NVIDIA Updates Its 319 Linux GPU Driver

[vsteel]

I am just waiting to upgrade to the newer series as soon as they fix the openCL issue. The newer series of drivers really takes a chunk out of my folding.

[RealNC]

X.Org server 1.15 support was already in the previous driver (319.76). It's not new and existed before 1.15 was even released.

[Gusar]

Well, it has some xrandr support, but it's incomplete. Only the native resolution of the screen is exposed through xrandr 1.2+, which makes it kinda useless.

It's very complete, actually. That is how xrandr1.2 is supposed to work if you go strictly by the spec, which is what Nvidia is doing. If the app does xrandr1.2, it's supposed to provide detailed info about what it wants. Few apps do so, but you could argue that's an app problem. You could also argue it's inefficient, each app having to duplicate detailed resolution handling.

You only see one resolution, because your display reports it supports only that resolution. Which is completely true. If you want other resolutions, set up metamodes with appropriate ViewportIn and ViewportOut parameters. Yeah, there should be a facility to make this simpler, like the xrandr properties that open drivers have. But that's not about not supporting xrandr1.2, it's about supporting it too strictly.

[johnc]

Well, it has some xrandr support, but it's incomplete. Only the native resolution of the screen is exposed through xrandr 1.2+, which makes it kinda useless.
Heres's my xrandr output:
---
$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 1920 x 1200, maximum 8192 x 8192
VGA-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
LVDS-0 connected primary 1920x1200+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 331mm x 207mm
1920x1200 60.0*+
DVI-D-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
---

And this is the only resolution that games see. Want to change to a lower res. because the HUD is too small and you can't see/read it? Want to improve fps rate? Tough luck.

I can play games in lower resolutions:

Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 3840 x 1080, maximum 8192 x 8192
DVI-I-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
VGA-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DVI-I-1 connected 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 531mm x 299mm
   1920x1080      60.0*+
   1280x1024      75.0     60.0  
   1152x864       75.0  
   1024x768       75.0     60.0  
   800x600        75.0     60.3  
   640x480        75.0     59.9  
HDMI-0 connected 1920x1080+1920+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 510mm x 287mm
   1920x1080      60.0*+   59.9     50.0     30.0     25.0  
   1280x1024      75.0     60.0  
   1280x960       60.0  
   1280x800       59.8  
   1280x720       60.0     59.9     50.0  
   1152x864       75.0  
   1024x768       75.0     70.1     60.0  
   800x600        75.0     72.2     60.3     56.2  
   720x576        50.0  
   720x480        59.9  
   640x480        75.0     72.8     59.9     59.9

[edgan]

Downgrade

I just downgraded from 331.20 to 319.82 on Fedora 20 x86_64. I did it to see if it fixes a problem with nvidia module error on resume. Which it seems to have done.

I am also curious if it fixes gnome-shell randomly crashing, but that will take some time.

In the process of recompiling the 331.20 src.rpms with 319.82 I found that nvidia didn't release 319.82 for x86, just x86_64.

[mark45]

Sometimes this closed tech shit really gets on my nerves.
End of rant

Same experience with Sony SD cards years ago, since then I swore to God to always google about the product before even thinking to buy it because minutes/hours of googling might save you months/years of frustration.

[z0id]

Afaik XRandr 1.4 appeared in 319 series and should be enabled and stable in the 331 series. Upgrade driver?

Well, it has some xrandr support, but it's incomplete. Only the native resolution of the screen is exposed through xrandr 1.2+, which makes it kinda useless.
Heres's my xrandr output:
---
$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 1920 x 1200, maximum 8192 x 8192
VGA-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
LVDS-0 connected primary 1920x1200+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 331mm x 207mm
1920x1200 60.0*+
DVI-D-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
---

And this is the only resolution that games see. Want to change to a lower res. because the HUD is too small and you can't see/read it? Want to improve fps rate? Tough luck.
Also, if I change the resolution through nvidia-settings to a lower one, half of the desktop is out of the screen, because they removed the scaling options. (or something else is missing, idk)
The wine devs have a relevant commentary on the subject in the source code, but I can't find the link right now.

I also tried to change the video card on my laptop to an AMD one to use the open driver, but found out that HP (my laptop is a HP), only allows their overpriced, outdated hardware parts to work. Any other video card, wi-fi card, you name it, is blocked by the BIOS, which is encrypted, cannot be modded, and cannot be downgraded.

Sometimes this closed tech shit really gets on my nerves.
End of rant

[mark45]

Still no xrandr 1.2 or efifb support . I'm stuck with one resolution and black screen on TTY.

Afaik XRandr 1.4 appeared in 319 series and should be enabled and stable in the 331 series. Upgrade driver?

[z0id]

I wish nouveau was better.

Still no xrandr 1.2 or efifb support . I'm stuck with one resolution and black screen on TTY.

[johnc]

I'm not sure what the difference is between this and 319.76 which was released in November.