linux-drivers/
drivers/gpu/drm/nouveau

Nouveau open-source driver for NVIDIA GeForce, Quadro, and Tesla GPUs

Open-source kernel graphics and display support for NVIDIA GeForce, Quadro, and Tesla cards, covering chips from the late-1990s NV04 generation all the way through modern Turing, Ampere, and Ada Lovelace GPUs. It is the default NVIDIA driver shipped by most Linux distributions when users do not install NVIDIA's proprietary blob.

keep conf=0.93 deploy=medium replacement=none subsystem=gpu category=graphics-display
93%

recommendation

It should stay in the kernel because it remains the open-source graphics stack for NVIDIA cards spanning two decades of hardware, from NV04 up through Turing, Ampere, and still-on-sale Ada boards like the RTX 4070 family. Upstream activity is heavy (hundreds of commits in the last five years and ongoing fix traffic in 2025), and the newer Nova driver is only a partial successor aimed at GSP-based GPUs, so Nouveau has no single replacement covering its full hardware range.

repository signals

1,306 files
225,311 source lines
1,008 commits, 5y
+73,600 / −45,648 lines added / removed, 5y
155 authors, 5y
monthly commits · 2021-04-21 → 2026-04-21 · 1,008 total · active in 59/61 months
2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2021-04: 11 commits · +92 −78 2021-05: 7 commits · +232 −87 2021-06: 12 commits · +51 −51 2021-07: 10 commits · +166 −43 2021-08: 7 commits · +73 −10 2021-09: 11 commits · +362 −17 2021-10: 6 commits · +11 −21 2021-11: 22 commits · +401 −170 2021-12: 2 commits · +17 −14 2022-01: 6 commits · +20 −13 2022-02: 13 commits · +19 −371 2022-03: 5 commits · +43 −21 2022-04: 16 commits · +68 −43 2022-05: 12 commits · +41 −36 2022-06: 155 commits · +24,785 −25,206 2022-07: 10 commits · +27 −25 2022-08: 13 commits · +224 −178 2022-09: 9 commits · +114 −71 2022-10: 9 commits · +83 −60 2022-11: 8 commits · +39 −38 2022-12: 3 commits · +3 −4 2023-01: 12 commits · +130 −691 2023-02: 5 commits · +45 −56 2023-03: 5 commits · +50 −11 2023-04: 14 commits · +46 −38 2023-05: 17 commits · +309 −149 2023-06: 10 commits · +57 −21 2023-07: 5 commits · +127 −15 2023-08: 33 commits · +4,266 −440 2023-09: 100 commits · +16,913 −1,773 2023-10: 12 commits · +112 −38 2023-11: 29 commits · +626 −486 2023-12: 20 commits · +298 −211 2024-01: 12 commits · +53 −54 2024-02: 16 commits · +216 −94 2024-03: 15 commits · +39 −38 2024-04: 20 commits · +494 −130 2024-05: 7 commits · +76 −85 2024-06: 8 commits · +620 −184 2024-07: 44 commits · +1,211 −4,310 2024-08: 10 commits · +54 −27 2024-09: 5 commits · +18 −8 2024-10: 12 commits · +778 −86 2024-11: 39 commits · +10,007 −5,867 2024-12: 6 commits · +9 −18 2025-01: 28 commits · +3,089 −506 2025-02: 24 commits · +3,435 −1,381 2025-03: 7 commits · +225 −202 2025-04: 14 commits · +128 −150 2025-05: 10 commits · +261 −262 2025-06: 8 commits · +23 −14 2025-07: 14 commits · +92 −65 2025-08: 19 commits · +360 −70 2025-09: 3 commits · +425 −44 2025-10: 11 commits · +329 −110 2025-11: 10 commits · +175 −92 2025-12: 9 commits · +228 −88 2026-01: 5 commits · +53 −13 2026-02: 12 commits · +859 −763 2026-03: 0 commits · +0 −0 2026-04: 0 commits · +0 −0

sources

  1. kernel.org

    Upstream kernel documentation says drm/nouveau supports NVIDIA GeForce, Quadro, and Tesla GPUs from NV04 through Turing, Ampere, and Ada families.

  2. kernel.org

    Upstream kernel documentation says nova intends to supersede nouveau only for NVIDIA GPUs based on GSP, so there is no single full replacement for all nouveau-supported hardware.

  3. nvidia.com

    NVIDIA's product page shows GeForce RTX 4070-family Ada boards available to buy, indicating nouveau-covered NVIDIA hardware was still sold new in 2025 and remains on sale after that.

  4. wiki.archlinux.org

    ArchWiki's current Xorg packaging matrix still lists Nouveau and xf86-video-nouveau as the open-source NVIDIA stack, indicating ongoing real-world distro deployment.

  5. spinics.net

    A 2025 nouveau-specific revert/fix thread shows active upstream maintenance and bug-fix traffic rather than removal planning.

codex reasoning notes (technical)

Real driver directory: local shell `rg` found `module_init` in `nouveau_drm.c`. Phase input metadata already shows 569 substantive commits in 5y and most recent substantive touch on 2026-03-04, which is strong live-maintenance evidence. URLs were obtained via web search/open: kernel docs for support range and nova scope, NVIDIA product page for still-sold-new evidence, ArchWiki snippet for present distro deployment, and a spinics thread surfaced by web search for recent upstream nouveau fix/revert activity. No active removal/deprecation discussion was found; nova is only a partial future successor for GSP-based GPUs, so `replacement_driver` stays null. Recommendation stays `keep`, not `keep-annotate`, because activity is high and supported hardware includes still-sold Ada products.