For those who are waiting for the latest NVIDIA 565.77 driver package, it’s now available in PPA for Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 24.04, and Ubuntu 24.10.
NVIDIA 565.77 is so far the latest feature branch version graphics driver for Linux. As Ubuntu seems to prefer the production branch version, this new driver release will be less likely (in my own opinion) to be add into official system repository.
If the new driver includes specific features and bug-fixes for your device, then you may try the “Graphics Drivers” team PPA maintained by Ubuntu Team members.
NVIDIA announced the first stable release of the new 565 series Linux driver this Sunday!
The new NVIDIA 565.77 driver is marked as the latest new feature branch version for Linux users. The release introduced some new features and various bug-fixes. Continue Reading…
NVIDIA Linux driver has reached 560 release series. Here’s how to install it or the 555 series in Ubuntu 24.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 20.04, and their based systems.
NVIDIA 560 so far is the latest new feature branch driver for Linux. It added support VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) on notebooks with the open kernel modules, as well as for Wayland on pre-Volta GPUs.
As well, there are multiple concurrent clients support to NvFBC direct capture, PipeWire backend to NvFBC, and EGL_KHR_platform_x11 and EGL_EXT_platform_xcb on Xwayland. See release note for more.
For NVIDIA 555, it uses GSP firmware by default on all GPUs that support it, which acts like a CPU embedded into the GPU that can offload GPU initialization and management tasks.
The 555 driver enabled HDMI 10 bits per component support by default. It also has better Wayland support. It now has less screen tearing, and supports linux-drm-syncobj-v1 protocol for explicit synchronization in EGL. For more about the new driver, see the release page.
NVIDIA announced the first stable release of the 555 series driver for Linux few days ago.
It’s NVIDIA 555.58, the latest new feature branch version. The release now uses GSP firmware by default on all GPUs that support it (e.g., Tesla T4, T10, A100 series).
GSP, stands for GPU System Processor, acts like a CPU embedded into the GPU, it can be used to offload GPU initialization and management tasks. To disable this feature, user can just add NVreg_EnableGpuFirmware=0 kernel parameter to /etc/default/grub config file if boot with Grub2.
This is a step by step beginner’s guide shows how to install NVIDIA proprietary driver in Ubuntu. And, how to switch between Intel/AMD and NVIDIA GPU, run specific app/game with NVIDIA while leaving others rendered by integrated graphics card.
While installing Ubuntu, the wizard provides an option to install the NVIDIA proprietary driver alongside. If you didn’t enable that option, then here’s how to manually install it afterward.
NVIDIA announced the first stable release for 550 series Linux driver this Friday. It’s NVIDIA Driver 550.54.14 released as latest production branch version.
The release brings better support for Wayland, the more security touchscreen and HiDPI friendly display server, that’s already default in Ubuntu, Fedora, and other Linux with recent GNOME Desktop. They include:
NVIDIA VDPAU driver for hardware video acceleration can run in XWayland.
Support GNOME ‘Night Light’ and KDE ‘Night Color’ features on Wayland.
Support for PRIME render offload to Vulkan Wayland WSI.
Add support for virtual reality displays, such as the SteamVR platform, on Wayland compositors support DRM leasing.
Fix Source 2 engine games hang on Wayland session.
Fix that Wayland apps sometimes run at extreme low frame rate on Maxwell, Volta, and Pascal series GPUs.
Fix VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) not working with Wayland.
For Ubuntu machine with NVIDIA graphics card, here’s how to implement hardware acceleration for video playback in Firefox web browser.
Firefox so far only supports VA-API for GPU decoding to offload CPU and save power. Both Intel and AMD GPUs support VA-API. However, NVIDIA so far supports the api only through the open-source Nouveau driver.
If you have only NVIDIA GPU running with proprietary driver, then hardware video acceleration does not work out-of-the-box for Firefox.
For choice, there are libvdpau-va-gl1 driver (h.264 only) or libva-vdpau-driver, but both seems no longer updated. The best choice so far is the free open-source nvidia vaapi driver. Continue Reading…
NVIDIA announced 545.29.02 graphics driver for Linux yesterday, as a new release series for its New Feature Branch Version.
For Ubuntu 22.04 + and Fedora Workstation with default GNOME on Wayland, as well as KDE on Wayland, the new driver adds support for the CTM, DEGAMMA_LUT, and GAMMA_LUT DRM-KMS CRTC properties, which, finally make the ‘Night Light’ and ‘Night Color’ feature work for NVIDIA users.
Night Light finally works on Wayland with NVIDIA driver
For desktop GPUs, the release adds initial experimental support for runtime D3 (RTD3) power saving mode. When all the PCI functions are idle, and all required conditions are satisfied, your GPU will go to the lowest power state resulting into maximum power savings.
The new driver also added experimental support for framebuffer consoles. On kernels with implement features, nvidia-drm will install a framebuffer console when loaded with both modeset=1 and fbdev=1 kernel parameters. Though, when an nvidia-drm framebuffer console is enabled, unloading nvidia-drm will cause the screen to turn off.
Other changes in NVIDIA 545.29.02 include:
Experimental HDMI 10 bits per component support
Support for virtual reality displays
CERTIFIED-quality support for GeForce and Workstation GPUs to open kernelmodules.
Support for PRIME render offload to Vulkan Wayland WSI
Support for HDR signaling
Add support to NVIDIA VDPAU driver for running in Xwayland
Support EGL_ANDROID_native_fence_sync EGL extension.
Support VK_EXTERNAL_SEMAPHORE_HANDLE_TYPE_SYNC_FD_BIT
Support VK_EXTERNAL_FENCE_HANDLE_TYPE_SYNC_FD_BIT
For more about the new driver, see the official release note.
How to Install NVIDIA 545 Driver
Ubuntu will build the new driver series and publish through official system repositories. So, just wait! It will be available in “Additional Drivers” utility when it’s ready.
For those who can’t wait, the “Graphics Drivers” team PPA has made the driver package for Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, and higher.
Simply, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. Then, run command to add the PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa
Finally, launch the ‘Additional Drivers’ utility for installing the new driver.
NVIDIA 520, the latest feature release of NVIDIA driver for Linux, is available to install in all current Ubuntu LTS releases.
So far, it’s NVIDIA 520.56.06 released few weeks ago with following new features:
Implement over-the-air (OTA )updates in the Proton and Wine NVIDIA NGX build, though needs to set “PROTON_ENABLE_NGX_UPDATER” to 1 to enable it.
Following extensions no longer depend on nvidia-uvm.ko at runtime:
VK_KHR_acceleration_structure
VK_KHR_deferred_host_operations
VK_KHR_ray_query
VK_KHR_ray_tracing_pipeline
VK_NV_cuda_kernel_launch
VK_NV_ray_tracing
VK_NV_ray_tracing_motion_blur
VK_NVX_binary_import
VK_NVX_image_view_handle
Fixed blank screens and hangs when starting an X server on RTX 30 series GPUs boot with HDMI.
Fixed a bug where Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered would sometimes crash with Xid 13 errors on Turing and later
How to Install NVIDIA 520 in Ubuntu
NOTE: Though it’s tested and works good in my case, it might still breaks your system (usually boot into blank screen) due to various reasons (e.g., upstream bug or corrupt installation)! So don’t do it in production machine!
The driver package is available now for Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, and Ubuntu 22.04. For Ubuntu 22.10 user, it’s so far in pre-released repository, though should be published soon in next few days.
1. First, it’s HIGHLY recommended to update system by launching ‘Software Updater‘ and install all available updates! And, restart your system if it asks.
2. Second, search for and open ‘Additional Drivers‘ from Activities overview screen.
3. When it opens, choose “nvidia-driver-520” from the list, and click ‘Apply Changes’ button to install the driver.
In case you don’t see the 520 driver in the list, navigate to the first ‘Ubuntu Software’ tab, and make sure the 4 repositories (main, universe, restricted, multiverse) are enabled. Finally, close and Reload, and re-open the utility.
After installation, the ‘Additional Drivers‘ utility should prompt to restart your computer to apply change.
Verify
After restarting computer, open ‘Settings‘ and navigate to ‘About‘ page to verify if your NVIDIA graphics card is in use.
And, search for and open ‘NVIDIA Settings‘ utility to for driver version, GPU switching, and other settings.
Due to bug, you can’t switch to Intel (Power Saving Mode) with the tool, you can however install an extension to do the job via system status menu option.
Install ‘Prime indicator’ for switching GPU
For Ubuntu 22.04, search for and install ‘Extension Manager‘ from Ubuntu Software app. Then, use the tool to search and install ‘Prime Inidcator’.
For Ubuntu 20.04 and Ubuntu 18.04, first open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to install the agent package:
sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell
Then visit the extension web page and use the ON/OFF switch to install it:
In case you don’t see the ON/OFF switch, follow the link in that page to install browser extension and refresh.
After installing the extension, go to top-right system status menu to switch between Intel, NVIDIA, and hybrid mode.
IMPORTANT: The Extension will automatically log out once your select another GPU mode and confirm with password!!! Save your works before doing change.
This simple tutorial shows how to install the NVIDIA proprietary driver in Ubuntu 22.04 and switch between dedicated and integrated GPU.
Since Ubuntu provides the proprietary driver packages via its restricted repositories, user may install NVIDIA driver as easy as a few clicks.
Install NVIDIA Driver
1.) Firstly, click on top-left corner ‘Activities‘, and then search for and open ‘Softwre & Updates’ utility.
When the tool opens, make sure the “Proprietary drives for devices (restricted)” is enabled.
Make sure ‘restricted’ repository enabled
2.) Next, navigate to ‘Additional Drivers‘ tab. There it should list all available graphics drivers.
If it shows nothing, press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal and run command sudo apt update to refresh package cache. Then re-launch the ‘Software & Updates’ utility.
Choose one of the drivers from the list and click on ‘Apply Changes‘ to install it. There will be a little bar indicates the installing process. When done, restart your computer!
Switch between NVIDIA and Intel Graphics:
After restart, your machine will be on performance mode with the dedicated GPU. To switch GPU mode, search for and open ‘NVIDIA X Server Settings‘.
When the app opens, navigate to ‘PRIME Profiles‘. Then you’ll see three options available in the right:
NVIDIA (Performance Mode) – use dedicated NVIDIA GPU to render Ubuntu desktop.
NVIDIA On-Demand – use integrated graphics to render desktop, but possible to offload specific apps via dedicated GPU.
Intel (Power Saving Mode) – use integrated graphics to render Ubuntu desktop.
In my case, the “Intel (Power Saving Mode)” is somehow grayed out. As a workaround, choose Intel graphics card by running sudo prime-select intel in terminal.
Changing GPU mode however needs log out and back in to apply changes.
Run certain apps via NVIDIA GPU while rendering desktop via integrated graphics
By setting GPU mode to “NVIDIA On-Demand”, you may run certain apps via NVIDIA GPU, while others handled by the integrated GPU.
1.) For CUDA apps, you need to run command in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) to install the nvidia-cuda-toolkit package.
sudo apt install nvidia-cuda-toolkit
Then there’ll be application-specific menu to tell it which device to use.
2.) For other apps, just use the following environment variables.
To make it easy to switch between your GPUs, there’s a Gnome Extension available to add options into system tray menu.
1.) To get the menu option, you need to first install the open-source EnvyControl tool. Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal, and run the command below one by one:
NOTE 1: The pre-installed Firefox does not support this stuff so far! Use another browser, or install back Firefox as classic deb package.
NOTE 2: If you don’t see the on/off switch in that page, click the ‘click here to install browser extension‘ to install extension for your web browser and refresh the page.
The menu option should appear immediately after successfully installed the extension. If not, press Windows (Super) key on keyboard or click “Activities” on top panel, and then search for and open the “Gnome Extensions” app to manage your extension.
