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NVIDIA driver 440.59 released for Linux

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The first stable driver release of 2020, yesterday NVIDIA put out the 440.59 driver for Linux users.

It brings in a few new features like support for audio over DisplayPort Multi-Stream which requires Linux Kernel 5.5 at a minimum, PRIME Synchronization support for Linux kernel 5.4 and newer, a default filename when saving the Display Configuration file in nvidia-settings if an existing configuration file is not detected and they also updated the driver to allow NVIDIA High Definition Audio (HDA) controllers to respond to display hotplug events while the HDA is runtime-suspended.

Some fixes made it in too like solving a bug that could cause the X server to crash while exiting DPMS with HardDPMS enabled and also an issue got fixed "that caused DXVK titles to endlessly loop during shader compilation if no OpSource instruction was present"—which is the same fix from the previous Vulkan Beta driver that was specifically for using vkBasalt with DXVK.

NVIDIA also disabled frame rate limiting for configurations without active displays when HardDPMS is enabled and they restricted the maximum number of GPU Screens to one GPU Screen per GPU device, to prevent X from crashing when more than one GPU Screen is configured for a single GPU device.

Mainly a cleaning up release but good to see NVIDIA keep on top of things for Linux users and gamers. See the details here.

As a reminder, if you have an old GPU the 340 series will no longer be updated so it really is time to look for a newer GPU.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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26 comments
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Mohandevir Feb 4, 2020
Let's hope it fixes the Shadow of Mordor Vulkan beta bug... On a fresh install of Ubuntu 19.10, it doesn't work with driver 440 and my GTX 1660 Super. I have to revert to driver 435 that doesn't recognize my GPU... At least it works. :)


Last edited by Mohandevir on 4 February 2020 at 1:53 pm UTC
axredneck Feb 4, 2020
Quote... they also updated the driver to allow NVIDIA High Definition Audio (HDA) controllers ...
... and sound stopped working for me.
2DK Feb 4, 2020
Quoting: axredneck... and sound stopped working for me.
Previous driver also has broken audio on linux 5.5 for me. Try previous kernel version.
MrKiasu Feb 4, 2020
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Quoting: 2DK
Quoting: axredneck... and sound stopped working for me.
Previous driver also has broken audio on linux 5.5 for me. Try previous kernel version.

Seems to be some issue between the kernel audio driver and pulseaudio, due to the mst changes.

https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/pulseaudio/pulseaudio/issues/802
serge Feb 4, 2020
Same here, no more sound :(
Torqachu Feb 4, 2020
On endeavouros with 5.5 kernel the audio on HDMI works despite being marked (unplugged) (unaviable), just choose the right output (try them all).
I don't use it but it works, tested with gtx660 and tv connected in hdmi, the audio comes out of the tv speakers.
Shinikio Feb 5, 2020
Recently got a bug that doesn't display the HDMI output sound when plugged HDMI cable.

Type "pulseaudio --kill" in a terminal (without quotes), wait some seconds, pulseaudio will restart by itself, then HDMI sound appears :D

Hope it helps some people :)

Edit : Using Endeavour OS + KDE Plasma


Last edited by Shinikio on 5 February 2020 at 2:36 am UTC
Is not available yet on the Ubuntu PPA for 18.04...
serge Feb 5, 2020
The sound is back with the 5.5.2-arch1-1 kernel :)
Mohandevir Feb 6, 2020
Am I wrong to say that, in the GPU repo, 440.59 is tagged for Ubuntu 20.04 only, atm?

https://launchpad.net/~graphics-drivers/+archive/ubuntu/ppa
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