Switching video cards : "HowTo" ??

[david]

On Wed, 2005-01-12 at 14:39, Vincent Trouilliez wrote:
> Is there a "HowTo" that explains all the steps that one needs to do to
> switch video cards ?
> 
> I currently have an ATI Rage 128 in the AGP slot, but I think it causes
> me many problems, will give 3D on some games but not the ones I want to
> play, also suspect it causes my cursor problems (keeps going all black),
> and also regular hard locks or X restarting every other weeks after
> several days running non stop without problems.
> 
> My motherboard has a built-in video chip which is completely different
> (Nforce NVidia Geforce 2), so I am thinking, maybe it will solve some or
> all of the problems mentionned above.
> 
> But I bet if I just unplug the ATI card, Ubuntu might detect the Nvidia
> chip, but will 'X' reconfigure itself automagically before starting
> GDM/Gnome ?
> 
> So, I think a "HowTo switch video adapter" would be a nice addition to
> the Wiki....
> 
> Vince
> 
> 

I've only seen an ATI working with 3d once on Linux and it was awful to
behold.
Nvidia cards on the other hand are delightful under Linux.

Switch off, remove ati card, power up and choose "failsafe terminal"
and then it's
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86
OK your way through it all ,just give it the amount of video RAM and
highest screen res when asked for it.

then
sudo vi /etc/modules
add the line "nvidia" (without "") to the end of the file
then 
sudo vi /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 and change
"nv" to "nvidia"
then
reboot

there is a sudo nvidia-glx enable command but I've never used it so
won't quote it in case I get it wrong.

regards

David