Package nvidia-driver-390

[PanderMusubi]

I have noticed that the package nvidia-driver-390 is supported by Ubuntu Jammy 22.04 LTS, Lunar 23.04, but not in Mantic 23.10 and Noble 24.04 LTS.

Will the package nvidia-driver-390 be available in the next release of Pop!_OS?

[jackpot51]

We package 470 because it is the last version that supports the 700 series and earlier GPUs. Is there a set of GPUs that are not supported by 470?

[PanderMusubi]

Yes, specifically GeForce GTX 560 Ti for me. Besides my System76 laptop, I run Pop!_OS successfully on all my desktops of other brands, some with older hardware.

When the 390 driver package is shipped in Pop!_OS, it will work out of the box with 519 GPUs, mainly of type Geforce. Installing the NVIDIA driver manually is not straight forward and will create some package dependency issues.

Supporting this will draw in Ubuntu users to Pop!_OS that cannot upgrade otherwise and it will also reduce e-waste as users don't have to get newer GPUs, which in turn can also require heavier power units in desktops.

[PanderMusubi]

@jackpot51 did you and others had a change to discuss this? To me, it seems like a good opportunity to get more users.

[PanderMusubi]

See also:

• https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-graphics-drivers-390
• https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-graphics-drivers-390/+bug/2064953
• https://www.phoronix.com/forums/forum/linux-graphics-x-org-drivers/nvidia-linux/1343469-nvidia-proprietary-driver-causes-last-minute-headache-for-ubuntu-20-04-5-lts#post1343496