Switching video cards : "HowTo" ??

[Thomas Beckett]

On Wed, 12 Jan 2005 15:07:00 +0000, david <nux at blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:
> 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
> 
> 
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> 

you will also need to need to install the nvidia-glx and
linux-restricted packages BEFORE rebooting.  Alternatively - whn you
have installed thise packages, after you have added nvidia to
/etc/modules you dont need to reboot - just manually load the module
with
sudo modprobe nvidia
this will load the driver and you can then start X with
sudo /etc/init.d/gdm start
either way - makes no odds - just make suer you install the nvidia-glx
packages before you want to use the accelerated nvidia driver. Also
installing nvidia-settings afterwards will give you a nice control
program to set nvidia settings once you are back in X. for more info
see the nvidia binary driver howto

Tom