linux-dgx-spark

Arch Linux kernel package for the NVIDIA DGX Spark (GB10 Grace-Blackwell).

Acknowledgements

This project builds on the work of others:

• graham33/nixos-dgx-spark — did the hard work of reverse-engineering NVIDIA's kernel config requirements from their Debian package annotations and validating them on real hardware. Our config generation pipeline directly consumes their NixOS kernel config delta.
• NVIDIA / Canonical — the kernel source itself comes from NVIDIA's Ubuntu kernel fork published on Launchpad, which includes patches for ConnectX-7 networking and Grace-Blackwell SoC support not yet in mainline Linux.
• linux-cachyos — PKGBUILD structure and packaging patterns used as a reference for the Arch kernel package layout.

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Builds NVIDIA's custom kernel with the DGX Spark config. The kernel version is auto-detected from nixos-dgx-spark and fetched from Launchpad.

Why this exists

The DGX Spark ships with NVIDIA's Ubuntu fork (DGX OS). The stock Ubuntu kernel is required for working Ethernet (ConnectX-7) and full GPU support — a standard kernel lacks the necessary patches. This package brings that kernel to Arch Linux.

Status

Early / experimental. Boot testing welcome.

Building

Prerequisites

• Docker with linux/arm64 support (Apple Silicon runs this natively)
• Or a native aarch64 Linux machine

Quick build (recommended)

./build.sh

This handles everything: downloads sources to cache/, builds the Docker container, generates the kernel config, and runs makepkg. Subsequent runs are incremental — only changed files recompile.

Individual steps can be run separately:

./build.sh download   # only download sources to cache/
./build.sh config     # download + generate configs/config.aarch64
./build.sh pkg        # only run makepkg (config must already exist)

64K page-size variant

./build.sh -p 64k

Builds linux-dgx-spark-64k — the same kernel with 64K pages, mirroring the kernel-64k variant Red Hat ships for the GB10. NVIDIA recommends 64K pages for Grace-class unified memory throughput, at the cost of higher memory overhead and possible breakage in userspace that assumes 4K pages (some Electron builds, box64, older jemalloc). Both variants install side by side (separate pkgbase, modules, and initramfs) so you can A/B them from the bootloader menu. The 4K and 64K builds keep separate incremental build trees in the Docker volume.

To force a clean build, delete the Docker volume:

docker volume rm dgx-spark-builddir

Native aarch64 build (no Docker)

If you're on an aarch64 Arch machine, you can build directly:

./scripts/gen-config.sh          # generate configs/config.aarch64
makepkg -s --noconfirm           # build the packages

Output

• linux-dgx-spark-<ver>-aarch64.pkg.tar.xz — kernel + modules
• linux-dgx-spark-headers-<ver>-aarch64.pkg.tar.xz — headers for DKMS/module builds

Install on the Spark

sudo pacman -U linux-dgx-spark-*.pkg.tar.xz
sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
reboot

pacman's initramfs hook runs mkinitcpio automatically.

How it works

nixos-dgx-spark/kernel-configs/  →  scripts/apply-nix-config.ts
      (NixOS config delta)                    ↓
                                    ARM64 defconfig + delta
                                              ↓
                                    make olddefconfig
                                              ↓
                                    configs/config.aarch64
                                              ↓
                                         PKGBUILD

The NixOS repo generates a terse config containing only options that differ from upstream defaults, reducing noise by ~82%. We parse that delta and apply it on top of the ARM64 defconfig using the kernel's own scripts/config tool.

Contributing

PRs welcome, especially:

• Keeping up with new kernel versions from NVIDIA
• Testing on the Asus Ascent GX10 (same GB10 silicon)

GPU driver

No companion driver package is needed: Arch Linux ARM ships nvidia-open-dkms and nvidia-utils for aarch64 (610.57.04+, which supports the GB10). Install them alongside linux-dgx-spark-headers and DKMS builds the open kernel modules (nvidia, nvidia-uvm, nvidia-drm, nvidia-modeset, nvidia-peermem) for every installed kernel variant automatically.

License

PKGBUILD and scripts: MIT Linux kernel: GPL-2.0