The availability of a new project that promises to automatically swap Nvidia or AMD/ATI proprietary video drivers during the boot process of any GNU/Linux distribution that uses the controversial systemd system and service manager has been brought to our attention.

Called gpu-driver-swap, the project has been created by a user who goes by the name of Mike Anthony Wild and it can be easily installed on any Linux kernel-based and systemd-based operating system. The only requirement, besides systemd, is the proprietary video driver for Nvidia or AMD graphics cards.

gpu-driver-swap has been designed from the ground up to act as a service to the systemd init system. Once deployed, it allows users who have both Nvidia and AMD GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) installed on their computers to install both Nvidia and AMD proprietary video drivers at the same time.

Then, the gpu-driver-swap service will automatically select and configure the right video driver for the graphics card plugged and enabled on the respective computer, as it contains various configuration variables for both Nvidia and AMD GPUs, which are explained in detail on the project's website.

"gpu-driver-swap is a systemd service to automatically swap AMD / Nvidia drivers on boot. It allows proprietary AMD and Nvidia drivers to be installed side-by-side, and automatically sets up the correct drivers at boot depending on which card is plugged in," reads the GitHub entry of the project.

Support for SysV-based distributions is coming soon

gpu-driver-swap is available right now if you want to take it for a test drive on your systemd-enabled distribution, and detailed installation instructions are provided on its GitHub page. Basically, you can either clone the latest Git repo or download it from the website and run the following commands in a terminal window.