NVIDIA has released its 550.135 graphics driver, providing enhancements specifically aimed at improving support for the Linux 6.11 kernel series. This latest version is designated as a "Production Branch" release, catering to users who prefer stability over the features offered in the "New Feature Branch" series.
The 550.135 update includes critical adjustments to facilitate better performance on systems running the Linux 6.11 kernel. Notably, it aligned its functionalities with changes in the kernel where the drm_fbdev_generic function was renamed to drm_fbdev_ttm. The driver now utilizes the drm_fbdev_ttm, which ensures compatibility for direct framebuffer access on Wayland compositors in newer kernels.
Another significant feature of this update is the ability to enumerate modes during hotplug events via the DRM framebuffer device API. This enhancement is crucial for maintaining compatibility with newer Linux kernels that have deprecated the output_poll_changed function in the struct drm_mode_config_funcs.
In addition to enhancing kernel compatibility, the NVIDIA 550.135 driver modifies the build process of the NVIDIA kernel module to leverage the CONFIG_CC_VERSION_TEXT environment variable. This change assists in correctly identifying the compiler used to build the kernel, potentially resolving discrepancies where the kernel may have been built with a non-default compiler.
This release also fixes a bug that previously impeded the loading of NVIDIA kernel modules linked with precompiled kernel interface files on recent versions of Debian GNU/Linux.
For further information, users can check the release notes for a comprehensive overview of the changes. The driver can be downloaded from the official NVIDIA website for 64-bit and ARM64 (AArch64) Linux systems, as well as for 64-bit FreeBSD and Solaris systems.