'Close to upstream' and 'Intel Optimized' Clear Linux distro does not give the option to install proprietary NVIDIA driver like Arch or Ubuntu!

General Discussion
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I tried 3 distros-Clear, Arch, and Ubuntu, on a Core i9-13900K, Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Apex, GeForce RTX 4090 setup as a Linux newbie. Arch and Ubuntu gave me the option to install the proprietary NVIDIA driver but Clear did not. Clear Linux documentation on proprietary NVIDIA driver installation is outdated and does not work. Nouveau is nada with RTX4090. I spent days trying to get it working as I read reviews about how fast it is on Intel hardware. I wonder how ubuntu got the GUI up and running with the installer.

Thankfully, there is @marioroy who has a GitHub repo that was immensely helpful, but I needed to plug in an old NVIDIA GT 120 to successfully finish the last few steps of driver install.

Having Intel’s own processors and the Intel’s own chipset, I am baffled by the difficulty experienced getting into the Intel’s inhouse developed crispy, snappy, Clear Linux desktop. In comparison Ubuntu was a breeze and had to manage with the text installer in Arch but that was okay and educational.

I hope my post will stimulate discussion and the sarcastic comments are welcome!

Update: Release 38400 make the nvidia driver installation more straightforward using @marioroy 's scripts. Thank you @Intel.

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I earned the ‘User of the month’ badge only after a couple of posts here! I hope this community is not dying.

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Hello once again, Indy.

It is happening that creators of ClearLinux created this distro for they self. IMO, bad binary package system, self-limitation of what they distribute, self-limitation and trimming of packages they distribute. IMO, ClearLinux is a good starting point for a person/team that wants to create a derivated Linux distro that use the power of this Linux kernel flavor and the already-exposed experience for compiling software with optimizations for Intel processors.

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I see your point. I saw someone jokes about installing clear linux just to see how fast one can compile. :laughing:

However, it seems to be faster in benchmarks.

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ClearLinux is extremely fast. I can tell you for sure it is. A simple fact that I see everyday: I boot my laptop completely, GNOME desktop session opened, in just ~6 secs (it reaches multi-user target in just ~2 secs. There is nothing more slow than executing a Node/Python script. They started execution in less ~1 sec. My applications open very very fast. There is a clear difference between ClearLinux and Manjaro, Ubuntu and alike.

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Do you know what I think we need for now? To build our own software because the bundles they have do not fit our needs. And create a 3rd-party repository in the process so others can benefit as well. Do you know how to create a 3rd-party repository and create bundles?

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I am no developer @leiniercs. I am in the healthcare industry, sorry. Perhaps you can join the clear-fraction team.

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That would be a good idea. They have some things done.

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Hope you can reach out to them. I wanted to see if stable-diffusion-webui runs better on linux than windows. That’s how I ended up installing clear linux.

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For fun I compiled Xaos on my machine (I do not know exactly how ‘make’ works LOL). It is smoother and faster compared to the Xaos available on flathub.

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It will not have difference because NVIDIA code is not optimized. It is generic. What will improve is the execution of the Python code, for sure. That subject was debated on some forum. Do you know what will benefit from ClearLinux? Intel’s integrated GPU. There is a very clear difference between the amount of FPS reached on some other Linux distro and ClearLinux using Intel’s integrated GPU. Let me share with you a website I use to test graphics performance: https://shadertoy.com

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I see-cool website. With regards to stable-diffusion rendering, I can tell you that pytorch, xformers work flawlessly with the RTX4090. Compared to that my processor’s built-in graphics is nothing for pytorch to crunch the matrix calculations.

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I recommend you use the WebUI for StableDiffusion from TheLastBen. He included ControlNet to the process. Things go crazy with ControlNet in StableDiffusion, believe me.

This is the Google Colab I use:

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Interesting. Cloud rendering!

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Yes, sadly, my laptop have only 4GB VRAM. To use StableDiffusion it is needed minimum 12GB VRAM. BTW, you have a beast: NVIDIA RTX 4090… And that Intel Core i9 with 32 CPU, 32 GB RAM… Your PC should fly low, hehehe

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Thanks. I saved for a long time to build this setup.

I am glad we contributed to traffic in this community forum today. Who knows, you and I will be the ‘user of the month’ next time. :wink:

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Hahaha… Maybe… Will be a prize for achieving that goal?

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Nice prize would be the clear linux desktop distro giving the option to install the proprietary NVIDIA driver during installation. :laughing:

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Dev team should think about the fact that PC gamers like windows, intel processors and NVIDIA graphics. Some of them will be curious about other operating systems. Clear Linux should target them by making the installation a breeze. It appears that dev team targets only the cloud, server market.

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I think that will not happen because of the ClearLinux’s “Only Free Software” policy.