NVIDIA 177.80 Display Driver

[phoronix]

Phoronix: NVIDIA 177.80 Display Driver

Over the course of the past few months we have seen several NVIDIA Linux drivers that have all been marked as beta with the last official release appearing in April. Today though NVIDIA has released the 177.80 Linux driver, which is an official update and christens the changes made with the 177.67, 177.68, 170.70, 177.76, and 177.78 beta drivers. Among the changes are RENDER extension improvements, finally officially supporting the GeForce GTX series, text rendering fixes, and there are 25 official changes in total.

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=12922

[Setlec]

Thanks god that they made the official release. Any idea of when they will implement the OpenGL 3.0 in the linux drivers?

[Michael]

Thanks god that they made the official release. Any idea of when they will implement the OpenGL 3.0 in the linux drivers?

With the 180 release most likely.

[ethana2]

Woohoo!

When does it get kernel mode setting like intel chips? I'm still pained over having to pick nVidia just because it was the only option on this notebook powerful enough to do what I want-- 'cause mere months after I did, intel came out with their X4500 gpu series....

[Michael]

Woohoo!

When does it get kernel mode setting like intel chips? I'm still pained over having to pick nVidia just because it was the only option on this notebook powerful enough to do what I want-- 'cause mere months after I did, intel came out with their X4500 gpu series....

AFAIK, you won't see any oss-like-KMS with the binary driver for quite some time.

[stan]

AFAIK, you won't see any oss-like-KMS with the binary driver for quite some time.

So much for NVIDIA's open-source strategy rumor :mad:

[b15hop]

Seems like times are changing. Nvidia were once the only option in Linux. Now they are slipping behind Intel and AMD. Now with AMD splitting, I wonder how this will change things.

[_txf_]

Now with AMD splitting, I wonder how this will change things.

very little probably, amd is only spinning off its production division. Graphics and software is still housed under amd

[Kalessian]

A new feature was omitted from the official change log, I think.

Audio through HDMI now works with this new driver. This includes SPDIF passthrough for DVI-HDMI connections, not just cards with HDMI.

See this thread: http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=97993

Yes this is a driver issue. We recently implemented support for audio through HDMI and it is expected to ship in the release 177 driver when available. I suggest you periodically check our web site for driver updates to version 177.

[R3MF]

Do i understand this coreectly; these drivers do not support my 9800 GX2?

[Kano]

Usually they work even with not mentioned hardware.

[DeepDayze]

Usually they work even with not mentioned hardware.

That's good to know...but another update could then make that support official for such cards. Doesn't hurt to try out the driver on a card such as the 9800GX2 as a poster above mentioned.

[eL_vErDe]

Hi,

This driver fixed KDE4 2D performance on KDE4 but introduced a new issue.
I can't play any flash video in fullscreen.
I'm using debian 64bits + 32bits firefox from mozilla.com + 32bits flash10 beta flayer.

Videos works fine in windowed mode but when I switch to fullscreen firefox freeze.

Anyone have the same issue ?

[eL_vErDe]

Works fine with flash 9 :)

[_txf_]

Hi,

This driver fixed KDE4 2D performance on KDE4 but introduced a new issue.
I can't play any flash video in fullscreen.
I'm using debian 64bits + 32bits firefox from mozilla.com + 32bits flash10 beta flayer.

Videos works fine in windowed mode but when I switch to fullscreen firefox freeze.

Anyone have the same issue ?

Check if you can get a newer version of nspluginwrapper as older versions (ie not latest snapshots) dont work well with flash 10

[eL_vErDe]

I use a real 32bits browser.

Anyway, flash9 works but it's damn slow.

[deanjo]

That's good to know...but another update could then make that support official for such cards. Doesn't hurt to try out the driver on a card such as the 9800GX2 as a poster above mentioned.

The 9800GX2 is listed in the supported card list. It's the very fist listing in fact.

Supported Products List


GeForce Products:
GeForce 9800 GX2
0x0604


http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_18897.html

[_txf_]

I use a real 32bits browser.

Anyway, flash9 works but it's damn slow.

oops, my bad (note to self: read the words next time). Maybe you should consider using a 64bit firefox with nspluginwrapper and flash 10. It works quite well and even manages to mostly keep up to dvd res videos.

[kraftman]

KDE4 is still slow for me... Scrolling playlist in Amarok 2 is painfully slow. Some 3D apps seems to be slower with present driver than with 169.xx. Only option for me is to change to AMD/Ati.

[Kano]

Buy ATI if you have now too few problems *hahaha*

[kraftman]

>Buy ATI if you have now too few problems *hahaha*

I borrowed Ati card from my friend some time ago and didn't have problems with it. No matter - fglrx or open drivers it worked very well. My nvidia card is slow in KDE4 like a turtle, fonts are corrupted etc. etc....

[Mota_boy]

That's good to know...but another update could then make that support official for such cards. Doesn't hurt to try out the driver on a card such as the 9800GX2 as a poster above mentioned.
Reply With Quote

Well it doesn`t matter is it amd or nvidia, they are folks too, it doesn`t make any less smart you to try e.x or something.., and hey they don`t figure absolutely 100% everything.

[Porter]

Is there a decent set of instructions anywhere on the web for installing this driver manually on Ubuntu?

[deanjo]

Is there a decent set of instructions anywhere on the web for installing this driver manually on Ubuntu?

Did you read the README?

[Kano]

@Porter

http://kanotix.com/files/install-nvidia-debian.sh

Just execute the script, it should work until you need one of the 2 oldest legacy drivers which do not work with U 8.10 as it uses xserver 1.5 - script has automatic card -> driver selection.

[Porter]

Thanks for the help guys... I also just realized that the repos for Ubuntu Intrepid have been updated with the 177.80 driver, so it's fully maintained now.

[Porter]

Did you read the README?

I did read the README... In my case I kept having trouble with the Nvidia script screaming about X running even though I was booting directly to a console. The driver's in the repos now though, so no worries.

[deanjo]

I did read the README... In my case I kept having trouble with the Nvidia script screaming about X running even though I was booting directly to a console. The driver's in the repos now though, so no worries.

All you had to do is boot to runlevel 3 or invoke it by typing init 3 into your console.

[Kano]

@deanjo

thats the SuSE way (and would also work on Kanotix), but the default Debian/Ubuntu runlevels are the same from 2 to 5.

My script knows that and does not require to shutdown X, you should only to use a text console, like you get when you press CTRL+ALT+F1. It shuts down X using gdm/kdm/xdm - whatever it was used.

In the very rare case that it is impossible to get into a textconsole - maybe due to screen corruption, it is possible to disable the check and use nohup like:

sudo -i
DISPLAY= nohup sh install-nvidia-debian.sh

notice that there MUST be a space behind the =.

[deanjo]

@deanjo

thats the SuSE way (and would also work on Kanotix), but the default Debian/Ubuntu runlevels are the same from 2 to 5.

My script knows that and does not require to shutdown X, you should only to use a text console, like you get when you press CTRL+ALT+F1. It shuts down X using gdm/kdm/xdm - whatever it was used.

In the very rare case that it is impossible to get into a textconsole - maybe due to screen corruption, it is possible to disable the check and use nohup like:

sudo -i
DISPLAY= nohup sh install-nvidia-debian.sh

notice that there MUST be a space behind the =.

Good to know.

[gzahl]

Oh yeah, don't buy ATI its a pain... I'm reading this thread, because i think of buying a nvidia card *g*, because after 2 or 3 years of ATI i'm done..

If there would only be an PciE Intel Card...:D

[Porter]

All you had to do is boot to runlevel 3 or invoke it by typing init 3 into your console.

I did that, it still threw a fit.

[Milyardo]

I did that, it still threw a fit.

run level 3 in ubuntu still runs GDM. The best way to stop X in ubuntu is to just stop GDM with its init script. First switch to any TTY then:

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop

Then sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start to start it again.

[b15hop]

I think the days of bad ATi drivers are over. I think my next machine I'll try another ATi card. Mainly because the tide is turning, with open source support now available for ATi cards.

PS: I use Arch Linux. Seems to be a pretty good distro. Although the arch package nvidia driver doesn't always work so I just download the driver from the nvidia website. That's probably the only problem I've really ever had with nvidia at a driver level. Otherwise it would be nice if the card itself was a little quieter.

[Redeeman]

I think the days of bad ATi drivers are over. I think my next machine I'll try another ATi card. Mainly because the tide is turning, with open source support now available for ATi cards.
that is, available, for _SOME_ cards, not the newer.

[Mota_boy]

I borrowed Ati card from my friend some time ago and didn't have problems with it. No matter - fglrx or open drivers it worked very well. My nvidia card is slow in KDE4 like a turtle, fonts are corrupted etc. etc....

Hmm well i have use ati`s and nvidias card too, but i still like to thing in both cases why doesn`t something work, or works nto so good
and not make it sweeping ( hope the word is rigth one, sorry bit lack english ) way , still happy to hear this progress from nvidia :)