Nvidia Linux Display Driver 169.09 Released

One month ago, Nvidia, the worldwide leader in programmable graphics processor technologies, released version 169.07 of their popular video driver, which introduced support for GeForce 8800 GT, GeForce 8800 GTS 512 and GeForce 8800M graphic cards (among other bugfixes and improvements).

Two days ago, they released a new driver, the Nvidia Linux Display Driver version 169.09, which is actually more like a patch for that wicked 100% fan speed bug encountered in all GeForce 8 cards. This bug was introduced in the previous release!

The highlists of this release are:

• Fixed a problem causing the fan on some GPUs to always run at full speed.
• Fixed a bug that caused the X driver to crash if the X.Org GLX extension module was loaded instead of NVIDIA's.
• Improved the X driver's awareness of the current notebook docking status.
• Fixed brightness control on HP Compaq notebooks.
• Fixed a bug in the Linux/i2c algorithm driver implementation that prevented core transfer types from succeeding.

As you can see, this new driver fixes another important bug which caused a crash if the GLX extension module was loaded instead of NVIDIA's one. Moreover, the brightness control for HP Compaq laptops is fixed now.

How to install?

Log out of your current session and hit 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 and type:

sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-169.09-pkg1.run

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

I guess Nvidia made some Linux users (read: GeForce 8 users) happy with this driver which will let them fully enjoy their video cards capabilities.

Download the NVidia display driver for IA32 architecture right now from Softpedia.

Download the NVidia display driver for AMD64/EM64T architecture right now from Softpedia.