Saturday, January 10, 2009

New Nvidia Video Drivers for Linux Bring Support for Kernel 2.6.28

Plus numerous fixes, support for new GPUs and many improvements.

Another improved version of the Nvidia proprietary video driver for the Linux, FreeBSD and Solaris open source operating systems was made available by the Nvidia Corporation on January 8th, 2009. The major feature brought by the Nvidia 180.22 display driver is the initial support for Linux kernel 2.6.28 and for the following GPUs: Quadro FX 2700M, GeForce 9400M G, GeForce 9400M, GeForce 9800 GT, GeForce 8200M G, GeForce Go 7700, GeForce 9800M GTX, GeForce 9800M GT, GeForce 9800M GS, GeForce 9500 GT, GeForce 9700M GT, GeForce 9650M GT, GeForce 9500 GT. Among other features and fixes brought by the new Nvidia 180.22 video driver for Linux and BSD systems we can notice:

· Added OpenGL 3.0 preliminary support;
· Added support for PureVideo-like features (via the VDPAU API);
· Added support for CUDA 2.1;
· Added performance optimizations for OpenGL workstations;
· Added SDI full-range color support;
· Improved stability and X pixmap placement on GeForce 8 series and newer GPUs;
· The glyph cache was enabled by default and it is now available on all supported GPUs;
· The shared memory X pixmaps option (AllowSHMPixmaps) is now disabled by default;
· Fixed an nvidia-settings issue. The application crashed if the xorg.conf file contained the Device and Screen sections but no ServerLayout section;
· Fixed an nvidia-settings issue with the SDI sync skew controls;
· Fixed a Compiz Fusion issue for Geforce 6 and 7 series GPUs;
· Fixed monitor sync range parsing issue in xorg.conf;
· Fixed crashing issues with some SDI applications;
· Fixed Linux OpenGL library issue. The library crashed when used inside the FreeBSD's Linux emulation layer.

How to install the Nvidia video drivers?

Log out of your current session and hit the CTRL+ALT+F1 key combination, in order to enter a text-mode session. Log in as root (System Administrator), go to the folder where you've downloaded the Nvidia driver installer (see below for links), and type:

sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-180.22-pkg1.run (for x86 users)
sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-180.22-pkg2.run (for AMD64 users)

Then, follow the on-screen instructions to install the Nvidia video driver. Please note that the Linux kernel headers and a GCC compiler will be required to complete the installation!

Download the Nvidia display driver 180.22 for the x86 architecture right now from Softpedia.

Download the Nvidia display driver 180.22 for the AMD64/EM64T architectures right now from Softpedia.

Download the Nvidia display driver 180.22 for the FreeBSD systems right now from Softpedia.