Yesterday, Nvidia announced a new beta release of its Linux display driver, version 177.67, which brings support for GeForce GTX 260 and GeForce GTX 280 GPUs. Let's take a quick look now at the improvements and bug fixes that can be found in Nvidia 177.67 Beta:

• The RENDER masks, RENDER repeating modes and transformations, for video memory pixmaps, were greatly improved;
• GeForce 8, 9 and GTX GPUs (video memory pixmaps) received accelerated support for the RENDER convolution filter;
• A new option in the xorg.conf was added, AllowSHMPixmaps. The new function can be used to prevent different programs from using shared memory pixmaps;
• DisplayPort display devices support was added;
• A workaround was found for the cache flushing problems, which caused stability and corruption issues;
• PCI-E MSI experimental support was added;
• GeForce 6, 7, 8, 9 and GTX stability issues were resolved;
• The TwinView display configuration bug that caused GPU errors, when using Compiz, was fixed;
• Fixed the GPU command stream corruption issues;
• The 'incorrect fake Xinerama information' workaround was removed;
• Better compatibility with the Linux kernel 2.6.x.

How to install?

Log out of your current session and hit the CTRL+ALT+F1 key combination in order to enter a text mode session. Log in as root (System Administrator), go to the folder where you've downloaded the Nvidia driver installer (see below for links) and type:

sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-177.67-pkg1.run or sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-177.67-pkg2.run, depending on your architecture.

Then, follow the on-screen instructions to install the video driver.

Download the beta version of the Nvidia display driver for IA32 architecture right now from Softpedia.

Download the beta version of the Nvidia display driver for AMD64/EM64T architecture right now from Softpedia.

Download the beta version of the Nvidia display driver for FreeBSD x86 systems right now from Softpedia.

Download the stable version of the Nvidia display driver for IA32 architecture right now from Softpedia.

Download the stable version of the Nvidia display driver for AMD64/EM64T architecture right now from Softpedia.

Download the stable version of the Nvidia display driver for FreeBSD x86 systems right now from Softpedia.