nvidia-patch

This patch removes restriction on maximum number of simultaneous NVENC video encoding sessions imposed by Nvidia to consumer-grade GPUs.

Main target operating system is GNU/Linux, but for Windows support see win.

Requirements:

• x86_64 system architecture
• GNU/Linux operating system
• nvenc-compatible gpu (https://developer.nvidia.com/video-encode-decode-gpu-support-matrix#Encoder)
• Nvidia driver. Patch available for:
  • 375.39
  • 390.77
  • 390.87
  • 396.24
  • 396.26
  • 396.37
  • 396.54
  • 410.48
  • 410.57
  • 410.73
  • 410.78
  • 410.79
  • 410.93
  • 410.104
  • 415.18
  • 415.25
  • 415.27
  • 418.30
  • 418.43
  • 418.56
  • 418.67
  • 418.74
  • 430.09
  • 430.14
  • 430.26
  • 430.34

Tested on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (GNU/Linux 4.15.0-23-generic x86_64)

Synopsis

# bash ./patch.sh -h

SYNOPSIS
       patch.sh [OPTION]...

DESCRIPTION
       The patch for Nvidia drivers to increase encoder sessions

       -s    Silent mode (No output)
       -r    Rollback to original (Restore lib from backup)
       -h    Print this help message

Step-by-Step guide

Examples are provided for driver version 430.34. All commands are runned as root.

Download driver

https://international.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/430.34/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-430.34.run

Install driver

mkdir /opt/nvidia && cd /opt/nvidia
wget https://international.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/430.34/NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-430.34.run
chmod +x ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-430.34.run
./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-430.34.run

Check driver

nvidia-smi

Output should show no errors and details about your driver and GPU.

Patch driver

This patch performs backup of original file prior to making changes.

bash ./patch.sh

You're all set!

Rollback

If something got broken you may restore patched driver from backup:

bash ./patch.sh -r

Docker support

It is possible to use this patch with nvidia-docker containers, even if host machine hasn't patched drivers. See Dockerfile for example.

Essentially all you need to do during build is:

• COPY the patch.sh and docker-entrypoint.sh files into your container.
• Make sure docker-entrypoint.sh is invoked on container start.

docker-entrypoint.sh script does on-the-fly patching by means of manipulating dynamic linker to workaround read-only mount of Nvidia runtime. Finally it passes original docker command to shell, like if entrypoint was not restricted by ENTRYPOINT directive. So docker run --runtime=nvidia -it mycontainer echo 123 will print 123. Also it can be just invoked from your entrypoint script, if you have any.

See also

• Plex Media Server: enable HW decoding:
  • GH Issue
  • PMS Forum:
    1. https://forums.plex.tv/t/hardware-accelerated-decode-nvidia-for-linux/233510/158
    2. https://forums.plex.tv/t/hardware-accelerated-decode-nvidia-for-linux/233510/172
• Unraid / Docker:
  • GH Issue
  • Unraid Nvidia plugin:
    • Repo
    • Forum page (archive link)
• Original research behind this patch
  • Original post in Russian
  • 3rd party English translation

If you experience CreateBitstreamBuffer failed: out of memory (10), then you have to lower buffers number used for every encoding session. If you are using ffmpeg, see option -surfaces ("Number of concurrent surfaces") and try value near -surfaces 8.