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NVIDIA end updates to the 340 series legacy driver for Linux

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If you have an older NVIDIA GPU, chances are you've been using the 340 legacy series. Well, NVIDIA have said that it's no longer getting updates. This does not affect any of their modern GPUs, just to be clear on that point.

The 340 legacy series is the newest driver that supports NVIDIA GPUs from the GeForce 8 Series from 2006 up to the GeForce 3xx series (rebrands of the GeForce 200 series) from 2009. We're talking GPUs that can be well over ten years old, so it's only natural their support had to end at some point. NVIDIA did recently give it one last update, with the 340.108 released back in December 2019 which boosted compatibility with newer Linux Kernels so hopefully if you're still on it you will be good for a little while.

As for the 390 legacy driver, which is the last that supports the Fermi series from 2010, NVIDIA will support that at least up until the end of 2022. No new feature support though only updates for Kernels, X server and critical issues.

For info on NVIDIA's Linux driver support time-frames, see this page.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Drivers, NVIDIA
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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8 comments

SirLootALot Jan 31, 2020
I have Laptop with a 8200M GPU and I did not manage to install any reasonably modern Linux Distro due to the Nvidia driver only supporting outdated x.11 Versions. Hopefully this will fix it.
damarrin Jan 31, 2020
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The 340 driver works with the latest Ubuntu and Nvidia says it supports the 8200M so it’s strange you should be having problems. I have a 2008 MBP with Geforce 8600M and it works fine with Ubuntu 19.10.
damarrin Jan 31, 2020
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Personally I hope this last 340 version works with Ubuntu 20.04, that way I’ll be set for another five years.
SirLootALot Jan 31, 2020
Quoting: damarrinThe 340 driver works with the latest Ubuntu and Nvidia says it supports the 8200M so it’s strange you should be having problems. I have a 2008 MBP with Geforce 8600M and it works fine with Ubuntu 19.10.

Now that you say it it is strange indeed. However it has always had issues with x.11. The only thing, that worked, was not using a gui.
Does your Laptop also have an Intel GPU, that it falls back to? Because mine has none.
damarrin Jan 31, 2020
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One thing I’ve been having to do since around 19.04 was edit the gdm config to use x11 instead of wayland, otherwise the gui wouldn’t start most of the time.
wintermute Jan 31, 2020
Quoting: SirLootALotNow that you say it it is strange indeed. However it has always had issues with x.11. The only thing, that worked, was not using a gui.
Does your Laptop also have an Intel GPU, that it falls back to? Because mine has none.

What sort of laptop is it? I have an old Clevo laptop which comes with a 555M as hybrid graphics with the i7 CPU. However I've never been able to use any official Nvidia driver with it because it's a custom 555M and the PCI ID number is not the same as the normal 555M one supported by older Nvidia drivers. At the time I didn't try to hard to work around once I'd discovered the problem as the primary purpose of that laptop was development rather than gaming.
vipor29 Feb 2, 2020
the beauty about these things is they never go away because someone out there will continue to support the legacy stuff.i mean you could use linux on an old machine and just use it for dosbox if your a retro gamer because most dos games do not use 3d cards,that didn't come till the tail end of dos gaming.
SirLootALot Feb 3, 2020
Quoting: wintermute
Quoting: SirLootALotNow that you say it it is strange indeed. However it has always had issues with x.11. The only thing, that worked, was not using a gui.
Does your Laptop also have an Intel GPU, that it falls back to? Because mine has none.

What sort of laptop is it? I have an old Clevo laptop which comes with a 555M as hybrid graphics with the i7 CPU. However I've never been able to use any official Nvidia driver with it because it's a custom 555M and the PCI ID number is not the same as the normal 555M one supported by older Nvidia drivers. At the time I didn't try to hard to work around once I'd discovered the problem as the primary purpose of that laptop was development rather than gaming.

It is a Fujitsu Esprimo Mobile V6555
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