This tool tries to solve the "OpenGL" problem on nix. Works with Nvidia cards (with bumblebee) and Intel cards. It works for Vulkan programs too.

Quick start

Suppose you have a configuration with an nvidia card, host driver version 390.25

# clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/guibou/nixGL
cd nixGL

# build and install the wrapper
nix-build -A nixGLNvidia --argstr nvidiaVersion 390.25
nix-env -i ./result

# use it with any OpenGL application
nixGLNvidia blender

Motivation

You use Nix on any distribution, and any GL application installed fails with this error:

$ program
libGL error: unable to load driver: i965_dri.so
libGL error: driver pointer missing
libGL error: failed to load driver: i965
libGL error: unable to load driver: i965_dri.so
libGL error: driver pointer missing
libGL error: failed to load driver: i965
libGL error: unable to load driver: swrast_dri.so
libGL error: failed to load driver: swrast

This library contains a wrapper which is able to launch GL or Vulkan applications:

nixGLXXX program
nixVulkanXXX program

Installation / Usage

Clone this git repository:

git clone https://github.com/guibou/nixGL
cd nixGL

Optional (if NVIDIA): Grab your NVIDIA driver version

Using glxinfo from your host system, grab the driver version, here 390.25:

$ glxinfo | grep NVIDIA
...
OpenGL core profile version string: 4.5.0 NVIDIA 390.25
...

Build

For Intel GL:

nix-build -A nixGLIntel

For Intel Vulkan:

nix-build -A nixVulkanIntel

For NVIDIA GL alone:

nix-build -A nixGLNvidia --argstr nvidiaVersion 390.25

For NVIDIA Vulkan alone:

Note that the NVIDIA GL and Vulkan wrappers are identical aside from the name

nix-build -A nixVulkanNvidia --argstr nvidiaVersion 390.25

(replace 390.25 with the host driver version gathered earlier.)

For Nvidia with bumblebee:

nix-build -A nixGLNvidiaBumblebee --argstr nvidiaVersion 390.25

(replace 390.25 with the host driver version gathered earlier.)

Install

nix-env -i ./result

(Note, you can iterate many time on this process to install as many driver as needed. Common example are nixGLIntel with nixGLNvidiaBumblebee)

Usage

For GL programs

nixGLXXX program args

For Vulkan programs

nixVulkanXXX program args

For example (on my dual GPU laptop):

$ nixGLIntel glxinfo | grep -i 'OpenGL version string'
OpenGL version string: 3.0 Mesa 17.3.3
$ nixGLNvidiaBumblebee glxinfo | grep -i 'OpenGL version string'
OpenGL version string: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 390.25

Another example (on an XPS 9560 with the Intel GPU selected):

$ sudo apt install mesa-vulkan-drivers
...
$ nixVulkanIntel $(nix-build '<nixpkgs>' --no-out-link -A vulkan-loader)/bin/vulkaninfo | grep VkPhysicalDeviceProperties -A 7
VkPhysicalDeviceProperties:
===========================
        apiVersion     = 0x400036  (1.0.54)
        driverVersion  = 71311368 (0x4402008)
        vendorID       = 0x8086
        deviceID       = 0x591b
        deviceType     = INTEGRATED_GPU
        deviceName     = Intel(R) HD Graphics 630 (Kaby Lake GT2)

Limitations

Does not work now for AMD drivers because I dont' have the hardware.

Comparaison with similar tools

nix-install-vendor-gl.sh provides a similar system with a different approach:

• it auto detect the host driver
• it needs root access and set your system for a specific driver
• it only provides wrappers for nvidia (without bumblebee)

Both projects are now really similar and the only reason I did not contributed to nix-install-vendor-gl.sh was because initial nixGL had a totally different approach.