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NVIDIA have a small new Vulkan Beta Driver bug-fix release up

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Yesterday, September 9, NVIDIA released a new update to their Vulkan Beta Driver series to clean up some lingering bugs found. One of which should help Wine.

The new version is 450.56.11, which includes these two fixes:

  • Fixed a bug in a SPIR-V optimization that may cause conditional blocks to not execute
  • Fixed a bug where calls to vkGetRandROutputDisplayEXT with unexpected inputs would generate X11 protocol errors

That last one is interesting, as it seems it was affecting the Wine compatibility layer. In the noted Wine bug, there's already a workaround that's landed into Wine itself and should have been available since Wine 5.11. On the NVIDIA side it did uncover an actual bug in their driver, the fix which is now here and ready for testing if needed. NVIDIA stated the fix will land in the next official mainline driver release "after the 450 series".


Reminder: you know it's a special Beta driver thanks to the additional two numbers on the end of the version string, with the newest stable version of the NVIDIA driver for Linux at 450.66 which released on August 18. This special Vulkan beta driver is where all the shiny new stuff goes in before making its way into the stable release for everyone. Really, it's mostly aimed at developers and serious enthusiasts. Unless you need what's in them, it's generally best to use the stable drivers.

If you just want to know when a new stable driver is released, you can follow our dedicated Drivers tag.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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About the author -
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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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2 comments

cookiEoverdose Sep 10, 2020
I was wondering, is there stuff that's in mainline 450.66 but not in Beta 450.56.xx or can the lower minor version number be ignored?
RanceJustice Sep 10, 2020
Its worth noting that users of some emulators, particularly newer branches of Cemu (WiiU, planned open source), Yuzu (Switch, open source currently), Citra (3DS, open source currently), RPCS3 (PS3, Open source currently) etc.. sometimes depend on the special Vulkan drivers if you're going to make use of the latest Vulkan features. They'll usually stipulate this if necessary, but its just worth keeping an eye open.
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