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NVIDIA driver 440.59 released for Linux

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The first stable driver release of 2020, yesterday NVIDIA put out the 440.59 driver for Linux users.

It brings in a few new features like support for audio over DisplayPort Multi-Stream which requires Linux Kernel 5.5 at a minimum, PRIME Synchronization support for Linux kernel 5.4 and newer, a default filename when saving the Display Configuration file in nvidia-settings if an existing configuration file is not detected and they also updated the driver to allow NVIDIA High Definition Audio (HDA) controllers to respond to display hotplug events while the HDA is runtime-suspended.

Some fixes made it in too like solving a bug that could cause the X server to crash while exiting DPMS with HardDPMS enabled and also an issue got fixed "that caused DXVK titles to endlessly loop during shader compilation if no OpSource instruction was present"—which is the same fix from the previous Vulkan Beta driver that was specifically for using vkBasalt with DXVK.

NVIDIA also disabled frame rate limiting for configurations without active displays when HardDPMS is enabled and they restricted the maximum number of GPU Screens to one GPU Screen per GPU device, to prevent X from crashing when more than one GPU Screen is configured for a single GPU device.

Mainly a cleaning up release but good to see NVIDIA keep on top of things for Linux users and gamers. See the details here.

As a reminder, if you have an old GPU the 340 series will no longer be updated so it really is time to look for a newer GPU.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Pangaea Feb 9, 2020
For whatever reason, Firefox appears to be central to the destroyed sound. Which is very bad news because I spend most of the days using Firefox and listening to music.

Sometimes I get around the problem by first firing up music in VLC and then starting Firefox, but it may not last terribly long.

GAH! :(
jens Feb 9, 2020
  • Supporter
Quoting: PangaeaBut it's a weird one. Tried Witcher 3 with the 435 drivers, and it's way too dark. So I went back to the faulty 440, and started up the game after a restart, with nothing else running. The game ran well without any sound issues, for hours. Close down the game and boot up Firefox. Try to play music in VLC. Sound is fecked again. Stop sound, close down Firefox. Turn sound back on. Plays without any hickups. Even worked to start up again Firefox as long as the music was already playing.

That is very different than the issue I mentioned/I had. In my case there was no situation where the sound was somewhat normal, every sound output was broken. So please forget the links I posted ;)
notinuse Feb 9, 2020
Just updated the video driver from 440.48.02 to 440.59 on Ubuntu 18.04 with kernel 5.3.0-28. I can no longer control the video card fans using GreenWithEnvy(GWE). I could previously, and cool bits is still set. Anyone have any suggestions?

UPDATE: Well this is embarrassing. I checked the GWE support site, and evidently I need to run "flatpack update" after exiting GWE. I did this and GWE is running ok. I'll leave this here in case someone else has the same problem.


Last edited by notinuse on 9 February 2020 at 5:46 pm UTC
Pangaea Feb 10, 2020
This is weird as hell, but now the sound seems to work as it should again? Still on 5.3.0-28 kernel and the newest 440-drivers, but now it's fine to play music while using Firefox, and I played Witcher 3 for most of yesterday without any problems. Very strange. Hope it continues like this, it was very annoying with all that buzzing and crackling sound non-stop. Kinda like static on a radio channel with poor reception.
axredneck Feb 10, 2020
Quoting: Pangaea... buzzing and crackling ...
Sounds like a bug of Pulseaudio.
axredneck Feb 17, 2020
Quoting: axredneck
Quoting: sergeThe sound is back with the 5.5.2-arch1-1 kernel :)
5.5.2-xanmod, Arch, not fixed for me
5.5.4-xanmod, fixed finally!
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