NVIDIA has today released the 495.29.05 driver as a Beta in their New Feature Branch and it's a relatively big one.
The main highlight feature is that NVIDIA has finally added support for the GBM API making it more compatible with Wayland, this is instead of EGLStreams that they were previously pushing. Just another tick in the box for running a Wayland system with NVIDIA with it now using the same API as Mesa with GBM.
From the release notes here's what's new:
- Added support for the GBM API. This adds the new symlink nvidia-drm_gbm.so pointing to the file libnvidia-allocator.so.VERSION to implement a GBM backend driver usable with the GBM loader from the Mesa project version 21.2 and above, as well as the files libnvidia-egl-gbm.so.1.1.0 and 15_nvidia_gbm.json, which implement EGL support for the GBM platform (EGL_KHR_platform_gbm).
- Add indicator for Resizable BAR support on compatible systems.
- Fixed a bug that could cause the X server to crash when starting a new server generation on PRIME configurations.
- Removed support for NvIFROpenGL. This functionality was deprecated in the 470.xx driver release.
- Removed libnvidia-cbl.so from the driver package. This functionality is now provided by other driver libraries.
- Changed the minimum required Linux kernel version from 2.6.32 to 3.10.
- Updated nvidia.ko to load even if no supported NVIDIA GPUs are present when an NVIDIA NVSwitch device is detected in the system. Previously, nvidia.ko would fail to load into the kernel if no supported GPUs were present.
While the changelog doesn't state it, we've also been told that this driver version should also fix VRR issues people saw with Adaptive-Sync monitors.
Since this is a Beta version it may come with unexpected issues but it should still be more suitable for normal users than their separate Vulkan Beta series.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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The comments on this article are closed.
EDIT: mmstick on the Matrix-room confirmed that this driver is being packaged for Pop!_OS today.
Took them long enough!
But better late than never, I hope their implementation works as well as the open-source implementation of Mesa.
Last edited by Hooly on 14 October 2021 at 2:30 pm UTC
Took them long enough!
But better late than never, I hope their implementation works as well as the open-source implementation of Mesa.
Last edited by Hooly on 14 October 2021 at 2:30 pm UTC
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Interesting that they finally caved on GBM. I wonder why, and why now?
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Quoting: Purple Library GuyInteresting that they finally caved on GBM. I wonder why, and why now?I attribute it to 2 factors.
1. The KDE lead developer requested an engineer from Nvidia to implement the EGLStreams backend for kwin. Said engineer ran into technical issues, a la some features could not be implemented with the EGLStreams' approach, exactly like the Xorg people predicted.
2. RedHat announced a while ago that they won't support bare-metal Xorg anymore and will focus entirely on Wayland and the XWayland-Xorg-server.
No way forward, no way backward, at that point they had no choice anymore.
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Brandonmccoub2 Oct 14, 2021
Finally, we have waited too long comrades! 
I am a bit lost on why they skipped 475, 480 or even 490 for the next version number though.
Does anyone know wether this driver will work on the RTX 3060, when I go to the RTX 3060 driver page the latest "New Feature Branch" is Driver Version 470?? 
Yes it does support the RTX 3060!
It also supports the GT 630 all the way up to the RTX 3090.
I am gonna try this with KDE Plasma & Gnome 40 on EndeavourOS running Wayland and if that goes well I will do some benchmarks and compare it to X.Org Server. Wish me luck comrades.
I am a bit lost on why they skipped 475, 480 or even 490 for the next version number though.
Yes it does support the RTX 3060!
It also supports the GT 630 all the way up to the RTX 3090.
Installation instructions: Once you have downloaded the driver, change to the directory containing the driver package and install the driver by running, as root, sh ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-495.29.05.runI am gonna try this with KDE Plasma & Gnome 40 on EndeavourOS running Wayland and if that goes well I will do some benchmarks and compare it to X.Org Server. Wish me luck comrades.
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Quoting: Purple Library GuyInteresting that they finally caved on GBM. I wonder why, and why now?
What @Hooly said, plus they were very very alone. As I understood, even the Android world has gone GBM.
As far as I understand EGLStream was supposed to be standard outside of GNU/Linux ... But nah, it's not. So considering technically it is a mixed bag between both, might as well go with the flow.
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Quoting: Brandonmccoub2You'd better install this: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/?O=0&SeB=nd&K=nvidia+beta&outdated=&SB=n&SO=a&PP=50&do_Search=%D0%9F%D0%BE%D0%B5%D1%85%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B8
Installation instructions: Once you have downloaded the driver, change to the directory containing the driver package and install the driver by running, as root, sh ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-495.29.05.run
I am gonna try this with KDE Plasma & Gnome 40 on EndeavourOS...
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Quoting: Brandonmccoub2I am a bit lost on why they skipped 475, 480 or even 490 for the next version number though.
I see that Windows has versions 471 & 472, but I've no idea where the other numbers have gone :-)
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Another factor: SteamOS 3 will be launched alongside the Steam Deck. This uses gamescope and so requires some driver features which Nvidia have either only added recently or don't support yet.
Last edited by anth on 14 October 2021 at 10:40 pm UTC
Last edited by anth on 14 October 2021 at 10:40 pm UTC
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I hope they fixed the Gsync issue, its anoying to have to downgrade the driver to use the system at all. Edit- Yes its fixed! Wayland works great in gnome now too, gaming is not as janky now.
Last edited by scirocco on 15 October 2021 at 6:51 am UTC
Last edited by scirocco on 15 October 2021 at 6:51 am UTC
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