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NVIDIA are pushing forward with improving their Linux driver in many areas, with two driver series seeing updated in the past week.

The first is the 390.77 driver, part of their "long-lived branch release". This was released a few days ago, which has these changes:

  • Improved compatibility with recent Linux kernels.
  • Fixed an intermittent hang of Vulkan applications running fullscreen when flipping is allowed.
  • Removed informational messages that were printed by nvidia-modeset.ko whenever a GPU device was allocated or freed.
  • Fixed a bug that caused kwin OpenGL compositing to crash when launching certain OpenGL applications.
  • Updated the OpenGL driver to allow the use of integer format (SINT/UINT) color attachments with depth attachments in Frame Buffer Objects.

On top of that, there's also the 396.45 driver which is their newer driver series that was released yesterday:

  • Added support for the following GPU:
    • TITAN V JHH Special Edition
  • Improved recovery of Vulkan direct-to-display applications after an application hang or crash.
  • Fixed a bug that could cause multi-threaded EGL applications to crash when exiting.
  • Improved compatibility with recent Linux kernels.
  • Fixed an intermittent hang of Vulkan applications running fullscreen when flipping is allowed.
  • Removed informational messages that were printed by nvidia-modeset.ko whenever a GPU device was allocated or freed.
  • Fixed a bug that could cause kernel panics when using Quadro SDI Capture hardware.
  • Fixed a bug that caused kwin OpenGL compositing to crash when launching certain OpenGL applications.
  • Fixed an intermittent crash when launching Vulkan applications.
  • Fixed an intermittent crash when launching applications through Wine.
  • Fixed a bug that caused the driver, in some low bandwidth DisplayPort configurations, to not implicitly enable display dithering. This resulted in visible banding.
  • Fixed intermittent hangs of fullscreen Vulkan applications when focused away (e.g., by using the alt-tab key combination) on non-composited desktops.
  • Increased the version numbers of the GLVND libGL, libGLESv1_CM, libGLESv2, and libEGL libraries, to prevent concurrently installed non-GLVND libraries from taking precedence in the dynamic linker cache.
  • Updated the OpenGL driver to allow the use of integer format (SINT/UINT) color attachments with depth attachments in Frame Buffer Objects.

Do let us know in the comments how you've been getting on with either driver, help you friendly Linux gamer out if you know a solution to any issues in these newer drivers.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Drivers, NVIDIA
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stretch611 Jul 20, 2018
My system was changed to 396 sfter I upgraded to Mint19. However, Rimworld failed to play nice (did not start) with 396, so I changed to 390 and everything has been stable. (Currently 390.48)

Rimworld uses OpenGL, but I am not sure if its specific problem is one of those listed in the changelog.
kokoko3k Jul 20, 2018
Quoting: Dunc
Quoting: kokoko3kIf you're talking about issues when alt-tabbing and MadMax is fullscreen, then as a workaround, it seems that starting in window mode and then go to fullscreen (i use kwin, and i bound shift+f12 to make any app fullscreen), will solve the issue.
Veering off-topic a bit, but is anyone else getting flickery textures on the NPCs in Mad Max when using Vulkan? Is there a known fix/workaround, or should I report it? I'm reluctant to go back to OpenGL, because the framrate's much more stable.
Yes, me.
It happens on 396.24, but not in the 390.xx series.
It does not happen in vulkan branch: (396.24.02 396.24.10)
https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topic/1036476/linux/-vulkan-texture-flickering-on-mad-max-with-396-24-390-59-is-fine-/
Dax Tailor Jul 20, 2018
@stretch611
I just played Rimworld for about 30 minutes with the 396.24 nvidia driver without any problems. Maybe this is because I don't use a desktop environment just a window manager?


A while ago I had to disable the multi threading in the nvidia driver for X-Rebirth. After that the game was playable but had some graphic problems. I don't remember what driver version it was.
Does someone know if this problems are still there? I forgot how I disabled the multi threading :)
Dunc Jul 20, 2018
Quoting: kokoko3kIt happens on 396.24, but not in the 390.xx series.
It does not happen in vulkan branch: (396.24.02 396.24.10)
Oh, well. At least it's known about. I couldn't find any other mention of it anywhere, and thought it might be my own setup; the words, “hardware issue” were even hovering menacingly in the back of my mind. I might give 396.24.10 a try later.
Avehicle7887 Jul 20, 2018
Can anyone confirm if the 396.45 driver fixes UE4 engine games?
scaine Jul 20, 2018
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I'm using 390.77 and it didn't fix a weird bug with Ubuntu 16.04 that causes the lightdm/password entry page to "freeze". Except, it isn't frozen - you can still type your password and it works, it just doesn't show any input when you're typing, no cursor, no asterix, nothing. Type your password, hit enter, and you're in. Really odd.

Doesn't do this on 384.130 either.

I think I'll give 396.45 a shot - there was a reason I was avoiding it, but honestly can't remember what that reason was...!
TheRiddick Jul 21, 2018
Somebody was telling me that 396.24.10 has poorer opengl performance compared to mainstream driver, I haven't done any tests myself to confirm that or not.
freerunnerlive Jul 21, 2018
HDR Support?
Avehicle7887 Jul 21, 2018
Quoting: Avehicle7887Can anyone confirm if the 396.45 driver fixes UE4 engine games?

Quoting myself for this:

This driver fixes the UE4 white screen issues, I tested both Everspace and Ruiner and they're back to normal. Also DXVK 0.63 works with this version.

The Vulkan driver in 396.45 is version 1.1.70.


Last edited by Avehicle7887 on 21 July 2018 at 9:37 pm UTC
iiari Jul 22, 2018
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Quoting: Avehicle7887
Quoting: Avehicle7887Can anyone confirm if the 396.45 driver fixes UE4 engine games?
This driver fixes the UE4 white screen issues, I tested both Everspace and Ruiner and they're back to normal. Also DXVK 0.63 works with this version.

Any idea if it fixes the Unity bug (ex: Tannenberg)?
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