Question

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One SSD, two computers (with different video cards). Best approach for video drivers?

rated 0 times [ 4] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 1361 / 2 Years ago, sat, august 6, 2022, 1:01:05

I have a single SSD I dual-boot with Windows 7 / Ubuntu 11.10. I switch this drive daily between two computers. One is a laptop with integrated Intel graphics. The other is a desktop with an NVIDIA video card.

I want the correct driver to be used and 3D acceleration to be enabled automatically when I boot into Ubuntu on either computer. How do I achieve this?

When I boot Ubuntu with my laptop most drivers start up normally, but GM965 video driver doesn't load, therefore 3D acceleration remains off. The logs show the NVIDIA driver issuing an error about unavailability (looks like it's forcing the NVIDIA driver).

Is normal that Ubuntu 11.10 & Xorg nowadays don't have the same behavior as Windows 7? When I boot Windows 7 the right driver is loaded by PCI identification, and resolution settings are loaded via DDC from the monitor. I think Xorg can do the same thing like when you boot a live CD.

In order to diagnose I need to know how to configure video driver on modern Xorg deployments that deprecates /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Does anyone have any ideas to help me?

Thanks in advance

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peratingcit

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1 Year ago

answered 2 Years ago irripri · Accepted Answer

Bodhi.zazens answer is a step in the right direction, but you'll possibly be unable to use GL capabilities of you Intel card (e.g. desktop effects).

A more polished script that uses the vendor ID of nVidia and corrects the GL library paths is shown below. Before installing this script, you need to save the nvidia xorg configuration to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.nvidia. On the nvidia machine, run the below commands:

sudo nvidia-xconfig

sudo mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf{,.nvidia}

The below script should be saved as /etc/init/auto-gfx-card.conf. When copying, be careful not to put spaces after the trailing backslashes.

description "autoconfigure graphics card settings"

start on (filesystem and (starting lightdm or starting kdm or starting gdm))

script

    # If any nVidia device is found, assume it to be a graphics card

    if [ -n "$(lspci -d10de:)" ]; then

        for arch in x86_64-linux-gnu i386-linux-gnu; do

            # since nvidia drivers have a higher priority, it'll

            # automatically selected as the best available version

            update-alternatives --quiet --force --auto ${arch}_gl_conf || true

        done

        # create the symlink, overwriting existing links if necessary

        ln -sf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.nvidia /etc/X11/xorg.conf

    else

        # restore Intel GL capabilities

        for arch in x86_64-linux-gnu i386-linux-gnu; do

            update-alternatives --quiet --force --set 

                ${arch}_gl_conf /usr/lib/$arch/mesa/ld.so.conf 2>/dev/null || true

        done

        # remove the symlink if any

        rm -f /etc/X11/xorg.conf

    fi

end script

No further commands are necessary to activate this Upstart job.