Following on from the 440.26 beta released last month, NVIDIA have today added a few more changes to it and pushed it out as a stable driver update with version 440.31.
It's a mixture of things big and small in this release. It adds in VP9 decode support to the NVIDIA VDPAU driver, parallel GLSL shader linking has been enabled by default, support for HDMI 2.1 variable refresh rate (VRR) with G-SYNC Compatible monitors and a supported GPU, HardDPMS enabled by default, support for newer multi-GPU rendering extensions and more.
As for bug fixes and other improvements: they solved issues when running applications using GLX indirect rendering, a fix preventing the NVIDIA kernel modules from building when your system isn't in English, kernel module building issues with the 5.4 Linux kernels, a confirmation box will now show when you try to quit nvidia-settings with unsaved changes and so on.
Also in this release are some fixes for DXVK, with Saints Row IV and Saints Row: The Third being mentioned that saw some kind of corruption which should now be solved. Another one that should hopefully help DXVK, is that it will fall back to system memory when video memory is full, they said it should help to fix "Xid 13 and Xid 31 cases in Vulkan applications" (not an issue limited to DXVK though).
This driver update also properly adds support for the new GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER.
You can find all the details on it here. Note: Rather than download it directly, it's usually better to wait for your distribution to package it so you don't break anything trying to manually install it.
Additionally, a new Vulkan Beta Driver release went up today with 435.27.03. It comes with the following changes:
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
- New:
- Fixes:
- Improved behavior in low-memory situations
- Fixed graphical corruption in Vulkan game F12017
- Various minor performance improvements
- Improved Vulkan HDR support for multi-device configurations
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
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18 comments
Update: New Vulkan Beta Driver went live, added to the article.
3 Likes, Who?
Is graphics driver PPA still the way to go to install drivers for Ubuntu?
0 Likes
Is graphics driver PPA still the way to go to install drivers for Ubuntu?Yeah, that's the one: https://launchpad.net/~graphics-drivers/+archive/ubuntu/ppa
It already lists the 440 driver. *Updating right now ...*
2 Likes, Who?
I like that this process is so easy. It's even part of Driver Manager, so no need to do anything. Just a (very rare) restart, and that's that. Everything works. Wish it was the same with AMD, but it is what it is :(
0 Likes
ElectricPrism Nov 4, 2019
Why do I get the feeling Nvidia is trying to step up their Linux game after AMD ate their dinner and got the Google Stadia contract.
Poor bastards are fighting the inevitable pentecostal shouting for a open source driver.
Poor bastards are fighting the inevitable pentecostal shouting for a open source driver.
1 Likes, Who?
I like that this process is so easy. It's even part of Driver Manager, so no need to do anything. Just a (very rare) restart, and that's that. Everything works. Wish it was the same with AMD, but it is what it is :(What do you mean? Adding a PPA isn't that hard. :)
AMD does still seem to have trouble supporting their new hardware properly at launch with their open source drivers, as evidenced by the RX 5700. That leads to people jumping through all kinds of hoops to install bleeding edge stuff to get things running properly. Doesn't mean all AMD users have to do it though. I'd have gone back to Nvidia already if that was the case.
0 Likes
It already lists the 440 driver. *Updating right now ...*
That's still the beta driver (440.26), but should be updated to stable in the next days.
Last edited by Egonaut on 4 November 2019 at 9:43 pm UTC
3 Likes, Who?
Poor bastards are fighting the inevitable pentecostal shouting for a open source driver.I must say I find it tiresome and somewhat offensive the way some people continue to equate support for open source with fundamentalist religion. When one unpacks these offhanded remarks, they also turn out to be a form of what Aristotle would have called "false rhetoric".
4 Likes, Who?
MisterPaytwick Nov 5, 2019
Wish it was the same with AMD, but it is what it is
Don't know for mint, but for Arch, Manjaro and Pop_OS it's pretty simple to have AMDGPU running. The proprietary one don't offer so much more until you have bleeding edge hardware, but then you are better off using Arch family as the AUR are fresh and let you get just that.
0 Likes
TheRiddick Nov 5, 2019
Waiting on POP_OS to update them, it seems they operate very slowly and is starting to make me angry for trying pop_os because I can't test beta nvidia drivers and their stable release updates are slow. Same reason why I hated Manjaro really. My next DISTRO will be pure arch, maybe with a easy to use installer.
0 Likes
benjamimgois Nov 5, 2019
Waiting on POP_OS to update them, it seems they operate very slowly and is starting to make me angry for trying pop_os because I can't test beta nvidia drivers and their stable release updates are slow. Same reason why I hated Manjaro really. My next DISTRO will be pure arch, maybe with a easy to use installer.
On Manjaro/Arch Linux is very easy to update to the latest drivers, just add the Chaotic-AUR and they will be delivered to your package manager.
https://lonewolf.pedrohlc.com/chaotic-aur/
To install the beta-vulkan-driver look for the package "nvidia-dev-dkms-tkg"
0 Likes
On Manjaro/Arch Linux is very easy to update to the latest drivers, just add the Chaotic-AUR and they will be delivered to your package manager.
And I thought Debian Experimental was a daunting name... :D
2 Likes, Who?
TheRiddick Nov 6, 2019
https://lonewolf.pedrohlc.com/chaotic-aur/
How is this compatible with Manjaro which has a special driver configuration?
0 Likes
There's also this little fix that probably won't affect many users but it's very important for me:
I reported this bug before and it took about a year to fix but eventually it's here and it works. Arthur Huillet found me on IRC (that was a big surprise) and we discussed the issue in details. I used a kernel hack before that basically turns off anonymous UNIX domain sockets isolation (they're not accessible across namespaces) by removing a couple of lines, no sideffects that I'm aware of but I know it's not a good thing. Now it's obsolete and I can use a regular kernel build. This NVIDIA's socket has a long weird and random name, it's not documented anywhere and NVIDIA seem to call it "sideband". I have to admit, if the driver were opensource I could've fixed it myself long ago probably...
The X driver will now create a fallback pathname UNIX domain socket in the directory specified by the "SidebandSocketPath" option, or /var/run by default, which will be used by other NVIDIA driver components if they are unable to connect to the default abstract socket.This fixes a bug where graphics applications run within a network namespace (which prevents the use of abstract sockets) were unable to take advantage of some driver features, such as G-Sync.If you run Steam and/or games inside a network namespace (for example, using Docker), G-Sync wouldn't work before. I use such namespaces to allow Steam (and games) to connect directly while for everything else I use a VPN. It's a pretty unusual setup but I need it to work around censorship and still have regional prices on Steam (that are usually -70% from the base dollar price) so Steam has to see my real IP, and also have low ping in multiplayer games. It's the most robust solution that I found as all I need is to run Steam in that namespace and everything it spawns stays in the same namespace so no need to mess with iptables, routes, ports and such. The programs only see one network interface (a virtual ethernet "pipe" that bridges the namespaces) and one default route (my router), they're not even aware of the VPN's tun0 interface and can't use it.
I reported this bug before and it took about a year to fix but eventually it's here and it works. Arthur Huillet found me on IRC (that was a big surprise) and we discussed the issue in details. I used a kernel hack before that basically turns off anonymous UNIX domain sockets isolation (they're not accessible across namespaces) by removing a couple of lines, no sideffects that I'm aware of but I know it's not a good thing. Now it's obsolete and I can use a regular kernel build. This NVIDIA's socket has a long weird and random name, it's not documented anywhere and NVIDIA seem to call it "sideband". I have to admit, if the driver were opensource I could've fixed it myself long ago probably...
2 Likes, Who?
I guess the maintainers of the graphics drivers ppa are taking their time on this one. I still only see the beta one.
0 Likes
Still nothing on the PPA front.
I see it was built for the Focal archive, but that's it.
I see it was built for the Focal archive, but that's it.
0 Likes
Comandante Ñoñardo Dec 2, 2019
Still nothing on the PPA front.
I see it was built for the Focal archive, but that's it.
And there is a NEW driver for Linux, the 440.36, adding support for the new 1650 SUPER.
0 Likes
Comandante Ñoñardo Dec 4, 2019
Finally the Ubuntu PPA has been updated to the version 440.36.
0 Likes
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