Project: Kepler Linux Resurrection (GTX 760 on Kernel 7.0)

Overview

This document chronicles the successful restoration and hardening of a legacy NVIDIA GTX 760 (Kepler architecture) on Ubuntu 26.04 running Linux Kernel 7.0. Official support for this hardware ended with the 470 driver branch, which is natively incompatible with Kernel 7.0.

Hardware Specifications (GK104)

Component	Specification
GPU Chip	GK104 (Kepler Architecture)
CUDA Cores	1,152
VRAM	2 GB GDDR5 (256-bit interface)
Base / Boost Clock	980 MHz / 1,033 MHz
TDP	170W
Release Date	June 2013
Compute Capability	3.0

Phase 1: Driver Restoration

The Conflict

Ubuntu 26.04 dropped the nvidia-driver-470 package. Modern drivers (535+) do not support Kepler. Kernel 7.0 introduced significant changes to memory management and GPL-only symbols that broke original 470 sources.

The Fix

1. Clean Slate: Purged all modern nvidia-* packages and ghost modules.
2. Community Patching: Utilized the joanbm/nvidia-470xx-linux-mainline patchset.
3. Iterative Compilation: Force-compiled the 470.256.02 driver through DKMS, bridging the "symbol wall" for migrate_vma and kvmalloc.
4. The Aperture Bridge: Surgically injected C code using aperture_remove_conflicting_pci_devices into nvidia-drm-drv.c to fix the structural black-screen failure on Kernel 7.0.
5. Boot Sealing: Blacklisted nouveau and regenerated initramfs.

Phase 2: Performance & Desktop Hardening

1. Persistence Layer

Manually built and enabled nvidia-persistenced to prevent the card from cycling power states.

2. Auto-Reclocking Service

Created a device-aware systemd service (nvidia-reclock.service) that monitors /dev/nvidia0 and forces the card into its 1000MHz+ "Performance State" (0f).

3. Thermal Guardrails (V2.1)

Deployed an automated fan-curve service (nvidia-fan-curve.sh) that dynamically adjusts fan speed (30% @ 40C to 100% @ 80C) to safely maintain the high-performance clock state.

4. GLVND Prioritization

Created explicit ICD manifests in /usr/share/glvnd/ to force the system to use NVIDIA GLX/EGL libraries, resolving the GNOME login loop and libnvidia-glcore.so segfaults.

Phase 3: CUDA Legacy Integration (Verified)

• Toolkit Version: CUDA 10.2 (Final branch with stable CC 3.0 support).
• Compiler Shield: Deployed /usr/local/bin/gcc-cuda-shield to strip modern GCC 15 attributes from system headers that crash the legacy nvcc compiler.
• Verification: Empirically proven with a live 4K Matrix Multiplication stress test on hardware.

Phase 4: Scraper Re-Engineering

Concurrent with the driver work, the euler-scraper was rebuilt into a production microservice:

• Concurrency Control: Semaphore-based (1-instance limit).
• Network Optimization: Blocked media/ads (70% bandwidth reduction).
• Stability: Added a "Zombie-Killer" hard-timer for browser processes.

Project Documents

• Architectural Post-Mortem
• Performance Automation Logic
• Original Aperture Bridge Patch