Nvidia Releases Updated Linux Drivers for the Old GeForce 8 and 9 Series

[Exterminator]

Nvidia Releases Updated Linux Drivers for the Old GeForce 8 and 9 Series

Lots of fixes have been implemented in this release
Nvidia has updated the Legacy branch of the Linux drivers and developers have fixed quite a few issues. This is a driver aimed at older hardware, so if you just got your shiny and new Titan video card, this driver will be of no use to you.

Spoiler: Nvidia 340.93 Changelog

- Fixed a bug that caused the X server to crash if an OpenGL application tried to allocate a drawable when GPU-accessible memory is exhausted.
- Fixed a bug that could cause an Xid error when terminating a video playback application using the overlay presentation queue in VDPAU.
- Updated nvidia-installer to avoid recursing too deeply into kernel source trees under /usr/lib/modules, mirroring an existing restriction on recursion under /lib/modules.
- Fixed a rare deadlock condition when running applications that use OpenGL in multiple threads on a Quadro GPU.
- Fixed a kernel memory leak that occurred when looping hardware- accelerated video decoding with VDPAU on Maxwell-based GPUs.
- Fixed a bug that caused the X server to crash if a RandR 1.4 output provided by a Sink Output provider was selected as the primary output on X.Org xserver 1.17 and higher.
- Fixed a bug that caused waiting on X Sync Fence objects in OpenGL to hang indefinitely in some cases.
- Fixed a bug that prevented OpenGL from properly recovering from hardware errors or sync object waits that had timed out.
- Updated nvidia-installer to use modprobe(8) when leaving the NVIDIA kernel module loaded after installation, instead of insmod(8) or libkmod. This allows the kernel module to honor any configuration directives that apply to it in /etc/modprobe.d when it is loaded.
- Fixed a bug that allowed console messages from the Linux kernel to be drawn over the user interface of nvidia-installer.

Everyone is looking to get the most advanced driver for their video card, but not everyone has the latest video card. Nvidia knows this, and they provide a separate branch of the Nvidia drivers that are aimed at users with hardware that is no longer produced and that's been retired for a long time.

Like all things Nvidia-related, the drivers are somewhat shrouded in mystery and confusion. It's not just a single branch of drivers for old GPUs; there are actually several. As it stands right now, the Nvidia 340.93 driver is the most advanced for Legacy hardware, but it's not the only one. It will enable the use of older video cards, not for all of them. If you have a really ancient one, this driver might be too "new" for it.

Nvidia doesn't forget about its customers
Most of the legacy drivers usually have just a few changes and improvements so that they won't with new versions of the X server and new Linux kernel. Sometimes, more important fixes are being implemented, and this is just the case with the current 340.93 version.

"Fixed a bug that caused the X server to crash if an OpenGL application tried to allocate a drawable when GPU-accessible memory is exhausted. Fixed a bug that could cause an Xid error when terminating a video playback application using the overlay presentation queue in VDPAU," reads the changelog.

These are just a couple of the fixes. For more details about the Nvidia 340.93 release, make sure that you check the entire changelog below. This driver is aimed at the GeForce 8 and 9 series, so if you have anything older than this, the driver won't work.

As usual, you can download the Nvidia 340.93 Legacy Linux drivers for the 32-bit and 64-bit flavors from Softpedia. A version for FreeBSD 32-bit and 64-bit, and Solaris are also available.