Nova Driver Keeps Advancing: A Rust-Based NVIDIA Kernel Driver Aiming for Official Use

At this week's Linux Plumbers Conference 2026 in Prague, NVIDIA engineer John Hubbard and Red Hat developer Danilo Krummrich presented a talk on the state of Nova — the open-source driver for NVIDIA graphics cards that is gradually taking shape as a Linux kernel module.

Nova's defining trait is that it is written in Rust and developed in the open, with the aim of being merged into the mainline Linux kernel. That sets it apart from NVIDIA's traditional proprietary driver and places it alongside other efforts to bring Rust code into the kernel.

According to the speakers, work on the driver continues with a long-term goal in mind: official use of Nova on NVIDIA's own side. In other words, this is not purely an enthusiast undertaking but a path toward an open driver that could eventually gain the manufacturer's backing.

The involvement of an NVIDIA engineer alongside a Red Hat developer shows that both sides are committed — the hardware maker and a major Linux community player alike. For the ecosystem, this promises a more transparent and maintainable path for NVIDIA GPU support within the kernel.

For now, Nova remains under active development, and the LPC2026 talk reflects current progress rather than a result ready for everyday use. Even so, the very fact that an open-source Rust driver is being built collaboratively, with official support named as the target, sets a direction for years to come.

Source: Phoronix