nvidia-installer

This component compiles NVIDIA kernel modules for Garden Linux in a Docker image at build time. Running the image in a cluster as part of a DaemonSet installs the GPU driver on the required nodes.

Deploying NVIDIA GPU Operator with Helm

helm upgrade --install -n gpu-operator gpu-operator nvidia/gpu-operator --values \
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gardenlinux/gardenlinux-nvidia-installer/refs/heads/main/helm/gpu-operator-values.yaml

If you have built the images yourself, you can use the --set option to specify the image repository and tag:

helm upgrade --install -n gpu-operator gpu-operator nvidia/gpu-operator --values \
  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gardenlinux/gardenlinux-nvidia-installer/refs/heads/main/helm/gpu-operator-values.yaml \
  --set driver.repository=$REGISTRY/$FOLDER \
  --set driver.image=$IMAGE

Building the Docker image

To build the image for NVIDIA driver version 560.35.03 on Garden Linux 1592.10 for amd64-based CPUs:

docker build . --platform=linux/amd64 --build-arg TARGET_ARCH=amd64 --build-arg DRIVER_VERSION=560.35.03 --build-arg GARDENLINUX_VERSION=1592.10 \
    --tag $REGISTRY/$FOLDER/$IMAGE:560.35.03-gardenlinux-1592.10
docker push $REGISTRY/$FOLDER/$IMAGE:560.35.03-gardenlinux-1592.10

If you need to build for a baremetal node (as opposed to a cloud VM) then add --build-arg KERNEL_TYPE=baremetal to the above command.

Further reading

High level structure of the Dockerfile

The first stage installs the needed compilers & kernel headers, then calls a script to download the NVIDIA driver files and compile the kernel modules, and finally creates a compressed tar archive of the required files.

The second (main) stage copies the tarball into the image along with the runtime scripts to extract the tarball and install the modules into the running kernel as part of a Daemonset.

Background

Compiling drivers for Garden Linux is typically non-trivial because the OS ships without build tools and no obvious way to access the kernel sources. This project works by compiling the kernel modules at build-time inside a Garden Linux developer container (which contains the kernel headers and compiler) and then placing the resulting files into a Docker image from which they can be installed at runtime.

Disclaimer

Drivers built with this project are only supported on Garden Linux, the open source operating system. Furthermore, only drivers for non consumer graphics cards are supported.