add netdata user to video group #21359
Merged
Conversation
This file contains hidden or bidirectional Unicode text that may be interpreted or compiled differently than what appears below. To review, open the file in an editor that reveals hidden Unicode characters.
Learn more about bidirectional Unicode characters
ilyam8
requested review from
Ferroin and
Copilot
and removed request for
a team,
Ferroin and
vkalintiris
github-actions
bot
added
the
area/packaging
Contributor
There was a problem hiding this comment.
Pull request overview
This PR adds the netdata user to the video group to enable GPU monitoring on distributions where NVIDIA device files have restricted permissions (e.g., openSUSE Leap 15.6). On these systems, /dev/nvidiactl and related devices are owned by the video group with crw-rw---- permissions, requiring group membership for access.
Key Changes:
- Added
videoto the list of supplementary groups for the netdata user across all installation methods - Implemented conditional logic in the Debian postinst script to only add the group when NVIDIA devices are present
Reviewed changes
Copilot reviewed 4 out of 4 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| packaging/makeself/install-or-update.sh | Added video to NETDATA_WANTED_GROUPS list for makeself installer |
| packaging/installer/functions.sh | Added video to NETDATA_WANTED_GROUPS list for installation script |
| packaging/cmake/pkg-files/deb/user/postinst | Added conditional logic to add video group when /dev/nvidiactl exists |
| netdata.spec.in | Added video to the group iteration loop in RPM post-install script |
💡 Add Copilot custom instructions for smarter, more guided reviews. Learn how to get started.
![cubic-dev-ai[bot]](https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/in/1082092?s=60&v=4){kind=small}
ilyam8
force-pushed
the
add-netdata-video-group
branch
from
e3603f0 to
60cfc82
Compare
github-actions
bot
added
area/collectors
ilyam8
force-pushed
the
add-netdata-video-group
branch
from
60cfc82 to
ae53aca
Compare
github-actions
bot
removed
area/collectors
thiagoftsm
approved these changes
Nov 27, 2025
Merged
stelfrag
pushed a commit
to stelfrag/netdata
that referenced
this pull request
Dec 1, 2025
(cherry picked from commit 82323ae)
Ferroin
pushed a commit
that referenced
this pull request
Dec 3, 2025
(cherry picked from commit 82323ae)
Sign up for free
to join this conversation on GitHub.
Already have an account?
Sign in to comment
2 participants
Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.
This suggestion is invalid because no changes were made to the code.
Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is closed.
Suggestions cannot be applied while viewing a subset of changes.
Only one suggestion per line can be applied in a batch.
Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.
Applying suggestions on deleted lines is not supported.
You must change the existing code in this line in order to create a valid suggestion.
Outdated suggestions cannot be applied.
This suggestion has been applied or marked resolved.
Suggestions cannot be applied from pending reviews.
Suggestions cannot be applied on multi-line comments.
Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is queued to merge.
Suggestion cannot be applied right now. Please check back later.
Summary
Related #21353
On Debian/Ubuntu, NVIDIA device files are world-readable (crw-rw-rw-), so netdata can access them without special permissions:
However, on some distributions like openSUSE Leap 15.6, these devices are owned by the video group with restricted permissions (crw-rw----):
This causes GPU monitoring to fail because the netdata user cannot access the device.
Test Plan
Additional Information
For users: How does this change affect me?
Summary by cubic
Add netdata to the video group during install/update so it can access NVIDIA device files and enable GPU monitoring on distros with restricted permissions.
Written for commit ae53aca. Summary will update automatically on new commits.