NVIDIA Updates Its Legacy Binary Blob

NVIDIA has updated its legacy binary Linux display driver. The NVIDIA 173.14.30 is this new driver release and it simply adds support for X.Org Server 1.10 and compatibility for the newest Linux kernel releases (up through Linux 2.6.38). That's it.

NVIDIA doesn't back-port any new features or other work to their legacy drivers but just drops in new kernel and xorg-server support. The 173.14.30 NVIDIA Linux driver download links for x86 and x86_64 architectures can be found at NvNews.net.

This legacy driver is for supporting GeForce graphics cards prior to the GeForce 6 generation. NVIDIA also has another legacy driver for their oldest pre-GeForce (Riva / TNT) hardware and other early ASICs, but that legacy driver is no longer being maintained for newer Linux kernel / xorg-server compatibility. Those users are stuck to using their old distribution releases or to switch to using the Nouveau driver stack, which may or may not work depending upon your configuration.