[erhnam]

New Nvidia drivers are out:

Release highlights since 185.19:

* Fixed a Xinerama drawable resource management problem that can cause GLXBadDrawable errors in certain cases, such as when Wine applications are run.
* Fixed XineramaQueryScreens to return 0 screens instead of 1 screen with the geometry of screen 0 when XineramaIsActive returns false. This conforms to the Xinerama manual page and fixes an interaction problem with Compiz when there is more than one X screen.
* Moved kernel module loading earlier in the X driver's initialization, to facilitate more graceful fallbacks if the kernel module cannot be loaded. Removed the LoadKernelModule X configuration option.
* Added support for new horizontal interlaced and checkerboard passive stereo modes.
* Fixed an OpenGL driver crash while running Bibble 5.
* Fixed a DisplayPort interaction problem with power management suspend/resume events.
* Fixed occasional X driver memory management performance problems when a composite manager is running.
* Fixed a bug with VT-switching or mode-switching while using Compiz; the bug could lead to a corrupted desktop (e.g., a white screen) or in the worst case an X server crash.
* Fixed a bug that could cause GPU errors in some cases while driving Quadro SDI products.
* Fixed a several second hang when VT-switching while OpenGL stereo applications were running on pre-G80 Quadro GPUs.
* Added support for multiple swap group members on G80 and later Quadro GPUs.
* Fixed the behavior of the NV_CTRL_FRAMELOCK_SYNC_DELAY NV-CONTROL attribute on Quadro G-Sync II.
* Fixed a problem with Quadro SDI where transitioning from "clone mode" to "OpenGL mode" would fail.
* Fixed VDPAU to eliminate some cases of corruption when decoding H.264 video containing field-coded reference frames on G84, G86, G92, G94, G96, or GT200 GPUs. Such streams are commonly found in DVB broadcasts.
* Slightly improved the performance of the VDPAU noise reduction algorithm.
* Enhanced VDPAU to validate whether overlay usage is supported by the current hardware configuration, and to automatically fall back to the blit-based presentation queue if required.
* Fixed error checking in VdpVideoMixerRender, to reject calls that specify more layers than the VdpMixer was created with.
* Modified VDPAU's VDPAU_DEBUG code to emit a complete backtrace on all platforms, not just on 32-bit Linux.
* Improved interaction between VDPAU and PowerMizer; appropriate performance levels should now be chosen for video playback of all standard resolutions on all supported GPUs.
* Fixed a bug in VDPAU that sometimes caused "display preemption" when the VdpDecoderCreate function failed.
* Fixed a potential segfault in the VDPAU trace library, triggered by a multi-threaded application creating a new VdpDevice in one thread, at the same time that another thread detected "display preemption".
* Improved compatibility with recent Linux kernels.

I had some problems installing them the right way under XBMC 9.04 (Live). The right commando's installing them the right way should be:

wget ftp://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-...4-pkg1.run

sudo apt-get install build-essential cdbs fakeroot dh-make debhelper debconf libstdc++5 dkms linux-headers-$(uname -r)

sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-dev

sudo sh ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86-185.18.14-pkg1.run -k $(uname -r) --x-module-path=/usr/lib/xorg/modules --x-library-path=/usr/lib

I'm using XBMC together with my Nvidia ION box. I had some performance issues with VDPAU. I'll let you know if these problems are solved with this new drivers.

[erhnam]

I had some problems uninstall the old driver. This is the trick:

kill -9 `ps ax | grep startx | grep -v grep | awk '{print $1}'`
kill -9 `ps ax | grep xbmc.bin| grep -v grep | awk '{print $1}'`
lsmod | grep nvidia
sudo rmmod nvidia
locate nvidia.ko
sudo mv /lib/modules/2.6.28-11-generic/updates/dkms/nvidia.ko ~

Then reinstall with:

sudo sh ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86-185.18.14-pkg1.run -k $(uname -r) --x-module-path=/usr/lib/xorg/modules --x-library-path=/usr/lib

[User 29008]

Hmm, I updated the nvidia drivers of the last 3 versions by just running sh installerfile-pkg1.run.
Always worked like a charm for me, no manual uninstall before ...

boba

[erhnam]

Hmm, I updated the nvidia drivers of the last 3 versions by just running sh installerfile-pkg1.run.
Always worked like a charm for me, no manual uninstall before ...

boba

I had some issues. I suggest people should try your method first before uninstalling.

[Hannes The Hun]

I'm using XBMC together with my Nvidia ION box. I had some performance issues with VDPAU. I'll let you know if these problems are solved with this new drivers.

well, after screwing up my XBMC live installation, I set up XBMCbuntu exactly as in the sticky how-to, installed this newest nvidia driver, and tested.
the stuttering/buffering problem is still there (Acer Revo)

[medicineuk]

well, after screwing up my XBMC live installation, I set up XBMCbuntu exactly as in the sticky how-to, installed this newest nvidia driver, and tested.
the stuttering/buffering problem is still there (Acer Revo)

Have you changed the rendering mode in XBMC to VDPAU in the video setttings. I had mine set to auto which caused some stuttering.

[Hannes The Hun]

sure, XBMC definitely is using VDPAU. I have very low CPU load when playing 720p MKV, but still the same "buffering"-problems as with the live distro. I'm done for today, will try to post the debug info tomorrow.

[Starstream]

boba23 was that for XBMC Live as I tried your method but the Nvidia installer says that an X server is still running and must be shutdown before proceeding.

Any idea on how to do that ?

erhnam I tired your method to but it says the same thing am I missing a step, after XBMC Live boots press Ctrl+Alt+F2 login and start from there ?

[johan77]

I had occational freezes that usually started with the mouse stuttering using the drivers enclosed with Ubuntu Jaunty (Nvidia 180.35 if I recall correctly). However, the 185.18.14 drivers fixed that issue. That's with an Asus P5N7A-VM card with Nvidia 9300 integrated graphics.

Remember to inactivate proprietary drivers before installing. I didn't do that at first, and had problems with Ubuntu restarting in low res mode.

[rossgemuend]

@Starstream... the command you're looking for to stop X and allow the installations is:

Code:

sudo pkill X

@johan77... Are you sure your P5N7A-VM has a 9400? I have the same motherboard and it's a 9300. Still works great anyways.

[Starstream]

Thanks for that rossgemuend.

I managed to install the updated Nvidia driver under XBMC Live but it would freeze on boot or get stuck in a loop (HD would flash intermittently) after loading the power management driver so I'm pretty much out of my depth, I'll leave it alone for now and stick with normal 9.04.01 release.

[thecheekymonkey]

Edit wrong thread!

[rossgemuend]

Thanks for that rossgemuend.

I managed to install the updated Nvidia driver under XBMC Live but it would freeze on boot or get stuck in a loop (HD would flash intermittently) after loading the power management driver so I'm pretty much out of my depth, I'll leave it alone for now and stick with normal 9.04.01 release.

I actually ran into the same problem and never figured it out. I'm still pretty new to linux . I ended up just reinstalling ubuntu 9.04 server and following l.capriotti's tutorial here.

[Qroach]

Thanks for posting this

[Hannes The Hun]

I actually ran into the same problem and never figured it out. I'm still pretty new to linux . I ended up just reinstalling ubuntu 9.04 server and following l.capriotti's tutorial here.

that's also the procedure I strongly recommend when you really wanna fiddle around with the system. the Live images are great when they work out-of-the-box, but they can be a real pain in the ass when you want to do some manual modifications.