIT License.

The name of the project comes from the French word nouveau, meaning new.[3] It was suggested by the original author, Stéphane Marchesin, after his IRC client's French-language autocorrect system offered the word "nouveau" as a correction for the letters "nv".[4]

  1. ^ von Eitzen, Chris (18 June 2012). "Free NVIDIA graphics driver reaches version 1.0". The H - Open. Heinz Heise. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
  2. ^ "Debian bug tracker". 17 August 2006. Retrieved 7 April 2013.
  3. ^ "nouveau Wiki". 7 July 2009. Retrieved 23 September 2009.
  4. ^ "The state of Nouveau, part I". LWN.net. 15 February 2008. Retrieved 24 November 2009.